Apocalypse Plan

After sighing for a long time, Su Jin turned and slumped weakly down the wall, sinking onto the floor. His chest heaved erratically. Ever since childhood, he had considered himself bolder and more optimistic than most, and that had always held true. Even after entering the workforce and becoming a corporate beast of burden, he had never once bent his spine. Yet this time, he was genuinely terrified—utterly terrified... He dug his fingers into his hair, his heart drowned in endless regret. *I was wrong. I was wrong from the very start.* If he hadn't accompanied that client out drinking in the first place, he wouldn't have provoked him; if he hadn't provoked him, he wouldn't have needed to look for a new job; and if he hadn't looked for a new job, he wouldn't have been forcibly dispatched to this godforsaken place as outsourced labor! "Company, are you there...? Can anyone hear me?" Su Jin swallowed hard and spoke tentatively, his eyes nervously scanning the empty room. Disappointment quickly settled over him. It was just him talking to himself. A person's value in the workplace was essentially equal to their market value minus their switching costs. When a corporate drudge excessively kissed a boss's ass and proclaimed love for the company, it merely demonstrated a heavy dependency on the job, high switching costs, and an extremely high risk of being laid off. And if a layoff was indeed looming, bringing up one's vulnerabilities—car loans, mortgages, a wife and kids—at the critical moment would only give the company more leverage to squeeze them, and whatever severance they walked away with would almost certainly shrink. Ever since leaving the university gates, Su Jin had adhered strictly to this philosophy, continually refining the art of upward management. He had always carried himself with utter confidence in the workplace, earning the respect of even difficult clients. His colleagues had been purged in wave after wave of layoffs, yet he had remained as immovable as a mountain. If he hadn't caused such a catastrophic mess, Lao Li would never have fired him. Yet this bullshit Tiandao Unlimited Liability Company didn't have a single soul in sight. There wasn't even a supervisor around for him to manage! He remained seated there until the sun dipped below the horizon. The last sliver of sunlight vanished from above his head, plunging the room into darkness. In the gloom, Su Jin rubbed his face vigorously and let out another heavy breath. He stood, flicked on the light switch, and after a bout of self-pity, his expression had calmed considerably. He then strode decisively toward the bathroom. Things had already reached this point! There was nothing left to do but abandon illusions, prepare to struggle, and complete the mission! The company ignoring him was actually a good thing; at the very least, it strongly suggested no one was peeping on him. The other party was capable of speaking into his mind from thin air. Ever since arriving here, he had felt as if countless eyes were spying on him in secret. It had made him afraid to even take a crap, holding it in for an entire day! He wondered how the protagonists in web novels managed to overcome this awkwardness whenever they were saddled with systems or ancient souls residing in rings. The next morning, sunlight spilled into the room, warming Su Jin's face. His brow furrowed and his eyelids fluttered. After a prolonged internal struggle, he finally opened his eyes, clinging to a faint shred of hope. Before him was still the unfamiliar bedroom. Though he had expected it, a pang of disappointment was inevitable. The only comforting thing was that the vegetable leaves he had eaten the night before had produced no adverse side effects. There were six days left until the apocalypse arrived! He had slept in his clothes all night, tossing and turning, only managing to doze off for two or three hours. He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to quickly wash up. Walking into the living room, Su Jin glanced at the window already covered with two sheets of white paper, then sat down at the dining table. He took out a notebook and a piece of bread, writing as he ate. He had already made an agreement with Fu Qingdai. He was staying directly across the hall from her home; as soon as she successfully checked out of the hospital, she would come find him immediately. He would observe for three days. If she still hadn't returned by then, he would have no choice but to make another trip to the psychiatric hospital. For now, the client was not the highest priority. The most pressing matter was preparing for the crisis. With only six days left, stockpiling massive amounts of water, food, and medicine was a given. But the problem lay in the water... The water supply would become contaminated, making subsequent replenishment difficult. It was consumed in large quantities, could not be compressed, and had far greater mass compared to other supplies. Stored in containers, its immense weight would be concentrated over a small surface area. Stockpiling enough water would put tremendous pressure on the floor slabs. On the other hand, spreading it out would waste floor space. The construction standards of this world were still unclear, and design standards did not necessarily equal construction standards. Construction standards did not guarantee worker proficiency, worker proficiency did not guarantee material quality, and material quality gave no indication of how much the building had aged. It was precisely because of this that he had made a last-minute decision yesterday to rent two apartments. A normal adult consumed roughly two liters of drinking water a day. For purely drinking purposes, one ton of water could last a person a year and a half if conserved carefully. However, a simple calculation was insufficient; under high stress, injury, or other extraordinary circumstances, water usage would inevitably rise. He also had to account for Fu Qingdai and her parents... or the possibility of bringing others into the fold to increase their odds of survival. Two apartments, four tons of water, distributed alongside the load-bearing walls—that should fall within a reasonable, safe threshold while providing more than enough buffer. That meant he would need forty one-hundred-liter barrels... He could buy larger drums and place wooden boards underneath to distribute the pressure. He also needed water purification tablets and plastic wrap to prevent excessive evaporation... Su Jin jotted down each item. Pausing his pen briefly, he began drafting the food storage plan. Staple grains definitely had to be hoarded, but they had to be bought from far away. He would also need to purchase cardboard boxes and have the grain shop pack them up for a nighttime delivery. Otherwise, being seen stockpiling grain would cause far too much trouble... That meant he would need to bribe the security guard at the gate beforehand, using moving in as the best excuse. Along with staple grains, he needed fats and protein. Bottled vegetable oil and animal fat would both work. The best choice for protein would be protein powder, but he deduced that the local market probably lacked it. Given the actual conditions of this world, the fitness industry was practically nonexistent; at the very least, he hadn't spotted a single gym during his taxi ride. The next best option would be powdered milk—nutritionally complex, accessible, compact, and high in calories. For other nutrients, he would mostly have to rely on vitamin pills. After brainstorming and outlining for over twenty minutes, Su Jin turned the page and continued writing. Once food and water were settled, the most crucial element was weaponry. This world's industry was well developed, making large-scale use of firearms inevitable. However, the difficulty of acquiring firearms was currently impossible to estimate. He had asked Fu Qingdai about this, and ordinary citizens were not permitted to own guns. Channels for obtaining firearms were hard to find, and neither the legal risks nor the financial costs were something he could afford. His own seven thousand yuan combined with Fu Qingdai's money came to a little over twenty-five thousand yuan, which he had counted the previous night. That was barely enough to stockpile supplies. Guns had to be ruled out; besides, even if they were useful, their utility would be limited. For one, without training, the waste of ammunition would be severe, and replenishing it would be extraordinarily difficult. Second, if gunshots attracted zombies, using them would do more harm than good... At present, a gun's greatest short-term utility lay in deterring the living. Not firing was far more cost-effective than firing. Having the single handgun he currently possessed was already enough. As such, his weapon preparations had to shift toward melee weapons. Polearms were ideal; he could buy steel pipes from a hardware store and modify them with knives or axes. If he could get his hands on a bow and arrows, even better. While holed up in the safehouse, he would have time to practice. Only... Su Jin pulled out a map, searching for the location of slaughterhouses. If he were still at the age of a reckless young punk, the thought of hacking into a living creature wouldn't just fail to frighten him—it might even excite him. Having spent years in society, however, his awe of the law and his understanding of the fragility of life had only grown with each passing day. He wasn't afraid of a street fight, but asking him to hack a person—even a zombie... He would almost certainly panic and feel fear when the moment arrived. Yet when that moment came, his aim could not waver, and his hands could not shake! Otherwise, a single lapse in focus would cost him his life. An adult's greatest virtue... was never overestimating oneself. Perhaps his most urgent task, aside from spending a day familiarizing himself with the surroundings, was to find an opportunity to visit a slaughterhouse to butcher some livestock for desensitization training.