The young man looked at the woman, a trace of confusion lingering in his eyes.
"She’s just passing through," the woman explained.
The youth remained silent, offering no response. He simply cast another glance at Suzy before remaining quiet.
Their eyes locked briefly for a split second, and those cool, light brown eyes left Suzy in a brief state of daze.
She was dazed enough to mistakenly think the System was speaking!
Faint, scattered sounds buzzed vaguely in her mind—scraps of nonsense like "...target" or something similar.
Wait... is he a romance target too??
The question suddenly popped into Suzy’s head.
Did I actually mishear that??
The rain outside was battering the ground far too loudly, drumming relentlessly against the building, leaving Suzy uncertain whether her ears were playing tricks on her or if it was just her imagination.
Did I... really hear that, or was I just hallucinating?
"System?"
Suzy called out to the System in her head, but received no reply whatsoever.
While Suzy was momentarily lost in thought, the young man broke eye contact and walked further into the house.
After waiting for a while without a response from the System, Suzy quietly withdrew her gaze as well.
The woman turned back to her, her voice dropping lower. "Take a seat for a bit. The rain..."
She peeked out the window and added, "The rain should let up soon. You can leave once it stops."
"...Alright, thank you," Suzy said.
The wild wind and torrential rain outside lent a slightly suffocating air to the room.
Suzy sat in silence, occasionally sensing the curious, measuring glances cast her way by both the woman and the youth.
The woman looked as though she wanted to say something, yet held her tongue. Even sitting there quietly, Suzy could sense her hesitation.
Not wanting to pry, Suzy remained silent as well.
After what felt like a long time, the heavy downpour outside finally sputtered to a halt.
The noisy din gradually died down, and before long, the dead, eerie silence from earlier returned to the streets outside.
Noticing the shift, the woman leaned toward the window to check outdoors before turning back to Suzy. "The rain’s stopped."
Suzy stood up.
The woman asked, "Leaving already?"
"Yeah. Thank you for the map." Suzy offered the woman a friendly, warm smile.
The woman smiled back, though her expression was somewhat stiff and unnatural.
"In that case, I won’t walk you out. Once you step outside, just keep heading south," the woman said, pointing her finger in a direction.
"Got it," Suzy replied, stepping toward the door.
Standing before the door, she paused, offering one last remark: "Thank you. Goodbye."
"Take care," the woman said, waving her hand.
Suzy opened the door and stepped outside. She could feel two sets of eyes tracking her every move, but it didn’t matter.
She closed the door behind her.
Standing on the threshold, she didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she retrieved a sack of supplies from her spatial domain and placed it neatly in the corner by the doorway.
Only after finishing this did she turn and start walking south.
Inside the house, silence reigned supreme once more.
Suzy’s brief presence had brought nothing and changed nothing—she was merely a fleeting passerby.
The woman stood by the window, watching the outside world. Before long, she caught sight of Suzy’s slender silhouette vanishing down the street.
"She left?"
The youth’s voice rang out unexpectedly in the quiet room.
Hearing him, the woman turned around and arched an eyebrow in surprise. "Since when do you care about things like this?"
The young man sat tucked away in the shadows, his expression unreadable. Hearing her teasing tone, he didn’t deny it, letting out a low, muffled "Whatever."
Such a candid admission surprised the woman even further.
"Mark, what’s up with you?" The woman turned her body fully toward him, crossing her arms as she stared.
The youth went silent for a moment before saying, "I just think she’s a bit strange."
"Strange how?" the woman pressed.
The guy shook his head. "I can’t quite put my finger on it."
The two exchanged a look and fell silent.
"Did you manage to find any supplies when you went out today?" the woman asked, breaking the silence.
"Nothing," the youth sighed.
"Expected as much. Everything nearby has already been picked clean... We still have a little left at home, so don’t stress too much."
Offering words of comfort, the woman walked toward the door. "I know a spot that might still have something left. Since it’s still early, I’ll go check it out."
Without waiting for his reply, she pulled the door open.
She didn’t forget to throw a reminder over her shoulder as she prepared to step out: "Don’t go running off again—just stay inside for now."
Yet, she had barely taken two steps before freezing dead in her tracks.
It was as if lightning had struck her—she stood there completely stunned.
Noticing her sudden pause, the youth asked in confusion, "What’s wrong?"
The woman stared dumbfounded at the corner beside her doorway, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
A whole bag of supplies... sitting right outside their door?
The woman blinked hard, glanced out into the distance to clear her head, and then snapped her eyes right back to the corner!
The sack was still there.
It wasn’t a delusion.
Taking a deep breath, the woman walked toward the bag and reached out to touch it. The texture felt undeniably real.
It truly wasn’t an illusion—there really was a whole bag of supplies!
She quickly grabbed the heavy bag and carried it back inside.
Seeing her walk back in with a sudden, bulky package in tow, Mark froze. "What’s that?"
"It was sitting right outside our front door... I have no idea where it came from," the woman whispered under her breath.
She unzipped the bulging sack, and a pack of instant noodles tumbled out, followed by several bags of bread falling onto the floor.
"It’s all food!" the woman gasped, unable to hold back her excitement.
Food was a rare, priceless treasure in this apocalyptic world—who would ever leave something like this right at their doorstep? To put it plainly, not even an idiot would do such a thing.
Wait... no... when did these supplies actually appear?
The woman thought back carefully, and a sudden realization struck her.
That girl!
Suzy instantly crossed her mind. The supplies had only appeared after she walked out—could she have been the one who left them?
But she didn’t have anything on her when she arrived! She came with empty hands!
Where on earth did these supplies come from? Even when she walked out, she was completely alone with nothing in hand!
The woman racked her brain for a long time, but couldn’t make head or tail of it.
Still... none of that mattered. What mattered was that they had food now! They could manage to scrape by in this wasteland for a little longer.
By now, the youth had walked over, staring down at the stash in her arms. "When did it show up?" he asked.
"Just now," the woman replied.
"I didn’t see anything when I stepped outside earlier," Mark noted.
The woman nodded, and the youth quickly pieced it together as well. "Was it her?"
"Most likely," the woman said.
"It’s not just ’likely’—it had to be her."
The two looked at each other, their expressions turning complex. For a moment, neither could tell if what they felt was pure joy or something else entirely.
Meanwhile, Suzy had already covered a good distance on foot.
Once she confirmed there was no one around and that the road conditions were manageable, she summoned her custom RV directly from her spatial domain.
Walking back over a thousand kilometers on foot was completely unrealistic. Since she had a vehicle, she was obviously going to use it.
Of course, driving a brand-new, pristine vehicle through a wasteland like this was bound to attract unwanted attention.
At this point, though, Suzy couldn’t be bothered to overthink it. Getting moving was her top priority. Besides, she had firearms stashed inside her spatial inventory—if any blind scavengers dared to try and rob her, she’d put a bullet through them without hesitation.
After retrieving the RV, Suzy climbed aboard. Instead of starting the engine right away, she gave the entire interior a thorough inspection.
Since getting this heavily modified RV customized, she had only stepped inside it once during the initial inspection. She hadn’t boarded it ever since.
During the previous natural disasters, she had been comfortably hunkered down inside her safehouse, with zero need for a vehicle. As a result, the RV had just been gathering dust inside her spatial domain.
Now that her safehouse was destroyed, she was forced to travel out in the wild.
It’d be amazing if I could transform this RV into a brand-new, mobile safehouse...
The thought suddenly popped into Suzy’s mind.
A second later, a shiver of realization ran through her.
Wait a minute... that actually might be doable!