18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 241

After a three-day break, Stella was back on her grind.

She had spent over a month collecting wood, stone, sand, steel, and bricks, steadily accumulating 60,000 points in the process.

As she browsed the list of items she could exchange for her points, she was disappointed to find it mostly consisted of food, clothes, and alcohol - items she had no use for. This made her reconsider her plan of accumulating more points.

With the materials she had handed over, a significant amount of space was freed up in Arcadia, allowing for more cultivation.

Jasper, concerned about Stella's workload, suggested, “Why don't we find Monkey? Maybe we can trade for a planting and harvesting machine?”

“Fine,” Stella agreed, “I have nothing better to do while we wait for Newtown to be completed.”

But to her surprise, Monkey was nowhere to be found.

After several fruitless days of searching in the trading street, Stella remembered that Rob lived near Eastwood Eden. With Rob's help, they finally tracked down Monkey.

“How can I help you?” Monkey asked, dust caked on his face and a sense of urgency in his voice. “I'm in the middle of scavenging.”

He explained that his wife was nagging him about moving to Newtown, and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t accumulate enough points. So, he had no choice but to risk his life scavenging.

Stella frowned, “How did you end up in this situation?”

Monkey sighed heavily, explaining that the sea had been contaminated by a prehistoric virus, cutting off his main source of income.

With the extreme heat over, the weather was becoming cooler each day, reducing the water scarcity.

A massive earthquake had buried nearly everything under rubble, leaving only the survivors. With the construction of Newtown, the government was fleecing the rich, persuading them to donate as much as they could. This frightened them into living frugally— even the rich were running out of supplies.

The lower class couldn’t afford the goods, and the rich dared not consume them. This hit the middlemen like Monkey hard.

In response to Stella's concern, Monkey reassured her, “Austin has suffered even greater losses. Many of our supplies were destroyed in the earthquake.”

Despite his struggles, Monkey was still loyal to his boss, “He's trying to buy a villa, but he can't feed all of us. We have to fend for ourselves, and the boss makes up for any shortfall.”

Stella then asked, “How much can you make in a day scavenging?”

“Just a few tens of points, I guess.” Monkey replied, explaining that things had become more difficult recently.

Stella made a proposition, “If you can get the planting and harvesting machine, I'll give you half a truckload of steel.”

Monkey’s jaw dropped, “Are you serious?”