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

Jiang Qingyue didn't know what others were doing that night, but she herself didn't sleep a wink.

It is foreseeable that this panel will eventually replace mobile phones.

However, the functions of this panel were unpredictable. To avoid being completely without internet access later, Jiang Qingyue frantically downloaded things.

She downloaded everything related to human civilization that she could find.

She didn't know if she would be able to use this knowledge in the future, but it was always good to save it first, especially some survival knowledge for extremely cold environments.

As her phone became increasingly slow and full, she got up and rummaged through it again, finding the phone her parents had used before they passed away. She unlocked it with the password and continued downloading.

The fourth day of the apocalypse.

morning.

Jiang Qingyue ate a bowl of millet porridge, then, with dark circles under her eyes, carried a small basket on her back and headed out the door. Her task for the day was still to chop firewood.

Besides stockpiling supplies, the most important thing right now is heating equipment.

In order to avoid freezing to death and to be able to sleep peacefully, the stove in the shelter had to be kept burning non-stop, and she had to stock up on enough firewood before the prepared charcoal ran out.

Fortunately, there are trees all around, so as long as you are willing to put in the effort, you won't lack firewood.

"Eighty, eighty~" Jiang Qingyue swung the axe clumsily, splitting the sawn logs in half.

With a snap, the firewood was split in two, and a shiny object popped out.

"What is this?"

It was only the size of a fingernail, off-white in color, and when it fell to the ground, it almost blended in with the hail. If Jiang Qingyue hadn't had such good eyesight, she wouldn't have noticed it.

I awkwardly felt around on the ground with my gloved hands for a while before finally managing to pick it up.

"gem?"

Looking at the small object with obvious cutting marks and sharp edges, Jiang Qingyue thought it must be some kind of gemstone.

"But that doesn't make sense, what kind of gemstone grows in a tree?"

She witnessed it flying out of the wood while it was being chopped.

After carefully comparing the two halves of the firewood, I could indeed see a dent. I put the gem-like object in, and it fit perfectly.

Upon close inspection, there were no signs of the bark being chiseled open; it appeared as if the bark had grown naturally within the tree.

"Never mind, I'll put it away for now."

I just slipped it into my pocket; it's so small, it won't take up much space at home.

Continue chopping wood.

I don't know if it's because I didn't sleep last night or because I'm too tired, but my efficiency today is significantly lower than yesterday.

We returned to the shelter before nightfall.

He tossed the firewood aside, caught his breath for a moment, and then returned to the stove.

Seeing that the coal I added at noon was almost extinguished, I put two more pieces in and put the pot on to boil water.

I barely have the strength to lift my arm, so I've decided to just cook some noodles.

While the water was boiling, she took out her phone. There was hardly anyone online, but the world channel was bustling with activity.

Jiang Qingyue felt a little regretful, mainly because this light screen could only send text messages, whether on the world channel or the regional channel.

She prefers to see Wang Dawei's videos online rather than read his text.

Unfortunately, they stopped sending it.

Find the Quanshui City area channel. Since this panel does not have a friend-adding function, whether you can find familiar people depends entirely on fate.

Jiang Qingyue kept climbing the stairs until her fingers ached, and she finally managed to see Wang Dawei's speech from noon.

Happiness Base is hiring.

The speech was quite long, and Jiang Qingyue read it carefully.

Wang Dawei wrote down the address of the Happiness Base, which is the Happiness Community. Furthermore, only physically strong men aged 18 to 35 with special abilities are eligible to apply, and families are also welcome.

The benefits are simple: accommodation is provided, it is stated that multiple people will share the room, and there is a canteen where meals are free.

"Isn't this just a package deal of food and lodging?" Jiang Qingyue murmured, feeling a chill run down her spine.

The Happiness Community has about 40,000 residents, but Wang Dawei still feels that's not enough and is still recruiting people from outside.

So where does his food come from?

The little he had stored up during the early stages of the apocalypse was simply not enough. So how would he solve the food problem for these tens of thousands of people?

Unfortunately, they didn't say that.

She scrolled up for a while longer, the water boiled, but she still couldn't find a second comment from Wang Dawei.

I tried to see if there was any information about that gem-like thing, but I couldn't find any related comments.

"Never mind, let's eat first."

I took out a bag of noodles, cut out the portion I could eat, and put it in the pot. Then I took out a bag of fish balls and put them in the pot as well.

After cooking, add various seasonings and then open a packet of pickled vegetables.

Instead of going to the small table, I ate dinner right next to the stove.

After washing the pot with flour water, I went outside and knocked out a few hailstones. I also boiled some water. Anyway, the fire in the stove couldn't be turned off, and there was plenty of hail outside, so there was no need to make myself suffer too much.

Wash your face, wipe your body, wash your feet, and change into clean clothes.

When I snuggled into bed, I impulsively opened the panel and took a look at the three leaderboards.

She mainly looked at the first few, and only remembered the first few. She found that there was no change. The power was still the same few power, and the two monstrous talents were still at the top of the list.

On the survival index list, Wang Dawei remains in first place.

Jiang Qingyue continued swiping her finger, sliding to the hundredth place. She wasn't sure if the Jiang Qingyue ranked 100th on the survival index list was herself.

But I'm still quite curious about this person who might have the same name or might actually be her.

To my surprise, the ranking had risen from yesterday's goalkeeper to ninety-ninth place.

Although she only moved up one place, she was still inexplicably happy.

That night, Jiang Qingyue fell asleep without realizing it while scrolling through messages.

The fifth day of the apocalypse.

That day, Jiang Qingyue didn't go to chop firewood because there wasn't enough space in the shelter to store it.

Therefore, today's featured character is the ginger miner.

Actually, digging is easier than cutting down trees. After all, there's a stove burning indoors, so you can drink hot water immediately when you're thirsty. It's not that cold, and you don't need to wear too many layers. You don't have to worry about getting frostbite on your ears and nose if you're not wearing a hat or mask.

"what?"

As they dug, they suddenly unearthed a creamy-white object that stood out starkly against the yellowish-brown soil.

"How come there's one here too?" Jiang Qingyue immediately picked it up and put it together with the one she had chopped out of the tree yesterday.

The shelter was cluttered and messy, so to prevent things from getting lost, I specially found a small box to put them in.

It's still unknown what this thing is used for, but the fact that it can cut such a fine object, and that it was taken out of a tree and from the soil, clearly indicates that it's related to the apocalypse.

Keep it for now, just in case you need it someday.

From then on, she began to pay close attention, afraid that it would be overlooked if mixed in with the soil.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to dig up a second one by the time we finished work today.

"Things will work themselves out in the end; what's meant to be will be. Let's eat."

Feeling good and full of energy today, Jiang Qingyue made herself a dry-pot bullfrog.

The bullfrog meat had been processed beforehand, vacuum-packed according to Wang Dawei's instructions, so now we can just open it and cook it directly.

I added some of my favorite konjac and potatoes as side dishes, and made a big pot of it. I didn't even need to eat any staple food; this one pot was just enough to fill me up.

Instead of going to sleep right away tonight, I took out the materials I had downloaded and looked up various information about extreme cold weather.

It's always good to have more skills. Learning a little bit is always better than having it in your head than having to resort to your phone to learn something when you need it.

I didn't turn off my phone and go to sleep until my eyelids started to droop.

The sixth day of the apocalypse.

Jiang Qingyue went out to cut down trees and found that she could dig soil for a day and cut down trees for a day, and the firewood she cut was just enough to fill the expanded space.

That evening, Jiang Qingyue returned home earlier than usual.

In the past, we would only return to the shelter just as it was getting dark.

She was worried about something unexpected happening today, since tomorrow would be the seventh day. To be precise, midnight tonight would be the seventh day, and she didn't dare gamble on when the temperature would drop.

After hastily cooking and eating a bowl of noodles, Jiang Qingyue began preparing to withstand the next cold wave.

Two more large stoves were dragged out from the corner.

She has tried it these past few days. When it's below -20 degrees Celsius outside, with the doors not opened much, a stove in the shelter can keep the temperature around -10 degrees Celsius.

Wearing thick clothes while working is not too bad.

It gets very cold at night, so we need to put in more coal to make sure the temperature reaches at least around -8 degrees Celsius, otherwise it's too cold to sleep.

If the outside temperature drops further, one stove will obviously not be enough.

Wang Dawei was very active today; as soon as I entered the regional channel, I saw his own comments.

There were also several posts from people claiming to be members of the Happiness Base.

Especially Wang Dawei's speech.

"I sincerely advise everyone not to sleep tonight. Especially those who are cold and hungry and have nothing to keep warm, please don't sleep. I have a feeling that if you fall asleep, you might not wake up tomorrow morning."

This news prompted Jiang Qingyue to light the other two stoves without hesitation.

He ran outside again and brought back a bucket of hailstones, boiled a pot of water, and wiped away his sweaty body.

Wear thermal underwear as the innermost layer, thermal underwear in the middle, and a mink coat on the outermost layer.

Turn out the thickest hat you've prepared. It's a bit like a safety helmet, with a windproof and waterproof outer fabric and a thick lambskin lining.

It can protect your head, ears, chin, and neck well too.

After doing all this, Jiang Qingyue watched the countdown timer.

Finally, time ticked by and it came to 00:00 in the morning.

The light screen remained unchanged, but the grand voice rang out precisely on time:

"Congratulations to all players who successfully survived the first cold wave. You have withstood the initial test and are about to enter a new era of survival rules."

"The second cold wave has arrived, with temperatures reaching minus fifty degrees Celsius."

"The optical computer is now officially bound to you personally. Please explore its many functions on your own."

"Friendly reminder: the next cold wave is 180 days away."

After the sound disappeared, the light screen that had been floating in front of my eyes transformed into a smart watch, which I wore on my left wrist.

[Aquamarine uses a global real-name system; the player's real name has been linked: Jiang Qingyue.]

Jiang Qingyue tapped it, and a light screen popped up, hovering in front of her, looking much the same as before.

Her information was displayed on the virtual screen: name, gender, age, ID number, all of it.

In addition, two tasks are displayed that need to be completed.

The first item is the faction name; the second item is to set the image of the computer assistant.

"Faction name. Do I still need to fill this in even if I haven't formed a faction?"

After hesitating for a moment, she clicked on the second option.

There aren't many options for the appearance of the computer assistant: an old man, an old woman, a middle-aged woman, a middle-aged man, and two teenagers, a girl and a boy.

Jiang Qingyue selected the girl image because the other person's voice was more pleasant.

Then came the naming... I got used to calling it by its name, so I just named it Xiaoyi.

[Xiao Yi, the AI ​​assistant, is at your service. Feel free to contact me with any needs you may have. Xiao Yi can provide quiet companionship or be quite talkative.]

"Xiaoyi, is that faction field a required field? Can we leave it blank?"

[No, Master. You can choose to join a faction, or you can choose to form your own.]

Jiang Qingyue remained silent for a moment.

She didn't want to build a career; she just wanted to live a peaceful and uneventful life until the day she died of old age.

"Xiao Yi, is it okay if this faction only needs a name and consists of just me?"

[Yes, Master.]

Is this okay?

Jiang Qingyue immediately stopped worrying.

In the faction name section, I wrote: Jiang Qingyue's Little Nest.

[Information submitted.] Xiaoyi reminds you: [The owner can open their personal panel to view their personal information.]

Jiang Qingyue:

Health stat: 89/100

Satiety level: 96/100

Moisture content: 85/100

Overall Index: 44+

Trading currency: 2

Jiang Qingyue stared at the panel in silence for a long while.

The first three are easy to understand.

"Xiaoyi, what is the overall index?"

[This refers to a comprehensive index that combines power, combat strength, and survival index.]

Jiang Qingyue understood: "Can I understand it as an overall ranking, or as a more precise survival index ranking?"

After all, having great power does not necessarily mean having strong survival ability; it could simply be a haphazardly gathered mob.

A person with strong combat power might not be very bright; they might not even know to run home when it rains.

People with a high survival index, like her, may have gotten lucky and stockpiled supplies, but they don't have any other abilities to support them.

Each of the three lists has its own focus.

A comprehensive assessment based on all three lists is a better indicator of a person's overall ability to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

The strongest are those who are already excellent, have built a large force, seized or acquired a lot of resources and weapons, and possess extremely strong combat power.

It can be said that they have the right timing, the right place, and the right people. Such a person's overall index is undoubtedly the highest.

[The master's understanding is correct.]

"Xiaoyi, what is a trading coin?"

[Based on the scan, there are two trading tokens in the small box in the owner's shelter.]

"Are those two gems trading coins?" Jiang Qingyue took the small box over.

[Yes. The owner can understand it as new coins.]

"What's it for? With whom can I trade? Is there a trading area in the quantum computer?"

[Yes, there is. The trading area opens on the 1st of each month. An entry fee of ten trading coins is required. Owners can enter to buy things or sell unwanted items.]

Is that so? Jiang Qingyue pondered for a while, and to be honest, she really was lacking a lot of things.

"Besides accidentally obtaining those trading coins while cutting down trees or digging, are there any other ways to get them?"

[When trading items with other players within the trading area, all transactions must be paid for using the designated currency.]

"Is that so? There's a little plus sign after that composite index. What does that mean?"

[Adding points.] Xiao Yi replied, ["The Supreme God has placed many strange items in this world, and these items can be obtained in various ways."]

[For example, with Power Ball, clicking the plus sign consumes one Power Ball, increasing combat power. Increased combat power also raises the overall stats.]

Speaking of combat power, Jiang Qingyue thought of the two big shots who ranked first and second on the combat power list.

"Xiao Yi, the top two on the power ranking both have power levels of over 800, which is different from everyone else's. What's going on?"

[Sorry, Xiaoyi is just your butler, Master, and doesn't have permission to view other people's health stats.]