Chapter 53: Jing Shu’s Ultimate Weapon
Wang Dazhao No.1: "You’re making me crave it just by saying that. I went to the supermarket to queue up last night, and all the seasonings were sold out. Now when we cook at home, we only add a bit of salt, and it’s as bland as can be."
Wang Cuihua sent a voice message: "The wholesale market for seasonings has closed down. You really should grab some oil next time you go to the supermarket, or else we won’t even be able to fry anything in the future."
Wind No.3: "The maggots on the meat in my fridge have frozen into little ice chunks. Is it still edible? Damn it, we only get three hours of electricity a day! I didn’t even know this had happened to the meat in the fridge!"
Wang Xue Mei No.2: "It’s all meat, what’s not to eat? The supermarket is out of snacks, frozen food—everything. You’re lucky to have something to eat."
Wind No.3: "What’s there to worry about? I’ve stored over a dozen bags of rice; I refuse to believe there won’t be supplies by then."
You see, people in the Initial Stage of the Apocalypse always fantasized about the restoration of light.
Jing Shu shook her head and ignored the chat. She quickly roasted the quails and placed them all into the Magic Cube Space. Then, she went to the ice machine to get a few fresh buckets of ice for the yard. Fully armed, Jing Shu set out with Number 1.
A wave of heat suddenly flooded her respiratory tract, and sweat immediately started to pour down. In the dimly lit residential complex, only the shadows of the fat chickens could be seen, fluttering about, unaffected. Not far away, one could glimpse faint light emanating from the luxurious glass enclosures.
Jing Shu then considered that although the villa area was remote, it was still within the residential complex. With occupancy expected to surge next year, she would need to conceal the fact that her house had electricity, water, and food. After all, it was always best to keep a low profile.
Let it accumulate; the thicker, the better. That way, when the lights are on inside, the fish pond and vegetables in the yard will be obscured. The condition of the villa will remain invisible to everyone.
Oh, right, residents hardly use lights anymore; they either use flashlights or candles. Everything is slowly reverting to the primitive. With cars out of gas, people used bicycles or electric tricycles. During rush hour, the streets were filled with the ringing of bike bells and the honking of buses, keeping the traffic police busy once more.
These days, the ones who still commuted to work were mostly civil servants and public institution employees; businesses had mostly shut down. It was reported that Wu City had seen over half a million migrant workers leave, heading back home. Hundreds of thousands who had been working elsewhere also returned, leaving another few hundred thousand idle at home. Idle hands brew trouble, so the government hiring these unemployed individuals to cull Domestic Poultry also served to give this group something to do.
Planes were currently grounded due to weather conditions. Additionally, the need to assign a large number of people to railway maintenance meant that train services had also been halved. Fortunately, Jing Shu’s family didn’t need to travel out of town anymore. Mrs. Jing had heard from Uncle that distant relatives of theirs were coming to visit—a situation that hadn’t occurred in her previous life. Jing Shu’s heart skipped a beat. Could I have incited another butterfly effect?
Number 1 wiggled its backside, easily pecking at and eating various insects without needing to flutter its wings to fly. The new species of rotten corpse insects were expected to invade soon, and Jing Shu believed their emergence was likely linked to the current proliferation of these other insects.
The Black Fungus Beetle had been completely eradicated. It had only managed to wreak havoc for half a month, but it had also resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Wu City. As for how many people had died of viral flu nationwide, Jing Shu had no idea. In the month leading up to the apocalypse, the news had focused on capturing corrupt officials. In the first month of the apocalypse, it was about arresting celebrities. This month, the focus was on confiscating supplies from various food factories, while occasionally reporting on how chaotic security was abroad to reassure the populace of Huaxia’s safety.
In such a remote residential complex, which housed just over a hundred residents, five had already died. This equated to a mortality rate of 4%, which was actually quite low for the apocalypse.
Jing Shu found herself once again at the back mountain, an area overgrown with weeds and scattered with granite. After much consideration, she felt that utilizing the hard granite was a reliable trump card for her survival. She stored the huge granite blocks in her Magic Cube Space and then used a pendulum saw, moving it back and forth to cut the rock. It could create curved incisions in large stones, a technique originating from the Mycenaean civilization of Greece. Although difficult to achieve in reality, within the Magic Cube Space, Jing Shu’s spiritual power was supreme.
Despite this, after going through dozens of tools and spending twenty days, Jing Shu finally completed thirty ultimate weapons, which filled 15 cubic meters of space. She cut the granite into pillars taller than a person and thick enough for someone to wrap their arms around. Their sharp ends could be used to kill enemies. In critical moments, they could be dropped to embed themselves in the ground, forming four rows of shield walls, or even serve as a mobile stone hut if shelter was scarce.
Each granite pillar weighed over two tons. Using the Magic Cube Space as a launch mechanism, Jing Shu could shoot them out like arrows. Essentially, within the space, she would lift the rocks with her spiritual power and hurl them forcefully. At the instant of throwing, she would release them from the space, allowing their inertia to carry them forward. Practicing with other rocks over the past few days, her best result was launching one over twenty meters, leaving a large crater where it landed. With the aid of the Spiritual Spring, she believed she could launch them even farther.
If Jing Shu faced mortal danger and was outnumbered, she could instantly unleash seven or eight pillars, guaranteeing they would smash the opposition to pieces. If one volley wasn’t enough to kill them, she could retrieve the pillars into her space and strike again.
But... if I were to use this move, then I couldn’t leave any survivors. The secret of the Magic Cube Space is something I will not let anyone know in this life—except the dead.So this is my ultimate life-saving move, not to be used unless absolutely necessary. Handguns can be explained away, but how would I explain conjuring so many stones out of thin air?
Besides walking the chickens, handling manure, fetching water, and cooking, Jing Shu now had the additional task of cutting granite. Since the Magic Cube Space couldn’t hold any more granite, she continued secretly making weapons each day. After finishing them, she would bury them in the ground, ready to be retrieved and stored in her space when needed. Although this ultimate weapon was formidable, its enormous size and weight limited its range. Furthermore, falling from a height a few times would cause it to shatter, and without its sharp tip, its impact force would be greatly diminished, making it far less damaging.
This idea had actually come to Jing Shu while she was practicing with the repeating crossbow in her space. By the same principle, she could also manipulate several repeating crossbows within the space, releasing the arrows at the very moment they were fired. The advantage was a high-density barrage of arrows, suitable for dealing with multiple enemies. The disadvantages were its lack of accuracy, reliance on luck, and lesser destructive power compared to the stone pillars; it couldn’t guarantee a one-hit kill.
Lately, Jing Shu had also been familiarizing herself with a handgun, practicing holding and aiming it. However, she didn’t dare to actually fire it, fearing she would waste bullets and attract unwanted attention. She also practiced with the repeating crossbow. It was simple and convenient to operate, though not very accurate. If it really came down to it, she could control multiple repeating crossbows in the Magic Cube Space. If she needed to eliminate someone, she would just unleash a hail of arrows... I really don’t have the capabilities of other novel protagonists who can master marksmanship with a little research, so the simple and brutal approach will have to do.