24 Blackhole

*Rustle*

"Mama! Mama!" Xixi could suddenly be heard crying out from the bedroom. It seems that she was having a bad dream.

Long Yu put away his thoughts and walked towards her bed. He held her outstretched little hand in his to calm her down. It worked, and Xixi's frightened expression slowly faded as her breathing also returned to normal.

Long Yu gently stroke the head of the little girl who was grasping his hand tightly. He sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the hotel room phone.

Long Yu then dialled in the number to the hotel's room service to order some breakfast. He wasn't too picky, so he randomly picked one from the breakfast menu for himself. As for Xixi, he selected a kid's meal and a cup of orange juice for her.

While waiting for their food, he went to the lounge room to pick up the remote on the sofa. Long Yu directly switched to the news channel after turning it on.

"A terrifying event occurred yesterday afternoon at 2:30 pm. A man was allegedly seen assaulting and killing several people near the Nanshan hypermarket. Those that were injured by the man seemed to shown rabid like behaviour...." a news reporter standing in the supermarket's open parking lot was speaking in front of the camera.

On another news channel which Long Yu flicked to, it was showing a scene where many people were desperately struggling amongst other shoppers to buy food and water supplies.

*Sigh*

"It's already starting as expected," he had predicted such a situation would happen. The moment civilians saw the recordings of what happened yesterday, they started to panic. They did the next best thing that they could do, which was buying and hoarding supplies.

Long Yu shook his head in pity. Unfortunately, neither the government nor civilians knew that the worst had yet to come.

No matter how much supplies you have, it would be useless if you turn into a zombie six days later. Many households across the world would suffer such a fate.

*Ding dong*

Long Yu suddenly heard the door bell ring. It seems their breakfast was ready.

There was a hotel staff standing outside, holding a big tray with both his and Xixi's breakfasts on it. Long Yu let the staff in to place the tray on the table, before tipping him as he left the door.

Just when Long Yu lifted the plate covers to check the food, he was frightened by a voice from behind.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

"Something smells good…" Xixi said in a soft voice.

"Woah! You scared me for a second there," he had not expected her to wake up so suddenly, not to mention creeping up behind him without a sound.

Xixi, whose sleepy eyes were still closed, suddenly popped open when she heard him.

"Ahh!! Big brother, you're alright!" she ran up to Long Yu and hugged him. "Wuu… Xixi was so worried.." she let out small sobs.

Long Yu patted her head with a smile on his face. Ever since Luo Xi passed away, no one cared for him nor did he cared for anyone. It warmed his heart to know that the little lass was concerned for him.

After a bit of coaxing from him, Xixi stopped crying, and they finally started eating their breakfast. He was shocked when he saw her wolfing down her meal like a hungry beast.

" Xixi, eat slower, no one's going to snatch your food from you," he used a napkin to wipe the sides of her lips that was smeared with tomato sauce.

"But big brother, Xixi is feeling super hungry today," she replied with her mouth full of food.

'Could it be due to the exhaustion of using her powers yesterday?' he wondered.

After their breakfast, Long Yu brought Xixi to the bathroom to go wash up. Since she was not tall enough, he had to lift her up while she brushed her teeth and cleaned her face.

As for her clothes, he exchanged for a similar dress and headband, since the ones yesterday got dirty. Xixi clapped her hands in awe when she saw him pulling things out of thin air.

Once they were ready, the both of them set out to leave the hotel. Before they boarded the car, Long Yu got Xixi to input her fingerprints, retina and voice into the Black Shark's system, so that she could enter anytime she wanted.

The first destination he planned to head to was the police station. He wanted to know if they have any information on Xixi's mother.

....

Long Yu sat in the driver's seat with a frown on his face. He had just made a visit to the police station in Nanjing city. However, it seems that there was no news regarding the little girl's mother. It was not just her mother, but it also goes for the dozens of the people that were involved in yesterday's incident. They were all listed as missing.

Long Yu's best guess was that the higher level authorities must have done something. Based on the system's mention that the zombies have been 'wiped', there shouldn't be any live zombies left around.

So, all those dead zombie bodies must have been confiscated by them, be it for experimentation or prevention of possible spread of airborne pathogens. As for the uninfected survivors, they might have been quarantined as well.

'Are they perhaps trying to find a cure for the infection?'

Long Yu knew that it was impossible for a cure to be created, at least for the time being. He only managed to escape turning into a zombie thanks to the system's help.

In the end, Long Yu could not figure out what the government was trying to do. He could only wait for the news of Xixi's mother.

"Big brother, do those police uncles know where mama is?" Xixi who was in the front passenger seat, asked him nervously.

"I'm sorry Xixi, but they can't locate your mother at the moment. We'll come back tomorrow to see if there is any news," he replied with an apologetic expression.

He knew that Xixi's mother must be among either those zombie corpses, or quarantined survivors, he just hoped that it was the latter.

"How about we go get lunch first..you must be hungry," Long Yu tried to change the subject.

There were a lot of people filing reports like him at the police station, causing the wait to be quite long. So, he was actually feeling pretty hungry now as well.

Long Yu drove to a decent restaurant nearby to grab lunch. While he was parking outside, there were a lot of people nearby who were staring at his car in envy.

….

"Xixi, you should quickly eat your food, it's going to go cold soon."

The food they ordered had arrived, but Xixi was barely touching her food. It was evident she was still worried about her mother.

*Sigh*

Long Yu patted the head of the little girl.

"Listen, Xixi…I'm sure your mother will be alright. Big brother promises you, I'll bring her back to you safe and sound," he comforted her.

Hearing the serious tone in his voice, Xixi felt reassured somehow.

"…Okay, big brother," she said hesitantly before starting to dig into her food.

Seeing that Xixi was willing to eat her food, Long Yu felt relieved. He then used his mobile phone to look if there were any updates from the news.

"Big brother, can I order desserts?" He heard Xixi's voice beside him, while he was scrolling through a web page.

"Sure, but only after you fi-" Long Yu almost choked when he saw Xixi's plate.

Gone, the food was all gone! How long has it been? It had only been a few minutes since she started eating.

"Xixi…do you normally eat that fast?" he couldn't help but ask.

"En, but Xixi ate a bit faster today since she is very hungry," she replied as if it was nothing.

'Is she a glutton?' Long Yu was speechless.

Since she had finished her food anyway, he ordered the dessert she wanted, as promised.

…...

After they had lunch, it was time for Long Yu to think of ways to 'earn' money. He really wanted to get the nano-machine exoskeleton armor before doomsday.

Long Yu took Xixi back to the hotel since it was inconvenient to take her along. He also got her a mobile phone on the way back, so that she could call him if anything happens.

Then, he drove to the Xingshi appliance scrapyard, which he visited before.

Pretending as a scavenger, Long Yu lingered around and made sure to memorise the faces of the all the staff working there.

He planned to wipe the scraps clean off the scrapyard once night came. Long Yu was now desperate to accumulate money. So, he did not have the time to waste scavenging like he previously did.

...

A few hours later, the sky had finally gone dark. A security guard could be seen patrolling the outside of Xingshi appliance scrapyard. Suddenly, a man in a green overall uniform approached the entrance.

"Yo, manager Lee, why are you back? I thought you already left half an hour ago?" the guard asked the man.

"Oh, I came back to get some stuff I left in my office. Can you please open the door for me?" the man replied casually.

'Weird… I thought he already changed out of his uniform before he left…' the guard thought to himself as he unlocked the entrance door for manager Lee.

Once the man was inside, he breathe a sigh of relief. The man was Long Yu, who was currently using the perfect mimic mask to impersonate as the scrapyard manager in order to enter the premise.

He quickly walked past the front counter and into the field of scraps. Since his 'trade' function of the system only allowed him a range of 3 meters from his position, he would have to navigate around the whole field to sell everything.

Long Yu cracked his fingers as if he was preparing to do something big. As he walked past the mountain of appliance scraps, all the objects around him started to disappear. It was as if he was some kind of blackhole, devouring everything he passed by.