Chapter 2: Blind Boxes Sell Out, The Awakening of the Resentful

Qiao Jia tossed the second-tier crystal core in her hand to the system, paying no attention to the young man. The tiny puppy, looking as though it had just reached one month old, had shockingly sharp teeth; it crunched and swallowed the hard crystal core without hesitation.

One second-tier crystal core could be exchanged for one hundred system points, just enough for Qiao Jia to restock her inventory.

At present, Qiao Jia had only unlocked two types of blind boxes necessary for basic survival: food blind boxes and water blind boxes. If she wanted to sell anything else, she would need to spend additional points to activate those options.

For instance, the weapon blind box she sold to Shen Tong just now had required a thousand points to activate.

The system's store catalog had hundreds of pages of unactivated blind box types: standard ones like weapon blind boxes, medical blind boxes, agriculture blind boxes, construction blind boxes...

And then there were special ones: ability blind boxes, magic blind boxes, apocalyptic town functional blind boxes, sci-fi plant blind boxes...

These special blind boxes were all exorbitantly priced, none less than a million points—Qiao Jia couldn’t afford any of them yet.

The cost to restock a level-one food blind box was one point, and the water blind box was half a point. Qiao Jia set aside part of her points to buy twenty food blind boxes and ten water blind boxes, spending a total of twenty-five points.

With her remaining points, she used fifty to activate her doomsday survival cabin—the so-called Town Lord's Mansion.

Though the town itself had yet to take shape, marked only by a plain, inconspicuous stone sign, the system had already assigned her the Lord’s Mansion.

The Lord’s Mansion appeared to be an ordinary log cabin, and in truth, that's all it was.

Once she placed the mansion, the challenge for the Strongest Doomsday Town would officially begin, with only one year to complete it—at which point the final ranking would be determined.

Only by earning the title of Strongest Doomsday Town could Qiao Jia make a wish to the Main God and secure her survival.

Presently, Qiao Jia was technically already dead—she existed now only because the system sustained her life.

Yet she couldn’t remember who had killed her.

Her face remained expressionless as she opened the map and placed the log cabin deep within the forest across the river.

With the cabin in place, Qiao Jia and system number 1008 officially joined the Strongest Doomsday Town challenge. Their initial ranking: 9999+.

“Why is it that there’s none left for me? Didn’t you just sell one to that little tramp?” the young man’s face flushed red, and he jabbed a finger toward Shen Tong, shouting at Qiao Jia.

“Limited edition, limited quantity—can’t you understand that?” Qiao Jia replied coolly, stacking the newly arrived food and water blind boxes onto her small cart and raising her eyes to meet his.

Under Qiao Jia’s gaze, the young man couldn’t help but shrink back. Her eyes were terrifying, as if she were looking at a corpse.

“Food and water blind boxes—two first-tier crystal cores. Do you want them?” Qiao Jia’s words offered the option, but her face said it all: buy or leave.

“Only an idiot would buy that,” the young man muttered under his breath, embarrassed as he turned away.

Having failed to obtain a weapon blind box, he now set his sights on Shen Tong. But that was no concern of Qiao Jia's; it was Shen Tong’s problem now.

Qiao Jia stood quietly before her cart of blind boxes, watching as that family once again descended into argument.

“Does this food blind box have any special effects? Like, could it grant abilities?” one of the younger survivors mustered the courage to ask, ignoring the family’s quarrel. In these times, who cared about the drama of real and fake heiresses? Survival was the only thing that mattered.

“These food blind boxes sell for two first-tier crystal cores each. Please don’t expect any miracles from them,” Qiao Jia answered calmly.

You get what you pay for; a blind box selling for two crystal cores could not possibly shoulder such weighty expectations.

“No special effects and you’re still charging crystal cores for it,” the young survivor grumbled, just as the young man before him had, and drifted away, not caring whether Qiao Jia heard him or not.

The zombies had all been dealt with by Shen Tong; their charred bodies glinted with crystal cores. While the family continued to demand the rocket launcher from Shen Tong, some survivors had already snuck over to scavenge the cores.

Qiao Jia would have liked to grab some as well, but she couldn’t bend down—her stiffening body simply couldn’t compete with the nimble survivors.

The system, in its small form, squeezed into the crowd and managed to snatch up two cores.

“I’ll take a food blind box! What could possibly come out of one of these?” The survivor who’d grabbed the most crystal cores swaggered up to Qiao Jia and slapped two cores on the table.

“The hidden prize is a deluxe single-serving hot pot set.”

A virtual image flared to life: a bubbling pot of fiery red broth, surrounded by a dazzling array of hot pot ingredients—crisp lettuce, fresh abalone, crunchy beef tripe, tender duck blood… forty-eight different kinds of hot pot delicacies.

A distinctly audible gulp echoed through the crowd.

The survivor suddenly found his dry rations unpalatable.

Trapped in the city, survivors had survived on nothing but hard, tasteless rations and cold water. With zombies everywhere, firing a shot would only draw disaster.

Now, staring at the virtual projection, it was as if they could actually smell the hot pot’s aroma.

“I’ll take one food blind box!” Overcome by the sight of the hot pot, the survivor decisively handed Qiao Jia two crystal cores. “I want the eighth one,” he instructed, pointing at one of the blind boxes on display.

“Thank you for your patronage.” Qiao Jia accepted the cores and pushed the blind box toward him.

The survivor rubbed his hands nervously, trying to appear calm as he opened the food blind box under everyone’s gaze.

If all he got was some random biscuit or bread, he’d demand his money back!

But luck was with him—a steaming bowl of fragrant beef noodles appeared before him, the beef cut thick and generous, each bite meltingly tender.

The other survivors watched, nearly drooling.

“Holy—!” Even though they’d just seen Shen Tong draw a rocket launcher from a blind box, it wasn’t until this survivor tasted his own beef noodles that the reality of it truly hit.

His demeanor toward Qiao Jia became markedly more respectful.

This person—no, she couldn’t possibly be human—she must be someone extraordinary!

With someone brave enough to go first, the others quickly followed suit.

Damn it, after days of chewing on instant noodles, their mouths were about to forget what flavor was! What were two crystal cores compared to that?

In no time, a long line formed in front of Qiao Jia’s blind box cart.

By the time Shen Tong’s family finished their argument and returned to their senses, all the crystal cores from the zombies she’d killed had been snatched up by the other survivors.

Now, everyone was enjoying steaming, delicious food—even the worst off had at least a soft, sweet jam bun.

Qiao Jia, her face cold but her heart elated, began counting up her points with the system—one point, two points, so many points!

“Shen Tong, since you refuse to hand over the rocket launcher, you might as well go kill some zombies and bring back more crystal cores,” Shen Tong’s father said, a trace of violence flickering in his eyes though his tone remained matter-of-fact.

The survivors munched on their food and watched the drama unfold. They all expected Shen Tong, the perennial scapegoat, to acquiesce again.

But after a long silence, Shen Tong, as if possessed, raised her middle finger at her family of four across the way.

“Eat shit, all of you.”