Chapter 7
by LhaoziChapter 7: The System Has Upgraded!
Chen Liang was Qin Song and Qin Xi’s neighbor before they moved.
In her past life, halfway through rushing to Shachen to find Qin Xi, Qin Song had run into Chen Liang while he was surrounded by zombies.
Qin Song risked getting swarmed by the horde to rescue him, bringing him along all the way to Shachen.
Who could have guessed that saving a life would be repaid with betrayal?
Chen Liang was caught by Qin Xi after secretly opening the base’s warehouse to send supplies to a girl he liked.
That girl was a refugee from outside, and after tracking the large stash of supplies Chen Liang had given her, they found it had all flowed into a nearby raider faction.
Chen Liang was punished by Qin Xi for this, but amazingly, he had the nerve to hold a grudge over it, eventually joining forces with Zhao Yuhao.
Looking at him now, however, he clearly hadn’t been reborn.
“Qin… Xi? What are you doing here?” Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
Seeing Qin Xi, Chen Liang was a bit surprised.
Qin Xi carefully observed his every minor movement, wearing a harmless smile:
“Long time no see, Brother Chen Liang. I came to buy some food.”
Hearing this, Chen Liang turned around, glanced at the shop behind him, and nodded in understanding:
“Ah, I see. The food here is pretty good. How have you and your brother been doing lately?”
These careless words made Qin Xi’s heart skip a beat.
Clenching her hands tightly at her sides, she barely suppressed the urge to punch him right in the face and kept up her smile:
“Pretty good. Brother Chen Liang, are you still living in Red Maple Community?” Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
As she spoke, she pulled out her phone, held it in front of Chen Liang, and smiled with deep meaning:
“Let’s add each other on WeChat. When we have time, we can get together with my brother.”
Chen Liang didn’t detect the chilling meaning behind Qin Xi’s words, simply mistaking her for being cheerful and enthusiastic.
He quickly pulled out his own phone.
He was naturally more than happy to have connections with the two Qin siblings.
After all, who in their apartment block didn’t know that Qin Song was currently running his own company?
Getting on the good side of someone like that could never go wrong!
Smiling brightly, Qin Xi saved Chen Liang’s contact info. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
After saying goodbye, she watched Chen Liang’s retreating figure and immediately followed him after he turned the corner.
It wasn’t until she saw him enter a familiar building entrance that she could finally confirm Chen Liang truly had not been reborn.
After all, if he had been reborn, the sharp observational skills forged during the apocalypse in his past life would never have failed to spot her tailing him.
Even if he wanted to pretend, he couldn’t possibly act this well!
Qin Xi raised an eyebrow and turned back.
Looking at Chen Liang’s WeChat profile picture on her phone, a cold sneer flashed across the bottom of her eyes.
With his WeChat added, it saved her the trouble of losing track of him when the time came to find him!
Returning to the Boiled Fish restaurant, Qin Xi ordered one serving of Boiled Fish with Sichuan Pepper and one serving of Tomato Fish, both to go. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
Then she pulled the owner aside to ask:
“Uncle Lin, do you guys take large bulk orders for delivery?”
This was a shop Qin Xi frequented before the apocalypse, and the owner had known her for a long time.
Hearing this, the owner nodded with interest:
“Of course we do! If you’re ordering a lot, we can even give you a discount.”
Qin Xi nodded quickly:
“It’s a huge order. My family’s factory is having its first day of operations, and we want to make a good impression on the workers. We need to order 600 meals for lunch tomorrow and the day after. How many can you supply?”
The owner thought for a moment, then held up three fingers to Qin Xi: Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
“Three hundred portions is no problem. Any more than that won’t work—the shop will be too busy to handle it.”
Hearing this, Qin Xi smiled:
“Three hundred portions it is then—for both tomorrow and the day after! One hundred portions each of Tomato, Boiled Sichuan, and Rattan Pepper fish!”
“Alright!”
The owner cheerfully signed the order with Qin Xi, agreeing to deliver it before 10:00 AM over the next two days.
Coming out of the Boiled Fish shop, Qin Xi stopped by all the snack shops on the street that she craved.
Using the same excuse, she ordered at least 200 portions of almost everything—rice noodles, malatang, fried rice noodles, fried chicken, crayfish, grilled skewers, soup dumplings, and more.
She also used her phone to order cold drinks from several of the most popular beverage shops on a food delivery app, ordering 30 cups of every variety. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
She set the delivery address directly to the warehouse.
She originally wanted 100 cups of each, but on second thought, it was already evening—the staff probably couldn’t finish making 100 cups before closing time anyway.
Besides, she could always place more orders over the next two days.
When she received confirmation calls from the shops, Qin Xi simply explained that these were high-temperature welfare perks being issued to the factory workers!
By the time she left the snack street, it was already 6:30 PM.
Qin Xi got back into her car while talking on the phone with Qin Song.
She briefly filled Qin Song in on her afternoon’s achievements, then told him to accept the cold drinks at the warehouse if they arrived.
At 7:00 PM, Qin Xi drove her car up to the warehouse Qin Song had rented and pulled inside. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
The warehouse was located halfway up a mountain, on very high ground.
Calling it a warehouse was modest—it was actually an entire factory compound.
It was just that the factory had been abandoned.
Qin Song, however, had rented the whole factory out.
During the day, he had even cracked open the main doors of the factory workshop just a sliver, creating the illusion that people were working inside.
Renting this factory wasn’t just because of the high elevation preventing it from being flooded after the apocalypse.
It was also because the place was remote and far from the city center.
Qin Xi’s spatial dimension was currently too small; while they waited for her dimension to upgrade, they wouldn’t have to worry too much about people coming to rob them. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
After all, in her past life, Qin Xi’s spatial dimension had reached 800 square meters by the time it upgraded to Level 3.
If they sped things up this time, her spatial dimension might upgrade before most people even woke up from the apocalyptic nightmare!
Qin Song’s vehicle was parked inside the first warehouse.
There were no lights in the warehouse, but Qin Song had turned on the high beams of his box truck, making it quite bright.
Qin Xi drove inside and stepped out of her car, only to realize that the pitch-black pile behind the truck wasn’t a dark shadow lacking light—
It was a massive pile of coal.
Fifty tons of coal in total.
Qin Song hadn’t bought too much, just securing a small stash first. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
The rest could wait until after the apocalypse, when they could go on a “zero-yuan shopping spree” [1].
Looking at the pile of coal, Qin Xi was just about to go look for Qin Song when her footsteps suddenly froze.
A flash of inspiration struck her mind. Turning around, she walked briskly toward the coal pile.
She squatted down, picked up a chunk of coal, and absorbed it into her spatial dimension.
The next instant, the chunk of coal vanished from her hand, and the system notification immediately rang out in her mind:
[Ding—1 chunk of coal acquired. 1 point of Natural Element obtained. Current task progress: 10/10. System upgraded! Upgrade rewards: 20 Points, Rake ×1, Hoe ×1. Current System Level: 2.]
The system had upgraded!
Qin Xi instantly grew excited. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
Before she could even celebrate, a rapid series of crackling notifications rang out in her head:
[Level 2 Green Grassland: Area 300 sq meters, storage height increased by 50 units. Living entities cannot enter. Pending upgrade!]
[Level 2 Pond: Pond water is drinkable, no special effects. Pending upgrade!]
[Level 2 Thatched Cottage: Can be deployed in reality to block zombies from entering; ineffective against humans. Usage limit: 20 minutes. Pending upgrade!]
[Level 2 Sky: Added overcast weather, no special effects. Pending upgrade!]
[Level 2 Standard Arable Land activated: Farmland area 1 mu [2], awaiting sowing.]
[Level 2 Coal Mine activated: Coal reserve 10 tons, awaiting mining.]
[Level 2 Hill activated: Hill elevation 50 meters, awaiting tree planting.] Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
[Upgraded storage: 10 points of basic Natural Elements added to the system space. No special effects, viewable.]
[System Mall unlocked. Current Points: 30.]
[Current Upgrade Task: Add 100 points of Natural Elements (elements can be repeated up to 10 times), sow 1 mu of wheat, mine 1 ton of coal. Time limit: 2 days!]
Because the system poured too much information into her mind upon upgrading, Qin Xi felt dazed for a brief moment.
It took her a good while to recover before she looked carefully at the changes inside the system dimension.
Right now, the space looked noticeably more crowded.
The green grassland was significantly broader than at Level 1, and where a thatched shed once stood, there was now a thatched cottage.
Behind the cottage, a low hillside had appeared—which should be the newly activated hill. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com
To the right of the hillside was a slightly lower slope.
On the slope, a shallow pit could be seen where the surface had been dug open; that was likely the coal mine.
In front of the coal mine, stretching all the way to the front of the grassland, was a strip of yellow soil over ten meters wide.
That was the newly activated farmland.
However, what surprised and delighted Qin Xi the most was that the 10 points of Natural Elements she had collected had actually appeared on the spatial grassland as well!
Footnotes
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Zero-yuan shopping spree (零元購 – líng yuán gòu): An internet slang term derived from Western news reports (referring to flash-mob looting or shoplifting under low-prosecution thresholds). In Chinese post-apocalyptic web novels, it is used humorously/euphemistically to mean scavenging or looting abandoned stores and warehouses for free once society collapses.
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Mu (畝 – mǔ): A traditional Chinese unit of land area. 1 mu is equivalent to approximately 666.67 square meters (or roughly 0.165 acres / 0.067 hectares).
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