Chapter 8: Kid: One Person, Full Stomach, Whole Family Fed

The experiment results were mixed.

The good news: the Space Bracelet could be duplicated. Ji Li immediately had four cubic meters of storage space—enough to hold all his supplies.

The bad news: a bracelet with anything inside couldn’t be duplicated. Even when Ji Li stripped the instant noodles down to just the noodle cake, it still failed.

Could it be that the bracelet and the space weren’t a single unit? Like a CNC lathe and its product, or a 3D printer and its model?

Entirely possible!

Ji Li stroked his chin, then placed the duplicated Space Bracelet inside the bracelet he’d bought from the shop.

A blue light swept across the bracelet’s surface, and a Virtual Screen popped up.

【Space Bracelet upgraded. Capacity: two cubic meters】

Duplicate again. Store.

【Space Bracelet upgraded. Capacity: four cubic meters】

Ji Li was so excited he spun in place twice, pacing the Gatehouse with the bracelet as he took inventory, stowing away the important, high-quantity items first.

Counting it up, paper was the most abundant: a full 113 packs of facial tissues, 10 rolls of toilet paper, and 8 packs of wet wipes. Most came from the parking lot’s automotive mystery boxes—practically every car had at least one pack, and trunks often held a half-dozen more.

Ji Li stored the unopened facial tissues in the bracelet: 40 packs in total.

Next came water: 96 bottles if you didn’t sort them, mostly mineral water with a small portion of soft drinks. Ji Li stored the sodas and the 600ml-plus mineral water, keeping 38 bottles for daily use.

Third place: throw pillows—a full 75 of them. Ji Li only kept four, two lumbar pillows and two hugging pillows, piling the rest on the floor in an impressive heap.

Fourth: coffee and tea, mostly from the New Media Group office building.

Probably because caffeine was a necessity for media people who pulled all-nighters, Ji Li had only searched a few offices before finding 39 sachets of instant coffee, 23 tea bags, and 10 bottles of bottled coffee. Add the tin of tea leaves found in the Gatehouse, and that was half a year’s supply.

Though he preferred soda to coffee and tea, considering that caffeine really did keep you alert, he stored the longer-shelf-life, space-saving instant coffee sachets and tea bags.

Food remaining: 7 packs of instant noodles, 4 sausages, 3 ready-to-eat braised eggs, 14 sachets of instant rice cereal, 11 sachets of black sesame paste, 6 packs of small packaged cookies, 12 energy bars, 3 bottles of multivitamins, and 2 boxes of gum—all of which went into the bracelet.

It wasn’t that he was unwilling to share; it was that keeping things in the bracelet obscured the quantities, making covert operations easier.

Clothes, besides the set on his back, included 4 security guard uniforms, 1 tracksuit, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 army coats, 4 sun-protection jackets, and 6 coats—nearly all the sun-protection jackets and coats were women’s, with only one black coat unisex.

There were 4 pairs of shoes, all sneakers, but only one pair, slightly oversized, fit him. He planned to give the unwearable shoes and women’s clothes to Gao Lan. As for the rest, after much deliberation he only kept the top half of the tracksuit set.

No help for it—the remaining clothes were all filthy beyond salvation, unwearable without washing. Same went for the blankets, quilts, and pillows found earlier; in the end, Ji Li only kept the small blanket, pillow, and folding thin mattress found in his Safe House.

Beyond that, Ji Li also stored the large items he didn’t currently need: the electric heater, heated desk pad, gaming chair, desktop fan, humidifier, water dispenser, two-person tent, and two camping chairs.

The miscellaneous odds and ends he planned to organize by category in the sheet-metal cabinet for easy daily access—and to haul away all at once when leaving.

Just as Ji Li was busy organizing, a knock sounded on the window. He turned—Gao Lan.

He hurriedly put things down and went out to greet her. “Sister, you’re here! Come in, come in!”

But Gao Lan shook her head and typed.

[Tell me about the situation in that building.]

Puzzled, Ji Li nonetheless obediently explained everything in detail, focusing on the access-controlled sliding door on the first floor, the zombies in the stairwell, and how the fire doors and office doors opened.

Gao Lan listened quietly. Only when Ji Li mentioned giving her the women’s clothes and shoes he’d found did she wave him off and type:

[Clothes later. First, we move to the second floor.]

“Huh?” Ji Li glanced back at his half-organized Gatehouse. “Is there… a problem with this place?”

Gao Lan gave him a look that was half-smile, half-not.

[This close to the road, with those big open windows—what do you think?]

Ji Li fell silent, wordlessly went inside, and dragged out the camping cart. “Sister, I’ll help you move.”

Gao Lan didn’t stand on ceremony. She plopped her bulging backpack onto the cart and headed for the office building.

Ji Li left the backpack alone, loading the water, paper, and the instant noodles he’d opened but hadn’t gotten to eat into the cart first, then the clothes and shoes for Gao Lan, then weapons and protective gear—until the cart was stuffed full. Only then did he drag it toward the steps.

Thankfully there were ramps on both sides of the steps, or the cart would’ve been a real struggle.

The moment Ji Li dragged the cart into the lobby, the sound of zombies slamming against a door reached his ears. Gao Lan poked her head out of the right-hand corridor and waved him over.

Ji Li walked over to find her pointing at an open door on the right, holding up her phone:

[This room is yours. I’ll take 208 across from you.]

Ji Li looked over and noticed that Gao Lan’s room faced the parking lot. He hurriedly said, “Sister, how about I take this room instead? If anything happens, I—”

Before he could finish, Gao Lan swiped her phone to reveal the next line: [I’m sensitive to sound. I’m better suited for keeping watch.]

Ji Li: “Th-then let me help you set up your room…”

Gao Lan stopped him: [I’ll set up my own room. You move the supplies.]

Thinking of the mountain of stuff in the Gatehouse, Ji Li could only nod and bend down to start unloading the cart.

“Sister, use whatever you like, don’t be polite—I’ve got plenty! The noodles too, I found them in the Gatehouse, a whole box!”

Gao Lan nodded, opened her backpack, pulled out a laptop bag, and handed it to Ji Li, then typed:

[See if you can charge from those cars.]

“Probably not—the connector… data cable!” Ji Li’s face lit up as he fished a data cable out of the laptop bag—a Type-C, no less.

Gao Lan pointed at the bag’s outer pocket and typed:

[There’s another data cable and a phone in there. Both belonged to the Suit Guy. If the phone doesn’t gross you out, use it. We’ll split the cables, one each. No rush on the charging—the cars are all here, so the keys must be too. Dig around and you’ll find them.]

Ji Li happily stowed the phone and cable, then, seeing Gao Lan’s message, hurriedly explained:

“It CAN charge—right now, even! I only said no earlier because the connectors didn’t match. Now that we have data cables, we can charge right away.”

Gao Lan frowned: [The connectors don’t match?]

“Right. The data cable connectors here don’t fit our phones. I can only use them to charge it and the power bank.”

Ji Li pulled Eno from his pocket and held it out toward Gao Lan. “This is Eno. Eno, this is Sister Gao Lan.”

Eno: [••]?

Eno: [••]ﾉ

Gao Lan looked at the little hand waving on the screen, momentarily at a loss for what expression to make, and could only nod before typing.

[Then charging is your job. Don’t charge off the car you’re learning to drive—we don’t want to drain its battery.]

Ji Li nodded, pocketed Eno, said a word to Gao Lan, and dragged the camping cart off.

Gao Lan thought of the way he’d proudly shown off the little robot and couldn’t help shaking her head.

He really was still a child.

Nineteen-year-old Ji Li hauled the camping cart up and down until everything was on the second floor.

The last trip carried the folding bed and the charged phones and laptop—and before leaving, he made a point of taking the sheet-metal cabinet, in preparation for future Safe House expansion.

Ji Li had intended to give the bed to Gao Lan, but she’d actually found a recliner in one of the zombie-free locked rooms.

Recalling everything he’d witnessed, Ji Li said with heartfelt admiration, “Sister, you’re amazing!”

Gao Lan grunted noncommittally as she made her bed—hard to tell whether it meant “it’s nothing” or “stop being so dramatic.”

With everything organized, Ji Li sat down to cook instant noodles while Gao Lan sat beside him, communicating via laptop. He finally learned her name—and she his.

[Are you a university student? What year? What major?]

“Sophomore. Artificial intelligence.” Ji Li glanced at the laptop, answering every question.

Gao Lan looked full of regret: [Artificial intelligence? A top student! How did you end up dragged here? Your family must be worried sick.]

Reading this, Ji Li poked at the noodles in his pot with a fork, pausing before answering.

“I’m no top student—just scraping by for a degree. And there’s… no one at home anyway. One mouth fed, whole family fed, heh.”

Gao Lan froze: [You too?]

Ji Li turned to look at her, eyes wide. “Sister, you too?”

Gao Lan nodded, clattering away at the keyboard: [I’m an orphan. Never had many friends growing up. Threw myself into my career when I was young; dated a few boyfriends, all fizzled out. At my age, I don’t want marriage or kids anymore.]

Gao Lan was forty-five this year. Her daily life was nothing but work and gym, and her colleagues privately called her the High-Heeled Goddess of War.

“The odds of two loners among a group of Players ending up together… can’t be high, right?”

Ji Li and Gao Lan exchanged a look, both sensing the Apocalypse Survival Game’s criteria for abducting people.

[Nothing to do with status or wealth—only personal relationships?]

“Close relationships, probably. The fewer close relationships you have, the fewer people who’d dig to the bottom looking for you.”

Ji Li turned off the camp stove, split the cooked noodles in two, dropped a spoon into one bowl, and handed it to Gao Lan.

Gao Lan took it and stared at the noodles, mentally reviewing the two decades of connections she’d built. For a moment, she genuinely couldn’t think of anyone who would persistently search for her.

All work relationships. They might file a missing person report, but that was where it ended. The police would find no leads, the case would stall, and eventually become a cold case.

In the silence came loud slurping sounds. Gao Lan looked over at Ji Li and found him eating with his cheeks stuffed round, all his earlier sharpness gone, nothing left but boyish innocence.

…Fair enough. Things being what they were, food first.

After the meal, Ji Li and Gao Lan discussed the Space Bracelet, the System Shop, and methods for clearing the second-floor offices, deciding to rest a bit before getting to work.

At the same time, at Cheng’an Higher Vocational School, a wiry man ran up to the first-floor toilet of the Grey-Brick Building, hammering on its flimsy door.

“Boss Chen! Boss Chen!”

The door opened, and a middle-aged man snapped in a low voice, “Knock softer! What is it?”

The wiry man swallowed hard. “Boss Chen… you called it! We’re not the only group here!”

Boss Chen’s face instantly darkened like a storm cloud.