My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

"Paya, I thought you’d forgotten me! I’m so happy to see you." Yaki Toto grinned like a child. He had once looked like a withered old man in his sixties, but thanks to his Cultivation and the greater strength that made it easier to get food, he had now reverted to the normal appearance of a man in his thirties. His body was a mass of corded muscle, and he had transformed from a "grizzled old man" into a "buff warrior."

This was one of the reasons he was so popular in the tribe and had taken three wives. There was no man in the tribe stronger than him.

Li Xiang paid a visit to Yaki Toto’s tribe, bestowing some Spirit Fruits upon him and warning him about the great flood that would occur in the summer two years from now.

It would be a global flood, just like the earlier snow disaster. Places at higher altitudes, like Sichuan Province, would probably fare better.

Yaki Toto naturally believed Li Xiang without question. Fortunately, they were accustomed to life in the primeval jungle, and the Amazon Rainforest often had torrential downpours anyway. Moving to the mountains ahead of time, or building treehouses and boats, shouldn’t be a major issue. As for food, with Yaki Toto’s abilities, hunting Anacondas, crocodiles, fish, and capybaras in the water would be no problem at all.

Li Xiang clapped his shoulder, promising that if he was free when the time came, he would come and help them.

The harsh conditions of the primitive tribe were hard for Li Xiang to stomach. He used his Earth Superpower to construct some Stone houses for them and left behind a large supply of food and medicine from the outside world—mostly what he had just plundered from North America. The medicine consisted mainly of antibiotics, and he instructed Yaki Toto that his tribespeople should only take them for fevers or other serious illnesses.

He then used his Crystal Vein Armor to materialize some pots, bowls, and ladles. However, he didn’t interfere too much with their way of life and gracefully departed.

Yaki Toto gazed in the direction Li Xiang had vanished, his heart filled with yearning, but the figure of Paya was nowhere to be seen. He stood there for a long time, only turning back when his three wives came to call him home.

Li Xiang arrived at the southernmost tip of Argentina, crossed the Drake Passage, and headed for the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

This was because the great flood in two years’ time would be caused by extreme high temperatures. These temperatures would lead to the massive melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing sea levels to rise. Following that, torrential rains would pour down across the globe for many days on end.

In a flood of this magnitude, low-lying countries and regions would be the disaster’s epicenter.

However, at this time in his past life, Li Xiang was just an ordinary worker. He had never even been abroad, let alone taken a cruise to tour Antarctica. As a result, his understanding of the great flood’s true cause was limited to "extreme heat" and "glacial melt." But in this life, as his Spiritual Power deepened, he had a nagging suspicion that there was more to the story. That was why he had come to investigate.

He activated Extreme Speed and patrolled the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet, but found nothing out of the ordinary. After heading north and crossing a wide strait, he arrived on a landmass teeming with flocks of sheep.

New Zealand.

It was a country with more sheep than people, and one completely devoid of snakes.

The country’s sheep population had peaked at 70.3 million in 1982. Although it had been declining ever since, it still hovered at over twenty million, while its human population was just over five million.

In New Zealand, sheep were naturally Li Xiang’s primary target for plundering. He swept through the country like a tornado, and in three days, he collected roughly twelve to thirteen million sheep, halving the nation’s flock.

He also collected other supplies, such as wheat, barley, oats, fruit, dairy products, beef, wool blankets, leather (both sheepskin and cowhide), and timber.

The timber was all processed and ready for use; Li Xiang wouldn’t even look twice at anything of slightly inferior quality.

New Zealand has 8.1 million hectares of forest, and timber is one of its main exports. As for seafood, Li Xiang left it alone; he planned to catch it fresh from the deep sea with Luo Feifei in the future.

When the world’s greatest "zero-dollar shopper" paid a visit to remote New Zealand, the entire nation was in an uproar. But if even the Beautiful Country was helpless against him, what waves could they possibly make?

Li Xiang used his Earth Superpower in the municipal square of the capital, Wellington, to issue a warning about the great flood two years from now.

Ordinarily, the New Zealand authorities would have dismissed it as a prank. But with over ten million sheep missing, along with various other resources measured in the tens of thousands of tons, they were forced to take the message—bought at such a steep price—extremely seriously.

As the Buddha said, "The Dharma is not to be transmitted lightly." The same principle applied to warnings. When a message is received only after paying a terrible price, it’s impossible for it not to make a lasting impression.

The relationship between these Alien Races and the Chinese Side was not particularly friendly, so Li Xiang felt no guilt.

He crossed the Tasman Sea to Australia and, naturally, went on another massive looting spree. After all, the country was vast, occupying an entire continent, and his haul was more than ten times greater than what he’d gotten in New Zealand.

Its agriculture and livestock industries were also highly developed, with countless cattle, sheep, dairy products, and wool goods.

There was also wheat, barley, cotton, and sorghum, and its wine was exceptional.

The Penfolds 407, a wine highly sought after by his countrymen, was from Australia. Its popularity was probably due to its relatively high alcohol content of 14.5% ABV. Perhaps because Chinese people were used to high-proof baijiu, regular red wine tasted bland to them. But the moment this one hit the palate—ah, now that was more like it.

It used to cost just over three hundred yuan a bottle, then the price was inflated to over a thousand at one point. Recently, it had fallen back to around six or seven hundred, possibly due to lower tariffs.

Li Xiang also helped himself to plenty of Australian wine, with the Penfolds series being his main target. The 407 was a bit too low-end for him, however; he primarily focused on plundering Penfolds Grange, Penfolds 707, and Penfolds 798.

It was worth mentioning that Australia is exceptionally rich in mineral resources. Its proven, economically viable reserves included approximately 5.3 billion tons of bauxite, 14.6 billion tons of iron ore, 40.3 billion tons of black coal, 30 billion tons of brown coal, 22.9 million tons of lead, 22.6 million tons of nickel, 41,400 tons of silver, 40,835 tons of tantalum, 41 million tons of zinc, and 5,570 tons of gold. Crude oil reserves were at 227 billion liters, and natural gas reserves were at 2.2 trillion cubic meters.

Even with Li Xiang’s powerful Earth Superpower, he could never dig it all. It was simply impossible.

The iron content of the ore here was extremely high, with an average of 54% to 64%, and most of it exceeding 60%. What did this mean? It meant that a single ton of ore contained five to six hundred kilograms of iron. Back in his own country, ore with an iron content above 30% was already considered high-grade.

Furthermore, most of Australia’s iron ore was found in open-pit mines or buried at shallow depths, making it incredibly easy to extract.‌

Out in the Australian wilderness, Li Xiang could casually find vast deposits of surface-level iron ore. He picked up a piece and squeezed it. ’What the hell? This isn’t ore, it’s practically a solid chunk of iron.’

His Crystal Vein Armor was quite fast when used for simple metal purification and condensation, and it didn’t consume much Spiritual Power. On a whim, he condensed several thousand tons of Refined Iron before deciding to stop. ’These mineral deposits aren’t going anywhere,’ he thought. ’I can come back and dig them up whenever I want. For now, I should focus on collecting food, fabric, and medicine.’

The coal here would also be an important fuel for heating during the future Apocalypse. But like the iron ore, it wasn’t going anywhere. The Australian authorities could never mine it all, and with his speed, the whole continent was like his personal backyard, so there was no hurry. He did, however, plunder some ready-made, high-purity metals—over thirty different types, taking more than ten tons of each. He planned to give them to Erin as a gift the next time he went on a "shopping" trip to Europe.

Erin was a master of Alchemy and required large quantities of metallic raw materials. Li Xiang figured he could just deposit them directly in her alchemy lab’s storeroom, which would be far better than her having to purchase them herself.

Erin’s family castle was built on a mountain, surrounded by a very deep moat, with a large cliff nearby. Ironically, she had little to fear from the great flood.

From Australia, he passed through the countries of Southeast Asia, which meant he was close to home. These were the places he had frequently visited back when his "speed was lacking." He looted them one more time before finally returning home to rest and reorganize.