After placing it, she went to check the hidden reward.
Just now, after Su Qingqing paid a month’s worth of crystal cores, Miao Suisui had received a notification saying she had achieved the milestone of obtaining the town’s first resident.
She opened the achievement marked with a red dot. Behind the achievement, there was also a gift pack.
One of the most enjoyable parts of playing games was opening this kind of unknown reward pack. Miao Suisui rubbed her hands together, feeling a little excited.
She opened the pack. After the loading circle spun a few times, a 3D model of a small house appeared on the screen, with a wooden sign above it that read: Hope Bakery.
A bakery?
Images of all kinds of sweet, fragrant cakes immediately filled Miao Suisui’s mind. The more she thought about it, the more she nearly started drooling.
She placed the bakery next to the general store. After clicking to confirm placement, she hurried outside to take a look. Where there had previously been empty space, there were now two small buildings surrounded by colored steel fences. They seemed to still be under construction. No sound could be heard from outside, but from time to time, building materials inside could be seen shifting.
Miao Suisui found it quite interesting. She circled the fences several times, but she could not get close. Whenever she approached, a one-hour countdown would appear in midair above them.
She was not in a hurry. Taking advantage of the time, she went to check the farm behind.
There were more fields being planted now, and a group of chickens had appeared on the grass, pecking around for food. Looking at those walking bundles of chicken meat, Miao Suisui swallowed. She called over a robot that was feeding the chickens in the coop and told it to bring her a rooster.
The robots in the town were absolutely obedient to Miao Suisui.
From a distance, she watched as the robot stepped into the flock, swiftly and precisely grabbed a rooster, then carried it over by the neck.
“Can you slaughter it for me?” Miao Suisui asked with some difficulty, looking at the still struggling rooster.
“The mayor needs to unlock the slaughterhouse,” the robot replied dutifully.
Miao Suisui checked. The slaughterhouse would only unlock at Town Level 4. Level 3 required one thousand Level 1 crystal cores, and Level 4 required five thousand. Forget it, she would just handle it herself.
As if sensing her hesitation, the farm robot raised its hand and snapped the rooster’s neck.
Miao Suisui was startled. “…Thanks.”
By the time she carried the limp chicken back to the front, the general store and bakery had already been completed. The colored steel fences sank into the ground, revealing the full appearance of the two shops.
The simple general store looked exactly like its name suggested. Beneath a basic canopy, wooden shelves sparsely displayed various daily necessities, common seasonings, toilet paper, sanitary products, and so on. When she placed her hand over any item, a price would appear.
Behind the shelves stood another robot, its round eyes wide open, with what seemed like a slight curve at the corners of its mouth, making it quite likable.
After unlocking the general store, a System Shop also appeared on Miao Suisui’s personal panel. It contained many practical goods that could be purchased at low prices and then sold in the store.
The crystal cores used for stocking the store were deducted directly from Miao Suisui.
Next door, the bakery was a square wooden building. Warm orange light glowed inside, and a rich aroma of bread drifted out.
Miao Suisui walked in. Inside, there was only a glass display counter, filled with various basic breads, most of them sliced loaves.
The flour came from the town’s warehouse, while other ingredients still needed to be purchased by the robots through the System Shop.
If Miao Suisui did not have enough crystal cores, these shops would stop operating.
Upgrading required crystal cores, and running the shops also required crystal cores. For a moment, she felt incredibly poor. She would have to work harder to earn more.
…
Su Qingqing’s return journey was much faster. It took her only a day and a half to reach the outskirts of the base.
When she was still some distance away, she changed out of her clean clothes and put on her old ones again. They had been washed in the town, so they no longer carried that nauseating smell.
She also smeared some dirt on her face and body, making herself look travel-worn.
“How was it? Did you get it?” As soon as she entered the base, someone she was somewhat familiar with came over to ask.
“I didn’t.” A trace of disappointment rose naturally in Su Qingqing’s eyes, allowing the other person to clearly see it.
She did not miss the schadenfreude in the other person’s gaze.
This was normal in the apocalypse. Everyone was struggling. If someone managed to improve their situation through their own efforts, what awaited them would not be flowers and applause, but jealousy and resentment.
People like Mayor Miao were already rare.
Having gotten the answer they wanted, the person did not linger, offering a few perfunctory words of comfort before leaving.
A mocking smile curved on Su Qingqing’s lips as she headed back to her tent.
…
On a highway still some distance from H City, a minibus sped along the road. The pavement had been torn apart by mutated plants, leaving cracks everywhere. The ride was extremely bumpy, and the vehicle risked overturning at any moment.
But Chen Xu, who was driving, had no time to worry about that. As he drove, he kept glancing at the rearview mirror. Behind them, a group of dark figures followed closely, moving at no slow pace.
Looking carefully, those figures were all hideous, grotesquely shaped zombies.
“Damn it! Why are these Level 2 zombies so persistent?!” Han Wei, the muscular man sitting in the back row on guard duty, cursed.
“If we didn’t have a pregnant woman in the car, I’d really go down there and fight them!” Liu Dong, the tall and thin man, said angrily.
The pregnant woman in the car was Han Wei’s wife. She sat on a seat padded with a few pieces of clothing, clutching her stomach with a frown. Her other arm held a boy of about seven or eight years old. After the apocalypse, people’s bodies had strengthened to varying degrees due to environmental changes. Otherwise, she and the child would not have made it this far.
Behind the mother and son sat an elderly couple with graying hair, Chen Xu’s parents. They frowned, occasionally looking at their son driving, then at the zombies behind them.
Behind them were three children holding hands tightly. The oldest girl was only around fourteen or fifteen, along with a boy of about ten and a little girl around five.
After driving for a while, the outline of a city appeared ahead. Chen Xu stepped on the accelerator and rushed forward.
Using the city’s smaller roads, weaving left and right, they finally shook off more than half of the zombies behind them.
With only a few remaining, there was no longer any need to keep evading. Chen Xu stopped the car, and he, Han Wei, and Liu Dong got out to deal with the zombies.
Chen Xu was a psychic-type ability user, capable of directly destroying a zombie’s brain. Han Wei was a body-enhancement type, his body as tough as steel, with immense defensive and offensive power. Liu Dong possessed ice abilities. Before the apocalypse, he had been a delivery worker, and his speed had also been enhanced.
Working together, the three of them quickly eliminated the remaining zombies, and also dealt with a mutated flower that had been drawn over by the scent.
The sky gradually darkened, and the minibus was also running low on fuel. They had to find a place to settle for the night.
They deliberately avoided areas occupied by mutated vines or those that had become nests for mutated beasts. Before nightfall, they finally found an unoccupied warehouse.
“We’ll have to make do for tonight, but this place isn’t completely safe. Tomorrow we still need to find a new place to stay. If we can’t find one before the fuel runs out, we’ll be in trouble,” Chen Xu said with a frown after inspecting the surroundings.
“Damn it! If Qinglong hadn’t gone too far, we wouldn’t have ended up running out like this. My wife is about to give birth!” Han Wei said angrily.
The group had originally all been from a town in D City. After the apocalypse began, several people had established a base there, and they had been living in it ever since.
At first, things were fine. Later, power and desire gradually caused the four leaders to fall into conflict.
After Baihu, who had always acted as the eldest brother figure, died unexpectedly, Qinglong, Zhuque, and Xuanwu split into three factions. The base was no longer as united as before.
With no one above them to restrain them, the three began to indulge themselves, especially Qinglong. He had abused many girls and even some delicate-looking boys. Later, he somehow brought back three siblings, and in public, he spoke crude words that the children could not even understand.
Qinglong had even reached out and grabbed the chest of the youngest girl. His movements were rough. The little girl frowned and kept trying to dodge, her eyes brimming with tears that were on the verge of falling, looking utterly pitiful.
Chen Xu and the others had happened to witness this and immediately clashed with them. In the end, they injured Qinglong’s vital area and took the three children away.
Knowing they could no longer stay in the base, they chose to steal a minibus and leave with their families.
Only after rushing out impulsively did they realize that the entire vehicle was filled with the elderly, the weak, women, and children. But they had no way back now. They could only hope to find a reliable base or a place where they could survive.
“He’s not even human. That was a five or six-year-old child, and Qinglong could still do something like that. Of those he’s toyed with, how many have had a good ending? That little girl’s body was trembling the whole time. You didn’t see it,” Liu Dong said, as if recalling something. He fell silent, his eyes reddening.
The three siblings behind them remained silent, their eyes filled with confusion and fear.
Han Wei’s wife walked over and gently said, “It’s okay now. It’s all over.”
Her voice was soft, soothing the unease in their hearts.
“I don’t regret beating him at all,” Han Wei spat.
Noticing Liu Dong’s emotional state, Chen Xu stepped forward and patted his shoulder. “It’s okay. You’ll definitely find your daughter. We already have some leads, don’t we?”
Liu Dong had lost most of his family in the apocalypse, leaving only his five-year-old daughter. Half a year ago, a massive zombie outbreak had overrun the base, forcing everyone to evacuate. During the evacuation, he had been separated from his daughter.
Although Chen Xu said this, everyone present knew that his words were more comforting than factual. In the current apocalypse, with transportation so limited, being separated from family often meant preparing to never see them again.
However, before they were separated, Liu Dong’s daughter had been with another friend of theirs, Chen Shi. Not long ago, they had received news that someone had seen Chen Shi in H City.
So after escaping from the base, they headed straight for H City, both to search for Chen Shi and to send their families to the base in F City ahead.