End of the World? I'm the Boss novel Chapter 4

Robin gave a small snort. She slowly pulled on a pair of disposable gloves she had taken from the Cajun place earlier. Then she bent down and picked up their phones from the ground.

Using their fingerprints, she unlocked both phones. As she downloaded several payday loan apps, she said in a cheerful tone, "Looks like I scored a good deal too."

Get a loan!

Get more loans! Take every loan possible.

Robin moved fast, using both hands. Those loan apps were more than pleased to lend money. The process was quick and simple. Enter a phone number, check the credit limit, and the money would be sent straight to a bank account. Robin transferred all the funds to her account.

Then she set the repayment deadline for seven days.

Haha.

Before the apocalypse arrived, those two would get a firsthand lesson in how brutal loan sharks could be.

Robin drained as much money as she could from those apps. They took a large cut in fees, but it still added up. Using both Noah's and Zelda's phones, she pulled in nearly two million dollars.

Her grin widened. As soon as the money hit her account, she quickly deleted every loan app, every verification text, and any trace of what she had done. Then she dug through their bags and tossed things around to make it look like a robbery. When she was done, she left the two of them lying on the ground and headed home in a great mood.

A short while later, Zelda slowly woke up.

She stared blankly for a second before suddenly shouting, "Noah! Noah!"

They both hurried to check their belongings. To their surprise, nothing was missing.

Zelda frowned in confusion. "Are you sure nothing's gone? That doesn't make sense."

Noah thought about it. "Maybe someone tried to rob us, but we didn't find any cash."

These days, almost no one carries cash anyway.

Zelda finally relaxed. "Yeah, that must be it."

She held up her phone and sighed. "Phones really are one of the best inventions ever."

At first, they thought about calling the police. But then they remembered the alley had no security cameras. Since nothing had been taken, reporting it would probably be pointless. So, they decided to drop the whole thing.

...

Meanwhile, Robin had already made it home.

The moment she opened the door, Ruby waddled over, snorting softly. She circled Robin's legs and sniffed at her like she was saying hello.

"I'm home. Happy to see me?" Robin said, smiling as she rubbed Ruby's head.

Robin felt great too.

In just one day, she had gained nearly 4 million dollars. On top of that, she had set a perfect trap for that shameless duo. Thinking about it made her feel even better.

After putting out food for Ruby, Robin lay on her soft bed. For the first time in a while, she slept deeply and peacefully until morning.

When she woke up the next day and saw the bright sunshine outside the window, everything still felt a little unreal.

Life seemed quiet and peaceful.

But Robin knew that calm wouldn't last long.

With a soft sigh, she picked up her phone and made a call.

"Hello, Wade."

A moment later, her eldest adopted brother, Wade Neel's voice, came through the phone with a faint, mocking laugh. "Well, look who it is. Robin. This is rare. I was starting to think you'd forgotten about us."

Robin pressed her lips together.

She was the adopted daughter and never met her real parents. Everything she knew about them came from Eric. He once told her that her father had been a soldier who died during a mission before she was born. After giving birth, her mother left Robin in Eric's care and disappeared.

The Neels might not have been the most powerful family in Klam, but they were still rich and respected.

Robin was their adopted daughter in name. After Eric passed away, it felt more like a quiet joke.

The family kept their guard up around her. Robin understood her place well. She had no desire to get involved in their complicated family conflicts. When Eric died, she only asked for the apartment downtown. The three percent of company shares had been something Eric insisted on giving her.

For years, she kept her distance from the family. The less contact they had, the less likely they were to see her as a rival.

But now, for money, she had to reconnect with these relatives in name only.

The market was huge. After looking around for a bit, Robin went to several wholesale stores and placed a massive order. She bought 100,000 pounds of rice.

It was all high-quality rice, and the total cost came to over 400,000 dollars.

Wade worked quickly. Robin had barely stepped out of the market when the warehouse key arrived.

That made things much easier. Robin immediately changed the delivery address for all the instant noodles she had ordered online and redirected them to the warehouse.

Even though she had storage space, having huge piles of instant noodles delivered straight to her apartment would definitely attract attention. Delivering everything to a warehouse looked far more normal.

Besides, all the supplies she bought today would need to pass through the warehouse first anyway.

Since she had bought rice, she added millet to the list.

40,000 pounds of millet—160,000 dollars.

2,000 pounds of soybeans—19,000 dollars.

Soybeans were excellent survival food. They were highly nutritious, easy to grow, and could be turned into many different foods—soy milk, plant-based chicken, soy ice cream, and soy yogurt...

Next came 2,000 large bottles of cooking oil, costing about 120,000 dollars.

She also bought 1,500 pounds of salt, which cost a little over 1,800 dollars.

Salt was essential for daily life. In an extreme environment like the apocalypse, a lack of salt could cause serious health problems.

Then came the seasonings. 1,500 pounds of white sugar. 1,500 pounds of MSG. 600 pounds of mushroom sauce. 3,000 jars of chili sauce. 5,000 bottles of soy sauce. 5,000 bottles of dark soy sauce. 500 bottles of hot sauce. Plus 1,000 large bottles each of vinegar and salad dressing.

She also stocked up on a wide variety of spices.

Ground ginger, garlic powder, parsley, chili flakes, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, paprika, onion powder, oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, turmeric, and nutmeg.

All together, the seasonings alone cost over 200,000 dollars.

Robin paid part of the money as a deposit and agreed to settle the rest once everything had been delivered to the warehouse.

Next on the list were varieties of meat.