Ch 93: Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

At 3 p.m., with the villa renovation still underway, Yu Xi drove her sports car out of the villa community to a parking lot by the roadside at the foot of the mountain. There, a medium-sized truck awaited, its cargo area neatly filled with silver metal boxes, each about half a meter square. Inside each box were 100 silver metal cans.

The cans, about the size of a standard 500ml water bottle, contained compressed metal ice, a solid form of water created with this world’s unique liquid compression technology. Metal ice, unlike ordinary bottled water, could, with the can’s built-in decompression technology, expand to produce 1,000 times its volume in regular liquid water. This water, pre-purified before compression, was safe for drinking, although its taste might be slightly inferior to uncompressed pure water. Nonetheless, it was completely harmless to the body.

To Yu Xi, even if this water wasn’t used for drinking, it was excellent for daily needs. A small can of this compressed water equated to 500ml of liquid water, essentially matching the volume of a storage barrel in her Star House warehouse. With 100 cans per box, this meant a single box equated to 100 storage barrels—a volume her entire Star House couldn’t currently hold. Yet here it was, fitting neatly into a half-meter square box, making it an essential resource for both travel and home storage.

This compressed water technology wasn’t yet widely available, only sold in a few biotech stores at an extremely high price. Fortunately, she could afford it.

She had purchased 20 boxes in total, amounting to 2,000 cans. Back in her original world, she could store these in her apartment and take a few with her when crossing worlds, ensuring her water needs were covered, allowing her to dedicate more storage space to other vital supplies.

Yu Xi parked her car next to the truck, inspected and confirmed the delivery, and then bought both the goods and the moderately used truck. Time was tight, so instead of finding a warehouse to unload the items and then discreetly transfer them, she opted for this simpler, money-driven solution.

Once the seller left with the truck in her possession, she placed her hand on the closed cargo area and silently transferred everything into her Star House warehouse. She then took the truck keys, locked the doors, and left the vehicle parked in the lot. Whether she would need it again depended on the acid rain situation. If it got damaged, she wouldn’t be concerned.

In a similar fashion, she signed for and bought a second truck at the lot, this one filled with supplies she had ordered from a supermarket. Unlike the party order on the yacht, this order focused more on daily essentials and fresh ingredients.

She stocked up on a variety of staples—grains, vegetables, canned foods, and convenience foods—as well as several boxes of seafood: mud crabs, bread crabs, oysters, scallops, abalone, sea urchins, tiger grouper, cod, salmon, arctic shellfish, sweet shrimp, mantis shrimp, and large prawns. There were also vacuum-sealed seafood items unique to this harbor city, along with crates of snacks, drinks, and fruits.

She selected every type of protective gear available in the supermarket, as this world’s slightly advanced technology offered lightweight and effective options. She also stocked up on pharmaceuticals and health products, gathering two large boxes for her parents’ use. Beyond her immediate needs, she considered the resources that would sustain the character’s mechanical consciousness once she completed her mission.

After clearing out the cargo from both trucks, Yu Xi drove back to the villa, where the renovation work was nearing completion. Following her request, the team had equipped her air conditioning unit with a nano-ceramic alloy protective cover and laminated her umbrellas with thin nano-ceramic alloy sheets on both sides.

This order must have seemed strange to the team, but as long as she paid well, they had no reason to question her requirements.

Soon after she parked in the garage, the four large freezers she had ordered arrived. The basement renovation was finished, so she instructed the delivery staff to unpack the freezers, place three in the basement and one in the kitchen, and conduct a test run. Once they confirmed everything was working, she gave them double the delivery fee as a tip.

A while later, the home security team arrived to install a seamless alarm system around the villa. While the villa’s built-in alarm system could alert and sound sirens, she wanted an added layer of security.

The invisible alarm system she ordered was also a high-tech product. By burying devices at specific points in the villa’s lawn, the system would activate upon anyone trespassing onto the property grounds. Once triggered, the alarm connected directly to the villa’s security team and nearby police stations. The first time it was triggered, a speaker would issue a warning, advising the intruder to leave immediately, in case of accidental trespass.

However, if the person didn’t retreat within a minute or continued advancing, the device would issue a second warning—not just a notification this time, but an actual alarm. Simultaneously, two rings of electric fencing would activate, trapping the intruder within the villa’s grounds.

Yu Xi was concerned that this device, even when buried, might not withstand acid rain corrosion. She asked the company representative if enclosing the device in a nano-ceramic alloy casing would affect the alarm or electric fence functions. Though they found it odd, they confirmed that it wouldn’t cause issues. Thus, the renovation team fabricated around a dozen small nano-ceramic alloy boxes for her devices.

While the two companies worked, other deliveries she had ordered arrived from nearby stores. To avoid drawing too much attention, she ordered a reasonable amount of meals, both Chinese and Western, for one person over several days. However, she had no reservations with large orders of ice cream, coffee, and milk tea.

One entire freezer in the basement was filled with ice cream, while the coffee and milk tea were quietly moved into her Star House storage space.

By 6 p.m., all the renovation and security work was complete. At her request, the housekeepers had skipped dinner preparations and instead cleaned the villa thoroughly.

Then, Yu Xi gathered the two housekeepers and informed them that she was planning a trip, likely to be away for over a month. During her absence, they wouldn’t need to come to work, though she would still pay them their regular wages. Additionally, she gave each of them two large bags of food and drinks—convenient, filling snacks, fruits, and several cans of health supplements. At the bottom of each bag, she placed a metal umbrella as a holiday gift.

Hearing that they would still be paid despite having time off, the housekeepers were thrilled, saying they would be ready to return immediately if she needed them earlier. Yu Xi had gone through several housekeepers in the past, but these two were efficient and excellent cooks, so they had stayed the longest.

Since they might struggle to carry the bags, she had prearranged taxis to ensure they could get home safely before the acid rain began.

At 7 p.m., after her dinner, Yu Xi stepped outside. From the moment she arrived in this world, she had spent thirteen hours busy with various tasks, and only now did she have a chance to admire the half-mountain villa community.

The villa was ideally located, with a viewing platform across the driveway offering a panoramic view of Fan City’s night skyline and the starlit bay. It was early autumn; the days were warm, but the evening had cooled down, with a sea breeze carrying faint scents of plants, mingled with a heavy industrial odor tinged with engine oil.

Fan City’s outskirts were lined with industrial zones, and the pollutants emitted impacted the air quality here. Having come from a cleaner environment in her original world, the difference was even more noticeable.

Her villa, although sizable with three floors and a basement, wasn’t the largest compared to the neighboring ones. It had five bedrooms, two living rooms, two kitchens, and four bathrooms. Originally, the top floor featured a glass ceiling and floor-to-ceiling windows, all of which she had replaced with nano-ceramic alloy panels. Although glass was acid-resistant, it was prone to damage; if broken, acid rain would pour directly inside. To avoid that risk, she had sealed it entirely with alloy panels.

With many windows now sealed and the alloy’s unsightly color, the villa appeared gloomy, even with the lights on. Compared to the neighboring villas that sparkled with crystal chandeliers and large windows, hers looked rather unsightly.

But to her, safety far outweighed aesthetics.

As she crossed the road from the observation deck, a flashy sports car pulled up beside her. The driver’s window rolled down, revealing a handsome face.

The man looked about twenty-five or twenty-six, attractive but with an annoyingly smug expression. He stared at her villa with astonishment, laughing wildly as he pounded the steering wheel. Then he turned to her with a look of disdain and pity. “Yu Xi, did you have too much money lying around with nowhere to spend it? Why the hell did you turn your villa into that? Are you out of your mind? Haha, this is killing me!”

With the sports car’s low profile, Yu Xi lowered her gaze to look down at him, her face expressionless.

The man was Feng Xu, a well-known rich second-generation from Fan City. The Feng family owned two villas in the area: one large villa housing the rest of his family, and another next door to Yu Xi, which belonged to Feng Xu himself.

Though both of them were wealthy, Yu Xi was capricious and willful, while Feng Xu was arrogant and domineering. Since “Yu Xi” moved to Fan City and bought the villa, a minor incident had sparked a rivalry between them, making them sworn enemies.

When they encountered each other, it was always a battle of barbed words. If one happened to catch the other in an awkward or embarrassing situation, they’d mock each other mercilessly.

However, no matter how loudly Feng Xu laughed, it didn’t faze Yu Xi in the slightest. She had no intention of engaging and was about to walk around his car to head back to her villa when a neutral, mechanical voice sounded in her mind.

Task Refreshed: Argue with Feng Xu, end in a state of embarrassment, and, in frustration, kick his car before heading home. Completion rewards: 20 star coins. Accept task? Rejected tasks remaining: 0.

Yu Xi:
Accept task?
Automatic denial countdown: 30 seconds… 29…

Yu Xi snapped back to attention and quickly accepted.

Random task accepted. Progress: 0%

Since tasks could only be rejected three times, she figured more bizarre tasks might appear later. She wanted to save those refusals for genuinely difficult ones. This one was merely odd, not hard.

Feng Xu, thrilled to have this opportunity, continued laughing and mocking her. Yet, seeing that she wasn’t reacting, he grew bored and was about to drive off when Yu Xi reached her hand through the open window and grabbed his collar.

“What’s so funny? You know, you laugh like a bullfrog—loud and ugly.”

Feng Xu: “What did you just say?”

“You look like a bullfrog.”

“Damn it! We agreed before: arguing is one thing, but no personal insults! And now you—” Feng Xu’s anger flared.

He opened the door, ready to roll up his sleeves and retaliate. But just then, Yu Xi noticed her task progress jump to 30%.

She arched an eyebrow, her expression shifting from embarrassment to fury. She then raised her foot and kicked his car door.

With each action meeting the task criteria, her progress immediately hit 100%.

Random task progress: 100%. Task completed. 20 star coins awarded. Total star coins: 378

Yu Xi thought, This random task was so easy! I’d happily do ten of these a day if they’d keep coming.

Satisfied with her growing star coin balance, she ignored Feng Xu, who was left utterly dumbfounded, and cheerfully walked back home.

Meanwhile, Feng Xu, fuming from the insults and the kick to his car, decided to avoid blowing a fuse. He called a few friends, inviting them over for a villa party, telling them to come quickly.

Around 9 p.m., as Yu Xi was researching environmental pollution and acid rain on her computer, the sound of rain began to patter loudly against her tightly closed windows.

Author’s Note: Technically, water can be compressed, though current technology doesn’t allow it. I rushed yesterday and adjusted the yacht size today, adding more details. In reality, a 75-foot yacht would be difficult for one person to operate, but in this world, it’s designed for single-person control.