The things from the Card Album weren’t always useful. She knew full well the system’s malicious nature. It seemed like the main god was selecting superior humans through instance games, but in reality, it was filled with the malicious amusement of a high-level civilization looking down on lowly ants.
Mu Shan rolled her eyes at the card she drew today.
[Item Card: A Piece of Rotten Meat]
As for whether it was human flesh or some animal’s rotten meat, Mu Shan didn’t even want to take it out to look.
“I endured it.”
The other two cards were slightly better: [Item Card: A Badminton Racket] and [Environment Card: A Small Lake Piled with Zombies].
Though she still had no idea what they were for.
On the seventh day of survival, the light rain outside continued without stopping, and the sky remained dim.
Because the Safe House was on higher ground, no water had accumulated and crept up yet, but to be safe, Mu Shan used the flood prevention sandbags she had picked up to surround the Sunroom.
Her conservative scavenging goal for today was to find clean pants and underwear. Anything else in the way of survival supplies would be even better.
Her planned destination was the high-end residential area she had passed yesterday while getting vegetables from the agronomist.
Apartment buildings were always prime spots for resource concentration. With good luck, one could “one-stop shop” and gather everything needed for doomsday survival.
But high-rise apartments had dense populations, and the enclosed, narrow stairwells made solo searches highly dangerous—easy to get trapped inside.
In comparison, the villa district she passed yesterday was a better choice.
Mu Shan put on heavy rain boots and raincoat, shouldered her waterproof backpack, took all her emergency spares, and headed out.
She had deliberately parked on a hillside yesterday. Today, she saw that the road at the bottom of the slope was indeed completely submerged by accumulated water.
The filthy water surged onto the sidewalk, swallowing the curbs. At a glance, it was impossible to tell road from steps—people could easily trip unexpectedly.
The heavy rain greatly hindered travel. Mu Shan moved the Side Quest she had originally planned for the last few days to the front.
…She had no confidence in getting a boat. Any more delays, and she wouldn’t be able to go out at all.
The car engine roared to life, tires splashing a spray of dirty water.
Only now did she feel fortunate that she had gotten an SUV with a high chassis—not so prone to stalling.
Even so, the situation remained far from optimistic.
Mu Shan floored the accelerator and sped toward the villa district in her memory.
Many zombies floated in the water along the road, arms outstretched in futile roars, like doomed souls fallen into the ocean.
About twenty minutes later, the white SUV stopped on the villa district’s main road.
The originally heavily guarded iron gates stood wide open, allowing the car to pass unimpeded. The security booth was empty, its occupants nowhere to be seen.
Mu Shan carefully discerned, and her skill 【Hoarding Addiction II】 told her that the villa in the third house ahead had even richer resources.
She decisively parked in that house’s ground-level garage, then gripped her axe and got out.
The villa had three stories, standalone with its own yard. The grayish-yellow floodwater had risen to the steps at the entrance.
Mu Shan, drenched in the rain, gripped the door handle with her wet, icy fingers and twisted.
Locked. Wouldn’t open.
She glanced back at the seemingly calm neighborhood and gave up on breaking in—that would make too much noise.
Mu Shan circled to the side of the villa, tested the height of the wrought-iron fence, stepped on a stone for a boost, and flipped right over into the yard.
A week ago, she absolutely couldn’t have done it, but now she felt no psychological pressure at all.
The yard was quite large. Covered in floodwater, it looked like a pond.
The lawn the owner had carefully tended was long gone. Several rows of flower racks stood in the corner by the wall, the plants on them wilted and drooping from the downpour.
Mu Shan gripped her axe in both hands and waded toward the balcony door.
She hadn’t gone far when she suddenly heard a noise and instinctively leaped to the side.
The pattering rain hit the sewage, forming endless ripples.
But the accumulated water, which shouldn’t have had splashes, surged violently, even forming small waves that rolled toward her.
Something was in the water!
Mu Shan immediately switched weapons. A long machete appeared in her hand out of thin air, and she slashed fiercely into the churning water before her.
Water splashed everywhere in an instant. A muffled howl mixed with gurgling water sounds emerged. Mu Shan saw a bluish-gray hand reach from the bottom, followed by a zombie’s head and shoulders.
“Awooo… glug glug…”
Its rotten face was soaked, its hair like a water ghost’s plastered messily to its skin. Its body, who knew how long it had soaked in the filthy water, had become grotesquely bloated.
The zombie had just surfaced when, before Mu Shan could chop down, it sank rapidly back underwater.
It was a creepy zombie that crawled on all fours, concealed by the murky water—impossible to spot without close inspection.
Mu Shan gripped her knife and stood motionless, her expression highly tense.
Icy raindrops trailed down her chin. Aside from the rain, only her slightly ragged breathing filled the surroundings.
She had never encountered something attacking from below before.
The floodwater lapped at her rain boots. In the next instant, she felt something grab her ankle underwater—slimy and slippery.
Mu Shan spun back fiercely and thrust her machete down hard.
“Awooo glug glug!” A string of bubbles rose from the water, with faint traces of the zombie’s drifting hair.
She didn’t know where she had stabbed, but her left hand pressed firmly on the machete handle without letting go. Her right hand quickly drew the axe and hacked viciously several times at the zombie’s position below.
In an instant, black blood spread slowly like oil. The zombie’s thoroughly dead body sank to the bottom and didn’t resurface.
【Gold Coins +1】
Mu Shan dealt with what was likely the female owner’s zombie and waded up the balcony steps. The indoor door was indeed unlocked. Without making any extra noise, she smoothly entered the villa residence.
The first floor held a spacious living room, kitchen, guest bathroom, and guest room.
Mu Shan gripped her weapon and patrolled once around. In the bathroom, she found the male owner.
“Heh heh—”
Pushing open the half-closed wooden door, the “male owner,” gnawed down to half its body, writhed and lifted its head with all its strength, baring its teeth at her.
The bathroom floor was covered in dried bloodstains. Compared to the “male owner”‘s missing limbs, its spirit seemed exceptionally tenacious.
Mu Shan gave it one axe blow, then quietly closed the bathroom door.
After basically confirming the first floor was safe, Mu Shan dashed full speed to the kitchen area. This kitchen was open-style, with a huge double-door fridge, plus matching steam oven, oven, and microwave.
The food in the fridge had rotted completely long ago, especially the eggs, which gave off a biochemical weapon-level stench after spoiling.
But Mu Shan’s eyes lit up. She opened the cabinets and found a complete set of spotless cookware.
Enamel soup pot, rice cooker, frying pan, complete with spatulas and ladles.
She looted it all!
She practically buried herself in the cabinets. Persistence paid off—Mu Shan finally found a single-burner cassette stove in the deep, seldom-used area, complete with two canisters of butane gas.
Once, these were essential camping gear for petty bourgeois families.
Now, they were lifesaving supplies after water, power, and gas cutoffs.
Since she knew there were waterless instances, Mu Shan was certain the trash main god could pull even cheaper tricks.
As she quickly rummaged, she thought: This house had a cassette stove, so maybe the other rooms upstairs had more camping gear.
The villa’s development kitchen was large. Mu Shan looted all the seasonings around the stove, but left the half-used oil jug alone.
The color was off, with a layer of cotton-like substance on the surface—probably spoiled.
Fortunately, the cabinets still held unopened corn oil from the owners, plus a small bottle of olive oil.
Ordinary families always stockpiled food at home, and this one was no exception. Mu Shan found ample rice, flour, grains, and oils—all easy-to-store types.
Like dried noodles, which could last a long time in a dry, dark place. Back in school, when living expenses were tight, she often boiled noodles and mixed them with soy sauce to get by for a month on a shoestring.
In addition, Mu Shan got a bag of adult high-calcium milk powder—24 small packets. Under these conditions, fresh milk and eggs were basically gone; milk powder was now a key protein source!
As she prepared to leave, she glanced back at the foam box casually left in the corner by the owners. It looked like they hadn’t had time to deal with it in the chaos of the apocalypse’s outbreak.
She opened it casually, and the contents inside blinded her eyes. Joy surged in her heart.
The owner must have known that food stockpiling was needed in the apocalypse, so they bought loads of vacuum-packed, room-temperature-stable meats: cured pork, sauce duck, lotus leaf chicken, eight-treasure duck.
Mu Shan took out a bag of streaky bacon to check—the shelf life was a full eight months!
At the bottom of the box were many dried shrimp, dried fish slices, dried abalone, squid tentacles, dried seaweed, and other dry goods, all bagged in plastic and emitting the unique briny scent of seafood.
Mu Shan didn’t even count them—she dumped the whole lot into her Virtual Backpack. Under the 【Trash Sorting】 skill, all the different foods auto-sorted in her backpack into 【Food x50】, taking up just one slot.
She turned the first-floor kitchen completely upside down.
In the first-floor guest room closet, she collected several spare summer thin quilts and wool blankets, all pocketed by Mu Shan.
She lightly ascended to the second floor, home to the master bedroom, study, game room, and master bath.
The master bed was a mess. Mu Shan pulled open the nightstand drawer, and the drawer full of condoms blinded her eyes.
…
She turned her face away and took the flashlight from beside it.
The flowers on the vanity had rotted and withered. In front of the mirror sat various brand cosmetics and a huge three-layer jewelry box.
Mu Shan ignored the diamonds and gold, taking only the unopened face cream from the drawer.
The master bedroom had a row of huge floor-to-ceiling closets. She didn’t find a tent or Sleeping Bag, but she did turn up plenty of the female owner’s clothes.
She picked out relatively new outerwear, pants, autumn long johns, and such—a big pile.
The female owner probably rarely exercised; Mu Shan found several nearly unworn yoga outfits and sportswear. Plus, two packaged sets of panties and sports bras.
No need to worry about sizes fitting now—having clothes to wear was thank heavens.
Mu Shan’s looting and scavenging moves were swift and calm, without any dawdling.
She closed the master bedroom door, intending to check the storage room for camping gear, when her peripheral vision caught something as she passed the window.
She turned her head and saw, on the balcony of the villa opposite—building two—a man standing there, quietly watching her.
Mu Shan startled.
The two stared silently across dozens of meters.
The man held a large black umbrella, sported a white buzz cut, wore a black leather jacket with a silver chain around his neck. He didn’t look like an apocalypse survivor—more like a veteran nightclub regular, exuding roguish charm.
Mu Shan saw the system text above his head.
【Elite Player 82221
ID: Cheng Kaiwen
Profession: Rogue】
A five-digit player!
Mu Shan feigned calm, politely nodding from afar at the black-clad man, then turned, quickly closed the window.
She had just taken big strides away when a rising voice called from behind.
“Little sister, can you discern resource types?”
Mu Shan’s heart nearly stopped.
She whipped around to see the man who had been on the opposite villa’s balcony suddenly right in front of her, leaning casually against the stair railing with a sly smile, eyeing her with ill intent.