Ch 107: My Multiverse Supermarket

After Xu Jiayi issued the coral-harvesting decree, the nearby waters were reopened.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Du Xiaogan rowed a small fishing boat out to sea.

Like everyone else, she came to collect coral.

After killing the drowned corpses drifting around her boat, she decisively plunged into the water and began her descent.

Coral grew below depths of a hundred meters. Without specialized equipment, most people couldn’t dive that deep.

The current free-diving world record exceeded 300 meters—but even that required assistance. Without support, holding one’s breath for so long would cause hypoxia and death by suffocation.

Du Xiaogan had lived on the sea since childhood; her personal record was 160 meters.

But she preferred to stay around fifty meters deep, where the pressure wasn’t as intense and she could hold her breath for an extra minute or two.

This time, she dove seventy meters down, aiming for the coral columns below, each over twenty meters tall.

In the post-apocalyptic world, coral growing too fast wasn’t necessarily a blessing. It provided both shelter for fish—and hiding places for drowned corpses.

The lighting was dim, the terrain cluttered, and visibility was poor.

Turn the wrong way, and one might find a corpse face to face.

Du Xiaogan stayed on high alert.

She carried a modified speargun and a riot trident. The trident could block an approaching corpse, while the speargun was used to pierce their eyes.

Their skulls were too hard to penetrate; only a shot through the mouth or the eye could kill them instantly.

After several rounds of diving and resurfacing, Du Xiaogan finally hauled a coral branch back onto her little boat.

She lay back, utterly exhausted.

The aftereffects of long underwater dives hit her hard—her body felt as heavy as lead.

Fortunately, the nearby fishing boats’ engines had drawn away most of the drowned corpses, leaving her temporarily safe.

After resting half an hour, the sky turned violet-red with evening clouds.

Instead of returning home, she caught a few fish to quell her hunger. When night fell, she quietly rowed her little boat toward Newborn Island.

Perhaps uncertain of Newborn Island’s stance, Lonewind’s patrol boats didn’t dare venture too close—certainly not to surround it like the Li family’s escort ships once had.

That gave Du Xiaogan her chance.

The pitch-black sea was her cloak; no one would notice a small, hand-rowed boat slipping silently across the waves.

She didn’t expect to be discovered so soon after setting foot on the island.

*

“Medicine? What kind of medicine do you need?” Zhou Li asked the woman who had secretly landed on Newborn Island.

Du Xiaogan’s cracked lips parted. “SOD1-03.”

Zhou Li blinked. “System, what’s that?”

The system replied, “It appears to be this planet’s medication for ALS—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, it’s not a formally approved drug. The official version is called riluzole. SOD1-03 is an uncertified imitation—illegal, but much cheaper.”

Zhou Li understood.

“I don’t have that specific medicine,” she told Du Xiaogan.

Since it wasn’t legally produced, the auction house wouldn’t list it either.

And even if she searched for riluzole, it might not exist under that name in the marketplace.

So she preferred to start with a diagnostic scan in her med-pod before deciding on treatment.

But when Du Xiaogan heard there was no such drug, her eyes dimmed. “It was wrong of me to trespass. I’m sorry.”

She turned to leave.

If even this island had no medicine, then Lonewind certainly wouldn’t.

Without it, her sister’s condition would worsen quickly. She might as well go home and spend the little time left by her side.

“Your family member has ALS?” Zhou Li asked.

Du Xiaogan froze mid-step. “You… know ALS?”

Zhou Li nodded. “Can you tell me a bit about her condition?”

After a short pause, Du Xiaogan said, “It’s my sister. She fell ill four years ago…”

When her sister, Du Yishi, first developed symptoms, no one took it seriously.

Afraid people would think she’d contracted the zombie virus, Yishi kept quiet, hiding her weakness.

By the time Du Xiaogan noticed, her sister could no longer walk.

She hated herself for not realizing sooner.

Yishi comforted her, saying it wasn’t her fault—everyone knew how hard Xiaogan worked to keep them alive.

The sisters had been raised by their grandmother, the three of them depending on each other.

After the apocalypse, Grandmother was too frail to fight zombies, and Yishi was still a child, so all the scavenging and protection fell to Xiaogan.

She left home at dawn and returned at night, day after day.

And since Yishi deliberately concealed her condition, Xiaogan never noticed anything wrong—until it was too late.

At the hospital, they were told Yishi had ALS.

A disease that slowly withered the muscles—from the legs upward to the torso, neck, and head.

The paralysis that robbed her of movement was only the beginning. Later, she’d lose her ability to speak, swallow, and finally, even breathe.

Most ALS patients didn’t live more than five years. With aggressive treatment, maybe ten.

Yishi had wanted to die upon hearing it.

But Xiaogan refused to give up, doing everything she could to find medication to slow the disease.

Such drugs existed only in large hospitals—dangerous, densely populated islands ruled by powerful factions.

Every trip Xiaogan made might have been her last.

Even so, she never stopped.

When the islands were later divided by rival powers, resources fell tightly under their control.

Hearing that Lonewind’s hospitals offered free treatment, she moved her family there—only to find they had little stock of ALS medicine. She’d still need to buy it elsewhere, and not everyone was willing to sell.

Thankfully, Dr. Chu, a private physician, had access to some underground sources.

…

Zhou Li asked, “You know the official drug is called riluzole, right?”

Du Xiaogan gave a bitter smile. “Yes. But Dr. Chu can only get SOD1-03.”

Nearby, Lin Xiaole, who had been eavesdropping the whole time, couldn’t hold back. “Are you orphans too?”

Orphans were common after the apocalypse—like her.

“Sort of,” said Du Xiaogan.

They had parents, and their grandmother had children.

But their parents didn’t want them.

After having a son—the family’s pride—they’d dumped the girls on their grandmother and moved to the main island with him.

When the zombie virus broke out, they vanished.

During a scavenging trip, Xiaogan had once run into them.

She’d begged for help to find medicine for her sister, but they refused her flatly.

Since then, she’d considered them dead.

But she’d never told her grandmother or Yishi about it.

Fang Qin rubbed Lin Xiaole’s head. “That question was rude. Apologize.”

“Sorry,” Lin Xiaole mumbled.

Du Xiaogan regarded them curiously.

From their appearance, they didn’t look like people long used to abundant supplies.

“I’m Fang Qin,” Fang Qin said warmly—she had a soft spot for people like Xiaogan.

“I’m Lin Le,” added the other.

“You’re island residents here?” Du Xiaogan asked.

“Yes,” Fang Qin replied. “Though we only became official residents recently.”

Something about the island felt off.

It seemed almost empty.

So far, besides the little shop’s owner, she’d only seen Fang Qin and Lin Le.

(The two scouts who had caught her earlier were from Lonewind, not counted.)

With so few people, it was hard to believe they had sunk three escort ships.

But she didn’t dwell on it long.

Then Zhou Li said, “I may not have your sister’s medicine yet, but I do have a medical pod. You can bring her here for an examination.”

Du Xiaogan sensed the sincerity in her tone. “Thank you.”

Fang Qin noticed Xiaogan’s hesitation and immediately understood—she must think it was just a check-up.

Without medicine, what good would that do except bring her sister more pain?

Fang Qin snorted softly but couldn’t stand letting her miss the chance.

She whispered, “The boss’s med-pod is very advanced. Most people never get the chance to use it!”

Du Xiaogan’s eyes lit up, her breathing quickened.

“Thank you. I’ll bring her tomorrow.”

Then she removed the cloth bundle from her shoulder and handed it to Zhou Li.

“I heard your island is collecting coral. I don’t have much strength—this is all I could gather today. Please accept it. I’ll bring more tomorrow.”

Zhou Li looked at the coral, about thirty centimeters tall and forty long, solid and milky white throughout—and was stunned.

This thing weighed several pounds!

And the quality—was that white coral?

Though white coral wasn’t as valuable as red, selling for only two to three hundred yuan per gram, a piece this size could easily fetch three to five hundred thousand.

Zhou Li said, “Would you like to exchange it for supermarket membership points? You can use those to buy whatever you need.”

Only then did Du Xiaogan turn her gaze toward the supermarket shelves.

Half an hour later, she rubbed her face in disbelief.

Was this… heaven?

[Author’s note]

Little Boss: Yes, this is heaven. [dog head emoji]

☢️☢️☢️