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Jiang Ci could choose how many orders to accept herself. The ones displayed on the map were all orders placed today.
If a delivery order wasn’t accepted after being placed, the mark would disappear the next day, and the survivor could place the order again.
She looked at the red dots—there were three in total. Today, she would deliver these three urgent orders first, and the others would depend on whether or not she still had time.
Jiang Ci checked the addresses and then said to Song Jinchuan, who was in front, “Let’s head to City T first. Do you know the way? I can help with the navigation.”
Song Jinchuan nodded, “I know the way. You can help with the navigation once we get there.”
Having been on missions outside for years, he was quite familiar with the various cities.
After finalising the route, the electric scooter zipped out like a gust of wind. With no one else around, Song Jinchuan drove the electric scooter at top speed—a speed that even cars couldn’t catch up with. Jiang Ci felt as if the only sound left in her ears was the howling wind.
She stuffed all the items needed for the delivery into her spatial storage, along with their own staff meals.
City T was separated from City C by two other cities, but at their speed on the electric scooter, it shouldn’t take too long for them to get there.
The most challenging part was the large number of collapsed roads that had already fallen into disrepair, but Jiang Ci’s delivery map had them all clearly marked out.
Every time Jiang Ci suggested a detour, they managed to perfectly avoid the potholes and collapsed sections of the road.
Song Jinchuan found it quite miraculous. Since he hadn’t been to this area in a long time, he wasn’t entirely sure about the condition of some roads. Yet, Jiang Ci could flawlessly navigate around them, saving them a lot of time.
With the speed of the electric scooter and Jiang Ci’s guidance, they arrived in City T by mid-morning.
City T wasn’t as large as City C; it was a smaller town, and as a result, had suffered more destruction. Along the way, Jiang Ci saw many abandoned buildings that had been turned into nests by mutated beasts.
The delivery address was in the suburban area on the other side of the city. When the two of them and the tortoise arrived at the designated spot, they discovered it was actually the entrance to an air-raid shelter. Outside the entrance, there was a dense crowd of zombies with a few mutated beasts mixed into the crowd as well.
As Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan approached, the zombies and mutated beasts sensed Hui Hui’s aura. Some quickly fled from the area outside the shelter, while others, drawn by the scent of humans, stubbornly stayed despite the pressure.
Most of those that remained were high-level mutated beasts and zombies.
Song Jinchuan parked the scooter to the side, and Jiang Ci quickly stored it in her spatial storage. Then, she took Hui Hui out of her backpack.
As usual, Jiang Ci sat on Hui Hui’s back, watching as the tortoise and Song Jinchuan cleared the area.
In no time, the remaining mutated beasts and zombies were wiped out by the duo. Jiang Ci was essentially carried to victory, only needing to help dig out the crystal cores afterward.
The commotion outside naturally caught the attention of the survivors inside. Before Jiang Ci and the others could get closer, someone stumbled out, cautiously peeking through the entrance.
When the survivor saw Jiang Ci, they nearly burst into tears.
They had been trapped here for a week. At first, they had nutrient solutions, but in the last few days, both the nutrient solutions and bottled water had run out. Their last hope had been pinned on the delivery order.
They had placed orders for two consecutive days, and today, finally, someone had accepted their order.
“Boss Jiang! Is that you? Are you here to deliver our food?” The man’s muffled voice came through the iron gate, filled with excitement.
“It’s me. Can you open the gate?” Jiang Ci called back, raising her voice.
“Yes, just give us a moment,” the man replied. His footsteps faded away, and soon, several sets of footsteps approached.
The iron gate inside slowly creaked open. Since it hadn’t been used in a long time, the gate made an unpleasant, grating sound, causing Jiang Ci to frown and cover her ears.
The survivors inside finally revealed their faces. Seeing the corpses of high-level zombies and mutated beasts lying outside, they nearly cried again.
They had been surrounded by these zombies and mutated beasts for over a week, hearing their howls and the sound of them banging against the doors every day. They were constantly on edge, unable to sleep well or eat enough, enduring immense suffering.
One of the survivors wiped away tears in front of Jiang Ci, “Boss Jiang, you have no idea what we’ve been through these past few days. Thank goodness you’re here.”
“Are there still people inside? Call them out, let’s clean up this place first. The place is full of corpses, which I imagine can’t exactly be appetising to look at,” Jiang Ci said. She didn’t choose to go inside the shelter. After all, the survivors had been sealed in there for a week, and the smell was probably unbearable.
Jiang Ci asked Hui Hui to help move the corpses, and Song Jinchuan also pitched in, carrying quite a few. By the time everyone came out, the area had been cleaned up.
Jiang Ci found a spot that looked relatively clean and set up the disposable hotpot. She laid out the dishes and pot helmets the survivors had ordered.
There were about a dozen survivors trapped in the air-raid shelter, all looking quite weak. Their eyes lit up when they saw the food in front of Jiang Ci.
“Alright, check it out. Everything’s here. The total is five fourth-level crystal cores and two third-level crystal cores, which includes part of the delivery service fee. Once you pay me, you can eat,” Jiang Ci said.
The man who had spoken to Jiang Ci earlier eagerly handed over the crystal cores, almost shoving them into her hand before plopping down in front of the hotpot.
“Go ahead and enjoy the hotpot yourselves. The high-level zombies and mutated beasts around here should have been cleared out. You’ve been starving for days, so don’t eat too much or too quickly. We’ve got another delivery to make, so we’ll be on our way. Enjoy your meal,” Jiang Ci said, then climbed onto the back of the electric scooter.
The survivors were so hungry that their mouths were already full of food. They simply waved at Jiang Ci as she left.
After Jiang Ci and the others left, the survivors still felt uneasy. They didn’t have much strength left and wouldn’t be able to fight back effectively if danger arose. So, they moved the hotpot and ingredients back into the air-raid shelter, closed the door, and ate in peace. As for the smell inside, well, there wasn’t much they could do about it.
This delivery had earned Jiang Ci quite a bit. As she counted her increasingly abundant points, her smile never faded. The more points she had, the more money she could make. By her calculations, she was almost a billionaire now. All she could think about was when she’d get a break to go back home and buy some things for her parents.
The next destination was another city. Looking at the map, Jiang Ci noticed that the last city marked with a red dot was a coastal one.
She wondered what the ocean looked like now and was quite curious to see it.
pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:
Halfway through their journey, they stopped in a small town. Jiang Ci took out two lunch boxes from her space, found an open spot, and sat down on the ground. They ate and chatted as they rested.
The area wasn’t densely populated with houses, and the surroundings were mostly barren. Behind them lay a withered forest, now only a remnant of its former existence, as the rest had long since turned to dust and scattered with the wind.
Jiang Ci and her companions didn’t notice that several pairs of eyes were closely watching the lunch boxes in their hands as well as the bulging backpacks on their backs from the shadows.
Halfway through her meal, Jiang Ci saw a girl who looked to be only about ten years old stumbling towards them from the side of the road.
Jiang Ci was about to step forward to catch her when a series of beeping alarm sounds suddenly rang in her mind.
Her steps halted. What was going on? Wasn’t this just a child?
Of course, Jiang Ci wouldn’t doubt the system; she was just a bit shocked. After all, the survivor in front of her appeared to be a child, belonging to a vulnerable part of the population in this post-apocalyptic world.
Song Jinchuan also closed his lunch box and stood up, ready to walk over, but the next second, Jiang Ci grabbed his sleeve, “Wait, be careful. There’s something wrong with this girl.”
Song Jinchuan’s reaction was similar to Jiang Ci’s when she heard the alarm—his eyes filled with astonishment.
The girl across from them also felt puzzled. If it had been any other adults, wouldn’t they have come over to show concern for her by now? What was wrong with these two? What were they whispering about?
The little girl didn’t have time to think too much and continued moving along her intended path.
Having worked with Jiang Ci for so long, Song Jinchuan had come to understand her well. He knew she had an almost uncanny intuition for danger, and it was always astonishingly accurate.
Soon, the little girl reached them and, quite deliberately, fell to the ground.
Jiang Ci even pulled Song Jinchuan back a step. As the girl approached, the alarm in her head had practically turned into a beeping continuous line.
Jiang Ci’s curiosity was now at its peak; she just wanted to know what this girl had done.
The little girl had originally intended to pretend to faint, but this time she really fell, feeling quite dizzy.
“Are you okay?” Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan stood quite far away and didn’t make any move to approach the little girl.
The girl shook her head. Seeing that no one was helping her up, she had to get up on her own and continued to move closer to Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan.
The closer she got, the more Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan retreated, saying, “Don’t come any closer. Just stay there for now.”
Still young, the little girl hadn’t quite mastered her control over her facial expression yet, and a strange look flashed across her face, which Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan caught immediately.
Seeing that Song Jinchuan and Jiang Ci remained unyielding, she simply stopped moving. Standing in place, she put two fingers to her lips and blew hard, producing a clear, long whistle that rang in Jiang Ci’s ears.
As the alarm in her head grew louder, more and more children appeared before them, from just a few to dozens, surrounding Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan.
Their faces no longer held the innocence and cuteness of children; instead, they were filled with malice. Each one held a weapon, with the leader even holding a wooden gun.
“Hand over all your supplies and crystal cores,” said the leader, who was a boy who looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old. His features were still childish, but his words and actions were unusually practiced.
Jiang Ci hadn’t expected that the entire group would be children of similar age, with no adults in sight.
the translator has nothing to add ◡̈
