Chapter 48: Locked Out of Home

In less than a minute, Jiang Yan had already flown up to the 32nd floor of Building A.

The batch of jetpacks she bought all had speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour. Even though she wasn’t that skilled at operating them yet, she was already flying pretty fast.

She glanced around—thankfully, there were no blood mosquitoes following her.

Hovering outside the living room’s floor-to-ceiling window, Jiang Yan carefully took her phone out of her bag.

Seeing the big exclamation mark on the signal indicator, she instinctively pursed her lips.

Oh no!

She’d planned for everything—except her phone suddenly losing signal!

With no cell signal, the smart home system was definitely out of commission, and her plan to get back in through the window was a bust.

Luckily, her jetpack still had some juice left.

As for getting back into her apartment, she figured she had three options:

First, she could go down from the rooftop.

She remembered there was only a single iron door between the rooftop and the 32nd floor, and the lock would be easy to break.

The only issue was that the stairs under the iron door were suspended above the stairwell floor, leaving a gap.

But for her, that was hardly a problem.

The second option was to get in through the 32nd floor stairwell window, but she’d have to smash the glass.

She had plenty of hammers in her storage space—breaking glass would be a breeze.

But she remembered the stairwell windows weren’t very big, and with all the gear she was wearing, she looked like a Michelin tire.

To squeeze through, she’d have to dismantle the window frame as well.

Plus, once the window was broken, blood mosquitoes and the incoming torrential rain would pour into the stairwell.

The third option was to enter through the ground floor, which would also involve breaking glass or forcing a lock.

That was the hardest, most tiring, and most likely to attract attention.

After all, she’d have to use a power saw to break the lock.

Thinking it through, option one was by far the simplest.

With that decided, Jiang Yan pressed a button on her jetpack, gave it a bit more power, and flew straight up to the rooftop.

Even with insulated shoes on, the moment her feet touched the rooftop, she could feel the searing heat radiating up.

This was Jiang Yan’s first time on the rooftop.

There wasn’t much up there—just a small room that looked like a water tank, and two electrical boxes side by side.

Other than that, there were three round flower beds.

But the flowers and grass inside had long since withered.

The rest was a tangle of wires hanging in midair, probably for residents to hang their laundry.

Even though there was no way anyone would be up here at this hour, Jiang Yan still looked around cautiously.

Just in case something unexpected happened, she didn’t take off her heavy jetpack right away. Instead, she summoned a dagger and a flashlight from her storage space.

She quickly found the iron door, and the lock was nothing special—she pried it open in a few tries.

With a creak, the door opened. After making sure everything inside was normal, Jiang Yan went in.

She took out a rope from her storage space and tied the iron door shut, then used her jetpack to descend directly into the stairwell.

The stairwell was pitch black and eerily quiet.

Jiang Yan didn’t linger, hurrying toward her own apartment, 3201.

Maybe because the floor was so high up, the blood mosquitoes hadn’t made it to the 32nd floor.

There were no bloodstains in the stairwell, just some scattered trash.

Probably dropped by He Chunmei and the others when they moved out.

When Jiang Yan reached her front door, she realized another serious problem:

The anti-intrusion system was currently set to 500 volts.

With no cell signal, she had no way to temporarily adjust the defense level.

There was a manual control panel, but unfortunately, it was installed in the bedroom...

Luckily, she’d always been cautious. Otherwise, if she’d just reached out by habit, she’d have been fried to a crisp.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yan couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

Wasn’t this a case of being trapped by her own precautions?

But who could have predicted the internet would go down in less than half a day?

Fortunately, she still had her portable home: her storage space.

Jiang Yan didn’t waste any time. With a thought, she entered her space.

Compared to the sweltering darkness outside, her space was bright and sunny.

She took off her jetpack and heat-resistant suit and went straight for a shower.

After changing into loose loungewear, she was still a bit tired from “wandering” outside all night, so she went straight to bed.

She pulled out her tablet and started watching a popular variety show she’d downloaded earlier.

As she watched, she suddenly felt hungry.

No surprise—the show was featuring the guests eating seafood instant noodles in some tropical country.

She could practically smell the aroma through the screen.

Jiang Yan, like a little foodie, swallowed her saliva and went to the kitchen.

She grabbed a pot, boiled some water, and tossed in a packet of tom yum hotpot base.

The water boiled quickly, and the sour, spicy, and coconutty aroma filled the kitchen.

Jiang Yan took out a pack of pickled vegetable instant noodles, tore it open, and put the noodles in the pot.

With another thought, she summoned some almost-fresh shrimp, crab sticks, and clams from her [storage area], washed them, and added them to the pot.

When the noodles were perfectly springy, she added some thinly sliced mushrooms.

Finally, she sprinkled some cilantro on top, and a steaming bowl of seafood instant noodles was ready.

Jiang Yan finished even the broth.

After years as a food blogger, she’d never really watched her diet.

She was naturally skinny—no matter how much she ate, she never gained weight.

If her physical exam results hadn’t always been normal, she’d have suspected she had hyperthyroidism.

Now that the apocalypse had come, her slender build actually gave her a sense of security.

After eating, she discovered her phone suddenly had signal again.

Excited, Jiang Yan grabbed her phone and exited her storage space.

Without any protective gear on, the moment she stepped back into the stairwell, it felt like she’d been thrown into a sauna.

Hot.

Unbearably hot.

She pulled out her phone, opened the smart home app, quickly disabled the anti-intrusion system, entered her password, and scanned her fingerprint.

Beep! The door unlocked.

Inside, it was so stuffy she could barely breathe.

But being home always felt good.

It was a feeling she couldn’t describe—a sense of security etched into her bones.

No matter how perfect her storage space was, it couldn’t compare.

She glanced at the thermometer in the living room. The temperature had already reached 68 degrees Celsius.

Jiang Yan closed the door and didn’t bother turning on the lights.

After returning to her bedroom, she entered her storage space again.

She checked her phone. The Shanshui Bay residents’ group chat was buzzing.

Even after the bloody chaos that afternoon, everyone was still alive and kicking.

There were still complaints.

There were still curses directed at Jiang Yan and the others.

But most people had gone back to entertaining themselves.

Someone even posted photos and videos of the underground shelter in the group.

Thanks to the backup power, there was still some light inside.

But it wasn’t very bright.

After all, no one knew how long the heat would last, so they had to conserve electricity as much as possible."