Ch 19: Smooth Preparations- Part 1

With two out of three necessities secured, Selene found herself with far less money than expected. 

Sitting in a quiet café, she flipped through the remaining cash in her wallet, calculating how much she had left while absentmindedly stirring her coffee.

She debated whether to save some funds for emergencies or spend everything now while she still had the chance. After all, money will still have it's value for the first few weeks after the fall.

But in the end, she decided that resources were more valuable than money—once the world collapsed, currency would be worthless. 

Since Selene had lived through those times, her mindset about the world and what was important had changed.

With that thought in mind, she moved quickly, stockpiling even more supplies. One store was not going to be enough for her.

She raided multiple stores for food, medicine, and daily necessities. Anything that had a long shelf life was packed into her inventory. Even those things that did not have shelf-life were packed because the inventory kept them fresh.

It was a miracle how the media did not come after her for her extravagance shopping spree. Selene was able to avoid being the center of attention as she shopped.

She even decided to head to a specialized Warehouse because she did not have enough.

Maybe it was her luck finally turning around, or maybe this was how inventory worked, but Selene was surprised at how her inventory could store this all under one category- food.

This made her worries about not having enough storage irrelevant and she could not help but marvel at how amazing of an ability this was.

'But would it be enough once the apocalypse hits? As far as I know, most monster bi-products are categorized differently. It is possible that these ten slots won't be enough.'

It was a genuine worry, but it was also something the future she needed to worry about. For now, Selene could take her time with things.

After ensuring she had enough provisions, she turned her attention to the last crucial part of her plan—a home base.

Once her thoughts were in order, Selene had another thing to worry about and that was her home base.

She had said that it did not matter if her house was built or not, but those were superficial words. She did need a space she could make habitable.

Selene knew that building a house from scratch took time—far more time than she had. If she wanted to survive, she needed to speed up the process by cutting through bureaucratic red tape.

Not that she had any intention of following those orders or even asking someone for permits.

But she would need such a thing to convince the current construction companies to build her a house.

Thankfully, Selene had the 'Vale' name to fall back on. And she intended to milk it as much as she could.

First, she searched online for construction firms that specialized in fast builds. Most required months to obtain permits and materials, but Selene didn't have months—at most, she had two.

It made looking for a good firm difficult, but she finally settled on a small-firm that seemed to be tight on money and desperate. Those people would likely take her request, no matter how difficult it sounded.

She contacted a contractor directly, keeping her tone professional. She was doing it over their official site but with a VPN installed so that she won't be tracked down.

Selene: I need a house built within two months. Money is not an issue.

The contractor was immediately skeptical, but he replied within seconds. It showed how desperate he was, but also honest.

Contractor: That's impossible. Permits alone take weeks.

Selene smiled at the response. She liked the honesty this man showed her. He did not immediately fold when she told him what she wanted.

Moreover, he also said when he did not agree with something. It was clear to see why this company was going under with such honest worker as their leader.

But Selene was not in a position to hear no. So she decided to use her name to gain interest.

Selene: Not if it's for the Vale family.

Silence followed her declaration, but that was because the other person did not likely believe her.

Wanting to convince the person, she quickly logged into the company mail (which she knew from her past life and the password had not changed) to forward the mail.

It was only after this that the man decided that Selene was the genuine thing and likely let his guard down.

The mention of the Vale name clearly had an effect. Well, either that or the promise of a lot of money and fame that came with working for the Vale family.

Contractor: …I'll check the site. If it's workable, we'll talk. I'll need to check on the condition of the site to see what we can do and how quickly we can finish this site.

That was the final message, but it satisfied Selene a lot. It felt like a burden had been taken off her shoulder once she got the confirmation.

She had never used her family name for anything in her past life, but now? She wasn't above using every tool at her disposal. Survival was all that mattered.

"Nothing ever went right for me because of my family name before, but I hate how useful this cursed subtitle of mine is. Well, let's not think about it anymore and head out to do the last part of my survival plan."

Selene sighed as she forced her body to move.

Since her body was not used to moving around this much in the past, Selene had gotten tired by now. Her leg muscles ached as she forced herself to keep moving.

"I should invest in a solid car and stockpile fuel as well. I will need it until a new resource is discovered in the dungeons that can make cars become more efficient."

But that discovery was at least a year away. Until then, Selene was forced to use regular methods of travelling around.