On the night of day 11, a robbery frenzy broke out through the town. Grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, convenience stores, bakeries… almost all shops open for business until now have been looted.
At night, Su Han took shelter in a half-finished apartment in a residential building. (The apartment has no doors or windows installed, she could walk in and out at will). The entire night was filled with the sound of fights, windows getting smashed, people looting and burning things. All kinds of shrieks and howls were heard.
Su Han just changed her position and continued sleeping.
The next day, she checked the situation outside and realized how catastrophic last night was. The few shops that were still operating were turned into ruins, the owner looking lost at the entrance; several people with serious injuries were lying on the street. A small number of people seemed to be on the verge of death, and those with 0 energy levels have probably been refreshed or eliminated. Forty or fifty guards guarded important supply points like department stores and supermarkets after what happened last night.
"Obviously more than one group committed crimes last night." She muttered to herself, "At this point the number of people who can't survive will keep increasing."
*****
Purchase restrictions mean it is still possible to buy something if you're willing to waste time lining up. Su Han was quite willing to go to a department store and queue in line to buy some stuff, but it was a pity that she couldn't find even half a coin after searching all over her body, so she had to give up that idea.
Having nothing better to do, Su Han munched on a loaf of bread and checked her inventory.
The warehouse has 114 bars of soap (separated into two slots), 100 bottles of mineral water, nine loaves of buttered pork floss bread, 60 packs of instant noodles, ten rolls of bandages, five boxes of anti-inflammatory drugs, 69 bags of steel beads, two slingshots and a fishing rod.
There's one opened bag of steel beads, five candles, five lighters, one magnesium strip, and one flintstone in her backpack.
'Should I have stock up on more ready-to-eat products?'
Things like instant noodles, if you eat them without cooking, the increase in satiety is only about half of what you get if you boil the noodles, so eating them without cooking won't increase much. Right now, the only ready-to-eat product she has is nine loaves of buttered pork floss bread.
When she entered the instance, she didn't have enough money to stock up on buttered pork floss bread. And she thought milk and brown bread took up too much space, so she consumed those whenever she received them. Su Han racked her brains, "Even if I want to, where am I supposed to go find buttered bread now?"
Her occupation's skill has a 5% chance of obtaining the luxury set meal, which includes "3 bottles of milk, a piece of buttered pork floss bread, and a piece of chocolate cake", but the probability of actually getting that meal is so low, it can be ignored.
'Should I have eaten the buttered bread instead of brown bread?'
Because the source of obtaining brown bread is relatively stable, it is more conducive to stockpiling. And the buttered pork floss bread. She deeply felt that this thing would not be found in the later stage of the instance.
Su Han rearranged her inventory while reflecting. Soon, it was 9 am.
*****
The system's mechanical voice sounded on time, "On the 12th day, the price of goods rose by 100%."
The system continued: "Due to insufficient electricity supply, there will be a power outage in residential buildings for 2 hours every day and electricity supply will be cut off after 8 pm."
"Due to negligence in maintenance of water pipes, the number of bacterial colonies in tap water has completely exceeded the safety standards. From now on, tap water is no longer drinkable (Drinking it will make one more susceptible to negative buffs)."
Su Han's heart sank as soon as she heard the announcement. The limited supply of electricity is still manageable. She only goes out during the day, and besides, she still has candles in her backpack to use at night. But isn't it too cruel to make tap water undrinkable?! How can people not drink water? This announcement is going to cause more panic.
The only silver lining of the day is, she found four bottles of milk, one piece of brown bread, one piece of buttered pork floss bread, and one chocolate cake in her backpack. Her skill triggered both chances at the same time, so two meal sets were obtained together.
[Chocolate cake: Satiety +40.]
Su Han has never been so thankful about choosing "Nutritionist" as a profession.
Although she had already found a secluded place to stay, she still decided to go out and see if she could get lucky after thinking about it. After all, there's no such thing as having too much supply.
*****
As a result, as soon as she got out of the building, she saw that someone had set up a stall next to a department store. A crowd was already forming around the stall.
Su Han approached curiously.
There were matchboxes, candles, and bottles of mineral water on the stall. It was obvious there was more stuff inside the huge backpack next to it.
A sign hung on the left side of the stall, 'Once robbed, will not set up a stall again.' Su Han wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a warning or a threat.
There was also a sign on the right side of the table, which says, 'Will trade for jewelry and medicine. If you have other useful items, you can ask whether they could be used as an exchange.'
"Come everyone, line up here. You can ask one by one, don't rush." A stall owner is a young man about 25 years old. He's very tall, about 1.85m, and looks very athletic.
Su Han thought the stall owner was very clever. There were forty or fifty guards in front of the department store staring at the street stall next to them. Normal people would never have the guts to commit a robbery in front of those guards. And the most ruthless thing was the words written on the sign, 'Once robbed, will set up stall again.'
As time went by, people gradually discovered that compared to the decline in purchasing power, the more frightening thing is to have money but no place to buy what they want.
There are stable supply points in the instance for food and daily necessities, although it's complicated to buy anything, there is the hope of replacement. But if no one set up a stall, people really wouldn't know where to buy things like candles and drinking water.
Thus, the crowd was quite cooperative; everyone lined up obediently.
Su Han has no shortage of drinking water or candles, so she watched silently from the side.