18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 33

Stella managed to crack into the maintenance supply warehouse, and finally found diesel in one room.

She found a good 30 barrels. There was 160 liters per barrel, equating to around 4 tons.

Given that there was an international fair in town, along with a once-in-a-century storm on the horizon, Stella knew that the preparation for a potential power cut couldn't just rely on this small amount of diesel. So, she cracked into every possible place, and indeed discovered two more rooms stocked with diesel, adding up to a total of 12 tons.

Her inflatable boat and RV could run on diesel, which would last her quite some time. She was excited, and hoarded it all into Arcadia.

Arcadia had an array of solar battery boxes, but who would choose when they could take it all?

Taking her tools, she completely disassembled the generator, bundled up the tools and parts from the maintenance department and took them all.

The seventh floor and below was filled with various styles of modern furniture, which Stella continued to gather as she moved along. She had a preference for modern furniture, as the designers took into account the needs of those living in small spaces, with many items having foldable feature.

With an extra 1200 cubic feet of space, Stella collected anything she could get her hands on, the epitome of indulgence.

Beds, latex mattresses, sofas, wardrobes, TV cabinets, bedside cabinets, tables, chairs, and rocking chairs...

Exhausted, she sat down for a rest, periodically checking in with Arcadia.

She noticed that only a portion of the wooden furniture she'd collected later had disappeared. It seemed that the vendors were craftier than she'd thought. They sold bad quality wood under the guise of valuable wood. Arcadia turned out to be a fantastic machine for detecting forgeries.

Moving up the spiral staircase, she found an extra living room, but no other changes were apparent.

She continued her collection spree until the fifth floor, only picking durable items. In this post-apocalyptic world, there was no room for frills, as they would only raise suspicion when traded later.

She had spent too much time at the exhibition center. She checked her phone and found it was already three in the afternoon. As she was driving her inflatable boat back, she noticed two buildings under construction on her way back.

sight of houses collapsing during the earthquake, leaving ruins everywhere, she

completed and were in the decorating phase, with many materials already moved up to the

ceramic tiles, waterproof coating, and more. The decorating progress varied from floor to floor, and

waste Arcadia's space on it. The rest would be difficult to reproduce; even if the government were to rebuild

ever since the second floor of Arcadia had been completed, the height of the garden had changed and was now level with the second

materials didn't take up much space, so she gathered everything

the waterproof and light-blocking cloth to cover the cement, lime

suddenly remembered the safes she'd left in Arcadia. So, she took

safes. The four safes from the jewelry store were all empty. It seemed Arcadia had swallowed

of

seemed all big bosses liked to challenge the criminal

rounds. Even in

had never handled a real gun, but her school had a

she could sleep more peacefully, and once again

which she had found in the big boss' office. This one couldn't also have contained any contraband,

it was full of money. Bundles of ten thousand dollars, and there was a total of 100

all in brand

hadn't expected. If she had received this money before the disaster... well, she might have already been

the paper money hadn't been declared invalid, it had severely depreciated. It was better than

and threw all

wasn't easy for her to venture out alone. Stella took out her phone to check the offline map, hoping to see if there were any other places worth visiting nearby. There was a commercial science and technology museum, but it was in the

was built in the suburbs,

or planes was out of the question. She could only

route was determined, she headed for the Swan Hill commercial science and

Unfamiliar with the route, it took her almost an hour to

times. Almost all goods useful for