Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 61: Going Viral in the Apocalypse

After securing a dedicated, high-tier healer to keep a strict watch over Kiara’s mother, the team finally left the hospital.

They made the short trek back to the Association headquarters, bypassing the glamorous glass elevators of the main lobby.

Instead, a stern-faced clerk handed Julien a heavy iron key and pointed them toward a dusty stairwell hidden behind a ’Staff Only’ maintenance door.

Four flights of stairs later, they stood in a cold, windowless room.

Chris dropped his heavy sword onto a nearby wooden crate, the loud clatter echoing off the bare concrete walls.

He looked around the space, dusting off his freshly cleaned armor with a deep sigh.

"What is with us and basements?" Chris asked, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"There are probably a hundred polished, empty conference rooms up there with catering, soft carpets, and chairs going to waste. Why are we always down here?"

Julien walked over to the heavy door, testing the lock.

"We can’t ask for more right now, Chris. A free lease in District 5 is a free lease. At least it is better than the ruined apothecary."

The name made Alice pause.

She drifted near the centre of the room, her dress floating inches above the dusty floor.

The mention of their old, ruined shop brought down her mood. She looked at the bare concrete, her mind wandering back to the slums.

She thought about her brother, Aiden. If he had failed to get out of District 9 before the Red Gate opened, he would have been caught right in the middle of the monster wave.

Kiara noticed the sudden drop in temperature around her.

The teenager walked over, her boots scuffing against the floor, and offered a soft, reassuring look.

"Don’t worry, sister," Kiara said, her voice gentle.

"I asked my uncle to run a deep background trace on the name Aiden across the refugee logs and the Association casualty lists."

Alice looked up, her glowing eyes wide with desperate hope.

"And?" Alice asked softly.

"His name hasn’t come up with any of the people registered in the district," Kiara replied, offering a confident nod.

"If he were caught in the wave, the scanners would have logged his civilian ID by now. So, it is most likely he moved before the anomaly and is somewhere else, safe."

Alice nodded, though she still didn’t look entirely reassured.

The uncertainty clawed at her, but she forced a small, appreciative smile for the teenager.

Chris gave her a worried look before turning his attention back to their supposed team leader.

He leaned against the concrete wall, crossing his thick arms.

"So, what exactly are we going to do?" Chris asked.

"Because sitting in a bunker waiting for the second wave to hit doesn’t feel like a solid survival strategy."

Julien didn’t answer right away.

He walked over to a rusted, white chalkboard resting in the corner of the room, dragging it to the centre with a loud squeak and picked up a piece of dried marker and drew a terrible, disproportionate stick figure.

"Do you all know about the commission rule of my unique skill?" Julien asked, tapping the board.

Kiara sighed, rubbing her temples as if the merchant’s sheer existence gave her a headache.

"Yes. Every time you successfully sell an item to an Awakener, you get a brief window to copy one of their skills. But because your base stats are a joke, your weak physical body cannot copy anything powerful without tearing your own muscles apart."

"Correct," Julien said, pointing the marker at her.

"I didn’t try to copy anything stronger because the system would basically explode me into pieces. So, here is the new plan."

He drew a bunch of tiny stick figures surrounding the first one, adding crude little dollar signs above their heads.

"Volume over quality," Julien explained, his eyes brightening with genuine excitement.

"What I am going to do is sell these low-grade potions directly to as many hunters as possible. By farming the transactions, I gain a massive pool of buyers to choose from. That allows me to carefully pick a low-level, manageable utility or defensive skill that I can actually keep for my own safety while we level up our sales tier."

Alice and Chris nodded slowly.

Stripped of the usual greed, it was actually a very practical survival tactic.

Kiara, however, remained indifferent.

The 190-IQ teenager crossed her arms, analysing the crude drawing on the board with critical eyes.

"This is an okay plan on paper," Kiara stated, her tone flat.

"Although you are forgetting one glaring, statistical variable that ruins the whole thing."

"Oh?" Julien raised an eyebrow.

"And what is that?"

"How do you plan to market your product?" Kiara asked, counting the issues off on her fingers.

"We have zero reputation in this district and have zero marketing budget since you paid the debt with it. We are operating out of an unlisted concrete room four floors underground. Elite hunters do not buy mystery liquids from E-Rank nobodies hiding in a basement."

Julien smiled, as if hearing exactly what he wanted.

"Oh, you don’t have to worry about that," Julien said, adjusting his jacket.

"I called someone."

Chris went rigid, his hand instinctively dropping toward the hilt of his sword.

"Who?"

Before Julien could answer, the door to the basement swung open with a massive bang, hitting the concrete wall.

A girl with bright orange hair marched into the room.

She was wearing a neon jacket covered in glowing sponsor patches, holding a highly modified microphone.

Right in front of her walked a stressed-looking camera guy, lugging a heavy camera that projected a massive, floating holographic chat feed into the air.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE IT, CHAT!" the orange-haired girl yelled into the microphone, her voice carrying a practised, high-energy pitch that echoed painfully off the walls.

"THERE IS A SECRET BUNKER IN THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE RICH ELITES TO HIDE IN!" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The holographic chat feed beside the camera guy went wild, text scrolling at breakneck speeds.

[xX_Hunter_Xx]: YOOO EXPOSED!

[Mana_Addict]: Wait, who are those guys in the back?

[Milf_Hunter]: Is that a ghost?? LOL nice CGI.

[DihSlayer99]: association is corrupt, confirmed LMAO.

[Healer_Girl_01]: that blonde guy in the armor is kinda cute tho

"We are going to explore more of the Association’s dirty politics in the next video, so make sure to hit that subscribe button and stay tuned!" she yelled, winking directly at the camera lens before flashing a practised peace sign.

Kiara stared at the loud, obnoxious streamer.

Her brilliant, strategic mind was struggling to process the absurdity of the noise pollution that had just invaded their secure bunker.

Slowly, she turned her head toward Julien, her eyes wide with mounting horror.

"Don’t tell me..." Kiara whispered.

Julien leaned casually against his terrible chalkboard, tossing the marker into the air and catching it.

"That’s right," Julien said, his grin widening into something truly devious.

"We are going to live-stream our potions’ effects to the entire district."