That night, Mother Xia tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
In the end, she quietly got out of bed and walked over to the desk. Opening the drawer, she looked at the medical records hidden beneath everything else, and her eyes gradually reddened.
With a soft sigh, she thought to herself that she did not have much time left.
Her husband probably did not have long either.
Once the two of them left this world, how lonely would their daughter be?
If only Xia Mu could get married and have a child before they closed their eyes forever.
But these days, men place great importance on a woman’s own qualifications and her family’s circumstances.
Aside from their J City household registration and this house, their family had nothing of value.
Even if they wanted to find a live-in son in law, no one would be willing.
Mother Xia wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, carefully put the medical records back into the drawer, and quietly returned to bed.
Xia Mu got up at six o’clock the next morning.
After washing up on the first floor, she went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
She opened the refrigerator and found that there were only a few eggs and a handful of noodles left. There were no vegetables at all.
After thinking it over, she hurried back to the attic and entered the Apocalypse.
On the first floor of the Apocalypse, she stood before the shopping mall interface and opened the vegetables section.
The prices immediately caught her eye.
A single Chinese cabbage actually cost fifty Interstellar Federation Credits.
Converted into yuan, that meant one cabbage cost five hundred yuan.
Xia Mu’s expression changed instantly.
Too expensive. She couldn’t afford it.
She might as well exchange some Interstellar Federation Credits for yuan and buy cabbage on Earth instead.
Just as she was about to leave, System 003 suddenly spoke.
“Mu Mu, this Chinese cabbage can improve the human body’s immune system. It also has a small restorative effect.”
“All the fruits and vegetables in the Interstellar Federation are specially cultivated on designated planets to supply every human civilization across the federation.”
“In order to strengthen people’s constitutions, our fruits and vegetables aren’t ordinary produce. They have mild body strengthening effects and are rich in minerals and nutrients that simply don’t exist on Earth.”
Xia Mu had already turned to leave, but after hearing System 003’s explanation, she stopped again.
She still had over four thousand Interstellar Federation Credits in her account.
Buying one cabbage was still within her means.
Thinking of her parents’ health, she gritted her teeth, bought a single cabbage, and immediately returned to Earth.
Meanwhile, after she left, Shang Xinglan and the others finished preparing their equipment and came into the main hall.
Not seeing their landlady anywhere, they had no idea how to contact her.
The whole arrangement felt surprisingly carefree.
“The landlady isn’t here.”
Ye Lixuan looked around the living room before his gaze settled on one of the rooms and then the little attic upstairs.
He muttered to himself, “She’s probably still asleep.”
Rong Yulong draped an arm around his shoulder and led him toward the shopping screen.
“Let’s eat some instant noodles first. After that, we’re heading out to kill zombies. Otherwise, we won’t have enough money to keep renting this place.”
Ye Lixuan sighed dramatically.
“This shopping mall is practically criminal. I came over to browse last night. There are so many weapons I can’t afford, and even if I could, I couldn’t afford to maintain them.”
Rong Yulong chuckled without replying.
He quickly purchased a cup of instant noodles.
Everything in the shopping mall had purchase limits.
Each account could only buy one of any given item.
For example, if you bought instant noodles, you could only purchase one cup and no more.
After buying his noodles, Rong Yulong walked into the small kitchen opposite.
Although the landlady’s own living quarters were old and worn, making them worlds apart from their private rooms, everything they needed was still there.
Shang Xinglan bought a cup of braised chicken and mushroom flavored instant noodles and handed it to Zhao Wenkang to prepare.
He himself continued browsing the vehicle section.
The base wasn’t without vehicles.
The problem was that none of them could travel properly across the frozen wasteland.
The moment they started moving, they would skid uncontrollably across the ice.
He wanted to see whether this mysterious shopping mall offered any wheeled vehicles capable of operating in snowy conditions.
After browsing for a while, he discovered that every vehicle available was a hover car.
The technology was incredibly advanced.
The cheapest model cost 1.2 million Interstellar Federation Credits.
It could carry ten passengers and transport ten tons of cargo.
The front of the vehicle was sleek and flat, while the rear curved into a rounded tail.
It came in black, pink, silver, and green.
Rong Yulong and the others gathered around.
Looking at the hover car, they all swallowed unconsciously.
As young men, they were naturally fascinated by advanced technology.
Right now, they were especially fascinated by this hover car.
Ye Lixuan exclaimed, “Boss! Buy it! I’ll drive!”
Shang Xinglan raised his head and shot him a cold look with his icy blue eyes.
Then he pointed at the instruction manual.
“It requires at least B+ mental strength and B physique just to operate this hover car, and this is only the lowest tier model.”
He then pointed toward the higher end hover cars.
The required mental strength rose steadily from A, A+, A++, A+++, all the way to S, S+, S++, and S+++.
The physique requirements increased alongside them.
The standards were astonishingly high.
“I asked her yesterday how to detect additional abilities.”
“She said she needs to build the virtual city. I don’t know exactly what that is, but she currently can’t construct it. The conditions probably haven’t been met yet.”
“Just like our single rooms. At first there was only one room. Later there became five. They were only built after we rented them.”
After saying that, Shang Xinglan narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
Fu Honghui suddenly spoke.
“So you’re saying… The landlady needs money. Once she has enough money, she’ll be able to build that virtual city?”
Shang Xinglan nodded.
He immediately gave up browsing the shopping mall.
Apart from food and daily necessities, everything else was useless to them for now.
What exactly was mental strength?
Did they even possess it?
What rank had they reached?
None of them knew the answers.
The only way to find out was to wait until she managed to build the virtual city.
Shang Xinglan picked up his now prepared instant noodles and began eating.
Ye Lixuan and the others were left staring blankly for a moment before disappointment spread across their faces.
“I never imagined things from that world would be so complicated.”
Rong Yulong shook his head.
“Let’s eat first. I’ve noticed these instant noodles don’t just taste good. They also have a slight body strengthening effect, although it’s very minor.”
Zhao Wenkang added, “One cup of instant noodles costs seventy Interstellar Federation Credits.”
No one spoke after that.
Life at the base had once been relatively easy.
There were fewer people and more resources, so everyone had become rather relaxed.
But after arriving at this rental house yesterday, they had realized one thing.
If they wanted to continue living here, they would need an enormous number of zombie crystals.
Leaving was out of the question.
After experiencing a place this comfortable, who would willingly return to living at the base?
As for the virtual city…
If it really required huge amounts of money to build, then it would take an incredible fortune.
They still had plenty of low level zombie crystals, but exchanging those for Interstellar Federation Credits simply wasn’t worth it.
It would be far better to hunt higher level zombies and exchange their crystals instead.
That would probably help the landlady build the virtual city much faster.
After finishing breakfast and cleaning up the trash, the five of them headed out to hunt zombies.
Looking at the frozen Level 1 zombies, Shang Xinglan thought for a moment before saying,
“Release the Level 1 zombies, but don’t kill them. Let them evolve on their own.”
The higher the level of the zombie crystal exchanged at the rental house, the more Interstellar Federation Credits it was worth.
This region had been frozen for more than thirty years.
The things trapped beneath the ice in the greatest numbers were human beings and Level 1 zombies.
There were several times more frozen humans than frozen Level 1 zombies.
Shang Xinglan could not bring himself to thaw the corpses of dead humans only to watch them become zombies.
That left only one option.
Release the Level 1 zombies and allow them to grow stronger on their own.
Rong Yulong and the others immediately understood what he meant.
So on their very first day after arriving at the rental house, they began smashing apart the ice surrounding it, releasing the Level 1 zombies trapped inside.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Xia Mu was happily cooking cabbage noodles and frying three sunny side up eggs.