Chapter 48 Spending the Night Out

By afternoon, the rain outside grew heavier, and everyone was shocked to find that the fog had dissipated a bit more.

In the group chat where tensions had been high that morning, everyone was now chatting heatedly again because the weather was improving.

However, the happy atmosphere did not last long. At eight o'clock in the evening, when the power was supposed to come on, the lights in every household failed to light up.

The Neighborhood Committee issued an emergency notice: due to consecutive days of heavy fog and rain, there were short circuits in many parts of the city. Maintenance personnel were severely understaffed, and the power plant's energy reserves were at critical levels. From today onward, power would no longer be supplied to residents; it would only be provided to special units such as the Disaster Relief Department, hospitals, water plants, and mobile network base stations.

Starting that night, the entire population entered a dark age.

...

The fifth day after leaving the game. The bad news was that the light rain had turned into moderate rain; the good news was that half the fog had cleared.

Bai Xiao decided to risk going out to find the supplies missing from her original plan.

The main items were generators, water travel equipment, and gasoline.

There were many types of generators: single-fuel, multi-fuel, solar with energy storage, and even hand-cranked or wind-powered ones. The sizes and models were even more complex, not to mention the need for accessories like engine oil, filters, and spark plugs to ensure future maintenance and replacement.

Water travel wasn't as simple as she had previously thought. For manual power, she could choose a rubber dinghy, and to save space, an inflatable one was best.

To save effort, an assault boat was the better choice. Previously, Bai Xiao was worried it wouldn't fit in her storage slot, but she later discovered that assault boats also came in inflatable versions. Their shape wasn't much different from a rubber dinghy, and once inflated, an outboard motor could be attached to free her hands. The difference lay in the difficulty of assembly.

Water equipment required even more accessories: air pumps, outboard motors, repair kits, charging panels, oars, and so on.

A complete set couldn't be found in the city center at all; she had to go to specialized markets near the outskirts, such as the Electromechanical Market and the Fishing Gear Market.

The Fishing Gear Market was about eleven or twelve kilometers away, and the Electromechanical Market was further, around fifteen kilometers. Fortunately, both markets were roughly in the same direction.

...

With half the fog gone, visibility had greatly improved, making driving less difficult. However, the days the heavy fog arrived happened to coincide with a weekend. During those two days, traffic in the city center had been terrible. Combined with frequent accidents, most road sections were now blocked by cars parked haphazardly, which no one had cleared for days.

The roads were blocked, so Bai Xiao had to go on foot. After walking a short distance, she saw shared bikes on the roadside, but when she scanned one, the system didn't respond.

The air had been exceptionally humid due to the persistent fog. Shared bikes aren't mountain bikes and are already difficult to ride, but now they were covered in rust spots from the moisture, making them even harder to pedal. Compared to her fast walking pace, it wouldn't be much faster, and she didn't want to waste energy violently breaking the lock.

She wasn't the only one out now that the fog had cleared a bit, but because of the rain, there weren't many people on the road. Occasionally, she encountered a few people surreptitiously prying open roadside shops. Bai Xiao knew these people must have completely run out of food at home.

She walked for over two hours, taking breaks, and only covered six kilometers. Fortunately, she was heading toward the outskirts. At this distance, the traffic congestion decreased significantly. She found a secluded spot and took out her off-road vehicle. With a car, even if she hit a roadblock, she could just take a detour, use a side road, or even drive through the green belts.

Near noon, she finally arrived at the Fishing Gear Market.

Most shops in the market were closed. Following her supply list, Bai Xiao first searched the open shops one by one.

Most of these shops sold accessories like engine oil, spark plugs, air pumps, and repair kits. She took as many of these as she could, gathering enough to equip twenty boats with plenty to spare.

But she hadn't found her main objective yet. After wandering for an unknown amount of time, she finally discovered the back door of a large shop was not properly closed.

Inside, she successfully found several small inflatable rubber dinghies and assault boats, along with other accessories.

She had tens of thousands left on her card from her previous stockpiling, so she estimated the prices and transferred some money to the owner. She couldn't help it; even though society was in chaos, she couldn't bring herself to just loot everything for free. Besides, keeping money was of little use now, so it served as a bit of psychological comfort.

The Fishing Gear Market was huge, and there was no one to guide her while she searched. Combined with the inconvenience of the rain, it took all afternoon to gather everything. By the time she reached the Electromechanical Market, it was already late.

The evacuation of the Electromechanical Market seemed more hurried than the Fishing Gear Market. One of the rolling shutters in the unloading area near the main gate wasn't closed all the way. Bai Xiao went in to check and found some large metal drums that were neither new nor old. This was perfect; she had been worrying about having no containers to store diesel and gasoline.

Supplies were hard to find in the dark, so she planned to find a gas station to get fuel first.

Gas stations were scarce near the outskirts; she had to look for two kilometers before finding a large one.

There was no one at the gas station. She pried open the station's equipment room and found some specialized fuel tools. In the tank farm's operation room, she also found hand-cranked fuel pumps and anti-static hoses. With no internet or electricity, fuel had to be extracted manually, and without these tools, it would be impossible.

The method of extracting fuel was simple, but the process had to be handled with care. She had to ensure there was no water, and more importantly, no static electricity or open flames.

Most of the equipment she chose ran on gasoline, so that night, one and a half of her two storage spaces were used to store gasoline, while the other half held some diesel and lubricating oil.

The hand-cranked pump was slow; it took ten minutes to fill a standard oil drum. With sixty or seventy drums across her two spaces, it would take eleven or twelve hours of continuous pumping to fill them all.

This was a massive undertaking. Bai Xiao only managed four hours of sleep and rest throughout the night. From 8:00 PM on the first night until noon the next day, she finally finished the job.

She went back to the car to rest and finish lunch. By the time she returned to the Electromechanical Market, it was already two o'clock.

After reading guides, she planned to find several types of generators to suit different scenarios.

Solar generators were the quietest and required no gasoline or diesel, but the disadvantage was low power generation and reliance on the weather.

Gasoline generators were noisy but started quickly, making them suitable for temporary outdoor use.

Diesel generators were even noisier and slower to start, but they were rugged, durable, and had low fuel consumption. They could be used for long periods to power homes or factories.

Bai Xiao planned to stockpile one of each type. However, her storage space was truly limited. Even if she wanted to get a couple more as backups, she couldn't fit them. She only looked for more accessories while collecting parts, thinking she could repair them if anything went wrong later.

With a clear goal, she moved faster. Like the Fishing Gear Market, the Electromechanical Market had some open shops, but they were similarly few and only enough for Bai Xiao to find some accessories.

The large shops were mostly closed. Bai Xiao apologized silently in her heart and then found a shop to pry open the door.

The large shop had everything. For the two types of generators that relied on petroleum, Bai Xiao tried to find silent models. She slowly gathered the machines and remaining accessories. Bai Xiao transferred her last bit of money to the Shop Owner. Before leaving, she found a lock in her storage space and locked the shop back up.

On the way back, there was a mountain bike specialty store. Bai Xiao selected a relatively new one from the nearby repair shed, intending to use it for transportation when she couldn't drive.

Today's rain was heavier than yesterday's, and the heavy fog had turned into a moderate fog with higher visibility.

As she neared the city center, Bai Xiao switched to the mountain bike in advance, hoping to get home before dark.

At that moment, she did not yet know that an uninvited guest would be coming to her home.