Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 57: High Temperature, Transaction 1

Quincy staggered a couple of times, almost losing his balance. "Do you have a mirror?"

"No."

"Is my face really ruined?"

Evelyn... ’Is that really what’s important right now?’

"Looks like it. It’s not important. You’re a grown man, why do you care about that? Hurry up and follow me, it’ll be dawn soon."

Quincy clutched his chest, looking like he was about to cough up blood again. Evelyn edged a little farther away from him. His hands trembled slightly, his expression one of utter devastation, as if the sky were falling.

Evelyn paid him no mind, using her trekking pole to press on. Seeing how heartless she was, not even offering a word of comfort, Quincy felt a bit deflated and limped after her.

"Evelyn, do you live far from here? Are you alone? I can’t believe I ran into you again. I thought you were dead."

Evelyn... ’Is it too late to back out of this deal?’

"You’re so noisy."

Quincy, feeling no shame and in fact a little proud, retorted, "I’m not noisy, I’m just a bit chatty. Looking at you, even though your clothes are more ragged than mine, your voice is full of energy. Seems like you’re doing pretty well. OW! I stepped on a nail."

Evelyn had no choice but to pull a wrench from her backpack, squat down, and help him pull the nail out of his shoe sole.

"You actually carry a wrench around? This would be great for self-defense. Ow, that hurts like hell! I’m not going to get an infection, am I?"

Evelyn didn’t want to talk to him anymore. Quincy chattered incessantly the entire way. By the time they got back to Prosperity Gardens, it was already past four in the morning. The sun was rising, its scorching rays beating down on them. The intense light heated their clothes until they were scalding to the touch. Evelyn had to drag Quincy along at a trot. Once inside Building D, they both collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily.

Even through their clothes, their arms and legs were burned. Evelyn shot Quincy a glare. If it weren’t for this dead weight stepping on a nail and being unable to walk, she would have been back long ago.

"Are you blaming me?" Quincy shrank back, his face smeared with dried blood, looking both ugly and frightening.

"What do you think?" Evelyn huffed, her tone sharp.

"I’m already in such a miserable state, don’t hold it against me. How about this: for the things in that secret room, we’ll do a seventy-thirty split. You take seventy percent, I’ll take thirty."

Evelyn gave a cold smirk. "So, what was your original plan for the split?"

"Fifty-fifty. Fair, right?"

"But I’m thinking of taking it all, and you get nothing." Evelyn stood up, patting the dust off her clothes, and started heading upstairs, slightly stooped. Quincy was shocked by her Silas Hawthorne-like ruthlessness. But since he was now under her roof, he was furious but didn’t dare to say a word. He could only follow her pitifully.

"At least give me a little bit, right? How about eighty-twenty? You take eighty, I take twenty? No? Then ninety-ten? Still no?"

Evelyn took a deep breath, stopped, and turned to look back at him.

"How much you get will depend on my mood at the time. There are a total of five people living in this building. Just find an empty apartment and move in. I’ll take you to meet the others later. You have to follow the rules living here. Otherwise... you know what I mean."

’Break the rules and you die,’ Quincy thought, nodding frantically.

The two of them reached the tenth floor. Evelyn pointed to her own door and said, "This is my place."

"The adjacent apartments are all empty. The eleventh floor has been converted into a gym. Two families live on the twelfth floor: Officer Graham and his daughter Wendy, as well as Roy Henderson and Owen Chapman."

Evelyn led him up to the twelfth floor and knocked on Officer Graham’s door. Officer Graham opened it quickly. He had just breathed a sigh of relief seeing Evelyn back safely when he noticed the blood-smeared Quincy behind her.

"Mr. Graham, this is Quincy. He’ll be staying here for the time being." Evelyn briefly explained Quincy’s origins.

Officer Graham nodded. "Alright, I understand. Welcome, Quincy. My name is Chester Graham. You can just call me Mr. Graham."

Quincy was thrilled to learn the man before him was a police officer. "Hello, hello, Mr. Graham! My name is Quincy. Evelyn and I met during the poisonous moth outbreak. It was a dark and stormy night..."

"Stop. Shut up." Evelyn resisted the urge to beat Quincy and shot him a fierce glare.

Quincy let out a silly chuckle, his gory face nearly scaring Wendy, who was hiding behind Officer Graham, to tears.

Just then, Roy Henderson and Owen Chapman from next door came out. Evelyn introduced Quincy to them as well.

After the round of introductions, everyone had the basic picture. Quincy would live in the Collins family’s old apartment next to Evelyn’s. Officer Graham, Roy Henderson, and Owen Chapman helped him clean up the place. Evelyn gave him a few warnings and went home. Closing the door, she took off her backpack and gritted her teeth as she peeled off her clothes.

Her face, arms, neck, thighs, and calves all had burns of varying degrees. After a quick wash, Evelyn applied an ice pack to the burned areas. Once the initial heat subsided, she applied some ointment, and the pain finally dulled.

Last night’s haul had been good. Evelyn reorganized the things she’d collected and placed them neatly into her spatial inventory. The storage rack she found also came in handy; she could put food on it.

She took out the two safes she had found on the top floor of the clubhouse and pried them open with brute force. One of them contained several sets of jewelry. Evelyn couldn’t tell if they were real or fake, but they were so dazzling it was hard to look away.

The other safe contained a gun and several boxes of ammunition. Evelyn’s heart hammered in her chest. She had found them in the middle of a bed in one of the rooms; the foam mattress had been hollowed out to hide the two safes. She had assumed they just held gold and jewels, but to her surprise, they also contained the weapon she had been longing for. Evelyn’s eyes lit up.

Now the gun she’d taken from the bandits could be used as well. Suddenly possessing two weapons, Evelyn felt like she’d struck it rich overnight.

After examining them for a while, she put them away. She’d been busy all night and was exhausted, sleepy, and hungry. Her stomach also felt a little upset. Evelyn glanced at the calendar; her period was due in the next couple of days.

The boxed meals in her inventory were running low. ’Looks like I’ll have to make some more to store away,’ she thought. Evelyn took out a container of stir-fried pork over rice. After eating her fill, she flopped ungracefully onto her cooling mat. The air conditioner’s breeze felt wonderfully cool against her skin. As her thoughts drifted to the secret room Quincy had mentioned, she fell asleep in less than two minutes.

Evelyn didn’t sleep for long. The burns on her body were too painful. Out in the sun, rubber products would melt and start smoking in just a few minutes, which just went to show how terrifying the sunlight was.

When she got up, she reapplied the ointment. Taking advantage of the fact that her period hadn’t started yet, she washed her hair with cold water. Although she had plenty of water, she was reluctant to waste it. The used water could still be used to water plants or wash her feet.

In the afternoon, she took a storage battery into the kitchen and retrieved a very high-tech range hood from her inventory. This was something she had dismantled and brought back from Caelan Manor. The device was mainly for absorbing barbecue smoke. It was only about the size of a pen holder, and when placed nearby, it would instantly absorb all the smoke without making a sound.

Evelyn felt like she had found a real treasure. She had been worried that using a regular range hood while cooking would make a lot of noise and attract trouble. With this gadget, she no longer had to be on edge.

Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong...

Evelyn began studying the recipes. Her stomach, however, had other plans and started to RUMBLE loudly.