Starting with Five Billion, but No Supplies to Stockpile

After Sheng An and Hao Jingye left, Jiang Yu wanted to stall.

But Academician Zhou and the others caught her and dragged her off to learn how to operate tractors and other farming equipment.

The entire Doomsday Special Affairs Office seemed busy.

Jiang Yu had arrived yesterday, yet she had not seen a single person from Group A, nor had she met anyone from Team 0.

-She had not even had time to ask Sheng An!

The Doomsday Special Affairs Office seemed small, but its actual reach was immense.

She alone, for example, involved an entire agricultural research network working behind the scenes. Those people were not direct members of the office, but they were still part of it.

Not to mention the nationwide armed forces they could mobilize and their all-pervasive access to information.

Sitting on the tractor, Jiang Yu asked curiously, "Where did Group A go? And Team 0? Why haven't I seen any of them either?"

Academician Zhou sat beside her and looked at her expressionlessly. "Focus on driving."

"Professor Zhou, don't be so serious. It's just driving a tractor. How hard could it-whoa, whoa-"

One moment of showing off sent her and the tractor straight into a ditch.

Jiang Yu: "..."

And so another chorus of nagging lectures rose around her.

There were twenty days left until doomsday.

Sheng An and Hao Jingye had plenty to do. While handling their own tasks, they also kept watch over Li Wanyun.

Jiang Yu no longer needed much attention.

With Li Wanyun, however, things were only just beginning.

At that moment, Li Wanyun had already gotten off her flight and headed straight for somewhere she could buy grain.

Not wanting to attract attention, she rented a large truck and drove there herself.

In reality, though, they had been monitoring Li Wanyun all along.

The truck she had "rented" near the airport had already been fitted with surveillance equipment by their people.

On the screen, Li Wanyun could barely hide her excitement.

This woman's personality was very different from Jiang Yu's.

Jiang Yu was more easygoing. Li Wanyun's name sounded gentle, but she was haughty, with a vicious, murderous edge to her expression.

-This woman had seen plenty of bloodshed in her previous life.

Sheng An calmly looked away.

Beside her, Hao Jingye was screening information.

"How's it going?" Sheng An asked. "Among the people who posted doomsday warnings yesterday, how many are suspected Aberrants?"

Aberrants did not all appear at once. Online information had to be screened every day.

At midnight, the information department collected unusual reports and performed an initial screening.

Then, between midnight and eight in the morning, they conducted background checks for the second round.

After those two rounds, only a few cases reached them.

"Over two hundred people posted about it yesterday. After the information department screened them, nine suspects remained," Hao Jingye answered immediately.

Nine was not many.

After all, they were only suspects.

The information department did not want anyone slipping through the cracks. Unless they could rule someone out with absolute certainty, they passed the case straight to them.

Most of the time, none of those people turned out to be Aberrants.

"Anything unusual?" Sheng An asked.

Hao Jingye adjusted his glasses and gave her a brief rundown-

"Two posts were strange. One was a doomsday warning posted yesterday from an internet café in East An District. It specified exactly twenty-one days later."

Because of the news about the meteorite, all kinds of reports kept circulating, even though the world remained stable.

There were plenty of posts speculating about the apocalypse, too.

Most, however, could be ruled out as unrelated to Aberrants after a single screening.

But if someone could pinpoint the exact date...

That certainly warranted suspicion.

-This person was a suspected Aberrant.

"The other post was even stranger. The poster said he saw Iron Man in his residential complex. Iron Man told him doomsday was coming and that he should hurry up and stockpile supplies." By the end, Hao Jingye's expression had grown decidedly odd.

Perhaps because doomsday was approaching, he had to deal with all sorts of bizarre information every day as Sheng An's assistant.

But this particular report still left him at a loss.

Sheng An nodded, remaining calm.

"What made you take this post seriously?"

"First, the background check on the poster. He's a rational scientific researcher. Yesterday, he suddenly started stockpiling supplies, and he's adamant that he saw 'Iron Man.' The police questioned him. What he said sounded like nonsense, but it didn't seem as though he was lying," Hao Jingye said seriously.

Sheng An understood.

That meant that whatever had happened, whether it was real or not, this researcher genuinely believed he had seen "Iron Man."

"If it's true, we can't rule out someone with an ability," Sheng An concluded.

Iron Man?

A metal-type ability user?

Her expression shifted slightly.

Naturally, Hao Jingye had thought of that as well.

"What's the second reason for suspicion?" Sheng An asked.

Hao Jingye continued, "Last night, a household in the same residential complex called the police. They reported a home invasion and robbery that had also affected their child."

Sheng An looked at him questioningly.

"The family went out on an errand yesterday and left their child home alone. They shut all the doors and windows and locked the door. But when they came back, the child was leaning over an open window."

"Did the child open it?" Sheng An asked.

"No. The child couldn't reach that high. And they checked-the window had indeed been opened from outside. There was a handprint without fingerprints on the outer windowsill."

Hao Jingye took a deep breath and said slowly, "That family lives on the twenty-first floor of a thirty-two-story building. It would be very difficult to reach their window from above or below. And the child also claimed to have seen-Iron Man."

Two people in the same residential complex claimed to have seen "Iron Man"?

And there was a handprint without fingerprints outside a twenty-first-floor window?

That sounded highly suspicious.

"Any surveillance footage?"

Hao Jingye shook his head. "We haven't found any footage that caught him yet."

Sheng An frowned.

In other words, there was no direct evidence.

As if something had occurred to her, she asked in puzzlement, "You said the family reported a home invasion and robbery. What was stolen?"

Hao Jingye's expression instantly turned strange.

"They lost... a few of the child's Ultraman figurines. According to the child, 'Iron Man' asked if he believed in the light, then made off with his figurines."

What?

Sheng An: "???"

Even someone as composed as her looked strange now. Her mouth twitched, and she was utterly speechless.

If all of this was true, they were dealing with an "Iron Man who believed in the light"?

After a long silence, Sheng An suddenly said, "Look further into the first person's situation. Let's approach the poster who predicted doomsday in twenty-one days first."

She did not particularly want to investigate the second one.

Hao Jingye was about to speak when a message popped up on his phone.

He glanced at it, then looked at Sheng An with a complicated expression. "Sheng An... Group Leader Qiu and the others have already gone to watch the first one."

In other words, only the second suspected Aberrant remained for them to investigate.

Iron Man... who believed in the light.

Sheng An fell silent.

Northeastern China.

After a long journey, Li Wanyun finally reached her destination.

She needed to stockpile enormous quantities. There was no way she could buy everything at a wholesale market, much less order takeout or shop online.

It would be inconvenient and more expensive.

She considered herself clever and had come up with the best solution-buy straight from the source!

She would stockpile the greatest amount of supplies at the lowest possible prices.

Once doomsday arrived, what would she have to fear?

However.

"What? You have no grain for sale?!" Li Wanyun exclaimed.

Her voice rose in disbelief. "How can you have no grain?! Rice? Flour? Sorghum? Corn? None of it?"

You've got to be kidding!

She had traveled all this way to buy grain, only to find there was none?

The owner of the private farm she had approached picked at his ear, utterly unruffled. "None. It's all been bought up."

"Who bought it? You sold all of it?" Li Wanyun stepped forward.

"Yep." The owner waved a hand. "The granaries are empty. It's been gone for ages."

Li Wanyun sucked in a breath.

She hurriedly asked, "Then where can I still buy grain?"

"If you only want a little, supermarkets and wholesale markets have it. But if you want a lot, you're out of luck. You won't find it anywhere. All the grain has been bought up."

The owner no longer seemed interested in talking to her. He waved her off, turned, and left.

Li Wanyun's breathing quickened, but she had no choice but to leave as well.

She visited several more private and state-owned farms, and even tried middlemen and rural farming households.

Yet she received the same answer every time-

It. Was. All. Gone.

Li Wanyun looked utterly bewildered.

She could not understand. "Why? Who bought up all the grain?!"

At last, someone answered her-

"The Food Bureau. The Food Bureau handles grain distribution nationwide. They're the ones who allocate it to local supermarkets and middlemen."

Li Wanyun: "..."

She was decisive. Seeing this, she gritted her teeth and headed straight for livestock farms and slaughterhouses.

If she could not buy grain directly in bulk, she would buy meat first!

And so she bought a plane ticket and left.

However-

Li Wanyun jumped to her feet. "What?! If I buy more than a ton of meat, I have to get an authorization slip from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce?!"