Chapter 33: The Ultimate Lucky Pig, Breaking into the Top 1,000!

Hearing Qiao Jia’s call, Yuhime came over immediately.

“These are Piggy Paradise blind boxes. I’ll buy ten for you first, and what you get depends on your luck.” Qiao Jia handed the ten blind boxes to Yuhime and had the system explain to her the possible contents.

“From now on, every month, I’ll get you five Piggy Paradise blind boxes.”

Pigs are generally seen by humans as the epitome of stupidity, laziness, and filth, but in truth, their intelligence is quite high. Yuhime, in particular, was a pig whose intellect could rival that of humans—not only was she not stupid, she was neither lazy nor dirty.

Hearing the system’s explanation, she immediately understood what Qiao Jia meant.

“Alright, got it.” Yuhime nodded briskly, balancing the blind boxes on her back as she prepared to leave.

“By the way, if I have crystal cores, I can buy Piggy Paradise blind boxes from you too, right?” Yuhime turned and asked.

“Yes, one costs two hundred first-tier crystal cores. A second-tier crystal core is worth a hundred first-tier ones.” Qiao Jia held up two fingers.

“Host, you’re going to earn crystal cores from pigs too?” The system was shocked.

Qiao Jia ignored the system and continued speaking to Yuhime. “You can pick a plot for yourself in the town.”

“Alright.” Yuhime agreed readily, happily taking the blind boxes to choose her land.

The system glanced at Qiao Jia, then followed Yuhime to watch the excitement.

Less than ten minutes later, the system returned, its expression and mood both complicated.

“Host, ten blind boxes—Yuhime drew three hidden items.”

“???”

This was the first time Qiao Jia had ever looked so stunned. Ten blind boxes, three hidden items!

What did this mean? In the neighboring CEO romance, both the male and female leads had only drawn one hidden item each. The protagonist in the apocalypse story next door managed two, and the heroine in the fake daughter tale only got one.

This was the first time since becoming a corpse that Qiao Jia felt such intense emotion; her mood was so conflicted she almost felt resurrected.

“Jia Jia.” Yuhime hopped cheerily to Qiao Jia’s door, holding something in her hoof.

“Jia Jia, I drew a Geomantic Mud Pit with body-strengthening effects. I got a duplicate, so I’ll give this one to you.”

Yuhime wasn’t just an intelligent pig; she was also incredibly generous.

The Geomantic Mud Pit (Piggy Edition)—the best hidden item in the Piggy Paradise blind box!

Soaking in it significantly boosts constitution.

“……”

Qiao Jia’s lifeless eyes seemed a little moist at this moment.

She admitted it: her defenses had crumbled.

Everyone else had hidden items—why was she the only one left out?

“Maybe you should accept it, host. Even if we can’t enjoy its special effects, perhaps soaking in it will let us catch some of Yuhime’s lucky aura,” the system suggested.

Qiao Jia was devastated, and so was the system.

Why? Why, when they were both non-human, could Yuhime draw so many hidden items, yet the system never got a single one?

As a blind box system, it was also a blind box enthusiast. Its favorite boxes were a Main God themed blind box and a system-developed snack blind box.

That Main God was a mid-tier system who worked hard to nurture hosts and eventually became the Main God. The system always looked up to it.

The hidden item in the snack blind box was a set of electronic sunflower seeds with every flavor.

The system’s savings had all gone into these two blind boxes, but it had never drawn a hidden item.

“I’ll head off now, Jia Jia, bye-bye, system!” Yuhime cheerfully bade farewell, leaving the Geomantic Mud Pit behind and heading off to enjoy her own mud pit.

At that moment, both Qiao Jia and the system were broken-hearted, unable to respond.

Not just broken-hearted—utterly shattered.

“Host, make some room.” The system sighed deeply, moved beside Qiao Jia, and crouched in the corner, facing the wall.

One person and one system sat in the corner, gloomy, heavy with resentment.

When Shen Tong came looking for Qiao Jia, she was greeted by this sight.

The entire courtyard was shrouded in gloom, sunlight barely able to penetrate.

“Um…boss?” Shen Tong called out cautiously. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it seemed something truly heart-wrenching had occurred.

The boss was deeply affected.

“Yes.”

Qiao Jia lifted her head faintly, the suppressed aura of a corpse spilling forth. Shen Tong felt as if she were facing a vengeful spirit sealed for a thousand years, so intense was the resentment.

“Um, someone wants to rent a house.” Shen Tong smiled awkwardly, inexplicably sensing that even the boss’s resentment towards her was heavy.

She was sure she’d paid her rent this month.

“I know.”

One person and one system drifted past Shen Tong like ghosts, floating all the way to the town’s entrance.

A crowd of survivors had gathered at the town gate, most from the Beichen base.

Of course, “crowd” was relative to the current population of Fuel Up Town.

Presently, there were 336 survivors in Qiao Jia’s town, fewer than twenty with resident status.

The influx of survivors from Beichen brought Qiao Jia a large haul of crystal cores.

She didn’t care how many people squeezed into a single house, so long as they could fit, it was up to them.

Resident and temporary resident statuses per room were fixed; everyone else had to pay overnight fees.

With the new arrivals, Qiao Jia rented out ten rooms and seven parking spaces.

33,500 crystal cores credited.

Now she could open more Landlady blind boxes.

More survivors would come, and soon the residents would fill all three floors of the self-built houses.

After settling the new tenants, Qiao Jia and the system returned to the cabin.

She spent ten thousand on four Landlady blind boxes, feeling anxious.

“Host, should we open the blind boxes while soaking in the mud pit?” the system suggested.

Qiao Jia agreed. Last time she tapped into Su Xiaoran’s luck, she drew a whole self-built house.

Maybe this time would work too.

Two minutes later, Qiao Jia sat bewildered in the mud pit, the system beside her too scared to speak.

How unlucky could a person get?

Was it even possible to be this unlucky?

Four blind boxes, four cabins.

And not even the kind Qiao Jia lived in, with upgrades, water, and electricity.

Just ordinary one-bedroom cabins with squat toilets.

“Maybe we could open a furniture blind box or something to refurbish them,” the system suggested meekly.

Qiao Jia lowered her head, blinking slowly—she felt the system was largely responsible for her misfortune.

“Want some electronic sunflower seeds?” the system asked weakly.

The response was Qiao Jia’s deathly glare.

“……”

Qiao Jia looked at the four cabins and sighed deeply. What could she expect from her own luck?

A dead, unlucky corpse.

Not getting four thatched huts or mud huts was already decent.

“Post the rental notice,” Qiao Jia said, opening the town’s topographical map and placing the cabins in suitable spots.

The river split the town into two plots, with the residential area behind.

Qiao Jia thought the residential area should be subdivided; the cabins, though lacking water and electricity, could be paired with farmer or furniture blind boxes, making them attractive to some survivors.

She mapped it out, grouping all the cabins together.

Later, survivors could fence them in, farm for self-sufficiency—surely some would choose to live there.

Add a well in the yard, and when a power station was built, connect electricity. The cabin rents would surely rise, becoming more attractive than apartments.

Plus, the mall sold special plant blind boxes: cultivation, sci-fi, magical plants…

Qiao Jia set the rent for cabins at 1,500, with one resident spot each.

Once the cabins’ facilities improved, she’d raise the rent.

At 1,500 crystal cores, the investment would pay back in two months.

Qiao Jia still had over twenty thousand blind boxes. She browsed the mall but found nothing she urgently needed.

Let the survivors vote on what they wanted.

An idea sparked: have survivors write down desired blind box types each day, then vote.

A good plan.

Qiao Jia, being a corpse, felt nothing and needed nothing, so she couldn’t relate to the survivors’ needs.

Let them choose for themselves.

Qiao Jia quickly prepared what was needed, using the wood she’d prepared yesterday to make a big wooden sign.

This would go by the blind box vending machine, so survivors could see it when buying boxes—vote or write their requests.

Once the sign was done, Qiao Jia carried it to the vending machine, which had just run out of stock.

She planted the sign beside the machine and refilled the inventory.

The new survivors injected fresh energy into the town; it instantly became lively.

Various blind box resellers set up stalls on open ground, loudly hawking their wares.

A few survivors even started selling snacks.

Qiao Jia watched and realized she needed to plan a plaza for the survivors’ stalls.

The area near the road in front of the river wasn’t large; she planned to open her own shop and turn it into a commercial street.

Better to place the plaza across the bridge—clear the trees, create a small square.

Right in the middle of the residential area.

Survivors returning from monster hunts could sell their loot in the square, or use crystal cores to buy other things.

A good idea.

Qiao Jia didn’t know where she conjured a bronze gong, but she struck it heavily.

“Dang——!!!”

The lively town fell silent instantly, everyone turning to look at Qiao Jia.

“Hiring.”

A simple word, and the survivors responded with enthusiasm!

“Mayor, me, me, me! I used to be an electrician!”

“I’m a cement worker!”

“I can cook!”

“Boss, look at me—I can do all sorts of work!”

Qiao Jia was immediately surrounded by a crowd of both young and old survivors, each eagerly introducing their skills.

Unlike the able-bodied survivors, these folks lacked combat ability; hunting monsters would likely be fatal.

The younger survivors didn’t have many skills, but they could pull weeds and such.

Qiao Jia glanced at the applicants—actually, there weren’t many.

Not only would the numbers not overflow, they might fall short.

Whether young or old, simply surviving to reach Fuel Up Town was rare.

“Come with me—a low-durability weapon blind box for each day,” Qiao Jia said, leading them to the residential area to explain the work.

“Clear all the weeds and trees here, then build a small plaza and lay a road, right?”

A middle-aged man, honest-looking and quite aged, immediately understood the task.

“Mayor, you can trust me with this job—I used to be a foreman,” he said, patting his chest.

“So you want to lay out the residential area? I guarantee I’ll tidy up this whole section and put in a dirt road.”

“If you want to change the layout later, dirt roads are easy to modify.”

“Good,” Qiao Jia agreed. It was best to leave the work to professionals.

“Boss, if any city planning professionals are in town, you could have them draw a plan for us to follow,” the foreman suggested energetically.

If the mayor agreed, these old-timers would have work for a long time.

Qiao Jia considered it—a sound idea, sparing her from constantly rearranging houses after opening blind boxes.

“I’ll think about it,” she nodded.

“Get started, then.”

She summoned Yuhime to oversee construction, knowing some people would try to slack off for extra blind boxes.

After assigning jobs, Qiao Jia shouldered her pack, ready to sell blind boxes and attract new customers.

She’d barely left when a wave of cheers erupted from the town.

Halfway out, Qiao Jia silently turned back to see what was happening.

It was Xie Jinghan and his group—they’d returned after conquering the goblin tribe and rescuing the survivors taken by goblins.

The heads of the goblin king and other notable goblins were displayed outside the town, making a striking scene.

In this battle, every able survivor in Fuel Up Town had participated, led by Shen Tong and Xie Jinghan, split into two teams.

Qiao Jia knew about this—Fu Jingchuan, the male lead, had been placed under Shen Tong and kept trying to seize her captaincy.

“Host, host!” The system bounced over, brimming with joy.

Before it could speak, an announcement from the Main God informed Qiao Jia what had happened.

“Ding——Congratulations, participants, for advancing into the top 1,000 of the Apocalypse Strongest Towns! The Apocalypse Town panel is now activated. Participants can use the town panel to view all town stats!”