Chapter 053: Jing Shu’s Ultimate Weapon

Wang Da Zhao 1 commented, “You’re making me crave it. I queued at the supermarket last night, and all the spices were sold out. Now when cooking at home, we just add salt, and it’s so bland.”

Wang Cui Hua responded with a voice message, “The wholesale spice market has closed down too. Make sure to buy some oil next time you go to the supermarket, or soon you won’t even be able to fry food.”

Feng 3 chimed in, “The meat in my fridge has maggots frozen into it, can I still eat it? Damn it, only three hours of electricity a day, and now my meat’s turned into this without me knowing!”

Wang Xue Mei 2 replied, “If it’s just meat, what can’t you eat? Supermarket snacks and frozen food are all gone, you’re lucky to have something to eat.”

Feng 3 added, “What’s there to fear? I’ve stored up a dozen bags of rice. I don’t believe there won’t be supplies by then.”

Observing the early days of the apocalypse, people still harbored hopes of a return to normalcy.

Jing Shu shook her head, ignoring the chatter in the group. She quickly finished roasting the quails and stored them in her spatial cube. She then changed a few ice buckets in the yard before heading out fully geared up, accompanied by Number 1.

The heat wave hit her as she stepped outside, sweat immediately starting to flow. Only the silhouette of a Fat Chicken, unfazed by the dark, was visible in the dim neighborhood. Not far away, the glow from a luxurious glass enclosure shimmered faintly.

Jing Shu thought to herself, though the villa area was remote, it was still within the neighborhood. With the upcoming surge in occupancy next year, she’d need to keep a low profile of her home’s resources, like electricity and water.

For instance, from the higher floors of Building 25, one could see the fruit-laden apple trees in her yard through a telescope. Therefore, Jing Shu decided to leave the dirt accumulated on the hardened glass of the villa. The thicker, the better. This way, when the lights were on inside or when working in the yard’s pond or vegetable garden, no one outside could see.

In these times, most residents refrained from using lights, opting for flashlights or candles instead. Transportation reverted to bicycles and electric tricycles as cars ran out of fuel. Commutes were filled with the sounds of bicycle bells mingling with the honking of buses, keeping traffic police busy.

Nowadays, only government employees and public sector workers go to their offices as usual. Business owners had shut down, and it was reported that over half a million migrants had left Wucheng, with many returning from work elsewhere. The remaining idle population posed potential issues, so employing them in poultry culling was a way to keep them occupied.

Due to weather issues, planes were grounded, and with the need to divert personnel to maintain railway tracks, train services were halved. Fortunately, Jing Shu’s family no longer needed to travel out of town. Her mother mentioned that distant relatives might visit, a development that hadn’t occurred in her previous life, making Jing Shu wonder if she had triggered some butterfly effect.

Number 1, her chicken, pecked at insects effortlessly, a precursor to the imminent invasion of corpse beetles that Jing Shu suspected was linked to the current insect infestation.

After the beetles had been eradicated, having only been a nuisance for half a month, they had led to the deaths of thousands in Wucheng, contributing to a national death toll from viral influenza that Jing Shu was unaware of. The news has shifted from corruption scandals to celebrity arrests, now focusing on the confiscation of food supplies, while also highlighting the chaos abroad compared to the stability in China.

In such a secluded community with only a hundred residents and a 4% death rate, they were comparatively lucky in the apocalypse.

Jing Shu was now in the rugged hills behind her home, contemplating her trump card for survival, revolving around the use of sturdy granite.

She began collecting massive blocks of granite into her space, using a pendulum saw to carve intricate, curved grooves into the rock, a technique from Mycenaean civilization, difficult in reality but feasible with her control in the spatial realm.

Despite ruining dozens of tools and spending twenty days, Jing Shu managed to craft 30 lethal weapons, filling 15 cubic meters.

She shaped the granite into towering columns, each taller and thicker than a person, with a pointed end suitable for combat or for embedding into the ground to form barricades or even makeshift stone shelters in emergencies.

Each granite column weighed over two tons. Using her space as a launching point, she could hurl them like arrows, lifting the stones with her mental force and ejecting them from her space to continue their trajectory.

After practicing with other rocks, her best shot could launch them over twenty meters away, creating a massive crater upon impact. With increased intake of spirit spring water, her range improved further.

If ever in grave danger, Jing Shu could unleash several columns at once, ensuring a devastating barrage. If one volley wasn’t lethal, she could retrieve it from her space and strike again.

However, using this strategy meant no survivors could be left; the secrets of her spatial cube were hers alone to keep, barring the dead.

Thus, Jing Shu reserved her granite column assault as a last resort, a desperate measure to preserve her life when all else failed. While a handgun might be explainable, conjuring a barrage of stones was not.

Every day, besides tending to her chickens, managing waste, collecting water, and cooking, Jing Shu also worked on crafting her granite weapons. Due to space constraints, she buried the finished weapons in the ground, ready to be unearthed and used when necessary.

Her ultimate weapon was formidable but cumbersome and limited by distance. If repeatedly dropped, the columns could shatter, losing their lethal sharpness.

Inspired by crossbow mechanisms observed in her space, Jing Shu also considered using multiple crossbows simultaneously, releasing arrows at the moment they left her spatial realm.

The advantage was a chaotic barrage ideal for large groups. The downside: lack of precision and less lethal force compared to the granite, making it less likely to kill instantly.

Jing Shu also practiced with a handgun, focusing on aiming without firing to conserve ammunition and avoid drawing attention.

She also worked with a crossbow, appreciating its simplicity despite its inaccuracy. In dire situations, she could operate several crossbows from her space, unleashing a storm of arrows to neutralize threats—an unrefined but brutally effective last resort.