Chapter 105: Container Houses
Other than aquariums, Naia finally found this time to enrich her accommodation area by purchasing a large amount of modular container houses as well as customized ones.
The Modular ones were flexible and easy to enlarge. She just had to buy components or new sets and they could create larger, more integrated structures.
The customized ones were related to lifestyle.
Mid-ranged ones cost around 500,000 danas per set, which was based on a 20 footer container and studio unit. It could also be a 40 footer one, which could have one comfortable bedroom or two small ones.
It had basic insulation, electricity, and plumbing. The basic finishes like floor tiles and wallpapers, as well as painted partitions, were also included.
She was planning on providing the basic furnishing as well.
This would be the average housing there and should comprise majority of her purchase today.
She’d also buy some basic modular ones for various uses. They could be offices, commercial spaces, or could also be barracks-style housing in case she took in more people in the future.
For all these, she’d probably outfit all of them with superior insulation, multiple energy sources, and so on.
While her space didn’t seem like it’d experience major changes in climate, she knew it was still loosely connected to ’reality’. While her instincts were telling her it should be safe, she wanted to be prepared just in case.
Besides...what if she wanted to take the container houses outside? At the very least, she wouldn’t have to worry about the house being unlivable.
Production of container houses was another one of the many industries in this area. There was so much need for containers, after all, so various businesses branched from there.
It started off as recycling or reusing decommissioned containers. However, as the use expanded to more people, quality requirements also spiked up until an entire industry creating them from scratch (and not reusing old containers) had popped up.
The container house she chose for herself had three floors (combination of several modules) and about 300 square meter building footprint. It had several bedrooms, bathrooms, living room, and so on. They had provisions for air conditioning and so on.
As for the aesthetic of the interiors, they were neat but pleasing modern style with dashes of warm colors. She almost chose more intricate styles because the style in the apocalyptic future was too ’zen’, but it felt unnatural to her in the end.
She ordered superior appliances as well. It didn’t have to be top of the line, but it was definitely high quality.
After making her orders, she rented an unpopular lot at the suburbs, fenced it up and made it look like a construction in progress, and then set the delivery and installation address there.
She even assigned someone to monitor the construction, ensuring everything was done well.
After settling everything regarding those items, she just had to wait for them to finish fabricating and installing.
She booked at a hotel with a seaside view, set for three days, which was the timeframe she gave the installers of the large fish tanks and the container houses for a large amount of premium.
During this time, she could relax and take her time to buy more supplies. She also coordinated with Kael about what she had purchased, and he’d tell her what he was preparing in turn, asking if she had more requests as well.
After finishing their chats, Naia looked at the beautiful view, and the bustling cityscape below.
From a distance, she could see the lights of hundreds of ships lining up on the port, bringing goods to and fro all over the country and even the world.
It was so incredibly vibrant, giving so much hope about the development and growth of various places—which, in turn, signified the improvement of many people’s lives.
She sighed.
This bustling place would probably be one of the first places destroyed by the massive skyscraper-high tsunamis, leaving only desolate lands.
What a pity.
....
The next morning, Naia had her breakfast at the hotel, which was a buffet meal.
There was a lot of seafood, cooked in ways she hadn’t seen before.
The more places she passed through, the more one thing became clear: There were still so many cuisines she hadn’t tasted yet!
She made a mental note to order a large amount of cooked food later before checking out. She’d just offer a lot of premium.
She even considered recruiting the chef.
She took her time to eat, eating per cuisine. She started with tomato salad with vinaigrette, added with some bread and jam, as well as tea.
While taking a sip, she overheard the conversation behind her. They seemed to be a group of friends catching up.
"This story is so well-done. Just a bit scary," it was a very feminine voice, soft and cute.
"What do you mean, Daisy? What’s the story about? You actually read a scary story?" another asked, also female, but with lower tone.
Naia could see a bit of their profiles through the metal-clad columns, and saw two very contrasting girls and an effeminate young man.
For the girls, one was the soft-looking petite blonde with a small voice, while the other was a pretty, curvaceous, coffee-skinned lady.
The young man was really feminine. Rather, judging by the colorful retro fit and makeup, along with his affected way of speaking, he might be more than just feminine.
On cue, he spoke. "It’s not the psychotic yandere mafia male lead one, is it? Girl, you find those sexy."
"No, no. It’s an apocalypse book," the gentle girl said. "I live here, and in the book it describes some meteor falling, a few landing on the sea, destroying many coastlines...
"The descriptions are so vivid and evocative; it makes me feel like I was there.
"It is to the point that it makes me want to convince my parents to move houses..."
Naia’s eyebrows rose, immediately more invested in the gossip when she realized it was about that book.
Speaking of which, it looked like Linlin really had even more talent than she thought.
The young man squealed a little, seemingly excited that his friend was reading the book.
"Oh! I read that book, too. I’m already at the latest Chapter. And yeah...I agree, it makes me want to be paranoid, to be honest."
He then looked at Daisy, giving her a teasing glance. "That said, I didn’t know you read the apocalypse theme? Rather, I never imagined you—Daisy the flower—would ever touch the genre!"
She was the type to like those CEO romances with red flag male leads and meek, pure, and damsel female leads.
Recently, she had started to lean more towards the darker mafia genre.
Of course, many of these romances were not very child friendly.
Regardless of whether or not the book was child friendly or not, Daisy’s reading list was definitely quite contrasting to the female-led apocalypse novels.
"I don’t know. I saw the persistent ad and decided to take a peek," Daisy said.
Daisy nodded. "I’m at the point that I’m about to ask my parents to move houses with me!"
"In any case, I’m hooked so far, just that I do feel heavy reading the first Chapters. Regardless, I think I’m reading more of this genre after this."
"Ohh! You should totally try ’After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World, then!"
Their dark-skinned friend rolled her eyes as she stared at the other two as if she didn’t know them. "We haven’t seen each other in nearly a year. Your brains changed so much?"
The two turned to look at her at the same time, making the beautiful girl scoot away as if creeped out.
It was Beck, the male, who spoke up. "Yanka, aren’t you an architect? Architects are creatives. Have some!"
They then handed one of their tablets to show the link, forcing Yanka to read the first few Chapters under their eyes. Yanka didn’t cheat them and actually read. Knowing them, they might test her later.
When she started reading, they were even giving pointers like veteran readers of the story.
"Don’t cry later!"
"Read their dialogues carefully."
"Don’t skip the info dump."
"The love story is so great and touching! But I am also impacted by the background events, you know?"
Beck discussed the romance of the book with more gusto than the girls.
"I even get inspired when I’m designing clothes. What do you guys think of ’fashionable apocalypse’ as the next theme in my fashion show?"
"I’m definitely hoarding quite a bit after reading that," Daisy said. "I’ll even study a bit of first aid."
"I know why," Beck chuckled. "That’s with that scene when a side character encountered an injured friend, but he didn’t know how to properly administer first aid and made it worse, right?"
"Yes! Thank goodness for the female lead that the poor guy survived, but it made me think—what if it were me? I mocked the character so much, but I realized I wouldn’t have been able to do any better! I could’ve killed him directly!"
Listening to them talk, Naia smiled. Linlin could really write, creating characters, details, interactions that could touch the hearts of the readers, seducing them to keep reading, and making them willingly remember the details that they should along the way.
Naia’s smile was gentle, and a little proud. If people really learned first aid because of reading, that alone gave so much meaning to the book.
Her power and influence was limited, but she hoped that many people could still be helped this way.
