Chapter 5: Living on Soft Rice, Adaptable and Resilient

Qiao Jia’s sincere question left the system at a loss for words. According to the usual script, shouldn’t the one bound to the system be the protagonist? The system’s beady cartoon eyes were spinning like mosquito coils—this… this… the Lord God hadn’t covered this in training! In truth, Qiao Jia didn’t care much about who was the protagonist; she simply wanted to tease the system. After all, protagonist or not, everyone has to work hard to survive.

Still, Qiao Jia was a bit surprised. From the look of things, Shen Tong must have gotten the “true heiress in a switched-at-birth story” script. No wonder she could produce a second-tier crystal core yesterday. A switched heiress plot in the apocalypse—how unfortunate.

“Boss, how much is this new blind box?!” Survivors swarmed around Qiao Jia’s little stall, and as they passed Mr. and Mrs. Shen, they even bumped into them openly. People really detested that kind of self-righteous, patriarchal moral blackmail. “Ten crystal cores each,” Qiao Jia replied calmly, while beside her, the system nearly fried its own CPU after her earlier comment. Now, it lay motionless on the stall, feet sticking up, completely rigid.

“Why is there only one?”
“This blind box doesn’t look the same as yesterday’s.”
“Low durability? Isn’t that practically scrap? Why is it so expensive?”
“Yeah, come on, boss, cut us a deal.”

The survivors clustered around the stall, chattering non-stop, haggling in every way. Their pockets were pitifully light. “Why aren’t you selling the same kind of blind box as yesterday?” one grumbled under his breath. A low-durability weapon blind box was, in the end, just a nearly broken weapon. What if it fell apart after two swings at a zombie? Most survivors were turtle-hearted and didn’t want to fight zombies, but what choice did they have if they wanted to stay alive? Even if they made it to Beichen Base, they’d still have to hand over crystal cores.

“Level-one weapon blind box, one hundred crystal cores,” Qiao Jia stated, face impassive. If someone could actually produce that many crystal cores, she’d rush to restock right away. But the reality was, most players couldn’t even afford these nearly-scrapped weapon blind boxes. As expected, the survivor fell silent at her words. The weather was so nice today.

People hesitated in front of Qiao Jia’s stall; after all, it was a blind box, and ten crystal cores was no small sum. What if they ended up with a piece of junk? “I’ll take it!” Just as everyone was wavering, a burly man pushed into the center of the crowd and slapped his crystal cores on the table. Qiao Jia noticed that many survivors had terrible manners when paying—if they weren’t tossing the payment, they were slapping it down. Did that make their crystal cores more valuable? The heroine was much more polite, Qiao Jia thought, her gaze toward Shen Tong growing softer. Or at least, she thought so; in reality, her eyes were still as lifeless as ever.

“Ten crystal cores, thank you for your patronage.” Qiao Jia pocketed the payment, exchanged it for points, and immediately ordered two more low-durability weapon blind boxes. The system’s express delivery function could be paid per use or by monthly subscription: one point per express delivery, up to a hundred at a time, with extra points required for more. The monthly fee was a thousand points, unlimited. Qiao Jia was too poor to afford the monthly plan and could only wait quietly for her goods to arrive. Thankfully, she’d only ordered two; one weapon blind box would be there in five minutes.

She handed the box to the burly man and then returned her gaze to the stall. “No other blind boxes to choose from?” he asked, frowning at the box in his hand. “Small business, limited stock,” Qiao Jia replied coldly.

The man considered returning it, but after glancing at Qiao Jia’s corpse-like expression, he thought better of it. Best not to offend this mysterious stall owner. Fine, he’d take it. With a steely resolve, he opened the blind box.

A cool, gentle light with a hint of frost shone across his face, and the crowd gasped in envy, as if they’d won the prize themselves.

[Freezing Gun (3/50): A pistol loaded with frost rounds. Hitting a target slows its movements. Reloads 15 bullets automatically each day.]

Another hidden item! Although what Shen Tong drew yesterday was a “grand hidden,” this freezing gun was at best a rare “minor hidden.” Even though it got five more bullets per day than Shen Tong’s rocket launcher, hers was an area-of-effect weapon and could instantly kill first-tier zombies. The freezing gun could only slow them down—hardly as impressive. Still, for the burly man, this was far beyond his expectations.

His previously stern face broke into a wide grin as he left, delighted with his new gun. Already stronger than most survivors, this weapon made him even more formidable. The low durability was a small price to pay for such an advantage; he’d earn back his investment in no time. The onlookers were green with envy, wishing they could buy out Qiao Jia’s entire restock. Alas, they were too poor.

Some shrewd survivors began targeting Shen Tong again, hoping to pick up leftovers by following her, while a few half-decent-looking men even thought of seducing her. To that, Qiao Jia could only offer her blessings. Shen Tong had a good temper but was no pushover; Qiao Jia was looking forward to the drama.

Qiao Jia had celebrated too soon—if men were trying to cozy up to Shen Tong, it was only a matter of time before someone tried the same with her. After all, anyone who could get close to her would have access to blind boxes and live a worry-free life. There was certainly no shortage of men who wanted an easy ride.

Another survivor left with a rare weapon, and the four members of the Shen family looked on, hearts pounding with desire. If only they could draw weapons like Shen Tong or the burly man, building a survival base would be a breeze. As business owners, their ambition was naturally great. In a world overrun by monsters and zombies, with a rocket launcher like Shen Tong’s, establishing a base wouldn’t be hard—provided they could pull a hidden item. But such luck was granted to only a rare few.

“Give me one,” the family, after some discussion, managed to scrape together twenty crystal cores. Qiao Jia looked at them in surprise. Was this the heroine’s halo at work? Anyone even slightly connected to her seemed able to conjure up wealth. If she guessed right, these must be the “malicious supporting actress,” “brainless brother,” and the “short-sighted parents” from the script.

“Boss, could we have two weapon blind boxes?” Mrs. Shen asked timidly, her voice gentle as she watched Qiao Jia’s expression. “The child was out of line yesterday. I hope you won’t hold it against him.” She turned to the young man beside her, scolding, “Linlin, come here and apologize to the boss!”

Truly the parents of a heroine—so capable of bending and adapting.