Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging
Chapter 23: Cooking

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Cooking

At that moment, the shop owner probably had only one thought: he really didn’t understand the lives of the rich.

"I have some ornamental fish here, do you want them?"

Moira Lynch: ...

After a moment of silence, Moira Lynch said slowly, "Mister, even before the weather got this hot, fish never survived more than half a day in my care."

The implication was that if they couldn’t even last half a day in normal weather, they stood no chance now.

Next, Moira Lynch bought up all the birds in the entire flower and bird market. She immediately released the ones that could fly and put the ones that couldn’t into cages.

She kept busy like this until nightfall.

Her behavior quickly became the talk of the street. Specifically...

"Hey, did you hear? Some silly girl with more money than sense showed up, bought a bunch of birds, and let them all go. She only kept the half-dead ones."

Moira Lynch rode past them on her electric scooter, her face devoid of expression.

Under the cover of darkness, Moira Lynch took the opportunity to move the caged birds into her space.

Most of the birds were in this state due to dehydration and heatstroke. Once inside the space, the temperature dropped, and their weak bodies began to slowly recover.

As for the ones she had released earlier, they hadn’t actually left.

Led by the first Macaw, they all flew back to Moira Lynch’s side and were subsequently taken into her space.

She wanted these birds to become her eyes.

Although the news reported new information every day, Moira Lynch had a feeling these days wouldn’t last much longer. The internet could crash completely at any moment.

Even now, Moira Lynch could clearly feel that the internet wasn’t as smooth as before; it frequently lagged.

After putting all the birds into her space, Moira Lynch went to her temporary warehouse and collected all the potting soil and fertilizer.

By the time she finished, the sky had grown completely dark. But Moira Lynch wasn’t scared in the slightest. She didn’t even turn on her scooter’s headlight as she zipped down the road.

With her spiritual power scouting the way, she was perfectly aware of any obstacles ahead and had no need to worry about danger.

When she got home, the blue plastic crates had already been delivered.

Moira Lynch tirelessly moved the crates into her room one by one.

Then, the other half of the living room, which was already half-occupied by the swimming pool, was taken over by the blue plastic crates.

The weather was too hot now, and the seed germination rate was low. So, Moira Lynch planned to first sprout the seedlings in her space. Once they were successfully sprouted, she would plant them directly. The survival rate should be higher than just sowing the seeds.

After getting everything done, Moira Lynch began her daily meditation.

Although she couldn’t yet completely replace sleep with meditation, she could clearly feel herself needing less and less sleep. She believed that one day, she would succeed.

’Oh, right. Tomorrow, I need to harvest all the wood ear mushrooms from the game and dry them.’

With that, Moira Lynch fully entered a meditative state.

「The next day」

Moira Lynch woke up on time and began her studies at exactly six-thirty.

During her usual lunch break, she harvested all the wood ear mushrooms, allowing the rotten logs to grow new ones.

She laid the freshly picked mushrooms out to dry in the sun. In less than an hour, the fresh wood ears turned into dried ones.

It was quick and convenient, even better than a dehydrator.

As Moira Lynch ate one of the pre-made meals she had stockpiled, she thought to herself, ’Looks like I need to move cooking up on my to-do list.’

’I should make a bunch and store it in my space. That way, I can just take it out and eat whenever I want.’

No sooner said than done. Her afternoon workout venue changed from the gym to the kitchen.

She started by steaming rice, with over a dozen rice cookers working simultaneously, while she followed a video blogger to make some simple and delicious dishes.

A balanced meal required a mix of meat and vegetables for proper nutrition, so she then learned to make a large pot of stewed meat.

By the time the dishes were ready, the rice was just about done.

Moira Lynch took out the food containers she had stockpiled and portioned the rice and dishes into single servings.

This way, whenever she wanted to eat, she could just take one out, open it, and enjoy a fragrant, hot meal.

As for the nutrient liquid she got from the game, Moira Lynch could only say that its sole purpose was to fill one’s stomach. It did nothing else, and the taste was indescribably bad—even worse than compressed biscuits.

After trying it once, Moira Lynch decisively gave up on it. Unless it was a last resort, she had no intention of putting herself through that.

’Nutrient liquid? They should just rename it Vital Sign Maintenance Fluid.’

While she was busy cooking, her phone kept buzzing with message notifications.

She opened it to find messages from the residents’ group chat. Someone was asking who in the complex were game players, wanting them to step up and volunteer to maintain the community’s safety.

After all, while things outside seemed stable for now, everyone knew it was just a facade.

Seeing that no one was responding, the person speaking in the group chat gradually became more agitated, eventually resorting to guilt-tripping. Shockingly, some people actually thought they had a point.

"We’re all neighbors here. Maintaining the community’s safety is also helping yourselves."

Moira Lynch read the message. ’The sound of their abacuses is practically ringing in my ears. Expecting someone to protect you without being willing to give anything in return? There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.’

’They want the horse to run, but they don’t want to feed it.’

Moira Lynch glanced at it once before tossing her phone aside. The best way to deal with such people was to ignore them completely and offer no response. Otherwise, they would stick to you like glue.

Sure enough, the message notifications on her phone stopped not long after. Moira Lynch took a moment to look and saw that the person who had been posting earlier had been removed from the residents’ group chat.

Just like that, afternoon arrived without her noticing. The alarm on her phone rang again—one Moira Lynch had set specifically for her supply runs.

She tidied up the kitchen, took a shower, changed into a clean set of clothes, and prepared to go out.

The moment she stepped outside, Moira Lynch was hit by a wave of scorching heat.

’Has the temperature risen since yesterday?’

Moira Lynch keenly sensed that the temperature seemed to be rising again, and she was right.

Previously, she had no problem zipping all the way to the city center on her electric scooter. Today, she was already overheating and starting to feel dizzy just halfway there.

Left with no choice, she had to duck into the nearest shopping mall to cool down.

The moment she entered the mall, Moira Lynch let out a sigh of relief.

The mall was luxuriously decorated, and the air conditioning was blasting. If nothing else, that alone proved the owner of this mall was extraordinarily wealthy.

There were quite a few people in the mall, most of whom, like her, were there to freeload off the AC.

Due to the high temperatures, many workplaces had already closed down. With no work came no income, forcing some people to brave the heat and go out looking for jobs.