CHAPTER 604: CHAPTER 604: VEGETABLE SECTION

She knew inside her heart that the days of her pretending to be proud and hiding her past mistakes were over. Even her superpower, which let her peek into the future, showed her nothing but darkness.

She had once seen how she would die...drowning, suffering, and her body being violated after death.

The thought alone made her shake.

One morning, while cleaning the hall, she stared at the entrance.

Her mop slipped from her hands. She took a deep breath and whispered to herself, "I will not wait for that end. I will choose my own."

Slowly, step by step, she walked toward the gate.

Su Han noticed her leaving. "Sister, where are you going?" he called out, wiping sweat from his forehead.

Su Rong didn’t look back. "Just outside for a while."

At first, Su Han thought she was just trying to get fresh air. But hours passed, then the evening came, and she never returned.

He looked everywhere, panic rising in his chest. "Sister? Su Rong? Where are you?"

When he realized she had truly run away, his face went pale. "She left me... she really left me..."

He wanted to run too, but the base members noticed. They surrounded him.

"You will not escape like her," one of them said firmly. "From now on, we will keep an eye on you."

So Su Han was forced to keep cleaning. Since he could not pay rent, he was kicked out of the residential building.

One night, he slept outside the base wall. The cold wind blew, and the roars of zombies echoed in the distance. His whole body shook with fear. He curled up tightly, tears streaming down his face.

"This is worse than death..." he whispered.

His mind broke slowly. He realized he could no longer demand things. He could no longer dream of being spoiled.

He made a decision. "Better to beg than die."

From then on, he woke up early, cleaned the entire base within four days, and then spent the rest of the time begging in the market.

People gave him scraps, sometimes a crystal or two. In this way, he managed to rent a tiny room.

Meanwhile, Su Rong wandered outside the base. She had no weapon, no power strong enough to protect herself. It wasn’t long before zombies found her.

She screamed and ran, but one of them bit her shoulder. Pain exploded through her body.

She fell to the ground, her vision blurring. But instead of terror, a strange relief spread through her heart.

"So... it is over..." she whispered weakly. "Better this way... than what I saw..."

She remembered the vision of her death. The gangsters who would have taken her corpse. The humiliation. The endless torture.

As her mind grew cloudy and her humanity slipped away, she smiled bitterly. "At least as a zombie... no one can touch me..."

Days later, in her zombie form, she attacked a group of travelers. One of them stabbed her through the skull. Her body fell lifeless, finally at peace.

Back in the base, Su Han survived, but his life was nothing like before.

Slowly, people forgot about him. But some bullies took him as an easy target. They cornered him at night, mocking him, hitting him, stealing his scraps.

He grew thinner and thinner. The once chubby boy became gaunt, his cheeks hollow, his eyes sunken. He walked with his head down, afraid of every shadow.

He muttered to himself often. "Do not fight back. Just stay quiet. Just survive."

Su Jiyai, on the other hand, paid no attention to him. Her focus was entirely on her research.

In her laboratory, she carefully ground herbs, mixed powders, and boiled liquids. She had finally completed the sixth stage of the antidote.

Her hands trembled slightly as she held a glowing vial. "Only ten percent left..." she whispered. "Just a few more herbs, and the zombie virus antidote will be ready."

She sat back, her eyes tired but shining with hope.

Looking at the seventh step in her notes, she sighed. "The herbs I need are still missing. Even after traveling through many portals, I haven’t found them."

Closing her notebook, she stood up. "I should take a break."

She walked out of the lab and into the bright courtyard. The base was full of life...people chatting, children running, soldiers patrolling the area.

For a moment, Su Jiyai let herself smile faintly. "This... is worth protecting."

She strolled through the base, her calm eyes scanning everything.

Behind her, Su Han walked past quietly, his body thin like a stick, his head bowed low. He dared not meet her eyes.

To him, Su Jiyai was no longer just the girl he once bullied. She was a mountain too high to ever climb. She was the one who decided his life and death.

And so, he kept his head down and silently vanished into the crowd.

Su Jiyai did not even glance his way. Her mind was already fixed on the antidote, on the hope of saving the world from the virus that had stolen so much from humanity.

"Just a little more," she whispered to herself. "And it will be done."

Su Jiyai slowly walked past the factories.

The smell of hot iron drifted out of the iron factory. Sparks flew inside as workers hammered glowing pieces of metal into sheets and bars.

She stopped for a moment, watching the busy scene. Her heart felt heavy yet warm.

One worker noticed her and quickly bowed.

"Boss Su, the production is going smoothly. We just finished smelting a new batch of iron bars. Tomorrow we will start shaping them into machine parts."

Su Jiyai nodded.

"Good. You are doing well. With this, we can make machines that people thought were almost extinct during the apocalypse."

The man smiled, sweat dripping down his face.

"Yes, Boss Su. I never thought I’d be working with real iron again. It feels like before... no, it feels even better than before."

Indeed, Su Jiyai had found a tip from some of the mercenaries that an iron ore mine was located near the base.

Without hesitation, Su Jiyai used her resources and hired workers to mine the iron.

She smiled faintly and continued walking.

The cotton factory was just across the street. Inside, people were spinning cotton threads, weaving them into cloth.

A few seamstresses were already cutting and sewing the fabric into simple shirts and pants.

A young girl ran out, holding a soft white shirt. "Boss Su! Look! We made this yesterday! It’s so soft!"

Su Jiyai touched the cloth. It was indeed soft, nothing like the patched, rough clothes most survivors wore.

"Good work," she said gently.

The girl’s eyes sparkled, and she ran back inside happily.

Outside, a lively street stretched out like the beating heart of the base. Food vendors shouted, selling warm buns and hot soup. A man hammered swords in his weapon stall.

Another sold pots and pans made from iron sheets. Children laughed, running between the stalls.

Su Jiyai had never seen the world before the apocalypse, but after traveling to many different worlds, she knew... this was how the world was supposed to look.

Inside, she opened her system screen and checked the stats of the grocery stores she had opened in different countries.

Her eyes widened. "The numbers... they are rising too fast!"

Lines of data blinked across the screen. People were buying food at an unbelievable speed. The rankings of the stores kept shooting up.

She frowned. "Why are they buying food at such a terrifying speed?"

Far away in Country A, a grocery store glowed with bright lights. Inside, hundreds of people rushed around, grabbing bags of rice, canned food, and bottled water.

"Quick! Take more noodles!" one man shouted, stuffing packets into his basket.

"I got oil! Over here!" another yelled.

The shelves were restocked automatically every time they emptied, and people were amazed.

In the middle of the crowd, two twins stood close together. Janet hugged her basket of food while Mark scanned the shelves carefully.

Janet whispered, "Brother... this store is too amazing. I truly wonder who the owner is."

Mark chuckled softly. "Not easy to find out, Janet. Someone with such a large supply must be powerful. Very powerful."

Janet tilted her head. "But if they had all this food, why didn’t they open the store earlier? Why wait twenty years?"

Mark’s eyes narrowed. "That’s the question I keep asking myself."

Janet shrugged.

"Maybe the owner was waiting for the right time. Or maybe he or she wanted to save resources. I don’t know. But one thing is clear. This person is very kind. Selling food so cheaply when they could take the world’s wealth... it must be a noble heart."

Mark stayed quiet. In his mind, the doubt grew stronger.

"Noble? Or calculating?" he thought. But he didn’t argue with his sister. Instead, he only said, "Maybe one day we will meet this owner. Then we can ask."

For now, they filled their baskets.

Just then, a mechanical sound echoed through the store. A new section lit up at the far end.

Everyone froze.

The glowing letters above read: Vegetables Section.