Chapter 5: Stockpiling Weapons

An Nan was in a great mood after making Qinger so angry she was hopping mad.

She left the neighborhood and headed straight for the hardware market.

Over the past couple of days, she’d already stocked up on plenty of food, clothes, and daily necessities. But as the saying goes—

While my neighbors hoard food, I hoard weapons. That way, my neighbors become my pantry.

An Nan had no intention of becoming someone else’s pantry, so she needed to stockpile weapons.

Of course, she couldn’t get her hands on real guns or live ammunition—China’s regulations on that front were still very strict. But thankfully, if she couldn’t buy them, neither could anyone else.

In her previous life, the most common weapons people used in fights were kitchen knives, axes, baseball bats, and the like.

Either their lethality wasn’t high, or they were easy to accidentally hurt yourself with.

An Nan planned to get something more suitable for her.

A chainsaw.

Also known as a “criminal pacifier.”

Once the chainsaw roared to life, no one dared come within ten meters.

There was even a joke online: “It’s the most powerful weapon you can legally buy.”

Never mind how well it could cut through bone—just the deafening roar alone was enough to make anyone’s legs go weak.

Its only drawback was that it needed gasoline, so An Nan would have to stock up on that, too.

After the apocalypse, when order collapsed, diesel and gasoline would become precious, non-renewable resources.

So An Nan didn’t just buy five chainsaws, she also got five rechargeable electric saws. After all, there was electricity in her space, so she could always toss them in to charge.

After buying the chainsaws and electric saws, An Nan also picked up ten nail guns and matching nails.

Nail guns might not be as deadly as real guns, but they were still powerful—aim for the head or heart, and you could take someone down in a couple of shots.

The shop owner selling the nail guns repeatedly reminded her of the safety precautions, afraid she’d accidentally hurt someone.

Leaving the store, An Nan returned to her car and stowed everything in her storage space.

Sitting in the car, she thought for a moment, then called one of her late mother’s former business partners.

“Auntie Chen? Hello, this is An Nan.”

“An Nan? Is something wrong?”

Everyone in their circle knew that An Nan had been kicked out by An Xingye. Though they felt sorry for her, An Xingye was now in charge of the family business, so as a business partner, Mrs. Chen couldn’t afford to get too close to An Nan.

Her mother was gone, and An Nan understood how quickly people moved on, so she didn’t bother with small talk and got straight to the point.

“My mom once lent you a collectible for you to admire. I’d like to come pick it up.”

“Oh, you mean that triangular bayonet?”

Mrs. Chen was taken aback. Was this girl so down on her luck she had to sell collectibles to get by?

The bayonet wasn’t that old and wasn’t worth much—she’d only borrowed it out of curiosity. It couldn’t compare to the antiques her mother collected.

But An Xingye probably hadn’t given her any of those things.

Thinking about it, she felt a bit sorry for the girl.

So she agreed readily, “Come by my house tomorrow and pick it up.”

“Okay, thank you, Auntie.”

After hanging up, An Nan felt a little more at ease.

A triangular bayonet, with three blood grooves along the blade, could cause rapid and heavy bleeding when it pierced a target.

The unique wound it created was extremely hard to stitch up. In a post-apocalyptic world with scarce medical resources, getting stabbed by one was almost a death sentence.

Her mother’s bayonet was old and already had some rust when she received it.

But that was perfect for An Nan.

With rust, it was basically a tetanus blade—maximum damage.

With her weapon problem solved, An Nan wandered around the hardware market a bit more, buying wrenches, hydraulic pliers, oil drums, hammers, screwdrivers, window breakers, and all sorts of other tools.

She also bought three diesel generators, three gasoline generators, and some solar panels.

Finally, seeing how messy her storage space was getting, she bought a bunch of shelves to organize and categorize her supplies.

Was there anything else she needed to buy?

Oh, right! An Nan smacked her forehead—how could she forget the life-saving stuff?

She quickly opened her GPS, found a pharmacy, and headed over to stock up on medicine.

On the way, she spotted a water quality testing company.

She remembered she still didn’t know how good the water in her storage space actually was.

This time around, she could afford to be picky. If the water quality wasn’t great, she’d just stock up on drinking water.

So she took a sample from her space, spent a thousand yuan for a water test, and paid for expedited results—she’d have them by tomorrow.

Leaving the testing company, she drove another ten minutes to the pharmacy.

“Hello, I have some elderly family members at home who have trouble getting around, so I’d like to prepare some common medicines for them.”

The staff member had been playing on their phone, but their eyes lit up at her words, and they immediately got up to enthusiastically recommend all sorts of products.

Antibiotics, cold medicine, fever reducers, painkillers, anti-diarrheals, all kinds of antibiotics, ointments, medical gauze, band-aids, and more.

An Nan bought a bit of everything, carefully asked about the usage and precautions for each medicine, and then left.

Buying too much medicine at once would attract attention.

So, using her list, An Nan visited several pharmacies, buying in batches.

She was busy until five in the afternoon, only stopping when she got a call from the renovation workers saying they’d finished.

An Nan went home, checked the installation of the doors and windows, and was very satisfied as she paid the final bill.

After sending the workers off, she let out a long breath, turned on the air conditioning, and took out a serving of spicy hot pot and milk tea from her storage space.

The hot pot was still steaming. An Nan ate happily as she looked around.

With explosion-proof doors and windows and a storage space full of supplies, she was in a much better position than in her previous life.

She opened her tablet and started downloading her favorite TV dramas and variety shows.

In the apocalypse, with no internet, no electricity, and danger everywhere, people’s nerves would be stretched to the limit. So, besides meeting basic survival needs, she also needed to take care of her mental health if she wanted to go the distance.

She also bought a bunch of e-books and video resources.

Novels, maps, cooking tutorials, martial arts lessons, wilderness survival guides—she downloaded them all.

When her device ran out of storage, An Nan planned to buy more electronics the next day.

After dinner, she left her tablet at home to keep downloading and took her car keys downstairs.

The most important issue—energy—still wasn’t solved. Generators and chainsaws all needed fuel.

She drove her rented truck to a gas station.

She filled up the truck, then transferred the fuel into oil drums in her storage space.

After finishing at one station, she’d head to the next, working nonstop until midnight and collecting a total of 3,000 liters of diesel.

A bit tired, An Nan found a parking lot, closed her eyes to rest, and planned to continue after she woke up.

Before long, she heard a faint noise nearby.

She poked her head out and saw two skinny men crouching suspiciously beside a truck.

Were they… fuel thieves?

An Nan had heard that in Linbei City, there was a group of “fuel rats” who specialized in stealing fuel from other people’s vehicles and reselling it at low prices.

They were the most hated people among truck drivers.

Seeing the two men about to sneak away, An Nan started her car and followed them from a distance.

Fuel? That was exactly what she needed."