Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System

After the trunk of the SUV was fully unloaded, both parties were very happy with the trade.

"We hope you can come back in the future, it would be nice to see more people willing to trade around these parts", said the man.

For them, this trade significantly increased their quality of life for a least the next year, and they were very grateful.

"We will do our best to come back from time to time! Thank you for the chicks!", said Rayne. She placed the tray of chicks into the now-empty trunk of the SUV, closing the door. Enjoy exclusive adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

"Oh there's one more thing I wanted to give you as a thank-you gift", she said and pretended to rummage through the backseat of the car.

"Oh please, no more gifts! We're already on the winning side of this trade, anything else would make it feel like we're robbing you!", said the man's wife.

Rayne took a carton of cigarettes out of her system, pretending as if she fished it out of a box.

"Here", she said, tossing it to the short man.

The man instinctively reached out to catch it, only realizing what it was a few moments later. His hands shook as he looked down at the carton of cigarettes.

Even his eyes began to water, "Wow, I can't thank you enough for this! I will cherish these!", he said wiping the wetness from his eyes.

After saying their goodbyes Rayne and Julian got back into her SUV to head back.

"Have you ever tried storing animals in your system? Do you think it would work with the chicks?", asked Julian curiously.

Rayne shook her head, "No, I've never tried storing a living thing before". A part of her was scared to try. It would be too heaven-defying if it worked. If she could store a living human and multiply them? Would they be the same person? Would they have a different soul?

There were too many questions, so she never bothered trying it. She looked over at the baby chicks, "Well maybe I can try it with them?", she asked, unconvinced.

"Only if you want to. I don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with", he smiled. He agreed with her hesitation as it would be a morally grey area.

Rayne reached to the back and scooped up a small, fluffy yellow chick. Holding it in her hands she used a finger to gently pet it a few times.

As she was petting it, she was thinking about whether or not she wanted to try storing it.

"Ugh, fine. It's only a chick, at least I'll know", she finally said, tired from the mental back and forth.

She closed her eyes and cupped the chick in her hand, giving the mental command to store.

Moments turned into minutes and nothing happened. There was no dull headache and no warm sensation in her navel.

After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and looked into her hands. The fluffy yellow chick was chirping like it had been, totally unaffected.

"Well, it seems I cannot. At least not right now? Maybe there's a different technique? But from what I can tell, nothing happened", she said, filling Julian in on the details of the experiment.

A part of her was relieved that she could not do this, while another part wished she could for the convenience of it.

Doing something like repopulating endangered species would've also been pretty cool, but it seems she was not that 'gifted'.

Julian listened to her then reached out to hold her hand, "Well, at least you know now. No harm in knowing more about your ability".

"True, I am glad that I know now", she said, placing the chick back in the tray with the rest, "I hope these guys can tolerate the long trip".

"We can stop and let them out every few hours if you're worried", suggested Julian.

Rayne smiled and nodded. They had a long drive ahead and she was worried the chicks would get sick from the long ride.

"We got the chicks much faster than anticipated. I thought that finding them would take us at least a few days", said Julian. While he was happy they ended up finding them, a part of him wished that it would take them longer.

Now that they had to hurry back to the base to get them situated, he would have less alone time with Rayne.

Rayne picked up on his sulking and giggled, "How about I spend the whole day with you tomorrow?".

Her words instantly changed his mood. He sat up straight in his chair and sped up. "It's a promise, you can't go back on your word!", he said, smiling brightly.

"Haha! You look like a puppy who's wagging its tail happily!", said Rayne, resisting the urge to pet him.

The trip back to the base was even faster than the trip to the farms. Julian was motivated to get back as quickly as possible so that he could spend the rest of the night cuddling with Rayne.

They only took a few breaks to let the chicks out and swap drivers so they were able to make the trip within a day.

When they arrived it was already dark out and most of the people were in their homes relaxing before bed.

Rayne climbed into the back seat of the car and began stocking up the vehicle with the various requested items from the slip. She purposely left a few of them out to make the trip feel more realistic.

If they managed to always bring a car full of supplies, meeting everyone's requests every time they went out, it would seem a little too good to be true.

So for this trip, she cut out all of the food-related requests since the warehouses were still stocked.

Julian went to find Noah so that the person responsible for the chickens could come to situate the chicks.

Rayne made sure to add a number of bags of chicken feed, making it seem like they acquired it with the chicks.

A few minutes later, Julian, Noah, Brandon, and another man from Brandon's team walked over to the car to help unload it.

The man who was going to be in charge of the chickens quickly reached out to grab the tray. "Oh wow, you even have 3 roosters! This is perfect! They all look healthy too!"

Rayne was impressed that he could tell which chicks were male and which were female! To her, they all looked the same!

"Well it's a good thing I had the carpenters work on building the coop today, looks like you two had a very successful haul", said Noah approvingly.

Rayne looked at Noah, "Oh, come over tomorrow when you have some free time. There's something I need to give you".