6: Chapter 6 Wang Yalan

He silently summoned the system panel in his mind and clicked on Regional Chat.

A light blue chat interface immediately appeared in Chen Ze's mind.

"Welcome to the Dragon Kingdom 11332 Regional Chat. Current online users: 96,743 / 100,000."

"There are so many people in one region? Doesn't that mean there are tens of thousands of regions in the entire Dragon Kingdom?"

Chen Ze frowned slightly. He had originally hoped to use the regional chat to find the partners who had backstabbed him, but it seemed the chances were slim!

Thinking of those vile faces made Chen Ze grit his teeth in hatred.

If it weren't for them, he wouldn't have ended up in such a state—his company gone, his girlfriend of several years kicking him to the curb, and eventually being reduced to delivering food to make ends meet.

"You bastards, you'd better stay alive, otherwise who am I supposed to take my revenge on!"

But then again, if that hadn't happened, he probably wouldn't have chosen a random Fortress, and how else would he have obtained this sturdy Blockhouse?

Heh, fate really likes to play tricks on people!

Stopping his wild thoughts, Chen Ze began to scroll through the rapidly moving chat messages.

SmokingOnlyXuanhemen: "What's going on? I just got to the hotel with my girlfriend, even took the little pill, so why am I suddenly here? Oh my god, I'm going crazy!"

NoCilantro: "Brothers, what kind of Fortress did you all choose? Anyone pick a random Fortress?"

IAmaNTR: "I chose a random Fortress, it's a three-story detached villa. I'm currently lying on a leather sofa eating caviar!"

SuperInvincibleBigOpening: "Brother above, you'd better be careful. As far as I know, villas have quite a lot of windows. Good luck!"

IAmaNTR: "So what if there are many windows? It's good lighting. But then again, why is this crappy place so hot?"

HanXinGouJianJiaNailiang: "Haha, 'good lighting.' I hope you can stay this optimistic when the monsters come at night."

FeifeiLovesDancing: "Trading designer bags for food. Brothers interested, add me as a friend or check the Trading House."

NoSeat: "A-rank talent shelter seeking a roommate. Must be female, good figure, sweet-looking. If interested, DM me!"

The information in the chat channel was chaotic. Aside from some people just messing around, most were asking for help, trading, or sharing scattered survival information.

Chen Ze browsed quickly but didn't find much valuable information.

Opening the trading system, a large amount of purchase requests immediately appeared.

"Ten packs of Xiaohuanxiong instant noodles for a weapon—axes, hammers, baseball bats, anything works."

"Ten bottles of mineral water to trade for medicine to treat external wounds. Waiting online, it's urgent!"

"Buying weapons, food, water—anything is fine. DM me if you have any."

After looking for a while, he realized that weapons were still the most in-demand items in the Trading House. It seemed most survivors knew that in this apocalyptic world, weapons were the key to ensuring survival.

But he discovered a problem: why was everything barter-based? Could it be that this awesome system didn't even have a unified currency?

It wasn't until Chen Ze opened an exchange section that he discovered the system actually had a virtual currency setting called "survival coin."

There were many ways to obtain "survival coin." The simplest was just surviving; for every day survived, one could obtain ten survival coin. Of course, killing attacking monsters and wild creatures could also earn survival coin.

Besides that, achieving milestones and completing special events also rewarded survival coin.

"No wonder nobody is using survival coin for trading. The simplest way to get this stuff is by killing monsters. Right now, the number of people on Earth who have any survival coin can probably be counted on one hand."

There weren't many items in the exchange, only a few options.

Ordinary drinking water (just drink it, it's guaranteed not to give you the runs): 5 survival coin per liter.

High-protein energy bar (don't worry, it's definitely not made of bugs): 5 survival coin per piece.

Emergency light source (solar rechargeable, reusable): 20 survival coin.

Fire axe (as long as you have enough strength, chopping off a monster's head in one strike is definitely no problem): 50 survival coin.

F-grade leather armor (armor that can withstand low-level monsters): 50 survival coin.

f-grade backpack (contains 20 slots of space; specific capacity depends on item size): 200 survival coin.

F-grade durability emergency repair kit (can restore 100 points of Fortress durability at once): 100 survival coin.

Level 2 Fortress blueprint (essential for upgrading the Fortress to level 2; if you want to slack off, you'll never need it): 1000 survival coin.

The rest were all grayed out. Chen Ze tapped them lightly, and the system immediately displayed: "Fortress level too low, please upgrade before trying again."

"The prices in this exchange are truly predatory!"

You have to realize that in this apocalyptic world, after struggling to survive for a day, the system stingily rewards only ten survival coin.

And these survival coin can only get you a liter of water and one so-called high-protein energy bar. It's practically forcing people to go hunt monsters.

"This backpack is actually not bad!"

Chen Ze nodded slightly. He couldn't stay in the Blockhouse forever. Whether it was collecting supplies or going out to hunt wild BOSSes, a large-capacity backpack was essential.

Without any survival coin, he couldn't trade for anything in the exchange for the time being. Chen Ze returned to the Trading House, looking at the stream of trade messages, feeling a bit troubled for a moment.

His Blockhouse was great in every way, except for the lack of food and water. He had been in this world for half a day now, and Chen Ze's stomach was already growling with hunger.

But right now, he only had five arisaka type 38 rifles and one Type 95 infantry gun. Should he trade these big weapons for food?

"No, that's fucking stupid. I'll just starve for a day. As soon as the attacking monsters arrive, I'll be able to earn enough survival coin to trade for food by killing them."

Having figured this out, Chen Ze closed the system page.

Looking up, the outside world was already turning dark. Two fire-red suns hung in the sky, dyeing the earth a strange shade of red.

Just then, Chen Ze suddenly heard a woman's voice.

"Mr. Chen! Mr. Chen! Can you hear me?"

Chen Ze frowned slightly and looked in the direction of the voice.

It was too dark now, and there were no lights outside, so he could only see a blurry figure standing not far away.

The person was not tall, wearing tight sportswear, and one could faintly discern alluring curves.

"Who's there?"

Chen Ze raised the arisaka type 38 rifle and aimed it directly at her.

"Mr. Chen, you finally heard me! It's me, my name is Wang Yalan, I'm Yang Wei's wife!"

Perhaps seeing Chen Ze's movement, the person spoke very quickly, stating her identity in one breath.

Oh? Yang Wei's wife? Why did she come looking for me?

After all, Wang Yalan was Chen Ze's neighbor, and they had met before. In his impression, every time they met,

she always looked exquisite and dignified, to the point that Chen Ze had secretly cursed a few times about what a lucky old man Yang Wei was to have found such a beautiful young wife.

But then again, beautiful women are the ones you shouldn't trust the most, especially in this apocalyptic world. Chen Ze looked at the blurry figure before him, his vigilance not decreasing in the slightest.

"It's you. What's the matter? Do you want to rob my Blockhouse too?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Yalan trembled all over and hurriedly explained.

"No, it's not like that!"

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at the corpse that had been shot by Chen Ze earlier, swallowed her dry throat, and continued.

"Brother Chen, I apologize for my husband's recklessness today. I have some food and water here as an apology. I only ask that you be the bigger person and not hold it against him."