Chapter 11-No holding back

Chapter 11: 11-No holding back

Aymara walked out of the restaurant with a satisfied look on her face. She rubbed her stomach feeling completely stuffed.

"That’s was truly blissful," she uttered. "I will eat more in this life... no holding back."

Afterwards, she drove to a different mall and continued her shopping. She stocked up on cleaning supplies, blankets, towels, ropes, domestic tools, containers like basins and buckets and finally bought tarpaulins.

Towels.

She moved through the aisles with increasing speed. The first cart became two, four and all the way to eight, all full to the brim.

A store employee eventually approached her. "Miss, are you organizing an event?"

Aymara glanced at the mountain of supplies. "Something like that."

"What kind?"

"A very long camping trip for all the staff at the company where I work."

The employee looked at her suspiciously. She doubted that a camping trip would require that many things, but she didn’t dare offend Aymara by asking more.

Additionally, she would receive a bonus for handling her large transaction so she was happy about it.

Aymara smiled innocently. "I’m a terrible planner."

The employee laughed as that explanation seemed to satisfy him.

Aymara paid for everything and then she returned to the car. The moment the doors closed, her expression changed.

She touched the steering wheel and called out, "Storage."

The system responded instantly.

[Storage Space opened.]

Aymara placed one bottle of water inside and the bottle vanished.

She smiled. "Good, now no one can ever steal my supplies in this life."

She placed the remaining supplies inside. Boxes, bags and cases disappeared. Everything was preserved exactly as she had purchased it with no expiration, spoilage or wasted space.

Aymara was delighted. She thanked her luck and fortune for sending her the system.

DING!

She froze as a new notification appeared on a floating blue screen.

[Mass Stockpiling Achievement Unlocked.]

[Host has demonstrated exceptional commitment to survival.]

[New Space Function Unlocked.]

[Multiplication Function.]

Aymara blinked once and again. Her mind comprehending what that function meant.

"Multiplication?"

[Explanation: Every individual item placed inside the Survival Space may be multiplied.]

[Current multiplication rate: ×100.]

Silence swallowed the car. Aymara slowly looked toward the bags she had just stored and then she laughed.

Hahaha. Hahaha.

"No way."

She immediately tested it by placing one bottle of water inside the storage space.

[Multiply ×100?]

"Yes."

A flash of light passed through the space and one bottle became one hundred in that very moment.

Aymara’s mouth fell open. She tried a bag of rice and again one became one hundred. She repeated with a box of batteries, a packet of seeds and all were multiplied.

Aymara stared at the results slowly. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"This..." she covered her mouth. "This is amazing. Truly worthy of being a cheat in the apocalypse."

Her previous shopping suddenly looked embarrassingly small. She had spent hours worrying about how much she could physically buy. Now she only needed to purchase a few boxes of something and the system would do the rest.

Aymara leaned back in the driver’s seat. For the first time that morning, she felt genuinely relaxed.

"System, I take back every complaint I’ve ever had about you."

[The System has no record of complaints, host.]

"Don’t ruin the moment," she scolded whole shaking her head.

She felt truly blessed like the heavens were on her side and wanted her to survive no matter what.

She didn’t bast in the blessing for long and quickly composed herself as the next problem she had to check off her list was weapons.

Aymara drove to another part of the city. Knives were easy to find while crossbows and arrows were more difficult, but still obtainable through legal sporting channels.

But firearms? Ammunition? Explosives? Those were a different matter entirely.

Aymara had no intention of walking into a store and asking to buy an absurd amount of weaponry.

She needed someone who knew people, someone discreet who had experience dealing with dangerous situations and there was only one person she could think of. That person was her former bodyguard.

She didn’t delay the matter and quickly called him on the phone. The call went through, it rang for a while before being answered.

"Mr. Dark, I need a favor."

"Anything for you, miss. Tell me, how many I be of service?"

"I need you to find me someone for me."

There was a pause on the other side for a few minutes before he spoke again. "What kind of someone?"

"A weapons supplier selling guns, grenades and the sort. Can you do it?"

"Aymara?" he sounded shocked, almost as though he had heard wrong.

"Yes?"

"Are you planning a war?"

She smiled. "I’m just looking out to protect myself. Can you help or not?"

His voice became serious. "Did you offend someone? Do you need me to return to my post?"

"No, I didn’t offend anyone. I’m just being careful."

"Is it a politician? A business rival? A crime family?" he asked repeatedly, clearly not buying her story.

Aymara laughed. The apocalypse was coming, soon, such names and titles that send shivers down people’s spine would seize to exist.

People will learn to fear every survivor because one can’t he sure what they did to survive and then they’d fear the mutated creatures. It will be a mess.

"No. I didn’t offend anyone. Please stop overthinking."

"Then why do you need weapons?"

She didn’t answer him anymore, instead, she transferred one million into his account immediately.

The former bodyguard’s phone chimed, he stared at the amount in utter shock.

"Aymara!" he called out, his eyes full of disbelief and his heart in panic.

"You’ll get another million if you find someone capable of supplying what I need in large quantity."

"You’re serious?"

"Very. Act quickly before I find someone myself and the deal gets off the table," she added.

"What are you planning?"

Aymara looked through her windshield. The city was bright beneath the morning sun. People were buying coffee, children were playing around and traffic moved normally.

Nobody knew that five days from now, those same roads would become ocean deep.

She smiled faintly. "I’m preparing to fight the world. Don’t ask anymore, just get the job done.

"Aymara..." he wore a worried look.

She burst out laughing. "You should have seen your face. You look so serious like I am indeed going to fight the world," she played it down.

"That’s not funny!"

"I know but you fell for it," she waved her hand dismissively. "I’m joking. I’m just paranoid and I need weapons to calm my nerves."

"You don’t need an arsenal because you’re paranoid! You need a therapist, miss."

"Maybe I do. Just get the job done and I’ll wire you the rest of the money."

She hung up before he could argue with her. Her smile faded because only she knew that she wasn’t joking.

In five days, the world really would become a battlefield and she intended to have enough power to make sure nobody boarded her ship without permission.

---

By afternoon, Aymara returned to the cruise ship. She walked through the main entrance and the moment she stepped inside, she received another surprise.

DING!

[Security Function Available.]

Aymara stopped walking and listened to the system. "What does that do?" she asked, curious.

[Ship Lock System.]

[Once activated, only individuals personally authorized by the Host may enter.]

[All unauthorized individuals will be classified as intruders.]

[Intruders will be expelled or eliminated according to the vessel’s current defensive capabilities.]

Aymara’s eyes widened. "Eliminated?"

[Affirmative.]

She looked around the empty lobby and pictured Dylan, Sarah and other survivors. "So if someone tries to force their way aboard without my permission..."

[They will be treated as hostile and get eliminated immediately.]

Aymara smiled. "Activate it."

DING.

[Ship Lock Activated.]

A faint blue light traveled through the walls. The entire ship seemed to awaken and the doors clicked. The security systems powered on, sensors activated and the upgrade was added on.

Aymara felt like she was standing inside something that belonged entirely to her. A floating fortress that only she commanded.

She walked to the nearest window. Outside, the ocean was calm and with soft waves.

"Excellent. Now, without my saying so, unwanted trash from my past life won’t get into my ship!"

She went on to check the ship’s status and her smile disappeared.

[Current Ship Level: 1.]

[Defense: Low.]

[Hull Reinforcement: Basic.]

[Energy: Moderate.]

[Medical Facilities: Basic.]

[Agricultural Facilities: Basic.]

Aymara frowned. All the joy she had felt suddenly vanished. "Still level one?"

[Affirmative.]

"After everything I’ve done?"

[The Host has not yet satisfied the upgrade requirements.]

Aymara folded her arms. "How much more?"

[Unknown, host.]

She stared at the system. At that rate, if the apocalypse hit, she’ll be an easy target. Unless she upgraded to a higher level, there will be no different outcome in this lifetime.

"You’re annoying," she stated.

[Acknowledged, host.]

Aymara sighed. "Fine."

If the system wanted her to work harder, she would without holding back. She still had time to get everything she needed before the end of the world arrived.