The temperature suddenly dropped to more than thirty degrees below zero. A City is located in the northern-central region, and in the past, the lowest winter temperatures were no more than minus ten degrees. The temperature of minus thirty degrees was unbearable for the residents of A City, who had never experienced such extreme cold.

What’s worse, the temperature continued to drop, although it wouldn’t be as sudden or large as the first day’s drop. It would descend gradually until reaching minus fifty degrees.

The global torrential rainstorm had destroyed most of the electrical systems, and the arrival of extreme cold left no hope of repairing them. Without electricity for heating, people were forced to revert to the most primitive method—burning fires to keep warm.

To withstand the cold weather, people dismantled everything combustible they could find in their homes and piled it together to use as firewood.

The neighborhood’s greenery had been quite impressive, and when the community had been built, its landscaping had been one of the selling points. Now, those trees that hadn’t been completely frozen became a resource fought over by the people. Within just a few days, several violent conflicts had erupted in the neighborhood. It seemed that everyone in the area was on edge.

But none of this was relevant to Shuxin and her group. They were planning to go out to find some supplies, adapt to the harsh weather, and gather resources to avoid drawing attention.

Despite being wrapped up tightly, the moment they stepped outside the building, they all shivered from the cold.

Shuxin silently tightened her down jacket, thankful she had placed a hand warmer inside. Without it, she would never have been able to endure the minus forty-degree temperatures.

“Hiss—it’s so cold!” Bo Xiangwen exaggeratedly shook his body.

“Let’s go. The place we’re heading to is still a bit far. Change into your shoes quickly, and let’s get moving,” Yan Mo coldly interrupted Bo Xiangwen’s antics.

“Okay.”

The group quickly found a windbreak and changed into the ice skates they had brought with them. Once Yan Mo confirmed the direction, they quickly followed.

The ground was covered with a thick and slippery layer of ice, so they had chosen to wear ice skates for easy movement without attracting too much attention.

If they wore regular shoes, even with the utmost caution, they would likely fall. And if they fell while carrying the precious supplies they had painstakingly gathered, people lurking in the shadows would rush to snatch them away. If they refused to give up the goods, they might be beaten. In that case, they would have lost both the supplies and the energy they had expended. It was better to hand over the items without resistance to avoid the beating. Those who knew how to read the situation were the wise ones.

The group’s destination was a commercial office building, which housed many high-tech, agricultural, and biotechnology companies—these were the companies they targeted.

In the future, they planned to build their own base. In the post-apocalyptic world, it was safest to have your life and wealth in your own hands. Thanks to the base on the third floor of Shuxin’s space, they wouldn’t have to worry about the initial challenges of constructing a base. They just needed to hunt zombies and search for crystal cores.

The base wouldn’t be just for the four of them. When more people joined, food would become a major issue. Although Shuxin’s space had a lot of supplies, they weren’t renewable resources and couldn’t sustain an entire base indefinitely. The key to long-term survival would be self-sufficiency.

After about half an hour of skating, they reached their destination. The high-end office building was far from the city center, surrounded by fewer residents. Most people, when searching for supplies, prioritized places like malls and supermarkets where food was more readily available, so this building had not yet been looted. It seemed that the items inside were still intact.

They found a hidden corner, and Mu Qi Mai took out a tool from his bag. Without making much noise, he quickly broke through a solid glass window.

Shuxin watched, impressed. From his skilled technique, she could tell that Mu Qi Mai had definitely done this kind of thing before. She couldn’t help but wonder what else he had been up to in the past, helping her boyfriend… was it possible…?

“Hiss—what are you hitting me for?” Suddenly, Shuxin felt a sharp pain on her forehead. She covered the spot with her hand and looked at Yan Mo with an accusatory look.

“What are you imagining now? Breaking windows silently was one of our training tasks. It’s for situations where we need to leave quickly without alerting others. It has nothing to do with whatever nonsense you’re thinking,” Yan Mo replied, perfectly understanding Shuxin’s little expression. As soon as her eyes moved, he knew she was probably fantasizing about something inappropriate.

“Ah, I see,” Shuxin said, holding her head and turning away, then reluctantly turned back, “Really? You’ve never done anything like what I imagined?”

“No!”

“Oh~ fine then.”

Not getting a confirming answer, Shuxin’s voice carried a hint of disappointment.

While Mu Qi Mai was working on the window, Shuxin and the others weren’t idle either. They changed their shoes, and while Yan Mo used his space as a distraction, Shuxin quickly packed away the ice skates and took out the prepared backpacks.

Each of the four carried a black backpack. Shuxin and Yan Mo, Bo Xiangwen and Mu Qi Mai were split into two teams to gather supplies. This way, they could work more efficiently.

If Bo Xiangwen and Mu Qi Mai found anything too large to carry, they marked it and would wait for Yan Mo and Shuxin to collect it later.

In the past three months, most of the supplies in their space hadn’t been used up. The majority of what they consumed were the prepared ready-to-eat meals. Everything else came from the storage room at home. Before going out, Shuxin had made a special trip to the storage room to replenish the supplies. She had to admit that restocking everything was a very therapeutic process, and she had come to love it.

The items in her space had been reorganized, and she had cleared a spot specifically for today’s collection.

Shuxin and Yan Mo were responsible for searching the top ten floors. The 11th to 13th floors housed a high-tech agricultural company that had won an award for its new crop varieties last year.

These crops had the advantages of being drought-resistant, cold-resistant, pest-resistant, and capable of high yields even in poor soil. They had officially started production this year, and the company had stored a lot of seeds in its warehouse. Shuxin didn’t hesitate and took all of them into her space.

She also collected related documents, books, computers with recorded data, and research equipment, leaving nothing behind.

With these items, they wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of research materials or tools in the future. Once everything was ready, all they needed to do was find someone knowledgeable to handle the research.

(Someday, a certain unsuspecting person: “Thank you so much for starting this plan so early! Really, thank you!”)