~
Half an hour later...
Ashira returned to the air raid shelter. After returning, she began to reinforce a section of old barbed wire. She reinforced it meter by meter by herself, with Storm occasionally helping her by bringing over some tools. The two of them worked from dark until dawn.
Finally, they had reinforced the entire 2,000 meters along the existing barbed wire. She couldn't wait to hear the reinforcement reward this time. Just as she finished the last bit of reinforcement, a voice came from her mind.
[Detected barbed wire reinforcement, reward—defense effect increased by a hundredfold!]
As the reward fell, Ashira watched in surprise as the entire line of barbed wire she had just reinforced visibly became thicker, denser, and sharper.
Every blade on the razor wire she bought gleamed with a chilling light, and the tiny steel barbs grew much longer!
An originally relatively thin barbed wire gate was now upgraded to a steel lift gate! She walked to the wire mesh and pushed it hard, but it didn't budge at all!
One had to know that when she was reinforcing it just now, she found that these barbed wire fences could effectively block people from entering, but it would definitely not work if someone drove through forcefully or if Zombies surged in large numbers.
But now, even if thousands of Zombies attacked together, they wouldn't be able to tear open her barbed wire!
Ashira was very satisfied.
She couldn't wait to buy other things to continue reinforcing. However, at this moment, a more important matter reminded her.
"Groo—"
"Woof woof!"
She was hungry, and Storm was circling around her, looking like she was starving.
"You're hungry too, aren't you?"
"Woof!" Storm whimpered twice.
They had only eaten something yesterday and had been busy all day, and hadn't even started officially purchasing supplies yet!
Ashira then thought that she still had some food in her space. Thinking about the steamed buns she cleared out of the house yesterday, with a thought, a bag of steaming hot soup dumplings appeared in her hand.
It was still hot?
Ash couldn't help but take out the refrigerator at this moment. After opening the refrigerator, she was surprised to find. Indeed, even without being plugged in, it was still cold!
"Even without electricity, it remains the same!"
This meant that the space the system rewarded her with was a sealed space with no heat loss!
Whatever state the items were in when put in, they would be in the same state when taken out!
Ash was overjoyed. This also meant that she could stockpile supplies indefinitely without worrying about them expiring! When stockpiling food later, she could do so with complete confidence!
"It's ₱5,450 a month to rent here, with a one-month deposit and one month's rent upfront!" At a vacant house in the suburbs.
Ash stood inside with Storm, and beside her was a middle-aged Man in his forties or fifties, The landlord.
There were a large number of vacant houses on both sides of the suburban road. These were their old farmhouses. Now basically everyone had moved to the city, leaving large areas of farmhouses empty. Some in good locations would have 'for rent' signs with phone numbers.
Ashira found a relatively large and conveniently located farmhouse on the main road outside her air raid shelter.
She planned to use this as a transfer station, stockpiling supplies here and then transporting them using the system space to avoid drawing attention and to make it easier for her to go out and purchase.
This way, she wouldn't have to unload goods by the roadside like yesterday, which could easily attract attention.
"₱10,000, no deposit. I'll just rent it for one month as a warehouse." Ashira negotiated with the landlord.
"How can that work?"
"If not, I'll go to another place."
The landlord immediately stopped her, "Alright, alright, ₱10,000 it is. But you can't damage my place, and leave on time when the lease is up!"
"No problem!" Ash got the key for ₱10,000.
She would definitely move out when the lease was up, because the expiration date would never arrive hehehe.
Similarly, if she had paid a deposit, she wouldn't get it back. Spending this extra was still saving a thousand. She couldn't negotiate the price for the air raid shelter, but she had to save money here!
After successfully renting the warehouse, she began to purchase a supplies. The first thing was food.
She first went to 10 Shops and bought 400 bags of 50-pound rice from each.
First, stockpile of hundred tons of rice!
A hundred tons of rice isn't actually that much; a regular dedicated grain wholesale station can provide it. And a hundred tons of rice only occupies a space with a length, width, and height of 5 meters each!
Her space could also accommodate it! She could transport it! These rice bags cost Ash over ₱3.6 million pesos in total, enough for her to eat for several lifetimes!
In addition, she also stockpiled ₱10,000 boxes of instant noodles of various flavors, such as Japanese Tonkotsu, Braised Beef, Seafood, Spicy Beef, Dry Mixed Noodles... basically every flavor available on the market!
After the apocalypse began, instant noodles became a luxury item! Easy to prepare, tasted good, provided abundant oil and salt, and didn't require searching for seasonings. They were the best food!
The price of instant noodles ranged from ₱50 to over a hundred pesos per pieces.
The most common box of 24 packs of Braised Beef noodles cost ₱441, while the more expensive Japanese Tonkotsu cost around a thousand pesos for 30 packs.
On average, it was over ₱571 per box, and 1,000 boxes of instant noodles cost a total of ₱571,000.
After buying instant noodles, what could she do without ham sausages? Ashira bought 200 boxes of her favorite corn sausage and spicy crispy bone sausage, and also ordered a hundred boxes of pickled mustard. These two items cost less than ₱245,128.
After placing orders for the most basic food items, her gaze fell on self-heating meals and pre-packaged meal kits.
These were very convenient; when she wanted to eat, she could just heat them up. She went to various brand stores and bought a box of every dish they had in their stores.
One box of Taiwanese Braised Pork, one box of Home-style Tofu, one box of Brazilian BBQ, one box of Korean Sweet and Sour Pork, one box of Mushroom Chicken, one box of Minced Meat Eggplant, one box of Marinated Chicken, one box of Curry Chicken... etc.
The average price of a meal kit was ₱56 to ₱64 per bag. Ashira bought over 20,000 bags from more than 10 stores, spending a total of around ₱1 million.
This amount was basically enough for her to eat one bag per meal for the rest of her life! Only after stockpiling enough basic food for Ashira to eat for a lifetime without any food worries did she feel a little sense of security.
Only with sufficient grain storage could she prepare for other things. And today alone, she had unknowingly spent nearly ₱5 and half million!
She had over ₱2 million in savings before, half of which was rent from houses over the years. Now, after selling a house, she got ₱16 million pesos, leaving her with ₱13.8 million.
And this was without even starting to prepare for other things. Money was spent quickly; it couldn't be kept.
Ashira's eyes deepened at this moment. After opening her hand, a bright red property deed appeared before her. She calmly found the phone number of a local private financial lender online and called it.
"Hello, I would like to mortgage my property and borrow some money."
"Alright, come to my company at 10 tomorrow morning to discuss in person!"
Ash hung up the phone. She was going to mortgage her property deed again. Hehe, some grudges must be avenged, and returned double!
Prepare to receive her big gift!