Cave Refuge

From near to far, the first place Dong Tianyu reached was Taylor Oliver's tobacco blending warehouse.

Although he'd only been there a few times, he still remembered the special location of the warehouse.

By this time, the warehouse manager who previously lived here had already left. Although there were chain locks and hidden locks on the door as double safeguards, the outdoor temperature had now dropped to around minus fifty or sixty degrees. The hardness of ordinary metal had lowered due to the cold.

At this time, the crowbar, acting as the master key, made its appearance again. Despite being a metal object, it'd been stored in the Shadow Space and hadn't been affected by the external weather, maintaining its original metal strength.

Dong Tianyu's lock-picking method was as simple and direct as ever. He smashed the iron lock first with the crowbar, then jammed the hidden lock, and thus easily opened the warehouse door.

At this point, the amount of blend tobacco in the warehouse was not as plentiful as Dong Tianyu had imagined. Perhaps it was due to the recent aftermath of the viral outbreak making orders inconvenient, or due to the large-scale purchase Tianyu had made on his last visit.

The warehouse only had less than a hundred boxes of blended tobacco. Moreover, these boxes had been repacked, and until opened, Dong Tianyu didn't know what type of tobacco was inside.

However, regardless of what type of tobacco it turned out to be, Dong Tianyu wasn't too bothered. He wasn't much of a smoker and had no particular interest in the quality of tobacco. After tidying up the warehouse, he simply walked out the door.

Dong Tianyu, who had initially wanted to leave straight away, had a sudden notion to 'open blind boxes' after seeing several similar warehouses around him. As the saying goes, now that he's here, he can't help but want to look around.

Fortunately, this place was somewhat remote, with not many large warehouses like this one.

Dong Tianyu used his universal lock-opening method – a knock and a hit – and the warehouse door was easily opened.

Walking into the first warehouse brought a pleasant surprise to Dong Tianyu. He hadn't expected that the contents of the warehouse weren't anything other than various types of toilet paper, including rolls, tissues, and packs. There was a full assortment of toilet paper types.

Although the price of toilet paper wasn't high, it had now become one of the indispensable items in life.

Besides wiping sweat, blowing noses, and cleaning buttocks, toilet paper had actually changed many people's living habits.

For instance, if you spilled soup while eating, someone in the house would chide you if you used toilet paper to wipe it up, pointing out wasteful it was when a cloth was available.

Now when this happens, those who used to complain about the waste of using toilet paper for cleaning, take a tissue for cleanup without hesitation, no longer bothering to walk a few steps to the kitchen to get a cloth.

Dong Tianyu had indeed stocked up on a considerable amount of toilet paper when preparing supplies in advance. However, the stock's quantity was not excessive in light of the comparison to other goods and the relatively low price of toilet paper.

The main reason behind not making a larger purchase was the cost-effectiveness, even though the price of toilet paper was insignificant and should have a high cost-performance ratio.

However, in the apocalyptic era, in comparison to food and water, toilet paper was not a necessity; it could even be considered a luxury.

So, even though he had stored some toilet paper when preparing supplies, compared to other goods, the proportion of toilet paper reserves was not high. Although the piles looked plentiful when stacked together, if used at the normal rate of modern people, it would only last for around two years per person at most.

The main reason for the minimal reserve of toilet paper was the lack of storage space. Now, after being upgraded, the capacity of both the Cave Mansion and the Shadow Space had increased eightfold so Dong Tianyu unhesitatingly put the toilet paper in his storage.

After the surprise of the first warehouse, Dong Tianyu's anticipation for the remaining warehouses increased.

When he smashed open the second warehouse door, the goods inside were heaped to the brim. The second warehouse was filled with nothing but cement and yellow sand, appearing to belong to a building materials merchant.

Now that the Shadow Space was vacant, Dong Tianyu didn't absorb all these sacks of cement and sand, but instead kept one-third of them for future use. The remaining items were all absorbed to offset the survival points consumed for the next upgrade.

However, the next upgrade of the Cave Mansion required ten thousand survival points. The amount of survival points offset by this warehouse after decomposition was quite insignificant. Still, Dong Tianyu knew that every little bit added up, so he didn't care too much.

With the first two warehouses' unexpected finds, Dong Tianyu was even more eager for the upcoming warehouses.

When faced with a locked door, Dong Tianyu still employed his two-step lock opening combo.

Once inside the warehouse, Dong found it was different from the first two purely storage warehouses. This warehouse had a partitioned room, most likely the temporary dwelling of the warehouse manager.

Looking at the neatly stacked boxes of goods in the warehouse, Dong thought there should be records of these goods in the room, so he decided to check it out first.

He pushed open the room's door to see a single bed. This must have been the place where the warehouse manager slept.

What Dong Tianyu didn't expect was that someone was on the bed. The bed was positioned against the corner of the wall, so when he first entered, he saw the foot of the bed before his eyes were drawn to the figure curled up under a quilt in the corner.

Upon seeing the figure at the head of the bed, Dong subconsciously retreated outside of the door. However, considering that the individual had made no reaction despite the noise he made opening the door, he started to have some suspicions.

Entering the room again, Dong cautiously nudged the figure under the blanket. Perhaps he hadn't pushed hard enough, but the figure remained motionless and unresponsive.

Considering the outside temperature, Dong suddenly understood the individual's situation. The makeshift room did not hold warmth, similarly with the steel-structured warehouse, and so, this warehouse manager, who hadn't secured cover at the Refuge Center, was probably in the exact condition that Dong had suspected.

However, to validate his assumption, Dong took out the crowbar he'd used to unlock the door from the Shadow Space, and he forcefully nudged the figure rolled up in the quilt.

Under Dong's strong push, the figure rolled from the head of the bed to lie sideways on the bed, still wrapped in the quilt.

Seeing this, Dong Tianyu had no intention to open the quilt to inspect the warehouse manager. He quickly glanced over the paper inventory list on the table, and his face showed an unspeakable expression.

He had never expected to find that this was an adult toy warehouse, and those boxes were all filled with adult toys. Not only were there toys favored by men, but there were also many toys that women liked.

It wasn't that Dong liked these things, but he operated by the principle of the thief never leaving empty-handed. After carefully looking over the information on each box, he sorted these items and placed them in the Shadow Space.