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Chapter 9

Penulis: Hugh White
Hayley returned to the hotel she was staying at.

Her room was already packed with stuff. She had told the front desk that there would be deliveries, and she asked them to open the door so they could put the stuff inside. Now the tables, the floor, and even the bed were covered.

A lot of the fried chicken was still steaming hot.

Hayley waved her hand and neatly stowed everything into her inventory.

Tonight, she would stay here and leave the next day. No point wasting what she had already paid for.

Before going to bed, she did three hours of intense physical training, pushing herself to exhaustion and breaking her body's limits. Only after that did she shower and check the surveillance feeds from both her shelter and her warehouse.

Everything looked fine. She even spoke to Summer through her video bot, telling it to watch the supplies. Tomorrow morning, she'd be back.

Summer responded politely, then obediently stayed in the warehouse dog bed, keeping an eye on things.

Hayley slept until six the next day. She was woken by the blaring sirens of police cars and ambulances.

Her hotel, in downtown, had excellent soundproofing, but she was sensitive—any noise could wake her.

The first moment she heard the sirens, she rushed to the windowsill. Pulling back the curtains, she saw the street below swarming with police cars and ambulances.

The hotel was near crowded bars and entertainment venues, and that was where all the emergency vehicles were rushing in and out.

She saw an ambulance parked in front of the bar she had noticed yesterday, and several bloody people were carried out.

An ominous thought formed in her mind. At that moment, footsteps and urgent knocking came outside her room.

Hayley grabbed a shovel and went to the door. Looking through the peephole, she saw hotel staff. She tensed but saw they were fine—they had normal expressions, with no injuries or blood.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Miss, the front desk got several calls from guests feeling faint. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Hayley replied through the door.

"Please stay in your room for a while. The hotel will extend your stay, free of charge. Sorry for the inconvenience!"

The staff moved on to the next room, but Hayley felt a jolt.

The apocalypse…might have started early.

She had to leave.

Hayley grabbed her car keys and left the hotel, making sure to take all the complimentary water, drinks, and toiletries with her.

She noticed the staff member heading toward a corner room, repeatedly knocking until she finally used a keycard to open the door.

Soon, a panicked voice called out.

"Sir! Sir, are you okay? Someone's fainted in Room 809! Hurry!"

The staff used their headsets to alert others. Hayley strode to an elevator, entering one going down as another opened next to it.

A group of staff came out and ran toward the innermost rooms.

As the elevator doors closed in front of her, a piercing scream cut through the air.

"Ahhh!"

That familiar sound.

The zombie virus had broken out early!

Hayley hit the button for the fifth floor without hesitation. She wasn't heading to the lobby.

The hotel was attached to a mall. The mall's lowest basement, B2, up to the fifth floor, was all part of the complex—the one she had shopped in yesterday.

It was six in the morning, so the mall was closed, and the first staff wouldn't arrive until eight. Right now, the mall area was the perfect empty zone.

In a zombie apocalypse, crowds are the most dangerous. You escape the people first.

Hayley got off on the fifth floor. Just as she predicted, it was dark—no lights.

But from the fifth-floor hall, she could clearly hear screaming outside. Looking out, she saw chaos on the streets.

A blood-covered man charged out of a bar, attacking a woman jogging by. He went straight for her stomach, tearing at her with savage bites. Her screams pierced the quiet morning as he feasted like a wild animal.

"Argh!"

"Ahhh!!"

It was only six. The city was mostly empty, with only police and ambulances working. One police car stopped to intervene, dragging the man away.

The woman lay in a pool of blood, unnoticed. Her hands and feet twitched rapidly, then she suddenly stopped moving.

"Miss, are you—arghh!"

The woman's eyes snapped open—gray, lifeless—and she lunged at the rescuer, biting down hard.

The scene exploded into chaos.

Hayley watched from the fifth floor. This was the apocalypse. The one she knew best. And it had come a whole day early.

Welcome to the age of the apocalypse.

Hayley turned and ran through the fifth floor.

She planned to use the escalator to descend to the B2 parking lot, avoiding all elevators.

As she ran through the empty mall, the displays caught her attention.

Supplies!

Running into a treasure trove like this, could she really leave empty-handed? She had to take everything.

Suddenly, a voice echoed in her mind:

Ding! [Super Lord System activated! Within two hours, for every 2,000 dollars' worth of item you carry, gain 35 cubic feet of inventory!]

Hayley, holding her baseball bat, was pleasantly surprised.

Perfect timing!

Hayley swung her bat and shattered the glass in front of her. Then she rushed in, arms outstretched. Anything she touched disappeared into her inventory.

She didn't care about surveillance cameras—there was no need now. The apocalypse was here; who was going to check the footage?

Ding! [Two hundred and seventy-nine pieces of women's fashion detected, worth 130 thousand dollars. Reward: 2,275 cubic feet!]

Ding! [A hundred and forty-four pieces of men's fashion detected, worth 116 thousand dollars. Reward: 2,030 cubic feet!]

Ding! [Four hundred and eighty-nine branded wedding dresses detected, worth 378 thousand. Reward: 6,615 cubic feet!]

Men's, women's, kids' clothes, underwear, shoes, bags, gowns—Hayley took everything.

Looting the mall this time felt even better than clearing her house.

Even if she stored everything in her house, there was only so much stuff. It was nothing compared to this—each store held items worth tens or hundreds of thousands!

She cleaned out every shop she passed and stored everything in her inventory.
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  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 360

    At that moment, inside Milky Way Base."Captain, look! What's that?"After their base leader, Kit, sent out a distress call a week ago, the base was swallowed once again by a wave of zombie attacks.After barely holding out for two days, their population dropped by another third.It wasn't just people they were losing. Their supplies were completely exhausted. They had no food, no weapons, and no way to break out.They were trapped in total despair. There was no doubt they would be the next ants swallowed by the zombie tide.And then, Kit heard the sound of drones flying overhead.Still confused, he looked up and saw two words swaying beneath the drones.Haylight League.At the same time, supply bags began dropping one after another.In that instant, Kit was completely stunned."It's instant noodles and pasta!""There are dried meal packs, too! Captain! Captain, we've got vegetables again!""Mom, I haven't seen vegetables in so long…""And weapons! We have guns now!"As

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 359

    "Alex, once you're done, compile the actual population numbers and weapon stockpiles for each base."Hayley thought it through carefully."Based on each base's population, give them seven days' worth of food. Fully equip them with weapons in one go. No base is allowed to relocate. They must stay put and hold the line against the zombies. I'll resupply them every seven days.""Got it!" Alex replied. The purpose of those small white dots was simple. Hold back the zombie tide and form the outer defensive ring."Our league will split into three forces," Hayley said. "One force will support the weaker small bases. They can't be allowed to collapse. Ideally, they should even push back a little. The second force goes to Crestford and works with Tomorrow Base to pull them out. The third force stays in Aecraton and finishes taking the city completely."Hayley laid out the future plan at high speed.They would secure Aecraton, Brookville, and Crestford all at once.Aecraton would serve

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 358

    Only after a long pause did Hayley finally speak."Sixty percent," Alex replied coldly.Hayley propped her chin on her hand and thought for a long time. "Put the word out. When 95% of the bases come asking me for help, I'll agree and provide unified support. But all of them have to listen to me, including Tomorrow Base."Hayley was gambling, and she was aiming for the biggest possible win.She wanted every base to become part of her power, standing with her against the zombie tide. She planned to seize these last one or two years and go all in.If she won, humanity would turn the tables. But if she lost… She would probably be pushed back to square one, clinging to her small base and scraping by.But she took the bet anyway.It couldn't get worse than her previous life.The lives of those bases were never her primary concern.Ideas like "greater power means greater responsibility" had never applied to her.In fact, in her eyes, it worked the other way around. First comes the s

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 357

    Hayley sat in her chair without saying a word.She held a cup of fruit tea in her hand, eyes fixed on Alex's laptop screen.In her mind, she kept weighing and recalculating.At the end of the day, someone like her always thought in terms of gains and losses.She first reviewed the chips she held. Over the past full year of the apocalypse, through careful planning step by step, she had built an ironclad shelter stronghold of her own.That stronghold had abundant supplies and solid defensive power.She had five core team members of her own and sixteen dogs. These were her most basic assets and her absolute foundation. They guaranteed that no matter what happened, her safety and supplies were secured.Beyond that, she had more than 80 residents. Those residents farmed thousands of acres of land for her, produced food and materials, and developed power systems. Their output was enough to sustain all the survivors they currently had.On top of that, she led a league made up of nearl

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 356

    "Scott wants us to help them," Alex said. "They'll break out from the inside, while we'll push in from the outside. Together, we'll take Crestford. All resources will be split evenly."Hayley thought it over for a moment. "Let's talk after we finish taking Aecraton.""There won't be time," Alex said. "According to my models, the next year is our best window. Zombies are evolving too fast. If we wait another year, the difficulty in Crestford will jump ten to twenty times. It'll be almost impossible."After hearing Alex out, Hayley fell silent.He was right. There really wasn't enough time.They were already at the start of the second year of the apocalypse. Based on their current pace in Aecraton, there was no way they could take the last two districts in less than a full year.If she finished stabilizing Aecraton and then turned to Crestford, it would already be the third year.By then, zombies would've fully evolved. Taking Crestford would be brutally difficult.But still…"T

  • The Endgame Chronicles   Chapter 355

    Surviving the apocalypse was like taking an exam.For an ordinary base, the moment you chose your location and started building, your future score was already being decided.If you picked a bad location and add weak leadership, you would die fast. Someone like Hayley, who chose an uninhabited area from the start, had the most textbook answer possible.That was why, up to now, Hayley's base had never faced a zombie tide or large-scale, targeted human attacks.Location points matter more than anything. Base K1 and Firebrand Base were both built in remote areas.Almost 100% of bases that survived did so because they were well located.That was why Scott was considered disadvantaged from birth. His base sat right in the city center.That location was like having half his exam papers ripped away.The reason he still had a few answers provided was that his location was practically a cheat zone. He could acquire massive amounts of supplies with ease, at far lower difficulty than any

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