Apocalypse Invasion: Survival on the Infinite Train
One second, Ming Chu was still inside the train, and the next, she materialized inside a shopping mall.
Her abrupt appearance failed to draw the slightest attention from anyone, as though she belonged right there all along.
Ming Chu took out her phone to test it.
There was no cellular signal, but the Infinite Train app worked. Tapping into it, the first thing that caught her eye was a glowing red countdown of 27:59:30, with four icons at the very bottom: Home, Chat, Mall, and Mine.
The Mine section displayed Ming Chu's personal information, though it could be hidden.
As for the Mall and Chat, they were still grayed out and completely locked.
The Home page simply showed two countdowns: one for 28 hours, and another for 30 days.
Aside from those, there was an envelope icon in the top right corner of the home page, marked with a small red dot that flickered on and off.
Ming Chu tapped the envelope, and her pocket instantly felt heavy. Feeling inside, she found an ID card and twenty crisp one-hundred-yuan bills, giving her a reassuring sense of security.
After patting the cash in her pocket, Ming Chu transferred it straight into her space.
Her very first task then was to take off her down jacket.
When she boarded the train, she had been heading back to school at the end of winter break. Her hometown and university were in the same province, right in the central region of the country—an area that lacked both northern heating and southern warmth, leaving residents to brave the chill on their own.
Yet the world where she had just landed felt like May or June. Some people who weren't afraid of the cold were already wearing short sleeves, while she was still bundled up like a bear. Especially inside the mall, which was usually warmer than the outside, she felt like she was about to break into a sweat after standing there for just two or three minutes.
Since she couldn't pack the down jacket into her space in plain sight, Ming Chu simply draped it over her arm. Although it was still a bit warm, the current temperature was at least bearable. The most important task right now was shopping.
Ming Chu only had two thousand yuan to her name, so she never even considered buying things inside the mall. She touched the area near her collarbone, gritted her teeth, and headed straight to the first floor to find a jewelry store.
"Hello, do you recycle gold here?"
"We do. Today's recycling price for gold is six hundred per gram. Are you sure you want to sell?"
Ming Chu gave an affirmative answer: "Yes."
With that, she reached behind her head, loosened her hair, and unclasped her necklace.
This necklace had been a gift from her mother two years ago when she was accepted into university. She cherished the piece and had worn it constantly. Fortunately, it was pure gold, and fortunately, gold remained a universal hard currency even in an alternate world.
The gold necklace around Ming Chu's neck wasn't very heavy, but it weighed 5.3 grams. She sold it for 3,180 yuan, bringing her total funds to 5,180 yuan.
Because she insisted on cash, Ming Chu had to wait a short while before receiving her money. As soon as the cash was in hand, she stashed it into her space, wheeled her suitcase out the door, and set off to find an internet café.
Internet cafés weren't too expensive—six yuan an hour. Ming Chu topped up ten yuan, booted up a terminal, and began researching the city.
This city was called Anhe, a tier-three city with a permanent population of five million. Life moved at a relatively slow pace, and the city's current level of economic development was roughly equivalent to rolling back thirty years from the era Ming Chu came from, meaning she was already familiar with many things here.
At least she didn't have to rush to learn the rules of this new society.
With a clear objective, Ming Chu first searched for a map, then looked up wholesale markets, and finally researched suitable places to live.
Thank goodness the charging ports on phones here were still the same and could be used as USB connections just like back home. Ming Chu immediately downloaded the most detailed, up-to-date city map.
The wholesale market was seventeen kilometers away from her current location. After weighing the money in her hands, Ming Chu silently checked the bus routes and took a photo of them.
Next came guesthouses. Hesitating for a moment, Ming Chu looked toward more remote areas.
The piece of information she had received upon entering this world was: Do not get injured.
Although apocalyptic disasters like floods, earthquakes, and typhoons could all cause injuries, Ming Chu had a lingering bad premonition. She set a maximum price limit, checked places one by one, and finally locked onto a location slightly past the wholesale market.
This area was basically the city's outskirts, but in a newly developed zone. It had fewer people than the city center, yet it wasn't the true wilderness; if anything unexpected happened, she could easily run toward the crowded downtown area.
After snapping photos of those routes as well, Ming Chu used the remaining time on her computer to search for survival guides for the apocalypse.
This world also had its share of doomsday enthusiasts, whose posts detailed what kind of supplies to prepare and listed various distinct, highly unusual catastrophes.
For instance, extreme cold and extreme heat had entirely different schools of thought.
Ming Chu skimmed through them quickly, prioritizing the overlapping essentials.
These basically boiled down to food, medicine, and a place to hide.
With her ten-yuan session coming to an automatic end when the funds ran out, Ming Chu wheeled her suitcase out the door, headed straight to the bus stop, and traveled to the wholesale market.
This was a comprehensive wholesale market where you could buy anything, and prices were very cheap.
Ming Chu had no idea what kind of apocalypse would break out, nor whether she would have time to cook, so she prioritized ready-to-eat foods.
Just inside the entrance was a section selling vegetables and fruit. Ming Chu walked right up and said, "Boss, I'd like ten catties of cucumbers, ten catties of tomatoes, and thirty eggs."
After that, she moved on to the fruit.
Cheap, oversized ugly apples were five yuan a catty; she bought twenty catties. Since it was the peak season for peaches, crisp and sweet peaches at ten yuan for five catties were also bought in a twenty-catty batch. She even grabbed small tasting portions of affordable fruits like pears and grapes.
The total came to 207 yuan.
It wasn't much money, but it bought a lot of goods. Ming Chu opened the large suitcase she was dragging along. It was completely empty inside, and even after loading all the fruits and vegetables, there was still plenty of room to spare.
At that moment, Ming Chu felt profoundly grateful. Even though her awakened superpower manifested as this suitcase, on the surface, the luggage could still be used normally.
As long as she didn't utilize more than three-quarters of its capacity, the inside of the suitcase could remain completely clean and empty.
Stashing everything except the eggs and grapes into the suitcase, Ming Chu wheeled it into a food supply store.
"Three boxes of bread, one box of bagged instant noodles, one box of self-heating small hot pots, three jars of pickled mustard tubers, three jars of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, one box of small bottled water..."
Exercising restraint by stopping right there, Ming Chu added, "Boss, could you please unpack the boxes for me? I'll put everything straight into my suitcase."
The boss let out an acknowledgment and asked, "Why didn't you bring a handcart? Want me to lend you one?"
"It's fine, I'm not restocking much this time," Ming Chu replied smoothly.
The boss didn't press further. In a wholesale market, buying items in quantities like Ming Chu's was mere child's play and wouldn't attract anyone's attention.
After packing her items neatly into the suitcase and paying, Ming Chu wheeled the case out of the boss's line of sight, instantly emptying the interior.
She found another store a bit further away and began rattling off her next order.
"Two boxes of barrel noodles, ten salted duck eggs, ten preserved eggs, a few vacuum-wrapped rice dumplings, three bottles of 1.5-liter water, one box of ham sausages, five catties of white sugar..."
Then she switched to another shop.
"Give me two boxes of eco-friendly charcoal, one multi-functional stove, two pots, two bowls, two boxes of solid alcohol, one pack of tissues, and three packs of sanitary pads..."
This was a store well-stocked with daily necessities.
The charcoal was a precaution in case this turned out to be an extreme-cold apocalypse; even if it wasn't, she might still have a chance to cook something.
By the time she emerged from the last shop, Ming Chu's suitcase could no longer be completely emptied.
Though she could organize the items inside her space purely by thought—instinctively knowing how to arrange them to maximize free space—her suitcase still ended up half full.
Her final two destinations were an outdoor survival gear shop and a pharmacy.
Boarding a bus, Ming Chu arrived first at the outdoor supply store, where she selected an upgraded entry-level kit for 850 yuan, leaving her with just over 500 yuan in hand.
Subtracting 200 yuan reserved for two nights of lodging, a little over 300 yuan should be enough for common medications—she couldn't exactly buy rare prescription drugs anyway!
Cold medicine, anti-inflammatory pills, rubbing alcohol, gauze, a thermometer, pain relievers, and vitamin tablets.
After visiting a few pharmacies and exhausting almost all her remaining cash, Ming Chu finally realized she was starving.
She found a noodle shop by the roadside and ordered a bowl of beef noodles for twelve yuan. It was piled high with noodles and generous chunks of beef, filling the air with an intoxicating aroma.
Slurping down the noodles until the bowl was clean, Ming Chu looked at the empty container with deep reluctance.
If she wasn't entirely unsure whether her space could keep cooked food fresh and stationary, she would have loved to buy some ready-made meals to store inside.
She definitely could have squeezed out the space to carry them!
Having finished her noodles, Ming Chu was just about to pick up her things when she heard short-video audio playing loudly from the neighboring table, featuring someone screaming in agony.
Whether it was her imagination or not, Ming Chu instinctively slowed her pace and overheard two people at the next table gasping in shock.
"No way! This is rabies! It bit a chunk of flesh right off the guy's neck. This disease looks brutal, doesn't it?"
"Huh? How terrifying, and so gross. Why are there so many rabies cases lately?"