The Apocalypse Took Everything, This Time I Hoard It All First

Chapter 161: Chapter 161: Water Plant

At noon the next day, a base-wide broadcast announced that the authorities would lead a team to escort all three hundred thousand survivors and thirty thousand military and political personnel from Corbin back to the base, sparking massive discussions.

Meanwhile, Kyle Keith didn’t even wait for Francis Grant’s invitation. He proactively volunteered the entire Endless Squad for the escort mission. By building a good relationship with Major Thomas Dalton of the Corbin Military Base, the Kessler family would gain more influence within the base.

Over at Luna Dawson’s house, Autumn Atkins and Zoe Palmer were acting like fixed NPCs. For the past few days, they would inevitably spawn right outside the courtyard gate after lunch. Every day, they repeated the exact same rhetoric about Luna ignoring her father’s dying words and leaving the mother-daughter duo to die. They would only leave after crying for a solid two hours.

Luna and the others treated it like a sideshow and completely ignored them.

Since Luna had to go to work at the water plant every day, she and Evan Olson drove out of the gate. Zoe Palmer glared at Luna as they passed, looking as though they were bitter enemies.

Just like usual, Luna went through several rounds of disinfection, changed into a sterile suit, swiped her ID card to enter the water plant, and stood in her usual workstation.

An hour later, Luna had filled up a full fifty tons of purified water.

With the increase in her superpower level, her salary at the water plant had also risen. Now, discharging fifty tons of water a day earned her five Second Order Crystal Cores.

After Luna clicked to settle her account, a girl in a sterile suit walked up. "Hello, I’m the new auditor starting today. Here are your five Second Order Crystal Cores."

She handed the Crystal Cores over, and Luna gave a soft nod of acknowledgment.

The girl casually checked off boxes on her tablet, verifying the water volume and Crystal Core count item by item. Finally, she spotted Luna’s name in the Superpower User column.

Her eyes brightened, and she suddenly stared intently at Luna through the visor. "Miss Dawson! It really is you! I knew I wasn’t seeing things!"

"You know me?" Luna was a bit bewildered.

"I’m Claire Wright! I’m... I’m the one you bought a car from!"

Claire Wright was so excited she was rambling, yet she carefully observed Luna’s expression.

Luna immediately remembered her. "King, it’s you."

This Claire Wright was doing pretty well for herself. Anyone who could work at the water plant had to be a Superpower User, which meant she could at least eke out a stable living at the base.

Claire Wright’s voice was full of joy. "Yes! Thanks to you boosting my sales, I got a massive bonus right before the apocalypse. That’s the only reason I could afford to bring my grandmother to Kensington with me."

At the time, the whole country was in a state of panic. Seeing that she had plenty of cash, she rented a one-bedroom apartment in the inner circle and hoarded a lot of supplies with her grandmother. Since they were right next to the National Sports Center, they became part of the first batch of rescued survivors.

She had also luckily awakened a Water Ability. Although her superpower was only at the beginner stage, she successfully secured a job at the plant. By providing purified water, she saved up Crystal Cores for a long time to upgrade to the first order. Now, she and her grandmother were living a stable life.

She realized that the figure she had seen scaling walls with incredible agility at the water plant—the girl who killed the giant snake—must have been Luna. No wonder she had looked so familiar at the time.

Luna looked at Claire Wright. Seeing her clear, bright eyes overflowing with genuine happiness, Luna smiled back. "That’s good. Take good care of your grandmother. It seems you’re doing alright for yourself now."

Claire Wright hugged her tablet to her chest, nodding eagerly like a woodpecker.

"Thank you, really. I’m so lucky to have met you. You’ve saved me several times!"

From the bullying of her colleagues to the bonus that let her rent an apartment and hoard supplies, and finally the threat of the mutant snake horde—every single one of these things was resolved because of Luna. She had only survived this long thanks to her.

Luna was a bit confused by this but didn’t pry. She just wanted to hurry to the Sixth District Industrial Park to exchange for points.

She gave a vague, polite response. "There’s no need to thank me. I was just a regular customer. I have things to do, so I’ll be going now." Saying that, she waved goodbye to Claire Wright.

"Okay! Miss Dawson, go do your thing! Goodbye!"

Claire Wright watched Luna leave, only lowering her waving hand when Luna’s silhouette vanished into the factory grounds. She pulled out her tablet and gently rubbed Luna’s name on the screen, thoroughly immersed in the joy of seeing her benefactor.

A short while later, a woman walked out of the water injection area with unsteady steps.

She had clearly overdrawn her superpower. Looking at the person settling the Crystal Cores, she tilted her chin up arrogantly and immediately started barking orders.

"Hey! Can’t you see I can barely walk?! Come over here and help me!"

Melissa Sawyer frowned, glaring petulantly at the staff member in front of her.

"Hello, I’m the new auditor. From now on, I’ll be in charge of the morning shift audits."

Claire Wright was in a great mood, so she automatically ignored the hostility in the woman’s tone and reached out a hand to steady her.

"New? Oh, so you’re a woman. No wonder. Alan Grant always used to help me up. You really have no tact at all!" Melissa Sawyer’s tone softened slightly, but her disdain remained perfectly intact.

"Alan Grant was suspected of harassing Water Ability Users in the factory. After upper management received several complaints, an investigation proved the claims true. He has been transferred to the industrial area to help construct base factories," Claire Wright explained calmly, meeting the unfriendly glare behind the woman’s visor, neither haughty nor humble.

Melissa Sawyer choked on her words. "Harass... ment?"

Her voice was muffled as it passed through her mask and visor, carrying a trace of disbelief. No wonder that guy was always so incredibly attentive whenever he saw her!

Claire Wright gave a soft nod.

Melissa Sawyer cursed through gritted teeth. "What awful luck! Whatever, whatever. Just settle my Crystal Cores. I need to go back and rest. If you delay my water injection tomorrow, can you take the blame?"

Claire Wright obligingly opened her tablet to check the settlement application. She visibly paused when she saw Melissa Sawyer’s name. Unable to help herself, she looked up and scanned the woman again, a hint of amusement rising in her heart. "Miss Sawyer, you only injected ten liters of water today. According to regulations, you must inject another ten liters tomorrow before you can be issued a first order Crystal Core..."

Although Melissa Sawyer couldn’t see Claire Wright’s expression, she felt like she was being mocked. "Alan Grant used to give me an advance! Why are the rules so rigid now?!"

"That’s why he was fired," Claire Wright replied, still perfectly polite.

Even though everything this auditor said sounded normal, it just made her incredibly annoyed to hear it.

Melissa Sawyer gave an indignant huff. "Got it." She rolled her eyes at Claire Wright and slowly hobbled out of the factory building.

After the woman left, Claire Wright opened her tablet and added a "C-grade" note next to Melissa Sawyer’s name. It happened to be right below Luna’s name, creating a stark contrast with Luna’s "SSS-grade."

"Sigh, earning points is tough, and life’s a bitch," she muttered.

After complaining, she returned to her station to continue being an important cog in the base’s machine.

When Luna exited the water plant, Evan Olson was waiting for her in the car. The two headed to the recycling and trading center in the Sixth District Industrial Park to exchange all sorts of random items.

When the staff there saw Luna conjure up supplies like magic, their expressions shifted from pleasant surprise, to astonishment, to outright shock, and finally, to endless numbness.

Because of the mountains of supplies before them, the industrial park had to dispatch over a hundred people just to inventory and audit everything. In the end, seeing how hard they were struggling to move it all, Luna even helped them place it directly into the warehouse.

Most importantly, Luna dropped two standard shipping containers’ worth of various precious metals. They were absolutely priceless!

Luna had originally wanted to deposit a few more containers of precious metals, but she feared it would be too conspicuous, so she dropped the idea.

As a result, Luna now had more points than she could ever possibly spend.