At 7 in the morning, though her body and mind were both utterly exhausted, her biological clock dutifully woke her up.
Mu Shan pried open her heavy eyelids and reached out with difficulty to turn on the light.
Having gone through life-and-death battles for two consecutive days, the excessive exertion had nearly torn her apart. Now, every part of her body from head to toe ached.
Back then, she could still rely on adrenaline to unleash her potential, but now she could only obediently lie there like a corpse.
Mu Shan lay on the second level of the bunk bed. The upper level was stacked full of supplies, while the lower level was curtained off with two iron wires strung across to make a simple wardrobe.
The mattress she had gotten from the home goods store yesterday was too big, so she had cut it in half. Though it looked ragged, it was very comfortable to sleep on.
Mu Shan did not know if it was because of the added wall insulation and waterproof layers, but she felt that the room was not as damp and cold today. The rice-white wall tiles made the narrow basement look very cozy.
Overall, it was conditions livable for a human.
She mumbled something, flipped over in the bedding, and reached her right hand out from under the covers to summon the Card Album.
This action was a bit like those internet-addicted humans in the past who lay in bed fiddling with their phones.
The Card Album yielded three cards today:
[Character Card: A Fat Zombie, One
Child Zombie]
[Item Card: One Melon Seed]
The child zombie card was still full of the Main God System’s mocking intent, so Mu Shan ignored it directly.
She materialized the only item card, and her hand trembled slightly with excitement.
Was it the melon seed she was thinking of?
【One Melon Seed (Consumable)
Quality: Excellent
Description: Neither five-spice nor cream-flavored
Usage: Eat it, or plant it in the soil】
The system description was similar to that of the [Green Pea].
Mu Shan’s eyes lit up, and she did a carp flip to sit up.
She did not have time to get dressed and hastily threw on a coat. In a hurry, she found an empty flower pot, planted the melon seed in it, and carefully watered it thoroughly.
In the famous game Plants vs. Zombies, besides the signature weapon [Peashooter], there was also a basic plant [Sunflower], known to everyone.
Though the sunflower could not attack, it produced [Sunlight] every few seconds, which was key to planting other plants.
Mu Shan rested her cheek on her hand and stared at the empty flower pot, fantasizing about what the melon seed would grow into.
Producing sunlight in an apocalypse instance did not seem very useful?
Whatever, it was still better than nothing.
Since she was already up, her planned lie-in was ruined.
Mu Shan boiled water while squeezing toothpaste to wash up. The upgraded bathroom was still as narrow as ever, even narrower now with the added bathroom cabinet. A careless move and she would bump into the edges.
The showerhead could not be used yet, so she stacked the four basins she had picked up in the shower area, with a small plastic stool beside them.
Once the water boiled, she brewed it in a teacup and, after letting it cool to lukewarm, dropped in a vitamin C tablet.
Plain water with bread made for breakfast.
She had saved candies, chocolates, and other high-calorie foods separately. They were small in volume and easy to carry, perfect for quickly replenishing sugar on outings to prevent physical collapse.
After finishing breakfast, she tidied up casually.
Mu Shan peered out through the door’s peephole. Unprecedentedly, it was not raining, but the weather was overcast, with the sun blocked by clouds, letting through only dim light.
Afraid that raindrops might fall, she did not take the bedding out to air.
She walked out of the basement, and the temperature in the Sunroom was noticeably lower. Mu Shan shivered, put on gloves, and began turning the soil with the engineer shovel.
This was a big project.
Though the Sunroom was only 4 meters by 4 meters, she needed to first shovel off all the top layer of turf, remove the grass roots, loosen the soil, and dig out the scattered stones.
This park had existed for who knew how many years, and the green area’s soil layer was packed solid. With Mu Shan’s strength, each shovelful only barely dug shallowly into the dirt.
“…”
Understand the Porter, envy the Porter, become the Porter.
Add strength, add it!
She used to watch videos of agriculture bloggers tending their home gardens and vegetable plots meticulously, reaping harvests in spring and autumn. But when it was her turn to do it herself, she could only fumble along slowly.
There were no shortcuts to farm work. At first, Mu Shan had no experience; she did not turn much soil and instead tired herself out. Later, she got the hang of the motions and knew how to exert force more efficiently, so her land-clearing speed grew faster and faster.
The four-meter Sunroom was too small. Forget growing staple grains; even vegetables would be hard to sustain herself with. It was only a bit larger than a household balcony.
The cleared turf, grass roots, and stones were all piled together. Mu Shan gathered them up and tossed them outside.
On the way back, a strong wind suddenly started blowing. The Sunroom’s glass roof rattled with “crackling” sounds, and raindrops mixed with fine sand grains began falling, pattering sporadically on the glass.
Mu Shan feared that the system’s “shoddy tofu-dreg engineering” would be wrecked by the harsh weather, wasting all her gold coins.
So she dragged over a stool and meticulously checked along all four walls. Wherever she found cracks or gaps, she sealed them with caulk or glass glue.
This was more delicate work. By the time all potential leak points were filled, a downpour had started outside.
“Crack—” Lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the pitch-black night for an instant.
It was clearly still daytime, yet as dark as midnight.
The “pitter-patter” of raindrops hammered the glass roof before flowing along the curve to the eaves, trickling down to form little streams.
Such weather, combined with the state of the apocalyptic zombies, brought a strong sense of oppression.
Mu Shan looked up at the sky shrouded in dark clouds, then turned and returned to the basement.
She secured the double-sealed door and checked that the escape passage entrance had no leaks before she could finally rest.
She had worked hard all morning and huddled in the bedding for half a day without recovering her strength. Her hands and feet felt weak, and she seemed to have caught a cold.
She lay in a daze for a while, then forced herself up to cook. She took a bag of mixed grains from the cabinet, scooped a bit into a small cup, and poured it into the pot to boil porridge.
She could not add too much water because the pot was shallow and needed refilling midway.
She placed a small packet of dried fish on the lid to heat along with it, supplementing salt.
Mu Shan sat pale-faced in front of the stove, brewing cold medicine in a cup.
The body was the capital of the revolution, and now there were no relatives around.
If she died, she was really dead.
The howling of the gale and rain outside was clearly audible even through two doors.
Occasionally, there were noises of garbage, billboards, or small stones blown about by the wind, rolling across the grass.
Mu Shan held her porridge bowl and ate slowly, occasionally paying attention to the sounds outside. Her heart remained suspended, uneasy.
At that moment, the system interface popped up a notification showing a friend message.
[Jian Lulu (Agronomist)]: Veggies harvested, come get them when the rain stops? Ginger, garlic, onions, carrots, potatoes are good for storage, plus a small packet of spinach.
[Mu Shan (Collector)]: Okay, I’ll check the weather later.
[Jian Lulu (Agronomist)]: Location [Click map for details].
Mu Shan clicked to look; it was quite far from the park and required driving.
She thought for a moment and asked in passing: Do you have fruit tree saplings there?
The reply came after a pause: Yo, upgraded the Sunroom already?
[Jian Lulu (Agronomist)]: I have three kinds of fruit trees: apple, navel orange, pear.
Mu Shan thought it over and replied: One navel orange tree.
[Jian Lulu (Agronomist)]: Deal.
She sent a photo of a lush little sapling, about a meter tall with plenty of branches and already bearing small green fruits.
[Jian Lulu (Agronomist)]: This is a system-improved variety, fruits soon. Comes with matching fruit fertilizer and insecticide; want them bundled? Friendship price: one Zombie Worker.
[Mu Shan (Collector)]: Deal.
[Jian Lulu (Agronomist)]: [Handshake.jpg]
They swiftly closed a deal, and Mu Shan felt quite happy, even eating half a bowl more of the mixed grain porridge.
Seeing that the rain outside showed no sign of stopping soon, she washed the bowl and lay in bed to rest properly.
As for why she chose the navel orange tree, there was reasoning behind it.
Pears cleared heat and reduced fire, stopped coughs and resolved phlegm; apples had high yields and nutrition—both fruits appealed to her.
But in the apocalypse instance, what the human body lacked most were trace elements.
A normal person thinking of vitamin supplements would first think of lemons. But raw lemons were impossible for ordinary people to eat; they needed to be soaked in water or mixed with other things.
Navel oranges were in the same citrus family as lemons and even had higher vitamin C content. Just soaking two slices of dried lemon daily was far from meeting the body’s needs.
Mu Shan had previously read popular science posts for health tips saying navel oranges ranked high in the second tier for vitamin C content.
Among all fruits, those surpassing navel oranges in vitamin C—first-tier ones like sea buckthorn and pine needle cherries—were not as storage-friendly. Those more storage-friendly than navel oranges did not match its content.
It had many other advantages too: the flesh was delicious and juicy, the peel could be reused by boiling water, composting, or drying for fruit tea.
Just imagining a future of abundant harvests, lying contentedly amid piles of navel oranges, made Mu Shan grin.
With such pleasant anticipation, her afternoon nap was very comfortable.
Emerging from the warm bedding, Mu Shan went up to the Sunroom to check. The downpour had eased to a drizzle.
After a day’s accumulation, low-lying areas in the park grass had formed many puddles. The creek and lake water levels had surged, nearly submerging the small bridge. Zombie corpses originally soaked in water were almost washed ashore.
It was possible it would keep raining for the next ten-plus days. While the rain had not yet grown heavy enough to block outings, she could not stay home freeloading forever.
Mu Shan checked the system mall; rain gear, kayaks, life rafts, wooden rafts, and the like had skyrocketed to sky-high prices.
Even the price of little yellow duck swim rings was prohibitive.
The stingy system really knew how to jack up prices outrageously.
Mu Shan cursed it inwardly while messaging Jian Lulu that she would arrive in about half an hour. The reply was an OK.
A few minutes later, Mu Shan held an umbrella, wore an electric scooter raincoat, high rubber boots on her feet, an Electric Scooter Helmet and mask on her head—fully geared up—and stepped into the drizzle.
Raindrops pattered on the umbrella surface.
The air was chilly, but her body still held the warmth from the Safe House. Mu Shan jogged a few steps toward where she had parked before.
After returning from the player trading center, the car had been out of gas, so she used her last gas card, adding +50L of fuel.
The poor weather made the wandering zombies on the road look listless, drenched and rather pitiful.
As Mu Shan drove past, she still saw quite a few survivors braving the rain to scavenge supplies—some in raincoats, others wrapped in plastic bags. They scattered like birds startled by the twang of a bowstring at the sound of the car.
The agronomist’s location was at the C City Art Museum, in a high-end residential area with few people. Mu Shan parked at a road corner, held her umbrella, and approached on foot.
From afar, she spotted a woman in black clothes and pants leaning lazily at the gate smoking, with what seemed like others in the shadows behind her.
Jian Lulu saw her and showed a shocked expression. “Damn, are you going robbing?!”
“?” Mu Shan stepped forward a couple paces. “It’s me.”
“I know it’s you, I saw your ID overhead!”
Jian Lulu gestured exaggeratedly with open arms. “I mean, in this downpour, someone suddenly appears without a sound—wrapped head to toe with only eyes showing, carrying an axe. Damn, you’re trying to scare who to death?”
“…” Wasn’t this a pretty normal getup for the apocalypse?
Mu Shan did not reply. She noticed a purple bruise at the corner of Jian Lulu’s mouth and one arm bandaged and slung, looking quite pitiful. But her mental state seemed fine.
She asked nothing, just lowered her head to count the vegetables in the plastic bags and the sapling bound with hemp rope, then handed over the other card.
Jian Lulu glanced down and grinned in satisfaction. “A fat zombie? Little foreman, you’ve got a full lineup of Zombie Workers under you—maybe even some 18th-tier idol zombies?”
“Skill product, random.”
Mu Shan pointed at the strong man who had stood silently behind her the whole time. “Who’s he?”
Jian Lulu didn’t even turn her head. She just lifted her eyelids slightly, the cigarette clamped between her slender fingers. “Him? A bodyguard I hired.”
Mu Shan paused. “A bodyguard?”
The beautiful mature woman snorted, her face full of disdain. “Some blind bastard tried to loot for free and set his sights on this lady. Pfft, thought I was a pushover?”
She pointed at herself. “I didn’t let him off easy either. One hand for his life—worth it, right?”
Mu Shan smiled. “Worth it.”
The two women exchanged a glance.
Jian Lulu irritably stomped her foot and crushed out the cigarette butt. “Raining every damn day without a glimpse of sun. I’m about to grow mushrooms.”
“Who knows what this ghostly weather will turn into next. I’m not heading out anymore. Gotta stay and guard the fields in case someone steals the crops.”
“Gave you extra long-lasting veggies. Should last till the end of this instance.”
“Little Foreman, see you around if fate allows!”
Mu Shan stood in place and watched the agronomist and the silent man behind her leave one after the other. Suddenly, she felt a strange pang of sentiment.
Whether agronomist or old driver.
They were just chance encounters in the 【Zombie Siege】. If luck held, they might cross paths in another instance. If not, one of them would die in some nameless corner.
One instance, two instances… When would it truly end?
The rain grew heavier.
Mu Shan took a deep breath, picked up her things, and hurried away.
After driving home, she quickly changed out of her raincoat and rubbed her frozen hands. No time to boil water first—Mu Shan planted the navel orange tree into the pit she had dug beforehand.
She took the rest of the vegetables to the kitchen to process.
Fortunately, the temperature was low now, and the safe house interior was dry and cool—perfect for storing vegetables.
Mu Shan pulled out a shallow tray made of wheat straw and added a layer of water.
She left about 2-3 centimeters of the orange-red carrot tips, then chopped off the tops. The carrots could regrow leaves hydroponically.
And the leaves were edible, with a texture similar to garland chrysanthemum.
If luck was on her side, Mu Shan could harvest a small wave of self-sustaining greens.
The agronomist had given plenty of potatoes too. She cut two into chunks and planted them separately in the soil. The scene evoked an illusion of The Martian, except she wasn’t any crop scientist.
She could only make a last-ditch effort.
The rain hammered against the sunroom roof, leaving streaks of mottled water stains.
Mu Shan squatted on the freshly turned soil, gazing at the lush little tree in front of her as it stretched its branches. She counted the green oranges hanging on it over and over.
On the sixth day of the apocalypse, she felt her mental state starting to fray.
If someone came to rob her oranges now, she would fight them to the death.