After moving the supplies, the four of them slept in their clothes in an empty room on the third floor.
Although the rooms at the Construction Site were all basic, unfinished rooms without beds, Yu Hanjiang had prepared a sleeping bag for outdoor camping in advance, which was much better than sleeping in the hallway in the Red Heart 3 escape room.
At seven o'clock in the morning, Xiao Lou's biological clock woke him up naturally. When he got up, he heard a strange rustling sound. When he went to the next room, he saw Ye Qi opening a bag of milk and biscuits and eating breakfast.
Perhaps because he had experienced the most terrifying hunger in the Nightmare Secret Room, Ye Qi cherished food very much. He drank all the milk, leaving not a crumb, and when eating cookies, he held them with his other hand so that not a single cookie crumb would fall to the ground.
The way the boy sat in the corner, head down, eating, looked like a starving little squirrel.
Remembering his experience, Xiao Lou couldn't help but soften. She turned around and took out a box of chocolates, a pork floss bread, a bag of cream-filled cookies, and a bag of dried fruit snacks from her own supply box, handing them to the boy with a smile and saying, "Eat more."
Ye Qi was slightly taken aback when he saw the food—to save money, he only bought the cheapest milk and biscuits for breakfast, which became bland after a while, so he ate instant noodles for lunch and dinner...
I didn't expect Professor Xiao to have prepared such a generous amount of supplies.
Surprisingly, there was also a very expensive bag of dried fruit and snacks, containing his favorite pine nuts and dried walnuts.
Ye Qi couldn't help but ask, " Professor Xiao, you guys buy such expensive things?"
Xiao Lou sat down next to him and said with a smile, "I didn't buy many of these expensive foods, but I was worried that everyone would have trouble eating cookies and instant noodles every day, so I bought some snacks to change things up."
Ye Qi asked curiously, "What other snacks are there?"
Xiao Lou listed examples: "For instance, canned fruit, pickled chicken feet, canned fish, braised chicken legs, beef jerky, dried tofu, preserved plums..."
Ye Qi was dumbfounded.
He's in Spade 3 secret room to survive, but is Professor Xiao here for a vacation?!
Xiao Lou met the boy's wide eyes, smiled, and patted him on the shoulder: "From now on, if you come with us, you'll have plenty of food, and you'll never have to worry about going hungry again."
Ye Qi's eyes welled up with tears, and he immediately felt like he had found a golden opportunity. He nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, yes, I'll do as you say!"
At this moment, Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge also arrived.
Shao Qingge squinted his eyes and stretched, clearly not fully awake yet.
Yu Hanjiang had already washed his face and looked very energetic. He looked at Xiao Lou and said, "I'm still not entirely comfortable leaving you here. How about this: after breakfast, you use Compass to draw some metal rings, and I'll set up a trap for you."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Okay."
The four of them ate breakfast together, and Xiao Lou, following Yu Hanjiang's suggestion, drew hundreds of rings of various sizes.
Looking at the rings that kept appearing on the ground, Shao Qingge exclaimed, " Compass is a really powerful card. You can draw weapons anytime, anywhere."
Xiao Lou asked, " Did CEO Shao draw any good cards?"
Shao Qingge generously took out a card and said, "I only drew one S card, [God of Wealth]. Its first skill is called God of Wealth Aura, which can be used when gambling for coins to improve your luck, but it can only be used once a day. The second skill is not yet unlocked."
Ye Qi's eyes lit up: "The God of Wealth's Halo? Isn't that just like Plum Blossom 2's Luck Bead?"
Shao Qingge nodded: "More or less, but I haven't actually tried it yet."
Xiao Lou laughed and said, "I heard from a taxi driver that Moon City has the most professional casino. With this card that can improve your luck, CEO Shao, you can go to Moon City to make some money again."
Shao Qingge smiled and stroked his chin: "That's what I think too. Let's accumulate some funds first, and then go to the casino to make a fortune."
CEO Shao was already good at making money, and the card he drew was the God of Wealth. Xiao Lou thought to himself, "I'll never be afraid of being poor again."
Ye Qi suddenly realized that the team he had joined... seemed terrifyingly powerful?
A moment later, Yu Hanjiang took out a piece of paper and drew a map of the entire building and the locations of the traps on it. The traps he marked with circles covered almost all the corners and passages in the building.
Yu Hanjiang said, "Set up the building according to the diagram I drew. Lay the ring on the ground, cover it with soil, and tie a line at the end to control it. If anyone dares to break into the building, just pull the line in the corresponding area to trap them immediately."
This is a hunting technique commonly used by hunters in the forest, which Yu Hanjiang has taken advantage of. The entire building is filled with traps, and without a map, anyone who enters the building will become Xiao Lou's prey.
Xiao Lou smiled and nodded, saying, "Understood, Captain Yu. Don't worry, Ye Qi and I will get everything arranged in a bit."
Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge set off at 8:00 AM sharp.
Ye Qi temporarily handed over the teleportation and eavesdropping abilities to Yu Hanjiang.
[ Eavesdropping Device ] is an S-tier utility card with only one skill, but it's extremely useful. It can release three eavesdropping devices simultaneously, placing them remotely on any target within a 100-meter radius, completely undetected. Each eavesdropping session lasts for three hours. After three hours, the eavesdropping device automatically retracts and enters a cooldown period, requiring 60 minutes of recharge before it can be used again.
[ Teleportation Card ] is a rare S-level special effect card. This card has two skills. Skill 1, "Swift as the Wind," allows the user to instantly teleport horizontally to any location.
The second skill, "The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain," allows you to instantly teleport objects weighing less than 100kg to a designated location within a 50-meter radius. As your growth level increases, the weight of the objects you can move will also increase, up to a maximum of 200kg.
Yu Hanjiang looked at Shao Qingge: "How much do you weigh?"
Shao Qingge chuckled, " Captain Yu, do you want to use me for experiments? I weigh 70kg."
Yu Hanjiang nodded and tested his second skill, "The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain"—the next moment, Shao Qingge, whom he had designated, instantly appeared 50 meters away.
Sure enough, as long as the weight is below 100kg, a person can be teleported. After the skill card is upgraded to the maximum level, it can move two adult men and three relatively thin women simultaneously, with a weight of up to 200kg.
Yu Hanjiang also used his first skill to teleport there and asked Shao Qingge, "How does it feel?"
Shao Qingge found it amazing: "The skill's effect time should be less than 1 second. I just felt like a gust of wind blew by. I was downstairs just now, and in the blink of an eye, I appeared at the entrance of the Construction Site."
Yu Hanjiang commented, "No wonder it's an S-card."
When necessary, you can escape with your teammates, or use the "Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain" skill to kick nearby enemies more than 50 meters away.
Shao Qingge laughed and said, " It seems that Ye Qi has perfectly cleared quite a few secret rooms and drawn two S-rank cards."
Yu Hanjiang said, " Ye Qi looks thin and weak, not much of a threat, but he's quite strong and very smart. Professor Xiao wants him to join the team. After you go to Heart 3 with him, you can also observe his performance." He paused, then added, "No, his rating in Heart Room is S, while yours is only C. Don't drag him down."
Shao Qingge touched his nose: "... Captain Yu is too direct."
Yu Hanjiang didn't say anything more: "Let's go."
With the help of the Teleportation Card, there was no one on the streets in the suburbs. The two boldly used their teleportation skills to quickly reach the city center, where they witnessed an extremely terrifying scene—during the morning rush hour, all the streets were completely blocked by private cars, and the sound of car horns was deafening.
Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge found a roadside coffee shop to use their Wi-Fi.
Prices are outrageously high. A cup of coffee that used to cost 2,000 gold coins now costs 16,000 gold coins. Fortunately, Shao Qingge still has a lot of money. The internet cafe is closed today, so he'll just sit here and use the internet as payment for his internet bill.
Yu Hanjiang was worried about Shao Qingge's safety alone, so he acted as her bodyguard.
Shao Qingge quickly logged into the stock market, his expression changed, and he whispered, "The real estate market has also collapsed."
Today is Monday, and most office workers are rushing to their companies or workplaces. Soon, they will all know the news.
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly: "It seems that the real turmoil will not begin until the third day."
Shao Qingge quickly bought properties at low prices and used the stocks to repay the stock debts he had previously taken out. After carefully calculating, he whispered to Yu Hanjiang, "I made a net profit of one million by shorting stocks this time. I could have made even more if the stocks had continued to fall, but I'm worried that there will be a power outage and internet cutoff today, which would be troublesome."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Yes, don't be greedy, know when to stop."
Shao Qingge said, "When we entered the secret room, it said that the remaining money could be taken out of the room. I'll keep this money in my account for now and withdraw it from another secret room later. The ATM might not have any cash left."
Yu Hanjiang looked up and saw a long queue at the ATM not far away. Just then, two young men rushed over, snatched the coins from the person who had just withdrawn money, and ran away without saying a word.
The aunt who was robbed was terrified and screamed as she chased after them, "Someone is robbing me! Help me stop them!"
However, everyone in the crowd looked anxious, so who had the mood to meddle in other people's business?
Some people, fearing they would be robbed while withdrawing cash, immediately turned and left, while the rest, also looking wary, hurriedly withdrew their money and ran.
When it was the fifth person in line, that person yelled, "What the hell?! The ATM is out of money?! What are the banks doing?"
Several people quickly turned around and said, "Go to the bank and withdraw the money!"
Upon seeing this, Yu Hanjiang's face darkened: "I reckon someone will rob the bank. You're right, it's safer to keep the money in the account; don't withdraw it."
Shao Qingge nodded: "Today's prices have doubled again, and are now eight times higher than normal. Plus, it's a workday, so there was a traffic jam early in the morning. People's emotions are obviously more agitated than they were a couple of days ago."
He followed Xiao Lou's example and opened the local forum, and sure enough, he saw the popular post prominently displayed on the homepage—
"With gas prices soaring like this, I can't even afford to drive anymore. I'm stuck in traffic on the bus to work, and I'm definitely going to be late today!"
"When I went to the gas station last week, 40,000 gold coins could fill a gas tank. This morning, when I went to the gas station, damn it, it cost 160,000 gold coins to fill it up! Are gas prices insane?"
"Forget about gas prices, the supermarket restocked this morning, and I went to queue up at six o'clock, but I couldn't even get a carton of milk..."
"My 24-hour convenience store was vandalized last night, and everything was looted. Are there no police officers to help?"
This post is full of complaints about rising prices and being robbed.
As soon as Shao Qingge refreshed the homepage, he saw a post that quickly rose to prominence: "Real estate stocks have also plummeted. Does this mean that housing prices will drop by half?"
The post included a screenshot of today's stock market. It showed that stocks Shao Qingge had previously followed, such as "Tianhong Real Estate" and "Fangke Real Estate Group," seemed to have conspired to rise in value.
After the market opened today, it plummeted by 50% at the same time.
The forum was in a state of panic, with many people who didn't understand stocks asking questions, and some professionals offering explanations.
Traffic was still congested on the streets, many people were late for work, and some simply took leave and didn't go to work.
Shao Qingge and Yu Hanjiang learned a lot of information by browsing forums. Around noon, the two went back to Shanshui B&B together because Xiao Lou sent them a message: " Ye Qi said that he previously used an eavesdropping device to listen to all the Challengers. He can basically confirm that the thief mixed in with them lives on the second floor of Shanshui B&B and his surname is Xu. You can check it out when you have time."
The two arrived at Shanshui B&B. Yu Hanjiang went to the front desk to find the owner: "Excuse me, is there a guest here named Xu? I have something urgent to discuss with him."
The boss said seriously, "I'm a boss with principles. How could I casually leak customers' information?"
Shao Qingge placed two large boxes of chocolate in front of him and smiled, "Boss, could you help us take a look at the customer's information?"
The "principled" boss immediately said, "No problem! Let me check... Xu Zhengyang, who lives in room 201, checked out this morning. Are you looking for him?"
Yu Hanjiang frowned: "They checked out and left?"
The owner sighed, "They said they couldn't afford the room fees. Sigh, several guests checked out today. You outsiders, you don't even know to bring more money with you when you go out."
Shao Qingge rolled his eyes. He also wanted to bring more money, but unfortunately, Guardian wouldn't allow it. When he entered the secret room, all his previous assets were frozen.
Yu Hanjiang said coldly, "Does the boss still remember what Xu Zhengyang looks like?"
The shop owner recalled for a moment and said, "I only know that he was around 40 years old, a middle-aged man. He was mysterious and always wore a hat when he went out, with the brim pulled down low. He also covered his face with a mask, so I didn't see what he looked like."
Unable to obtain more information, Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge exchanged a glance and had no choice but to leave Shanshui B&B.
All the snack shops on the pedestrian street were closed, and many elderly people were discussing the situation.
My son said that house prices might drop. Is that true?
"That's strange, prices are rising like crazy, why aren't housing prices rising?"
"My daughter just bought a house last month with a loan, and she still has to pay the mortgage. What will we do if the house price drops!"
"Sigh, when will the financial crisis end? Didn't Director Liu say that he would regulate the market as soon as possible?"
Just then, an old man suddenly pointed angrily at the radio, his beard trembling with rage: "Listen, that bastard Liu Qingming took the earliest train this morning and ran away!"
Several elderly women immediately gathered around to listen.
A clear female voice came through the radio: "Reporters have discovered that Liu Qingming, the director of the Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, left on the 6:50 AM express train this morning. He said he was going to Moon City for help, but according to eyewitnesses, he was carrying several suitcases, which doesn't seem like he was going for help, but rather like he was fleeing..."
An old woman cursed, "That big liar!"
Another old man slapped his thigh in anger and yelled at his wife, "I told you long ago that you couldn't trust this Liu Qingming! How could you believe his nonsense! We should have gone to our niece's house in another city to avoid him for a while. Now look what's happened, we can't even buy train tickets and can't leave!"
Just then, someone from the nearby Shanshui B&B suddenly asked loudly, "Boss, is your air conditioner broken? It's so hot inside, the air conditioner isn't working at all."
Someone else came downstairs and asked, "Is the water off? I want to do laundry, but there's no water?"
The boss's expression changed, and he immediately went to check.
Soon, he said with a long face, "Water and electricity cut off."
The voices of other neighbors came from nearby: "Is the water out?!"
"Ours has stopped too!"
"Our power is out? Do you have power?"
"No!"
"My house is out of power, and the Wi-Fi is down too!"
Amidst the noise, the refrigerator, air conditioner, electric fan... all the electrical appliances stopped working at the same time.
The sun slowly rose.
The scorching sun beat down on the land, and the already restless citizens, without the comfort of air conditioning, quickly lost their mental defenses under the high temperature.
Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge exchanged a glance, then quickly turned and left.
Saturday and Sunday are a transition period; today is Monday, time to go to work.
All the streets were blocked by vehicles, no traffic police came out to coordinate, and the piercing sound of horns echoed throughout the city.
Prices continue to soar, housing prices are falling, train tickets are sold out, and there are water, power, and internet outages...
The real financial apocalypse officially began on the third day.