Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Xie Ning sat cross-legged on her bed, tapping at the screen floating in mid-air as she carefully studied the upload instructions.

”Will this private trading zone be detected by your main system and get me banned?”

Little Spider replied in its mechanical voice, ”Here’s the thing. In the future, if this kind of X Realm smart bracelet becomes widespread and bound to users, everyone will be able to trade freely within the system.”

”Meaning, everyone will be able to open their own small shop to buy and sell.”

Xie Ning reached out to pat Little Spider’s head. ”You have to make sure my products are safe.”

As she spoke, she pulled out a bunch of bok choy. ”Future, you’re more experienced. How should I price something like this?”

”Don’t worry, the system will give a prompt with a price suggestion. Host Ningning, I’ll upload one first to try it out.”

”Okay!” Xie Ning said excitedly, taking out a fresh, crisp stalk of bok choy and holding it in her palm. ”Go ahead. This one.”

The bok choy vanished from before her eyes in an instant. A second later, it appeared in the first slot on the first level of the ”Crystal Core Duo Duo” shop.

System Description: One magical, ancient bok choy, relatively rich in nutrients. System recommendation: list price of three points or three Second-order Crystal Cores.

Xie Ning glanced at Little Spider. ”Are you ripping me off?”

Little Spider’s mechanical voice quickly replied, ”Imposssible. The system’s data would never lie. This should be the real price for bok choy.”

”What do you mean, ’ancient bok choy’?”

”To the X Realm, these kinds of green agricultural products are definitely ancient artifacts. The people there are all used to drinking Nutrient Liquid.”

”Oh, right. They have a self-sustaining cycle, extracting Nutrient Liquid from feces.” Xie Ning nodded with a vague understanding. ”This is big news. I’ll have to tell Xiao Gu and Xiao Lu later so they can have a laugh with me.”

Little Spider: ...

’You’re such a saboteur. Why don’t you ever promote any of their good qualities?’

”One stalk of bok choy can sell for three Second-order Crystal Cores. That seems pretty decent.”

The bok choy in the warehouse of her farm-style Space was piled up like a mountain. Getting rid of some stock sounded like a good idea.

”Do it! Future, help me upload this whole bunch of bok choy at once.”

”Mm-hm,” Little Spider replied. ”Host Ningning, the system recommends selling the bok choy individually, so each stalk will occupy one product slot.”

”Okay, so what are you getting at?”

”What I mean is, we can sell a maximum of one thousand stalks of bok choy.”

”But aren’t I a Supreme VIP?”

”Correct! Supreme VIPs get one thousand sales slots. Regular users only get six.”

Xie Ning was speechless.

”Can’t I just pay more money for it?”

”Hello, Host Ningning. This isn’t a video game. Paying to win can’t change the system’s internal structure.”

Seeing how dead serious it was, Xie Ning couldn’t help but want to laugh.

”I was just kidding, don’t be so serious. Go ahead and upload them. Let’s upload a thousand stalks of bok choy first and see how they sell.”

After all, this was her first time doing this.

She had mountains of bok choy piled up in her warehouse and could sell them casually. Even if she got scammed by the main system, losing a thousand stalks was no big deal to her.

Of course, she didn’t actually want to get scammed.

So, to be on the safe side, she decided it was better to be cautious.

”Host Ningning, I suggest you try uploading a few other types of products to avoid being too monotonous.”

”Also, there is a handling fee for selling items, which I must inform you of in advance.”

”A handling fee?” Xie Ning looked surprised. ”You’ve hacked into the system so many times. Can’t you just hack the fee away?”

’There was no way she was going to pay a handling fee!’

’Was she the type of person who would willingly pay a handling fee to the system?’

’As if!’

Little Spider: ...

’Good grief, how did I end up with a host like this?’

’If it weren’t for her exceptionally high talent and intelligence, I would have...’

’Never mind, I don’t dare to rebel anyway.’

Little Spider lifted its legs with a PATTER PATTER, waving them in the air as if performing some strange ritual.

Xie Ning watched as the huge, floating screen flickered continuously.

As the frequency of Little Spider’s waving sped up, fresh, crisp stalks of bok choy began appearing in the empty shopping slots.

Suddenly, Little Spider’s claws paused.

On the floating screen, a line of small text appeared beneath one of the bok choy stalks.

One bok choy with super-rich nutrient mutation. System recommendation: list price of six points or six Second-order Crystal Cores.

”What’s that mean?”

’A mutated bok choy!’

’Can you even eat a mutated bok choy?’

Little Spider thought for a moment before answering, ”It’s posssibly because, among this large batch of fresh bok choy you produced, Host, there’s one with a nutritional value higher than all the others?”

”The system’s discernment is very high. It doesn’t make mistakes.”

”Host, do you want to keep this one for yourself? Since its nutritional value is so extremely rich, it must taste very good too!”

Xie Ning nodded. ”I’ll keep it then. I want to try it first and see what it’s all about.”

’What kind of bok choy has mutated nutritional value?’

’Don’t tell me eating it will let me fly?’

As Xie Ning’s imagination ran wild, Little Spider’s mechanical voice cut in, ”It definitely won’t make you fly, but a mutated bok choy might restore some of the body’s functions, or... increase superpower energy?”

Xie Ning’s eyes lit up. ”If it can increase superpower energy, then it’s really good stuff.”

She just didn’t know if Little Spider’s guess was correct. She’d have to try it herself to find out for sure.

”Since they were all planted in the same batch in the farm-style Space, grown in the same soil with the same superpower water, why did only this one mutate?”

”Who knows?” If Little Spider had a face, it would surely be deadpan right now. ”Maybe it mutated because it has a high IQ.”

Xie Ning thought for a moment. ”Future, I feel like you’re just brushing me off.”

Future didn’t want to deal with this host. It numbed itself by rapidly listing the products.

Xie Ning turned her head and saw the empty product shelves being filled with a large batch of bok choy—SWISH SWISH SWISH—until only five small slots remained.

”Host Ningning, I suggest you try uploading a few more types of products to enrich the Crystal Core Duo Duo shop!”

”If Crystal Core Duo Duo only sells one type of item, Host Ningning, your selling experience will be significantly diminished.”

Xie Ning pulled a few more things out of her Space.

A small, ten-count pack of wet wipes.

A ham sausage.

A napa cabbage.

A baby napa cabbage.

A head of cabbage...

’You just can’t get over cabbage, can you!’ Little Spider thought irritably as it uploaded the five items one by one.

Ham Sausage: One delicious ancient ham sausage. So-so nutritional value. Recommended list price: two points.

The napa cabbage, baby napa cabbage, and regular cabbage were all three points.

One small pack of wet wipes, system name ”Wet Wipes Created with Ancient Technology.” System recommended list price: three points.

Xie Ning was immediately unhappy. ”Isn’t ham sausage meat? Why is it priced the lowest? This has to be a rip-off.”

”Ham sausage is processed meat. Who knows what kind of meat is actually in it! Two points is normal.”

”Then I’m not selling ham sausage!”