Zi Jiang had just been unconscious for a long time. Now that she understood the situation outside, her mind was extremely tense, and she couldn’t rest at all. So Zheng Ying took her to stay behind in the lobby first.
It was still before dinner time, and combined with the shock, no one felt very hungry. Everyone went to the water dispenser to pour themselves a cup of water and then returned to their rooms to rest.
Tang Siqing didn’t want to arouse suspicion either, so she also poured herself a cup of purified water in a disposable cup.
After entering her room and closing the door, she looked around, then concealed a tool for inspecting surveillance cameras inside her backpack and took it out from Space. After confirming there were no hidden cameras installed inside, she moved a low cabinet over to block the door from the inside.
This cabinet wasn’t very heavy. If someone outside tried to push the door open, it would still require some effort and time to get it past the block.
She wanted precisely this delay, to have enough time to put away anything inside the room that didn’t belong there if someone came.
It was only a little past four o’clock now. For the past three and a half hours, she hadn’t planned to sleep. Instead, she intended to use this time to inventory the supplies inside Space and reorganize the contents of her backpack.
After all, she was now waiting for rescue alongside the others, and it was inevitable that someone would see her backpack. She didn’t want to be caught pulling out things from her backpack that didn’t actually exist.
Thirty cubic meters of Space wasn’t huge, but not small either. Compared to suitcases, it was roughly equivalent to sixty large suitcases in volume.
With that much space, if she only stored personal daily necessities, food, medicine, and survival gear, it would be enough to stockpile several years’ worth of supplies.
Although time inside Space flowed at one twenty-fourth the speed of real life, there was no gravity inside. Items stacked wouldn’t topple or shift, and she could rearrange them freely according to her needs. This allowed her to make full use of every bit of space in an organized way.
Currently, inside Space, she had 40 barrels of 19 liters each of purified water, twenty boxes of 24 bottles each of 550ml purified water, eight boxes of mixed-flavor instant noodles (30 packs each), six boxes of self-heating hotpots (6 packs each), 24 cans of lunch meat, four boxes of fruit cans, ten boxes of 30-can vegetable dishes, two boxes each with 100 packs of dehydrated vegetable and egg packs, 30 bags of self-heating army ration rice, ten 5-kilogram barrels of compressed biscuits…
These were all long-shelf-life convenience foods. Considering that one day outside equaled one hour inside Space, the expiration dates were basically negligible.
Convenience foods were easy to store but eating them often could cause mental depression, so she also stocked normal foods.
She bought two large freezers and started freezing things at home. Once the ice layer was solid, she put them into Space.
One freezer was for various fresh fish and meat — all pre-sliced or processed pieces from the supermarket, like deboned fish fillets, seafood, meat slices, rolls, and shredded meat. Once opened, they could be grilled, cooked in hotpot, or fried.
Fresh fish and meat spoil easily. Even inside Space, although spoilage wouldn’t occur within a month, after two months they’d begin to rot. But with the freezer’s help, as long as the ice layer inside remained solid, the food wouldn’t spoil.
The other freezer was for frozen desserts like cakes, drinks, ice cream, fried chicken, chicken cutlets, dumplings, pizza, steamed buns — all quick meals that could fill her up.
She also bought eggs, milk, vegetables, fruits, and bread. At first, she thought of using Space as a fridge, constantly buying and replacing these items, finishing the older ones first. But over time, they’d still spoil. So she bought a refrigerator specifically for storing these non-freezable foods.
She also bought a considerable amount of packaged cooked food. Since these had shorter shelf lives, she only started stocking them after renting a car and beginning her journey, planning to buy and eat as she went.
She had boxes of beverages — milk, coffee, milk tea — plus a variety of sweet and savory snacks, tea, and coffee. These didn’t take up much space and had long shelf lives, so she bought plenty.
Clothing, shoes, and hats were already at home. She packed a portion into Space and supplemented them with gear for extreme climates.
She bought several fully equipped survival backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, moisture-proof mats, insulation blankets, and other camping equipment.
She also bought generators — camping gasoline generators; two kerosene stoves that could cook or provide warmth with several boxes of special fuel; simple climbing and diving gear; and a few self-defense weapons legally purchasable.
The gasoline generator was 3000 watts, 220 volts, low noise and energy-efficient, consuming 1.12 liters of gasoline per hour to generate three kilowatt-hours — enough for emergency use. But she couldn’t stockpile gasoline in large quantities.
Gas stations restricted bulk gasoline sales. Special circumstances were required, like a vehicle breakdown or agricultural machinery operation, accompanied by relevant proof, to purchase gasoline in iron drums.
She could bring the generator, purchase receipt, ID, and compliant portable oil drums to buy gasoline by the liter, but every liter purchased was supervised and logged, with a daily cap of 30 liters. She couldn’t buy gasoline every day in large amounts.
So currently, inside Space, she only had three 30-liter barrels of gasoline; one was bought in the previous city. Portable oil drum purchases were unrestricted. She stocked ten 50-liter and seven 30-liter portable oil drums.
Medications were purchased many times in small quantities from multiple sources, eventually sorted into a large storage box containing common medicines, antibiotics, nutritional supplements, disinfectants, bandages, and purification tablets.
Besides items already at home, she replenished daily necessities, especially consumable paper goods, bathing and cleaning products, sanitary napkins, and tampons. She also stocked dozens of fully charged large capacity portable power banks. Since her destination was the Northwest Uninhabited Zone, she had to ensure her phone would have power 24/7.
Common seasonings — salt, oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, pepper — plus special hotpot and dry pot seasoning packs, sauerkraut fish, and the like were also stocked in a large storage box. Although she rarely cooked outside, these items took up little space and had long shelf lives, so she stocked them.
Staples like rice, flour, and oil had long shelf lives as well. Based on her usual consumption, she stocked about two to three years’ worth.
She rarely ate rice and flour at home — like most city dwellers, she ate lunch and breakfast out and only occasionally cooked dinner. Now that she had many convenience foods in Space, she wouldn’t touch these staples first, but kept them as a backup.
She combined the protagonist’s action trajectories from multiple Eclipse Rituals, modified them based on her needs to be as streamlined and comprehensive as possible, but still spent a lot of money, especially on cold weather, camping, climbing, and diving gear.
After spending her own savings, she also used some of her sister’s money.
Before leaving home, she packed all important items like documents, precious metals, photos, etc., into a small storage box and placed it in Space as well. Since her return date was uncertain, having these essentials with her in Space gave her peace of mind.
After filling Space, about seven to eight cubic meters remained as spare room for patching up shortages on the road.
She deliberately bought a dozen extra-large storage boxes to keep inside. These boxes were very sturdy, with lids, stackable when empty, saving space, and suitable for storing both liquids and solids when needed.
In fact, if today’s events hadn’t happened, Space would have simply been a large invisible suitcase for her, easing the difficulty of her journey and allowing her to travel lightly with ample preparation.
But now, everything was different. This Space had become her lifeline.
She then began reorganizing her backpack — a professional outdoor waterproof hiking backpack with 28L capacity, weighing only 780 grams, and expandable to 35L.
She emptied everything out, sorted through it, put some back into Space, and selected some supplies from Space to bring along.
A compact outdoor first aid kit of about 130 components — basic medicines, bandages, tourniquets, disinfecting alcohol pads, heating patches, self-powered flashlight, safety hammer, multi-tool knife, first aid manual — took up one-fifth of the backpack space.
Then she added a folding filtered water cup, a bottle of purification tablets, climbing rope, folding insulation blanket, a windproof waterproof thin jacket, a box of disposable underwear, and a mini toiletry bag.
Next came some small, high-calorie foods: chocolate, fruit candies, energy bars, small cakes, small bread, beef jerky… and two mini cups of instant noodles. Lastly, she included a bottle of purified water.
For self-defense weapons, she naturally wouldn’t carry a long sushi knife. She picked an outdoor folding knife, only 12 centimeters long when folded, with a thick, sharp blade. The handle had an emergency rope cutter and a small safety hammer. It wasn’t packed with features but was the most inconspicuous yet practical knife she had.
After selecting the knife, she put it back into Space, planning to retrieve it under the disguise of her pocket when needed to avoid loss and suspicion.
Everything sorted, Tang Siqing blew out her scented candle, carefully went to the window, opened the curtains a tiny gap, and looked outside.
Even though it was still early evening, the weather had darkened completely due to the thick Grey Fog outside. It looked no different from night.
The silence inside was overwhelming. She could clearly hear her heartbeat.
She drew the curtains closed again, turned back inside, and quietly checked her phone to review the footage of the Red Tongue Monster breaking into the mall and attacking the crowd.
The previous discussions were detailed, but she felt like there was some important information everyone had overlooked…
Half an hour later, Tang Siqing entered the bathroom in the room. It was fully equipped, even had a bathtub, and when she turned on the faucet, the water was still hot.
She had come in originally to use the toilet, but seeing this sparked an idea.
Nobody knew the situation outside, nor where the rescue forces would place them once they arrived. Under any circumstances, clean water was crucial.
Signal was down, and there might soon be water and power outages.
Yet here, there was not only water but hot water.
She immediately closed the door, brought an empty storage box from Space, placed it under the bathtub faucet, and began storing hot water.
Each storage box held about 300 liters. She filled six boxes, totaling 1,800 liters of purified water — just under two tons.
Normally, this wouldn’t be enough, but under special conditions, it could last a long time.