Chapter 51 Trapped in War 2

Chapter 51: Trapped in War 2

"I was thinking the same thing," Su Han said calmly, leaning back casually. "The system notified us that there are fifty white supply crates scattered throughout the city. I plan to search for them."

Even though her storage was packed to the brim, and she had received a package of black bread and milk this morning, with some items in her backpack, she had to pretend she was desperate to find supplies, or her temporary teammate might notice something amiss.

A soft thud echoed.

Yu Baowen was quite surprised and couldn't help but guess, "Is there a hidden door here?" It sounded like something heavy hitting a door.

Su Han turned around to inspect carefully. Soon, she found a metal shelf in the corner of the shop, cluttered with miscellaneous items, looking heavy, dirty, and useless.

She had accidentally leaned against the shelf earlier, causing the collision sound.

"Give me a hand here," Su Han casually called out.

Yu Baowen came over to help.

Together, they cleared the clutter off the shelf and discovered that there was indeed a hidden door behind it! The door handle was completely obscured by the clutter, making it inconspicuous.

"After a year of being trapped in war, supplies are running low. But if this hidden door hasn’t been found yet, there’s probably some good stuff inside, right?" Su Han muttered to herself as she went to open the door.

But when she twisted it, the door didn’t open.

"It's locked," Yu Baowen said, showing a troubled expression. Then she watched as her teammate pulled out a tool, bypassed the handle, and carved an arc. The damaged wooden door then swung open on its own.

Yu Baowen, "..."

This person’s surprisingly ruthless.

Su Han walked straight into the small room and saw a square white foam box resting on the sofa, secured with tape. Almost instantly, she remembered the white supply crate mentioned by the system.

"I thought the system airdropped the crates, letting them drift randomly to some corner. Isn't that the case?" Su Han pondered, "Or do they just spawn randomly in the dungeon?"

"Maybe the system NPCs prepared them. They just didn’t get used, and the original NPC died, so the stuff remained in the room," Yu Baowen said offhandedly, "Either way, as long as we get supplies, it doesn’t matter."

"True," Su Han no longer hesitated, using her dagger to slice through the tape and open the supply crate.

Inside the crate were 5 cans of meat, 5 bars of soap, 5 bottles of mineral water, 1 gauze water filter, 2 lighters, and 2 bottles of household chlorine bleach.

Yu Baowen frowned and muttered under her breath, "Lighters are fine, but why is there household bleach inside?" She couldn’t figure out what the bleach was for, no matter how hard she thought.

Su Han’s eyes lit up as she realized—using ordinary household bleach can purify drinking water!

Bleach generally contains 3% to 6% sodium hypochlorite, which can disinfect through oxidation. Adding bleach to water and letting it sit for 12 hours makes it safe to drink.

In other words, the mineral water is for direct drinking, while the water filter and bleach are precious resources for making clean drinking water!

After a pause, Su Han said slowly, "There are 20 items in total, let's split them half and half."

Yu Baowen was quite surprised, "But I didn’t do much..."

The hidden door was discovered by this person, and the door was opened by this person. Even if all the items belonged to her, Yu Baowen had nothing to say.

Su Han said earnestly, "The game’s getting tougher, and I need allies. To me, you being alive is more useful than these supplies."

At the same time, she thought to herself, how is she going to carry all this? Her backpack’s nearly bursting...

Yu Baowen gave her teammate a long look, her hostility fading as her expression softened, "Thank you."

"No need to thank me," Su Han said as she packed the soap, gauze water filter, lighter, and household bleach into her backpack.

Yu Baowen understood that this person was aware of her food shortage and deliberately offered her the food and water. Without realizing it, she let her guard down.

She had always remembered being helped before, but she only wanted to repay the favor, not risk her life, so she was cautious everywhere.

However, words can lie, but actions don’t. Now that she found Su Han as kind as ever, Yu Baowen immediately softened her defenses and took the initiative to say, "I have a lot of fuel with me. Just say the word if you need it."

"Okay," Su Han responded with a smile.

The shop had no other useful items, so the two turned and left.

As they walked, Yu Baowen suggested, "Let's find a safe place as a base first, then fan out and search the area, how about that?"

"Sure. But the base should preferably be near a lake, less populated, and geographically hidden..." Su Han pondered.

Yu Baowen didn't disturb her, just kept looking around, constantly on guard. Suddenly, her gaze locked, and she quickly tugged at her companion's sleeve, pointing in a certain direction.

Su Han followed her gaze and saw a man and a woman walking not far away. The man was carrying a shoulder pole with two water buckets, while the woman was scouting ahead, checking for safety.

Su Han was at a loss for words. To avoid being targeted again, she and Yu Baowen had deliberately chosen a secluded path. Little did they know, the other group had the same idea, so the two groups just happened to meet.

Seeing that the other party had noticed their presence, their eyes flickered with fear. Su Han touched her nose, really wanting to say, they were just as afraid of being robbed or running into bad guys, okay?

The four of them stared at each other in silence for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, the only man made a quick decision, put down the shoulder pole, and said quickly, "This is lake water I fetched from the park lake. If you want it, take it, but don’t hurt us. Otherwise, we’re not easy to bully either!"

Although he was a man, in this world, strength wasn’t just about gender anymore. The other party was a girl, and still alive until now—that took skill! She wasn’t someone to underestimate!

"We're just passing by," Su Han and Yu Baowen deliberately made a detour, then quickened their pace and left directly.

The man stood there, stunned. The two of them actually did nothing and just left?

The woman let out a long breath, relieved, "Thankfully, we ran into decent folks. Let’s go home quickly."

The man silently picked up the shoulder pole again and walked back step by step.

**

Continuing forward, a row of brick-and-tile houses appeared in front of Su Han.

It was a row of houses, only two stories high at most, with grass in front and a garden at the back. There were two entrances, a front door and a back door.

"Let’s stay here?" Su Han sought her companion's opinion, "There are two doors, it’ll be easy to escape. And it’s very secluded; we haven’t met anyone along the way."

Yu Baowen focused her gaze, and after a long while suddenly said, "There are people living in the house next door."

"Huh?" Su Han was a bit surprised.

Yu Baowen explained, "Look at the gardens of the other houses, they’re all overgrown with weeds, right? Only that one, they’ve planted food in the garden. Tomatoes, peas, cabbage, all easy-to-cultivate varieties."

"There might be other crops too, but I can’t tell what they are."

Su Han stared for a long time, finally helplessly giving up—she didn’t recognize any of those plants...

"Even if there are people next door, I still want to stay here," Su Han finally said after thinking for a long time, "There are railings around the house, which can block enemy intrusion well. Also, with two doors, it’ll be very convenient to escape."

"But if you’re not willing, I won’t force you. We agreed at the beginning, if we don’t get along, we’ll just part ways, go our separate ways."

Yu Baowen thought to herself, if she left alone, it would be much more dangerous outside. She shook her head and said softly, "Just a reminder, let’s stay here for now. Nowhere in this place is completely safe. If it’s slightly better than other places, that’s already pretty good."

After a moment of hesitation, she inquired, "Have you heard of the rule of three?"

Su Han pushed the door open and replied, "Yes. It means that for critical survival supplies, you need to secure three separate sources. This way, even if one source is cut off due to an accident, you won't be immediately endangered."

"Exactly," Yu Baowen said seriously. "So we'll stay here for the time being, and later we can scout out other safe locations. If we are attacked and have to abandon this house, we can make a smooth transition to another spot."

Su Han paused, feeling a mix of emotions. Setting up more than three safe spots? That's quite a lot of work. She’s really on top of things!

But on the surface, she said casually, "Whatever you say."

The two of them entered the house together.

Since the house had been uninhabited for a long time, it was blanketed in dust.

After looking around, Su Han noticed that all the wooden furniture had been removed. There were some scraps of wood piled in a corner, but not many.

"It looks like someone once sought shelter here but couldn’t last," Yu Baowen concluded after careful analysis.

"After all, the war has lasted for a year," Su Han mused.

What does it mean to be caught in a war? It means everyone is stuck in this city, cut off from the outside world, slowly draining their reserves.

In such harsh living conditions, most people can’t endure. Only a very few who have prepared in advance and have strong survival skills can make it through.

Shaking her head, Su Han called Yu Baowen over to help. Together, they cleaned the house, making it barely habitable.

For lunch, Su Han ate black bread and candy, drinking milk. Yu Baowen had a can of meat and some bottled water, and she offered, "Do you want some canned food?"

"No, thanks," Su Han declined. If she didn’t start depleting her stockpile soon to make more space, she feared she’d eventually be found out.

After lunch, Yu Baowen insisted on finding a backup safe place and went out alone.

Su Han continued to tidy up the house and stood on the second floor, carefully observing the surroundings.

However, just a few hours later, a crudely handwritten sign suddenly appeared in front of the house that was believed to be occupied. It read in crooked letters, "Contagious disease inside—keep away."

Su Han, "..."

Although she knew the other party was likely lying to avoid danger, she had to admit that seeing the words "contagious disease" made her want to steer clear entirely.

Author's note: To write this, I've consulted a lot of information, as I haven't personally experienced it. Some of the information comes from victims of war, and some from books.

**

Draft-kun (insisting): I'm not fat! Don't believe me? Feel it!

Reader (pinching the waist, confidently): Clearly fat, ready to be slaughtered and eaten.

Draft-kun (spitting out blood): Liar! Speak with a conscience!!

The reader showed a sharpening knife smile.

Author: Still in love and killing each other today (☆_☆)

**

For some reason, my mind is full of little snippets about Draft-kun...

2.51 million people passed (survived 10 days and beyond), 82 people cleared (survived 15 days).