Chapter 21: Who Cleared Out the Janitor’s Closet?

To avoid another unnecessary conflict, An Nan slipped straight into her space.

She’d already scoured this entire building, leaving only the top floor untouched. The others didn’t have a cheat like her spatial ability, so they couldn’t take everything the way she did. At most, they’d rummage for some employee snack stashes—they probably wouldn’t stick around long. As long as she stayed in her space for a while, she could easily avoid running into them.

An Nan entered her space and looked around at her new home. It had started out as a modest 60-square-meter bungalow, but after a few upgrades, it had become a small villa. She hadn’t expected that the raw jade she’d collected at Mingxing Plaza today would instantly transform her little villa into a sprawling 5,000-square-meter luxury estate. Besides the four-story main house, there was a vast lawn, all kinds of rare plants, and a sparkling spring.

She let Fugui out of her backpack.

The dog looked stunned, not understanding what new magic trick its owner had pulled this time.

“This is our new home, go run around, Fugui.”

Fugui really lived up to his name—born for wealth. Even though her family was reasonably well-off, they’d never lived in a manor. Little Fugui had only been with her for a month, and now he had a whole estate to call home.

Even if they could only enjoy it for an hour a day.

Fugui dashed out of the exquisitely decorated four-story villa, racing excitedly across the lawn. He ran and ran, then suddenly smacked into an invisible wall and tumbled to the ground.

“Awoo, awoo… awooo!”

The dog cocked his head and grumbled, clearly annoyed.

An Nan couldn’t help but laugh. “Silly dog. We can’t get into that part of the space. Isn’t this lawn big enough for you to play on?”

Fugui seemed to half-understand, got up, and started patrolling the edge of the lawn. Sure enough, there was an invisible wall enclosing the estate—no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get to the other side.

An Nan explained, “That side is basically our big storage warehouse, nothing fun over there. Just explore the manor to your heart’s content.”

With that, she left him to it, summoned a massage chair from her space, placed it in the villa’s living room, and went in to rest.

Today had been a whirlwind of diving, fighting, and clearing out buildings—she was exhausted.

The soothing full-body massage helped her relax completely.

Meanwhile, Fugui was far more interested in the world outside. He frolicked on the lawn, circled a few trees, and finally ended up by the spring behind the villa. After running wild for a while, he flopped down, tongue lolling, and drank deeply from the water.

Inside the building—

“This is so weird! This place is deserted, not even a bird, but everything’s gone!”

“Maybe someone beat us here and took all the supplies?”

“Who’s that ruthless? Not just the food—even the tea table from the boss’s office is gone!”

“Could it be that Taiyu Group moved everything out?”

As they explored floor by floor, the group chattered in disbelief. The entire building was empty—aside from some paperwork and scraps, there was nothing left.

They soon reached the top floor, only to find it tightly locked.

“Guys, there’s definitely something in here. The lock hasn’t even been tampered with.”

After searching the whole building, they finally saw a hint of supplies and immediately got excited, banging on the door and trying to pry it open.

After a long struggle, they finally got it open.

Inside, there were no windows—pitch black. The leader quickly turned on his flashlight.

“What the hell?! What is this?!”

What greeted them was a massive laboratory, filled with all sorts of instruments and reagents. They searched the entire floor; every room was a lab of some kind. Aside from the equipment and chemicals, there wasn’t a scrap of food, not even a single hair.

The group was bitterly disappointed.

The leader smacked his lackey on the head. “You idiot! You said there’d be loads of supplies here. We burned all that fuel to get the boat over, and there’s nothing!”

The lackey looked miserable, almost in tears. “I thought no one would come to this part of Kuancheng District…”

Someone else tried to smooth things over. “Forget it, we found plenty in Zhongguan District anyway. It’s not his fault—who could’ve guessed Taiyu Group would move everything out?”

“How do you know it was Taiyu Group?”

“Who else would it be? No one else would be crazy enough to take even the tables and chairs—heck, even the janitor’s closet is empty!”

“Whoever took it, there’s nothing left here. Let’s not waste any more time.”

After a few more grumbles, the group left, dejected and cursing under their breath.

Back in her space, An Nan enjoyed her massage chair with her eyes closed for a while. She checked the time—almost an hour had passed—so she got ready to head out.

“Fugui! Let’s go!”

She called for the dog as she made her way outside the villa.

The lawn was empty—no sign of Fugui. Surprised, An Nan looked around and finally found him by the pond behind the villa.

He was lying on the ground, eyes closed, belly round and exposed, tongue hanging out.

What kind of sleeping position was that?

An Nan walked over and called, “Fugui, wake up.”

Fugui lifted his head, wobbling as he grinned at her, then whimpered and snuggled up at her feet.

An Nan was both amused and exasperated. Why did he look drunk?

She glanced around but didn’t see anything suspicious. She knelt down, scooped up some spring water, and sniffed it.

No smell of alcohol.

What had this little guy drunk to end up like this?

“Fugui, are you drunk?”

Fugui patted his round belly and grinned, as if to say he was fine.

Almost an hour had passed since she’d entered the space—she had to leave soon.

She watched Fugui for a bit, making sure he was okay, then put him back in her backpack and slipped out of the space.

The moment she emerged, she found herself standing on the stairs. She missed a step and almost fell.

Wait, was this where I entered the space just now?

An Nan scratched her head. She remembered entering from the landing—how did she end up on the stairs?

No time to dwell on it. She tiptoed upstairs to check things out. The door to the seventeenth floor was already open, and it was dead silent inside.

Looks like they’re gone.

An Nan carefully checked to make sure no one was around, then relaxed and started exploring.

This floor had all sorts of chemical reagents—red, green, all colors—she had no idea what most of them were. She only recognized the basics, like concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. As for the rest, she had no clue.

No matter—she swept them all into her space, along with the lab equipment. Ever since the apocalypse began, everything looked like a precious, irreplaceable resource to her. Who knew when it might come in handy?

Her space was big enough—might as well take it all.

In no time, Taiyu Tower was completely cleaned out. An Nan left the building with a spring in her step.

Once outside, she piloted her inflatable boat back home. But she hadn’t gone far when she suddenly heard a commotion up ahead."