Chapter 103: Zero-Cost Firearms Shopping

As soon as she entered the armory, the first thing that caught her eye was the gun vault.

All the firearms in the vault were locked away in safes that required both fingerprint and facial recognition to open. But with the power and internet down, none of the devices were operational.

Even if they were, An Nan’s fingerprints wouldn’t have worked anyway.

So she simply stored the entire safe in her spatial storage.

Once something was inside her space, it was completely under her control.

After putting the gun-filled safe into her space, An Nan used her mind to take out just the safe itself, leaving all the guns inside her space.

Just like that, she effortlessly acquired dozens of pistols and assault rifles.

Excited, An Nan flashed into the manor to test the guns, and found that even though they’d been soaked in water before, they still worked perfectly.

No wonder these were the most advanced weapons in the area.

She happily examined the assault rifle in her hands.

She’d already had a Uzi submachine gun before, but while submachine guns had a high rate of fire and dense firepower, they weren’t very accurate and were only suitable for close combat.

Assault rifles, on the other hand, were designed for long-range combat, with high accuracy and strong penetration. All in all, they were much more practical than submachine guns.

Coming out of her space, An Nan thought to herself:

From now on, I can choose between pistols, rifles, and submachine guns depending on the situation—so much safer!

She set up a special weapons corner in her space to store all her firearms in one place.

Then, among the many guns, she noticed a special black box labeled with a bunch of letters she couldn’t understand.

What’s this?

Curious, she took out the black box and opened it—her eyes instantly lit up.

A sniper rifle?!

A smile spread across An Nan’s face.

This was top-tier gear!

With a sniper rifle, she wouldn’t even have to show her face—she could take someone out from 800 meters away.

The box also contained an 8x scope and various other attachments.

An Nan couldn’t put it down, playing with it for a while before putting the sniper rifle back in the box and storing it in her space.

After cleaning out the gun vault, she moved on to the ammunition depot.

In China, guns and ammo are always stored separately.

The ammo depot was packed full of bullets—tens of thousands, by the look of it—all of which she swept into her space.

Next was the police equipment room.

Bulletproof vests, stab-proof suits, riot helmets, blast shields, batons, handcuffs…

She even found portable pepper spray launchers and multi-function life detectors.

An Nan happily stored everything in her space.

But she couldn’t help but wonder: The floodwaters have receded for a week already, so why is all this equipment still here, untouched?

Ordinary people can’t get into the armory, but why hasn’t the government come to collect it?

Sure, the torrential rains came suddenly and the authorities must have suffered heavy losses, but it’s not like them to be this silent…

This really isn’t the government’s usual style.

It was the same in her previous life—an entire year after the disaster, only then did they announce the construction of official bases.

What are the bigwigs up top busy with right now?

Well, whatever the reason, it worked out in her favor.

An Nan left the police station, hopped into her trusty Wuling minivan, and sped away.

As she drove, she mused: If there’s so much good stuff in the police station, wouldn’t raiding a military base be even better?

The weapons there would be at least ten times what the police had.

Not just guns and ammo, but bombs and even more advanced weaponry.

An Nan thought it over.

There was a military district just outside Linbei City—remote and sparsely populated.

She made up her mind and drove straight there.

After more than an hour on the road, she finally arrived.

Back in the old days, ordinary people would never have been able to enter a place like this.

An Nan observed the area for a while, making sure there were no guards and that everything was silent inside, before cautiously going in.

The military district was huge, so she explored it bit by bit.

Dormitories, canteens, training grounds…

The layout inside still faintly showed traces of its former order and dignity.

Using her blink and wall-phasing abilities, she quickly mapped out the entire area and soon found the armory.

But the crates of rifles, machine guns, bullets, grenades, flashbangs, landmines she’d imagined…

None of it was there.

The whole armory was completely empty.

An Nan felt a bit disappointed.

But as she’d explored the base earlier, she’d already been prepared for this.

It wasn’t just the armory—supplies everywhere had vanished.

The thoroughness of the cleanup made it clear this wasn’t the work of desperate scavengers, but an orderly evacuation.

As expected, even though the authorities had suffered heavy losses, they’d made sure to keep the most important thing—firearms—firmly in their own hands.

But after the apocalypse, the government would never be the same as before.

With communications down and order collapsed, regions could no longer communicate and coordinate like before.

Instead, it was more like warlordism—each bigwig running their own show, dividing into four main bases: East, South, West, and North.

Each base sheltered a portion of the population, struggling to survive.

Their northern base was led by a high-ranking military official.

Looking at the empty military district, it was clear that the northern military’s response to the disaster had been much faster than the city authorities in Linbei.

No wonder the leader of the northern base ended up being a military big shot…

Besides the official bases, there were also many small private bases.

But in the face of disaster, even the official bases were barely hanging on—most of those private strongholds didn’t last long before vanishing.

An Nan sighed. Seeing there was nothing left to take, she headed back to her car and drove home.

Today’s trip had already yielded a huge haul.

With all the guns and ammo she’d collected, she could easily set up her own small base.

She’d definitely be the top dog among all those private bases still stuck with cold weapons.

But An Nan had no interest in being a leader.

She was perfectly content to keep a low profile, use all her resources for herself, and not have to worry about managing anyone else.

Humming a tune, An Nan happily headed home.

As soon as she entered her neighborhood, she noticed it was unusually crowded and lively.

An Nan raised an eyebrow. What’s going on? Aren’t they afraid of the heat anymore?

As she walked home, she saw people from every building streaming outside.

“Ahhh! This is the north—why are there flying cockroaches?!”

“Help! Why aren’t these rats afraid of people? They’re chasing me!!”

An Nan frowned.

She’d been so busy scavenging lately that she’d almost forgotten about the impending insect and rodent disaster brought on by the extreme heat.

It had been the same in her previous life—shortly after the heatwave began, swarms of rats and cockroaches suddenly appeared everywhere.

No one knew how they’d survived the floods.

But after natural selection, the ones that made it were all huge!

Maybe it was from eating too much garbage and carrion, but they’d mutated and weren’t afraid of people anymore.

All those pests that used to hide in the shadows were now running wild in broad daylight.

And every now and then, they’d even bite people."