"Well... I heard General Dante call your mother a tigeress. You know what was even funnier? He showed a hint of fear on his face! That was the first ti I had seen General Dante being afraid of anyone!" Henry murmured like a gossipy aunty.
Ivy pursed her lips. She never thought her parents knew the blackthorn.
Taking a deep breath, she stared at Henry with a deep gaze. "Thank you for informing ."
"Salt goddess... I an, sister-in-law, no need to thank . If it weren’t for you letting in, I would have to stand in line for a long while." Henry’s eyes flashed with gratefulness.
At first, the SiIvy base was nothing compared to a military base, and he even wondered as to what Ivy was doing by opening a base. Though Ivy never stated that the base belonged to her explicitly, Silas’s attitude of lending the military’s resources secretly spoke volus about the hidden truth.
Hence, from the very beginning, Henry knew. However, what he couldn’t understand was... Ivy’s actions. He only thought that she was acting out of kindness.
Never once did he think that Ivy would fail. After all, she had salt in the apocalypse! A commodity that will only beco rarer as ti passes.
But who would have thought that her base would soon start to sell items like potatoes, onions, flour, salt, and milk?
Only people capable of hoarding a large amount of food before the apocalypse could sell so much. But he knew Ivy’s background and could say with absolute confidence... she hadn’t hoarded a single piece of bread.
But then again... she had a mysterious space. Maybe she was farming there?
Anyhow, now Ivy’s base was one of the most sought-after bases. The food was secondary; the primary thing was... how unaffected Ivy’s base’s temperature was!
Henry suspected that Ivy had planted so kind of temperature-controlling disc or an artificial ozone layer across the base, which was admirable.
’Indeed, our captain is the smartest! He was able to see Ivy’s worth when we hated her blindly.’
Now, each piece of land in Ivy’s base has beco valuable to the point that people are dying to buy a house in Ivy’s base, but there are only a limited number of slots available.
Ivy was an intelligent businesswoman. She controlled the houses and only gave so people the right to buy a house. Now, 90% of the houses were still owned by Ivy!
Henry suspected that Ivy must earn 1 million zombie crystals every month, but Ivy might have known his inner thoughts; she would have laughed.
She was earning 10 million zombie crystals before the sudden influx of population. Now that the number might have increased to the point that a two-floor unit might be filled up with zombie crystals just with her monthly inco.
Not to ntion her supermarket, too, was generating a huge amount of money every single month!
Ivy waved her hand lightly, her expression calm despite the flicker of thoughts racing behind her eyes.
"It’s nothing," she said in a steady voice.
Henry smiled at her reaction and turned to leave, but Ivy didn’t try to stop him.
In truth, her mind had already drifted away into a tangled web of worries and calculations.
The extre heat had now hit humanity in full force.
The air outside felt suffocating, as though flas wrapped themselves around the world.
Soon, people would stop venturing out entirely. The outside would beco a true hell.
There was still a painfully long line outside her base... people waiting for entry, desperate for refuge.
’This won’t last much longer...,’ she thought, feeling a tension grow in her chest. ’Once the temperature rises even more, no one will be able to stand outside at all.’
Her thoughts drifted toward her power.
’When will it upgrade again?
If she could reach a range of fifty thousand square ters, she could expand effortlessly without worrying about the queues that stretched endlessly. ’If my ability grows again... everything will move faster.’
The mont that thought ford, another followed... sharp and sudden.
’What about my temporal storage? Has the upgrade finished?’
Her heart gave a tiny jump.
Without wasting another second, Ivy turned and walked swiftly back into her house.
She closed the door behind her, raised her hand, and tried to enter her temporal storage. The world around her dissolved in a soft rush.
Inside the space, the air was crisp, clean, and filled with a faint, dewy fragrance. The mont Ivy stepped in, her eyes widened. Sothing was different...very different.
She spun slowly, her pupils dilating. "What the hell..." she muttered under her breath, unable to hide her shock.
....................
Far away from Ivy, deep in the forest, Moona and Maxi crouched beneath a tree, their breaths shallow and their bodies trembling slightly. Their once pretty faces were now marred with black spots and strange marks that had ruined their looks entirely.
Maxi whispered nervously, "Should we... go back to the base? They probably won’t be interested in us anymore now that we look like this."
But Moona’s reaction was imdiate. She shook her head violently.
"No. What if those beasts don’t care about faces? What if they cover our heads with bags and... do unspeakable things?"
The horrifying possibility made Maxi’s face turn ashen. "You... make a fair point."
The two sisters fell into uneasy silence, wondering what fate awaited them.
’Have we awakened so kind of immunity?’
Moona wondered, her heart pounding. ’We’ve been walking among zombies, yet none attacked...’
Before they could discuss further, the sound of fierce fighting echoed from sowhere nearby.
Both won froze, adrenaline spiking through their veins.
Instinctively, they ducked even lower, hiding behind the thick tree trunk.
Their skin prickled with fear every ti dust shook loose from the branches above.
As for going and helping out whoever was in need of help? Moona and Maxi didn’t even think about it. In the apocalypse... helping others ant stupidity.
They have been betrayed ti and ti again and knew the importance of staying away from trouble as much as they could...
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