Chapter 9

In your personal inventory, you have ten slots. Each can hold up to a hundred of the same item.
If you try to find the ten most useful things and just hoard them, you’re falling into a trap.
Take now, for example: ten medical bandages, five boxes of antibiotics, and two slingshots, together, they take up three whole slots. But if you load all three into an empty backpack and store that, you only use one. Plus, half the backpack’s still empty. Huge difference.
Of course, once you stuff a backpack with mixed goods, you can only store one per slot. No stacking.
So basically, you’re giving up the quantity advantage for sheer storage space. However big the backpack, that’s how much you can cram into that one slot. More importantly, you can fill it with chocolate, candy, sausages, milk, dark bread, all kinds of snacks! No more worrying about item type limits.
Su Han figured it out nearly instantly. But in the next second, a new idea struck her, why not use a big storage chest instead?
Beside her, the girl kept going, “I’ve tested it, once you pack one full, a backpack takes one slot. You can have a food pack, a daily goods pack, a medkit, a tool pack, a junk pack, whatever. However large the backpack is, that’s what you fit inside, and weight’s a non-issue.”
“Walking around with a backpack is a pain and makes you a target, but once you pop it in your inventory? Problem solved.”
“Once you’ve filled all the slots, it’s enough to survive the rest of this game and move on to the next instance. You’ll get a chance to resupply anyway, right? You get rewards for clearing it, and you can use points at the game store.”
Delighted, Su Han tried it immediately. Sure enough, you could stash backpacks in your inventory and access everything inside with ease. She handed over five more bars of soap, serious for once. “That organizing tip was game-changing. You earned it.”
The girl weighed her new soap loot, then suddenly added, “If you pay people in bottled water and dark bread, you can get all kinds of information out of them. Right now, essentials are more valuable than currency.”
Su Han chuckled. “I know. Thanks for the heads up.”
The girl couldn’t help but feel as if she’d just let herself be ripped off. She glanced long and hard at Su Han, then offered a hand. “I’m Yu Baowen. What about you?”
"Su Han."
"Hope we'll run into each other in another instance some day." With that, Yu Baowen walked off without a backward glance.
Su Han didn't take it to heart and hurried to the marketplace to hunt for storage crates. Before long, she traded five packs of instant noodles for five ultra-large 250L storage boxes, each one practically brand new and absolutely enormous.
After reorganizing, Su Han managed to stuff everything into her portable inventory, freeing up plenty of extra space.
The next morning at exactly 9:00,
The system's mechanical voice rang out right on schedule: "Day 13. Prices have doubled, 100% increase."
"Power shortage detected. Starting today, power will be rationed. Residential zones will have a daily blackout for 3 hours; after 8 p.m., power will be cut entirely."
"If the noodle shop lady was still selling today, a single bowl would run you 24,000 Bei." Su Han muttered, "Things are spiraling, danger's creeping closer every day. Wish I had a clue when we're gonna hit the breaking point."
She shook her head and brushed the thought aside. Whatever happens, she'll deal with it as it comes.
"Mama, I'm hungry." The child's soft, fragile voice sounded, pleading and just a touch whiny.
The young mother's nose stung, her eyes filling with tears. They'd been out of food for days. Now, no water, no power, she had no idea how they were going to survive this.
"Sweetie, hang in there. Just a little longer, you'll feel better soon." The mother forced a smile, her voice as gentle as she could make it for her child.
But her eyes were vacant and lost. She had no job, couldn't afford food, and even if she swallowed her pride and begged on the street, no one would spare a bite.
Her hands curled into fists, if it came to stealing or robbing, she still couldn't watch her own child starve to death!
Just then, two slices of bread fell from above.
"Eat up," a kind-hearted young woman offered, coming to the rescue.
"Thank you, thank you so much!" The mother hurried to feed the child, terrified that someone would snatch away their hard-won bread.
The kind girl barely had time to smile in relief before, out of nowhere, a mob of vagrants surrounded her, closing in on all sides.
"I'm starving too. Please, just a bite, I'm begging you."
"Just give me a piece of bread. That's all I want. Once I get it, I'm gone."
"My three-year-old at home hasn't eaten in two days. Please, help him!"
The girl flinched, overwhelmed, and could only keep handing out bread to the desperate crowd. But as she gave out most of her food, the people didn't disperse, instead, more and more gathered, easily fifty or sixty by rough count.
"I don't have any more! I'm out, really!" she shouted desperately.
But no one believed her.
"Why'd you help them but not me? I'm starving too!"
"You must have food left. Give me some, now."
"For my kid, I have to get that bread!"
The crowd started shoving, tempers rising.
The kind girl was on the verge of a breakdown. After a tense moment, she finally remembered: after ten days, you could clear the instance and request a teleport out. In a panic, she tried to make a system request, but it was already too late.
No reply came. The angry mob grew even more aggressive. In just a few seconds, the kind-hearted girl collapsed to the ground, stamina drained to zero.
The young mother hurried to cover her child's eyes, tears of guilt and terror streaming down her face, what kind of world was this? This was hell on earth.
A man in his forties, with sunken eyes and stubbly chin, sat in the depths of despair.
He was a scalper, up at four or five most mornings, queuing in the dark outside supermarkets. Sometimes he'd wait four, five hours just to snatch whatever food or supplies were left, then flip them on the black market for cheap corn cakes or tough black bread, barely enough to keep his family alive.
But now, even that was getting impossible. Anything remotely filling, rice, flour, had all but vanished from store shelves.
Each day the shipments of water, food, medicine, and essentials dwindled, while more people turned to scalping. And half the time that he landed something, he'd get jumped by looters as soon as he left the store.
A full stomach had become a pipe dream. Sometimes he wondered if he'd even be able to keep his family from starving to death.
Should he... resort to robbing too? Thinking of the old and young at home, his lips drew tight as he wavered on the edge.
The birds and beasts were long gone. Fish and shrimp all caught, wild fruits stripped bare, even the bark and grass roots had been picked over. More and more people were being driven to the brink.
In the apartment block, several homes now stood with doors wide open, rooms bare and abandoned. Clearly, some had fled together; others had fallen victim to break-ins.
Su Han found an empty apartment on the tenth floor. The place was deserted, but the security door was still intact. She slipped inside, shutting the door behind her, then took out her pots and dishes, time to make some instant noodles.
She twisted the tap open; yellowish water sputtered out, thick with metal and filth. The sight was enough to kill your appetite, not to mention cooking with it.
Su Han quickly shut off the tap and poured mineral water into her pot, then started boiling it. Thankfully, the gas was still working.
After a moment, the water bubbled up. Su Han tossed in the noodles and seasoning, then walked over to shut every single window, downside of instant noodles, they smelled way too good, and people were always quick to follow their noses.
Soon, the noodles were ready. Su Han scooped them into her bowl, slurped up a big mouthful of broth and chewy noodles, and closed her eyes in pure bliss. In times like these, being able to eat a hot bowl of noodles in peace felt like winning the lottery.
But the second she started thinking that, chaos and shouting erupted in the hallway.
Su Han: "..."
What are these people, bloodhounds? Even through a security door and closed windows, they could still sniff out instant noodles?
She peeked through the peephole and spotted the young vendor from the supermarket, the one selling candles and bottled water, staggering down the hallway, clutching his stomach and fleeing desperately.
Su Han frowned. Was that... a gunshot wound on his stomach?
“Hurry, after him! He’s just up ahead!” In the distance, a group of people thundered past, shouting as they ran.
The young man gritted his teeth, shrugged off his backpack, and tossed all the candles and bottled water onto the open ground on the first floor. Finally, he flung the empty backpack down after them, leaving nothing for himself.
His pursuers stopped, dumbfounded.
One guy was the first to recover. “Come on, let’s go pick up that loot downstairs!”
Someone grumbled, “We chased him forever and we’re just letting him get away?”
“So what, you after a bloodbath or after supplies?” the first one shot back.
The complainer was instantly at a loss for words.
“He’s got nothing left. No loot, no point wasting time. Who cares if he lives or dies?” With that, the group scattered, water and candles lying in plain sight, and you never knew when someone else might swoop in to snatch them first. No time to dilly-dally.
Knowing the danger had passed, the young man finally allowed himself to relax a little.
Su Han kept munching her instant noodles with a casual “slurp slurp,” not the least bit interested in meddling. In her eyes, this guy was obviously a player, he could handle saving himself.
After all, only two types of people could stockpile supplies this early: those NPCs running supermarkets, or shrewd players tipping off on the coming inflation storm.
This guy with the street stall and a backpack in front of the supermarket? So obviously not an NPC. If he was smart enough to stash supplies, he’d definitely carry medicine too. He’d be fine after popping a pill or two.
Besides, leaving him outside to patch himself up instead of barging in right away was already a show of goodwill.
But then,
The young man called out clearly, “I’m Zhong Rui. Someone’s in there, right? Could you come help me out? I’ll pay you.”
Su Han didn’t even blink, just kept eating her noodles.
Zhong Rui pressed on, “I got shot. I can’t get the bullet out by myself. Just need a quick favor, won’t be a hassle, I brought medicine.”
A bullet wound… Su Han froze for a second. She suddenly realized she should probably ask about how he got shot, after more than ten days in this game, this was the first time she’d seen a gun.
So she opened the door just a crack, and the savory aroma of seafood noodles drifted out. Su Han stepped into the hallway and called, “What do you need help with?”
Zhong Rui was clearly a little surprised to recognize her. He quickly got back to business, pulling out surgical tools, clotting powder, and a medical bandage. “Just cut the skin open with a scalpel, pull the bullet out with forceps, sprinkle the powder, and wrap it up.”
Su Han considered operating, but saw how awkwardly perched he was against the wall. She opened the next door and tried to guide him inside, so he could lie down properly on the floor.
“You’re not taking me into your place?” Zhong Rui asked, uncertain.
Su Han’s expression was pure ice. “My charity does not extend to letting suspicious people into my room.”
Suspicious…
Zhong Rui didn’t argue. “Fair enough.”