Chapter 24: Collecting Appliances

"Help me look for any usable appliances, such as microwave ovens, electric frying pans, and so on!"

These items are sold in the mall, but they're expensive and she doesn't have any points. Since the system didn't object, it must be feasible.

Jeremy nodded and went in another direction. Charlotte noticed the area was quite dark, so she bought another flashlight and tossed it to him.

"Take this flashlight and be careful of zombies."

Jeremy took it, his thoughts a bit perplexed. Was she really not wary of him? Was she willing to give him such valuable items? Did she trust him?

The word "trust" seemed normal in peacetime but felt out of place in the apocalypse.

Recalling something, he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.

There is no trust in the apocalypse!

Jeremy coldly switched on the flashlight and began searching for usable appliances.

Charlotte was unaware of Jeremy's shifting mindset. She was debating whether to take an extractor fan back to the hotel.

Her room didn't have an open kitchen yet, and the extractor fan was too expensive!

She couldn't bear to part with it just because of its price.

After much hesitation, she decided to store it in the system's storage. It might be useful in future worlds!

Charlotte approached a cabinet in the aisle. The glass was long shattered, and everything inside was scattered on the floor.

She bent down, picked up a package, and unwrapped it to find a shaver with a charger.

Unfortunately, she only found three usable ones, which she took back to the hotel.

At this moment, Jeremy called her over. He had found several different appliances: a microwave, a humidifier, an air purifier, and a fan.

"These are the only ones that are usable," Jeremy said emotionlessly.

Finding anything was good enough, so Charlotte didn't complain. She thanked him and put the items into her room, planning to have Bear clean them later.

This area had no more useful items, so Charlotte prepared to explore further.

The next section was the clothing area. After shining her flashlight around, she decided not to go in.

The clothes scattered on the ground were covered in footprints and dark red liquid, making the area look very dirty.

Next was the daily necessities area, including women's cosmetics, toothbrushes, toothpaste, facial cleansers, and shower gels.

Charlotte decided to check it out.

The shelves for cosmetics still had quite a bit of stock. Charlotte collected everything and put it into her living room, including small display cabinets against the wall, taking everything from the glass cases.

Jeremy found many unopened toothbrushes and toothpaste in the scattered goods, put them into a small basket, and carried them over to Charlotte, silently starting to gather usable shampoo.

When he saw bottles of conditioner, he thought of Charlotte's fair face, glossy black hair, and clean, fragrant clothes, so he threw the conditioner into the basket.

She would probably use conditioner, so he took it.

Jeremy expressionlessly threw the zombie bodies out of the way and retrieved several bottles of shampoo from under them.

After collecting five large baskets of hair and body care products, he left them at Charlotte's feet.

Charlotte directly stored the baskets and their contents in her room, including a lot of facial masks, shower gels, and body lotions.

She could finally enjoy using bubbles and fragrance after a bath!

Charlotte was in a great mood as she stepped into the next area.

In the baby section, apart from strollers and pacifiers, all the consumables like baby formula had been taken.

Charlotte took a quick look, walked to the next shelf, and was surprised to find it full of goods.

Before she could be happy, she realized it was all children's toys!

Forget it; she wasn't planning to have kids and didn't need toys.

Next was the snack area, alcoholic beverages section, rice, flour, and oil section, and the seasoning section.

None of these had anything left.

Some people, with the mentality of "if I can't take it, neither can anyone else," had knocked over entire shelves, smashing glass bottles and leaving a mess of dried liquid on the floor.

Rice and flour were scattered on the ground, with several large empty oil barrels, turning the originally clean floor into a muddy mess.

Even the alcoholic beverages section had signs of being burned.

It was a typical "if I can't have it, neither can you" mentality.

Charlotte clicked her tongue and continued forward.

Since there were no usable items left on this floor, the two decided to go downstairs to check.

But the situation downstairs was even worse than she had imagined.

The first floor mainly sold fruits, vegetables, seafood, and meat.

After the apocalypse began, people were panicked and rushed to the supermarket. As the largest supermarket in the city, it was crowded, leading to many stampedes. When some people suddenly turned into zombies, those at the back couldn't escape, and those at the front didn't know what was happening and turned back to watch.

Most people paid the price of their lives for their curiosity.

Seeing the ground covered in corpses made Charlotte gag. She intended to return the way she came.

"Not going down?" Jeremy used the flashlight to scan the shelves of dry goods and was surprised to find there were still some edible items.

He was tempted.

Charlotte noticed his interest but didn't want to step on strange things. She shook her head, "I'm not going down. You go."

"Alright, lend me your backpack. We'll split the loot fifty-fifty."

Charlotte agreed, handing him the backpack.

It was impossible to fit everything into one backpack, so Jeremy's intention was for her to store the items in the space, and he would make multiple trips to retrieve everything.

Thus, Charlotte agreed to the fifty-fifty split.

Jeremy expressionlessly walked over, stepping on the corpses. He found the shelves full of dried goods like beef jerky and pork floss.

He packed a full bag, returned stepping on the corpses, and handed the bag to Charlotte for her to store.

Jeremy speculated that Charlotte might have spatial abilities to explain the disappearing appliances.

After making four round trips, the shelves were finally emptied.

"Stay here, I'll check inside."

Jeremy carried her backpack and walked deeper into the store.

"Be careful!" Charlotte listened to the creaking sounds of his footsteps and felt her scalp tingling.

Sometimes he would step on a body, causing his foot to sink in, and when he pulled it out, something would still be stuck to his shoe.

Charlotte withdrew her gaze and gagged to the side.

Jeremy, with the flashlight, ventured deeper, and the light disappeared.

For a moment, Charlotte felt like besides the corpses, she was the only living person in the store.

It felt like walking into a sea of dead bones, with a profound silence all around.

In the vast supermarket, she felt like she was the only one alive.

She shone the flashlight around, afraid of a sudden unexpected appearance.

Fifteen minutes later, seeing Jeremy still hadn't returned, she couldn't help but wonder: He wouldn't have gone out through the main door, would he?

Then she saw a light slowly approaching, Jeremy appeared, carrying three bags of rice.

"Where did you find these?" Charlotte let out a small sigh of relief. If he didn't return soon, she would have teleported back to the hotel.

Jeremy turned around and whispered, "Found them in the cake shop inside. You can store them now."

Once the weight on his shoulders was gone, Jeremy moved his stiff shoulders.

"Let's head back. I can't walk further here." Charlotte didn't want to step on any more corpses.