Chapter 5: Exchange

The underground cellar was now 8/10 full, leaving Su Xiao with only a narrow, cramped passage to move through. Even the sofa was piled high with supplies.

Su Xiao frowned in frustration—if she’d known, she wouldn’t have packed so much. Now it was even hard to clear anything out.

After a moment of thought, she asked, “Xiao Mo, can you help me clear some space?”

Xiao Mo responded, “Confirm clearance of all natural resources from the safehouse: Yes / No?”

Su Xiao replied quickly, “No… not all of them.”

Xiao Mo paused, then offered a new suggestion: “Would you like to activate the ‘Clear Waste’ function? Once enabled, any resource the owner touches will be immediately discarded.”

That’s possible too?!

Su Xiao instinctively said, “Thank you, Xiao Mo.”

She hadn’t expected a reply, but after a brief pause, she heard Xiao Mo respond, “You’re welcome. It is my honor to assist you.”

Then, a broadcast played in her ear again—

[This message is only audible to survivors who have bound a safehouse]
[The current safehouse binding rate has reached 50%. Xiao Mo has now activated the Survivor Exchange Center. You may enter the center by issuing a command to communicate and trade resources.]
[Doomsday treasure chests have now descended upon Blue Star. Only survivors with a bound safehouse can see them. These chests contain game resources from the doomsday game, which are not time-limited and have special attributes. The first survivor to open a chest of each color will trigger a special easter egg.]
[This hurricane disaster will last for seven days. Survivors, do your best to stay alive.]

The broadcast ended, and Su Xiao furrowed her brow.

This update wasn’t simple.

A seven-day hurricane meant the next disaster really could be something different.

More importantly, despite safehouses being 50% bound, the system still reminded survivors about it—as if to warn that the number of available safehouses was dwindling.

After a brief pause, Su Xiao issued a command: “Xiao Mo, open the Survivor Exchange Center.”

Within the center, her personal information was displayed: ID 6883649, Safehouse Owner. The ID also functioned as a default alias.

The channel was a basic text-based communication forum. Some people had already posted, but it was mostly mundane chatter like:
“Are you all okay?”
“What’s it like outside now?”

Clicking on a username allowed for private messages, item trading, and more. The system included a double-confirmation feature—both parties had to view and confirm items for a trade to succeed, leaving no room for deception.

Su Xiao didn’t see any worthwhile information or trade offers, so she closed the exchange center.

She wanted to search for more treasure chests, but with the hurricane still raging, her only options were underground spaces—malls, warehouses, parking garages.

Fortunately, there were no shortage of subterranean structures nearby.

After two hours, she had searched four almost-collapsed underground parking garages and found six white treasure chests.

Every white chest, without exception, contained food—typically one bottle of water and one food item.

Thanks to her white chest easter egg, however, Su Xiao received double the contents each time.

Additionally, if she chose not to open the chest, she could store it directly in her safehouse.

Had she not spent two hours finding only white chests, she might have thought they were the only kind in existence. Fortunately, in the fourth underground garage, she discovered something different: a red treasure chest.

She opened it immediately and found an axe inside. No easter egg was triggered.

Not surprising—so much time had passed, surely others had already found weapons and special loot.

[Level 1 Fire Axe]
[Description: It’s a bit heavy, but very sharp. Ordinary survivors can’t block it. It can also be used against certain unusual things in the apocalypse.]

When Su Xiao gripped the axe, a line of text appeared above a nearby Maserati:

[This car seems a little different. Try attacking it—something might happen.]

Smash!

Without hesitation, Su Xiao raised the axe and strode over.

A fresh Maserati—something straight out of a domineering CEO novel—and here she was, about to hack it apart like scrap metal.

She brought the axe down.

She had expected that, with her limited strength, the axe wouldn’t make much of a dent.

But to her surprise, the vehicle crumpled like cardboard. One swing and it was already falling apart.

With the second strike, the car was half destroyed, nearly reduced to twisted metal.

By the third swing, it disintegrated into iron dust and vanished. In its place, a purple treasure chest appeared on the ground.

Su Xiao’s face lit up. She opened it right away and found a purple scroll inside.

No easter egg this time. She figured someone else had already gotten the red weapon before her and triggered the attack tips on marked structures.

She tried to store the scroll in her safehouse, but a message popped up:

[Warehouse capacity full. Unable to store in safehouse. Please use directly or store in safehouse before using.]

The warehouse was full?

Su Xiao used the scroll immediately.

[To craft a “Weapon Station”, you need: Iron Blocks: 0/4, Wooden Planks: 0/8. Will occupy 1 safehouse space.]

Iron blocks and wooden planks? Where was she supposed to find those?

[The hurricane has ended. Congratulations to all surviving survivors. The next four hours will be a disaster-free period. You may now go outside to gather supplies.]

The time was exactly 4:00 p.m., meaning the safe period would last until 8:00 p.m. What kind of danger would appear after that?

Su Xiao’s underground cellar was now full—thanks to the seven white chests she had opened. But not all the water and food inside were the same.

She now had six bottles of mineral water, two bottles of white peach soda, two bottles of milk, and four bottles of cola.

As for food, aside from chocolate bars, there were also chips and chocolate cake. Only identical items could be stacked in one inventory slot; the rest took up individual slots.

With her warehouse full, the safehouse’s resource channel couldn’t be used, meaning even if she found more treasure chests, she couldn’t take them.

But removing items from the warehouse would take up space in the cellar. Since her storage space was also full, anything she removed would require her to discard excess natural resources.

After some thought, Su Xiao reopened the Survivor Exchange Center.

This time, there were far more posts—most survivors had clearly begun opening treasure chests.

Owner 1820384: “1 sqm safehouse expansion tool for any weapon.”
Owner 28495: “2 units of food resource in exchange for any level 1 weapon.”
Owner 1083745: “3 white chests for any level 1 weapon.”
Owner 2934734: “Trading 1 unit of oxygen tank for 3 days’ worth of food and water.”
…

Su Xiao skimmed through the listings. Most of them were asking for weapons—it seemed everyone had realized that acquiring a weapon was the key to seeing special resource tips.

Only the offer involving an oxygen tank piqued Su Xiao’s interest.