N-A-A Chapter 354: A Diary
Chapter 354: A Diary
Using the safe house to conceal their presence while the Little Zombie Rats lured away the zombies was a truly effective strategy.
However, by the time the two of them reached the mission location, it was already evening.
"Looks like we’ll have to rest in Veridia tonight."
Nina Jacobs planned to gather the supplies here, find a safe place nearby, and spend the night in the safe house.
Wayne Warner nodded. Knowing Nina Jacobs intended to collect supplies, he cleared away the various debris piled in front of the supermarket entrance.
Nina Jacobs used her Gold Element Superpower to open the door lock.
The Gold Element Superpower was certainly convenient for picking locks, especially since she soon discovered the supermarket had five separate doors and locks.
The final metal door looked as if it had been reforged by a Gold Element Superpower into a thick, seamless sheet of iron.
"It looks like someone sealed this place on purpose."
Nina Jacobs surmised that someone had coveted the supplies here and didn’t want anyone else to get to them.
After she used her Gold Element Superpower to open the thick iron plate, a foul stench assaulted them.
Even though Nina Jacobs was prepared, the fermented stench, made worse by the heat, was overwhelming enough to make one’s head spin.
The two of them stood at the entrance for a few minutes until the smell had dissipated somewhat. Nina Jacobs then tossed two searchlights inside to get a clear look at the situation.
The ground was littered with human skeletons, some of them posed as if they had been reaching for the outside.
"They look like people who were trapped in here."
Nina Jacobs frowned.
’Trapped in here, and they couldn’t get out?’
’There are supplies and water here. What on earth happened to them?’
As Nina Jacobs ventured deeper inside, she saw human bones scattered haphazardly on the floor.
They looked as if they had been torn apart and devoured.
Just then, a black camcorder that Wayne Warner picked up caught her attention.
The camcorder still had power. Nina Jacobs pressed play and saw the back of a massive figure.
It was clearly a giant Mutated Zombie. In the video, its back was to the camera as it ravenously devoured something.
Just as it turned its head, the camcorder clattered to the ground.
Accompanied by screams and crashing sounds, it was clear the cameraperson had met a grim fate.
Nina Jacobs checked the date on the footage. It was from over a month ago, after the roads in Veridia had been destroyed.
"Could this be the other Intermediate Zombie?"
Nina Jacobs glanced around warily. She remembered Mordecai Quinn saying that all the survivors within Veridia had already been rescued.
But there looked to be thirty or forty skeletons in here.
That meant these thirty or forty people had likely come from the direction of Keldorn to look for supplies.
Most survivors searching for supplies these days were Superpower Users. That meant thirty or forty Superpower Users had failed to kill this one Mutated Zombie and had been eaten by it instead...
This zombie was very likely that Intermediate Mutant Zombie.
The thick metal door must have been its handiwork as well.
No one would lock themselves in with a zombie.
At this thought, Nina Jacobs immediately released four Little Zombie Rats and sealed the entrance they had just used with Diamond Sand.
If the Mutated Zombie was a Gold Element type, she couldn’t use her own Gold Element Superpower to seal the entrance.
"Be careful. There might be an Intermediate Zombie nearby."
Nina Jacobs warned Wayne Warner.
Mission 45 was a Four Stars task. Perhaps because a good portion of the supplies had spoiled, she only needed to collect 65% of them.
Nina Jacobs didn’t start collecting the supplies right away. Instead, she examined the skeletons.
A few dust-covered backpacks were scattered on the ground.
What puzzled Nina Jacobs was that every backpack was stuffed full of empty water bottles.
’They were looking for water?’
In one of the backpacks, she made an unexpected discovery: a palm-sized notebook.
It appeared to be a diary.
The diary’s pages were densely packed with writing, though the entries grew shorter toward the end.
Nina Jacobs began to read it carefully.
September 15: Traded a case of supplies for a bottle of water at the base today. It took us three days to gather that case. It hurts... but a person has to eat, and a person has to drink...
September 17: Another day without enough water.
September 18: Tobin and the others went out to find water again. I don’t know if they’ll make it back alive. Zephyrus only ate a few dry noodles today. I’m so scared she’ll get dehydrated... I hope Tobin’s group can find some water.
September 19: Tobin still isn’t back. Some people at the base are secretly forming a team to go search for water farther out, toward Veridia.
There doesn’t seem to be an official base in Veridia, but it’s worth it if we can find water.
September 25: I’ve decided to go with that team to find water. Even just finding a Water Element Superpower User would be enough...
September 30: On the road today. The team ran into a zombie horde... we lost 18 people.
October 1: I wasn’t going to write today, but I think it’s National Day. The good news is we found some water. The bad news is we seem to be lost... Veridia is so far away. I probably won’t be able to write in my diary on the road ahead...
The more Nina Jacobs read, the more she felt that something was terribly wrong.
Before the apocalypse, Keldorn was located in Drakonia’s arid northwest region, but it had a normal water supply infrastructure. People’s lives hadn’t been affected.
After the apocalypse, with the emergence of Water Element Superpower Users, it shouldn’t be this difficult to get water, no matter how arid the region was.
Nina Jacobs flipped back through the diary and finally found her answer.
It turned out that the Water Element Superpower Users in Keldorn had been forcibly conscripted and were being controlled by the Lornwood Base.
At the Lornwood Base.
In the beginning, everyone could still receive a daily ration of drinking water. But gradually, it reached a point where water could only be obtained by trading supplies for it...
Nina Jacobs closed the notebook, her expression thoughtful as she gazed at the skeletons on the ground.
Her original reason for heading to Lornwood Base was simply to keep its supplies from falling into the wrong hands.
Especially since The Aegis Conclave had also set its sights there.
But from what she’d read in the diary, the situation at Lornwood Base was far more complicated than she had imagined.
’Is now really the best time for me to go?’
She didn’t dwell on it for long.
Nina Jacobs began collecting the salvageable supplies from the shelves, while Wayne Warner stayed close, keeping watch over their surroundings.
Before she knew it, a system notification announced the completion of her mission:
[Mission "Free Shopping Spree 45" detected as complete. Rewards have been distributed.]
But it was immediately followed by a new mission prompt:
[Apocalypse Survival Mission initiated: Free Shopping Spree 46
Mission Objective: The warehouse inside the Wilde Cinema will be destroyed in 2 days.
Clear out 100% of the supplies from the warehouse.
Mission Rewards: 1 Level Four System Storage Space, +90 Experience Points.
Mission Difficulty: ★★★]
"A Three Stars Mission?"
Nina Jacobs immediately searched for the Wilde Cinema on her system map and found it was located just across the street.
"Might as well get it done while I’m here."
After all, the reward was a Level Four System Storage Space.
When the two arrived at the Wilde Cinema, Nina Jacobs felt a stroke of luck.
The cinema was practically deserted.
Since it was already late, she decided that after collecting the supplies, she and Wayne Warner would rest inside the cinema for the night.
Of course, she would have to use the safe house.
It was the first time Nina Jacobs had ever heard of a cinema having a supply warehouse.
Moreover, the supplies inside looked quite valuable.
In addition to over a thousand vacuum-sealed bags of popcorn kernels, there were large vats of coconut oil, syrup, cases of bottled water, and assorted sodas.