Chapter 84: Zero-Dollar Shopping at the Gas Station

An Nan strolled happily into the factory area, sweeping up all sorts of agricultural machinery—tractors, transplanters, sprayers, combine harvesters—into her storage space.

She couldn’t tell which machines were water-damaged and which were still usable, so she simply took everything. She’d sort it all out and study them in detail when she had time back home.

After leaving the agricultural machinery section, An Nan kept up her momentum and made her way through each area of the factory, clearing out every single piece of equipment. There were plenty of machines she didn’t even know the purpose of, let alone how to use. But when she was stockpiling supplies before the disaster, she never imagined she’d one day need excavators and farm equipment. Yet here she was—suddenly in need of them.

Who knew what unexpected machines she might need in the future? Better to take them all now, especially since her storage space was so vast she couldn’t even see its limits.

After looting the entire machinery factory, An Nan returned to her car and headed for a nearby gas station, ready to score some fuel.

She’d picked this gas station on purpose—it was in the suburbs, with no residential areas or neighborhoods nearby, making it convenient for her to use her storage space without being seen.

When she got close, she first drove a big loop around the area, checking to make sure no one was around. Once she was sure it was clear, she returned to the gas station and pulled out her excavator.

She swapped out the bucket for a hydraulic breaker, filled it up with diesel, and got ready to work.

Usually, gas stations have their storage tanks buried right under the fueling area. An Nan planned to dig a hole next to the tanks, then reach in and stash the whole tank in her storage space.

It sounded simple, but in practice, it was tricky.

First, there was the issue of locating the tanks. She could only guess their general position underground and couldn’t pinpoint them exactly. If she drilled in the wrong spot and hit the tank directly, there was a real risk of a massive explosion.

Second, she’d never had any formal training in operating an excavator, so it was hard to work both efficiently and safely.

So, she decided to start digging at a spot some distance away from where she guessed the tanks were. She’d dig from afar, then gradually move closer, probing bit by bit until she could feel the tank through the hole.

Better safe than sorry.

It was slower this way, but it kept her safe.

With her plan set, An Nan first put her Knight XV into storage—if anything went wrong and there was an explosion, she could dive into her storage space in an instant, but her beloved car would be toast. Best to put it away first.

Once everything was ready, An Nan hopped onto the excavator with a flourish.

She’d seen a viral video on Douyin with over three million likes teaching people how to operate an excavator. The instructions were so simple that the comments were full of jokes like, “I learned to drive an excavator at Douyin Online Vocational College.”

Relying on her memory, An Nan turned the key, lifted the safety lock, and pushed the control levers and handles. After a few tries, she quickly got the hang of it.

“Da-da-da, da-da-da.”

The hydraulic breaker started up, and before long, she’d punched a hole in the concrete.

Since she’d started far from the tanks, there was nothing underneath at first. An Nan maneuvered the machine a bit closer and kept digging.

After drilling several holes, she went from clumsy to skilled, able to control the angle and depth with ease.

Once she felt confident, she moved much closer to the fueling area. This time, she broke through and exposed a corner of the storage tank.

Excited, An Nan reached in and stashed the huge tank in her storage space.

Precious fuel, finally in hand!

Even before the apocalypse, gasoline cost over eight yuan a liter—now she was getting it by the ton, for free.

A typical gas station has anywhere from two to six storage tanks, placed side by side. After taking one, An Nan repeated the process for the others.

In the end, she collected three storage tanks, each capable of holding about 20 tons of fuel. But since cars had already come and gone, the tanks weren’t full—each was only about two-thirds full.

All together, she had about 40 tons: 10 tons of diesel and 30 tons of gasoline.

That much gasoline would let her Wuling Hongguang run until it fell apart. But for her fuel-guzzling armored vehicle, it still wasn’t enough.

After nearly two hours of work, An Nan set off for the next gas station. She didn’t dare go into the city with all its people and prying eyes, so she kept heading further out.

At the next station, she used the same method, but was much more efficient this time. In just over an hour, she collected four tanks, totaling 60 tons of fuel.

She kept at it for most of the night, and by the end, An Nan had looted fourteen storage tanks from four gas stations, amassing 200 tons of fuel in her storage space.

That was more than enough for her needs, but she was hooked on stockpiling and wanted to keep going. After all, in the apocalypse, fuel was as precious as gold—the more, the better.

An Nan continued on, heading for a fifth gas station.

Driving down the provincial highway, everything around her was pitch black, with only her headlights illuminating the road ahead.

She was calculating how much longer it would take when, suddenly, she saw bright lights up ahead and heard a loud commotion.

An Nan quickly switched off her headlights to hide her presence. She crept closer and stopped about a hundred meters from the lights.

Peering into the darkness, she saw that the brightly lit spot was the very gas station she’d been aiming for. But right now, five workers were busy at the site.

They’d brought a generator and floodlights, illuminating the whole area. The noise was coming from a hydraulic breaker drilling into the ground.

Just like her, they were working late at night, breaking up the gas station’s concrete.

An Nan frowned.

Looks like they’re after the fuel, too.

But unlike her, they didn’t have a magical storage space, so their method was riskier and much more time-consuming. They had to dig up the entire area, then use professional techniques to separate the tanks, and finally use a crane to lift them onto a big truck.

Watching them work so busily, An Nan couldn’t help but wonder:

Are these government people, collecting fuel to build a base?

But then she thought, No, that can’t be right.

The government didn’t start building bases until the middle of the extreme heat period, and even then, they were desperate for fuel, buying it up wherever they could.

Back then, An Nan and the Bai siblings had gone around siphoning gas from cars to sell to the authorities in exchange for water.

In her memory, there had been some mysterious big shot who monopolized all the fuel resources, then used that as leverage to cooperate with the official bases and gain control over even more resources.

Could these people be working for that big shot?"