Chapter 25: Underwater City
Liu Xiaona’s long-awaited escape plan from the base was utterly ruined by Xie Hao.
Xie Hao had casually shouted Liu Xiaona’s name out loud, which immediately caused the groggy, half-asleep base guards to perk up and begin actively searching for him.
Liu Xiaona carefully secured his hidden crystal core. Ai had risked her own life to secretly hand him this core, and it was his absolute last hope of survival.
“Stop shouting…”
Liu Xiaona weakly dragged himself out from behind a tent.
Xie Hao failed to hear Liu Xiaona’s faint voice and just kept on yelling his name.
“Look, over there!” A guard picked up a stone and threw it right at Liu Xiaona.
Liu Xiaona: …Just you wait.
Xie Hao followed the trajectory of the thrown stone and finally spotted Liu Xiaona struggling to push himself up from the ground.
After not seeing him for just a few days, Liu Xiaona’s hair had grown long, his beard was a tangled mess, and his entire body was sunburned a deep, raw crimson. Xie Hao had to squint to properly identify him, finally confirming that this oversized red shrimp of a man was indeed Liu Xiaona.
Meanwhile, back at God’s Supermarket, Song Yuqing had stayed awake the entire night. The moment dawn broke the next morning, she got out of bed, unable to wait a second longer to enter her spatial vault.
The eight heavy iron doors stood there in a quiet row, waiting for her to open them.
To avoid any confusion down the line, Song Yuqing had meticulously placed designated numbers on each of them. The white iron door was labeled 01, the door that opened into the pure white nothingness was 02, and the threshold leading to the parallel timeline a century in the future was marked 03.
This time, Song Yuqing resolved to open a brand-new door.
Steeling her emotions, she did her absolute best to clear her mind of any distracting thoughts, visualizing a cool, remarkably resource-rich world.
Exhale… inhale… exhale… inhale…
Song Yuqing slowly turned the heavy iron handle, and a breathtaking new reality unfurled before her eyes.
An underwater city.
Stepping through the portal, she found herself standing on a completely deserted cross-sea bridge. The surrounding air was entirely vacant, without a single human soul in sight. However, just as she had visualized, the weather was beautifully cool and refreshing.
Hiss—!
Suddenly, several zombies dropped straight down from the high bridge towers, lunging toward her with ravenous excitement. These creatures were radically different from the walkers in her own timeline; their skin mutated into vibrant, shifting colors, and they immediately began channeling elemental superpowers across gold, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Song Yuqing instantly spun on her heel and bolted. She couldn’t comprehend what had gone wrong with her visualization. She had explicitly been praying for abundant resources, not a high-tier zombie horde!
As the powered walkers hot-bloodedly pursued her down the asphalt, she briefly considered triggering her spatial retreat to flee back to the shop, but she was deeply unwilling to waste a structural opportunity that only locked in once a month.
“Hey there, gorgeous. Are you headed down to the underwater city?”
A mermaid was lying lazily against the bridge’s outer guardrail. Her upper torso was that of a stunning blonde beauty, while her lower half tapered into a massive, shimmering blue-purple fishtail.
If the creature hadn’t suddenly spoken, Song Yuqing would have assumed she was just an ornate decorative sculpture anchoring the architecture.
Right as the elemental zombies launched their attack, the mermaid reached out, scooped Song Yuqing into her arms, and violently dove off the edge of the bridge. A perfectly spherical submarine broke the surface of the water below, its reinforced glass canopy sliding open to seamlessly catch both the mermaid and Song Yuqing before sealing shut.
Operating on an automated, unmanned grid, the vessel smoothly began its deep dive into the ocean.
Watching her childhood fantasy materialize into a physical reality, Song Yuqing found herself entirely speechless, unable to find the words to describe the awe.
“I’m your official tour guide, Ai Mei,” the mermaid announced, flashing her a playful wink. “Hiring my services will only run you a flat rate of fifty points.”
“Deal!” Song Yuqing agreed instantly. Her gold points card currently held a staggering balance of over ten thousand credits, making a fifty-point fee entirely negligible.
Ai Mei immediately produced a sleek, interactive travel map, eagerly detailing the various landmarks and commercial hubs of the aquatic metropolis.
“Actually, skip the sightseeing. Take me straight to the largest supermarket first,” Song Yuqing corrected her, keeping her primary mission firmly at the forefront of her mind.
“Understood,” Ai Mei chirped, entirely unphased by the request. She had encountered plenty of eccentric travelers just like her.
Adhering to Song Yuqing’s prompts, Ai Mei began breaking down the history of this timeline. Well before their localized doomsday outbreak hit, humanity had constructed massive underwater sanctuaries, completely abandoning the terrestrial landmasses to conquer the depths of the ocean.
“We get quite a few spatial travelers slipping into this sector from alternate timelines,” Ai Mei added, her massive fishtail swishing rhythmically against the console. “I practically specialize in foreign client logistics.”
Song Yuqing froze, almost forgetting to breathe. A moment later, an even greater wave of shock hit her system as the submarine cleared the trenches.
A colossal, transparent glass dome completely enveloped the entire metropolitan expanse. The architectural design relied on sleek, streamlined aerodynamics, and ultra-modern maglev trains shuttled smoothly through every corner of the cityscape.
Their submarine glided through a hyper-reflective transit tunnel, entering the perimeter of the enclosed city. The vessel smoothly deployed a pair of wheels from its chassis, transitioning seamlessly onto the paved highway.
The vehicle eventually brought them to a halt right outside a towering, spiraling skyscraper.
“This is our premier wholesale commercial hub,” Ai Mei said, helping Song Yuqing step out of the cabin. As her feet touched the ground, her large fishtail smoothly split and shifted into a pair of elegant human legs.
The entire towering structure operated as a singular, massive supermarket. The facility bore no corporate name, organized strictly by tier: the first floor housed prepared rations and snacks; the second floor carried fresh fruits and vegetables; the third floor held raw meats; the fourth floor offered a sprawling selection of seasonings; the fifth floor sold heavy kitchen appliances and hardware; the sixth floor was dedicated to home goods; the seventh floor held apparel; the eighth floor carried personal care items; and the ninth floor targeted land survival equipment.
“Just out of curiosity,” Ai Mei asked, tilting her head. “What’s the total balance sitting on your card?”
“A bit over ten thousand.” Song Yuqing stared up at the gargantuan retail empire, suddenly realizing the modest shopping list she had drafted back home was entirely obsolete.
“Perfect. Follow me closely,” Ai Mei smiled, thoroughly experienced in navigating foreign travelers through bulk hauls. “I’ll manage your procurement line and highlight the absolute best investments.”
Song Yuqing followed her guide onto the first floor, systematically selecting exactly five hundred items ranging from cured meats to vacuum-sealed self-heating bentos. The facility featured a high-tech, self-service digital platform anchored to every display terminal, meaning Song Yuqing didn’t have to manually haul a mountain of crates through the aisles. She simply logged her selections digitally, swiped her gold card at the centralized hub, and funneled the finalized haul directly into her spatial vault.
She lost all track of time as she scoured the first tier, her cognitive sense of hours completely shot. By the time they reached the escalator to the second floor, her legs were already feeling mildly numb from the sheer volume of walking.
The produce section on the second floor classified fruits strictly by their botanical structure. Standard, simple fruits like apples and oranges carried massive promotional discounts. Aggregate variants like pineapples and strawberries sat at a slightly higher premium. However, Ai Mei noted that these specific crops had undergone localized enhancements designed to rapidly boost a human’s physical stamina upon consumption.
Song Yuqing plucked a fresh strawberry to test the claim. The moment she chewed it, a wave of refreshment washed through her veins; the ache in her legs instantly dissolved, and her posture straightened up.
Ai Mei specifically guided her toward the complex vegetable-fruit hybrids, pointing out the displays of tomatoes and cucumbers. She explained that these specific strains carried dense molecular properties engineered to actively level up a user’s superpowers.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Song Yuqing diverted the funds she had originally earmarked for common greens and completely bought out a massive haul of tomatoes and cucumbers. It was a tough trade-off, as the nearby exotic tropical fruits had been triggering a severe craving, but utility won out.
Moving up to the third-floor raw meat division, Song Yuqing adhered strictly to her guide’s council, loading her inventory with massive crates of fresh fish and premium beef. Ai Mei explained that the city’s top nutritional scientists had conducted extensive clinical trials, proving that a consistent diet of high-grade fish and beef rapidly accelerated physical tissue recovery and expanded a mutant’s elemental energy reserves.
Song Yuqing heavily prioritized the beef over the fish. She was already fantasizing about organizing a massive, celebratory beef hotpot night the second she returned to the shop.
Ai Mei kept a tight reign on their budget as they navigated the fourth, fifth, and sixth tiers, restricting her client to purchasing only absolute survival necessities. She kept reminding Song Yuqing to spend her capital wisely, though the store manager’s feet felt completely glued to the floorboards as she stared longingly at the dazzling array of high-tech home goods and appliances.
Reaching the clothing lines on the seventh floor, Song Yuqing turned to her guide, desperately asking if any of the apparel carried protective, anti-bite properties. She felt a wave of disappointment when Ai Mei shook her head. Left with no alternative, she casually selected a versatile mix of civilian attire for men and women, picking out a few exceptionally cute outfits for Gaha before advancing to the eighth tier.
She bypassed the bulk of the personal care displays, keeping her selections strictly to high-end body washes, shampoos, and skincare formulas for her own quarters. However, her eyes caught a row of vibrant hair care products, and she snatched up several bottles of deep purple hair dye. Gaha’s classic, unkempt horror-movie hairstyle was getting a bit too creepy to look at every day; it was high time for a stylish makeover.
The ninth floor was the absolute centerpiece of her entire shopping spree. The massive layout was entirely dedicated to terrestrial survival gear engineered specifically for anti-zombie warfare. Song Yuqing immediately locked down fifty high-tier melee weapons, each unit featuring a razor-sharp tactical bayonet and a heavy, weighted steel machete.
She wanted to spend more time analyzing the blades, but Ai Mei firmly grabbed her wrist, dragging her toward the heavy-duty tactical rucksacks and armor terminals.
“Don’t waste your credits on basic cold steel. In real combat, the only weapons that actually matter are firearms, but the supermarket isn’t authorized to retail ordnance—you have to file an official requisition form with the central government to secure guns,” Ai Mei explained, pointing toward the high-grade survival kits. “These units right here are where the real value is.”
“An official government requisition?” Song Yuqing’s curiosity spiked. “Can I apply?”
“It’s an incredibly bureaucratic nightmare. Under standard protocol, management will absolutely never approve ordnance sales to unregistered cross-dimensional travelers.”
Song Yuqing wanted to push the issue, but she knew when to cut her losses. Turning her focus back to the displays, she selected exactly fifty military-grade survival rucksacks fully stocked with emergency trauma kits, shelf-stable rations, and purified water packs. The price point was incredibly low, representing massive cost-effectiveness.
As for the tactical armor selections, the inventory consisted primarily of heavily reinforced combat gloves, ergonomic knee pads, and lightweight ballistic vests. Song Yuqing reasoned that these would be an absolute godsend for the unawakened ordinary civilians back at the base, so she systematically funneled fifty complete sets into her vault.
By the time she finished transferring the armor, her long rectangular spatial corridor was packed completely to the ceiling. She had to pause, mentally shifting and stacking the crates to barely squeeze the final sets inside.
Beside her, Ai Mei suddenly stopped, frantically counting the running total on her fingers before violently slapping her own thigh in sudden panic. They had completely blown past the safety margin!
“Quick! Pick exactly fifty items from your list and delete them!” the mermaid gasped. “If you don’t drop them right now, your remaining balance won’t even be enough to cover my fifty-point guide fee!”
