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

That night, Jiang Qingyue and his companions suffered greatly. Seven zombies were tied to the door and howled all night long without stopping.

In the end, the two adults and two children all got up with panda eyes.

Long Jiuxing went out and slapped that second-tier zombie across the face.

"Aww~ You idiot, hahaha..."

After the fight, the second-tier zombie, which was about to become a zombie king, screamed even more horribly.

Long Jiuxing: "..."

Jiang Qingyue sighed and scooped up some water to wash her hands: "Listen to me, let's not stoop to the level of zombies."

"Alright, don't bother cooking this morning." Jiang Qingyue said, grabbing a few loaves of bread that were about to expire and pouring each of them a glass of warm water to finish their breakfast.

He suddenly burst out laughing while eating.

"Chirp?" What's wrong?

Long Jiuxing and Zaizai also looked over.

Jiang Qingyue shook her head: "It's nothing. I just remembered my mother telling me that she bought a box of apples for my grandma. The old lady couldn't bear to eat them. When she saw that one of them had gone bad, she knew it wouldn't last, so she cut off the bad half and threw it away, and ate the good part."

"We ate them one by one, until we had a whole box of bad apples."

"Now I'm just like my grandma. I usually can't bear to eat bread until it's about to expire, or even after it has expired."

"It's also a habit I picked up from the older generation. If my grandma were still alive, she would definitely praise me for being good at managing money."

Long Jiuxing and the two little ones blinked, not understanding what made her laugh.

None of the three people had mothers or grandmothers, and they felt nothing after hearing the story.

Jiang Qingyue said, "Let's go, let's find a place to raise the zombies. If they keep yelling like this, we won't be able to sleep either."

Jiang Qingyue was very familiar with the area and already had a general idea of ​​the location.

Don't get too close to the shelter, otherwise, once the zombie horde grows, hundreds or thousands of zombies will be howling together, and just thinking about that scene is terrifying.

The problem is that this thing stinks, and I don't know why it stinks so much.

Not long after leaving the shelter, the second-tier zombie suddenly stopped moving.

Jiang Qingyue wasn't going to tolerate it and swung the chain back at him.

After being whipped, several zombies actually began to retreat.

Jiang Qingyue was speechless: "Aren't you a zombie? Why are you acting like a donkey, refusing to move when led and backing away when whipped?"

Seeing this, Long Jiuxing lengthened the Burning Heaven Fire Stick, which was only the size of an index finger, to two meters. Just like yesterday, with three large zombies on one side and four small zombies on the other, he simply lifted them up.

This will make the journey much faster.

About a kilometer from the shelter, Jiang Qingyue stopped and clapped her hands: "This is it."

This place is surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Although it's not exactly a cliff, it's still extremely steep. Jiang Qingyue doesn't know about stronger zombies, but he thinks that zombies around level three wouldn't be able to jump up there.

In this way, all you need to do is cover up the opening on the other side.

This distance, which normally takes about fifteen minutes to stroll around, can be covered in one minute if she and Long Jiuxing sprint at full speed.

They found a large tree, tied the zombie to it, and then Jiang Qingyue and the others started cutting down the tree.

I must say, with increased strength comes faster work.

Trees as thick as an adult's thigh were felled, and holes were dug in the ground to drive them in like nails. Supporting timbers were then placed inside and outside the large stakes.

After a whole day of work, including using laborers, they finally managed to enclose the canyon, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides, by evening.

Jiang Qingyue didn't even leave a door. These wooden stakes were only three meters high at most, so they could easily jump in and kill them.

Finally, Jiang Qingyue tried releasing all seven zombies, who then stood outside the wooden stake.

Through the gap, they could see seven zombies rushing towards them frantically, drawn by the scent of humans, only to be blocked by the wooden stakes. They roared in frustration and scratched at the stakes.

However, aside from leaving some scratches, it caused zero damage to the wooden stake.

"Not bad." Jiang Qingyue was very satisfied: "This height is more than enough for third-tier zombies. It probably won't be able to stop anything above third-tier. We'll get some steel bars and iron plates to weld this place together and build a natural cage."

Long Jiuxing nodded: "We can also tie up the Corpse King."

Jiang Qingyue's eyes lit up: "That's right. As long as the Zombie King can't leave, it will command these little zombies to serve it and won't allow its subordinates to leave, so this zombie horde won't dissipate."

Jiang Qingyue and the others watched outside for more than an hour, and then went to a more distant place to observe for a while. Only after confirming that the second-tier zombie could not leave the cage even when it was fighting at full strength did they return to the shelter with peace of mind.

After a busy day, it was already dark when I returned to the shelter.

Long Jiuxing cooked, the two little ones boiled water for everyone to bathe, Jiang Qingyue went to the planting room to water the vegetables, and picked the nine essences that the plant doctor had condensed today.

Lying in bed at night, Jiang Qingyue opened the leaderboard.

The power rankings have changed.

Jiang Qingyue was pushed down to third place.

Wang Defa is currently ranked first, with a combat power of 30913.

Second is Wang Longhua, with a combat power of 29931.

Next were Jiang Qingyue, Long Jiuxing, and Liu Yuyao.

The New Power Ranking and Survival Index Ranking remained largely unchanged. Wang Defa's team and Wang Longhua's Frost Squad both saw significant increases in their stats, but none reached the level of Jiang Qingyue.

"As expected, zombies are still too easy to kill." Jiang Qingyue wasn't too surprised.

It's not surprising that these people can grow so quickly if they can get their underlings to hand over their crystal cores, even just a portion of them.

In a base with a large number of people, even if each henchman kills one enemy, they can quickly obtain tens of thousands of crystal cores.

Actually, it's more than that.

These zombies are just osteoporotic idiots; once you overcome your fear, they're easier to kill than a chicken.

After all, chickens can run away, while zombies are just stupid creatures that come running straight to their deaths.

But that was only for the first two days. After the zombies evolved and the zombie king began to command, it became much more difficult to find and kill them.

Sure enough, by the third day, Jiang Qingyue noticed that the combat power of those on the leaderboard had hardly improved.

Because the zombies that had gathered in the previous two days had been mostly cleared out by everyone, what remained were very intelligent zombie kings.

They have moved far from human bases and begun building their own nests, making them no easy task to find.

Some of the foolish underlings all ran off with the Zombie King, and no matter how much noise they made, they couldn't attract any zombies.

And there's something even worse.

Everyone's bodies were pushed to their limits by the toxic fumes.

On the world channel, countless people are looking to buy fresh vegetables.

Some people are even willing to put special items up for trade, but there are very few responses.

Jiang Qingyue sighed, "I'd like to sell, but the trading area hasn't opened yet. Unless it's in Quanshui City, it's impossible to trade if the distance is too far."

She glanced at the date: December 23rd.

There's still a week before the trading zone opens. If powerful individuals from large bases don't sell off their vegetables to support the surrounding areas, many people will die within this week.

There was nothing she could do about it.

First, transactions are inconvenient.

More importantly, she didn't have many vegetables. They were more than enough to feed the four people in the shelter, but nowadays, there are billions of people in the world who are short of vegetables.

The few vegetables she planted were just a drop in the ocean.

"It seems the third test isn't the temperature, or the zombies, but the poisonous fog."

This thing is everywhere; whether you're strong or weak, you'll be chronically poisoned just by breathing it.

Based on her initial estimate from the first experiment, Jiang Qingyue believed that with her current physical condition, she would die from the poison within half a month if she didn't eat fresh vegetables to detoxify.

But how many people today can match her physique?

Many people were able to hold on for two or three days thanks to the ten points of constitution boost given by the main god when the third cold wave hit. Without those ten points, they probably wouldn't have been able to hold on for long.

How many of them can actually grow vegetables?

Jiang Qingyue roughly estimated that, apart from the official forces on the overall ranking, among the remaining private forces, there is at most one major force in a city that can grow vegetables.

It is possible to grow something, and it is not the same as actually growing it.

Before the third cold wave hit, some powerful forces probably didn't expect that vegetables could actually detoxify, even though they could generate electricity and build greenhouses.

Therefore, it will not waste a lot of manpower and resources to plant.

It's only been a few days since the main god gave a warning when the third cold wave hit.

Aside from bean sprouts, I doubt I can grow any other vegetables.

These bean sprouts, which were grown temporarily, had to be supplied to their own people and could not possibly be sold.

Those smaller factions, besides trying to buy it at exorbitant prices, could only watch themselves get poisoned more and more until they died.

In the entire Eighth District, only Wang Dawei's original Happiness Base, which is now Nangong Zhao's Doomsday I Call My King Team, knew that the plants had been planted in advance.

There's also the Overlord Base next door, but Liu Yuyao only became the deputy captain after going there. Even if she knew the secret in the diary and the importance of vegetables, her suggestions might not be adopted by Brother Li Tie.

It hasn't been long since Liu Yuyao took charge of things herself, so she probably hasn't grown many yet.

Whether the Tyrant Base has enough for its own use is another matter entirely; there's no way it would have extra to sell.

In addition, there are some like Jiang Qingyue who accidentally grew them, and their numbers are definitely not many.

That day, Jiang Qingyue inspected the zombie breeding grounds.

The seven zombies were no different from when they left; they were still howling, biting, and scratching wildly.

Their energy is frightening.

There weren't any more zombies around, so she simply chopped some firewood to fill the remaining space, and then released the laborer to carry the rest.

Back at the shelter, Long Jiuxing said, "Many people have disappeared."

"disappear?"

"He's dead."

"What happened?"

Long Jiuxing pointed to the quantum computer, and Jiang Qingyue quickly turned it on, only to find that countless people were sending messages on the world channel.

"These are my last words..."

My brother is dead.

"Just now, my friend died from poisoning..."

There are countless such last words.

Occasionally, you can see people posting local trades, requiring zombie crystals, trading coins, or special items to exchange.

Ordinary people don't have many of these things, and besides, they might not dare to trade them on the spot. They're already on the verge of death from the poison, and if they have some crystal cores in their hands, revealing their location might lead to them being double-crossed.

There are only a few days left before the trading area opens, and people will definitely put vegetables on the market then.

Back then, transactions could be conducted without revealing one's location, which was much more convenient. However, many people couldn't wait until then.

Jiang Qingyue looked at the forces that were originally in the top 100 of the new power rankings and found that their rankings had either plummeted or disappeared from the list altogether.

However, some previously unheard-of forces have reappeared on the list.

Jiang Qingyue immediately understood the reason: the eldest brother couldn't get vegetables, everyone was seriously poisoned, and there was no hope of an internal conflict breaking out.

Alternatively, a large number of people who were originally quite strong died from the poison, resulting in a significant reduction in their overall strength, and they naturally disappeared from the list.

Amidst a flood of despairing and negative comments, Jiang Qingyue spotted several messages bearing the official ID of the Chinese government.

Different people, each using an official Chinese ID, replied with the same message.

In a certain city or place, you can get a small portion of vegetables for free.

This message about getting free vegetables kept popping up, one every two seconds, one every two seconds...

This message can also be seen in the world chat channels that are flooded with posts; if you stare at it for just a couple more seconds, you won't miss it.

"It seems there aren't many officials around," Jiang Qingyue murmured.

Instead of selling them, the official decision was to distribute small quantities for free, which was clearly a reluctant measure due to the limited quantity.

"It's no use." Jiang Qingyue felt a tightness in her chest after looking at it for a while.

The authorities are not reborn; they don't know the importance of vegetables after the third cold wave hits.

It is highly likely that they chose to cultivate crops in order to preserve civilization and increase food supplies after the apocalypse.

In particular, vegetables do not provide a strong feeling of fullness compared to staple foods, so the majority of what the government grows should be grains, such as wheat, which are easy to store.

The amount of vegetables grown is extremely limited, and even if someone were to claim them now, it would only last for a few more days.

A few days later, these people still couldn't get the vegetables, and the toxins inside would slowly accumulate again.

Unless it's sent every few days.

Because those small groups, or even individuals who form their own faction, cannot possibly build greenhouses for vegetable cultivation on their own in the current environment.

Therefore, it's not that if everyone persists for one or two months, they will become self-sufficient and no longer need to receive free supplies.

In other words, the vegetables being distributed for free now are like the treatment cancer patients receive before they die.

I know I can't delay for more than a few days, but if I don't do it, I'll die immediately.

Should I die now, or wait a few days?

No one knows the answer.

The official approach now is to delay as long as possible.

"Are we waiting for a miracle? But what miracle could there be?" Jiang Qingyue wasn't someone who was overflowing with compassion, but seeing so many of her kind dying, as if they were about to be wiped out, still instinctively made her heart ache.

"Sister Xiaoyue, are you alright?" Long Jiuxing looked at her with a worried expression.

Yanbao and Zaizai are the same.

They now know quite a few words, and when Long Jiuxing turns on his personal computer, they follow along and know what's happening.

However, neither of the two little ones are human, and Long Jiuxing's upbringing is quite unique, resulting in a lack of emotional connection.

They saw many people die, just like seeing a large area of ​​flowers, grass, and trees wither and die; they could not feel the sorrow of their companions' deaths.

At this moment, I know that Jiang Qingyue is sad, and I know that she is sad because many people have died, but I can't really empathize with her.