Chapter 13: Vintage Melodramas and Digital Sunflower Seeds

It wasn't just Qiao Jia who was shocked; all the survivors and even the system were stunned by what they witnessed.

[Host, I thought I was already beyond being human, but I never imagined someone could be even less human than me.]

The system stared, dumbfounded, at the group across the way and murmured to Qiao Jia.

How could someone be so disgraceful and hypocritical? If you're going to push someone, just push them—why claim it’s because they owe someone else?

[I agree. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone like this,] Qiao Jia nodded in agreement. Between a true villain and a hypocrite, the hypocrite is far more detestable.

This man was clearly a hypocrite; good looks were worthless. Beneath a beautiful exterior lay a rotten soul. That beautiful facade could be easily destroyed—a few slashes were all it would take.

“Boss, I thought that old dog at Beichen Base was disgusting enough, but I never expected someone even more revolting than him,” San’er was utterly speechless at the scene. How could someone so brazenly push over a pregnant woman and claim it was because she owed the woman beside him?

Hadn’t he noticed the expression on the woman’s face next to him? She might as well have had the words "malice" written across her forehead.

“Awful character,” the fox-faced man frowned slightly, his disapproval plain.

Shen Tong looked uneasy, her expression strange.

“Do you know them?” The cold-faced man noticed this and asked quietly.

“Sort of?” Shen Tong answered uncertainly. She knew who those people were, but they weren’t actually acquainted.

Upon hearing Shen Tong’s response, Qiao Jia and the system quietly perked up their ears.

“That man is the head of the Fu family, Fu Jingchuan. The woman he pushed is his wife, Su Xiaoran,” Shen Tong had only recently been recognized by the Shen family, and she didn’t know much about these powerful families.

“I don’t know the others,” she continued. “The woman Fu Jingchuan is holding is Su Qianqian, the stepdaughter brought in by Su Xiaoran’s stepmother. Apparently, she’s the one who saved Fu Jingchuan’s life.”

“Su Xiaoran and Fu Jingchuan’s marriage was arranged by the elders of the Su and Fu families. If Fu Jingchuan didn’t marry Su Xiaoran, the Fu family would go to his cousin, Fu Beichuan.”

“That’s the one holding onto Su Xiaoran now.”

“The girl following behind Fu Jingchuan and Su Qianqian is Su Qianqian’s sidekick—she likes Fu Jingchuan too.”

“The man helping Fu Beichuan support Su Xiaoran is the son of Su Xiaoran’s mother’s best friend. His name is Gu something—I don’t remember.”

Qiao Jia glanced at the speaker—it was Shen Hui, the fake heiress of the Shen family.

Shen Hui crossed her arms and regarded Shen Tong’s group with disdain. How could they not know these things? Country bumpkins.

“What a complicated web,” Qiao Jia muttered, crouching behind the blind box stall, blocking a corpse that was about to fall out.

Such complicated relationships, and such melodramatic names.

Su Xiaoran. Fu Jingchuan.

Clearly, the heroine and hero of some old-school domineering romance novel, with all the elements: powerful families, inheritance, impostors, arranged marriage, childhood sweethearts.

Looking at Su Xiaoran’s belly, perhaps there’d even be a runaway pregnancy and a genius child.

Compared to Su Xiaoran, Shen Tong’s name was rather plain for a female lead.

Qiao Jia glanced at the cold-faced man, wondering what his and his sidekick’s names were.

She felt she would have trouble distinguishing all these names.

Simple names really were best—like hers, Shen Tong’s, and Shen Hui’s.

“By the way, haven’t any of you noticed that the wave of corpses is getting closer?” Qiao Jia turned her head and reminded them sincerely.

With the heroine, hero, and all their supporting roles gathered, she had no intention of wasting her points to intervene.

More importantly, if she used points to have the system act, the crystal cores would all be devoured by the system.

“…”

“Damn!!”

“The corpse tide—it’s here!!”

“Run! Zombies incoming!”

Qiao Jia’s words were like drops of water in a pot of boiling oil, setting off a frenzy. The surrounding survivors, as if released from pause like NPCs, suddenly scrambled in panic.

Shen Tong and the cold-faced man simultaneously drew their weapons. Qiao Jia immediately recognized the weapon in the cold-faced man’s hand as a hidden type from the low-durability weapon blind box.

It was the same major hidden type as Shen Tong’s!

One weapon was fire, the other ice.

Qiao Jia’s gaze shifted to the stack of low-durability weapon blind boxes. Was it really so easy to get hidden types?

Weapons from the blind box had minor and major hidden types: minor for single-target, major for area attacks.

Against zombies, major hidden types were the most effective.

Qiao Jia’s fingers itched; she wanted to try opening one too.

No, she must restrain herself.

Qiao Jia pressed down her hand. Unless she got a hidden weapon, any other weapon would be useless to her.

Though zombies wouldn’t attack someone as dead as she was, if she attacked zombies, things could get complicated.

After all, zombies were known to practice cannibalism among their own kind.

She and the system had encountered this while searching for territory—it was brutal.

Qiao Jia withdrew her hand from the blind box. That Su Xiaoran seemed easy to coax—perhaps she could borrow a bit of the heroine’s luck to help her open a blind box.

If she could get a group rental house or a self-built apartment from the landlady blind box, it would be ideal.

Previously, Qiao Jia had wanted a youth hostel or capsule hotel, but after researching, she realized these could only be obtained from another blind box: the Life of Management · Residence blind box.

Its activation price was steep—Qiao Jia couldn’t afford it yet. She’d have to stick to opening the landlady blind box.

A group rental or self-built apartment would do nicely.

A hotel-style apartment building would be great too—it was a hidden type in the landlady blind box.

At least thirty floors, with ten to fifty apartments per floor.

If she collected rent, she’d make a fortune!

Don’t be fooled by the duplex apartment she previously opened—it collected a lot of rent but was one of the lesser types available.

After all, the blind box was named "Landlady"—a real landlady should have lots and lots of properties to collect rent from.

A duplex could only collect rent from two people.

Outside the blind box stall, survivors were fighting zombies with their lives. Qiao Jia was calculating when she could open her second landlady blind box and how to get the best possible building.

With several protagonists present, there was really nothing to worry about.

Led by Shen Tong and the cold-faced man, the corpse tide was successfully repelled!

Not a single zombie remained!

Those who had escaped from Giant Tree City all survived, except for the man who looked like the devoted second male lead—he was gravely injured protecting Su Xiaoran.

He looked close to death.

Qiao Jia leaned against the blind box stall, watching the drama unfold and craving some sunflower seeds.

[Host, would you like some virtual sunflower seeds?]

The system hopped onto the stall, its eyes shining.

[A bag of virtual sunflower seeds is only one point!]