Ice Age Apocalypse: I Hoard Billions of Supplies

The red-light district.

On the other side, the trio of Fatty Xu, Uncle Yu, and Hua were exploring Edo City in a different direction.

Although Zhang Yi had repeatedly reminded Fatty Xu that the red-light district wouldn’t have any establishments open during the day, he still couldn’t let go of this place he’d been longing to visit. So, following the map’s guidance, he led Uncle Yu and Hua in this direction.

Hua was just a cat, and Uncle Yu didn’t understand much about this sort of thing, so Fatty Xu managed to spin them both around quite easily.

But when they finally arrived, they found that, just as Zhang Yi had said, every single shop’s doors were tightly shut. They could, however, see the street lined with dazzling neon signs.

Love Hotels and Bubble Baths and host clubs were everywhere.

The most eye-catching sign was for a host club, clearly displaying its top host’s astonishing performance. The most impressive one was a guy named Roland, whose sign showed he had sold up to 150 million yen in alcohol that year! Of course, ”yen” referred to the Neon currency unit.

”So impressive! Is this the King of Hosts? But this data must be from two or three years ago.”

Fatty Xu looked at the quiet, empty red-light district and sighed with deep disappointment.

Uncle Yu, though older, wasn’t stupid and had already figured out what kind of place this was. He angrily grabbed Fatty Xu’s ear. ”Hey, Chunlei! You bastard, we’re here on business! Who told you to come to a place like this!”

Fatty Xu yelped in pain.

”What do you mean? I’m just curious! Seeing if I could bump into a convenient store or something!”

”Stop your nonsense! Snap out of it!”

Even Hua lowered her head, sniffed the air, then bared her teeth at Fatty Xu with a vicious expression.

With no other choice, Fatty Xu had to change direction.

But something like this could never stump a top-tier hardcore fan. Having heard they were coming to Edo, he’d long prepared a strategy.

Soon, he found himself inside a figurine shop, drooling over the dazzling array of collectibles on display.

”Oh my god, is this heaven? I need to call the boss over and have him take all of this stuff away!” Fatty Xu shouted excitedly.

Uncle Yu and Hua stood behind him, one with a face full of exasperation, the other letting out a low, threatening ”Meow—”

Fatty Xu scratched the back of his head with an innocent grin. ”Just a moment! Let me have a look!”

Uncle Yu let out a helpless sigh.

”Just a moment!”

Zhang Yi had told them to scout Edo without giving them a specific target—just to see if anything was unusual in the city. So instead of searching blindly like headless flies, it was better to narrow down the key areas.

Maybe Fatty Xu, this professional hardcore fan, could actually discover something here!

Besides... there really were a lot of great things here that you couldn’t find back home.

Uncle Yu’s gaze drifted toward a corner of the shop. There were some interesting toys piled up, as well as books with incredibly exciting covers.

He coughed, his old face slightly reddening, then quietly shuffled his feet over.

...

Daliangdu Museum.

Deng Shentong led Bai Chunyu and the others to the vicinity. They pulled down their hat brims, bought a few cups of hot coffee nearby, and pretended to be wandering tourists, observing everything around them from the outside.

Pedestrians came and went in a hurry. Daliangdu Museum was open as usual, but in this bitter cold, few people had the mood to go inside and admire the artifacts.

Everything around them seemed just as it always was.

Yet, only two streets away, several buildings had snapped at their bases, leaning diagonally against other structures, long since reduced to piles of rubble.

But the local Edo residents seemed unfazed, carrying on as usual.

Deng Shentong kept one hand in his pocket as he passed by the entrance of Daliangdu Museum with the crowd. After a while, he regrouped with Bai Chunyu, Baili Changqing, and Wu Di on another street.

The four of them had each come from a different direction, thoroughly scouting the surrounding situation.

”There don’t seem to be any troops or Transcendents stationed nearby. If we want to infiltrate, it won’t be too difficult,” Baili Changqing said.

Bai Chunyu crossed his arms and added, ”There are two possibilities. First, the Neon people haven’t realized the importance of what we’re looking for. Second, that thing has already been moved!”

Deng Shentong thought for a moment and said, ”Regardless, since we’re here, we need to take a look first. We’re determined to get that thing! We absolutely cannot let it stay in the hands of the Neon people!”

Wu Di, hands in his pockets, laughed nonchalantly. ”Isn’t this being a little too cautious? With the forces we have now, sweeping through all of Neon would be a piece of cake!”

”The Colombian navy won’t have time to support them. We could level all of Edo!”

”If you ask me, we should just charge straight into Daliangdu Library or break into the Demon-Sealing Court, grab their leader, and force them to hand over our national treasure! Why bother with all this trouble?”

Baili Changqing frowned slightly. ”Wu Di, you’re still so impatient! Don’t forget, we’re not on our home turf here. Better to be careful!”

Wu Di was about to argue further, but Baili Changqing continued, ”Even Zhang Yi is being cautious. What gives you the right to be so cocky?”

Wu Di had a retort on the tip of his tongue, but the moment he heard Zhang Yi’s name, he swallowed it down. He was completely convinced about Zhang Yi—after all, he’d been thoroughly beaten up by him once, and now, the guy was an existence so far beyond him that he could never catch up.

”Fine, then what do you suggest we do?” Wu Di asked.

Deng Shentong pressed down on his hat brim.

”After nightfall tonight, we’ll sneak in and take a look. This is exactly why we needed Zhang Yi’s help!”

”Not only is he powerful in combat, but he’s also an expert at infiltration and reconnaissance.”

Infiltration specialists were really important. Though Zhang Yi didn’t have a leather jacket, his abilities were very useful—he wouldn’t be easily caught by the enemy and thrown into some mess.

After some discussion, Deng Shentong made the final call. He immediately contacted Zhang Yi and explained his plan.

”We’ve finished scouting around Daliangdu Museum. No anomalies detected. We’ll move tonight!”

He looked toward the massive, inverted pyramid-shaped building and added, ”If things go smoothly, we can take what we want without alerting anyone.”

”I hope so,” Zhang Yi replied.

”I haven’t found anything unusual on my end either. So let’s just quietly wait for nightfall!”

The four of them felt that lingering around the area too long would look suspicious, so they found a café to sit down in. They ordered some coffee and began waiting for night to fall.

The situation was similar for the other teams. During the day, their aimless investigations had turned up no anomalies in Edo. Instead, they’d just gotten a nice tour of the city’s sights.