Chapter 122 — The Purchasing Power of Crystal Cores
All the duck meat they obtained this time was distributed per person. Although it wasn’t divided with absolute precision, it was still roughly allocated based on chunk size and estimated weight.
Xu Mei originally suggested that Xiao Xinran, being young with a small appetite, could take a smaller portion. However, all the men rejected the idea outright—everyone had fought together, and Xinran’s ability was clearly powerful. How could a group of grown men compete with a child for meat?
Besides, when they were cutting up the meat inside, it was Xinran who had helped deal with the zombie corpses outside and collect the crystal cores. No matter how tempted they were, they would never take food from a child.
By the time all the meat was processed, it was already close to evening. Only then did Luo Xun and the others remember—the crystal cores hadn’t even been counted or distributed yet!
Originally, the whole purpose of going out had been to collect these cores. But after encountering that giant duck, they had completely forgotten about them. In fact, most of these cores had been “picked up for free” from zombies the duck killed—they themselves hadn’t done much at all.
They hurriedly opened the large box and poured out a pile of colorful crystal cores that clattered across the floor.
Luo Xun scratched his head. “Why do I feel like there are way more cores than usual?”
“That duck’s voice was so loud—it probably attracted every zombie nearby,” Zhang Su said casually, pointing at the pile. “Hurry up and count them so we can eat.”
Everyone quickly gathered small piles in front of themselves and began sorting them by type and ability.
Xu Mei stood up with a smile. “We’ll go make dinner. I saved a piece of meat—we’ll stir-fry it with vegetables.”
“Yes, yes, thank you, Sister Xu!” He Qiankun shouted before anyone else could respond, startling everyone.
After a noisy round of counting, they finally tallied everything.
The numbers were shocking.
Level 1 cores: over 17,200
Level 2 cores: over 20,800
Level 3 cores: more than 500
There were also various cores from zombie animals, differing in size and type.
Everyone stared at each other, speechless.
“So… so many?”
“Don’t forget how loud that duck was—it probably pulled in zombies from dozens of kilometers around!”
It took them quite a while to accept it. They had barely put in any effort, yet ended up with such a massive harvest.
For a moment, everyone entertained the fantasy—what if they could encounter something like this again?
But they quickly shook it off.
Opportunities like this didn’t come twice. If that duck hadn’t used such a foolish way to attack them, could they have defeated it? If they couldn’t even beat the duck, what “free crystal cores” were they dreaming about? Surviving would already have been a blessing.
They were satisfied enough.
The Level 1 cores were divided evenly. The Level 2 and 3 cores were distributed according to abilities, then balanced through exchanges—for example, since fire-type cores were abundant, Xu Mei traded some Level 1 cores for higher-level ones.
Finally, Luo Xun tapped the largest crystal—the one from the duck’s head.
“This thing probably can’t be traded for now. Let’s just keep it at home as decoration.”
Using such a massive crystal as decoration… wasn’t that a bit too extravagant?
It could technically be taken to the military for appraisal and exchanged for smaller cores. But Luo Xun wasn’t sure whether the base even knew about mutated animal cores yet.
Their team was already noticeable enough. Taking this out now would definitely attract attention.
If they were to trade it, it would have to wait—at least until next year, when mutated animals became common knowledge.
For now, it was too early.
Once everything was sorted, Xu Mei and Song Lingling brought out the dishes.
Simple home-cooked food—but with duck meat added, it instantly turned into a feast. After all, outside they had only eaten salted grilled duck—no proper dishes!
Braised duck with winter melon, duck with potatoes, duck congee with rice—plus tomato scrambled with quail eggs and hand-torn lettuce.
The moment they saw the food, everyone started drooling. Bowls in hand, they buried their heads and ate as if they wanted to dive into the bowls themselves.
After eating their fill, each person took their share of crystal cores and went back upstairs.
Only after entering his home—and being enthusiastically licked all over the face by his dog—did Luo Xun suddenly freeze.
“…I think we forgot something.”
Yan Fei looked at him, puzzled. “What?”
“Wood.”
Luo Xun took a deep breath. Seeing Yan Fei’s confused expression, he added, “We were supposed to collect wood for growing mushrooms this trip… and we completely forgot.”
It was all that duck’s fault. From the moment it appeared, everything had turned chaotic. Everyone focused entirely on dealing with it—no one even cared about the cores, let alone the wood they had casually mentioned before.
Yan Fei finally understood.
Wood… right. They had planned to gather materials for mushroom cultivation.
But once meat entered the picture, mushrooms were forgotten entirely.
Duck meat had to be eaten—but mushrooms still had to be grown.
Only now…
“You think… should we make a special trip tomorrow just to collect wood?” Luo Xun asked hesitantly, discussing it with Yan Fei.
Yan Fei calmly did the math for him. “Every time we go out, we have to take on a mission. Forget the high-difficulty ones—just the crystal core submission task alone requires at least 200 low-level cores per trip. But what if we just use cores to trade for wood collected by others inside the base? How much wood could 200 cores get us? Which is more cost-effective?”
There was no need to even ask. Exchanging cores was safer, faster, and yielded more.
They had originally gone out to collect cores anyway—wood was just something extra along the way. Now that they had plenty of cores, trading for wood would be much easier.
“Alright! Then let’s rest early today. Tomorrow we’ll go to the market and buy some wood!” Luo Xun clenched his fists. As team leader, he was already responsible for managing the cores and purchasing supplies. As long as the accounts were clear, he could make the decisions. Bringing cores to the market to buy wood would be simple.
Yan Fei stood up, wrapping an arm around Luo Xun’s waist, expression calm as ever. “Mm, tomorrow.” As he spoke, he led the still-distracted Luo Xun toward the bathroom…
Naturally, Luo Xun woke up late the next morning. In the end, they could only head to the market after lunch.
They weren’t the only ones who overslept. The four men in Li Tie’s room, the three women downstairs in Xu Mei’s place—many had slept in. As for Zhang Su from 1602… he didn’t show up all morning. Li Tie came out at one point, pestering Xu Mei and the others to teach him how to make soup. After learning the steps, he ran back upstairs to try it himself. Even when Luo Xun mentioned going out to buy wood, Zhang Su still didn’t appear.
This made Luo Xun laugh for quite a while. Even after getting into the car, he was still amused. “Serves him right! Always making fun of me!” Wang Duo had finally proven useful for once—clearly last night’s duck meat hadn’t gone to waste.
The two slowly drove out of their residential area.
Now, it must be mentioned—their car’s current condition was… tragic. Because of that damn duck, all the windows had shattered completely. With no replacements available, they could only install metal plates across the window frames, leaving gaps for visibility.
If they didn’t find proper glass before their next trip outside the base, it would be too dangerous. If a zombie jumped onto the car, its claws could easily reach through the gaps.
For Luo Xun’s car, it was manageable—Yan Fei could manipulate metal to counterattack. But if zombies got onto Li Tie’s car… that would be a serious problem.
Fortunately, today they were only moving around inside the base. If they could find glass along with the wood, even better. And with Yan Fei, even mismatched glass could be fitted—he could reshape the metal frame to match.
So, how much purchasing power did one crystal core have?
Much more than a single base credit—especially in private trades.
The scavenger teams that went out of the base would bring back everything they could carry. After the military bombarded the city once, the accessible areas shrank, making resources even scarcer. Each expedition became like a swarm of locusts, stripping anything useful along the way.
At first, they could still find valuable pre-apocalypse goods. But as time went on, they had to travel farther and farther, increasing risk while yields near the base dropped sharply. Eventually, some teams would pick up anything they saw—no matter what it was.
Because of this, Luo Xun and Yan Fei had no trouble finding wood and tree roots for sale.
There were plenty of stalls selling coal and wood. Compared to coal, wood was common and very cheap. Most sellers were small teams that didn’t dare go far, collecting wood from roadside trees and roots. These were often still damp, hard to ignite, and produced thick smoke when burned. Some even still had green leaves attached.
Clearly, they were far inferior to proper coal or even dry wood.
So their price was… very low.
They didn’t even need 100 or 200 cores. With just 20 Level 1 cores, they filled their entire car—and even tied more wood onto the roof.
They also traded some Level 2 and 3 cores for other supplies they needed. Only then did the two return home, fully satisfied.
Recently, the elevator in their building had been unreliable. And since they rarely returned at convenient times anyway, they had installed metal pulleys outside the window that morning—making it easy to haul things upstairs.
After parking downstairs, they sent a message upstairs. Soon, Li Tie and the others ran to a 15th-floor balcony, opened the window and metal panel, and lowered a rope through the pulley.
Luo Xun and Yan Fei began tying up the wood below. Before long, Xu Mei and Wu Xin came down to help. With four people below and the rest above, they worked together to haul everything up.
Some neighbors gathered to watch. Thankfully, although wood was a necessity, this kind—cheap, damp wood—wasn’t particularly tempting. A few people were interested, but no one dared cause trouble. Everyone in the complex knew the people on those two floors were not to be provoked—there were powerful ability users there.
The wood pieces weren’t full tree trunks, but they were still quite long. Luckily, part of their balcony crops had already been harvested, leaving space. Otherwise, getting the wood inside would have been much harder.
By the time everything was hauled upstairs, two hours had passed. Most of that time was spent carefully lifting the wood—trying not to smash any neighbors’ windows below.
Once all the wood was inside, everyone got to work—cutting it down and hanging it beside the planting racks.
Metal pipes ran along the racks, connecting the upper, middle, and lower planting layers. These newly acquired logs would be hung along those supports, specifically for growing mushrooms.
Luo Xun estimated that once the number of mushroom logs increased significantly, the toxic mushrooms would absorb enough of the virus-like elements in the air to reach saturation. At that point, more normal mushrooms should start to grow.
And those normal mushrooms… were precious.
After all, stumbling upon a giant duck like last time—that was pure luck.
They couldn’t count on that happening again anytime soon.
Even when next year comes and mutated animals break out on a large scale, if they go out hoping to hunt even half a beast to bring home for extra dishes, the difficulty will probably increase exponentially.
Yan Fei placed the wood into long, mesh-like metal baskets hanging beside the metal racks, putting one piece in each and fixing it in the center, leaving enough space around for mushrooms to grow. These metal meshes weren’t just for cultivation—they also served as protection, preventing people walking or working inside from accidentally bumping into them.
What needed to be especially guarded against… were the little one at home and Xiao Xinran. So Yan Fei made the mesh holes as small and fine as possible, to avoid any accidents if the child or the dog touched them.
Because of that, Xu Mei and Song Lingling had to be extra careful during their daily work, trying not to bring the child or the dog into those rooms where the metal baskets were concentrated.
They kept busy all the way until dusk. Everyone held their sore backs, yet looked at the day’s results with full satisfaction—and then… went home to eat meat!!
They couldn’t be too extravagant, but having a meat dish every day to satisfy their cravings was definitely possible, right? With so much meat now, why hold back?
Luo Xun had promised to turn the duck offal into braised snacks. Yesterday there wasn’t time, but tonight he would make it and share with everyone. Upon hearing this, Li Tie and the others practically bounced up the stairs in excitement.
When they reached the sixteenth floor, they finally saw Zhang Su, who hadn’t appeared all day. He opened the door with one hand supporting his waist. His neck and shoulders were covered in bluish-purple marks, and although his eyes still carried that usual annoying, provocative look, those watery peach blossom eyes now held an indescribable charm. Even Luo Xun, who wanted to mock him, only raised his eyebrows teasingly and said nothing.
Seeing his beloved come out, Wang Duo rushed forward to support him. “Why did you get up? Does your waist still hurt? I’ll massage it when we get back. I just asked Sister Xu to help cook—my cooking is too terrible…” As he spoke, he carefully helped Zhang Su back inside, making Zhang Su’s lips twitch. He wanted to kick him, but his sore waist and weak legs wouldn’t cooperate. “I just came out to walk! I’ve been lying down all day, I’m stiff!”
“Come, come, just walk around inside. Go rest more.”
Everyone watched that “queen and loyal servant” pair go back to their room with disdainful looks, then returned to their own homes.
The moment he entered, Luo Xun headed straight for the kitchen—his goal was the same as everyone else on these two floors now: cooking.
The past two days, all meals had been prepared by Xu Mei and the others. Aside from processing the meat for long-term storage, Luo Xun hadn’t cooked anything himself. Now, the corridor ceilings of both floors were filled with hanging, processed duck meat, and before everyone dispersed earlier, he had even turned the curing meat once.
And now, he could finally cook a meal just for himself and Yan Fei.
Standing in the kitchen, he thought for a moment, then his gaze drifted toward the row of jars in the corner. He had prepared all kinds of jars before the apocalypse—filled with pickles, fermented vegetables, sauces, preserved foods, fermented tofu, chive paste, and more. Even now, only a small portion had been used; more than half remained untouched.
Even the ones that had been opened still had plenty left at the bottom. That was why Luo Xun had previously taken some out and placed them in the cool corridor for everyone to share—otherwise, how could the two of them ever finish everything? Letting everyone help eat made things easier.
Still, even after sharing, the number of jars left at home was considerable.
After circling them twice, Luo Xun finally took some pickled cabbage, grabbed a handful of vermicelli, and decided to make a soup.
As for dishes… one meat dish per meal was enough. Take things slow and steady—Luo Xun thought to himself, very much the practical homemaker.
Yan Fei sat on the sofa in the living room, one hand propping his chin, the other casually manipulating a piece of metal—breaking it down into elements and recombining them. The little one lay beside him, chin resting on his leg, eyes half-closed, occasionally sniffing the air.
Even though they had maximized their load capacity, they still couldn’t bring the entire duck back. Aside from the main meat cuts, the damaged parts, the questionable pieces, and most of the offal and bones had been left behind.
What they had now was good… but what about after it was gone?
Yan Fei rubbed his chin, smelling the increasingly rich aroma from the kitchen. His thoughts drifted to Luo Xun’s increasingly slender waist—while a slimmer waist felt nice to hold in certain situations, being too thin from lack of nutrition was not acceptable. He needed to find a way to keep Luo Xun well-fed long-term.
Soon, Luo Xun brought out a steaming clay pot of pickled cabbage duck vermicelli soup, along with stir-fried cauliflower with tomatoes and quail eggs. The moment he stepped out, the little one had already jumped off the sofa, tail wagging so fast it became a blur, desperately trying to show how obedient and well-behaved it was—and just how badly it needed meat…
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