The First Order

When Ren Xiaosu finished visiting the dozen-odd gold shops, the cash he had on hand reached 430,000 yuan. Honestly speaking, the money he had earned today was probably more than all of what he had earned in the 17 years of his life.

It was the first time he felt so wealthy. This sum of money was probably what the majority of the households in this stronghold would have saved up, or perhaps they wouldn’t even have as much as what he had now?

Suddenly, the voice from the palace said, “It has been detected that the host is carrying an amount of money exceeding what is required to unlock further storage rights. Confirm unlock?”

Ren Xiaosu froze. He had already unlocked storage rights once when he was in the Jing Mountains. At that time, he used 20,000 yuan in exchange for one cubic meter of storage space.

Back then, Ren Xiaosu already knew more storage space could be unlocked. However, as he did not know how much it would cost to unlock the next tier of storage rights, he could only wait until the palace informed him the next time.

Now it finally happened.

No matter how much Ren Xiaosu loved money, he still understood that having storage space was more important than having money.

Furthermore, they were planning to flee from the stronghold, so he could easily store more supplies and clean water if he had a bigger storage space. If he somehow stumbled upon another ruined city, he could start searching for more gold there.

But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was why the palace would accept any kind of currency, be it the Qing Consortium’s currency or the Li Consortium’s currency. ‘What would you as a palace even want money for?!’

“Can you tell me what you want the money for?” Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind.

The voice from the palace answered, “Unauthorized to answer.”

“You’re just jealous that I have money, right?” Ren Xiaosu asked in curiosity.

The voice from the palace said, “…Unauthorized to answer.”

Ren Xiaosu mulled over it for some time. “Then do you accept spirit money? ¹ ”

This time, the palace chose not to answer at all.

“Hehe.” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “So money issued by the Underworld’s bank is not considered currency? Aren’t you looking down on the Underworld?”

He wondered if he would have hit the highest tier of storage rights if the palace accepted spirit money.

What a pity…

Ren Xiaosu hesitated no more as he said in his mind, “Unlock!”

A moment later, he saw the original one cubic meter of storage space spread outward on the wall. Afterwards, Ren Xiaosu saw his 430,000 yuan turn into just 150,000 yuan!

Wait! Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ‘Why did my money drop by so much?!’

He scrutinized the storage space and estimated it had expanded 15 times.

Making a mental calculation, Ren Xiaosu now understood that the relationship between the amount of storage space and cost was basically equivalent.

Unlocking one cubic meter of storage space: 20,000 yuan.

Unlocking two cubic meters of storage space: 40,000 yuan.

Unlocking four cubic meters of storage space: 80,000 yuan.

Unlocking eight cubic meters of storage space: 160,000 yuan.

Therefore, having spent 280,00 yuan this time, Ren Xiaosu’s storage space had expanded to a total of 15 cubic meters!

Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips in satisfaction. Not bad!

As of now, he still had 150,000 yuan on him. Ren Xiaosu felt that if he only had to stock up on supplies for their escape, it would be more than enough!

…

They were extremely prepared this time for the journey. If a person wanted to survive in the wilderness, what would they need?

Ren Xiaosu went into a grocery store and bought several dozen bags of salt all at once. The remaining supplies of sugar, hardtack, and other items he bought were also countless. When the shop owner saw this, he was overjoyed to have such a big spender.

The shop owner smiled and said, “Why are you buying so much salt, sugar, and food? Most people don’t buy that many of these items.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “There’s no harm in being prepared.”

The shop owner was amused. “Some years ago, there were some people who were just like you. They kept saying it wasn’t safe anymore in the stronghold and that it was necessary to stock up on supplies to be prepared. In the end, all of the items went bad, and still, nothing happened to the stronghold. Can’t you see? It’s been decades and the stronghold is still doing well, isn’t it?”

“I’m just preparing for danger in times of safety.” Ren Xiaosu gave the shop owner a look.

“Boy, I’m seriously advising you not to buy too many of these supplies,” the shop owner advised. “What will you do if they turn bad at home?”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this shop owner must be really kind. Instead of trying to get people to buy more, he was persuading them not to? However, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly tell him that something was going to happen to the stronghold in the next few days, right? They would have to believe it in the first place.

When the shop owner saw that Ren Xiaosu was still as determined, he did not keep trying. After Ren Xiaosu paid the bill and left, the shop owner said to his shop assistant with a laugh, “I guess that boy is crazy. Just watch, nothing will happen to the stronghold even after he keeps those supplies at home for decades.”

Such a scene did not only take place in the grocery store. It happened when Ren Xiaosu went to the pharmacy to buy medicine as well. The shopkeeper could not understand when he saw Ren Xiaosu buying so many medicinal supplies.

The medicine Ren Xiaosu bought was actually specific to their needs. There was definitely no need for any anti-inflammatory medicine, but antivirals like ribavirin were definitely going to be useful. The same went for antifungals like ketoconazole and antidiarrheal agents like diosmectite, which were considered necessities when heading into the wilderness.

Antidiarrheal remedies were especially important. If you didn’t pay close enough attention to your dietary intake, you might get the runs up to 20 times a day and could even die from it.

The remaining items he needed to get were tools such as hammers, saws, shovels, pliers, ropes, plastic buckets, toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap…

And several backpacks, several dozen matchboxes, compasses, and blankets.

Ren Xiaosu spent the entire day shopping for supplies that only a wilderness survivalist would know to get. If a person had never lived in the wilderness before, the only things they would think of bringing with them would be food, water, knives, and some other very general items. Once they got to the wilderness, they would descend into panic.

In just this one day, Ren Xiaosu experienced a lot of suspiciousness from others due to the large quantity of purchases he made. However, he did explain himself once.

He did not return to their own shop, instead taking the streetcar straight to the courtyard house located in the most western part of the stronghold. Yan Liuyuan and the others were already waiting there.

While taking the streetcar, he even overheard a young man talking about a small music festival that would be taking place in a few days. According to him, a certain Prince Charming and a certain goddess would be coming to perform.

Someone else was gossiping about celebrities in whispers. They were talking about a female celebrity named Cicada and how she liked cooking, and how another female celebrity named Fang Yujing used to study Chinese medicine.

As the streetcar trundled down the track toward the sunset, yellow light pillars on the horizon projected into the sky and through the gaps in the clouds and back down. Ren Xiaosu suddenly started feeling somewhat out of place when he heard words like “music festival” and the likes.

The bustle and peace that was taking place was about to get destroyed before his eyes.

Ren Xiaosu wasn’t someone who passed his days without an awareness of his surroundings. He knew the Experimentals were coming, and he knew the various major powers that had gathered here would be declaring war on the Li Consortium within the next three days. So he made preparations.

The entire stronghold might plunge into an abyss of misery at that time, but Ren Xiaosu was confident he would have an advantage over others.

But thinking about how so many people would die, Ren Xiaosu realized this was probably not something to be happy about.

After all, this era was already tinted with the color of sorrow.

When he arrived at the rented courtyard house, Ren Xiaosu froze, because Jiang Wu was also here.

Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, “I brought Ms. Jiang Wu here. We can ignore other people, but we had to warn Ms. Jiang and her students, right?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu ruffled Yan Liuyuan’s hair. “You weren’t wrong in doing so.”