Lu Heng glanced at the villa's rental price and felt a pang of shock.
Damn, the monthly rent was a staggering 200,000, with a minimum lease of six months. To make matters worse, a month's rent was required as a deposit.
What a rip-off!
No wonder it had been vacant for so long.
"Can you ask if I can rent it for just one month? I'm willing to pay more for the rent."
Lu Heng patted the real estate agent sitting beside him.
"I'll try, but the owner specifically said it had to be a six-month lease," the agent replied with a troubled expression.
However, if this deal went through, his commission would be substantial, enough to cover half a month's sales performance.
Five minutes later, the agent returned, looking somewhat hesitant. "The owner said the rental terms remain unchanged."
He didn't dare to relay the owner's additional sentiment, "take it or leave it," as he didn't want to offend this potential client. If Lu Heng didn't rent this place, he could always find him another property.
But Lu Heng had his heart set on this villa. Its location was excellent, and it would remain safe for a long time in the early stages of the apocalypse.
"Give me the phone number. I'll talk to the owner myself."
The agent hesitated. Was this guy trying to cut them out and deal directly with the owner?
After all, such incidents were not uncommon in the real estate rental industry.
Sensing the agent's concern, Lu Heng smiled. "Don't worry, I'll talk to the owner on speakerphone."
The agent immediately redialed the owner's number, and Lu Heng indeed spoke to the owner with the speakerphone on.
Ultimately, Lu Heng managed to persuade the owner. After all, the property had been vacant for a long time, and getting an extra few hundred thousand was like pocket money.
Lu Heng ended up paying 350,000 for one month's rent, and he didn't have to pay a deposit. The owner had authorized a lawyer to come and sign the agreement with him.
While signing, Lu Heng chatted with the lawyer for a few moments.
He learned that the owner was currently traveling abroad and couldn't be present to sign the contract.
Upon receiving this information, Lu Heng was ecstatic internally, though his expression remained unchanged.
The apocalypse was only three days away, and the owner would certainly not be able to return to the country. This meant no one would come looking for him to reclaim the villa in the future.
Hahaha, in three days, this house would truly be his.
After receiving the house keys, Lu Heng declined the agent's offer to escort him to the villa.
Lu Heng drove his car and first headed to an internet cafe.
In the apocalypse, all high-tech products would become unusable, including mobile phones, which would turn into bricks due to the severed communication signals.
Lu Heng had checked his personal space. Although it looked no different from his city, there were subtle distinctions.
While there was electricity, for some unknown reason, there was no internet. All electronic devices functioned independently.
For instance, the security room downstairs from his apartment building appeared to have functioning surveillance systems. He had even accessed the footage of himself entering the building previously recorded by the system.
However, his mobile phone displayed "service unavailable" when he took it there.
To avoid boredom in the future, he needed to copy various technical data, movies, and novels.
Back in his car, Lu Heng waved his hand, and numerous high-capacity new mobile phones and laptops appeared in the car.
He got out and walked into a seemingly upscale internet cafe, "Xingqiba Internet Cafe."
The internet cafe owner was engrossed in an online game and was quite displeased when interrupted by a staff member.
However, his annoyance subsided slightly when he heard that someone wanted to discuss a big business deal with him.
Lu Heng saw the tall, thin man with dark circles under his eyes approaching and waved his new mobile phone.
"I want to talk about a business deal."
"Hmm, go ahead."
The internet cafe owner wondered how big of a deal it could be to interrupt his forty-person dungeon raid.
The internet cafe owner said, "I'm letting thirty-nine guild members go to talk to you. I was the raid leader, and as soon as I said we were taking a short break, many in the guild started complaining."
Ignoring the owner's grumbling, Lu Heng glanced at the size of the internet cafe. "Is your internet speed fast?"
The internet cafe owner replied, "Of course! If my internet speed wasn't good for leading raids, I'd be cursed to death."
Lu Heng slammed the new mobile phone, still in its box, onto the front desk. "I have some phones and laptops here, and I'd like you to help me download some things."
"…That's it?" The internet cafe owner looked like he was about to explode. Why couldn't he download the data himself?
"That's it. I have quite a few machines, and I can't manage them all myself. I'll give you 50,000 yuan if you help me download the data," Lu Heng said generously.
"..." The internet cafe owner, who was about to unleash a torrent of curses, stopped himself when he heard the amount.
Fortunately, he had been playing games all night, so his reaction was a bit slow.
If this were any other time, he probably would have already cursed this benefactor away.
"How many machines do you need to download from, and what do you need to download?" the internet cafe owner asked, signaling for an employee to bring them two bottles of drinks, as discussing business was a thirsty business.
"I'm not sure. You can arrange for someone to help me move things from my car later. We'll count them then. And I need it all copied within half a day."
"Just having fast internet won't be enough; you'll need download software memberships," the internet cafe owner reminded him.
"No problem. Get some accounts and charge them for membership. The membership fees will be on me, but just charge for the shortest duration," Lu Heng said, as he only needed it done within half a day, so a longer membership would be pointless.
The internet cafe owner nodded and assigned an employee to help Lu Heng move the items.
He expected the client to have at most ten phones and computers, but he was still astonished when he saw the phones and computers spread out on the floor.
No wonder the client offered 50,000 yuan; earning that much in half a day wasn't easy.
Fortunately, the internet cafe wasn't busy during the day. The owner, citing a power outage, asked the customers who were playing games to leave.
He then directed the internet cafe staff to start downloading data onto the phones and computers.
The capacity of mobile phones couldn't compare to laptops, though they were more convenient to carry.
Therefore, the phones were loaded with novels and a few excellent movies and TV shows.
The laptops contained much more. In addition to movies and TV shows, several computers were solely dedicated to storing various study materials and technical data.
Information on smelting, papermaking, automobile manufacturing, aircraft principles – anything that existed on Earth and was accessible to the public, Lu Heng had them download several copies of.
Why several copies?
He was worried about machine malfunctions. Although he had various spare parts in his space, finding someone skilled in repairs would be difficult in the future.