Chapter 3: Since It Will Be Destroyed Anyway, Let Me Make Use of It

It was estimated to be about an hour's drive.

This was a prosperous and affluent city, brimming with endless supplies. He had chosen this place precisely because it housed a nuclear power plant of Yan Nation. When global temperatures soared, cities with nuclear power plants became the most dangerous places. The same would happen here: a violent explosion, followed by nuclear leakage. This city would soon be destroyed. Ordinary people would suffer from radiation, and subsequent natural disasters would reduce the city to utter ruins, with mutant beasts roaming unchecked.

Cao Bin had set his sights on this place because of its wealth and prosperity. For now, he was penniless—just as he had been in his previous life, and as he was now, even after being reborn. Since he couldn't acquire resources through normal means, he could only "borrow" them. He possessed a portable spatial storage; with a mere thought, anything he touched could be stored within. Since the wealth of this city was destined to be obliterated, he might as well use it for himself, especially as the fate of its residents was already sealed in tragedy.

After entering the city, he put on a hat and mask, took off his clothes, and wore them inside out, changing from black to blue. He kept an eye out for surveillance cameras and quickly ducked into an alley without any monitoring. Once more, he changed his outward appearance. Emerging from the alley, he headed straight for several large supermarkets in Jiangnan City. Excluding live animals, he would take everything else into his space.

A dozen minutes later, he parked by the roadside, not far from the Carrefour supermarket. Calmly shutting off the engine, he waved his hand, and a pile of parts appeared, which he swiftly assembled into a compound bow. Deftly avoiding surveillance, he aimed at the cameras around the supermarket.

Thwack, thwack, thwack...

Soon, all the surveillance equipment around the supermarket was systematically destroyed. Cao Bin had to act with utmost caution, for there were still over forty days until disaster struck. In this precious time, he needed to frantically stockpile supplies and could not risk being caught by the police at this critical juncture.

Once he confirmed the area was secure, he found the supermarket's warehouse and identified the access routes. Then he moved on to the next supermarket, dealt with the surveillance just as efficiently, scoped out the layout, and left.

As night fell and the supermarkets closed at ten o'clock, he slipped quietly inside and made his way to the shelves. The sight before him made his blood surge with excitement—all of this would become his invaluable resource. Only someone who had lived through the apocalypse would understand that the seemingly trivial items of daily life could become sources of endless trouble when the world ended.

For instance, if you ran out of toilet paper, you might be forced to use your hand or a stick—awkward and humiliating alternatives. If you chose not to wipe, before long, things would dry and cake up... Eventually, you'd be unable to relieve yourself and could even die from constipation. There were all kinds of ways to die in the apocalypse, and this was a common one.

Cao Bin entered plundering mode, darting between shelves like a leopard. Any item he touched vanished instantly into his spatial storage. Thanks to his earlier experiences stockpiling from freshwater lakes, his mental strength was now much greater, making it effortless to sweep up the supermarket's inventory.

...

At three in the morning, Cao Bin found a small hotel that didn't require identification. He desperately needed a short rest. In a single night, he'd swept through the three most renowned supermarkets in the city like a violent storm, exhausting himself completely. He left the shelves bare—daily necessities, grains, fresh produce, drinks, alcohol... Anything his gaze landed upon was swept away into his possession. Yet, even with all this, he felt it wasn't nearly enough. To live comfortably in the apocalypse, he'd need at least tens or even hundreds of billions in supplies.

He didn't know how long he'd slept before a shrill siren pierced through the window, wrenching Cao Bin from his dreams as patrol cars raced by one after another. He sat up slowly, rubbing his face vigorously until he was fully awake. Time was short and the task was daunting.

With dawn approaching, it was time to rise. After all, there were still countless supplies to "borrow." He splashed his face with cold water to wake himself up, returned to his room, and stood by the window, looking out. Chaos reigned on the streets; every few minutes, a patrol car roared past. Down below, residents gathered in small groups, whispering anxiously among themselves.

Turning back, Cao Bin switched on his phone and checked his location. The news feeds flooded in. The city of Hangsou was now in an uproar. In just one night, three massive supermarkets had been mysteriously emptied, leaving the police utterly baffled. All surrounding surveillance cameras had been destroyed. No traces or footprints remained inside the supermarkets. The losses were staggering—everything from needles and thread to home appliances had vanished. The entire stores had been stripped bare.

What was even more astonishing was that all three supermarkets had been robbed simultaneously—a clear indication of a premeditated, highly organized operation that would have required hundreds of people to pull off. Consequently, the Hangsou police force had mobilized over a thousand officers, launching a citywide search from dawn onward. After all, smuggling away such a vast amount of goods without a trace seemed utterly impossible.

Cao Bin watched calmly for a while, then turned off his phone. He picked up his backpack and left the hotel. With funds running low, he had to rack his brains and employ every possible tactic. The night was his battlefield, targeting supermarkets and storage centers. During the day, he had to act with extreme caution, for every city in Yan Nation was blanketed by a dense surveillance network, and the slightest carelessness could give him away.

At the roadside, he put on his mask and hat once more. Composed and unhurried, Cao Bin hailed a taxi. Once inside, he told the driver, "Sir, take me to Ahaha Mineral Water Headquarters."