18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 28

Everyone was feasting on high-calorie instant food, casually discussing the loot they had managed to gather.

Besides the assortment of junk food and drinks, Stella had gathered the most grains, while Cody had swept through a local farm supply store, bringing back hundreds of pounds of beef jerky, ginseng, saffron, truffles, and cheese. Lukas found several bags of high-quality rice, while Jasper found a liquor store and brought back dozens of boxes of wine.

All in all, the most abundant item was bottled water.

This was a necessity that couldn’t be discarded. After all, you couldn’t always rely on drinking rainwater. After some discussion, they decided to first bring back the medicines, meat, wine, and grains, then the non-perishable foods like instant noodles and bread, leaving the bottled water and drinks for last.

Moreover, everyone took some things they needed.

The powerboat was Stella's, along with a samurai sword, a golf club, and some skincare products. Lukas grabbed some clothes and shoes. Cody, on the other hand, took electronic products, game consoles, watches, and the like. Jasper carried dolls, children's books, and pens and paper, obviously for Rosie.

Everyone was careful not to bring too much personal items as the space on the boat was limited.

While loading the rubber boat, Lukas casually mentioned, “I found a seed store, but unfortunately, the seeds are not edible because they've been sprayed with pesticides. Otherwise, we could have brought them back just in case.”

As soon as he finished speaking, three pairs of eyes were staring at him.

“What...what's wrong?”

Cody was at a loss for words. “The whole world is flooded. If we're really in an apocalypse, seeds will be more valuable than medicine.”

Only then did Lukas realize his foolish mistake. “Should we take them back?”

That was a no-brainer. Lukas and Jasper continued to load, while Stella and Cody ran upstairs to fetch the seeds.

It was quite a surprise to find out that it was a branch of a renowned agricultural company, whose founder was a great scientist who had ensured food security for the people. This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.

The branch wasn't large. Most of the seeds were of new types of hybrid rice, there were several varieties adding up to about five or six hundred pounds, and there were also many types of hybrid vegetables, as well as hydroponic technology and nutrient solution.

It was too precious. Stella didn't even let go of the documents, and they had to make several trips to get everything.

On the last trip, she deliberately slowed down a few steps and took the computer in the lab into her Arcadia, which was full of precious literature and data. It could be of great help in restoring civilization in the future.

By the time they were done, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening.

With two rubber boats tied to Jasper’s and Stella's powerboats, they estimated the power and load and sailed into the night towards Sunrise Sanctuary.

Stella was driving the powerboat, with Lukas sitting next to her holding a pair of night vision binoculars to keep watch. The binoculars had night vision function, which enabled them to observe

and avoid obstacles in time, and to guard against sudden robbers.

They were loaded with supplies; they had to drive slowly.

When they arrived at Sunrise Sanctuary, the two of them switched off the engine without a word, dimmed the lantern to the lowest level, and rowed back to the apartment building with the help of others.

At this point, almost everyone was asleep, but they still had to be careful. There were too many supplies that could attract envy, so they had to walk barefoot to avoid making noise.

Angela came down to help, and it took them almost an hour to finish moving everything.

Jasper was afraid that Angela couldn’t protect their loot alone, and asked Stella to stay with her, while the three of them went back to the office building to move the rest of the supplies overnight.

The supplies were piled up in the living room of 1803, making it messy but satisfying.

Without taking a break, they grabbed stools and started sorting out the supplies, dividing what they could into four parts, and putting what they couldn’t aside.

They didn’t finish loading everything on the second trip and left quite a few drinks and bottled water. Later on, Jasper and Cody had to make one more trip.

By the time all the supplies were carried up to the 18th floor, it was already one o'clock in the morning.

Everyone split up the supplies overnight, Stella took a lot of medicines, grains, beef, wine, ten pounds of premium rice, dozens of boxes of bottled water, seven or eight boxes of milk, two large sacks of snacks and fast food, as well as many miscellaneous items.

In short, they didn't have to worry about supplies for half a year. The only trouble now was the seeds they had brought back.

Everyone knew the value of seeds, but apart from Stella, no one else knew how to handle them. Moreover, the heavy rain made everything too damp, and the seeds would spoil quickly if not stored properly.

Stella thought for a moment. "Why don't I keep them? I'll see if I can grow hydroponic vegetables, and then I'll teach you."

It was not that she was greedy, but when faced with frequent natural disasters in the apocalypse and unsuitable temperatures for plant growth, there was simply no opportunity to plant the seeds, and the seeds would spoil if kept for too long.

Arcadia had the ability to preserve freshness, she really wanted to preserve these precious items. If scientists developed suitable places for planting in the future, she could donate them anonymously. After all, Arcadia only had ten square feet of black soil, the seeds she had prepared herself would not be used up even if she died.

The others had no objections, and even helped move the stuff into her house. "Stella, whether we can have vegetables depends on you."

"I can only try. I can't guarantee success."

They were too tired and fell asleep as soon as they washed up.

Staying up late was bad for the body; as they woke up at noon, they still felt groggy.

After eating junk food for a day, they woke up with dry mouths and couldn't stand the heat.

Stella took a portion of rice, steamed ribs, veggie salad, and ate it with satisfaction. She even had a small cake to finish it all off. Perfection!

After eating and drinking, she entered Arcadia, but was almost scared by the scene in front of her.

Whoa... whoa, whose Arcadia is this!

Stella was shocked by the scene in front of her. The supplies were still hers, but Arcadia had grown bigger. From a two-bedroom and one-living-room setup, it had become a three-bedroom and one- living-room setup.

No, it was more than just a three-bedroom and one-living-room setup. The area had also increased.

The master bedroom had grown by about five square meters, the secondary bedroom had gained two square meters. The living room, bathroom, kitchen, and balcony had all grown, with the extra room being about 10 square meters.

What surprised her even more was that the garden had doubled in size, from 10 square meters to 20 square meters!

What did this mean? Not only would vegetables be free, but fruits would also be free.

She immediately took out a ruler to measure and estimated that the total area had increased by about 50 square meters, or 150 cubic meters.

Surprised and delighted, Stella was puzzled. How could Arcadia have suddenly grown bigger? Could it be because it was full?

No, it didn’t grow bigger last time it was almost stuffed to bursting. There must’ve been other unknown reasons. She couldn't figure it out; she just pondered slowly.

If Arcadia grew bigger, would the time she could spend in Arcadia every day increase?

She eagerly looked at the shadow timer, which had accumulated for more than 20 days, and after deducting the time she had already spent, she only had a pitiful 36 hours left, which was... heartbreaking.

There was a daily statistic, but the time did not increase.

Well, she had to be careful about the time she spend in Arcadia. She rolled up her sleeves and started moving stuff around in Arcadia, filling every nook and cranny of the master and guest bedrooms with supplies.

As she was tidying up, she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off.