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

The idea was nice, but the reality was harsh.

Jiang Qingyue racked her brains but couldn't think of any other way to quickly obtain trading coins.

In the end, I had to bow to reality. Going out was impossible, but I couldn't stop working.

So, Miner Jiang went online again.

I was extra careful digging today, breaking open all the larger clods to check them, just in case I missed the trading coins inside.

Unfortunately, I didn't mine a single trading coin all day.

Feeling down, she didn't even feel like cooking.

I grabbed two handfuls of rice, added two preserved eggs, some minced meat, and some dehydrated vegetables.

I simply made a congee with preserved egg and lean pork to satisfy my hunger.

I went outside to dig up some snow, boiled a pot of water, washed myself, and then snuggled into bed.

When I turned on my personal computer, there were fewer SOS messages on the world channel.

Jiang Qingyue didn't know why.

I swiped to the Quanshui City area channel and immediately witnessed a major drama.

The incident started when a man named Yang Guangming from the Happiness Base posted a message on the regional channel.

"Everyone who sees this message, run! Happiness Base is a den of iniquity disguised as a base. The golden orb I just got was forcibly stolen by Wang Dawei and his men, and they even beat me up."

"I've been dumped on the street to die. This is the last message I'll ever receive. When the neighbors in Xingfu Community see this message, they should run away immediately."

Afterwards, people with various "Happy Base" IDs engaged in a heated discussion.

Jiang Qingyue saw many familiar neighbors among them. In fact, she was more familiar with the people around her than with Wang Dawei.

After all, she runs a business, and while cleaning the fish, she would chat with customers. Over time, she got to know quite a few people in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Later, for convenience, many people added her contact information. If they needed anything, they could simply send a message or make a phone call and ask her to prepare it and keep it for them, so they could pick it up at the store after get off work in the evening.

A large portion of the names and IDs flashing on the regional channel now belong to her former customers.

Liu Guiying from the Happiness Base: "My husband was digging ice to melt water yesterday and found a trading coin. As soon as he got it, the people patrolling the base forcibly took it away without even a thank you."

Zhao Jianguo from the Happiness Base: "I worked myself to the bone chopping firewood all day, found a trading coin, and Wang Dawei said the base would keep it safe, but he never returned it to me!"

Zhou Xiaomei from the Happiness Base: "My daughter found a trading coin in the snow, but was tricked by the base manager into exchanging it for a bowl of hot porridge. She didn't get the porridge, and she lost the coin too."

Sun Changfu from the Happiness Base: "I risked my life to clear snow and accidentally dug up some trading coins. They were confiscated as soon as I handed them in, claiming they were public resources of the base. Why?"

"..."

There were so many similar comments that it was dizzying. People Jiang Qingyue knew and didn't know were all exposing the Happiness Base incident and calling on everyone to resist Wang Dawei's tyranny.

Unfortunately, from beginning to end, it was just a group of victims huddling together for warmth.

Wang Dawei didn't even bother to reply.

Jiang Qingyue felt a wave of fear wash over her; thankfully, she had run fast. If she had been reluctant to sell the house at a low price, if she had hesitated even slightly, she would probably be among those who were robbed now.

I climbed the stairs for a long time and read a lot of news. Apart from Happiness Base, the other communities are almost the same as Happiness Community in that they have all been set up as new bases based on the communities themselves.

These bases, however, weren't as blatant as Wang Dawei. After all, it was only the seventh day of the apocalypse, and humanity... still existed.

Jiang Qingyue knew perfectly well that Wang Dawei dared to do this because he was certain that no one would interfere.

"Ugh."

He sighed, realizing there was nothing he could do, turned off his personal computer, and took out his phone, which was disconnected from the internet.

I found the materials I had downloaded earlier and spent another two hours studying them.

Then he tucked the blanket over the left side, wrapped his feet in it, and then tucked the blanket over the right side, wrapping himself up like a silkworm cocoon, and fell into a deep sleep.

Dawn breaks.

June 23rd, the eighth day of the apocalypse.

Jiang Qingyue was awakened by the cold.

The fire in the stove is almost out, and the temperature is dropping sharply.

She quickly got up, added charcoal to both stoves, and opened the shelter door to let in some ventilation.

The cold wind kept blowing in, but there was nothing they could do. Before, when they were out chopping and bringing back firewood, the door was opened little by little, so it didn't matter. But now that they were stuck in the shelter all day, they had to let some fresh air in every now and then.

It didn't snow today, but we still can't go out.

It's so cold! The wind is howling, carrying with it icy air; one breath and you're half dead.

"Let's dig."

After eating breakfast, Jiang Qingyue continued digging, huffing and puffing. If they expanded the shelter a bit, they wouldn't have to worry about not having a place to store firewood once their physical condition improved and they were able to chop wood.

"Hey, hey..." Jiang Qingyue swung the hoe, each swing making his arm go numb.

Since the temperature dropped to minus fifty degrees Celsius, the difficulty of digging has increased dramatically, and the closer to the frozen ground, the more difficult it is to dig.

Previously, we could excavate two cubic meters of space per day, but now the progress has been halved.

No matter how difficult it is, we have to dig; we can't just lie in the shelter and sleep all day.

Besides, she was hoping to dig out a few trading coins from this soil.

Just as I was thinking this, the hoe struck something hard.

Jiang Qingyue didn't pay much attention, thinking it was a stone, but when she dug it out, she found it was a purple ball of light, about the size of an apple.

"Special item!" Jiang Qingyue quickly wiped all the dirt off the light sphere.

I squeezed it, and it was amazing. It looked bouncy, but when I squeezed it, it was as hard as a crystal ball.

"Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi."

[Master, I'm here.]

"What is this?"

[Master, appraising an item requires one trading coin.]

Thinking of his pitiful two trading coins, Jiang Qingyue felt a pang of heartache, but he had no choice but to have them appraised.

"Let's get it checked."

As soon as he finished speaking, one of the trading coins in the small box flew towards the light brain in his hand and miraculously merged into it.

Jiang Qingyue's lips twitched. Good heavens, they actually take the money first and then do the work.

Fortunately, once they received the money, they actually got things done.

The quantum computer emitted a faint light, enveloping the purple sphere. After a moment, a virtual screen popped up, displaying information about the purple sphere.

Name: Lucky Star, Serial Number 8931

8: Originating from the eighth experimental zone

9: Increase luck value by nine points.

3: A total of three were deployed in this test area.

1: You are the first person to receive this.

From great joy to great sorrow, it only takes a moment.

Looking at the information from the analysis, Jiang Qingyue was instantly overwhelmed with sorrow.

What's the use of increasing luck? What she wants are items that increase physical constitution.

"Xiao Yi, this extremely cold post-apocalyptic world is the eighth experimental zone. Does that mean there are other experimental zones?"

[Yes. The challenges and items in each experimental zone are different. The zone where the master is located is the eighth, and all special items have serial numbers that start with 8.]

"Is a luck score of nine points considered high or low?"

[All original sequence numbers are four digits, so nine is the largest number.]

"Is that so?" Jiang Qingyue pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Is the smallest number one or zero?"

She suddenly realized that if it were 0, wouldn't that mean that even if she obtained this special item, using it would only increase her luck by zero points?

That just adds loneliness to the equation.

[Master, the smallest number is 1.]

"That's alright." Jiang Qingyue stared at it for a while.

In this extremely cold apocalyptic world, a total of three lucky stars were released.

The other two might be the same as the one she received, increasing luck by nine points, or they might only increase it by one point.

So, the one she has in her hand is probably the best among the lucky stars.

"Use it."

Jiang Qingyue opened her personal panel.

Anyway, you can't make money selling them. Even if you could, you could only sell them when the trading area opens.

She's not even sure if she can scrape together enough money to enter the trading zone right now, so she might as well use it first.

Especially rare items like these, of which there are only three in the entire area.

Jiang Qingyue:

Health stat: 88/100

Satiety level: 95/100

Moisture content: 90/100

Overall Index: 44+

Trading currency: 1

Jiang Qingyue asked, "Xiaoyi, is it just a matter of clicking the plus sign next to the comprehensive index?"

[Yes, Master. Strength, speed, agility, luck... these are all part of one's overall strength, so increasing any one of them will raise the overall index.]

Jiang Qingyue nodded, brought the Lucky Star close to the personal computer, and clicked the plus sign.

The Lucky Star, like the previous trading coins, was immediately absorbed into the quantum brain.

The composite index jumped to 53+.

Jiang Qingyue silently sensed it, and perhaps because it wasn't her constitution that was being enhanced, her body didn't show any obvious changes.

She suddenly had a thought: "If the overall index increases, will my survival index also rise?"

Out of curiosity, she opened the leaderboard.

Ignore the first two lists and find the survival index list.

The name at the top of the list is still the familiar Wang Dawei, and his survival index has increased.

Jiang Qingyue remembers that when the first list came out, Wang Dawei's survival index was 57, but now it has become 63.

She quickly slid to the bottom, and the name of the ninety-ninth person had changed; it was no longer Jiang Qingyue.

She looked up a few more.

It's not ninety-eighth, it's not ninety-seventh... it's not eighty-fifth either.

"What's going on?" Jiang Qingyue was completely bewildered.

"The ranking hasn't improved; could it be that it's fallen out of the top 100?"

"Or perhaps this Jiang Qingyue is not the same Jiang Qingyue as the other person, but just someone with the same name who has passed away, hence the name disappearing from the rankings?"

With a head full of questions, I casually swiped my hand a few times.

Suddenly, Jiang Qingyue, who was about to withdraw, stopped.

Sixth place: Jiang Qingyue.

"This..." Jiang Qingyue was dumbfounded.

"Is this me?"

To be honest, she hoped it was herself, but also felt it was unlikely.

Just by adding nine points of luck, he went from 99th to 6th place?

Is a luck stat of nine points really that high?

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Qingyue realized that she seemed to have underestimated the value of the special item.

Of course, this is on the premise that the Jiang Qingyue on the list is really herself, and not someone with the same name.

After studying it for a while without figuring anything out, Jiang Qingyue decided to give it a try.

I dug all day yesterday and didn't find a single coin. Now that my luck stat has increased, does that mean my luck will improve?

I don't have high expectations, even just digging one up would be good.

Just do it.

After drinking a cup of hot water, Jiang Qingyue picked up the hoe again and started digging. Perhaps because she was more hopeful, she looked at each stroke very carefully.

With a clang.

Jiang Qingyue was overjoyed and quickly dug it out. She saw a round ball of soil, and hurriedly dug away the mud. Then... her smile froze.

It's a stone.

"You made me happy for nothing."

They started digging again, and there was another clang.

Jiang Qingyue smiled again.

Dig it out with all your might. This time, you don't even need to remove the soil. What you dig out is a huge rock.

"Are you kidding me?" Jiang Qingyue was speechless.

Soon, she realized that she seemed to be obsessed. Before, she often dug up various stones and did not feel unhappy. But now, she actually hoped that she could dig up treasure every time.

After regaining her composure, she began to seriously expand the shelter. She would still break open the earthen ball to find trading coins, but she wasn't as eager as before.

At noon, I ate two breads that weren't very fresh and were extremely sweet, drank some hot water, rested for half an hour, and then started digging again.

After not finding anything all morning, Jiang Qingyue comforted herself that there was no rush.

She became lucky, but she didn't become God's favorite daughter.

After searching all afternoon without finding anything, Jiang Qingyue was certain that the person who had jumped from ninety-ninth to sixth on the rankings was not her.

It's only nine points of luck; it can't be that powerful. Otherwise, why didn't she become any luckier?

When~

Jiang Qingyue remained unmoved as she unearthed another hard object.

Without a doubt, it's another stone.

With a strong pull, a bunch of white, crumbly things came out with a splash.

Jiang Qingyue was stunned, blinked in disbelief, and quickly got up to pull the light next to her closer, illuminating everything clearly.

This is definitely not an illusion; it really is a trading coin.

Not just one, but a whole bunch!

"Haha, I'm rich!"

He took off his gloves, ran over to grab the small box containing the trading coins, and started picking them up from the ground.

"One, two..."

They were counting very carefully.

"...Three hundred and sixty-eight."

It took a while to finish picking them up. After making sure there was nothing left on the ground, I used a hoe to dig into the hole again to make sure there was nothing left inside. Only then did I hug the box and grin like an idiot.

Including the one I got before, I have a total of 369 trading coins.

Jiang Qingyue sat by the fire, clutching the small box, still feeling like she was in a dream.

In just one moment, she went from being a poor little thing with only one trading coin to a little rich woman with 369 trading coins.

Now, not only did she have the entry fee for the trading area, but she could also buy a lot of things. Her survival index skyrocketed.

"Wait a minute, having money also means increased survival skills, right?"

"Will its ranking on the survival index list rise again?"

Opening the survival index ranking again, this time without scrolling, Jiang Qingyue found that her name was still in sixth place.

However, the survival index changed from 53 to 54.

"Haha, I knew it."

Although it only increased a little, it still increased at least.

Moreover, she has now finally confirmed that the Jiang Qingyue on this ranking list is indeed herself, not just someone with the same name.