Chapter 51

“Sounds about right,” Su Han replied calmly, leaning back with easy confidence. “According to the system, there are fifty white supply crates scattered across the city. I’m planning to hunt for them.”
Her storage was already packed to the brim; she’d picked up the black-bread-and-milk set this morning, and her backpack was no slouch either. Still, she had to look hungry for loot, otherwise, her temporary teammate might suspect something was off.
“Thud, ” A soft sound rang out behind her.
Yu Baowen blinked in surprise and started speculating aloud: “Wait, is there a secret door in here?” It really did sound like something heavy hitting a door.
Su Han spun around and examined the shop carefully. In the corner stood a metal rack piled high with grimy, useless junk, big, dirty, and absolutely unsuspicious.
She’d leaned back without thinking, bumping the shelf and causing that telltale noise.
“Help me out here,” Su Han called casually.
Yu Baowen shuffled over to lend a hand.
Together, they cleared off the mountain of junk and, sure enough!, hidden behind the shelf was a secret door! The handle was buried under all that clutter, so it was damn near invisible unless you were looking.
“Trapped in a siege for a year, resources should be bone-dry. But if this secret room’s never been found, maybe it’s got something good left behind?” Su Han murmured to herself as she went for the door.
She gave the handle a twist, no luck.
“Needs a key,” Yu Baowen started to complain, only to watch her teammate pull out a tool, make a quick loop by the handle, and, click!, the battered wooden door swung open on its own.
Yu Baowen: “……”
Damn, this girl’s kind of hardcore.
Ignoring the commentary, Su Han stepped into the tiny room. Right there on the couch sat a square white foam box, neatly taped down. The moment she saw it, she remembered the system’s words: the white supply crate.
“I always figured the supply boxes were air-dropped by the system, blown around by the wind, drifting into random corners. Guess not, huh?” Su Han mused, head tilted. “Maybe they just spawn wherever in the instance?”
“Could be the NPCs placed them. Maybe the original owner died before they could use it, so the loot just sat here.” Yu Baowen shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how it got here, as long as we get the goods.”
“Fair enough.” Su Han didn’t hesitate. She slid her knife through the tape and flipped the box open.
Inside: five cans of meat, five bars of soap, five bottles of water, a mesh water filter, two lighters, and two bottles of household chlorine bleach.
Yu Baowen frowned deeply, muttering, “Lighters, sure, but what’s with the bottles of bleach? I don’t get what that’s for at all.”
Su Han’s eyes flashed as the answer clicked, regular household bleach can be used to purify drinking water!
Most bleach has 3% to 6% sodium hypochlorite, an oxidizer that disinfects water. Just add a bit of bleach, let it settle for twelve hours, and once the reaction’s done, it’s safe to drink.
In other words: the bottled water’s for drinking now, but the filter and bleach are precious tools for making more clean water!
Su Han thought for a moment, then spoke up. “Twenty items total. How about we split it fifty-fifty?”
Yu Baowen was genuinely surprised. “But…I hardly helped at all…”
The secret door was her discovery, the opening was all her too. If Su Han wanted to keep everything for herself, Yu Baowen really couldn’t complain.
Su Han replied earnestly, “The game’s just getting harder. I need backup. Honestly, your survival’s more valuable to me than a pile of loot.”
Meanwhile, her inner monologue groaned: How am I supposed to carry all this…? My backpack’s already bursting...
Yu Baowen stared at her temp partner, gaze softening, hostility ebbing away bit by bit. “Thank you.”
“No need.” Su Han tucked the soap, water filter, lighters, and bleach into her pack as she spoke.
Yu Baowen wasn’t blind, she noticed Su Han’d left her the food and water on purpose, knowing she was short on rations. Instinctively, she let her guard down a notch.
She’d never forgotten that she owed Su Han her life. But payback for favors? Sure; for a life debt? That’s dangerous. No wonder she’d been cautious all along.
Still, words can be faked but actions can’t. Su Han was just as decent as ever. Yu Baowen shook off her thorns and even offered, “I’m carrying a ton of fuel. If you need some, just ask.”
“Deal,” Su Han replied with a smile.
Nothing else useful in the shop, so the two headed out.
As they walked, Yu Baowen suggested, “Let’s find a safe spot to use as a base, then work our way outward and search the surrounding area. Sound good?”
“Yeah. But the base should be near a lake, remote, hidden...”, Su Han drifted into thought.
Yu Baowen didn’t interrupt, instead keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings, ever vigilant. Suddenly, her gaze snapped to a stop. She tugged at her partner’s sleeve and pointed off in a direction.
Su Han followed her line of sight. Not far off, a man and a woman were moving ahead. The guy carried a yoke over his shoulders with two big water buckets hanging from it, while the woman scouted ahead, checking for danger.
Su Han was speechless for a moment. To avoid drawing attention, she and Yu Baowen had purposefully picked a quiet back road. Apparently, the other two had made the same call, so here they were, face to face.
The other pair spotted them too. Fear flickered in their eyes. Su Han rubbed her nose, fighting the urge to blurt out: What, you think we want trouble? We’re just as scared of muggers as you!
The four of them stared each other down for a long, awkward silence.
Finally, the only guy there made a snap decision. He set down the yoke and blurted, “Look, I just fetched this water from the lake in the park. If you want it, take it! Just don’t hurt us, okay? And don’t think we’re an easy mark!”
Even though he was a man, this new world wasn’t one where gender told you anything about who was dangerous. The other team was just girls, but if they’d survived this long? That took real skill. Not people to underestimate.
“We’re just passing through,” Su Han said, making a point of taking a wide detour, and the two of them sped away.
The guy just gaped after them. Seriously? They just... left?
The woman released a long, shaky breath. “Thank god we ran into decent people for once. Let’s hurry home.”
The man stayed silent, hoisting the yoke back onto his shoulders and beginning the walk back, step by heavy step.
Moving forward, a row of old residential houses appeared before Su Han.
They were brick bungalows, two stories at most, fronted by overgrown grass and backed by garden plots. Two doors, one in the front, one in the back.
“Should we set up camp here?” Su Han asked her partner’s opinion. “Two exits make for quick escapes. And it’s pretty isolated, we haven’t seen another soul on the way here.”
Yu Baowen’s eyes grew sharp with focus. After a long pause, she warned, “Someone’s living in the house next door.”
“Huh?” Su Han was surprised.
Yu Baowen explained, “Look at the other gardens, just weeds, right? Except that one, where someone’s growing food. Tomatoes, peas, cabbage, easy crops for survival.”
“And a few other plants that probably count as food, but I can’t tell what they are.”
Su Han stared for a long while, then had to admit defeat, she didn’t recognize a single plant...
“Even with neighbors, I still want to stay here.” After much thought, Su Han decided, “There’s a fence around the property, good for keeping intruders out. And two exits for a quick getaway if needed.”
“But if you’re not comfortable, I won’t force it. We agreed before, if we don’t mesh, we part ways, simple as that.”
Yu Baowen thought, Alone out there? That’d be suicide. She shook her head and said softly, “Just a heads-up. Let’s stay for now. No instance is truly safe, right? If it’s better than most, that’s already a win.”
After a beat, she asked, “You ever heard of the Rule of Three for safety?”
As Su Han pushed the door open, she replied, “Sure, it means for every crucial supply you need three independent sources. That way if one fails, you’re not instantly screwed.”
“Exactly.” Yu Baowen’s tone grew serious. “So, we’ll settle here for now, but keep an eye out for two more safe spots. If this place gets compromised, we can retreat somewhere else.”
Su Han paused, her feelings complicated. Three backup safehouses? That’s a lot. This girl did not mess around with security!
On the outside, though, she just said coolly, “Up to you.”
The two entered the house together.
It was thick with dust from months, maybe years, of vacancy.
After a tour, Su Han noted all the wooden furniture was gone. There were some leftover planks stacked in a corner, but not many.
“Looks like someone tried to shelter here, but didn’t make it in the end,” Yu Baowen analyzed gravely.
“The war lasted a whole year,” Su Han said, feeling a pang inside.
This was what being trapped by war looked like: an entire city cut off, no contact with the outside, everyone burning through their stashes just to survive.
Most people hadn't seen it through. Only a tiny handful, either stockpilers or stubborn survivors, managed to hang on.
Su Han shook herself and called Yu Baowen over. Together, they cleaned ’til the place at least looked lived in.
For lunch, Su Han ate rye bread and candy, washing it down with milk. Yu Baowen chowed down a can of meat and a bottle of water, then offered, “Want some canned food?”
“No, thanks,” Su Han declined. She really needed to start burning through more of her stash, or she was bound to blow her cover eventually.
After eating, Yu Baowen insisted on scouting for alternate safehouses and went out alone.
Su Han kept tidying up, and then stationed herself on the second floor, watching for any movement around.
And after just a few hours, a crudely painted wooden sign appeared outside that supposedly-occupied house. The scrawled characters read: “Infectious disease inside! Keep away!”
Su Han, “...”
She was sure it was a lie to keep people away, but staring at the words “infectious disease” on that sign, she suddenly had zero curiosity left.