Chapter 28: Harvest — The First White Core

Tough, resilient vines tightly wrapped around the zombie’s arm. The zombie struggled, its head stuck so it could neither advance nor retreat. It grew violently enraged, thrashing until the security bars on the window were badly deformed and the screws began to loosen.

Bian Changxi quickly sent out another vine, binding both the zombie and the security bars together. She gripped one end herself, surprised by the tremendous force pulling through the vine. The next moment, the zombie snapped the vine on its hand, and with a swipe of its claw, easily severed the vine Changxi was holding. She didn’t hesitate any longer—she pulled a fire axe from her jade bracelet and brought it down in one swift motion. The zombie’s head rolled off, and with a flick of the axe handle, she knocked the headless corpse off the security bars. Half a second later, she heard a heavy thud as it hit the ground below, followed by several zombie roars from downstairs.

There were quite a few zombies down there.

She closed the window, drew the curtains, and bent down to examine the severed head on the floor.

The only light in the room came from two flashlights hanging on a potted plant by the TV wall, their beams already dimming, so the suite was poorly lit. If anyone walked in right now and saw a young woman bent over, rolling a wet, half-rotten head with a large axe, they’d probably be scared out of their wits.

What came next was even more brutal. Bian Changxi found a spot at the back of the skull, raised the axe, and hacked down. After two or three strikes, she cracked it open, stirred around a bit, and scraped out a hard little object. She squatted down, tilted her left hand, and let a stream of water from her jade bracelet’s farm flow over her fingers, washing the crystal core clean. It was about the size of a thumb joint, white in color, with many impurities visible when held up to the light. The texture was cloudy, but the surface was smooth.

“As expected, it’s a white core,” Bian Changxi sighed.

In the apocalypse, both toxic zombies and mutated plants or animals could produce crystal cores. The former always did, while the latter depended on luck. These cores came in gold, green, blue, red, earth yellow, and white. The first five corresponded to the five elemental attributes—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—while white was attribute-less.

Actually, there was a seventh color, but Bian Changxi’s eyes darkened—best not to mention it.

This classification already hints at a problem: elemental ability users can only absorb and cultivate energy from crystal cores matching their own attribute. All other abilities—including ordinary, special, and even derivative elemental types like lightning, wind, ice, and mist—can only use white cores.

Reliable data shows that out of every ten crystal cores, nine are white, and only one is colored. This means a five-element ability user would have to kill about fifty zombies to get a single core matching their attribute.

In terms of supply and demand, white and colored cores are theoretically equal, but in practice, colored cores are much more valuable. One colored core can usually be traded for one and a half to two white cores, sometimes even more.

It’s incredibly frustrating to fight hard for a core only to find you can’t use it yourself—especially in urgent times. But Bian Changxi didn’t have that problem. If she couldn’t use it, she could just toss it into her jade bracelet’s farm!

Happily, she threw the core into the bracelet and followed it in to check the effect. Unfortunately, once the core landed in the stream, it just sat there, looking like any other pebble among the river stones.

Bian Changxi didn’t dare linger in the farm. She quickly came out, tossed the zombie’s ruined head out the window to draw away attention, washed her hands with water from the stream, then grabbed a flashlight and headed to the kitchen. She took a large basin, scooped some rice, rinsed it clean, and poured it into the pressure cooker.

Thank goodness the landlord had left a brand-new pressure cooker—Bian Changxi had completely forgotten to prepare one, and otherwise, even the most skilled cook couldn’t make rice without electricity. It was 5.5 liters, and she still had nearly two forty-jin bags of raw rice—plenty to cook. She planned to make as much as possible while the gas was still on and the suite was safe.

The powerless fridge held only a tray of eggs. She’d planned to boil them all for easy storage and portability, but now that she had the farm, she felt much more secure. She only boiled ten, using the rest for fried eggs, scrambled eggs with sausage, and sweet egg soup. As soon as each dish was done, she packed it into airtight containers and stored them in the farm’s warehouse.

She even used the now-empty pot to cook a fragrant pot of porridge, bustling around the kitchen, only regretting she didn’t have more ingredients on hand.

Just before dawn, cries for help suddenly came from outside the suite. The security door was pounded violently, and a man shouted, “Help! Help! Open the door, there are zombies!”

Bian Changxi was eating fried eggs with white rice, picking out a strip of moist beef jerky from a can and popping it into her mouth.

This brand of beef jerky was surprisingly delicious—satay flavor, chewy. She decided to grab more of it next time she raided a supermarket.

Chewing, she went to the peephole and saw a panicked, disheveled man. He was pounding on the door and glancing nervously behind him, as if something was chasing him.

She narrowed her eyes slightly. The man’s gaze was shifty, his expression insincere—something was off!

She waited a bit longer, but sure enough, there was no sign of any zombies. Shaking her head, Bian Changxi went back to her meal.

“Damn it! You bitch, open the door! I know you’re in there!” After his act failed, the man outside kicked the door in anger. Bian Changxi’s eyes turned cold, but she still ignored him.

Anyone trying tricks like this must know she was the only woman in the apartment. As for how he knew, it was probably because the pressure cooker had been too loud while she was cooking, and the smell of food had spread. He must be someone from upstairs, downstairs, or across the hall.

She remembered hearing the sounds of fighting zombies upstairs last night. Later, a zombie had been pushed down and got stuck on her security bars, after which things went quiet above. Judging by the footsteps during the fight, there had been at least two people. Was it them?

She washed her dishes and swept everything of value in the apartment into the farm. By now, the cursing outside had stopped, replaced by a polite knock: “Excuse me, miss, sorry to bother you. I’m a neighbor from upstairs. We just killed some zombies and cleared the hallway. I’m starving and out of food. Could you spare a little? Just a piece of bread or a bottle of water would do.”

This time, it was a different person.

Only a fool would believe these two weren’t working together.

Coming to beg for food, yet bringing up “clearing the hallway”—either as a veiled threat or to fish for admiration. Bian Changxi sneered.

But she still replied through the door in a surprised tone, “You cleared the hallway? That means you killed all the zombies, right? That’s impressive!”

“You flatter me, it was just brute force.”

“Then you must be really strong. Can you step back so I can see your build?—Don’t take it the wrong way, I hate useless people. Just now, some coward threw himself at my door begging for help, but I ignored him. If you really have skills, though, I’d be happy to let you in.”

******

I had chapters ready but forgot to schedule them, and I went out to play today, so this is late—my bad.

To make up for it, there will be an extra update today. It’s being edited and will be posted a bit later."