Night of the Apocalypse

Shen Qiu glanced around and randomly picked up a simple white precious metal necklace from the ground. He looped it over the sheath of the mechanical knife, securing the blade at his waist. This way, it wouldn’t hinder his subsequent movements.

Then he continued to rummage through the other scattered items and the damaged safe, hoping to find something useful.

There were many remnants left here; although a lot had been violently destroyed, there were still plenty of intact items.

As he searched, Shen Qiu came across a very special envelope made of an unusual material, which was still sealed. Opening it would break the seal, indicating that it contained something important.

He quickly tore it open and found a stack of papers inside. Pulling one out, he noticed that they were all densely packed with mechanical parts schematics.

Each diagram was annotated with a jumble of intricate symbols.

Shen Qiu flipped through the pages, his brow slightly furrowing. This resembled a paper copy of some kind of confidential blueprint.

Unfortunately, it was too complex for him to make any sense of, but that didn’t hinder Shen Qiu from judging its value. He placed the documents back into the envelope and put it in his backpack.

He continued to patiently search for other items.

After half an hour, Shen Qiu had turned the place upside down, gathering everything of some value together.

Next, he opened his backpack, emptied all its contents, and reorganized everything.

Looking at the pile of items, he finally made a choice: he put the envelope of documents, a book, a gemstone necklace, two gemstone rings, a bottle of unopened medicine, a lighter, and a more advanced electronic wristband into his backpack. He placed the magnetic cards and mechanical keys in a side compartment. If he didn’t use them while exploring upstairs, he would simply discard them.

He chose these items based on the standard of light weight; he had to ensure that his speed and agility wouldn’t be significantly affected.

After organizing everything, Shen Qiu slung the backpack over his shoulders. At that moment, his gaze fell upon the piles of gold bricks on the ground, and a rare, complex expression crossed his face.

He never expected to see so much money one day.

Of course, it wasn’t that Shen Qiu didn’t want to take the gold bricks, nor did he regard money as worthless; on the contrary, he needed money more than anyone right now.

Despite living in the Red Alliance’s Clear Sky Seventh Ring, owning his own house, and appearing to live comfortably, he had fought for all of it with his life.

Moreover, his current income was extremely volatile and unstable.

In fact, the vast majority of people within the Red Alliance were struggling desperately to survive. The reason this part of the population was invisible was that they didn’t live within the Tenth Ring; instead, they resided outside of it.

This situation arose largely due to the development of the times and the scarcity of various resources, which had led to an ever-widening wealth gap.

Although the Red Alliance had implemented various measures to address and remedy the situation, even specifying that in each administrative district’s main city, only within the Third Ring were advanced technologies permitted to create more job opportunities, unfortunately, such efforts were merely a drop in the bucket.

Shen Qiu let out a deep sigh. Although the gold bricks on the ground weren’t large, each one weighed over ten pounds.

Taking even one would significantly increase his load, which would greatly affect him.

Not to mention that, due to lack of food and drink, combined with insufficient rest, his physical condition had deteriorated sharply.

In this state, forcing himself to carry something could be life-threatening if he encountered danger.

That said, it wasn’t that he absolutely couldn’t take any; some people would rather take the risk. It all came down to personal choice.

As for Shen Qiu, he had already made his choice. He retracted his reluctant gaze and walked out of the vault, gun in hand.

He looked at the open round metal gate, then stepped forward and pushed against it with his arm, trying to see if he could force it closed.

The gate was so thick that under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to push it by himself. However, if there was a mechanical hydraulic assist device built into it, that would be a different story.

Creak!

To his surprise, as Shen Qiu exerted himself, the heavy gate slowly began to move.

It seemed that he was quite lucky.

Click!

The entire gate closed shut once again.

Then Shen Qiu looked at the mechanical combination lock, noted down the code settings, removed the key, and scrambled the combination lock.

He really couldn’t take the valuable items from the vault with him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have another chance in the future.

After completing these tasks, Shen Qiu returned to the safety staircase and climbed up to the second floor. As he ascended, the light gradually returned, so he powered off his phone and put it away.

A few minutes later, Shen Qiu arrived on the second floor, which was the office area.

The central area was filled with partitioned workstations, and there were several individual rooms on either side.

The scene was a mess, with numerous remains scattered about, and bullet holes riddled the desks and walls.

Shen Qiu walked over and conducted a brief search; the most abundant items remaining were folders filled with documents, similar to reports. Of course, these had no real value.

As for the rooms on either side, one was locked, but Shen Qiu managed to open it with the key he had found.

This room was an archive, while the others were likely for supervisors or similar roles.

Shen Qiu found quite a few items in these rooms, but he discarded them all.

Holding his firearm, he cautiously made his way up to the third floor.

Two hours later, Shen Qiu appeared in the corridor of the thirteenth floor. He stood at the doorway of a room and gently nudged the ajar door open with the tip of his foot.

The murky air rushed toward him.

Shen Qiu held his breath and entered, gun in hand. The room was very dimly lit.

After carefully observing his surroundings, he saw various miscellaneous items and tools scattered about: office chairs, a hodgepodge of parts, nylon ropes, gloves, and the like.

He took a look and then stepped back out.

Shen Qiu continued to explore upstairs. Along the way, both the hallways and staircases were equipped with cameras.

Although these cameras were all disabled, Shen Qiu occasionally glanced at them just in case.

Fortunately, everything seemed normal.

After a long while, Shen Qiu reached the top floor, which contained a total of four rooms.

If he was not mistaken, the top management of the bank should be working on this floor.

Shen Qiu walked straight to the first room. In the center of the room stood a computer that looked very advanced from the outside.

Unfortunately, the entire computer had been violently destroyed.

In the corner of the room, he found an open safe that still contained some remnants.

Shen Qiu approached and rummaged through it, but unfortunately, he found little more than disappointment.

What remained in the safe were not gold bars or cash but rather a series of digital documents and some empty boxes.

He let out a long sigh. It was clear that the most important items in this room had already been taken.

Just as Shen Qiu was about to leave, his gaze fell on the open window, and he walked over to it.

Through the window, Shen Qiu looked outside.