Chapter 27: Traveling Together

"Do you believe in doomsday prophecies?"

Nina Jacobs asked.

For who knows how long, humanity had always loved to predict the arrival of the apocalypse.

Although they never came true, some people never tired of it.

Nina didn’t know what these people based their predictions on, but she didn’t believe them.

"Of course not. Who would believe that kind of stuff?"

Leo Hale replied.

"Then don’t overthink it. You can’t save them anyway."

Nina’s words sobered Leo up considerably.

’Yeah, who can I possibly save?’

The two of them walked for a while longer before realizing the road ahead was gone.

Floodwater blocked their path.

Seeing the cars floating on the water’s surface, Leo thought they should look for another route.

"It’s no use. Everything’s flooded."

Nina walked over to the shelter of some eaves by the side of the road.

Leo watched as she struggled for a long time before finally pulling out a folded, inflatable raft.

"You even have one of these?"

At that moment, Leo was filled with admiration for Nina.

"Mhm, swiped it from a shop we passed a few days ago."

The raft Nina took out was inflatable and came with an electric air pump. In less than five minutes, a brand-new raft was ready.

But to Leo’s confusion, Nina quickly inflated a second raft.

Her explanation was, "Just in case."

Nina tossed both rafts onto the water. Even cars were floating, so they didn’t have to worry about the water’s buoyancy.

Leo and Nina boarded one raft together.

The other one was tied to the back.

The floodwater was filthy. Inside one of the floating cars was a corpse, corroded beyond recognition.

Leo was grateful that before they had set out, Nina had made him add a layer of waterproof clothing under his double-layered raincoat.

He was now sweating buckets from the heat.

But it was still much better than coming into contact with this dirty water.

The two of them paddled the raft, their speed not slow, but they kept running into floating debris that blocked their way.

Things like floating corpses, door frames, baby strollers, and cars.

Nina saw people on both sides of the street opening their windows and shouting at them, but she ignored them all.

Leo couldn’t hear what they were saying. He kept looking back, and their pace slowed considerably.

"Don’t stop. Don’t forget your purpose for today."

Nina’s voice came through the earpiece, and Leo gritted his teeth and resumed paddling forward quickly.

His friends were in an emergency situation; he couldn’t delay any longer.

By now, the water had submerged the three-story buildings along the street. The tallest buildings on this street were only four stories high.

If the rain continued like this, this entire area would be completely submerged before the night was over.

Leo saw someone in a four-story building ahead open a window and wave at them.

’Sorry, we can’t help you.’

Leo thought silently.

But those people clearly weren’t going to give up, and even started throwing things in the raft’s path.

It seemed they wanted to force them to stop.

"Are these people insane?"

Only then did Leo realize how ridiculous his earlier sympathy had been.

To some people, not helping them meant you were an enemy.

"It’s good that you understand."

Nina was willing to associate with Leo not just because of Daniel Hale, but also partly because of Leo’s character.

He had compassion, but it wasn’t excessive.

For now, that was enough.

"Holy shit! They better hope I don’t get my hands on them!"

Someone in the window actually threw an axe at them?!

Leo instinctively tried to dodge the axe, but then he saw it freeze in mid-air.

It was only for a moment, but it was long enough to make the axe fall into the water.

After that scene, the people in the window didn’t seem to dare make any more rash moves, watching helplessly as the raft paddled past them.

"Just now, I..."

’What did I just do?’

Leo was both surprised and excited.

"That was well done."

Nina’s praise came through the earpiece.

It turned out he had unconsciously used his Superpower.

Then, with a sudden impact, Nina cursed inwardly, ’Not good.’

The raft had hit something under the water and was showing faint signs of damage.

The two of them quickly steered the raft in another direction, allowing the one trailing behind them to avoid the collision.

"Let’s switch. This one won’t last much longer,"

Nina said.

"Good thing you were prepared."

Leo broke out in a cold sweat. The two of them quickly jumped onto the undamaged raft behind them.

"A little further and we should be able to get back on land."

Nina had been keeping an eye on the system map. After paddling for another ten minutes or so, the blue-colored road on the map was about to end.

She would be at the grain depot soon.

"What are you going there for?"

Leo was very curious after hearing Nina’s destination.

"Don’t ask what you shouldn’t."

Nina didn’t like people who pried relentlessly.

She was already a Fire Element Superpower User. As for her Space Superpower, she planned to keep it a secret for now.

Leo obediently said, "Oh." After they got ashore, Nina had him wait in an empty clothing store by the side of the road while she went into the grain depot across the street alone.

The grain depot was divided into a trading hall and a storage area.

Nina ran directly toward the storage area at the back.

The floodwater was already starting to spread here. Fortunately, the depot’s warehouse area had waterproofing measures in place, otherwise the warehouses inside would have surely been contaminated.

"Good, I’m just in time."

Nina used her Superpower to break down a warehouse door. Seeing the mountains of grain piled up before her, she immediately felt the trip was worth it.

All this grain would have been destroyed by the acid rain tonight.

’What a waste.’

Without a second thought, Nina started collecting it.

The power was out in this area, and the security cameras above had stopped working, so she didn’t need to destroy them.

By the time she had collected all the grain in the warehouse area, Nina’s storage slots were almost completely full.

[Quest "Zero-Cost Shopping Spree 10" detected as complete. Quest reward has been distributed.]

[Host has been detected filling multiple system storage slots. Triggering the "Making the Most of Things" title. Additional reward: 3 storage slots!]

She had gained a total of four storage slots.

’The last time I triggered "Making the Most of Things," the reward was a Skill. Looks like this title has a surprise every time it’s triggered.’

Nina returned to where she had left Leo.

She found him facing a QR code in the store, making a payment.

It turned out Leo had taken some clothes and a backpack from the clothing store. Since the shop was unattended, he simply paid the price listed on the tags.

Nina didn’t stop him, but waited quietly to the side.

Leo also took some things from a few neighboring shops, but he honestly paid for them every time.

"Let’s go. I hope we can get home before dark."

Leo even used his phone to send a message home letting them know he was safe. The signal was poor, however, and it took several minutes before it showed as successfully sent.

"Can you tell me about the situation with your friends?"

The two of them walked back out into the heavy rain. Nina had accomplished everything she set out to do today; now it was time for Leo’s business.