Chapter Eight: The Unique Blessing of Liu Qiao's Talent

Yang Fan spent four to five hours writing, finally filling up a sixteen-page notebook. He stood and asked the group, “Who knows how to use a printer?”

Zhu Liang, the director of academic affairs, immediately took the booklet from Yang Fan’s hand. “I do. Should I print all of this out?” Zhu Liang was an old hand, skilled at flattery and efficient in his work—how else could he have risen to his position? Hearing Yang Fan’s question, he instantly understood the intent and eagerly volunteered.

“Print everything in order, bind it, and make no mistakes. Follow the sequence. For now, this place is safe, but we’ll have to leave within a day at most. So, hurry,” Yang Fan instructed, his brows tightly furrowed.

“Why? Are those filthy things coming?” asked one of the four girls, Liu Xin, who affected a pure and adorable demeanor. Though prettier than Liu Qiaoqiao, she held barely a fraction of the importance Liu Qiaoqiao had in Yang Fan’s heart. Still, to soothe the group’s nerves, Yang Fan forced himself to respond patiently, “No zombies will come—but we lack food. Without food, we’re all doomed.”

Yang Fan wasn’t exaggerating. In his previous life, he and several others hid in the music room upstairs. At that time, the iron door was smashed open with a fire axe, letting zombies in. After several classmates sacrificed themselves, they were finally safe.

There were more than thirty people. The first day passed without incident, but by the second day, everything fell apart. The lack of food made everyone irritable. On the third day, someone, desperate from hunger, tried to run outside but was killed mercilessly. Eventually, many began eating human flesh. The apocalypse pushed humanity to its limits; at first, many couldn’t accept it, but in the end, almost everyone did.

Yang Fan never ate human flesh. Thanks to the apocalypse system, he managed to scrape together some food after three days, consuming items he would never have considered before, barely surviving.

He would never forget how weak and terrifying humanity became in that month. Men were devoured, women treated like pets—played with, abused. In the apocalypse, most lost any sense of morality or rationality, driven by a single purpose: survival, or to enjoy the present, indifferent to death.

For Yang Fan, the most frightening thing wasn’t the apocalypse, nor zombies, mutated beasts, insect hordes, or other monstrous species, but humanity itself—humans who had abandoned all moral restraints, becoming devils.

That was why Yang Fan insisted they leave within a day. Without food, he feared he might stray down a dark path. When it comes to survival, unless one is a saint, everyone will do anything to stay alive.

“Food? I have some, don’t worry,” Liu Qiaoqiao suddenly spoke, producing a shriveled piece of bread. Everyone looked at it with disgust; it was blackened and clearly poorly made.

But Yang Fan was stunned, staring at the bread. It looked like a low-quality black bread, the most basic ration, but it had a special effect: a 1% chance to randomly increase either strength, agility, or constitution by one point.

It wasn’t the bread itself that shocked him, but rather where Liu Qiaoqiao had obtained it.

Such bread was sold only by apocalypse merchants, and each cost five apocalypse coins. Few bothered to buy it—first, it tasted terrible; second, with so many apocalypse coins, it would be wiser to save for equipment. Who would waste them on bread?

Yet Yang Fan was amazed—there were no apocalypse merchants here. These merchants were fixed in form. Yang Fan knew there was one about three hundred meters outside the school, near a Baisheng supermarket. Apocalypse merchants were spaced one to ten kilometers apart, covering the entire world.

Others who encountered apocalypse merchants could only cry, for though they had plenty of goods, they had no coins to buy them. But Yang Fan was different; he had seven hundred apocalypse coins, and Liu Qiaoqiao could advance five hundred. This was a huge fortune. Part of his reason for leaving was to find an apocalypse merchant, strengthen his attributes, and purchase a job contract to change professions.

Yang Fan asked Liu Qiaoqiao seriously, “Where did you get it?”

Liu Qiaoqiao handed him the black bread and replied with a smile, “My system has a shop. I can buy things there. Can’t you?”

“The shop in your system?” Yang Fan was shocked. This was a special innate ability. Normally, those who inherited the apocalypse system only had attributes, equipment, and backpack functions. The rest could be unlocked after changing professions. He certainly didn’t have a shop.

His month of previous experience taught him that to buy anything, one had to go to an apocalypse merchant; no matter how much money you had, even millions, it wouldn’t help.

“What’s in the shop?” Yang Fan asked urgently.

“Equipment, potions, tools,” Liu Qiaoqiao answered.

“Share your interface,” Yang Fan said, his heart pounding.

Under his guidance, Liu Qiaoqiao shared her data.

Equipment—[Cold Weapons]—[Firearms]—[Spirit Weapons]

Yang Fan skipped equipment and went straight to potions.

Potions—[Strength Potion]—[Agility Potion]—[Stamina Potion]—[Special Potion]—[Evolution Potion]

“That’s it!” Yang Fan was overjoyed and had Liu Qiaoqiao open the strength potion section. Instantly, a list appeared before him.

Level 1 Basic Strength Potion: Randomly increases strength by 1–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 1 profession. Cost: 20 apocalypse coins.

Level 1 Basic Agility Potion: Randomly increases agility by 1–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 1 profession. Cost: 20 apocalypse coins.

Level 1 Basic Stamina Potion: Randomly increases stamina by 1–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 1 profession. Cost: 20 apocalypse coins.

Level 1 Basic Intelligence Potion: Randomly increases intelligence by 1–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 1 profession. Cost: 20 apocalypse coins.

...

These were the simplest potions, each costing twenty apocalypse coins. Yang Fan checked the level 2 potions.

Level 2 Basic Strength Potion: Randomly increases strength by 3–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 2 profession. Cost: 40 apocalypse coins.

Level 2 Basic Agility Potion: Randomly increases agility by 3–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 2 profession. Cost: 40 apocalypse coins.

Level 2 Basic Stamina Potion: Randomly increases stamina by 3–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 2 profession. Cost: 40 apocalypse coins.

Level 2 Basic Intelligence Potion: Randomly increases intelligence by 3–100 points, depending on bloodline and luck. Requires level 2 profession. Cost: 40 apocalypse coins.

...

Each level of potion doubled in price and effect. It started easy, but at levels five and six, it became difficult. In the previous month, Qin Ziwen had an eighth-level first-tier profession, but his agility was only increased to level four, with the others barely at level two, severely lacking coins.

The monsters were formidable, and their group was too small, so they could only hunt solitary or weak mutated beasts. Insect hordes were out of the question, unless you had a five-person firearm squad and ten equipped members to take down even the weakest insects.

To level up, you depended on hunting monsters, but there was no experience point system. Yang Fan estimated that killing a hundred ordinary zombies would raise a level, while a matriarch zombie was worth the equivalent of twenty ordinary ones. He quickly calculated that he had killed three matriarchs and over a dozen ordinary zombies.

That meant he needed just a few more to level up.

With that in mind, Yang Fan said to Liu Qiaoqiao, “Buy two of each: strength potions levels one to three, agility potions levels one to three, stamina potions levels one to three, intelligence potions levels one to three. Also, in the tools section, pick a job change item—a job contract book, the free one.”

Yang Fan transferred all his seven hundred apocalypse coins to Liu Qiaoqiao for her to make the purchases. She confirmed without hesitation and bought everything Yang Fan needed, spending a total of 1,120 apocalypse coins—seven hundred from Yang Fan, five hundred from herself, leaving only eighty coins.

Just like that, their wealth was back to square one. With eighty apocalypse coins, they could buy some bread, but nothing else for now.

“Huh? There’s a lottery?” Liu Qiaoqiao suddenly exclaimed, startling Yang Fan, who was still focused on equipment purchases.

A lottery—those words were extremely sensitive!