Chapter 7: Plans and New Survivors

Qiao Jia’s promise was like dangling a carrot in front of these survivors—a carrot they could bite into as long as they kept running forward. For the sake of weapon blind boxes, these survivors would do everything in their power to bring in new people.

Watching the survivors scatter in all directions, Qiao Jia allowed herself a stiff smile, then returned to her own tasks. She needed to plan out this area in advance.

The river divided the land into two zones: one side a forest, the other a wilderness. Qiao Jia intended to designate the forest as the residential district, while the wilderness would become the commercial district. For now, these two categories would suffice. Later, as their points accumulated, she could partition off agricultural, medical, and educational zones. There was plenty of space here, more than enough for Qiao Jia’s future expansions.

As she sketched her blueprint for the future, time slipped away, and before she realized it, evening had fallen. The survivors who had gone out to explore began trickling back into camp. Zombies who had trailed the convoy earlier were scattered throughout the area, so none of the survivors had ventured far.

Seeing the new sign hanging at Qiao Jia’s blind box stall, the weary survivors forced themselves to muster some energy and stepped forward to check it out. They still needed to compete for tonight’s cabin slots.

“Prepay crystal core event? Buy one, get one free?”

“Buy one, get one free? That means I lost out!” The burly man who had previously won a freeze gun slapped his thigh in regret. But he wasn’t foolish enough to confront Qiao Jia—the woman was far too mysterious, and crossing her would lead nowhere good.

“It’s covered,” Qiao Jia said, handing a beverage blind box to the burly man, who looked at her in surprise. Before he could say anything, Qiao Jia was already busy with her own affairs. She could have skipped giving him the blind box, but Qiao Jia believed this would help build trust between herself and the survivors. Half a point was a small price—nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The new survivors brought back by Shen Tong witnessed this exchange, and a basic sense of trust in Qiao Jia was established. This time, Shen Tong had brought back forty or fifty new survivors—some she had rescued, others drawn by the sight of her high-tech weaponry and eager to follow her back. The lure of a rocket launcher was irresistible; Shen Tong was a walking advertisement. Combined with her saintly nature, Qiao Jia was certain Shen Tong would become the camp’s most effective recruiter.

“Jia Jia’s Blind Box Shop—how can she even call this shabby cart a shop? Is this really reliable?”

“It looks like a scam for sure.” Several of the new survivors eyed the blind box stall with disdain and skepticism. The survivors who had already experienced Qiao Jia’s mysterious blind boxes watched the newcomers with amusement, waiting for them to be proven wrong.

Especially now that Qiao Jia had introduced the low-durability weapon blind boxes—they were a huge hit! After witnessing a survivor open a food blind box and pull out a steaming bowl of hot dry noodles, their skepticism instantly flipped to shock.

“Is this for real?!”

“But a single crystal core is way too pricey. Can’t you cut us a deal, boss?” One new survivor tried to bargain, but Qiao Jia coldly raised her eyes and tapped a card with a twig.

[Small business, no haggling.]

“….” The rebuffed survivor felt a little embarrassed, but under the watchful gaze of the others, he dared not confront Qiao Jia.

Some thought the price was steep, but others didn’t mind. After eating dry rations for so long, they were sick of them! Among the new survivors brought by Shen Tong were some who were quite capable; one young man even prepaid a hundred crystal cores at Qiao Jia’s stall—a full hundred!

The sunny young man happily took his gifted low-durability weapon blind box to the side to open it, and a long line formed at the stall again. Survivors who bought blind boxes ran off to open them in private, their faces showing either disappointment or excitement.

Abandoned blind box shells littered the ground, and the system waddled around on its four stubby legs, collecting cardboard boxes to sell back to the shop for recycling.

Opening blind boxes was highly addictive, especially in this environment and with money still in their pockets. The young man who had deposited a hundred crystal cores soon found half of them spent.

Qiao Jia calculated that at this rate, she’d be able to open the Landlady Blind Box in less than ten days! She had no intention of selling that box—it was for herself.

“My crystal cores, my crystal cores! Damn blind boxes, give me back my hard-earned crystal cores!” One survivor lay on the ground wailing, having spent all his crystal cores on low-durability boxes. He’d hoped to gamble his way from a bicycle to a motorcycle and instead ended up with a pile of junk!

In stark contrast, the survivor next to him was extraordinarily lucky.

He’d opened a small rare item from a low-durability weapon blind box—a windfall that made everyone envious! Some even pulled rare food and beverage items, and the dominant aroma of hotpot swept across the wilderness, overpowering all other food scents. Survivors gathered, hoping to catch some luck from the fortunate ones.

The system was deeply satisfied at the sight of such prosperity. Qiao Jia, still wearing her deathly expression, tallied the accounts: after subtracting the gifted blind boxes, she’d made a net profit of 1452.5 points today!

All the survivors who had deposited crystal cores spent nearly all of them; it was truly a case of money earned and spent at the shop, with nothing taken home.

But without fresh blood, Qiao Jia’s income would likely drop tomorrow, which she did not want. She hoped Shen Tong would continue recruiting, and those who had left would bring even more new survivors.

Tonight, only Shen Tong occupied the cabin. With so many survivors arriving, it seemed as though the camp had attracted a host of formidable people. Huddling together for warmth made the survivors feel that even sleeping in the open wilderness wasn’t too dangerous. Most couldn’t afford the ‘sky-high’ overnight fee—only Shen Tong, the lone sucker.

They arranged to take turns keeping watch against zombies.

Yet, their sleep was restless, even though no zombies invaded. The city’s monstrous zombie howls echoed through the night, making the survivors feel as if they were in the midst of danger.

The next morning, every survivor sported dark circles under their eyes, standing in stark contrast to the energetic Shen Tong. In this state, the survivors found it difficult to go out and hunt zombies. Without killing zombies, they couldn’t earn crystal cores, and Qiao Jia wouldn’t see any income.

Fortunately, on the third day of the competition, the survivors who had left yesterday brought back a large number of newcomers—from the Northern Star Base!