007 upgraded to the L2 mini shop.
The moment Lu Xiao heard Shen Wuqiao’s name come out of her mouth, his thin lips pressed into a straight line, his careless amusement shattering into gloomy, simmering anger.
“You’re the daughter of a mistress—what right do you have to compare yourself to our Wu Bao? Our Lu family may not match the Shen family’s wealth, but we’re still rich merchants in Haicheng. You lived in the Lu family for eighteen years—did we ever mistreat you in the slightest? Who are you putting on that aggrieved act for after you went back to the Shen family?”
“You think I don’t know about the rumors you spread about Wu Bao, getting her ostracized?”
“What rumors did I spread? Her relationships with my eldest and second brothers were never clean to begin with. Otherwise, why would they favor a fake little sister with no blood relation to them?”
“Boom—” A fireball the size of a soccer ball suddenly shot from Lu Xiao’s palm straight at Lu Qingxue.
Lu Qingxue’s almond eyes went wide, and she instinctively summoned an Ice Wall to block it, but the level gap between her and Lu Xiao was far too great.
The instant the fireball struck the Ice Wall, the extreme heat vaporized the moisture, white steam hissing and rising, and then the Ice Wall split apart down the middle. Lu Qingxue was sent flying backward, her body slamming into a pillar behind her.
Pain—pain that made it impossible to breathe.
Lu Xiao walked over, his tall figure looming over her, looking down at her wretched state from above:
“If they don’t favor the little sister they grew up with, are they supposed to favor you, the step-sister born of the woman who wrecked their family?”
“Don’t you pride yourself on being an independent woman? You said only useless dodder vines need to cling to men. So why would you need anyone’s favoritism?”
Lu Qingxue dodged the sharp question: “Even if my mom did wrong, what does that have to do with me? I couldn’t choose the circumstances of my birth. What fault is that of mine?”
“Your birth is your original sin. Refusing to atone for it and continuing to commit wrongs only compounds your guilt. Don’t ever let me hear you compare yourself to Wu Bao again—you don’t measure up in any way.”
He dropped those cold words and left.
After being her brother all these years, he’d always had a feeling: she talked a lofty game, but she was greedier than anyone.
She couldn’t play the good person convincingly, yet wasn’t thorough enough to be truly bad—exactly like her mother.
Lu Qingxue’s eyes bloodshot, she glared furiously at Lu Xiao’s retreating back, her nails scraping blood from the anti-slip texture of the steel plate.
Why? Shen Wuqiao had been dead for ten years—did she still have to live in her shadow?
It should have been her being held in her brothers’ palms…
However devastated Lu Qingxue was, Shen Wuqiao was equally thrilled, because she had stumbled upon a hoard of cans and jars.
[Detected Host has picked up luncheon meat cans ×6, preserved vegetable and pork belly cans ×7, five-spice braised beef cans ×4, fermented black bean yellow croaker cans ×6, spicy crispy hairtail cans ×5.]
[Picked up beer bottles ×3, baijiu bottles ×2, tea tin ×1, soy sauce bottles ×3, peanut oil jugs ×2.]
[Picked up braised egg wrappers ×5, chocolate wrappers ×4, luosifen noodle wrappers ×6.]
[Picked up hydrating face mask boxes ×2, dual-brand sunscreen spray bottles ×3, sunscreen and spot-fading face cream gift set ×1.]
[Picked up eggshells ×10, reward: fresh eggs ×100…]
Even eggshells could turn into eggs?
God, who could understand? A garbage heap was simply a mountain of gold, silver, and life-saving treasure—this was basically stocking up at zero cost.
What’s more, the system had a loophole: as long as she kept one package of each product category, she could redeem it infinitely. So she only needed to pick up items the store didn’t already have.
The shovel dug down and unearthed another black garbage bag. She punctured it, and the contents spilled into view.
[Picked up: Ganmaoning Granules ×3, Montmorillonite Powder boxes ×2, Amoxicillin Capsule boxes ×5, Ceftaroline boxes ×6, Azithromycin Dry Suspension boxes ×6, Azithromycin Tablet boxes ×6, Alcohol Disinfectant bottles ×4, Iodophor Disinfectant bottles ×6.]
“So much medicine—this trip wasn’t wasted…”
“ROAR~~” A hoarse bellow, like a torn bellows, suddenly shattered the junkyard’s brief peace.
Shen Wuqiao looked up and saw three zombies about thirty meters away. Their upper bodies were stiff, but their lower halves moved with unsettling agility.
One had half its face rotted away; another had a fist-sized hole in its chest. The instant they caught the scent of a living person, they burst into a sprint, howling as they charged.
[Three low-tier zombies detected. Distance closing fast. Weak point: cranial nerve center. Shopkeeper’s outdoor protective shield has five minutes remaining. Recommendation: eliminate the threat before the shield fails.]
Five minutes?!
Only then did Shen Wuqiao remember—she’d gotten so caught up scavenging that she’d lost track of time.
“System, I’ve never killed anyone before. What if my hands shake?”
[Host, they won’t be shaking when they bite into you. Don’t you want to reunite with your family? Or would you rather be torn to shreds and shipped off via PinDuoDuo’s 9.9 free shipping?]
The first zombie lunged, but was blocked by the invisible protective shield three meters out, slamming heavily into it and leaving a filthy smear.
“I want to open a big, big shop, swing on a swing, drink bubble tea, eat watermelon with braised prawns in oil! Ahh!”
BANG— Shen Wuqiao pulled the trigger. The bullet passed through the liquid protective shield and drove straight into the zombie’s forehead, striking the nerve center dead-on.
Murky black blood splattered across the shield, blocking part of her view. Knowing the importance of pressing the advantage, she fired two more shots in quick succession.
BANG BANG— Two bullets struck the zombie’s head from different side angles.
Five and a half seconds. Three shots. Three hits. Zero waste.
Her heart was panicking, but her hands were steady.
[Wow~ Not bad, Pisces host baby! Go extract the crystal core—that’s your first trophy in the post-apocalyptic era, earned all by yourself.]
“BLEGH~~” One cut into the skull, and the stench of rot made Shen Wuqiao turn away and vomit.
“Sob, can’t the system just auto-collect the crystal core?”
[Host’s picked-up item types have reached 106. Shop operation points: 5726. Requirements for L2 upgrade met. Upgrade now? Upon completion, crystal cores can be auto-collected.]
Shen Wuqiao burst into tears of joy: “Upgrade! Upgrade right now!”
[Ding~ L2 upgrade requirements met. Convenience store expanding: 45 square meters (excluding shopkeeper’s rest room), shelves increased to three rows.]
[Refrigerator ×1, Freezer ×1. Cash register system ×1, Cookware set ×1, Electric kettle ×1.]
[Bonus reward: one shopkeeper’s rest room, 10 square meters, with simple bathroom facilities, folding bed ×1, single wardrobe and small desk ×1.]
[Small shop upgrade successful. One employee may now be hired. Outdoor protective shield expanded to 4 meters. L3 upgrade requires 10,000 points and 200+ item types.]
Finally able to wash her hair and take a shower, Shen Wuqiao packed up her gun, collected the shell casings, and hurried back without stopping.
She couldn’t wait to see what her little shop looked like now.
Back at the spot where the window kiosk used to be, the five-square-meter little window had been replaced by a walk-in shop with a glass door and concrete walls.
Pushing the door open, the cash register was on the left, facing three rows of shelves.
On the right side of the entrance were the refrigerated case and the adjacent freezer, with the drinks she had collected already neatly arranged inside the refrigerated case.
As for the shopkeeper’s break room, a door had been opened at the back right of the interior.
The break room wasn’t big, but it was clean and simple.
No more sleeping on the folding lounge chair.
“How did the kiosk get bigger? It turned into a real shop?”
“It must be some kind of rare Supernatural Ability. How else could it change so much in half a day?” Regular customers were already filing in.
“Oh my god! There are eggs! And a bunch of new canned goods!”
“I want to buy—give me one first…”
Just as the shop was once again swept up in a buying frenzy over the restocked goods, the furious roar of a motorcycle engine suddenly sounded outside the door.
Someone else was coming with bad intentions…