The next day, Mr. Cheney delivered another huge shipment. After Stella Sterling accepted a few deliveries, her space was filled with another pile of food.
Looking at it all brought her a profound sense of security.
In the lulls between deliveries, she made several more trips to the mall. She bought plenty of cold-weather clothing and shoes, along with all sorts of wilderness survival tools, completing another major restocking haul.
It was the tenth day since her rebirth. The goods she had ordered from Mr. Cheney had pretty much all arrived. As for food, if she were the only one eating, what she had now would be more than enough to last several lifetimes. Besides, her space could also be used for cultivation, providing her with a continuous supply.
Beyond that, she was also thoroughly prepared for extreme cold and drought. She had done her homework and made ample preparations to deal with the insect plagues as well. She was no longer lacking in these areas.
Over the past ten days, she had prepared just about everything she needed. She had also stockpiled a considerable amount of water. She contacted numerous suppliers to deliver tens of thousands of large water cooler jugs, and she also had hundreds of thousands of cases of bottled water. All of it was stored in a corner of her space.
The flow of time in her space's storage area was completely static, so anything placed inside would stay perfectly preserved. She didn't have to worry about things going bad. On top of that, she also bought several enormous water tanks and put them in her space.
Right now, the only things she lacked were weapons and fuel. She wasn't worried about cooking oil, but when it came to diesel, she had only managed to stockpile less than ten tons, despite trying every method she could think of. That wasn't nearly enough. It was barely enough to get by, certainly not enough to live comfortably.
'But, having been given a second chance, and with the resources she had now, why should she have to live a miserable life all over again?'
Besides, if she didn't prepare certain things now, it would be much harder to get them when the apocalypse arrived and she actually needed them. Back then, money would be worthless, and acquiring supplies would depend entirely on one's own strength. But getting your hands on things in that world was far from easy—
'It looks like conventional methods won't work. I'll have to find another way.'
Then there were the weapons. She had primarily stockpiled defensive and support-type weapons. As for offensive ones, she had only bought a few Tang daos and small daggers from the black market, and nothing more.
She planned to get some firearms. 'Those are the real game-changers in an apocalypse.'
These two things were what she needed most right now. For the next little while, Stella Sterling would focus all her energy on acquiring them.
She started going to the black market every day. The place was a chaotic melting pot, teeming with all sorts of characters. Many items unavailable on the open market were sold there. Just two days ago, she had managed to acquire a blade so sharp it could cut through iron as if it were mud.
After a few days of this, while she still hadn't found what she was really looking for, she had managed to acquire quite a few impressive high-tech gadgets.
Furthermore, her daily trips to the black market and her seemingly casual inquiries about those items had, inevitably, attracted some attention.
One day, as she was approaching the black market again, a dark, skinny man blocked her path. He pulled her aside, and seeing that she wasn't the least bit surprised, he cut straight to the chase. "Miss, I hear you're looking for firearms?"
"I am. Do you have any?"
"I do. But they're expensive. If you're buying in bulk, I can cut you a better deal."
"This isn't the place to talk business. Let's discuss it over there."
Stella Sterling followed him into a dimly lit shop. A lone man stood behind the front counter, and the storefront was cluttered with miscellaneous goods. The dark, skinny man led her toward the back, saying, "This way, please!"