Xi Xi's first thought was to go home. She glanced at the fuel gauge; there was definitely enough fuel.

She remembered that it would only take a maximum of four hours to travel from Chuncheng to Licheng by highway at night. Although her hometown of Licheng was not as prosperous and had a high employment rate as Chuncheng, the relatively sparse population was not necessarily a bad thing for the post-apocalyptic world.

Furthermore, the terrain is high and stable and not in an earthquake zone, so there is no risk of secondary natural disasters. Most importantly, my parents are with me, and if I travel south in the sixth year of the apocalypse, I can reach the shelter smoothly.

With her mind made up, Xi Xi quickly fastened her seatbelt, stepped on the clutch, and shifted gears. However, just as she looked around through the car window, pondering the direction of the highway, Xi Xi suddenly realized that this was not the neighborhood where she rented her apartment at all!

Where is this? And why is she here? Rows of old houses stand not far away, looking like the kind of old six-story buildings without elevators. Apart from a few streetlights, only the convenience store sign in the distance emits a faint light.

Those unlit, dark corners, almost completely devoured by the night, seem to hide countless pairs of eyes watching from the shadows, making one feel uneasy.

Xi Xi fell silent. Six years of experience in the apocalypse had prevented her from panicking excessively. She quickly glanced at the surrounding road conditions and, after confirming that this was indeed not a place she recognized, she turned on the navigation on the central control screen.

"System error, please try again later," the navigation displayed an error message.

Right, there's also my phone. I can use a mobile app for navigation. Thinking this, Xi Xi immediately started searching her body. After six years in the apocalypse, she had almost forgotten about cell phones. Without electricity, internet, or signal, a cell phone in the apocalypse is practically worthless, even less desirable than a compressed biscuit.

She didn't have any on her. After a brief hesitation, she quickly grabbed the bag from the passenger seat and started rummaging through it. When Xi Xi saw the Y brand lipstick that her mother had given her as a birthday present, her eyes welled up with tears. In the second year of the apocalypse, she had escaped by throwing this lipstick out of the way to distract thugs.

Yes, she missed home, she missed her parents, she missed her kittens, but there was no time for her to think about it now. She wiped away her wet tears and took out her phone from the pocket.

Emotions can easily lead to rash decisions. She suppressed her emotions and breathed a sigh of relief when the boot animation appeared after she pressed and held the power button on her phone. Thankfully, the phone could still be turned on.

She decided to analyze the current situation first, sort out her thoughts, and then make a decision; being overly emotional would only make things worse. "I must stay calm," she silently told herself.

First, she was reborn, specifically in the early hours of the day the apocalypse began. But strangely, she was reborn at 2 AM in her own car.

In her past life, she was certain that she had gone to bed early at this time because it was her first day of officially becoming a full-time employee and she couldn't be late. Also, she didn't have the habit of turning off her phone at night.

Furthermore, it is illogical that she appeared on a completely unfamiliar road. She had only been in Kunming for a short time and was not familiar with the roads, let alone scouting the area in the middle of the night.

Given this situation, Xi Xi couldn't help but think of the parallel world theory. Perhaps her own self in this world had died, and her soul had merged into her own self in this parallel world.

However, this world is a bit too strange.

In any case, the facts are what they are, and since that's the case, she has to take action.

First, if her phone worked, she could contact her parents and ask them to prepare supplies for the apocalypse immediately. Although they only had half a day and it was early morning, they could prepare as much as they could, which was better than nothing. Besides, the three of them working together would be much better than her alone.

Secondly, if her phone doesn't work, she needs to go to a convenience store in the distance to check if it's safe. Maybe she can use their Wi-Fi or ask the clerk to turn on their hotspot for her. This way, she can use a safe app to send a private message to her parents and download an offline map to find out her current location. Once she knows the direction, she can use her sense of direction and the road signs to get back to Licheng under the cover of night.

The first is the ideal strategy, the second is a remedial measure. Unfortunately, things are unpredictable, and they always develop in ways we don't want to see.

"Sorry, the user you dialed is not in service area. Please try again later." The mechanical prompt sounded, and Xi Xi frowned slightly, but her heart was not stirred much, after all, this situation was within her expectations.

Having experienced the apocalypse, she knew that disappointment and despair could not change anything.

After several unsuccessful attempts to call her parents, Xi Xi decisively opened the green chat software and, sure enough, saw the red warning sign that was common when phones still had battery power in the early days of the apocalypse in her previous life: "Unable to connect to the network at present. Please check if your network settings are normal."

“Implement Plan B,” Xi Xi murmured to herself as she got out of the car and walked toward the convenience store in the distance.

The late autumn night was slightly chilly, with a gentle breeze rustling through the treetops. The old streetlights were dim and sparse, their creaking wicks sparking intermittently, barely illuminating a small patch of ground beneath their feet. Xi Xi, walking alone on the dimly lit path, quickened her pace.

With a bag slung over her right shoulder, she walked calmly, seemingly without looking to the side, but her eyes were actually scanning the surrounding street scene out of the corner of her eye. A sense of vigilance was necessary; she secretly observed all the shops she passed, and fell into deep thought as she looked at the tightly closed shutters and security cameras.

There are no brand chain stores like those found in big cities, and even the store names are hidden under the roller shutters. It looks like a small suburban shop that is not commercialized at all, or an empty shop for rent.

During those years of the apocalypse, she saw many refugees forcibly pry open the roller shutters of roadside shops in order to scavenge for supplies, using door openers to wedge their legs into the gaps underneath, and using toothed saws to cut open the openings... The tools were varied, but they were everywhere.

Although we are currently on the day of the apocalypse, it will take some time for the effects to truly take hold. The rule of law and morality are still sound today, and she must not bring the plight of people in the apocalypse into the pre-apocalyptic world.

Given the number of surveillance cameras before the apocalypse and the speed at which the police solve theft, kidnapping, and fraud cases, she might have already gone before the natural disaster actually struck.

She didn't want to spend the end of the world behind bars... Xi Xi shook her head, but couldn't resist the chill of the night, so she straightened her collar and walked thoughtfully to the convenience store sign.

“Convenience store,” Xi Xi murmured to herself, “Is that really all there is to it? Is it really that simple…” All she saw were those three words written alone on the weathered old-fashioned sign. In addition, there was a tower-shaped logo that she didn’t recognize. Perhaps due to sun and rain, the edges were a little blurred, but the outline of the tower reaching into the clouds could still be vaguely discerned.

Xi Xi had never seen this icon before, nor did she remember that there was such a landmark building in Kunming. Some old cardboard boxes at the entrance blocked her view, so she tiptoed and peered inside through the glass window.

In fact, it's more like a small family-run grocery store than a convenience store.

Xi Xi walked forward and pushed open the glass door. The interior was quite bright, but the decoration style was a bit old-fashioned. It was different from the avant-garde style of common chain convenience stores. Instead, it looked like a small grocery store or supermarket in the suburbs.

Hello, is anyone home?