Chapter 9

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.