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

In the following period, the shelter had a clear division of labor, and Jiang Qingyue led Jiang Qingyan to expand the shelter.

Long Jiuxing took Zai Zai and the laborers to chop wood.

They would also take some time each day to visit the zombie breeding base.

After advancing to the third tier and acquiring the Great King's Cloak, along with the 60,000 points of ice and snow power, the Corpse King became increasingly stronger, more and more like the Queen Ant that Nangong Zhao had described.

The number of zombies increased, from the initial seven to a dense swarm later on.

On the last day of December, Jiang Qingyue and the others put down their work of chopping wood and digging soil, and took the time to count them carefully.

There were a total of 271 zombies, averaging about 20 per day.

Aside from the relatively small number of baby zombies produced in the first few days, Jiang Qingyue noticed that the zombie king's rate of producing baby zombies was steadily increasing, with more and more appearing each day.

"This really is a zombie king at the level of an ant queen." Jiang Qingyue was overjoyed.

She had some understanding of ants' habits; during the period when they build their nests alone, the queen ant lays the fewest eggs.

Once the nest is stable and the food source is stable, the number of eggs laid will increase dramatically.

As they age, their egg production decreases.

"From this perspective, a zombie king can be raised for a long time as long as its strength does not exceed that of the two of us."

"Or you could choose to split the nest and build more zombie breeding bases. As long as you surround the zombie king, you don't need to worry about feeding it. It's incredibly convenient."

Long Jiuxing stared at the Corpse King. She felt that it had become stronger and more resilient, and she couldn't help but feel a little itchy to fight it.

However, since this guy was content to create baby zombies, she couldn't find an excuse to take action.

Jiang Qingyue: "Let's go. It will be January 1st after midnight today, and the trading area will reopen. The trading coins and crystal cores we get from selling essences will be enough to upgrade our quantum computer."

"As for splitting the zombie den, we'll talk about that later. After all, we can't find such a natural cage around here. If we want to split the den, we'll have to build a new one."

"I'll listen to Sister Xiaoyue."

Back at the shelter, Jiang Qingyue turned on her personal computer to browse the world channel, regional channels, and the three major leaderboards.

The rankings remained almost unchanged from ten days ago, and even the base captains, who commanded large numbers of people, did not see much increase in their stats.

Clearly, the zombie kings in various regions have gathered up the scattered wandering zombies and built nests in secluded places, making it very difficult to find stray zombies.

In addition, Jiang Qingyue also noticed that fewer people had completed the hidden mission recently.

Jiang Qingyue took stock of the supplies in her hands.

She had used up all the zombie crystal cores she had collected, except for one she had tried to absorb herself. The rest were used to strengthen the two little ones.

He had no special items left on him; all the special items he had acquired had been used up.

The only remaining assets are trading coins and vegetables.

Because she rarely interacts with outsiders, she only has the opportunity to use her trading coins when the trading zone opens on the 1st of each month, which has allowed her to accumulate quite a lot.

Now, she and Long Jiuxing together have a total of 340,000 transaction coins.

Seeing her staring blankly at the personal terminal, Long Jiuxing asked softly, "Sister Xiaoyue, what are you thinking about?"

"The one million transaction coins promised by the official team are only enough for one person to upgrade their personal computer to level three. If both of us want to upgrade to level three, we're still short over six hundred thousand. I'm thinking of selling some resources to raise those six hundred thousand so we can both upgrade to level three together."

"No need," Long Jiuxing said. "It's enough for Sister Xiaoyue to reach level three. It doesn't matter whether I have a level three quantum computer or not."

Long Jiuxing said this without any reluctance. She rarely looked at the personal terminal. When Jiang Qingyue was staring at the personal terminal, she mostly held Jiang Qingyue's old phone, looking through various knowledge that Jiang Qingyue had downloaded in advance, and occasionally watching cartoons and reading novels to pass the time.

New messages and features on the personal computer held no appeal for her.

After her personal computer was upgraded to level two, its only useful function was to become friends with Jiang Qingyue, so that they could contact each other anytime when she went out to chop wood.

"If we're going to get promoted, both of us need to get promoted." Jiang Qingyue smiled and touched her slightly longer hair. "This is what I'm thinking. Last time we did the hidden mission for our best friend's wedding, which was like exploiting a system loophole, so we got double the rewards for the same mission. Maybe we can replicate that this time."

Long Jiuxing blinked: "Married twice?"

Jiang Qingyue was both amused and exasperated: "It's not about getting married again. What I mean is, when the quantum computer upgrades to level three, we'll time it perfectly with the countdown and upgrade simultaneously at the exact same moment."

"The system might determine that we're tied for first place, and both of us will receive the upgrade reward."

Jiang Qingyue became more and more excited as she spoke: "Let's give it a try. Even if it doesn't work, we won't lose anything."

"Even if the God determines we're cheating and only issues one reward, it won't matter. But if we can get two, we'll have hit the jackpot."

"Wang Dawei was the first to reach level two and received a huge reward. The reward for level three will only be more generous. One step ahead leads to another. With double the system rewards in hand, our progress in reaching level four will far surpass that of others."

"I'll listen to Sister Xiaoyue."

Jiang Qingyue was not surprised by her answer at all.

This girl is not usually talkative, but she is exceptionally well-behaved and always gives what she asks for.

After finalizing the plan, Jiang Qingyue began to consider which resources she had on hand could be quickly sold off in exchange for a large amount of trading currency.

Six hundred thousand is no small sum, and the trading area is only open for one hour each time, with a maximum of ten items that can be listed.

This means that every item listed must be of high value; otherwise, even if all ten items are sold, the shortfall of 600,000 will not be covered.

Plant Doctor Essence is the most valuable resource in Jiang Qingyue's possession, and the only one that can be sold at a high price.

However, selling this item in small quantities carries extremely high risks.

It's not that there's no market for it, nor that no one can afford to pay the price.

Now, Jiang Qingyue is considered a celebrity in the Eighth Experimental Zone, even more famous than Wang Dawei was back then.

As long as her name is displayed on the shelf, most people will click to view the stall, so there's no worry about selling out.

But it would be troublesome if the essence fell into the hands of the enemy.

Imagine a future battle where the two sides fight for hours, and she finally brings her opponent to the brink of death. At that moment, the opponent pulls out a Plant Doctor Essence and instantly recovers full health.

She'd be so angry she'd vomit blood.

After much deliberation, Jiang Qingyue decided to pursue an official transaction.

First, official order is still in place, and there are bottom lines in how people act.

Secondly, there is no competition for resources between the two sides; the official's real rivals are the top forces in other experimental zones on the overall rankings.

Their independent forces are like small investors.

On a larger scale, both the official authorities and she belong to the Eighth Experimental Zone, and they will naturally be on the same side should war break out with other experimental zones in the future.

For top-tier life-saving supplies like Plant Doctor Essence, the official team is willing to spend money to acquire them from their own people, so they probably wouldn't do something like killing someone to steal their treasure or killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Thinking it over, Jiang Qingyue opened her personal terminal and sent a message to the official contact she had previously made contact with: "I still have a batch of Plant Doctor Essence. Do you still want to buy it?"

The other party replied almost instantly: "We'll take as many as you have, just name your price."

Jiang Qingyue didn't try to inflate the price; instead, she replied, "Thirty essences for one million trading coins, is that alright?"

"Transaction completed. Once the trading area opens at midnight, you will package thirty essences into a single item and list it for sale. We will then arrange for a large number of people to search for your name."

"It may not be me who makes the bid, but our staff will pay the full amount."

"The transaction tax generated from the two transactions of the previously agreed two million crystal cores and one million trading coins will be borne entirely by our side."

"Because the crystal core is not a circulating currency, we will complete the delivery in two steps."

"First, our staff purchased the thirty Plant Doctor Essences you listed for 2.2 million transaction coins."

"Secondly, we will arrange for several people surnamed Zhang to enter the trading area. Captain Jiang, please find the stalls with the surname Zhang. As long as a stall has a two million crystal cores on display, it is one of our personnel."

"Captain Jiang only needs to initiate a transaction request, offer one transaction coin, and once the other party confirms and agrees, both transactions will be completed."

After reading the message, Jiang Qingyue silently calculated the accounts and found that she was not at a loss overall.

But a slight doubt arose in her mind: "Why is it someone with the surname Zhang?"

"The largest number of people with the surname Zhang are on our side."

Well, Jiang Qingyue was quite helpless. She couldn't help but wonder if the computer would open up functions such as friend transfers, virtual express delivery, or physical delivery after it was upgraded to level three.

Otherwise, every transaction would be this troublesome.

What's more troublesome is that the trading area will collect a transaction tax, and offline transactions are extremely vulnerable to being double-crossed.

Even someone of her strength is wary of her; for ordinary people with weaker abilities, it would only be more difficult for them to move forward.

Jiang Qingyue found an old shoebox, put all thirty Plant Doctor Essence pills into the box, packed them up, and sealed them.

Only when packaged together will a single item occupy a shelf when placed on the shelf. If individual items are placed separately, a ten-shelf unit can only hold a maximum of ten items.

After packing, Jiang Qingyue took out nine jin of vegetables and packed them into portions of one jin each.

The time arrived precisely at 11:59 PM.

Long Jiuxing and the two little ones were already fast asleep. The opening of the trading area, which countless people were eagerly anticipating, was far less important to them than sleeping.

Jiang Qingyue timed it perfectly, paid the entrance fee, entered the trading area, skillfully stocked the packaged delicacies and vegetables, and then began looking for the stall owned by the man surnamed Zhang.

Every time Jiang Qingyue looked through the densely packed names, she couldn't help but mentally complain to the main god: "You're the main god, with such powerful abilities, can't you create an intelligent search interface?"

Is it really that hard to find any supplies you want with just one click, and automatically sort them by price?

Unfortunately, no matter how many times she complained, the main god never paid her any attention.

There were indeed a lot of people with the surname Zhang. Jiang Qingyue randomly clicked on the first one, but none of the ten items on the stall had crystal cores. She promptly exited and clicked on the next stall with the surname Zhang.

Perhaps there were enough official personnel present, or perhaps her luck was still unbeatable, but this time the stall she clicked on had a huge, fully packed package containing a total of two million zombie crystal cores.

She immediately initiated a transaction request, offering one trading coin. The other party confirmed, and the transaction was successfully completed.

Just as the notification of the successful transaction popped up, another purchase request appeared in the system. Someone had bid 2.2 million transaction coins for the essence on her shelf.

Jiang Qingyue clicked "agree" directly.

With plenty of time before the trading area closed, Jiang Qingyue didn't leave immediately, but instead looked around at the stalls.

Luckily, she found a stall selling seeds. However, vegetable seeds are no longer dirt cheap; their prices are approaching those of rare items.

Jiang Qingyue tried to make an offer: ten trading coins for a packet of coriander seeds, but the other party immediately rejected it.

She repeatedly raised the price to 300 trading coins, but the stall owner still refused to complete the transaction.

"Vegetable seeds are really in high demand now!" Jiang Qingyue sighed softly.

This time, the bid was 900 trading coins, and the stall owner agreed to the transaction.

By the time she was about to look through the remaining seeds, the vendor had already sold out his remaining packets, and she could only regretfully search for other stalls.

During this time, she clicked on the booths of several government officials surnamed Zhang. The shelves were stocked with small portions of vegetables, clearly intended for wealthy people. Jiang Qingyue did not make any purchases.

Soon, the one-hour time limit ended.

Jiang Qingyue sold out all the vegetables she had previously put on the shelves, earning a total of 4,600 transaction coins.

[Trading area closed, system is settling profits... Trading area closed, next opening date: February 1st]

The settlement panel popped up, and Jiang Qingyue finally received 1,984,140 transaction coins.

Upon seeing the number, Jiang Qingyue paused for a moment, then slapped her thigh.

She and the official liaison personnel both overlooked one crucial detail.

Although the other party voluntarily assumed the transaction tax by adding 10% to the original price, the system will still deduct the extra 10% as transaction tax.

Even if you earn 4,600 transaction coins from selling vegetables, the final amount you receive is still less than 2 million.

In this back and forth, she received nearly 15,000 less transaction coins, while the official side inexplicably spent an extra 200,000 transaction coins.

"Damn it." Jiang Qingyue cursed under her breath.

She now strongly suspects that the main god deliberately designed the rudimentary quantum computer that cannot transfer funds, in order to force everyone to complete the circulation of goods only in the trading area, thereby extracting high transaction taxes.

A round trip of hundreds of thousands of transaction coins, and that's just for him alone. With so many people in the Eighth District, the God of War must be making a fortune.

After venting her frustrations, Jiang Qingyue quickly got out of bed and took out two large boxes to divide the trading coins.

Although she received less than two million coins from this transaction, she originally had 340,000 coins left, which was more than enough to make up the difference.

The two large boxes of trading coins were quickly sorted, one box containing exactly one million coins, while the remaining 300,000 or so loose trading coins were packed into smaller boxes.

She went to Long Jiuxing's room. The little girl was sleeping soundly, with the blanket pulled up to cover half of her face.

"Young people sleep well."

Jiang Qingyue sighed, hesitating whether to wake Long Jiuxing. She couldn't bear to disturb him, but if someone managed to gather a million trading coins first to upgrade their quantum computer and get the upgrade reward, they would suffer a huge loss.

After thinking it over, Jiang Qingyue squatted down and gently patted Long Jiuxing's shoulder.

"Longlong, wake up."

"Sister Xiaoyue?" Long Jiuxing opened her eyes groggily and subconsciously rubbed against the hand on her shoulder.

"Wake up, let's upgrade the quantum computer first, then you can go back to sleep."

Long Jiuxing: "Oh."