The Walk-in Closet Safehouse CH20
Chapter 20: 24H Convenience Store
She couldn't scrape together a single copper from her pockets, leaving her completely unable to afford even the cheapest Food Voucher, yet Cui Ye didn't feel discouraged in the slightest. Gripping the doorknob, she stepped out and materialized back inside her damp rental apartment in a split second.
She opened her left hand, and a tub of instant noodles materialized in her empty palm. Reaching into thin air with her right hand, a green knit beanie appeared in her grasp.
These items had originally been stored inside the Safe House, but now, with a mere thought, she could retrieve any object from within it. Conversely, she could also send items in her hands straight into storage—which was practically equivalent to acquiring an additional carry-on pocket dimension the size of her entire Safe House!
Cui Ye retrieved the [Bone Umbrella] and flew away from Xingfu Community. Testing her ability to retrieve items from the Safe House along the route, she discovered it remained fully functional. She was so delighted that she soared upward in a spiral—but a fierce gust of high-altitude wind almost blew her entirely off course.
Inside an office building not far away, someone happened to witness this exact scene. Thinking they had starved to the point of hallucinating, they rubbed their eyes and looked again—but Cui Ye’s silhouette had already drifted far away, dissolving into the rain.
In truth, the very instant the Safe House upgraded successfully, she had faintly perceived a subtle strand of connection forming between herself and the Safe House. For now, however, she still had to contend with the reality of her environment. Take the instant noodles in her hand, for instance; because the electricity had gone out long ago, they could only be consumed raw and dry, drastically degrading their value.
Although popping the little pills could prevent her infection level from rising further, and she had already consumed a Healing Potion to eliminate the red blemishes on her face, she still avoided using contaminated water. As long as she possessed a sufficient supply of bottled mineral water, she refused to take unnecessary risks.
The tubs of instant noodles had all been stuffed into the deepest corner of her wardrobe by her, but just now, with a single thought from her, the location of those noodles was instantly locked down by her consciousness. This was an indescribably subtle sensation, as though the Safe House had already become a component of her body, an extension of her awareness.
At this moment, Cui Ye merely assumed that all Safe Houses would uniformly equip this functionality upon ascending to Level 3. She had zero inkling that for other players, fetching items from their space was an exhausting psychic chore. While she could effortlessly summon objects from miles away, others found it a struggle just to pull a single sheet of paper through a wall. For them, even retrieving a tiny object at arm's length required weeks of grueling practice.
If an item was excessively large or too far away, they would suffer a splitting headache and experience a total retrieval failure. This condition would also manifest after overutilizing talents and system items, but Cui Ye remained entirely oblivious to it.
The current game server, [Dank Rain 1], possessed a unique nature; it was an evolutionary initial apocalypse. To maintain balance, the system restricted the entry volume of veteran players.
While this served as a protection, it also left the majority of the newbie players on this server in a state of wild, directionless growth.
There were no guild members entering in squads to scout high-potential newbies and offer asylum, nor were there any information brokers trafficking intelligence. This resulted in many individuals wasting their precious gold coins on non-essential areas, slowing down the upgrade speed of their Safe Houses.
Furthermore, a few unlucky bastards would cross paths with ill-intentioned veteran players; getting blackmailed or extorted was considered a lucky outcome, while losing one's life was completely commonplace. In short, this type of game server easily generated a large batch of malnourished newbies. Although a tiny minority of "premium material" would occasionally emerge, the vast majority of guilds were too lazy to come pan for gold.
The "unlucky bastard" Cui Ye, who had already run into two veteran players, remained entirely in the dark about this. After repeatedly experimenting with retrieving items, she finally grew tired of it. She dug out two shopping bags, packed away some food items whose expiration dates were drawing near, and gathered a portion of excess attribute-free clothing.
Even though the clothes refreshed by the wardrobe were all her exact size—meaning they might not fit Wang Zhiqiu or Grandma Zhao’s family perfectly—having clean, dry clothes to wear was already a rare luxury now that the water and electricity were gone. After bidding farewell to the group, Cui Ye left the community she had resided in for over half a year. Gripping the [Bone Umbrella], she advanced toward Gongze University.
Xingfu Community was over a dozen kilometers away from Gongze University. The vicinity of the university was a popular gathering ground for food stalls and snack shops. Because Cui Ye’s former company was also located nearby, she had frequently ordered takeout from that area for lunch; the flavors and portions were decent, and the delivery fees were low. She had also dined at those shops a few times with her colleagues, giving her a solid understanding of the layout.
Gongze University occupied high terrain and possessed ready-made dormitory buildings for people to reside in, and its location sat right inside a dense residential district. The authorities choosing that place as a shelter was entirely logical.
Cui Ye held her umbrella as she floated in mid-air, casting her eyes downward at the land that had already transformed into a vast ocean. By now, the water level had risen to completely cover the sixth floor; old-fashioned residential buildings and commercial streets had all been swallowed by the floodwaters, and the only creatures currently cruising through the submerged ruins were the water monsters.
The number of faculty and students at Gongze University was massive, with enrollment quotas expanding almost every single year. Because the surrounding area was packed with dense building clusters, expanding the campus boundaries was nearly impossible. The university had no choice but to tear down the old dorms and build upward, erecting fifteen-story structures equipped with three elevators each—earning them the title of the tallest university dormitories in the country. Right now, this setup played perfectly into the hands of the authorities; one could only pray the water level wouldn't continue to climb.
Cui Ye contemplated the name of this game server—[Dank Rain 1] and that appliance upgrade card appearing in the shop; she could only say that hope existed, but it was scarce.
At this moment, if anyone noticed Cui Ye floating in mid-air, their eyes would absolutely be stung by her bizarre fashion choices. Aside from the strange umbrella in her hand, she wore a green knit beanie paired with silver ski goggles, a chunky gold necklace draped around her neck, and a white hiking suit—all topped off with her feet crammed into a hot pink sky-high stilettos.
If pulling off a fashion look relied entirely on someone's face, even a reincarnation of Consort Yang likely couldn't salvage this look. What's more, this person was holding an umbrella, stepping on the water, and ascending into the sky in a steady, alternating rhythm—her behavior could no longer be described by the word "bizarre" alone.
In truth, Cui Ye had already done her absolute best before departing. Back when she was standing outside Room 1601, Wang Zhiqiu had almost refused to let her in, mistaking her for some kind of freak. If Cui Ye hadn't removed the ski goggles covering half her face, there was simply no way anyone would have recognized her.
From the inside out, everything on her body was an attribute-boosting item, aside from the ski goggles she used to hide her face, which were just a standard cosmetic accessory.
The white hiking suit that appeared easily soiled was actually completely waterproof and stain-resistant. As for the hot pink stilettos on her feet, they possessed extreme armor-piercing penetration; unfortunately, once Cui Ye put them on, she could only sprain her ankles on level ground. They were far less useful for walking than simply gripping them in her hand as weapons, and she had originally intended to just stuff them back into her wardrobe.
However, after discovering the thick, heavy [Tuhao Gold Chain] newly spawned in her wardrobe this morning, the shoes found a brand-new purpose. The chain had the power to regulate her body weight. When paired with the stilettos, she could suddenly increase her weight while mid-air to execute a rapid, heavy plunge—using the sharp points of the heels to pierce through targets from above for a one-hit kill once the [Friendly Tip] system locked on.
She was currently so broke she couldn't even turn up a loose coin to rattle, leaving her with zero funds to purchase a train ticket. Besides, she didn't plan on rushing over there just yet. While she still needed to find the Ticket Office and buy one, doing either too early was out of the question.
At the very least, with her current capabilities, heading over there would only turn her into a lab rat to be observed, with the added risk of being swallowed like "small dried shrimp" by a few ill-intentioned veterans. The danger coefficient was simply too high. Fortunately, she had just scraped together this makeshift build by combining random clothing with attributes, making it the perfect setup to farm monsters along the way and kill some time.
In reality, whether equipment looked good or not was completely irrelevant; as long as it was useful, that was enough. After a day of walking, stopping, and taking detours, her wiped-out balance finally returned to double digits once more: twenty-five gold coins. It wasn't much, but it wasn't a meager sum either—just enough to purchase a zero-star appliance plus an electric rice cooker.
Unfortunately, what was missed was gone for good. After that day, the electric rice cooker Cui Ye had been constantly yearning for never refreshed again. Meanwhile, her self-heating hotpots and self-heating rice meals had long since been devoured, her various canned foods were nearly depleted, and she could only stare blankly at her instant noodles without being able to touch them—right alongside those two boxes of snail rice noodles she had hoarded with such deep attachment.
Having bid farewell to instant noodles, snail rice noodles, and takeout for over a month, coupled with daily, high-intensity monster farming, Cui Ye could feel that her physique had grown distinctly leaner, her muscle lines becoming increasingly defined. If she were forced to carry two massive bags of supplies up fifteen flights of stairs right now, she definitely wouldn't be exhausted to the point of panting weak breaths.
Yet as things stood, she had to gnaw on biscuits and bread every single day, washing them down with water and only occasionally opening a can to upgrade her rations. She possessed gold coins but had absolutely nowhere to spend them. Although she had survived one crisis after another since the apocalypse, she had never once mistreated her stomach when it came to eating.
Just as she was hesitating over whether she should consume a [Food Voucher] to improve her rations, she suddenly spotted a 24H convenience store that was currently open for business, its neon lights shining bright. She thought she had gnawed on dry bread to the point of hallucinating, until she spotted someone entering the shop from a distance and finally snapped out of it.
It was a new random shop!
Cui Ye planted her foot right onto the head of a water monster that had just popped up. The dagger-like stiletto heel easily pierced its skull, and before the creature could even react, it had already lost consciousness and sunk into the water. Using the water monster as a stepping stone, she surged forward, and in the blink of an eye, she was already standing before the entrance of the convenience store over ten meters away.
Furling her umbrella as she came to a halt, Cui Ye watched as another gold coin was credited to her account, simultaneously completing her mid-tier daily quest. Her balance was now up to thirty-two gold coins. Going off the prices of that vending machine back in the subway, she figured that even without a first-purchase discount this time, she should still be able to afford two items.
Pushing open the door and stepping inside, she was greeted by a burst of automated "Welcome" audio chiming from above. Looking up, she spotted a brown monkey plushie. The interior of the shop wasn't large, spanning under thirty square meters. Immediately to her left sat the checkout counter, but standing behind it wasn't a cashier—it was two life-sized plush toys.
Their bodies were patched together from flannel cloth, their limbs stitched with yarn, and only a pair of eyelidless eyes rotated continuously, locking onto the few customers inside the shop.
The two eyes could actually look in separate directions independently, exactly like moving surveillance cameras monitoring every single action and movement of the customers.
Cui Ye didn't approach the rows of shelves stacked with merchandise immediately. Instead, she stepped directly toward the checkout counter. Ignoring the tracking gazes of the two eerie employees, she leaned forward to read the shopping rules posted beside the counter, which were slightly different from the ones on the vending machine.
Chapter Notes:
She couldn't scrape together a single copper from her pockets, leaving her completely unable to afford even the cheapest Food Voucher, yet Cui Ye didn't feel discouraged in the slightest. Gripping the doorknob, she stepped out and materialized back inside her damp rental apartment in a split second.
She opened her left hand, and a tub of instant noodles materialized in her empty palm. Reaching into thin air with her right hand, a green knit beanie appeared in her grasp.
These items had originally been stored inside the Safe House, but now, with a mere thought, she could retrieve any object from within it. Conversely, she could also send items in her hands straight into storage—which was practically equivalent to acquiring an additional carry-on pocket dimension the size of her entire Safe House!
Cui Ye retrieved the [Bone Umbrella] and flew away from Xingfu Community. Testing her ability to retrieve items from the Safe House along the route, she discovered it remained fully functional. She was so delighted that she soared upward in a spiral—but a fierce gust of high-altitude wind almost blew her entirely off course.
Inside an office building not far away, someone happened to witness this exact scene. Thinking they had starved to the point of hallucinating, they rubbed their eyes and looked again—but Cui Ye’s silhouette had already drifted far away, dissolving into the rain.
In truth, the very instant the Safe House upgraded successfully, she had faintly perceived a subtle strand of connection forming between herself and the Safe House. For now, however, she still had to contend with the reality of her environment. Take the instant noodles in her hand, for instance; because the electricity had gone out long ago, they could only be consumed raw and dry, drastically degrading their value.
Although popping the little pills could prevent her infection level from rising further, and she had already consumed a Healing Potion to eliminate the red blemishes on her face, she still avoided using contaminated water. As long as she possessed a sufficient supply of bottled mineral water, she refused to take unnecessary risks.
The tubs of instant noodles had all been stuffed into the deepest corner of her wardrobe by her, but just now, with a single thought from her, the location of those noodles was instantly locked down by her consciousness. This was an indescribably subtle sensation, as though the Safe House had already become a component of her body, an extension of her awareness.
At this moment, Cui Ye merely assumed that all Safe Houses would uniformly equip this functionality upon ascending to Level 3. She had zero inkling that for other players, fetching items from their space was an exhausting psychic chore. While she could effortlessly summon objects from miles away, others found it a struggle just to pull a single sheet of paper through a wall. For them, even retrieving a tiny object at arm's length required weeks of grueling practice.
If an item was excessively large or too far away, they would suffer a splitting headache and experience a total retrieval failure. This condition would also manifest after overutilizing talents and system items, but Cui Ye remained entirely oblivious to it.
The current game server, [Dank Rain 1], possessed a unique nature; it was an evolutionary initial apocalypse. To maintain balance, the system restricted the entry volume of veteran players.
While this served as a protection, it also left the majority of the newbie players on this server in a state of wild, directionless growth.
There were no guild members entering in squads to scout high-potential newbies and offer asylum, nor were there any information brokers trafficking intelligence. This resulted in many individuals wasting their precious gold coins on non-essential areas, slowing down the upgrade speed of their Safe Houses.
Furthermore, a few unlucky bastards would cross paths with ill-intentioned veteran players; getting blackmailed or extorted was considered a lucky outcome, while losing one's life was completely commonplace. In short, this type of game server easily generated a large batch of malnourished newbies. Although a tiny minority of "premium material" would occasionally emerge, the vast majority of guilds were too lazy to come pan for gold.
The "unlucky bastard" Cui Ye, who had already run into two veteran players, remained entirely in the dark about this. After repeatedly experimenting with retrieving items, she finally grew tired of it. She dug out two shopping bags, packed away some food items whose expiration dates were drawing near, and gathered a portion of excess attribute-free clothing.
Even though the clothes refreshed by the wardrobe were all her exact size—meaning they might not fit Wang Zhiqiu or Grandma Zhao’s family perfectly—having clean, dry clothes to wear was already a rare luxury now that the water and electricity were gone. After bidding farewell to the group, Cui Ye left the community she had resided in for over half a year. Gripping the [Bone Umbrella], she advanced toward Gongze University.
Xingfu Community was over a dozen kilometers away from Gongze University. The vicinity of the university was a popular gathering ground for food stalls and snack shops. Because Cui Ye’s former company was also located nearby, she had frequently ordered takeout from that area for lunch; the flavors and portions were decent, and the delivery fees were low. She had also dined at those shops a few times with her colleagues, giving her a solid understanding of the layout.
Gongze University occupied high terrain and possessed ready-made dormitory buildings for people to reside in, and its location sat right inside a dense residential district. The authorities choosing that place as a shelter was entirely logical.
Cui Ye held her umbrella as she floated in mid-air, casting her eyes downward at the land that had already transformed into a vast ocean. By now, the water level had risen to completely cover the sixth floor; old-fashioned residential buildings and commercial streets had all been swallowed by the floodwaters, and the only creatures currently cruising through the submerged ruins were the water monsters.
The number of faculty and students at Gongze University was massive, with enrollment quotas expanding almost every single year. Because the surrounding area was packed with dense building clusters, expanding the campus boundaries was nearly impossible. The university had no choice but to tear down the old dorms and build upward, erecting fifteen-story structures equipped with three elevators each—earning them the title of the tallest university dormitories in the country. Right now, this setup played perfectly into the hands of the authorities; one could only pray the water level wouldn't continue to climb.
Cui Ye contemplated the name of this game server—[Dank Rain 1] and that appliance upgrade card appearing in the shop; she could only say that hope existed, but it was scarce.
At this moment, if anyone noticed Cui Ye floating in mid-air, their eyes would absolutely be stung by her bizarre fashion choices. Aside from the strange umbrella in her hand, she wore a green knit beanie paired with silver ski goggles, a chunky gold necklace draped around her neck, and a white hiking suit—all topped off with her feet crammed into a hot pink sky-high stilettos.
If pulling off a fashion look relied entirely on someone's face, even a reincarnation of Consort Yang likely couldn't salvage this look. What's more, this person was holding an umbrella, stepping on the water, and ascending into the sky in a steady, alternating rhythm—her behavior could no longer be described by the word "bizarre" alone.
In truth, Cui Ye had already done her absolute best before departing. Back when she was standing outside Room 1601, Wang Zhiqiu had almost refused to let her in, mistaking her for some kind of freak. If Cui Ye hadn't removed the ski goggles covering half her face, there was simply no way anyone would have recognized her.
From the inside out, everything on her body was an attribute-boosting item, aside from the ski goggles she used to hide her face, which were just a standard cosmetic accessory.
The white hiking suit that appeared easily soiled was actually completely waterproof and stain-resistant. As for the hot pink stilettos on her feet, they possessed extreme armor-piercing penetration; unfortunately, once Cui Ye put them on, she could only sprain her ankles on level ground. They were far less useful for walking than simply gripping them in her hand as weapons, and she had originally intended to just stuff them back into her wardrobe.
However, after discovering the thick, heavy [Tuhao Gold Chain] newly spawned in her wardrobe this morning, the shoes found a brand-new purpose. The chain had the power to regulate her body weight. When paired with the stilettos, she could suddenly increase her weight while mid-air to execute a rapid, heavy plunge—using the sharp points of the heels to pierce through targets from above for a one-hit kill once the [Friendly Tip] system locked on.
She was currently so broke she couldn't even turn up a loose coin to rattle, leaving her with zero funds to purchase a train ticket. Besides, she didn't plan on rushing over there just yet. While she still needed to find the Ticket Office and buy one, doing either too early was out of the question.
At the very least, with her current capabilities, heading over there would only turn her into a lab rat to be observed, with the added risk of being swallowed like "small dried shrimp" by a few ill-intentioned veterans. The danger coefficient was simply too high. Fortunately, she had just scraped together this makeshift build by combining random clothing with attributes, making it the perfect setup to farm monsters along the way and kill some time.
In reality, whether equipment looked good or not was completely irrelevant; as long as it was useful, that was enough. After a day of walking, stopping, and taking detours, her wiped-out balance finally returned to double digits once more: twenty-five gold coins. It wasn't much, but it wasn't a meager sum either—just enough to purchase a zero-star appliance plus an electric rice cooker.
Unfortunately, what was missed was gone for good. After that day, the electric rice cooker Cui Ye had been constantly yearning for never refreshed again. Meanwhile, her self-heating hotpots and self-heating rice meals had long since been devoured, her various canned foods were nearly depleted, and she could only stare blankly at her instant noodles without being able to touch them—right alongside those two boxes of snail rice noodles she had hoarded with such deep attachment.
Having bid farewell to instant noodles, snail rice noodles, and takeout for over a month, coupled with daily, high-intensity monster farming, Cui Ye could feel that her physique had grown distinctly leaner, her muscle lines becoming increasingly defined. If she were forced to carry two massive bags of supplies up fifteen flights of stairs right now, she definitely wouldn't be exhausted to the point of panting weak breaths.
Yet as things stood, she had to gnaw on biscuits and bread every single day, washing them down with water and only occasionally opening a can to upgrade her rations. She possessed gold coins but had absolutely nowhere to spend them. Although she had survived one crisis after another since the apocalypse, she had never once mistreated her stomach when it came to eating.
Just as she was hesitating over whether she should consume a [Food Voucher] to improve her rations, she suddenly spotted a 24H convenience store that was currently open for business, its neon lights shining bright. She thought she had gnawed on dry bread to the point of hallucinating, until she spotted someone entering the shop from a distance and finally snapped out of it.
It was a new random shop!
Cui Ye planted her foot right onto the head of a water monster that had just popped up. The dagger-like stiletto heel easily pierced its skull, and before the creature could even react, it had already lost consciousness and sunk into the water. Using the water monster as a stepping stone, she surged forward, and in the blink of an eye, she was already standing before the entrance of the convenience store over ten meters away.
Furling her umbrella as she came to a halt, Cui Ye watched as another gold coin was credited to her account, simultaneously completing her mid-tier daily quest. Her balance was now up to thirty-two gold coins. Going off the prices of that vending machine back in the subway, she figured that even without a first-purchase discount this time, she should still be able to afford two items.
Pushing open the door and stepping inside, she was greeted by a burst of automated "Welcome" audio chiming from above. Looking up, she spotted a brown monkey plushie. The interior of the shop wasn't large, spanning under thirty square meters. Immediately to her left sat the checkout counter, but standing behind it wasn't a cashier—it was two life-sized plush toys.
Their bodies were patched together from flannel cloth, their limbs stitched with yarn, and only a pair of eyelidless eyes rotated continuously, locking onto the few customers inside the shop.
The two eyes could actually look in separate directions independently, exactly like moving surveillance cameras monitoring every single action and movement of the customers.
Cui Ye didn't approach the rows of shelves stacked with merchandise immediately. Instead, she stepped directly toward the checkout counter. Ignoring the tracking gazes of the two eerie employees, she leaned forward to read the shopping rules posted beside the counter, which were slightly different from the ones on the vending machine.
Chapter Notes:
- "premium material/stock" 潜力股: A common gaming/system slang used metaphorically to describe high-potential, elite newbies—players who manage to survive the brutal conditions, grow incredibly strong, and show massive talent despite having no resources.
- Consort Yang 杨贵妃: Refers to Yang Yuhuan, who is historically celebrated as one of the Four Great Beauties of Ancient China. In Chinese literature and web novels, referencing a "reincarnation of Consort Yang" is a common superlative used to describe the absolute pinnacle of female beauty and grace.
- "tuhao" gold chain 土豪金链: A "tuhao" refers to the nouveau riche or tacky, ostentatious wealthy individuals so a "tuhao" gold chain is an exaggerated, thick, and highly visible gold necklace, embodying the tacky rich aesthetic. These chains range from high-end 24K solid gold watch-chain styles to budget-friendly plastic or gold-plated hip-hop props.
- "Small dried shrimp." 虾米: A classic web novel gaming slang representing weak, low-level players who are easily eaten or crushed by powerful, predatory veterans.
(Update Schedule: Atleast 2 chapters every Fridays.)
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