Cave Refuge

If it were common people, living on the twelfth floor without an elevator, climbing stairs every day could actually be a form of physical exercise, but for Cultivators with strong bodies, the height of twelve floors is not much different from ordinary people climbing two or three floors.

Because there is no elevator, the staircase of this building is not built in a corner on the edge, but in the center of the building, with a layout of one staircase serving two households, perfectly utilizing the staircase to separate the two households on the same floor.

The Thompson Family of three followed the staircase up to the twelfth floor, but instead of using a key to open the door to their apartment, they continued up the stairs to the rooftop.

Upon reaching the rooftop, the three of them first surveyed the surrounding scenery. Perhaps because there is no elevator, the heights of other residential buildings in the vicinity are mostly below ten stories, and only their building reaches twelve stories in the entire neighborhood.

Because of this, compared to other buildings in the neighborhood, the rooftop of their building has a higher level of concealment; at least, the conditions on their rooftop cannot be observed from the rooftops of nearby buildings.

After scanning the rooftop, the Thompson Family left the rooftop and returned to their newly purchased apartment, using the key to open the door, to find nothing but a bare shell apartment.

Except for the bathroom and the kitchen area, the rest of the apartment's areas only had a few pillars, without walls separating functional rooms.

The interior was nearly two hundred square meters without shared communal areas, apart from a kitchen at the entrance and two bathrooms at each side, the rest of the space had nothing but a few support pillars.

The kitchen and bathrooms only have a drainage pipe and lacked circuits for electricity, gas, and running water which are essential for living.

The drain pipes in the kitchen and bathrooms were not the common plastic pipes found before the Natural Disaster, but were more like concrete pipes. These pipes didn't directly lead to the lower floors, but to the sides, where several spaces equivalent to external units before the Disaster were located, serving as the building's drainage area.

At this moment, the apartment was merely a structure, devoid of all utilities like water, electricity, and gas that were mandatory before the Natural Disaster, leaving only its most primal attribute of providing shelter.

What made the Thompson Family despair the most was that all rooms in the apartment had window openings left intact, yet not a single window was installed.

"Spending so much money on an apartment and they don't even provide windows, it's not even as good as the one at Xiao Ye's camp."

Hearing Mrs. Thompson's complaint, Dong Tianyu and Mr. Thompson didn't say much. Such an apartment, before the Natural Disaster, would have never been approved by the Officials, but now it could be sold openly.

After a brief tour, the three of them had a basic understanding of the apartment's condition and then they opened the door to another unit across the hallway, finding the interior identical to their unit, basically a mirror layout.

Just as the Thompson Family were about to discuss how to renovate the apartment, they suddenly heard someone knocking on the door. Turning around, they saw a middle-aged man dressed in grey clothing, standing at the open but unclosed door knocking.

When the Thompson Family turned their gaze towards him, he said, "Hello, I saw you going upstairs just now, so I've come to ask if you've just moved here and if your new home needs some renovation."

Seeing that the man was still standing politely at the door without entering the apartment, Zachary invited him in, and then asked him, "Are you from a renovation company?"

Hearing Zachary's inquiry, the man introduced himself, "Hello, I am Evan from our neighborhood's comprehensive service office. My main job is to provide services to homeowners in the nearby neighborhoods, which include but are not limited to house renovation, unblocking drainage, delivering water, delivering fuel, and other basic civic services."

"I understand about house renovations, but what do you mean by delivering water and fuel?"

Hearing Zachary's question, Evan immediately explained, "You three must have already inspected this room briefly and must be aware that there isn't water, electricity, or gas supply in this house, so when you move in, the daily necessities like water or fuel will have to be purchased separately.

If any of you three have the ability to produce water, it's fine, if not, then you'll have to buy your daily water from outside. Besides water, fuel is also essential in daily life.

I sell several different kinds of combustibles here, and I can also set up different stoves in your kitchen during the renovation based on your choice of combustible material."

Hearing what Evan said, as Mrs. Thompson usually cooks at home, she curiously asked, "What kinds of combustibles do you sell here? Do you have liquefied gas?"

"Of course, there's no liquefied gas, I only have firewood and coal."

Evan first negated Mrs. Thompson's inquiry about liquefied gas and quickly mentioned the two different types of combustibles he could provide.