Plastic, glass, graphite, wood, liquid nitrogen, ceramic tiles, lithium batteries, computer chips, cloth, nylon fabric...
The list of materials needed for the Hyperspace Portable Tent was long. But he had obtained the computer chips and graphite from the police station. The glass and tiles could be salvaged from abandoned cars and his neighbors' floors.
As for the plastic, liquid nitrogen, and cloth, an ideal scavenging location came to Chen Yuan's mind.
A hospital.
The IV tubes—weren't they made of plastic? A laboratory would definitely have liquid nitrogen. And as for cloth, the inpatient department would have plenty.
With his mind made up, Chen Yuan followed the route from his memory, heading towards a private hospital.
Tieqiong and Tieniu cleared the path ahead, while Tiedan stayed close, protecting him. One man and three dogs were the only moving things on the entire street. In the extreme cold, even the shadows of small animals were gone.
The sky was a hazy, oppressive gray that made him feel short of breath.
How did it come to be an ice age? Chen Yuan truly couldn't figure it out. What he understood even less was where those zombie-like creatures had come from. They couldn't have just appeared out of thin air, could they?
As various thoughts raced through his mind, he arrived outside the hospital. The ambulance at the entrance was half-buried in snow. Chen Yuan had Tiedan break into it and retrieve the onboard computer unit. The main doors of the hospital were already covered by a massive snowdrift. He peered up at the lobby; there was not a sound.
After breaking open the doors, he commanded Tieqiong to go first and clear any threats. He himself followed behind with Tiedan and Tieniu. Although it was a private hospital, its scale was not small. It had a diagnostic building as well as an inpatient tower.
To get the liquid nitrogen, Chen Yuan followed the signs on the wall, heading directly for the laboratory. In the vast, empty space, every step he took produced a crisp echo. If he had come here alone, he would have been scared to death by his own footsteps. Fortunately, Tieqiong, five meters ahead, gave no warning, which allowed him to relax slightly.
The laboratory was on the basement level. The elevator was certainly out of service, so he could only take the fire stairs. Three spotlights illuminated the space. When Chen Yuan saw that the lab and the morgue were on the same floor, he couldn't help but feel goosebumps rise all over his skin.
Arriving at the laboratory entrance, he peered through the glass door. Inside, various instruments were arranged neatly. After Tiedan broke the glass door, Chen Yuan didn't follow it inside. Instead, he commanded Tieqiong to find the liquid nitrogen on its own.
The level of danger in there was lethal. The culture mediums for viruses and bacteria were inside. Because of this, Chen Yuan completely abandoned any thought of breaking open the instruments to scavenge their parts.
He stood outside the door, waiting quietly. In the silent environment, he could hear his own breathing. He glanced at the door to the morgue nearby and leaned a little closer to Tiedan, resting his hand on its warm head. Only then did he feel a sliver of security.
After a short while, Tieqiong emerged, its mechanical arm carrying a cylindrical tank. It was about the same height as a gas canister but thinner. There was a hazard symbol on it, and next to it were the words "Liquid Nitrogen."
Chen Yuan didn't touch it himself. He had Tieqiong open it for a brief look, then seal it shut again. That stuff was dangerous. A single touch and your hand would be frozen solid.
With the liquid nitrogen secured, he still needed plastic and cloth.
He climbed the fire stairs back to the first-floor hallway. Looking back at the pitch-black stairwell opening, Chen Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although he hadn't moved much, the atmosphere below had been terrifying. He had been terrified that the morgue door would suddenly swing open and figures would walk out. Just the thought of it gave him goosebumps.
Following the corridor, he arrived at the lobby of the inpatient department. The files at the front desk were in disarray, and the floor was littered with used masks and medical reports.
A strange feeling came over Chen Yuan. He felt no joy at being close to acquiring his materials. Instead, he felt a certain hesitation. He hadn't thought about it much before, but now that he considered it, coming to the inpatient ward was not a good idea.
The shelters couldn't even accommodate all the healthy people. What had happened to the people who were originally hospitalized here? Would he open a door and see a room full of corpses?
He shivered, a chill running through his heart. But for the materials, he had to push on.
After a long moment of psyching himself up, he led his three subordinates to the nurses' station warehouse. He didn't dare to go into the patient rooms. The potential scene was too horrifying to contemplate.
Fortunately, there were plenty of things in the warehouse. All sorts of IV needles and tubing, as well as urine bags, bedpans, and basins—these satisfied his need for plastic goods. In a corner were bundles of clean, replacement bedsheets, more than enough for his use. And nylon material... weren't those just woven plastic sacks? There was a pile of them on the floor!
To his delight, he also found several palm-sized, rectangular lithium battery packs inside a few pieces of testing equipment.
He bundled everything onto Tieniu's back. Chen Yuan then fled the hospital as if escaping a nightmare. To stay in that place for even a second longer felt creepy.
Back on the street, he looked up at the vast expanse of falling snow, his heart filled with complex emotions.
Sigh...
He let out a long sigh and prepared to end his scavenging trip for the day.
On the way back, the only sound was the crunch of his boots on the snow. Chen Yuan began to think about his next steps. He had offended the Fenghuo Squad today. That Wang Hao knew his general area of activity, so he felt it was likely the man would bring people to cause trouble. Of course, it was also possible that after the lesson he taught them, they wouldn't dare. In any case, there were many possibilities. With Tiedan by his side, Chen Yuan wasn't afraid.
"I wonder how Jiang Nan is doing now..."
「Master, the tracker is eight kilometers away from us.」
Tiedan suddenly spoke up beside him.
Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow, a little surprised. This girl was something else. She had traveled so far in one day. He nodded. "Continue to monitor it. If the tracker stays in the same place for more than ten hours, let me know."
「Roger!」
...
Back in his familiar environment, Chen Yuan finally relaxed completely. Looking at the warehouse piled high with supplies, a smile spread across his face.
He swiped his finger quickly across the screen of the Apocalypse Store and selected the production of the Hyperspace Portable Tent. Then, following the instructions, he inserted the materials one by one.
He pressed the red button, and a message appeared on the screen.
「Material insertion successful. Producing Hyperspace Portable Tent. Time required: 3 hours.」
Chen Yuan rubbed his chin. Three hours was quite a long time, even longer than the upgrade. But thinking about how incredible this tent must be, he didn't give it a second thought.
He returned to the living room, turned up the heat on the stove, and lay down on the sofa to rest. The long day of running around had left him truly exhausted. With Tiedan guarding the door and Tieqiong monitoring the hallway, Chen Yuan groggily fell asleep.
Elsewhere, after a full day of trekking, Jiang Nan's stamina was gradually failing. She found a shop with a half-open door, slipped inside, and pulled the roller shutter down.
Huddled in a corner, she lit the inside with the faint light of her flashlight. From her backpack, she took out a compressed biscuit, tore open the packaging, and took a bite.
The next moment, she froze.
Her previously ravenous stomach was instantly filled with a sense of satiety. Not only was the chill in her body completely dispelled, but she even felt a faint warmth spreading through her.
In surprise, she raised her flashlight to the packaging of the compressed biscuit in her hand.
「High-Polymer Compressed Biscuit. One biscuit satisfies the human body's daily calorie consumption.」
After she finished reading the description, she was completely stunned.
"This was from Chen Yuan..."
In that moment, her mind was filled with the image of him.