"Just now, I saw some passerby being bludgeoned in the head before being dragged in the forest," Boss Huang's wife quickly said. "Luckily, I closed the door just in time, and the goblins smashed it around for a while before leaving."

Chen Yining was raring to kill those goblins and attempt earning some EXP.

However, there were too many. Chen Yining counted twelve goblins, while there were only five humans on their side—ten if they included their summoned beast.

That meant they were lacking two heads compared to the other side.

Moreover, Driver Wang was unreliable, since he had said from the start that he would not hesitate to drive away if there was danger.

And Chen Yining believed that a family man like him would do it.

Likewise, it did not seem like they could count on Boss Huang's wife either.

She might even be the type who would betray her own, but there was nothing to argue about that since it was human nature. In fact, Chen Yining himself would run if there really was danger, and it would depend entirely on who runs the quickest then.

From that perspective, he had sided with a shady crowd with no hope of working together…

In the distance, however, the goblins had retreated into the forests when they saw that there were many people over here.

Their green skins blended perfectly with the forest.

"Brother, it's late. We won't be able to buy anything if we don't go now," Chen Jing said then.

Chen Yining nodded. "Okay. Let's get to the supermarket then."

Once they arrived, however, they found the supermarket to be much crowded than usual.

The supermarket appeared to be equipped with backup generators and they only accepted cash since the networks were down.

The brothers first bought salt that would last them two years along with numerous condiments. Aside from those, they also got canned food, flour, rice, dried beans, milk powder, and honey—items with longer expiry dates.

After bringing everything to Chen Yining's rented house, the two brothers went off to buy vacuum-packed rice and purified water. Such rice would stay fresh longer with a shelf life that extended over a year and a half.

Since the power was still out, they had to take the stairs, which was fortunate since Yining was living on the third floor.

It would be despair for those who lived over twenty floors above.

Still, they did buy many things, and Chen Yining summoned his goblin with his grimoire.

"This must be your mount, Master! It's so huge!" Green Skin exclaimed as it stroked the taxi. The metallic sensation of the car seemed to affect it so much, and it even spat on its palm before wiping the rearview mirror.

"Alright, now carry this stuff up." Chen Yining pointed at the food in the car and had Green Skin carry it upstairs with him.

Green Skin poked its head at the rear of the car.

It was pitch-black, and the exhaust pipe still stank of fumes.

Green Skin closed in, sniffing it and about to lick it, when Chen Yining shoved it in the buttocks with its foot. "What are you doing? Go do your job."

The goblin hence tamely picked up a bag of rice and followed Chen Yining.

Its gait as it walked upstairs was quite weird, as it spread its legs wide just like a crab.

"Gnome, you carry some too." Chen Jing told his own summoned beast after calling it forth then.

The gnome shook its head fervently, however, and said seriously while pointing at its own head, "Smart gnomes never work hard. Only foolish goblins sell their own bodies."

Chen Jing started looking around for a good stick.

The gnome promptly picked up a bag of rice and dashed upstairs while shrieking, "But exercising from time to time wouldn't be a problem!"

The party went upstairs and downstairs for around a handful of trips before moving everything they had bought into the rented house.

After that, they went to the supermarket and convenience stores again to buy more food.

Several round trips later, their stock would now last them a long time.

The two brothers had also spent most of their spare change.

"Brother, are we fighting a battle of attrition here?" Chen Jing said, wiping sweat off his brow.

"Yeah. I keep having this bad feeling, and I can only hope that I'm mistaken," Chen Yining said.

In the evening, Chen Yining knocked on the door next door, which was his landlord's house.

A young girl opened it, and she rolled her eyes in irritation after seeing that it was Chen Yining. "Dad, your renter is looking for you."

A voice replied from the bathroom, "Please wait two minutes, Yining!"

Soon, the landlord arrived smelling quite pungently, and said awkwardly, "Sorry about the smell, I only realized that the water supply has been cut as well when I tried to flush."

"It's fine, I didn't wait for too long… anyway, I would like to keep renting the house for another six months," Cheng Yining said.

His lease on the house would expire in another month, so he would renew it for six months ahead of time.

"Oh, no rush. It's already late, but I'll welcome you if you want to keep renting it!" The landlord smiled cheerfully. "By the way, my runt told me that there would be classes tomorrow when she returned home today—it seems that she wanted to run off to play."

"Hmph!" A girly snort of dissatisfaction could be heard from the bedroom next door.

"By the way, Landlord, I've just received word that the water and power would be out for a long time. I also saw a lot of people stocking up at the supermarket today, so you should do the same just in case," Chen Yining suggested, aware that his landlord was the shut-in type and it would not be weird to see him not leave the house the entire day.

After thinking about it for a while, the landlord nodded. "Makes sense. Thanks, Yining—I'll try to stock up on food later, and it's necessary since the food stored in the fridge would rot and can't be stored for too long."

Earlier in the day, Chen Yining had already withdrawn all the money he had in his account, and Chen Jing did the same on their way back.

There was silence outside the window when night arrived.

There were no streetlights or any other lights, only a few candles illuminating the corner of several windows.

However, visibility was fine on the streets since the moon was bright that night.

Chen Yining took a fruit beer and sat on the window ledge. The breeze from outside the window felt relaxing.

As he leaned against the wall, he looked upward… and rubbed his eyes before looking again.

"Did I get drunk from half a can of fruit beer?" Chen Yining murmured in confusion.

"Brother, come out here—do you see two moons up in the sky?"

Chen Jing, who was doing planks in the living room, jumped up. Beneath his red jersey was his muscular chest, and his forehead was dripping with sweat.

"You have to be drunk from half a can of fruit beer, how could there be… wait, there really are two moons!"

Chen Jing's jaw almost dropped from the shock, and he muttered in bewilderment. "How could this be? Could we have transmigrated?"

Despite his nonchalance, his audience was attentive.

Chen Yining's heart skipped a beat. Are we no longer on Mercury?

Moreover, was transmigration not supposed to limit to a single person? Was there ever any plot where everyone in an entire city transmigrated?

He had never read such a novel before.

Nonetheless, it was reality that the city had no power, water, gas, or network, as well as was suddenly surrounded entirely by a forest. Moreover, there were those curious trees he had never encountered before and creatures of fantasy such as goblins… which convinced Chen Yining considerably.

It was merely his subconscious that was unwilling to think further in that direction.

"Have your gnome try to strengthen these rebars," Chen Yining then said, pointing at the two-meter long rebars that were placed on the ledge. "Let's get prepared before we go off to hunt goblins in the suburbs. There might be answers as to whether everything is real after we kill those goblins."

"Yeah." Chen Jing nodded somberly and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Brother…"

Chen Yining turned toward him with a question in his eyes. "Hmm?"

"I'll protect you whatever happens." Chen Jing flexed his biceps then.

Chen Yining smiled. Shaking his head in relief, he tapped a fist on Chen Jing's chest. "Fine, then watch your brother do this."