Chapter 4
A hollow, eerie mechanical child’s voice suddenly rang out beside his ear, startling Guanguan so badly that his little face turned pale. The whole child tipped straight backward off the wiggle car. Luckily, Wei Cheng reacted extremely fast and immediately stuck out a leg to block him.
Wei Cheng quickly calmed down. With one hand, he tucked Guanguan under his arm; with the other, he grabbed the wiggle car and ran behind the old building.
Guanguan kicked his little feet and stared in confusion with his grape-like black eyes. “Big brother, there’s a child growing inside Guanguan’s head…”
“Don’t be afraid. Big brother heard the voice too. There isn’t a child growing inside our heads.”
After surviving the apocalypse and then being lucky enough to be reborn, Wei Cheng was no longer all that shocked or panicked by something this bizarre.
After making sure there was no one around, he set Guanguan down and softly instructed him, “Don’t be scared, and don’t run around. Stay by big brother’s side and let big brother study this carefully.”
This wiggle car was shaped like a little cloud and was mica gray in color. It was about seventy centimeters long, with a base shaped like a little pyramid, rear wheels angled outward in a figure-eight stance, and in front a rounded, full steering wheel resembling a race car design. Behind it was even a cute little trailer box, patched in several places with yellow plastic tape.
When a child sat on it, they only needed to twist the steering wheel to move it forward, backward, left, or right. It looked no different from the wiggle cars owned by the other children at the welfare home.
Wei Cheng was puzzled. Where had that voice just come from?
Guanguan obediently stood there with his hands tucked in front of him like a little farmer. Seeing that big brother had been frowning silently the whole time, he shook his head, rubbed his ears, and timidly muttered, “Little child, you’re not inside Guanguan’s head, right?”
[Dear little house owner, I’m always here.]
This time, Guanguan really did fall flat on his butt. Since he was so full of baby fat, he even kicked up a cloud of dust.
Wei Cheng naturally heard the voice too. He quickly helped the child back up by the arm and coldly said to the voice, “What exactly is your relationship to this wiggle car? Why are you speaking inside our minds? Who are you? And what are you trying to do?”
[The end of the world is about to arrive. The stockpiling safe house exclusive to host Guanguan is now urgently online. As the little house owner’s only bound person, please assist him in earning Twist Coins and stocking up wholesale in the Cloud Mall!]
The voice in his head did not answer Wei Cheng’s questions directly.
But Wei Cheng had already understood what it meant.
He still probed, “Why should we believe you?”
[The Cloud Mall contains all survival supplies.]
[Water, food, seeds, vegetables, fruit, medicine, clothing, education, hardware, appliances, snacks… everything is available.]
The moment the voice paused, Wei Cheng and Guanguan felt their vision blur. When they opened their eyes again, they found themselves standing in a strange and cramped space. The area was about the size of a household bathroom, and above, below, left, and right, everything was a blinding white.
Guanguan clutched Wei Cheng’s hand tightly. “Big brother, Guanguan is scared…”
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared.”
Wei Cheng bent down and picked Guanguan up, covering his eyes with one hand. “Big brother is here. Don’t be afraid.”
He stayed alert and observed the surroundings for a while, but did not discover any deadly danger. After thinking for a moment, he gently bumped one shoulder against the white wall.
With a creaking sound, the white wall slowly opened.
Inside was nothing but survival supplies.
Towering shelves that stretched as far as the eye could see, neatly arranged with all kinds of goods.
So many that it made the scalp tingle.
Wei Cheng took a sharp breath and quickly said, “Guanguan, come on, open your eyes and look.”
Guanguan covered his eyes tightly with both little hands. “Scared.”
“Don’t be scared. Look, there’s so much food and so many snacks here…”
The moment he heard that, Guanguan lowered his hands without the slightest hesitation. After seeing the scene before him, his eyes widened little by little. “Waaah!”
Putting Guanguan in a place like this was no different from putting a little mouse in a grain storehouse.
Every section had a huge red sign.
[Food] [Fresh Produce] [Daily Necessities] [Educational Resources] …
If one absolutely had to compare it to a large supermarket, then the difference was like large versus gigantic.
The more Wei Cheng looked, the more delighted he became—until his footsteps abruptly halted on seeing a few words.
[Machinery]
But from that area onward, everything was shrouded in a layer of white mist, as if covered by a mosaic censor blur. He could only see the sign.
“Big brother, big brother, look! There’s so, so much yummy food here!”
Guanguan stood on tiptoe and reached for the cucumber-flavored potato chips. Just as he was about to touch them, his hand grabbed only empty air.
The two of them were lightly bounced back into the real world.
The voice appeared again.
[After inspection, the little house owner currently has 0 Twist Coins. The safe house offline mall area cannot yet be explored.]
[The blank space is the safe house. Please, little house owner and bound person, actively accept missions and stock up boldly. Only then can the safe house be expanded and upgraded!]
[Wiggle Car Initial Form: Toddler Wiggle Car (never tips over, top-tier quality)]
[Wiggle Car Basic Transformation Level: 0 (unlockable: escape capacity for four people) (unlockable: increased defense level) (invisibility duration unknown)]
[Wiggle Car Intermediate Transformation Level: 0 (unknown)]
[Wiggle Car Advanced Transformation Level: 0 (unknown)]
[Notice: The safe house stockpiling progress matches the wiggle car’s transformation level.]
[The more Twist Coins you have, the more you can modify the escape wiggle car!]
A hope of survival from desperate circumstances rose in Wei Cheng’s heart.
He knew that with his current abilities, taking Guanguan through the apocalypse would be incredibly difficult. He knew how terrifying zombies were, and he also knew that without survival supplies and firearms, no matter how capable one person was, they could not last very long. But now, with an encounter like this, he could make even better use of his experience and this safe house to protect Guanguan.
He asked the most crucial question: “Then how do we earn Twist Coins?”
[Please find the broccoli the little house owner hid in someone else’s bowl and feed it to him. You will receive 1 Twist Coin.]
The moment he heard that, Guanguan immediately shook his chubby hands and backed away. “Big brother, no, don’t, not like that…”
Wei Cheng hesitated. He knew Guanguan truly disliked vegetables. Of course, this bad habit should be corrected eventually, but Guanguan had only just started trusting him. He did not want to make the child cry. And for only one Twist Coin… maybe he should just forget it…
[Reminder: 1 Twist Coin = 1000 RMB.]
Wei Cheng wavered. Right now they needed Twist Coins badly to stockpile supplies!
Just then, Wang Xiaotiao’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Guanguan! Guanguan!”
“Guanguan!”
Wang Xiaotiao came running over, panting hard, with a little bowl in his hands. “How did your broccoli run into my bowl?”
Guanguan tucked his hands in front of him and guiltily looked up at the sky. “Seems like there’s Ultraman.”
Wang Xiaotiao fell for it again. “Huh? Where?”
Wei Cheng genuinely could not stop himself from laughing. He took Wang Xiaotiao’s little bowl. “I’ll feed him. You go play.”
Once Wang Xiaotiao had left, Guanguan lowered his head and whispered, “Guanguan doesn’t want to eat green vegetables…”
“Then do you want green Chupa Chups? Do you want green apples? Green honey melons?”
Guanguan swallowed audibly, then suddenly opened his mouth wide. “Green vegetable, hurry and come into Guanguan’s mouth! Guanguan is not scared of you!”
Wei Cheng used a bit of force to break the broccoli into two pieces. He fed the smaller piece into Guanguan’s mouth, and ate the larger piece himself.
The voice had only said to feed it to Guanguan. It had not said how much, right?
[Congratulations to the little house owner for successfully completing the first mission!]
[One broccoli a day, high-fiber nutrition on its way!]
[The little house owner will receive 1 Twist Coin as a reward!]
[One surprise spin of the lucky wheel has been activated!]
A transparent panel appeared before their eyes, with four large gold-lettered sections.
[Personal Information Section] [Wiggle Car Safe House Section] [Cloud Wholesale Mall Section] [Mission Section]
At that moment, a seven-colored spinning wheel popped up across the panel. Each color had little bouncing rabbits on it. There were no prizes labeled on the wheel, so it seemed to be a blind draw.
Wei Cheng said, “Guanguan, touch it.”
By now, Guanguan was no longer afraid. On the contrary, he found the little rabbits very cute.
Following his brother’s words, he lightly touched the wheel. The long pointer spun rapidly, then finally landed on the red section.
[Congratulations! The little house owner really is a little money jar—you’ve won 100 Twist Coins!]
100 Twist Coins!
That was one hundred thousand yuan!
[101 Twist Coins have been deposited in the little house owner’s Personal Information Section. Please check on time!]
Wei Cheng smiled and said, “Guanguan, you’re really amazing!”
Guanguan was so delighted he could hardly bear it. Planting his little hands on his waist, he declared, “Guanguan can be even more amazing!”
