Chapter 23: Crisis

“Leave? Sure, go ahead and leave!” the man sneered. “But don’t even think about getting any more supplies! And leave your markers behind. If the Alliance rescue team ever arrives, you won’t be the first in line for help!”

The Alliance had given orders to settle the displaced survivors and instructed them not to wander off, urging them to wait for further rescue efforts.

“We can’t stay here!” the woman shouted. “We have to find a Safehouse! The Alliance can’t save us!”

Su Xiao, who had just shifted locations to collect another white treasure chest, happened to catch those words.

She paused. This woman was surprisingly clear-headed.

In times like this, how could anyone still rely on others?

The more people gathered together, the greater the danger. Unless someone with overwhelming strength emerged to take control and lead as the sole authority, chaos was inevitable.

And clearly, the Alliance didn’t have that kind of power.

For a moment, the once-silent crowd stirred, a subtle shift in their expressions.

“The Alliance can’t save you, then who can?” the man scoffed.

No one answered.

A man holding the woman’s hand spoke up, “Those who’ve bound a Safehouse can save us. They have Safehouses and a different kind of power! I saw it myself last night—a girl lifted a metal shelf weighing hundreds of kilos with just one arm. So Safehouses are definitely not ordinary!”

“Heh…” someone nearby laughed mockingly. “Anyone who’s bound a Safehouse already ran off! You think they’re going to sit here like you useless bunch, doing nothing?”

Whether it was the high fever or something else, tension was mounting, emotions beginning to fray.

“If they won’t save us, then the Alliance definitely can’t either! That’s why—we have to become survivors ourselves!” the woman declared, her voice firm. “It was announced yesterday: out of thirty million Safehouses worldwide, 19,298,472 have already been bound. We still have a chance. We absolutely cannot stay here!”

The moment her words fell, another earthquake struck.

The organized camp instantly descended into chaos.

It was as if her declaration had shaken something loose in everyone. People scrambled—some grabbing supplies, others outright looting.

Hiding inside her underground chamber, Su Xiao, having just collected two more treasure chests amidst the chaos, couldn’t help but mutter to herself.

“Only now they’re realizing it?”

She was a little surprised—it felt like their brains had been running on a delay long enough to circle the planet three times.

It had already been 24 hours since the disaster began.

At this point, hoping any organization would come to their rescue was foolish.

No—wait.

The Alliance.

Su Xiao suddenly recalled the conversation she’d overheard the night before.

The Alliance had gathered people under the guise of distributing supplies and offering rescue. Could it be that they were subtly restricting freedom of movement, preventing survivors from seeking out Safehouses on their own?

Were they trying to monopolize the Safehouses for themselves by sending out their own teams?

Once that thought took root, Su Xiao felt a pang of doubt—was she overthinking it?

If the Alliance had foreseen the apocalypse, wouldn’t they have prepared better?

Or had they prepared—but never planned to share that information with the public?

No, that didn’t add up either. The way they had requisitioned supplies and emptied the underground warehouse didn’t look like a well-prepared organization…

Forget it. It wasn’t her problem to solve.

Su Xiao decided not to dwell on it further and focused on maneuvering her underground chamber.

With the resource refresh, the first priority was finding treasure chests.

A system message had stated that some of yesterday’s chests were now discontinued—meaning they wouldn’t respawn.

If she had to guess, it was likely the green treasure chests.

Apocalyptic flora were tied to rankings, and no survivor with a green chest “easter egg” had yet surfaced. So, it was reasonable to assume the green ones were the discontinued type.

Bang—!

A sudden impact—her underground chamber could no longer move.

Su Xiao checked the map. Another void zone had appeared in her path.

What’s worse, the formerly solid black underground terrain now displayed two large white hollow zones—one in front and one behind her chamber. In other words… the earthquake was still ongoing, and it was severe. New underground fissures were forming, so deep they blocked her chamber from traveling freely.

Su Xiao pushed at the chamber’s door. A prompt popped up—

[Seismic disaster at the exit has reached magnitude 8. Travel not recommended.]

As expected.

She definitely couldn’t go out now.

Looking back at the map, Su Xiao saw that there were too many hollow zones—her underground chamber was effectively trapped in the city center. If she wanted to keep searching for supplies, she’d have to switch to using her off-road vehicle.

The car could cross narrow gaps and hollow zones, but the fuel in her barrels would only carry her 50 km. At high speeds, that would last less than an hour.

The more she thought about it, the worse her headache became. She was still running a fever—who knew what other symptoms might follow?

Perhaps it was better to stay inside for now and trade some of her “easter egg” resources at the Survivor Exchange Center. Once the Safehouse upgrade options came out in the afternoon, she could reassess.

Su Xiao pulled out her clay pot, poured in a small bowl of rice, rinsed it, then added just enough water to cover the grains. She lit a low flame and began to steam the porridge slowly.

At the same time, she opened the Survivor Exchange Center. A slew of messages popped up.

Aside from Yu Yu and Turtle Hermit, a few of the other survivors she had chatted with yesterday had messaged her as well.

Clearly, after a night and a morning of resource refreshes, they’d each gained new treasure chests.

While opening her food and material chests, Su Xiao also checked the messages from Turtle Hermit and Yu Yu.

Turtle Hermit: “So scary! The quake shook my turtle so bad it stopped moving. Tons of quicksand pits have appeared in the desert—I don’t even dare go out to scavenge now. Bro, I’ve got some white treasure chests here. All yours. Help me open them?”

Turtle Hermit was in a desert region.

When earthquakes strike, the sand collapses into sinkholes—classic quicksand formation.

Unless he could leave the desert, he’d have to rely on his turtle to move, and it was slow as molasses.

Su Xiao: “How many white chests?”

Turtle Hermit: “Twenty-seven.”

Su Xiao: “That many?”

It was more than even she had!

Still, Su Xiao wasn’t jealous.

So what if he had more food chests? He needed her to open them. With her double drop bonus from food chests, she’d already achieved invincibility in this post-apocalyptic world.

Turtle Hermit: “Remember that sewing machine blueprint you didn’t want yesterday? I traded it for a Bio-Mobility Booster blueprint! It attaches to biological Safehouses and increases movement speed. Now my turtle can go at 30 miles per hour! I searched all night and confirmed—there’s no one else in this desert. So I’ve basically monopolized all the desert’s treasure chests!”

Su Xiao had heard of people monopolizing fish farms, shopping centers, or real estate projects.

But this was the first time she’d seen someone brag so proudly about monopolizing treasure chests in a desert.

Still, she had to admit—while starting out in a desert was certainly unlucky, it had turned into an advantage.

Blessings and misfortunes often came hand in hand.

Su Xiao: “My standard fee is 25%. For each white treasure chest, I take one unit of food or water. If you’ve got 27 chests, I’ll take 27 units total. Deal?”

In other words, she would keep six chests for her own storage and open the rest to send back to Turtle Hermit.