Frozen Rebirth: My Infinite Storage in the Apocalypse

Chapter 4: Beginning to Stockpile

Ashley Carter looked at Ethan's reply on the phone screen, her fingers trembling, and hurriedly handed the phone to Ryan.

The two huddled together, staring at those two lines of text, their faces changing instantly.

Ethan was going to take "their 20 million" and go on a tour around the country? How could that be allowed!

"Madman! He's just a madman!"

Ryan roared in a low voice, his fingers gripping the phone so tightly his knuckles turned white.

"What is an idiot like him doing with 20 million? That money should have been ours to begin with!"

In his eyes, Ethan's money was already in the bag. Now that Ethan was about to run away, it was like someone trying to snatch something from his pocket, making him pace around in a panic.

"Ash, hurry! Hurry and steady him!"

Ryan grabbed Ashley's hand, his tone urgent.

"He only has you in his heart; he will definitely listen to what you say! We can't let him run away!"

Ashley was also panicked and hurriedly typed on her phone, her fingers trembling slightly from nervousness:

【Ethan, what exactly happened? You are so young, why would you suddenly want to travel around the country? Did you suffer some grievance?】

【Don't be impulsive, this is too sudden. Ryan and I aren't mentally prepared for this.】

【We want to know your true thoughts.】

She sent three messages in a row, each one filled with deliberate tenderness, attempting to stir up Ethan's "old feelings."

Ethan looked at the phone screen and almost laughed out loud.

The anxiety of this pair of scumbags was completely within his expectations. He deliberately teased them and replied with another message:

【Ash, don't worry about me. Just work well; don't let my affairs affect your jobs.】

When Ethan typed this out, he almost vomited from disgust.

Ryan leaned over to see the reply. Seeing that Ethan still had an attitude of "wanting to leave," he became even more anxious, his voice rising a few notches:

"Ash, ask him out for dinner tonight. You must get him out; we can't let him take our money and go off to live it up."

His voice was too loud, and the surrounding colleagues all looked over.

Someone asked curiously: "Ryan, what are you and Ashley chatting about? So excited?"

Ryan realized he had lost his composure and hurriedly found an excuse, intentionally raising his volume so everyone around could hear:

"What else could it be? That idiot Ethan Cole, he's been fired but still won't give up, actually wanting to ask Ashley out for dinner.

I told Ashley to refuse immediately. He should look at what kind of person he is; is he worthy of Ashley? It's simply a toad lusting after a swan."

As soon as these words came out, the surrounding colleagues showed expressions of disdain and chimed in one after another:

"Ashley, don't go. How can Ethan compare to Ryan? Isn't it just that he has a bit of money?"

"Exactly, we all support you and Ryan."

"You and Ryan are a match made in heaven. You both graduated from top universities and are the future of this company. You two being together is a powerful union; it will surely become a wonderful story in the office."

"Exactly, Ethan is way too overestimating himself!"

"Ashley is so outstanding, how could she look at him?"

"Ryan, you have to keep an eye on Ashley; don't let Ethan harass her!"

...

Just like that, Ethan was confusedly forced to take the blame for his "good brother," and even became an idiot in the eyes of his colleagues who was "a toad lusting after a swan."

Ashley also hurriedly cooperated and explained:

"Everyone, don't misunderstand. Ryan and I are just good friends; we're too familiar with each other.

Ryan and I are both single. If you know anyone suitable, you must introduce them to us!"

She knew clearly that there was a lot of backstabbing in the company. If she didn't quickly clarify her relationship with Ryan, by tomorrow, rumors of "the two of them dating in violation of company policy" would spread throughout the office.

By then, both of them would definitely be transferred, affecting their promotion prospects.

After the colleagues dispersed, Ashley hurriedly sent another message to Ethan, her tone carrying a hint of coquetry and "grievance":

【Ethan, can you please stop throwing a tantrum? Let's have dinner together tonight. Let's go to that BBQ place we always go to; Ryan has already booked a table. We are best friends; you must need company right now. You can't even spare us the time for a meal, right? You aren't that kind of heartless person.】

She and Ryan calculated that Ethan was sentimental, so they deliberately mentioned the "BBQ place we always go to" and morally blackmailed him by calling him "heartless," all to make it impossible for him to refuse.

Ethan looked at Ashley's fake concern and spat a mouthful of disgust at the trash can by the side of the road.

These two scumbags' acting skills were really good!

No wonder he was played like a fool by these two in his previous life; it wasn't that he was stupid, it was just that these two were on too high a level.

Ethan also hated himself for being so naive in the past.

He hadn't seen through the true faces of these two for so many years.

Before the Apocalypse, after Ashley agreed to be Ethan's girlfriend, Ethan happily handed over the 20 million to Ashley for safekeeping.

After the Apocalypse, he and Ashley didn't have much food, and he always saved his portion for Ashley to eat.

After Ryan showed up at his door, he didn't hesitate to open the door and let Ryan in.

Ethan shared the food he couldn't bear to eat himself with the two of them, and even braved the cold to go outside to find food.

In the early stages, although life was hard, they could barely get by.

As the Apocalypse progressed, the food they could find became less and less.

Ethan's utility value became lower and lower, and finally, these two scumbags set their sights on Ethan himself.

They directly treated Ethan as rations.

A cold sneer curled the corners of Ethan's mouth.

This was exactly the effect he wanted.

With this pair of scumbags still alive, how could he be willing to leave New York?

【Alright then, since Ryan is treating, I definitely have to come.】

Ryan and Ashley saw the reply and finally breathed a sigh of relief, smiling at each other.

Ryan muttered in his heart: "When did I say I was treating?"

But then he thought, in the past, no matter who booked the place, Ethan always ended up paying, and this time would surely be no exception.

After all, Ethan was a "good brother" who was stupid and rich; how could he let a "friend" pay?

---

After dismissing Ashley and Ryan, Ethan didn't go home but instead took a cab to the nearest large supermarket.

Pushing open the supermarket door, cold air rushed to his face. The shelves were filled with a dazzling array of goods, and the colorful packaging was particularly alluring under the lights.

Ethan's eyes lit up.

In his eyes, these were not commodities; they were the hope for survival in the Apocalypse.

He almost immediately developed the thought of "clearing the shelves," and his fingers moved subconsciously, wanting to collect all these things into his Storage Space.

But he quickly calmed down. There were surveillance cameras everywhere in the supermarket; if all the items disappeared where he had been, the police would definitely investigate him as a priority. By then, let alone stockpiling, this would affect his future stockpiling plans.

"Can't rush, have to take it slow." Ethan took a deep breath, pushed the shopping cart, and began to sweep the shelves in an orderly manner.

He first came to the processed food section: canned ham, instant noodles, energy bars, self-heating rice, self-heating hot pot...

As long as it was something to eat, he put it into the shopping cart.

While putting them in, he took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention and quietly used his mind to collect five or ten times the amount of the same product into his Storage Space.

For example, if he put a pack of instant noodles into the shopping cart, ten more packs would appear in the Storage Space; if he put in a can of ham, five more would appear in the space.

He did it extremely covertly; with a thought, the items entered the space silently, and even the gaps on the shelves weren't obvious.

After all, the supermarket shelves were well-stocked, and no one would ever notice a few missing packs or cans.

Although Ethan was secretly taking a lot of things, which was illegal at the moment.

But compared to others after the Apocalypse, Ethan could already be considered a good person.

After the Extreme Cold Apocalypse arrived, as food became scarce, the evil in the depths of human hearts was infinitely amplified.

After the Apocalypse arrived, this supermarket was subjected to crazy looting.

The owner and his wife were pushed to the ground by the out-of-control crowd while trying to protect the goods. No one helped them; everyone stepped on their bodies to grab food.

In the end, the couple was trampled to death alive, their eyes still wide open, full of unwillingness and despair.

Thinking of this, Ethan's movements became even faster.

He knew that if he didn't take these things now, they would later become "murder weapons" for others to fight over. It was better to stockpile them himself; at least it would allow him to live a few more days in the Apocalypse.

Soon, the first shopping cart was full.

Ethan pushed over a second one, and this time he went straight to the fresh produce section.

Pork, lamb, chicken, fish, shrimp...

He bought one portion of every type of meat the supermarket had, and while putting them into the shopping cart, he also quietly collected them into his space.

The only thing he didn't buy was beef; he didn't eat beef.

This was, of course, a lie; Ethan loved eating beef very much.

The third shopping cart was filled with cooking oil, rice, flour, salt, sugar, soy sauce...

These were all necessities for cooking; in the Apocalypse, if one wanted to eat hot food, these things were indispensable.

Besides food, he also had to consider the issue of the Shelter.

In the Apocalypse, just having food wasn't enough; one also had to have a safe place to live.

At temperatures of minus 60 degrees, ordinary houses simply couldn't hold up.

If people knew he had food, starving, crazy people would definitely tear his apartment apart.

"Must find a professional security company."

Ethan calculated in his heart,

"It would be best to reinforce the apartment I'm currently living in; it saves money and makes it convenient to wait for Ashley and Ryan to deliver themselves to my door."

The apartment he lived in now was a top-floor duplex; it had a large area, a good location, and was easy to renovate.

If the security company's technology wasn't up to par, he would then consider going somewhere remote to build an underground Shelter.

But that was only Ethan's backup option.

In remote places, he, as a private individual, had no right to buy land, let alone carry out construction.

The procedures were extremely troublesome.

Another thing was that in remote places, getting supplies would be another major difficulty.

He didn't have much time and had to plan its use carefully.

A month seemed long, but it was actually very short.

There wasn't that much time for Ethan to go somewhere remote to build an underground Shelter.

Ethan's unusual behavior attracted the sidelong glances of many people.

A young man in his twenties buying so many things at once, and all of them being shelf-stable ingredients, was really strange.

Most young people nowadays ordered takeout, and even if they cooked for themselves, very few people bought this much, let alone being as frantic as he was, even more so than the grandpas and grandmas scrambling for discounted produce.

"Young man, are you trying to open a supermarket?"

An old man carrying a grocery basket couldn't help but ask, his eyes full of curiosity,

"It's not even a holiday, why are you buying so many things?"

Ethan saw the old man looked kind and not like a bad person, so he wanted to kindly remind him:

"Sir, I suggest you also stockpile more food. There might be a natural disaster in a month; preparing more is always the right thing to do."

Unexpectedly, the old man got angry as soon as he heard this, glared at him, and said:

"You young man, what are you saying?

Natural disaster? I think you've been reading too many novels.

Hurry up and get off whatever fiction app you're on; stop thinking about these useless things all day long."

Ethan was stunned; this old man actually knew about fiction apps?