111: Chapter 111 Failed to exploit a bug

Time flew by, and Zhou An and his group rested and recuperated for another full half-month.

Early morning, in the main bedroom area of the fortress.

Zhou An woke up from the large, soft bed, stretched lazily, and then walked into the washroom.

Standing in front of the bright floor-to-ceiling mirror, Zhou An looked at himself in the reflection.

After more than half a month without high-intensity combat and with fully optimized nutrition, his complexion, which had been slightly pale from overexertion, had completely returned to a healthy, rosy glow.

He was shirtless, and his Tier 5 Peak life essence gave his physique a near-perfect human form. His muscles were full with smooth lines, containing explosive power like an ancient Greek sculpture, yet they did not appear bulky.

What pleased him most was his right arm. When not using high-dimensional abilities in daily life, it could now be completely disguised as a normal human arm, no longer attracting unnecessary attention like a monster's limb.

After putting on a lightweight black tactical suit, Zhou An opened the door and walked into the central living area on the first floor.

As soon as he stepped out, a burst of cheerful, silver bell-like laughter and the babbling of a baby intertwined and drifted over from the center of the living room.

In the center of the soft, giant circular sofa, a smooth, glossy, huge snow fox fur blanket was spread out.

Little Zhang Kong, who had just turned one month old, was wearing a one-piece cotton outfit hand-sewn by Lin Qing, lying on the blanket and excitedly waving his chubby, lotus-root-like little hands.

"Oh my, look over here, look over here, say Auntie Luo! Auntie—Luo—!"

Luo Ning was lying on the edge of the blanket, holding a small bell, shaking it until it jingled, teasing the little guy until he giggled and drooled.

"Ningning, stop teasing him. He just turned one month old and doesn't even have all his teeth yet; how could he possibly call anyone Auntie!"

Li Muzi was carefully pinching little Zhang Kong's chubby little feet from the side, her eyes filled with affection.

Even the usually aloof Shen Xingyue had a gentle smile on her lips, holding a compact milk mixer to prepare milk for the child.

Lin Qing sat nearby.

Although she had just finished her postpartum confinement, thanks to Old Zhang's daily varied nourishing spiritual meals and Shen Xingyue's top-tier pharmacological care, her complexion was rosy, and she radiated a soft, maternal glow.

"Yo, you busy bees, not spending your day soaking in the laboratory or the armory today?"

Zhou An smiled and walked up, casually ruffled Luo Ning's hair, and sat down next to her.

"We're discussing serious business here."

Luo Ning slapped away his hand that was making a mess of her hair, leaned back against the sofa, and looked up at Zhou An.

"Boss, little Zhang Kong is growing fast, changing every day. Relying solely on the nutrient solution calculated and prepared by Shen Xingyue and the spiritual wheat porridge made by Old Zhang, while the energy levels are sufficient, the variety of food is still too monotonous for a human baby's gastrointestinal development and immune system."

Li Muzi also quickly raised her hand in agreement: "Boss, do you remember? Before the incident at Lianqiao, we actually discussed expanding the fortress's ecological chain and catching some live mutated beasts to raise in captivity! If we had high-tier, docile animals that produce milk, it would not only ensure Zhang Kong's growth and development, but we could also have some fresh meat to change up our diet. No matter how good Old Zhang's cooking is, eating processed meat patties and canned food every day gets boring!"

Zhou An nodded, thinking it made sense. Since their goal now was to live well in this apocalypse, their quality of life naturally had to keep up.

"No problem. The things we lack the least right now are space and supplies for trading."

Zhou An looked at Muzi.

"How is that 5,000-square-meter ecological farming area on the first floor that was allocated to you coming along?"

"Hehe, I've already set up the full-scale pasture on those 5,000 square meters; I'm just waiting for the live animals to move in!"

Muzi said with a smile.

"Alright, leave it to me. I'll go to the trading hall right now and buy a batch of high-tier live livestock."

Rules and the Forbidden Zone of Creation

Zhou An was decisive; he leaned back on the sofa, swiped with one hand to bring up the system panel, and entered the trading mall.

He directly searched for a series of keywords in the search bar, such as "living creature," "milk-producing," "high-tier mutated beast," and "docile temperament."

However, after clicking search, the refreshed results made him frown slightly.

There were countless posts on the market selling meat—everything from rampaging wild boar hind legs and beef ribs to extremely rare sub-dragon tenderloin. But posts selling living creatures were few and far between.

What made it even more difficult was that at the end of every post selling a living creature, there was an eye-catching red system warning box:

[Absolute System Rule Restriction: The cross-region Myriad Races Trading Hall cannot perform direct spatial teleportation of "living creatures."]

[If you need to conduct a transaction for living creatures, please have both the buyer and seller provide coordinates and proceed to conduct an offline, face-to-face transaction. The system does not provide any safety guarantees.]

"Trouble. The system doesn't support direct shipping of live creatures."

Zhou An rubbed his temples, a hint of helplessness flashing in his eyes: "Offline trading is quite troublesome and might even expose the fortress's coordinates. With the situation so chaotic as major factions fight for territory, risking an entire fortress to meet those alien races offline for just a few head of cattle or sheep is completely disproportionate in terms of risk and reward."

Two adorable, naive figures suddenly and uncontrollably flashed through his mind.

Those were the two little dragons he had once painstakingly hatched.

They had disappeared together during that sacrifice.

But immediately after, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he suddenly thought of something!

"Right! How could I have forgotten about this!"

Zhou An slapped his thigh hard.

"Can the Demonic Contract conjure things out of thin air?"

He currently had over two billion in Tier 5 materials just from his "reselling" business—he was absolutely wealthy enough to rival a nation! Since the low-dimensional system wouldn't ship live creatures, couldn't he just use the Demonic Contract to sacrifice tens of millions in Tier 5 materials and exchange them for a few legendary-tier live dairy cows or high-tier milk-producing exotic beasts? Wouldn't that be an easy task?

Thinking of this, Zhou An immediately returned to his room to take action.

"Hum—"

The dark golden scales appeared again, only this time it wasn't as exaggerated as last time; the scale was much smaller, quietly floating in the air.

"I request to exchange for a high-tier live pregnant beast or a legendary-tier milk-producing exotic beast!"

But soon, the response came.

[Warning: Demonic Contract response failed!]

[Supreme Rule Notification: This contract cannot conjure objects out of thin air, especially the creation of independent souls and life forms.]

Zhou An opened his eyes.

"This thing actually has principles..."

Helpless, he returned to the living room.

"What's wrong? You were fine just a moment ago; why the sudden expression?"

Luo Ning keenly sensed the energy fluctuations and emotional changes on him and leaned in to ask.

"It's nothing; I just wanted to take a shortcut and exploit a system bug, but it didn't work."

Zhou An shook his head with a bitter smile.

"It seems the Demonic Contract isn't an omnipotent wish-granting machine. It can trade for power and reorganize the fortress, but it just can't conjure up living people or living cows."

"Since it can't be conjured out of thin air, we'll just have to go find some existing ones."