Chapter 3: Everyone Calls You the Ocean King Out of Respect

That night, Su Miao meticulously listed all the supplies needed for the coming apocalypse in a document, then printed the entire thing out to avoid missing anything.

Meanwhile, on the online Q&A forum, another geography expert appeared, analyzing possible locations for an apocalypse base in her province based on IP addresses. One of those locations happened to be quite close to Su Miao.

Panshan Scenic Tourist Area was situated in a hilly, mountainous region, with elevated terrain and a large number of villas available for rent—you only needed to pay to move in. Su Miao found the contact information on the official website of the tourist area and inquired about the price for renting a villa for two months.

She had barely finished her online inquiry when the company called her directly. This left Su Miao either waiting in awkward silence for the caller to hang up, or she had to hang up herself. Eventually, with the help of a customer service lady whose voice was particularly pleasant, Su Miao successfully booked a villa.

However, she still needed to sign the contract, select her villa, and collect the keys, so Su Miao had no choice but to take a taxi there. Upon arrival, she found the customer service lady to be not only pretty but also adorable, making Su Miao even more nervous.

"Hello, Miss Su Miao, I’m Xiaoyan!" the customer service girl introduced herself. "Ah, so you’re the one who contacted every customer service representative in our company! You’re famous here—everyone calls you the Sea King."

Sea King?

Su Miao’s body trembled uncontrollably again.

"Miss Su Miao, are you feeling alright?" Xiaoyan asked with a hint of concern.

Su Miao shook her head. Face-to-face conversations with strangers were still overwhelmingly difficult for her.

Xiaoyan invited Su Miao into the reception room and pointed out the villas currently available for rent on a model display.

"Here," she said.

Su Miao chose a villa in the highest area without hesitation. Judging by the model’s geography, this was the safest spot, unlikely to be affected by landslides or mudslides.

The villa’s interior was equipped with solar power, a fireplace, advanced thermal insulation, high-level security installations, and three underground floors. All the basic facilities were provided, as if the villa had been designed specifically for an apocalypse.

Next, Xiaoyan guided Su Miao on a tour of the villa. The real thing matched the model exactly, with no sign of any cut corners.

Su Miao was very satisfied. During the heavy rain phase, she could stay here, confident the floods wouldn’t reach her. When the blizzards and extreme cold came, she could use the fireplace, air conditioners, and, if necessary, move to one of the underground levels.

During the extreme heat phase, she could also hide in the underground floors with the air conditioning on to avoid heatstroke. At that time, the highest outdoor temperature on Earth would reach seventy-five degrees Celsius—countless people would suffer from heatstroke and heat illness. Su Miao had read about similar historical events in Africa, where temperatures reached sixty degrees and tens of thousands died from heatstroke each time.

"Miss Su Miao, how long will you be renting?" Xiaoyan asked.

"Two months," Su Miao replied.

"Alright, Miss Su Miao. The rent for two months is thirty-six thousand yuan, but we’re currently running a special: all villa rentals are fifty percent off, so you only need to pay eighteen thousand yuan," Xiaoyan said with a smile.

It was their standard sales pitch, designed to make customers feel like they were getting a bargain while the company still profited. The abnormal weather this year meant the summer heat had driven away the usual wave of tourists, so if Xiaoyan didn’t bring in clients, she risked being laid off.

Su Miao nodded. "Okay."

She signed the contract quickly and paid without hesitation. Xiaoyan was overjoyed when she saw the payment had gone through.

"Miss Su Miao, here are your villa keys. If you need anything, feel free to contact me."

"Thank you."

With the keys in hand, Su Miao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

That afternoon, she hired a moving company to transfer all the essential supplies from her old apartment to the villa in the tourist area. The rest she left behind in the old place. Once the property was sold, the new owner could deal with whatever remained as they pleased.

With shelter secured, Su Miao began stockpiling supplies according to her list. Following methods suggested by resourceful online users, she contacted a storage company and rented two large warehouses. Then, via online orders and deposits, she purchased massive quantities of essentials: two standard generators, six small generators, five solar power units, several tons of rice, flour, oil, salt, condiments, canned goods, compressed biscuits, various medicines, daily necessities, seeds, and more.

By her initial estimates, her 3.9 million yuan in savings should have been enough. But after placing deposits on everything, she realized the money was far from sufficient, even if she sold her apartment.

After ten busy days, Su Miao had transferred all the supplies from her warehouses into her magical storage space. She had no money left for the remaining items she wanted.

"What should I do?"

Sitting in her room, Su Miao stared at the countdown to doomsday, torn with anxiety. She opened the online forum, hoping for more advice from fellow users. But since the first few answers on the day she posted, there had been very little response.

Wait—

Su Miao noticed a notification for a new reply. This one was from a user named Shuai Gao.

"Given the apocalyptic scenario you described, not only will animals and plants mutate, humans will too. If you awaken superpowers, you could totally head to Neon Land or America, sweep their supermarkets and armories, and prepare for doomsday. That’s what every power-fantasy novel protagonist does!"

"Is everyone treating this like a novel?" Su Miao wondered. She was asking in earnest about how to prepare for an imminent apocalypse.

Still, the suggestion wasn’t entirely baseless. She did know magic, especially her ‘Magic Space’ ability. Using it to raid supermarkets and armories was plausible.

But as for Neon Land—she dismissed that idea. For over a century, they’d been dumping nuclear waste, contaminating the island’s flora, fauna, soil, and water. Even if they handed over their supplies, Su Miao wouldn’t dare accept them.

More importantly, buying supplies and interacting with people domestically was taxing enough for her. If she went abroad, she doubted she’d even leave her hotel room, let alone go on a zero-dollar shopping spree in America or storm a dangerous armory.

Wait—

Suddenly, she saw another reply on her question, this one from a user named Liuxing.

"I disagree with the previous suggestion. Even with superpowers, I wouldn’t recommend going abroad. If something goes wrong, you might not survive to see the apocalypse. As for firearms, if this turns into a zombie apocalypse, gunshots will draw hordes of zombies right to you—that would be a disaster. Personally, I suggest you commission some bows, crossbows, swords, and blades. That way, even if you have to fight, you won’t make much noise."

Su Miao’s eyes lit up as she read this answer.