Chapter 5: Borrowing the Car

Inside the warehouse, the state-of-the-art air and temperature control was immediately apparent—the chill here was far more penetrating than outside. A glance at the thermometer on the wall confirmed it: the temperature hovered just above freezing, nearly zero, at four degrees Celsius. Sweeping his gaze across the space, he saw no one, nor any surveillance cameras—not that there was any point in questioning it; such was the arrangement.

He grinned to himself. Even if he only gained access to a single warehouse, it was more than enough for his purposes. Stretching out his hand, he began to run. Wherever he touched, towering stacks of bottled water, five or six meters high, vanished without a trace.

The building itself was cylindrical, designed for efficient transport and space-saving—goods were stacked layer by layer, reaching impressive heights. The circle, however, was not large. At his speed, it took less than three minutes to complete a circuit.

When Cao Bin emerged from the warehouse, Wu Haolin was still outside, smirking slyly as he typed on his phone, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers. Noticing Cao Bin’s return, he hurriedly stubbed out his smoke and dashed over with a bright, eager smile.

“Hey, Leader, you’re done with your inspection already?”

But Cao Bin’s expression was dark, his tone accusatory and aggressive. “Your company, Ahaha Corporation, is supposed to be one of our best partners. But you—why are you so dishonest? Just now, you claimed there were tens of thousands, even hundreds of millions of bottles in there—five liters, ten liters, twenty liters. And now? There’s nothing. Are you making a fool of me? Are you mocking our team?”

“This is outrageous!”

“Huh? How could that be?” Wu Haonian was completely bewildered.

“Go see for yourself. There’s nothing inside. Are you playing games with me?” With a cold snort, Cao Bin stormed off.

What was this? Empty? How could that be? The last rotation had just been completed last night—he’d just signed off on it yesterday, and all the production dates were within the past few days. Next month, they’d swap out another batch, always ensuring that the water here was less than a month old. How could it all be gone in an instant? Unless the branch had received a massive order today and pulled from this stockpile in an emergency—but surely he would have heard something about it.

Seeing the furious look on his superior’s face, Wu Haonian was so stunned that he forgot to stop him, hastily scanning his fingerprint to rush inside.

When he entered, the sight that greeted him was like a blow to the head—his mind went completely blank. The warehouse was truly empty. Every single stack of water, once layered five or six meters high, was gone. Who could have moved it all? Was there really such a huge order today? How had it sold out so fast?

Wu Haonian stood there, utterly dumbfounded.

As for Cao Bin, he exited the industrial park at a near-sprint, as if competing in a racewalking event. He flagged down a taxi at the roadside, instructed the driver to head east, and got in. All the mineral water and purified water in the warehouse was now in his possession.

This operation had been extremely risky, with the potential to expose his intentions. Yet Cao Bin considered it entirely worthwhile. Upon reflection, who would ever suspect that a lone individual could steal even a single bottle of water from such a facility? Even if someone tried, it would be impossible to move everything in so short a time.

Reaching the city center, he changed taxis again. At a street corner, he swapped his mask for another color, changed his hat, sunglasses, and jacket, then emerged from another exit and hailed another cab to a modest hotel he’d previously booked.

Over the following days, he continued to change disguises and embarked on a spree of “borrowing” items. For example, at the Four Seasons Market, he wandered about, never emptying out a shop in one go, but deftly causing items to disappear with a casual touch when no one was looking.

At the electronics mall, he would brush his hand past power banks, phones, and laptops, making them vanish into his own inventory one by one.

He even visited a local car dealership. In the outdoor lot, where only a retired old man lounged, listening to opera and killing time, Cao Bin took a gamble—he dashed past, and in the blink of an eye, every new car was “borrowed.”

He later discovered online that the city had a Unimog for sale. After some inquiries, he managed to acquire this so-called “apocalypse survival fortress.”

Afterwards, he drove an ordinary domestic sedan worth 560,000 yuan, making the rounds of self-service gas stations. He avoided staffed stations, choosing only those with automated pumps. After scanning the code and lifting the nozzle, he would instantly empty the fuel tank with a touch, then move on to the next. Within minutes, every drop of fuel at the station was gone.

The next customers arrived, switching from pump to pump, only to find each one dry. Bewildered, they wondered if fuel prices were set to skyrocket the next day—how else could the supply disappear so suddenly?

That night, he visited a luxury villa district, infiltrating the underground garage. There, under the cover of darkness, he deliberately short-circuited the power, then, flashlight in hand, raced through the garage, silently removing every luxury car.

When maintenance finally restored the electricity, they were met with chaos—every vehicle had vanished. Panic ensued, property management was thrown into turmoil, and the police were called. Patrol cars arrived in a flurry.

For the next two days, he kept to small-scale thefts during the day and launched bigger operations at night. Soon, the entire city was in uproar—people bankrupt, wailing in despair. But Cao Bin felt no remorse.

After all, when the apocalypse arrived, less than one in ten thousand would survive. One way or another, everything would disappear—if not lost to nuclear fallout, then appropriated by him. He was merely moving a month ahead of schedule.

With these tasks completed, Cao Bin set his sights on the city’s main West Beijing warehouse and the Ali Mama central depot. Either one covered an enormous area, and he suspected they contained a wealth of untapped resources.