Chapter 4: Borrowing Water

In the apocalypse, fresh water would become an invaluable resource. With just a few purification devices, it would be far more convenient and efficient than spending endless time stockpiling bottled water. After all, he had only three months to prepare.

The water from these three freshwater lakes, though totaling less than ten thousand square kilometers, occupied just a small portion of his subspace. Once purified for drinking, it would be more than enough for Cao Bin to live prosperously in the apocalypse, both for drinking and everyday use.

Thus, Cao Bin felt immensely fortunate to have brought this space with him.

In the post-apocalyptic world, abilities generally awakened in three major categories:

The first was physical enhancement. This type dramatically improved the body's functions, granting substantial combat strength even at the basic level. It was the most common direction for awakenings, accounting for about four-fifths of all ability users.

The second was the category of mental and spiritual powers. These were exceedingly rare, bestowing their wielders with mystical or supernatural capabilities. Once developed, they could become virtually invincible in the later stages. However, awakeners of this category were few, and their survival rate early on was extremely low, making them as precious as rare creatures.

It was much like the mage class in old legend games: weak attack power and poor physical strength in the early stages, but, should one endure, their firepower would later sweep the field.

The third category was spatial abilities. In the beginning, they fared even worse than mental powers, possessing only a single storage function and no other advantages, making survival dependent on others. Their numbers were small, and advancing their abilities was difficult. They lacked obvious survival advantages early on, and even later, most could only serve as mobile warehouses.

While some would offer protection to spatial ability users out of utility, fundamentally, they were kept as "tools," exploited solely for their storage capacity.

But what if one was reborn? If given three months’ head start before the apocalypse, such an ability would be invincible—just like Cao Bin’s current situation.

...

The driver nodded, and the taxi started smoothly.

At that moment, another patrol car sped by. Watching ahead, the driver shook his head and sighed, “Strange things are happening—haunted, perhaps? In such a short time, the whole supermarket’s been emptied out. Especially the warehouse! How many people would it take? How many vehicles?”

Cao Bin kept silent.

The driver continued talking to himself.

“What’s going on lately? All sorts of terrifying rumors online—everyone’s saying it might be true, that the world’s ending. Brother, do you believe it?”

“It’s absurd! Three lakes, and the water was sucked dry in an instant. Not just that, all the fish disappeared—nothing left but empty ground. Isn’t that too much? Too frightening?”

Recently, the rumor about the three great freshwater lakes drying up had spread like wildfire online. Even when Cao Bin casually browsed the web, related topics would pop up everywhere.

It was, indeed, a bit beyond what people could comprehend.

“Maybe,” Cao Bin replied blandly, eyes fixed on the window scenery.

After a dozen seconds, he added nonchalantly, “If you’re really scared, you should go to Tibet. That’s the pure land of our nation.”

“Haha!” The driver laughed in agreement. “What’s there to be afraid of? I’m just an ordinary guy. It’s not my concern. Even if the sky falls, there are stronger men to hold it up. I’ll just get by behind them.”

Cao Bin said nothing more.

He thought to himself: That’s not the most terrifying part. The truly frightening thing is that this planet is dying, but people are still alive. That’s the real dead end.

Half an hour later.

The car rolled to a stop at the entrance of a vast industrial park. Looking out the window, Cao Bin confirmed this was the Ahaha factory.

After scanning to pay, he got out.

Here lay his next target in Hangsu—the Ahaha Mineral Water Company.

Ahaha Drinking Water Limited had now risen to the top three mineral water brands in the nation, earning considerable global renown as well.

Although Cao Bin had already drained the three freshwater lakes, he still felt it wise to stockpile some bottled and pure water for emergencies.

The water from those vast reservoirs, while clean enough for drinking, still required purification before it could be safely consumed or used for cooking. Moreover, purifying such quantities of water needed industrial equipment and washing, and in the initial chaos of the apocalypse, without a secure base, he couldn’t bring out such large machines for proper power and production.

Thus, in the early days, lake water could be used for washing and cleaning, but for drinking and cooking, it was much more convenient to rely on finished bottled and mineral water.

Cao Bin approached the company entrance and, through security, got in touch with a manager from the sales department.

Soon, a man in his thirties hurried over, dressed in a formal suit. Upon seeing Cao Bin, he promptly extended his hand with a warm handshake.

“Hello, President Zhao.”

“Hello,” Cao Bin replied with a slight smile, taking out a business card from his pocket and handing it over. “President Wu, here’s my card.”

“Yes, hello, President Zhao.” The sales manager’s name was Wu Haonian, the Sales Director of the local Ahaha Mineral Water branch.

He glanced at the card, and delight appeared on his face.

The title on the card read: "Tibet XX Investment Resources Group, Zhao Yiming."

When he’d received the call, the company’s customer service had already briefed him. He’d checked out the region—it was a place known for rare water resource extraction.

Development there had once been difficult due to differing cultural beliefs, but now, with things opening up, it had become much easier—especially since someone from the authorities had come to negotiate directly.

This made everything so much simpler, which explained Wu Haonian’s excitement.

He warmly led Cao Bin into the office building.

Cao Bin himself acted with remarkable composure and maturity, like a seasoned professional. The business card he’d handed over was one he’d picked up from the street earlier—on seeing the title and address, he’d immediately formed a plan to “borrow” some pure and mineral water from the Ahaha warehouse.

Once in the meeting room, Wu Haonian had no doubts about Cao Bin’s identity—after all, who would come to steal mineral water?

Or rather, borrow water!

Who would ever imagine someone would come to the headquarters of a mineral water company just to “borrow” water?

So, two pretty assistants quickly arrived to serve tea.

After four or five minutes of small talk, Wu Haonian brought up the main topic, inquiring about the group’s investment or procurement intentions.

Cao Bin didn’t answer directly; instead, he smiled and asked, “Manager Wu, I’ve come with two contracts from our group. One is an investment contract—we can offer location, transportation, and low taxes for you to set up a plant locally.

“The second is a fixed annual procurement order.”

“Really?” Wu Haonian’s eyes lit up instantly.

The first offer—location and low taxes for a new plant—was an excellent investment incentive. The second—an annual procurement contract—was even better. Even if they had to rent land and pay taxes themselves, it was worth it for the procurement order alone. With both deals combined, their company’s future development would soar, and as a middle manager, Wu Haonian’s prospects of promotion increased dramatically.

Excited, Wu Haonian stood up, rubbing his hands together.

He thought, for people like them, the key now was to finalize the buyback details.

He smiled ingratiatingly, “President Zhao, is there anything else you need from us? Would you like our branch general manager to join the discussion?”

Cao Bin shook his head. “No need.

“Before we talk contracts, I need to take a look at your warehouse.”

“Ah?” Wu Haonian was taken aback. “You want to see our warehouse?”

“Is that not allowed?” Cao Bin asked.

“Of course you can!” Wu Haonian quickly replied. “I’m just curious—why the warehouse?”

“Oh, Manager Wu, it’s just part of our group’s procedures,” Cao Bin explained.

Wu Haonian felt a hint of suspicion—what’s going on? Was he worried about insufficient stock? How much could he possibly buy? Besides, it didn’t matter; delivery would come from the nearest facility anyway, not from here. Think of the shipping costs!

Still, faced with such a promising client, Wu Haonian had no reason to refuse, and the two offers had already muddled his thinking with excitement. Without hesitation, he led Cao Bin to tour the warehouse.

Their park contained a massive warehouse, where bottled and barreled water was stored together after production, awaiting distribution by logistics staff according to orders.

Each warehouse was enormous and cylindrical for convenient storage and transport.

At the warehouse entrance, after fingerprint and code scanning, Wu Haonian began his introduction: “We have four warehouses in total; this is the largest. You may take a look around. Inside, we have about a hundred million bottles of mineral water, fifty million five-liter barrels, ten million fifteen-liter barrels, and twenty million twenty-liter barrels of pure water—our standard inventory to ensure production keeps up with demand. Each month, we rotate stock to the sales warehouse to keep everything within date.”

“Good, I’ll have a look inside.”

“You want to go in yourself?”

“As the investment resources group, we must see things firsthand; it’s part of our process. Of course, this is just a formality—my superiors already trust your brand, so I’ll just take a look. No need to accompany me; I’ll wander through and be right out.”

Hearing this, Wu Haonian quickly nodded. “Alright, I’ll wait for you here.”

Cao Bin proceeded inside.

Once Cao Bin entered the warehouse, Wu Haonian stepped back toward the scanning area, standing by a trash bin at the edge of the street and lighting a cigarette. He couldn’t help but grumble inwardly.

“People from small places really are from small places. Our brand is as reliable as it gets—what’s there to worry about? Stock problems? Quality problems? Such fuss, insisting on a tour.”

He complained to himself, but didn’t forget to text his pretty assistant while smoking.

“Wash up and wait for me in the small room next to my office.”

The assistant replied, “You’re so naughty... Why this sudden urge in broad daylight? (shy emoji)”

“Heh... I just closed a huge deal—if all goes well, I’ll be the branch manager soon. You’d better be ready to serve me properly,” Wu Haonian boasted.

“Wow, darling, you’re amazing! If you become branch manager, I’ll be just below one and above thousands.”

“Heh, you’ll always be just below one... (suggestive emoji)” Wu Haonian replied lecherously.

His assistant instantly caught his meaning. “You’re terrible... Go take a shower first. Today I’m wearing black stockings, remember to take the blue pill from the first drawer on the left of your desk before you come in.”

“Hmph! Just wait—you’ll see how I handle you,” Wu Haonian said with mock menace.

Middle age has its limits; without the blue pill, he couldn’t manage these women at all.