Jing Shu wandered around the cruise kitchen, feeling a little disappointed. Everything was just ordinary ingredients. But she didn't give up. Instead, she found her way to the ship's massive cold storage. Earlier, she'd noticed a bunch of people hauling crates of food inside, and now she finally understood why.
Two guards stood by the door, but they were no problem for her. Using the illusion technique she'd been practicing for months, Jing Shu subtly hinted for them to open the door. Once they did, she strolled right into the hundred-square-meter freezer like she owned the place.
"Damn, it's cold!" She wrapped her padded coat tighter. Inside, shelves stacked over two meters high filled the room wall to wall. There was so much stuff, she didn't even know where to start.
The dark freezer had no lights, but her eyes gleamed green with greed, lighting up the whole space like a hungry cat's. Everything here was hers for the taking.
She brushed her hand over bags of rice and flour, then skipped them. Too basic. No point wasting space on that.
"Olive oil with a rich, fruity aroma?"She nodded in approval. "Take it all."
"Coconut oil? Sounds good, take it. Peanut oil? Fancy, take it. Avocado oil? Never tried it, take it too. Sesame oil? Holy crap, my favorite, take every damn bottle!
Butter, ghee, shredded cheese, and baking ingredients for cakes—taking all of it." She'd been wanting to make cream of mushroom soup forever. Now she could finally try.
"Foie gras? World-class delicacy? Heh, sweep!" Jing Shu couldn't resist opening one jar, dipping a piece of steamed bun into it. One bite and her eyes lit up. "So good!"
The flavor was incredible, rich and savory. Whether spread on cheap steamed buns or eaten with scallion pancakes, it was divine.
"Wait, is this caviar? Sturgeon caviar?" She found a small safe tucked in a corner. Inside was a single crate. She didn't hesitate to sweep it all into her space. She tried a little out of curiosity—it tasted… strange. Fresh, juicy, like biting into tiny water balloons. Not bad, but not as mind-blowing as the TV shows made it sound.
"Guess it needs a proper recipe," she muttered. "Just like how foreigners freak out over century eggs until they try them with vinegar. Then they fall in love."
She moved to the fresh meat section. The racks were packed with frozen longan meat, pork belly, premium Kobe beef, ribs, whole turkeys, and compressed beef patties. Jing Shu decided top-tier meat like this wasn't something she could just leave behind. She swept all of it into her Rubik's Cube Space, about thirty cubic meters' worth, clearing more than ten shelves in the process.
Processed meat was convenient anyway. A bit of cooking and it'd be delicious. Even if it couldn't beat what she raised herself, it'd still make great gifts or fetch a good price. Of course, she mostly wanted to snack on it herself.
Then her eyes landed on Iberico ham—the world's most expensive kind. Each slice could perfume a whole room. Of course she took all of it.
To her delight, there was even bluefin tuna—nearly a ton of it frozen solid. Her grin widened. "Perfect." She swept it into her space too. She loved sashimi, especially a proper three-way tuna feast: fresh sashimi, crispy fried fish skin, and tofu fish head soup. "That's dinner sorted!"
Then came the dessert section: layered cakes, puddings, frozen sweets of every kind. Jing Shu's mouth watered just looking at them. "A slice of cake with tea after dinner… yeah, can't leave these behind." She shamelessly cleared an entire shelf.
Oh, and ice cream! She didn't spare that either. Other than Häagen-Dazs, she didn't recognize any brands, but who cared? Into her space they went. She giggled to herself. "Didn't think I'd get lucky enough to restock on ice cream after finishing my last stash."
Next came boxed goods. Jing Shu chose only food that no longer existed in China or had gone extinct since the apocalypse began. After living through the end of the world for so long, these once-common treats now felt like priceless treasures.
She even found strange fruits she'd never seen before, like avocados—once too weird for her taste—and something called the "miracle fruit," small red berries that made sour foods taste sweet for two hours after eating them.
There was also Moroccan argan oil, nicknamed "liquid gold." Naturally, she took as much as she could find. Supplies like these were rare by the third year of the apocalypse, and most luxury goods had long been consumed. Some of the stuff here was already losing its freshness.
Jing Shu walked through the place like she was shopping at a supermarket, tossing anything she liked into her space: frozen pizza, egg tarts, fries, chicken nuggets, sandwiches, hot dogs, bacon—you name it, she took it.
Before she knew it, half the freezer was empty, and more than half her Rubik's Cube Space was full. Shivering from the cold, she finally dragged herself out of the room, her coat puffed up like a ball. The temperature had to be around minus ten degrees, and now that her adrenaline was fading, she could feel her fingers going numb.
Once she'd cleaned out the food section, Jing Shu turned her gaze toward the livestock area.
The nobles on the cruise had to be eating well somehow, and that meant they'd brought along their own animals. They couldn't just live off stored food forever. From what she'd seen, the black market nobles raised plenty of poultry. She wanted to see if there was anything she didn't already have in her space.
Chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, sheep—too big, too wasteful. She only wanted small, renewable species that could provide food long-term.
Covering her nose, she followed the stench to the livestock hold. The smell was awful, enough to make her gag, and it was pitch-black except for the constant squawking of birds. Cages lined both sides, stacked high with turkeys. But what made her stomach twist was what they were being fed—not pellets, but chopped meat.
She could still see fingernails stuck to some pieces. It didn't take much imagination to realize what was going on. To save feed, the nobles were using corpses from the arena and the slums. Hundreds died every day, and now they were just… fodder.
Jing Shu clenched her jaw and moved deeper inside. Pigs and cows were penned further back, still unsettled from the voyage.
Then, suddenly, a sharp, blood-curdling scream pierced the air.
She hadn't planned to get involved—but of course, just her luck, someone was coming from behind. Jing Shu had no choice but to move forward.