Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Xie Ning slung on her backpack and jumped out of the car. ”Tai Xian.”

”Coming, coming, Sis!” Ji Taixian got out of the Jinbei van, weighed down by two large backpacks, one on his front and one on his back.

”What are you doing with so many bags?” Xie Ning was speechless. ”How much room is left in your Space?”

”There’s still about twenty-something square meters of room.”

”How have you not leveled up yet?” Xie Ning glanced at him, her tone full of disdain.

Ji Taixian looked crestfallen and mumbled in protest, ”It’s not like you can level up just because you want to.”

Xie Ning turned to instruct her mother, ”Mom, you and Shijun stay here. We’ll be right back.”

”Don’t worry, Auntie. We’ll be quick.” Seeing Song You’ai’s worry, Captain Gu smiled and waved at her. ”We’ll be back in half an hour.”

Xie Ning silently closed her mouth.

She had originally planned to fib to her mom that they’d be back in twenty minutes, but since someone else had spoken up, she kept her mouth shut and briskly followed the team.

The main group rested in place at the entrance of the Seed Base.

Xie Ning and Ji Taixian hopped into Gu Chen’s modified pickup truck.

Wu Meng turned his head and greeted them with a smile.

The group of four, traveling light, drove deeper into the base.

”There’s a seed laboratory up ahead. That’s our main target.” Wu Meng held a small map, pointing toward two areas of greenhouses. ”Turn left.”

Xie Ning tilted her head and looked out at a wide, open field.

The field was trampled all over, likely looted wave after wave by passersby.

Fortunately, the lab was protected by a triple metal door. Unless you blew it up, there was really no way to force your way in and loot it.

Xie Ning found that the Gold Ability was very convenient for opening all sorts of locks. Basically, a single Metal Spike would do the trick.

The lab building had two floors. Upon entering, they saw two elderly zombies in white lab coats slowly rising from behind a lab bench.

One was holding a petri dish full of soil. The other had strands of graying hair stuck to the base of their ears, their eyes vacant and confused, and they were still holding a small garden hoe.

Xie Ning saw Gu Chen tilt his head slightly, seeming to take a deep breath before two bullets ended them.

”Rest in peace, Professor.” Ji Taixian ran forward and snatched the petri dish from the zombie’s hand. ”The people will not forget your contribution.”

Wu Meng frantically started gathering the various tools, instruments, and unfinished saplings from the lab bench, yelling, ”This stuff, and there’s more over there! We need to pack it all. Quick, help out.”

”This stuff will all be useful once we get to the safe zone.”

Xie Ning followed Gu Chen up to the second floor, which had been converted into a small cultivation farm. Numerous saplings were already sprouting from the small plots of soil.

In a glass display case nearby, there were also many precious seeds.

”Tai Xian,” Xie Ning called out. ”Come help pack this stuff up. Put it all in your Space, don’t use the backpacks.”

”You guys pack up here, I’m going to check next door.” After tossing out this sentence, she started to head downstairs.

Gu Chen quickly grabbed her. ”It’s not very safe here.”

”Don’t worry, I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

Xie Ning was headed for the warehouse next door. She used a Metal Spike to pick the lock and enter, then took care of an elderly zombie who had been diligently guarding the warehouse.

This was Warehouse No. 1, used specifically for storing grain crops.

It seemed there were four more warehouses behind it, probably for vegetables, fruits, medicinal herbs, and the like.

’My Space definitely won’t be enough to hold everything, so I can only take some samples for now.’

Xie Ning decided to take two bags of each type. After running through the next four warehouses and grabbing a bit of everything—vegetable, fruit, oil-crop, and medicinal herb seeds—nearly an hour had passed.

She was about to collapse from exhaustion.

’No wonder this is Su City’s number one Seed Base. It has everything and lacks nothing.’

Looking at her personal Space, the one-third of room that had been left was now completely filled with bags of seeds. It couldn’t hold anything more.

Xie Ning ran back to the first warehouse and drooled at the sight of the boxed corn stacked near the entrance.

She remembered in her past life, during the hardest times, half a cob of corn actually sold for two hundred Second-order Crystal Cores.

Back then, she had desperately wanted to taste corn, but even after pooling all her resources, she only had one hundred and fifty Second-order Crystal Cores—not nearly enough to afford such an exorbitant price.

’Leaving it here would be too much of a waste. In the future, this is all as good as Crystal Cores.’

With a wave of her hand, Xie Ning stored all two hundred-plus boxes of corn in her dining room, lining them up next to the dining table.

After finishing, she hurried back to the lab to find Gu Chen and the others, then led them over to collect a round of seeds.

Ji Taixian’s and Wu Meng’s Spaces were stuffed full of seeds. They waved their hands repeatedly, saying, ”Can’t fit any more, can’t fit any more! It’ll explode if we try!”

So, the group, like little ants moving house, carried over a hundred bags and loaded them into the pickup truck.

They only stopped when the spaces between the seats were stuffed so full that there was absolutely no room left.

”Close the warehouse doors. I’ll make a metal plate to inlay over the locks and seal the warehouses shut,” Xie Ning said, turning to Gu Chen and the others. ”There’s no way we can take all these seeds at once. But seeds will last for two or three years. We can totally bring a convoy back to pick them up when we need them later.”

”Makes sense.” The three of them nodded in unison and quickly closed the doors to Warehouses No. 1 through 5, letting Xie Ning seal the locks with metal plates.

Back in the truck, it was so crammed with stuff that the two in the back seat could only sit curled up, with nowhere to even put their feet.

By the time the four of them got back, Fang Jiawen was arguing with Lu Wei and a few others.

To be precise, Fang Jiawen was screaming at the top of her lungs while Lu Wei and his group listened helplessly.

”How much longer do we have to wait? It’s almost dark! Are we waiting until night to get back on the road? You think the roads will be easy to travel then?”

”I don’t know what you all were thinking. What’s there to ’browse’ inside the Seed Base? Are you trying to attract some zombies to get us all killed?”

”If you can’t wait, you’re free to leave first.” Xie Ning walked over, her backpack bulging. ”No one asked you to stay here. Why are you yelling at them?”

”Shouting so loudly, I’d say you’re the one trying to attract zombies.”

”Alright, alright, Specialist Fang, what’s all the arguing about? Get in the car.” Dr. Wei had an embarrassed look on his face as he nodded at the approaching Gu Chen, Xie Ning, and the others. ”Sorry about that. Our colleague is just a bit too anxious.”

”Did you guys get a lot of seeds from the lab? Can I see?” A head of messy hair leaned in close to them, eyes sparkling.

”Scram.” Xie Ning threw a single word at him.

Everyone: ”...”

Seeing her ”male god” get shot down, Fang Jiawen couldn’t help but explode again. ”You—you, what’s with your attitude?”

”You...”

”Alright, get in the car now!” Dr. Wei was mentally exhausted. He placated the sullen-looking Yu Tianfeng, ”Tianfeng, get in the car first. We’ll take a look when we get back to the safe zone. The seeds aren’t going anywhere.”

Xie Ning got in the car and put on her seatbelt, only to turn her head and see her mother staring at her, stone-faced.

”You and that Xiao Gu are exactly alike. He said half an hour, you said twenty minutes, and you end up taking two hours!”

’You’re all talk!’