Chapter 100
Looking at the swarm of spiders closing in, the two men felt their scalps tingle with fear.
A’Jian, who had already been bitten by a spider once, frantically stomped on spider after spider as they approached. But he found that the more he crushed, the more appeared.
Soon his surroundings were completely covered by a dense mass of spiders, leaving him nowhere to step.
“Ah! Ahhh!”
A’Jian screamed, while Da Yan had already abandoned his companion, swinging his club to clear a path as he fled in panic.
A’Jian, a step behind, hurriedly followed after him. More and more spiders were jumping onto his body. He screamed and thrashed about, but it was completely useless.
“Split up and run! Don’t come near me!”
Because he was running faster, Da Yan had far fewer spiders on him. But when he looked back and saw A’Jian following behind him covered in crawling spiders, he was so terrified his soul nearly left his body.
“Split up! Split up and run!”
Da Yan shouted hoarsely, but A’Jian seemed not to hear, still running closely behind him until both their figures disappeared from view.
The dark green light faded from Wang Cai’s eyes. The spiders left on the road lost their control and quickly scattered.
The thick smoke enveloping the Grocery Store gradually blew away in the wind.
Wang Cai shook its dizzy head and looked down at its companion collapsed on the ground.
It lowered its head to nudge Yin Bi, and seeing no response, lay down close beside it. Feeling Yin Bi’s breath, it finally closed its eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep.
Tang Yu’an knew nothing of what had happened at the Grocery Store. After he closed the main store, Zhou Qi made a new discovery on his end.
[I found a renovated house]
Seeing Zhou Qi’s message, Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up. He quickly replied: “Brother Qi, wait for me, I’m coming to find you now!”
Then he picked up Jin Lili and went to find Zhou Qi.
With the zoom function on the mini-map, he quickly located Zhou Qi’s position – he was in a room on the ninth floor.
The stairs between the tenth and ninth floors had been reinforced by Ba Shi, so he easily ran down to the ninth floor. As for the stairs going further down…
Tang Yu’an looked down the stairwell and saw that many sections of stairs had collapsed and broken off. The broken ends gaped like black holes, like some kind of beast ready to devour people at any moment.
Tang Yu’an quickly averted his gaze. At that moment, Zhou Qi came running over to meet him.
“It’s over there.”
Except for the first floor, each floor had five suites, all with the same layout. The room Zhou Qi had found was the largest one on this floor.
Tang Yu’an followed Zhou Qi inside and saw a spacious living room. It was clear that before the Great Apocalypse, this house had already been fitted with hard furnishings – the floor was tiled and the walls had been plastered and painted.
But after enduring the Great Apocalypse and decades of time, the room was now covered in dust. The floor tiles were cracked all over, looking dilapidated.
“I’ll clean it up and repair it a bit and it’ll be fine,” Zhou Qi said.
Tang Yu’an nodded. He had originally planned to stay in the room with the teleportation array upstairs, but now this room seemed better. The floor was high enough anyway.
And not staying in the room with the teleportation array might make it safer.
Next, Tang Yu’an cast a purification spell to clean.
The room was about 170 square meters. He only had to cast the purification spell three times to clean the entire suite spotlessly, removing every speck of dirt and grime.
During the cleaning process, he discovered that even though the bedrooms and secondary bedrooms were blocked by walls, the purification spell could penetrate the walls and remove impurities from the rooms.
While he was casting purification spells, Zhou Qi used his earth ability to repair the cracks in the tiles and walls. By noon, they had a sparkling clean four-bedroom, two-living room house.
“Great! There’s even a security door.”
The security door was made of metal. It had originally been corroded, but after Zhou Qi’s repairs, it was like new again.
Tang Yu’an also found matching keys in the bedroom, so they could now use the door.
The heavy metal door was of very good quality. With at least ten steel bars that could be locked, unless it was a giant mutated creature, it would be very difficult to break through.
“Just need to add some furniture now,” Tang Yu’an said happily.
Thinking of something, he opened the seven-day special sale interface.
Previously, the seven-day special sale had shown things they needed. Would it be the same now? They still had 3 seven-day special sale refresh cards anyway, so why not try?
Hearing his idea, Zhou Qi nodded in agreement.
So Tang Yu’an took out a seven-day special sale refresh card from his Portable Warehouse. He silently wished for furniture in his mind, repeating it three times before using one of the cards.
As the card disappeared, the seven-day special sale items refreshed again.
[Seven-day Special Sale (Remaining refresh time: 2 days)]
- Gray-blue Refrigerator (2/2): 288 Points/unit Description: Level 1, part of the gray-blue series of magical furniture crafted by furniture spirit BoBo. One year warranty, after one year problems can be fixed by summoning the spirit for a fee. Function: Keeps food fresh, can absorb heat and convert it to electrical energy, reducing energy consumption by 50%.
- Gray-blue Freezer (2/2): 288 Points/unit Description: Level 1, part of the gray-blue series of magical furniture crafted by furniture spirit BoBo. One year warranty, after one year problems can be fixed by summoning the spirit for a fee. Function: Freezes food, can absorb heat and convert it to electrical energy, reducing energy consumption by 50%. Special effect: Chance to trigger “The Hotter the Colder” – the higher the ambient temperature, the better the cooling effect. Best energy conversion effect under scorching sun.
- Luminous Green Display Cabinet (2/2): 288 Points/unit Description: Level 1, part of the luminous green series of magical furniture crafted by furniture spirit Yaya. Lifetime warranty, problems can be fixed by summoning the spirit at any time. Function: Stores goods, can bear weight up to 1000 kg, extremely sturdy, even bullets cannot penetrate it.
- Luminous Green Double Bed (2/2): 288 Points/unit Description: Level 1, part of the luminous green series of magical furniture crafted by furniture spirit Yaya. Lifetime warranty, problems can be fixed by summoning the spirit at any time. Function: Continuously emits a woody fragrance that promotes sleep. Lying on the bed will immediately induce deep sleep until fully rested.
- Purple-red Carpet (2/2): 188 Points/unit Description: Level 1, part of the purple-red series of magical furniture crafted by furniture spirit Fufu. No warranty service, problems can be fixed by summoning the spirit for a fee. Function: When a living being appears on the carpet, it automatically adjusts to a comfortable temperature and softness.
Tang Yu’an stared at the long list of furniture information in a daze for a moment before cheering.
Wow! It really did refresh with furniture!
And they were all level 1 magical furniture!
Tang Yu’an shared the panel with Zhou Qi, then carefully looked over the furniture information and discussed it with him.
“These furniture prices aren’t expensive,” he said with some surprise.
After all, it had cost him 200 Points plus other materials just to upgrade a freezer, so in comparison 288 Points was really a bargain.
Of course, it could also be that after spending 9000 Points at once today, his threshold had increased, so he felt that furniture for just over 200 to under 300 wasn’t expensive.
Especially the gray-blue refrigerator and freezer – they needed to stay in the branch store, and without these two heat-absorbing appliances it really wouldn’t work.
Probably because of the high floor, now that it was noon, Tang Yu’an felt the temperature seemed even higher than other places.
Fortunately he had the blue tiger leaf and that wind crystal, otherwise he definitely wouldn’t have been able to stand it. Even so, he was covered in sweat.
They had to exchange for the refrigerator and freezer!
“Hmm, let’s get the freezer first,” Zhou Qi said thoughtfully after reviewing the information. “The freezer can trigger a special effect, so it’s more cost-effective.”
As for the probability, wasn’t that basically guaranteed for An’an?
Tang Yu’an nodded and first spent 576 Points to exchange for two gray-blue freezers.
[Please select delivery address] [1. Peace Grocery Store warehouse] [2. Portable Warehouse (insufficient space)] [3. Peace Grocery Store Branch #1 (warehouse not set)]
Tang Yu’an quickly canceled the exchange, then opened the store management panel, but didn’t see any relevant setting buttons.
He thought for a moment and opened the renovation panel.
Sure enough, the renovation panel showed the management interface for Peace Grocery Store Branch #1, where he could bring up a 3D diagram to configure settings.
This 3D diagram showed all areas of the entire building. The warehouse could be set as small as a bathroom or as large as an entire suite.
Tang Yu’an set their current suite as the warehouse.
Once the setting was successful, it was like he had a 170 square meter large warehouse! Yay!
Although it wasn’t as safe as the main store, when the main store warehouse or Portable Warehouse weren’t enough, this could be used for temporary storage.
After setting up the warehouse, Tang Yu’an selected to purchase the gray-blue freezers again.
When the Points were successfully deducted, two sleek gray-blue freezers with a high-tech aesthetic appeared before them.
These two freezers were even larger than the one in their home. They had an overall metallic look, with clear and sturdy glass on top that allowed a clear view of the freezer interior.
Tang Yu’an looked at the furniture information, then said happily, “Great, both of these freezers triggered the ‘The Hotter the Colder’ special effect!”
Zhou Qi nodded, smiling as if to say “of course”.
Tang Yu’an put Jin Lili in Zhou Qi’s basket. The little girl was already awake – she had been woken by the heat. Like Tang Yu’an, she was covered in sweat.
Seeing that the two brothers hadn’t abandoned her, Jin Lili didn’t cling to Tang Yu’an anymore. She obediently stayed in the basket, looking at them curiously.
Tang Yu’an fumbled to turn on the freezer switch.
Without being connected to a power source, the two gray-blue freezers started running with a whoosh, frantically absorbing heat from the room and converting it to electrical energy.
However, the room didn’t become cooler. On the contrary, it got even hotter.
Tang Yu’an nearly fainted from the heat. He hurriedly took out the Shadow Umbrella and brought himself and Jin Lili under it, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
“Brother Qi, what’s going on?”
How did using the gray-blue freezers make it even hotter?
Zhou Qi had already discovered the reason. He walked to the window and frowned, saying: “The heat from outside is being drawn in.”
Heat always spreads to areas of lower temperature. With the gray-blue Refrigerator lowering the indoor temperature drastically, the high outdoor temperature naturally flowed in through the windows.
This suite originally had windows and balcony doors, but now the glass had vanished, leaving only the window and door frames.
If these doors and windows were sealed with mutant metal, safety could probably be improved, but this would also leave the room with almost no light.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment, then asked Tang Yu’an: “Do we have any transparent film at home?”
“Yes, we do!”
Tang Yu’an brought over a roll of plastic wrap, and the two of them stretched it out to seal up all the window openings in the house.
As for the two balcony doors…
Because of their large area, the risk was also increased, so Zhou Qi eventually went to gather some bricks to seal off and reinforce the balcony doors.
The light inside immediately dimmed considerably, but as all the doors and windows were sealed, most of the heat was blocked outside, and the house quickly cooled down.
Tang Yu’an put away the Shadow Umbrella, feeling the coolness in the room, and couldn’t help but sigh contentedly.
Jin Lili also showed the same expression of enjoyment.
With these two gray-blue refrigerators, they could now stay in the branch store during the day!
Seeing that Tang Yu’an and Jin Lili were finally comfortable, Zhou Qi nodded, then looked at the seven-day special sale interface again and said: “This purple-red carpet is not bad either.”
“Then I’ll exchange for one and take a look.”
Tang Yu’an spent 188 Points to exchange for the purple-red carpet.
Looking at the carpet that suddenly appeared before her eyes, Jin Lili widened her eyes, pointing at the carpet and looking at Tang Yu’an, babbling something incomprehensible.
This carpet wasn’t very large, only 70cm x 90cm, less than 1m in both length and width, looking quite small.
The purple-red color, with intricate and beautiful patterns woven on it, was unknown if it served any special purpose.
Compared to the two rather large Refrigerators, this red carpet seemed a bit underwhelming, not even covering half of a Refrigerator when laid on top.
188 Points felt a bit expensive.
Of course, it was too early to draw conclusions without testing out its specific effects.
Tang Yu’an smiled and patted Jin Lili’s head, then took her out of the backpack and placed her on the carpet.
As soon as Jin Lili’s little feet touched the carpet, her already wide eyes widened even more, her face full of wonder.
She sat down on the carpet, unable to resist stroking it with her small hands.
“Is it comfortable?” Tang Yu’an asked.
Jin Lili nodded very seriously and answered softly: “Comfortable.”
Tang Yu’an then also reached out to touch it.
To his amazement, the carpet felt ice-cold to the touch, yet extremely soft, feeling so comfortable that he wanted to lie down and take a nap on it.
Jin Lili had already tilted over onto the carpet. The carpet that was a bit small for Tang Yu’an was just right for her.
Soon, the little girl closed her eyes and was about to fall asleep drowsily.
Tang Yu’an quickly woke her up, “It’s time to eat. You can sleep after we eat.”
Jin Lili then struggled to open her eyes and said in a soft, baby voice: “Eat… eat mashed…”
She was probably referring to mashed potatoes. The creamy mashed potatoes made by Zhou Qi had become Jin Lili’s favorite.
Tang Yu’an took out a bowl from the Portable Warehouse and fed her.
Seeing this, Zhou Qi said: “I need to go home first to cook.”
Jin Lili couldn’t follow them through the teleportation array back to the Grocery Store, and they couldn’t possibly recruit such a young child as an employee, so they could only let her stay at the branch store for now.
And the kitchen here couldn’t be used temporarily.
Water and gas were easy to solve, but there wasn’t an extra gas stove at home, and the induction cooker couldn’t be used here either.
If they really wanted to cook here, they might have to refer to Old Li and Tie Jin’s home and set up a fireplace that could be lit.
Zhou Qi decided to properly arrange things later, so he wouldn’t have to specially go back home to cook.
Actually, after the arrangements, the safety and comfort of this house had improved, but he still wasn’t at ease leaving Tang Yu’an here.
“I’ll feed her. You go home and bring Wang Cai and Yin Bi over.”
Now that the main store was closed and no longer open to the public, theoretically the protective barrier could take effect during the day as well.
This way, there was no need to leave Wang Cai and Yin Bi at the Grocery Store.
If they came to the branch store, they could patrol the building during the day, increasing their activity space and allowing them to return to their original size.
“Alright,” Tang Yu’an nodded, “I’ll check if the protective barrier is working while I’m at it.”
So Tang Yu’an left the suite and used the teleportation array on the tenth floor to return to the Grocery Store.
As soon as he returned, he faintly smelled a hint of smoke.
Could the house be on fire?
Tang Yu’an was startled and quickly checked the condition of the Grocery Store. Only after confirming it was intact and not on fire as he had thought did he breathe a sigh of relief.
At this moment, he began to feel slightly dizzy. What was going on? Could he have gotten heatstroke from the earlier heat?
“Wang Cai? Yin Bi?”
He finally realized something was wrong – he had come all the way downstairs, so why hadn’t the two dogs come to greet him?
Tang Yu’an opened the map to take a look and quickly found the two dogs lying unconscious on the floor.
“Yin Bi? Wang Cai? What’s wrong with you?”
Tang Yu’an was frightened and hurried over to check their breathing and heartbeats. Finding they were still alive but unconscious for some unknown reason, he barely managed to feel relieved.
He quickly took out the Shadow Umbrella and Happy Marbles, vigilantly looking at the open window openings outside.
There were obvious traces left in front of the Grocery Store door.
Soon, he saw the pile of dizzying grass that had been burned to ashes and learned its effects through his identification skill.
No wonder he felt dizzy!
So someone had discovered the Grocery Store again today? And that person had used the smoke from burning dizzying grass to knock out Wang Cai and Yin Bi?
Tang Yu’an covered his nose and mouth with a wet towel, then went outside the Grocery Store under the cover of the Shadow Umbrella.
He saw chaotic footprints on the ground, clearly from two people, along with some bloodstains and burst spider corpses.
A seemingly hungry stray dog stood at the spot he had just checked, licking the not-yet-fully-congealed blood and spider corpses on the ground.
Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but feel puzzled, unable to imagine exactly what had happened.
He looked back at the Grocery Store, originally intending to check if the protective barrier was working, but quickly remembered that the protective barrier was completely open to him – Brother Qi would need to come check it.
Tang Yu’an thought for a moment, retreated to within the range of the protective barrier, then took out a piece of fresh meat and placed it outside the Shadow Umbrella.
The stray dog didn’t react.
He reached out his hand again, leaving the range of the protective barrier. The dog immediately caught the scent and looked over, its eyes glowing green as it stared at the fresh meat.
Before it could pounce, Tang Yu’an quickly withdrew his hand – of course, leaving the meat outside the Shadow Umbrella.
The dog showed a confused and anxious expression. It ran to the outside of the barrier but seemed to be blocked by something, unable to advance an inch.
After careful observation, Tang Yu’an finally confirmed that after closing the store, the protective barrier was also effective during the day.
Perhaps two people had discovered the Grocery Store and were preparing to knock out Wang Cai and Yin Bi with malicious intent, but he happened to close the store just then, and the protective barrier sent them outside, unable to enter?
But what about those spiders?
Since the protective barrier was already working, Tang Yu’an didn’t pay any more attention to the stray dog.
He returned to the shop, put the two dogs into the pet inventory, then used the teleportation array to return to Store No. 1 and told Zhou Qi about his discoveries.
“How do you feel now?” Zhou Qi asked worriedly.
“I’m fine,” Tang Yu’an said. “I’m not dizzy anymore.”
“This dizzying grass only makes animals feel dizzy, it has no other toxicity, so don’t worry.”
He glanced at the pet inventory and saw that Wang Cai and Yin Bi had already recovered from their unconscious state, so he transferred them out of the pet inventory.
“Woof woof!”
Coming to an unfamiliar environment, Yin Bi was confused for a moment, then approached Tang Yu’an, whimpering and barking, saying who knows what.
“Alright, alright, you were very brave. Thank you for guarding the Grocery Store.”
Tang Yu’an stroked its head.
Yin Bi immediately wagged its tail happily, barking away, while Wang Cai also wagged its big tail, proudly seeking pets from Tang Yu’an.
Seeing the two dogs, Jin Lili immediately lost her sleepiness. She also toddled over on her short legs, clapping her little hands to play with Wang Cai and the others.
“I’ll go back and take a look.”
Zhou Qi decided to return to the Grocery Store to check the situation. Tang Yu’an didn’t stop him, but at his urging, opened the map to monitor the surrounding situation at all times.
About an hour later, Zhou Qi finally returned with lunch.
Meanwhile, Tang Yu’an was looking at the map, blinking in confusion, because he found –
The golden light dot representing Jin Lili had turned orange again!
He looked at the little girl who had fallen asleep on the carpet after playing with the two dogs, even using Wang Cai’s big tail as a blanket, and couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.
Then he thought of something, filtered out the pet light dots and turned on the animals’, and then saw –
Jin Lili’s light dot had turned light red!
So now she was both a pet and an animal?
*
Jufeng Mountain.
Tie Jin, who was climbing towards the mountain peak, was unaware of everything happening in Desolate City. He had been walking very urgently, so by late afternoon, he was about to reach the summit.
He was thinking to himself about how to persuade that woman called A’Lian to return with him once he found her.
But before he even reached Jufeng Town, he saw people cultivating farmland in the relatively flat area on the outskirts of the town.
On his way up, Tie Jin had also heard about the mountain lord’s new policies.
He wasn’t very interested, as he didn’t worry about food and drink, so he hadn’t stopped. But this time he paused on the mountain path.
Because he saw a slender figure busy in the fields, that head of red hair particularly eye-catching under the scorching sunlight.
Although it was his first time seeing her, Tie Jin recognized her at first glance.
It seemed he no longer needed to rush to the mountaintop.
