In a frigid apocalypse, I went on a shopping spree with the reborn.

The facts were exactly as Jiang Qingyue had predicted.

Slow movement, osteoporosis, and loss of mobility like a goose pose far less of a threat to humans than one might imagine.

Once humans overcome their fear of the zombies' ugly appearance, they will discover that these zombies are actually weaklings carrying their own treasures.

After a brief test, countless people poured out of their homes.

Seeing zombies no longer evokes fear, but greed.

In just one night and one day, the zombies in Spring City were almost completely cleared out, making it extremely difficult to find any zombies that had gathered together.

Sometimes, several people will fight over a single zombie.

"Let's go home." Jiang Qingyue put all the crystal cores she had obtained into her spatial storage, found a place to eat and drink her fill and rest for a while, and then led Long Jiuxing and the others back to the shelter.

Several large pots of water were boiled, and everyone took turns bathing.

After washing herself clean, Jiang Qingyue began to take stock of her gains.

As soon as the third cold wave hit, they went out to look for zombies, wandered around the city, and didn't have a moment's rest. In fact, only about twenty hours had passed.

This trip completed two hidden missions.

I received 120,000 trading coins, two special items, a pair of furry slippers, and the skull of the Corpse King.

Besides that, the biggest gain was the crystal nucleus.

Jiang Qingyue took out a large basket of crystal cores, boiled a pot of water to wash them clean, and then began to count the number.

"Thirty-three thousand six hundred."

"So many!" Long Jiuxing, who was standing next to him, was still surprised by the number of kills.

If they keep killing like this, a hundred billion zombies won't be gone in no time.

Jiang Qingyue looked at the crystal cores and tried two of them herself.

It was discovered that each use of a combat power point increases the strength by one point. In addition, there are very slight increases in physical fitness, sense of smell, and vision.

"Good stuff." Jiang Qingyue was glad that this time she didn't choose to hide and enjoy the good life, but instead ran out to steal zombies.

Jiang Qingyue divided the crystal cores in half, giving half to Zaizai and half to Yanbao.

"Come on, let's build up your strength first, so that even if the zombies evolve, we won't be afraid of not being able to defeat them."

"Hiss~" I've already eaten.

Long Jiuxing translated: "Zai Zai said that it has already eaten the zombie crystal cores it killed, so don't give them to it now, give them all to Yan Bao."

Jiang Qingyan quickly pushed the half that belonged to Zai Zai in front of it: "Chirp chirp chirp." We're all family, no need to be polite.

"Hiss." But I've already eaten a lot.

Due to the nature of its attack method, when the baby's fangs pierce into the zombie's brain, it cannot pull out the entire crystal core; it simply absorbs it directly.

Yan Bao, on the other hand, could pry them out with his claws. This basket of crystal cores was obtained by Long Jiuxing, Jiang Qingyue, and Jiang Qingyan together. The little guy Zai Zai was too shy to take advantage of them.

Jiang Qingyan, on the other hand, believes that they are a family, a whole, and it doesn't matter who is stronger or weaker.

Ignoring the two little ones pushing and shoving each other, Jiang Qingyue took out the two special items she had obtained this time.

Before the identification was even completed, Long Jiuxing seemed hesitant to speak.

"What's wrong?"

"Sister Xiaoyue, I actually think it would be better if you used the crystal core."

"Me?" Jiang Qingyue hadn't even thought about it.

"Well, with your current combat power of over 27,000, if you absorb these 30,000+ crystal cores, your individual combat power will only exceed 60,000. At that time, no matter how fast or strong the zombies evolve, they will not be your match."

Upon hearing this, the two little ones who were politely deferring to each other turned their heads in unison, glanced at Jiang Qingyue, then turned their heads back. The two little ones looked at each other and pushed all the crystal cores in front of Jiang Qingyue.

This made her both laugh and cry: "Zombies aren't extinct, what are you doing? The two little ones are still in their cub stage and urgently need to grow. If their combat power can reach more than 10,000, they can probably kill a level 2 zombie."

"When we get out, we won't have to worry about protecting anyone. With all four of us at full strength, we can have as many crystal cores as we want."

"The zombies are only level one right now. Although we don't know how they evolve, they can't possibly wake up one day and become level five or six, right? There has to be a process, right?"

"We're not just sitting around doing nothing; we're getting stronger too."

Long Jiuxing: "But..."

"No buts, stop now." Jiang Qingyue gently poked Long Jiuxing's forehead with her hand: "I know what you mean, first cultivate the strongest one, then go kill zombies, and then use the crystal cores to nourish the weaker ones."

"But there's a problem. I've been too lucky. When there are few zombies, I might not encounter any at all. But in situations like today, where zombies have gathered in large numbers, it won't be easy to find them in the future."

"Also, even if I stack my combat power to 60,000, I'm still just one person. I'll get tired too. I need to eat, rest, and sleep. So, all things considered, it's not very efficient."

"On the other hand, the weakness of our team right now is Zaizai and Yanbao. They haven't used any special items, and since they joined us, they've hardly grown at all."

"Now is the best time. As long as we use the crystal cores, their combat power will approach 20,000. If we can get some more crystal cores tomorrow, they can break through 20,000 directly."

"By then, the four of us will each have a combat strength of over 20,000. Even if a zombie king really comes, we won't be unable to surround and kill it."

"Besides, this zombie was only released a day ago, how could a high-level zombie appear so quickly?"

"Furthermore, killing together as a group of four is not only more efficient, but when we go to other places, we can also take turns on night watch and take turns resting."

After explaining, Jiang Qingyue pushed the crystal core back without further ado and instructed the two children, "You two should use it quickly."

The two little ones dragged the basket to their little room and started chattering away as they divided it up.

Seeing this, Long Jiuxing didn't say anything more.

Jiang Qingyue took out two special items: "Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi, please appraise them."

[Yes, Master. Two trading coins have been used. The appraisal result is as follows.]

[Name: Furry Slippers, Serial Number 8281]

8: Originating from the eighth experimental zone

2: Increase speed by 2 points

8: A total of eight were deployed in this test area.

1: You are the first person to receive this.

[Name: Corpse King's Skull, Serial Number 8591]

8: Originating from the eighth experimental zone

5: Can intimidate hordes of zombies five times.

9: A total of nine were deployed in this test area.

1: You are the first person to receive this.

The results of the assessment greatly disappointed Jiang Qingyue.

That's it?

The two points of speed are merely icing on the cake, and the fact that the Corpse King's skull can intimidate the horde of corpses five times is now utterly useless.

It might even become useless in the future. Why do I say that?

Because once the zombie horde evolves, a new zombie king will inevitably emerge. The zombie king will personally lead the way and surround you, and you will then produce a skull of the zombie king.

This is equivalent to the new emperor leading his troops to surround you, and you pull out the imperial edict from the late emperor; whether it will be effective is hard to say.

Even if it was deterred, the zombie king and his minions would soon surround it again. After five times, the thing was destroyed, while the zombie king remained alive and kicking.

If the Zombie King hadn't appeared, with Jiang Qingyue and the others' abilities, any number of zombies would have been a gift of crystal cores, so there was no need for any deterrence.

After looking at the legless little white snake, Jiang Qingyue put the pair of fur slippers on Yan Bao's two hind feet.

As soon as I put them on, the slippers automatically changed size to fit my two rabbit feet perfectly.

"That's right," Jiang Qingyue praised, "Hairy legs should wear hairy shoes."

"Chirp!" New shoes! Mine?

Jiang Qingyan received a new pair of woolen slippers and couldn't help but cross her legs to look at them from left to right.

"Come on, Yanbao, try walking a few steps."

Jiang Qingyue was initially worried that the slippers would fall off while running, but these slippers, as expected of a special item rewarded by the main god, felt like they were welded to her feet.

No matter how much Jiang Qingyan jumped or leaped, she remained firmly tethered to his feet.

As for speed, the shelter is not spacious enough to allow for full maneuverability. Jiang Qingyan's speed is already fast, and it's not yet apparent how much of an improvement there is from adding two points to his speed.

Jiang Qingyue picked up the skull of the Corpse King.

It was dusty and grayish, clearly indicating severe osteoporosis in the elderly. With just a little force, the corner I was holding crumbled into dust.

Jiang Qingyue's face stiffened: "It's only slightly crushed, it shouldn't affect its effectiveness, right?"

Since there weren't even any zombies and no way to conduct experiments, Jiang Qingyue simply put the fragile item in a separate box and then placed it in her spatial storage.

Although it's not useful, it should be able to be sold for money, either as currency or exchanged for crystal cores with some major powers.

"Hey you two little ones, have you finished dividing the crystal cores yet? Hurry up and eat, then go to sleep early. You stayed up all night yesterday, and you might have to go out and kill zombies tomorrow. If you don't go to sleep early, you won't be able to hold on."

The two little ones quickly shared the food, one for each of them.

Since the strange beasts weren't on the rankings, Jiang Qingyue didn't know just how strong their combat power was.

But as long as you get stronger, that's good; it doesn't matter if you have any numerical values.

That night, the vain rabbit slept wearing her new fur slippers.

Before getting into bed, it took off its paws and patted off the dust with its front paws before putting them back on its hind paws. Then it jumped into its little nest, pulled up the blanket, and started snoring softly.

It's still a baby rabbit; it hasn't slept for almost two days and is already very sleepy.

The little snake next to him wasn't much better off, hanging limply on Long Jiuxing's arm like a noodle.

Even when Long Jiuxing put it in its little nest, it didn't react at all, too sleepy to keep its eyelids open.

Jiang Qingyue fell asleep in Long Jiuxing's room. Suddenly, she remembered that she hadn't collected the Plant Doctor's Essence for today, so she rushed to the planting room and picked all nine of them and put them into her space.

Only then did he return to bed and fall asleep again.

When Jiang Qingyue opened her eyes again, she smelled the familiar aroma of beef congee.

She knew it was Long Jiuxing cooking porridge as soon as she left the room.

Weiwei sat up slightly and leaned against the headboard, turning on the personal computer.

Messages kept flashing on the world channel, and Jiang Qingyue saw many familiar names appearing in everyone's discussions.

"That Liu Yuyao's combat power has exceeded 20,000. This girl must have killed zombies all day yesterday."

Liu Yuyao's combat power has exceeded 20,000.

Jiang Qingyue was somewhat surprised, but not too surprised.

These zombies are so easy to kill. Although Liu Yuyao's combat strength was not as good as hers before, she was the captain of the Overlord Base with tens of thousands of underlings.

With proper organization and division of labor, it is entirely possible to kill zombies without taking any damage. Even the elderly and weak can be organized to go to the back to mine crystal cores, which is extremely efficient.

And there's no need to search, because zombies will gather in places with lots of people.

In addition, Liu Yuyao has Wang Dawei's diary, the reborn person. Relying on those notes, she must know that zombies are not actually that strong, and there is no need to test them.

Or perhaps she had already prepared to kill the zombies before the third cold wave hit.

Then he gathered most of the zombie crystal cores in the entire base into his hands; no wonder he grew so quickly.

Jiang Qingyue also saw her own name, as well as Long Jiuxing's. Most of the discussion about the two of them was strange, after all, their combat power had already exceeded 20,000, and they had also completed the first kill mission.

Logically speaking, with their combined combat strength, they should have been able to obtain a considerable number of crystal cores.

However, their combat strength remained unchanged.

Jiang Qingyue skimmed over these discussions, but a few pieces of information caught her attention.

One message came from an old acquaintance, Wang Defa, and several others were from IDs Jiang Qingyue had never seen before; they were probably not well-known, but they were all about the same thing.

"Friends, have you noticed that zombies are actually getting smarter? I've observed that when zombies are first released in the early morning, they are only sensitive to sound and the smell of blood, and have no sight or brain at all."

"By evening of the next day, which was only a dozen hours later, I found that these zombies had started to see things, and they would even gather around some statues and mannequins."

"This morning, I noticed that several zombies have become significantly more agile and have become minor leaders. They even have their own way of communicating."

"I deliberately used my voice to attract a few of them, but before I could kill them, the little leader summoned them and they ran away."

"I also discovered that the zombies are actually setting up their own hideout. Seriously, you can't believe it, there aren't any zombies near my house anymore. I led a team to track down a zombie and found that they had set up their hideout in a cave."

"There are still quite a few clever zombies going out to find underlings. In just this morning of observation, two waves of zombies have already joined this lair."

"I feel like I might not be able to beat those small fry bosses, so I'm planning to move. The new location is in Qinghao County... Any experts interested in taking over this zombie lairs are welcome to give it a try."

The location was given in great detail, and it doesn't seem like it was just made up on the spot.

Jiang Qingyue watched for a while longer and mostly agreed with it.

It seems that zombies everywhere are the same; they evolve very quickly.

Those days when you could easily mine crystal cores are long gone.

Jiang Qingyue found Nangong Zhao in her contacts and sent him a message.

Jiang Qingyue: "Are there still zombies in Quanshui Town?"

"Not a single one." Nangong Zhao replied quickly: "I bought some information from Liu Yuyao. Give me the skull of that Corpse King, and I'll share it with you."

Jiang Qingyue replied, "Are you sure that piece of information is worth a special item?"

"Yes," Nangong Zhao replied decisively.

Jiang Qingyue wasn't one to procrastinate, and replied directly, "Deal."

Even before they had obtained the Corpse King's skull, Nangong Zhao had already shared the information with them.

"Liu Yuyao said that within three days, a little zombie king will appear in the zombie horde. He will be at the third level and will have many second-level zombie underlings to manage him."

"These zombie kings will continue to grow, establish zombie kingdoms, and rival human cities."

Jiang Qingyue raised an eyebrow; this news was indeed worth a special item.

She then asked, "The zombies in Spring City were almost completely wiped out yesterday. Even if there's a Little Zombie King, he shouldn't have many minions left, right?"

Nangong Zhao: "Zombies reproduce. The Zombie King is like the Queen Ant. Once a stable nest is established, with zombie minions protecting and providing for it, the Zombie King will begin to create countless little zombies."