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Chapter 2

Penulis: Hugh White
Hayley tried thinking about her phone—and just like that, it appeared back in her hand from the inventory.

Her eyes lit up. It was just as she expected!

She had read plenty of novels before—this was a so-called system.

Hayley quickly accepted the perk and started sucking in everything she could. She soon figured out the pricing rules. The system valued items at their original purchase price, even if they were used or disassembled.

She jumped straight into moving, dismantling, and collecting everything.

Ding! [Gold jewelry detected, worth 11,600 dollars. Reward: 2,030 cubic feet!]

Ding! [Cup detected, worth 7.80 dollars.]

Ding! [Calendar detected, worth 2 dollars.]

The notifications kept coming.

Ding! [Small desk detected, worth 73.80 dollars. Reward: 35 cubic feet!]

Ding! [Rosewood table and chair set detected, worth 5,000 dollars. Reward: 875 cubic feet!]

Ding! [Trash can detected, worth 3 dollars.]

In about ten minutes, Hayley grabbed everything from shoes, hats, and clothes to pots, pans, pens, cups, trash bins, storage boxes, photo albums, nail clippers, and even larger stuff like tables, chairs, beds, and cabinets.

Even the rotten apples Lucy had brought today got tossed into the pile.

Ding! [Five pounds of rotten apples detected, worth 0.50 dollars.]

Hayley spat. What disgusting liars!

They wanted her to give them a 600-thousand-dollar house while offering her cheap, rotten apples they claimed to be imported. What a family!

But she didn't mind. Every little bit counted, so she collected them all.

Soon, the house was emptied of everything movable. Her sights turned to the big stuff she couldn't normally carry.

Ding! [Toilet detected, worth 400 dollars.]

Hayley yanked the toilet down with force. She had always been strong, but compared to her old self, who had survived ten years of the apocalypse, this body still felt a little weaker. She would need to train soon.

After she stored the toilet, more notifications came in.

Ding! [Sink detected, worth 139 dollars.]

Ding! [Range hood detected, worth 519.80 dollars.]

Ding! [Stove detected, worth 97.80 dollars.]

Ding! [Security door detected, worth 317.80 dollars.]

She was taking everything she could, not leaving even a single screw for them.

Ding! [Windows detected, worth 80 dollars.]

Ding! [Flooring detected, worth 30 dollars.]

Within an hour, Hayley had stripped the house clean. Anything movable was gone. The floors were lifted, the windows and doors removed, and even unmovable tiles were smashed and taken.

Ding! [Three seconds remaining!]

Hayley thought fast—she dashed to the front door, stepped on the railing, and snagged a tiny hallway bulb.

Ding! [Ten-watt bulb detected, worth 1 dollar.

[Time's up! Total space gained: 3,110 cubic feet.]

Hayley finally relaxed and said to Summer, "Summer! Let's go!"

Not long after, Philip's family brought the pregnant Sue Norman to the new house.

"Babe, here's our new place! It's in the city center and a school district, with over 1,000 square feet. It has two units per floor. We don't have a neighbor yet, so the hallway is all ours. The lighting's great, and it has the best layout in the complex. Plus, it's just 100 yards from your work. If you want, you can move in now. Furniture and appliances are ready!"

The group marched up to the east-side unit—and froze.

The house wasn't just empty; it didn't even have doors or windows. Even a hallway light bulb was gone.

Sue turned on her heel. "Hmph! You expect me to renovate this dump? Well, I'm not getting married until you fix this house. And my name has to go on the deed!"

Eleanor was fuming. She wanted to call Hayley to demand what that girl had done.

Sure, they could replace the furniture and redo the house, but Hayley had reduced it to a bare shell! The original flooring and everything Cynthia had installed were fine. How had it ended like this?

But the bad news was, they couldn't reach Hayley.

Meanwhile, Hayley was at a tunnel-style fallout shelter on the outskirts of Andersville. It was originally meant for a mountain road, but construction stopped due to insufficient funding and government rerouting. It had been abandoned and repurposed as a fallout shelter.

"What are you renting a fallout shelter for?" the agent asked routinely.

"Starting a business. I'm gonna grow mushrooms," Hayley said casually.

From her previous life, she knew there were three types of shelters.

The first were city-center shelters, built under malls, residential buildings, or hospitals. They were convenient, well-equipped, and fast to evacuate—but useless in a zombie apocalypse. Holding a high population meant it was the fastest to fall.

The other two types were tunnel-style shelters and professional defense installations. Professional ones were critical in the late apocalypse and formed the backbone of stable bases, but Hayley couldn't rent one.

So, tunnel shelters like these were perfect for her: they were secluded, far from people, and big, with a solid ventilation system and a heavy iron gate—exactly what she needed.

Plus, they were cheap.

Hayley's new shelter cost 400 a year to rent, for a minimum of 20 years. She paid three years upfront—1,200 dollars for a space the size of five basketball courts.

The agent grinned, thinking she was an easy mark. Sure, the rent was cheap, but the location was extremely inconvenient and transportation was a headache.

He figured that nine and a half out of ten entrepreneurs were idiots, but he wouldn't warn her. After collecting the money, signing the contract, and taking the 100-dollar service fee, he left.

Hayley watched him leave without a word. She wouldn't reveal her true purpose. After ten years surviving the apocalypse, she learned one thing: never explain disaster plans to fools, because idiots like them were disasters themselves.

After sending the agent off, Hayley entered the shelter with Summer.

She checked everything. The ventilation system was intact, and she found a well left by a previous tenant, plus an electrical wire.

The well's water tasted like mountain spring—totally separate from city water.

Later, when treatment plants were contaminated, tap water would be useless. With this well, Hayley now had a safe water source.

The wire wasn't connected, but that meant power could be set up. If she got a generator, the shelter could have electricity.
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  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 30

    This reward was straight-up amazing!After testing her new physical abilities, Hayley stepped into her inventory.On a shelf inside lay a book on martial arts. She grabbed it immediately. As she flipped through the pages, her eyes lit up.Every move was precise and ruthless, designed for human anatomy and even zombie physiology. Each technique had clever tricks and unexpected strategies. No wonder this was considered far ahead of its time—every move condensed decades of experience from master fighters!Hayley felt like she had just found treasure. She dove right in and started learning.Five days flew by. Hayley spent every day holed up in the base, training, training, and training some more.Every morning, she ran around the mountains near the base for a warm-up. Then, she practiced her martial arts.Meanwhile, she prepared her meals in her slow cooker. After she and Summer ate, she fed the chickens, ducks, and sheep, then checked on the vegetables and fruits.Her hens and duc

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 29

    The next day…Hayley's elbows dug into the floor, legs together, toes pressing down. Her abs were tight, her muscles taut. Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead in a steady rhythm.She had been holding this plank for almost an hour. Her whole body was soaked, as if she had been dunked in water, sweat pouring down everywhere.In just ten days, eating three big plates of food daily, Hayley had leaned out—not by losing weight, but in her body shape.She had slimmed from head to toe. Her muscle lines were tight and clear, and her body fat had dropped drastically. Her abs were showing; all the loose, soft muscles were gone, replaced with explosive power ready to burst at any second.Her mental state had changed just as much.Keeping herself in constant motion kept her energy high.Hayley had always been a wild, reckless type. Her sharp, bright eyes now stood in stark contrast to the frightened, wilted ordinary people outside.Just her gaze alone could dominate a group.She was

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 28

    After watching that livestream, Hayley's computer beeped once, and then the screen went dead.Not because the content was too gory or banned.No—the website's servers had crashed.The city still had electricity, and the internet still worked—but the servers that ran websites scattered across the country didn't all fail at the same time. Some small servers, kept at a manager's home or office, had already gone down in the first few days of the apocalypse. Bigger companies could last longer without anyone managing them.But clearly, this major video platform had completely died.That meant the internet frenzy was slowly ending.For a while, no one would be logging on to vent or watch livestreams. People had to face the apocalypse head-on.Hayley shut down the website and opened her downloaded movie library. Luckily, she had already downloaded everything she could find. She would have no shortage of films to watch while living alone.After finishing her meal, she paused her movie

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 27

    The zombies, starved for days, lunged at the blogger with gnashing teeth and flailing arms. Anyone watching that would feel their knees go weak.He slammed the thin door of his bedroom shut and jumped onto the balcony."Save me!" he shouted, grabbing the rope dangling from above.The moment he gripped it, he realized he had tied way too much stuff to himself."You're way too heavy!" The trainer above almost lost his balance from the sudden weight. "There's still time! Drop some of the food! Get the food up first!"The blogger refused. "No! Me and the food together!"At a moment like this, if he left the food behind, there was no way anyone would save him."Then at least toss some of it out!"Without a word, the blogger threw away a few bottles of water attached to himself."Still too heavy! I haven't eaten in days—I can't pull it! Throw more!"The blogger groaned at the camera. "And he calls himself a fitness trainer! If I toss everything, what are we supposed to eat later?"

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 26

    It was the tenth day since the apocalypse hit—and this was nothing like the first few days.Rescue broadcasts on the radio had stopped. National announcements were paused. People's fear had hit an all-time high, and most homes were running out of food.Over the past few days, more and more residents had rushed out to find supplies.Either they starved or got bitten. Once pushed to the edge, zombies weren't even the scariest thing anymore.But with this wave, the city's zombie population exploded. Very few people managed to come back alive from the horde. Out of ten people who went out searching for food, nine didn't make it—no joke.Early on, people's fear of zombies and lack of experience kept them from facing the creatures directly. Zombies lurked everywhere, and if you were unlucky enough to run into a cluster while searching for food, you became their meal.With humans starving for days and zombies just as hungry, the undead started invading residential areas in droves.Take

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 25

    After sending that message, Hayley didn't get a single reply.She sat there, spoon in hand, staring at the screen for 15 minutes. By the time her first bite of pasta cooled down, there was still nothing.Zombies changed fast—one to ten minutes after a bite. Weak individuals would turn in a minute, while strong ones could last maybe ten.And slicing off a bitten limb? Forget it. The virus would flood the blood immediately, spreading through the body so fast that there was no chance to survive.Hayley could almost predict the girl's fate.Her brother would start gasping for air, then turn black all over and go cold and stiff for a few seconds. If someone killed him at that moment, maybe they could survive.But her dad, favoring the boy, and her stepmom, who loved him, wouldn't allow it. Those few seconds of hesitation would be enough to send them all to hell together.Hayley shook her head. She closed the forum and picked a lighthearted family movie to watch as she ate.She had h

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