The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland novel Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: The Most Important Thing is to Fill Your Stomach

The first ray of morning sun streamed through the window, shining directly on Shen Lu’s eyelids.

"Mmm..."

The young woman let out a soft groan, reluctantly opening her eyes.

The air was thick with a strange, foul smell. The room was a narrow, crude, and dilapidated tin-sheet shack. ’Alright, so the sweet dream didn’t come true. I’m still in this wasteland world.’

After a night on the sofa, her body ached down to the bone. Shen Lu stood up, did a few simple stretches, and instinctively went to find the bathroom to wash up.

Her fingers had just touched the doorknob when she paused.

’Wash up? Like hell,’ she thought. ’Where am I going to find clean water to wash up here?’

’Besides, this rental is just one room. There’s no bathroom.’

Shen Lu sucked in a sharp breath. The reality of this world was sinking in even deeper.

’Forget the original owner of this body; even I can’t stand living in poverty for a second longer. I have to hurry up and make some money to improve my situation.’

Shen Lu ran her fingers through her hair to comb it out, and with that, she headed out.

She had been too tired yesterday. After renting the place, she had gone straight to sleep without buying any tools. Since she woke up early today, she could go buy what she needed, collect more junk, and trade it for more food.

Arriving at a ramshackle general store, Shen Lu spent 50 Star Coins on a few handy tools and casually asked the owner if there was anywhere to buy groceries nearby.

"Groceries?" The owner laughed. "Are you kidding me? How could there possibly be a place to buy groceries in the Seventeenth District?"

Only the Upper City District had places that sold groceries, and only the upper class had the means to buy them.

Shen Lu had only asked on the off chance there was another way to get ingredients.

The body’s original owner had always lived in the Upper City District, the area for upper-class citizens. She had never set foot in a place like the Seventeenth District, let alone understood what it was like here.

’It seems that, for now, scavenging is my only way to get ingredients.’

Shen Lu grabbed her tools, covered her nose and mouth with the strip of fabric she’d torn from her skirt yesterday, and plunged into the No. 3 Landfill.

Since she arrived early, there were only a few people at the landfill.

Shen Lu switched on her detector and began carefully scanning the piles of metal scrap.

The detector was the most expensive of the tools she’d bought. It could find more valuable metals, like gold, silver, tungsten wire, or magnesium strips.

The System also accepted high-quality steel plates, but they weren’t worth much—10,000 grams only traded for three pounds of flour.

Shen Lu had already decided what she would sell today. Mint water was a definite must, and the egg waffle maker she’d won in the lottery yesterday had to be put to use.

The Shop had a special egg waffle mix, and the System said 500 grams of tungsten wire could be traded for two pounds of it.

One pound of the mix could make ten egg waffles, so two pounds would make twenty. Shen Lu planned to sell them for 40 Star Coins each, meaning twenty waffles would bring in 800 Star Coins.

’This business of trading junk for goods is pretty sweet,’ she thought. ’It’s all pure profit.’

Now in high spirits, Shen Lu’s scavenging became much more energetic.

With tools to help, her efficiency skyrocketed. In less than three hours, Shen Lu had traded the metal she’d collected for half a bucket of water, a handful of mint, a fingernail-sized pinch of sugar, a two-pound bag of egg waffle mix, and a plastic bowl for mixing the batter.

Shen Lu stored the ingredients in the System’s temporary inventory, then, for show, picked up a few pieces of scrap iron before leaving the No. 3 Landfill.

Rushing back to her rental, Shen Lu carefully shut the door and windows. She used a little of the water to quickly wash up, then poured the dirty water into an iron bucket that was already in the room instead of throwing it out.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify