Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Chapter 309

One week later.

After another day of work, Yu Xi packed up her things and decided to have dinner outside.

Due to the scarcity of fresh food in this world, many restaurants allowed customers to bring their own vegetables, meat, and purified water, which the kitchen would then prepare according to their requests.

The clientele of such restaurants consisted mainly of the wealthy and powerful. The restaurants wouldn’t dare tamper with their ingredients, ensuring absolute trust in food safety.

Moreover, these restaurants hired chefs who had studied recipes from the time when food was abundant. They not only mastered various cooking techniques but also had exceptional culinary skills, capable of turning even the simplest ingredients into gourmet dishes.

Yu Xi retrieved M12 Wagyu beef, jumbo prawns, asparagus, and broccoli from her original world. She also took out black pepper, scallions, garlic, and salt to season the dishes. Her request to the chef was straightforward: a medium-rare steak, prawns sautéed with asparagus, and garlic stir-fried broccoli.

When the restaurant server opened the bag Yu Xi handed over and saw the fresh, live prawns and vibrant vegetables inside, they immediately recognized her as a high-value customer. They meticulously inquired about all her flavor preferences and specific cooking instructions.

Yu Xi wasn’t picky. These ingredients were top-tier, even in her original world. Even if the prawns were simply boiled in water or the Wagyu was pan-seared without seasoning, they would still taste delicious when paired with the right condiments.

Before long, the three dishes were served. The steak was tender, melting in her mouth. The prawns had been expertly butterflied and deveined, absorbing the seasonings perfectly. The chef had done an outstanding job, making every dish visually appealing, aromatic, and bursting with flavor.

Sitting by the window, Yu Xi quietly enjoyed her dinner. The restaurant was on the 68th floor, just next to a large platform where flight vehicles could dock. At this height, it was about halfway up the city’s tallest buildings.

Outside, the sky was completely dark. Due to the planet’s severe pollution, the night sky had no visible color. Instead, it was filled with layers of three-dimensional neon billboards, flashing with advertisements of every kind, promoting an overwhelming variety of stores and businesses.

This city was a strange contradiction—high-tech, magnificent skyscrapers coexisted with the rundown, crumbling buildings of the slums.

On one side, sleek flight vehicles raced along magnetic suspension highways. On the other, outdated railcars rumbled across ground-level tracks. The poor lived in decaying buildings, surviving on bland, synthetic food with no real taste.

Meanwhile, the rich and powerful sat comfortably in luxury restaurants, listening to soothing music while savoring exquisite meals made from fresh ingredients.

As Yu Xi ate, she found herself thinking with a touch of self-mockery. At this moment, she wasn’t much different from those living in the Cloud City of Devourer’s Domain.

She turned her head, pulling her gaze away from the restaurant window. But just as she was about to refocus on her meal, her peripheral vision caught sight of a figure walking toward a flight vehicle.

A strange feeling surged in her chest.

This time, she reacted immediately, turning fully to get a better look.

It was a tall man, broad-shouldered and upright. From her angle, she could only see his side profile.

The flickering glow of the billboards outside cast alternating light and shadow across his face, making his features shift between clarity and obscurity.

That sense of familiarity struck her again.

She focused, trying to get a clearer look—but just as she did, the man turned away, stepping into his flight vehicle. Within moments, he had started the engine and taken off.

Was it… the same man she had glimpsed at the supermarket?

That day, he had been in uniform, leading her to assume he was military personnel. But if he was, why had she never seen him at the training center, despite having worked there for some time?

And why did he feel so strangely familiar?

It was like having a name on the tip of her tongue—so close, yet just out of reach.

Who?

Who exactly was he?

**

That night, when Yu Xi returned to the parking garage on the 20th floor of her residential building, the black-and-white stray cat wasn’t in its usual corner.

It didn’t appear every night.

Maybe it was full today.

But the next time it got hungry, it would show up again, waiting in the same corner with the same expectant gaze.

The elevator girl didn’t appear today either—most likely because she had dinner outside and returned home later than usual.

Another peaceful day came to an end. The next day was another workday, and Yu Xi wanted to check the training center’s records to see if she could find information on that man. So, she left a little earlier than usual.

The husband across the hall hadn’t left for work yet. It wasn’t until she reached the elevator, pressed the button, and stepped inside when she finally heard their apartment door open.

Then, the soft voice of the young wife came through. “Drive slowly on the way. Things aren’t very stable outside right now. Be careful and stay safe.”

“I know, don’t worry. I won’t speed.”

“What do you want for dinner? I’ll make your favorite dish.”

“I might have to work late tonight…”

…

At that moment, the elevator doors closed, cutting off the rest of their conversation. But even without hearing it, Yu Xi already knew what would be said—it was the same every time the husband left for work.

At first, when she kept hearing nearly identical conversations, spotting the black-and-white stray cat in the same place, and running into the elevator girl at the same time after work, she had briefly entertained a strange thought.

She had wondered if something was off—if this was some kind of loop.

She even started suspecting that her second main mission was secretly much more difficult than she had assumed.

But soon, that thought was dispelled by other details.

First, if it were an infinite loop, there would be more repeating elements—like the weather or the training center’s schedule.

This planet was heavily polluted, causing extreme and unpredictable weather shifts. In the past ten days since returning, she had already experienced the temperatures of all four seasons—rainy days, sunny days, sudden cold snaps, and heat waves. The climate wasn’t exactly the same every day.

Additionally, she watched the news daily, and every report was different.

Finally, the husband across the hall didn’t go to work every day. Here, work schedules were calculated in cycles of seven workdays followed by two rest days.

On his days off, he wouldn’t leave in the morning. Instead, he and his wife would go out for lunch together and shop at the supermarket in the afternoon.

The stray cat didn’t always show up at the same time either—it just preferred to lounge in the same spot whenever it did appear. Similarly, the elevator girl didn’t appear every time.

Looking at the bigger picture, everything she had seen in her fragmented memories perfectly matched this world. The logic was solid, and she couldn’t pinpoint anything out of place.

So, the time loop theory was easily dismissed.

Still, she couldn’t deny that every time she encountered the stray cat, the elevator girl, or the couple across the hall, a subtle feeling surfaced within her.

It was the same feeling she had when she saw that man—the fleeting sense of something being slightly off. A momentary, inexplicable strangeness that disappeared the moment she tried to focus on it.

To Yu Xi, the fact that the man felt familiar meant she must have known him before.

So, she wanted to see if she could find him in the training center’s personnel records.

Unfortunately, after combing through every file on both the trainers and the trainees, examining each photo one by one, she found nothing.

Not a single face looked familiar. Even that vague sense of recognition was gone.

**

After work, she decided to take a chance.

First, she walked around the supermarket, then stopped by the restaurant from the night before.

But she found nothing.

The feeling was familiar—like something she had seen every day in its usual place, only to find it missing when she finally needed it.

Yu Xi took the elevator to the 30th floor, where an aerial corridor connected her building to the training center.

The corridor was divided into two parallel walkways—one for incoming traffic on the left and the other for outgoing traffic on the right. A distance of over twenty meters separated them, enclosed by glass walls. Travelers used the left side to enter and the right side to return.

As Yu Xi walked across the right-side corridor toward the opposite building, she suddenly felt something and abruptly stopped, turning her head.

On the left-side corridor across from her, a tall young man was walking at a steady pace.

He had black-brown hair, deep-set eyes, and sharp features that carried a hint of mixed heritage. Dressed in a military uniform, he walked alone, his gaze straight ahead, completely focused on his path.

The moment she saw him, that eerie sense of familiarity struck again.

But this time, having seen his face clearly, the feeling intensified.

Yu Xi hesitated for a moment, then quickly moved closer to the glass, waving at him in an attempt to get his attention.

However, the high-altitude corridor’s glass was specially designed—soundproof and explosion-resistant. The twenty-meter distance, combined with the night’s darkness, made it impossible for an ordinary person to see or hear her.

She knocked on the glass twice, but the man remained unaware, continuing his walk past the corridor’s midpoint, heading toward the far end.

Without hesitation, Yu Xi turned around and hurried back toward her original building.

This was a world of advanced technology, with surveillance cameras everywhere. People returning from the Endless Train only gained an additional inventory space—physical enhancements from the game did not carry over. She had no intention of being the first to be flagged for abnormal physical abilities, so she maintained a speed that was fast but still within human limits.

Yet, by the time she navigated through the complex passages of the building and reached the opposite corridor entrance, the man was already gone.

She had seen his face clearly. She even remembered who he was.

But instinctively, she felt that she shouldn’t have encountered him here. That was why she had wanted to confirm it face-to-face.

Just like every time she had seen him before, his appearance had subtly changed—or rather, been modified.

The moment the word “modification” surfaced in her mind, an overwhelming sense of wrongness crept up her spine.

Ron, Kao, Ling Feng—no matter what name he used, he should not be here.

Because he was an NPC from the Endless Train world.

Why would an NPC appear in reality? Even if the Endless Train world wasn’t a virtual simulation but a lower-dimensional reality, an NPC gaining consciousness and breaking through the dimensional barrier to reach a higher-level world was nearly impossible.

On her way back to her apartment, Yu Xi ran through every possibility in her mind.

Maybe Ron had never been an NPC to begin with. Maybe he had been a real person chosen by the train, but due to some mistake or special event, he had ended up as an NPC.

If he was a real person, then naturally, he would have left the train and returned to reality.

Or perhaps he was not just a real person but a mission traveler from the System Tower, which would explain why he had appeared around her multiple times.

But if he was a mission traveler and had fully regained his memories after returning to reality, why hadn’t he taken action against her?

Three times in just one or two weeks, he had shown up near her.

She refused to believe that was just a coincidence.

Yu Xi furrowed her brows, analyzing the situation as she parked her flight vehicle and walked toward the elevator.

Her mind was tangled with speculation, but as she rounded a corner, a familiar sight caught her eye—the black-and-white cat.

It was sitting in the same corner as always, staring at her.

In that instant, all the chaotic thoughts in her mind vanished.

The cat was like a mute button, silencing everything.

She froze in place, staring at it.

A strange and unsettling thought flickered through her mind.

She remembered a past conversation with Xing Min.

And suddenly, every hair on her body stood on end.

She remained motionless, caught in that moment of realization, unable to move or react.