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Chapter 2

Author: 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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