Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Song You’ai gave the pair a helpless look. ”I’ve been making ice cubes all morning, and my energy is almost completely drained.”

”How about I give you five liters of water to make do for cooking and washing up, and you can come back for more tomorrow?”

Li Dawei and Li Xiang whispered to each other for a moment before nodding reluctantly. ”Alright then, Aunt Song. Here’s the bok choy for you.”

”Out of everyone here, we trust you the most, Aunt Song. We’ll come back for the water tomorrow.”

Xie Ning scowled as she watched the siblings.

’What’s that supposed to mean?’

’That they don’t trust Captain Xie?’

’I was going to tell them they could just come get the water tonight.’

’But now, Captain Xie is not in the mood to tell them!’

’Tomorrow it is, then. Hmph.’

Song You’ai accepted the bag of bok choy with a smile. ”Alright, alright. Where’s your water container?”

Ge Yan stepped forward with a container, and Song You’ai filled it with five liters of water. She then added with a smile, ”If you come a bit later tomorrow, I’ll definitely have recovered my energy.”

The group nodded, said their goodbyes to Song You’ai, and left.

Xie Ning saw the gratified expression on her mother’s face and silently turned away.

”Li Xiang actually knows how to cook now. That’s quite nice.”

Xie Ning: ”...”

’Isn’t Mom’s bar for the Li siblings a little too low?’

”Auntie, you’re back!” Song Kexin chirped, bouncing over to her. ”We ran into Sis on our way back and went with her to the Survivor Center to manage our Contribution Points. Now we each have forty Contribution Points in our accounts, you know.”

”Hurry up and eat! It’s almost one o’clock!” Song Yaoguo shouted from under the pavilion, wearing an apron and waving a spatula.

A few minutes later, everyone went up to the second floor of the stand-alone dining hall, sitting in a tight circle with their bowls.

”There’s been some progress with the experiment,” Yu Tianfeng said, speaking first. ”I’ve managed to extract a substance from the Suppressing Grass Leaves. After adding a few other elements, its inhibitory effect is double what it was before.”

Xie Ning’s eyes brightened. ”Does that mean it’s effective against Superpower Users below the Second Order?”

”Yes,” Yu Tianfeng confirmed with a nod.

”Then make some inhibitors first. We need to have them ready for Grandpa, Grandma, Little Aunt, Yueyue, and Nanxing.”

”Yes, I’m already on it. It should take about a week.”

”Also, I’m still short on some small pieces of medical equipment. If you can, please keep an eye out for them when you’re out on missions. Here are the schematics.”

Xie Ning flipped through the schematics, then pulled out several of the items. ”These?”

”Yes, that’s them.” Yu Tianfeng couldn’t help but chuckle as he took the medical devices. ”Ningning, you really do collect everything!”

’Whether she finds it useful or not, she just stuffs everything into her Space. I guess that’s just how hoarders are, huh?’

Xie Ning remained expressionless. ”We’ll look for the other items when we’re out.”

”If you don’t have enough room in your little workshop, I can build a metal shed for you next to it.”

”That would be fantastic! I could put the machinery in there so my room won’t be so cramped.”

”It’ll get really hot, though!”

”No problem. I can make him some ice blocks regularly. If that’s not enough, we’ll hook up an air conditioner. We can’t have the medical equipment overheating,” Song You’ai interjected.

Xie Ning nodded. ”Alright, let’s get it done after the meal.”

”What about that Earth Ability User?” she suddenly asked.

Song Shijun stifled a laugh. ”The Earth Ability User worked himself to exhaustion this morning. I carried him to the living room and left him to sleep on the sofa.”

Zhu Yong put down his chopsticks. ”Would an earthen house be better for dissipating heat? The only problem is it wouldn’t hold up in a downpour.”

Xie Ning blinked. ”That could work. Let’s build an earthen house then. We can pour a metal floor, cover it with a layer of soil, and add a metal roof so it won’t leak. What do you think?”

”Great idea!” everyone nodded in unison, their interest piqued. They all planned to help build it later.

”Hey, aren’t any of you curious about how much we earned this morning?” Song Kexin finally burst out, unable to hold it in any longer, her face practically screaming, ’Ask me! Ask me!’

Ji Taixian, ever the good sport, quickly asked, ”How many Crystal Cores did you earn?”

Song Kexin grinned slyly and pulled out a small cloth pouch, slapping it on the table with a THWAP. ”Sis gave us four sets of Metal Knives, with each set containing five blades of different sizes and lengths.”

”Ranging from daggers to long knives, twenty blades in total. We earned five Second-order Crystal Cores and two hundred First-order Crystal Cores!”

”Plus another one hundred Contribution Points.”

Song You’ai’s jaw dropped. ”That’s way more than I made selling ice.”

Xie Ning couldn’t help but ask, ”How did you price them?”

”Haha,” Song Kexin said triumphantly. ”At first, we didn’t know the going rate and were selling them too cheap. We sold daggers and short knives for five Crystal Cores apiece. After we sold four, we realized people were lining up in a constant stream.”

”So we wised up and raised the price for daggers and short knives to ten Crystal Cores.”

”We priced the medium knives at 20 Crystal Cores, the medium-long ones at 25, and the long knives at 40. We didn’t expect people to still be scrambling to buy them,” Song Kexin said, beaming with joy.

Song Shijun nodded with a smile. ”Mhm, and our first customers brought back a lot of repeat business. They said the quality of Sis’s knives was better than anything they’d ever seen!”

”Right now, First-order Crystal Cores and Contribution Points are the main currencies in the market. One First-order Crystal Core is equal to one Contribution Point.”

”And one Second-order Crystal Core is equivalent to twenty First-order Crystal Cores.”

Xie Ning smiled and patted Song Kexin’s head. ”I never thought you two would be such good salespeople.”

Song You’ai pouted. ”Well, I had no idea about the market rates. I just sat down and started shouting, ’Five Crystal Cores for a block of ice.’”

”Business was good, but it was exhausting,” Song You’ai couldn’t help but complain. ”After a while, I started to think I was selling them too cheap. But everyone was crowded around me, calling me ’Miss’ and ’Auntie,’ and I was too embarrassed to raise the price.”

”I figured, ’Oh well, today was just a soft opening.’ We can figure it out later. It’s not like I’ll be selling ice every day, anyway.”

”So, Auntie... how big was the block of ice you were selling for five Crystal Cores?”

”About this big?” Song You’ai gestured with her hands.

Everyone’s eyes went wide.

”Th-that big?”

Xie Ning was both amused and exasperated. ”The people who bought your ice must have been ecstatic. That ice melts into drinkable water. A block that big must melt into at least five liters.”

”Five liters of water for five Crystal Cores? Auntie, you’re taking a massive loss!” Song Kexin exclaimed.

Song Shijun burst out laughing. ”Yeah, Auntie! What kind of math is that?”

”Do you have any idea? In the base, five hundred milliliters of water sells for six Contribution Points! And you! Hahaha, you sold five *liters* for just five Crystal Cores—which is only five Contribution Points! HAHAHAHA, that’s hilarious!”

Song You’ai’s face flushed, embarrassed by her niece and nephew’s teasing. She cleared her throat. ”S-so what if I was practically giving it away? Fine, it’s just... I wasn’t familiar with the going rates, okay? I’ll raise the price next time.”

She took a bite of vegetables and muttered to herself, ”No wonder the crowd got so dense later. They nearly crushed me until I couldn’t breathe.”

”But it’s fine. At least I was getting to practice my Water Ability, right, dear?”