Apocalypse: Why did you provoke her? She's a cultivator.

Chapter 152 It's Hard to Live

"Here are 50 crystal cores, your reward." Her tone was calm, but sincere.

Xiao Yunliang squeezed the bag, its weight making his eyes light up. He hurriedly waved his hand, "This is too much, Miss Ye, I'll just take 20..."

Before he could finish speaking, his mouth was already stretched to his ears in a wide grin.

“It’s not much,” Ye Qiumian interrupted him. “You helped me find a house and shielded me from that incident earlier. It’s what I should give you.”

Xiao Yunliang stopped refusing, chuckled, put the bag in his pocket, and took out a few folded pieces of paper from his pocket, handing them over: "This is a map of the base, which I drew myself. It marks the supply points, safe zones, and a few places you have to avoid. You might find it useful."

Ye Qiumian took it, unfolded it and looked at it. The lines on it were crooked, but the markings were clear.

"I'll be going now. Call me if you need anything." Xiao Yunliang smiled broadly, left a card with his phone number, and went out the door with light steps.

The door closed gently, and the room instantly fell silent.

Ye Qiumian walked to the balcony, looked at the old man strolling slowly downstairs, her fingertips stroking the rough map, a faint smile flashing in her eyes.

In these end times, having a safe place to go is always a good thing.

At least ordinary people now have a safe place to stay, no longer needing to wander or fear a zombie suddenly jumping out from some corner.

Looking at the two cards on the table, Ye Qiumian remembered that she seemed to have a cell phone as well.

She searched the corner of the room for a long time before finally finding the phone covered in a thin layer of dust.

The screen was completely black, and pressing the power button a few times had no effect.

If you count the days, this phone has been sitting untouched for over a year, and it's long since run out of battery.

She took out the matching data cable from the storage box next to her, plugged one end into her phone, and the other end into the socket in the room.

Seeing the charging icon slowly light up on the screen, she breathed a sigh of relief and put her phone aside for the time being.

The sky outside the window was still bright, and the golden rays of the setting sun slanted through the glass onto the floor.

Since it wasn't dark yet, I decided to go out for a stroll and familiarize myself with this state capital base.

She picked up the house key and car key from the table, locked the door, and left the building.

The SUV was parked in the community's temporary parking lot, but in order to freely enter and exit the community gate, a pass had to be obtained first.

Ye Qiumian drove to the management office at the entrance of the community and spent thirty crystal cores to get a monthly vehicle pass.

The procedures were completed quickly. The staff registered the license plate number and handed her a blue card with the community logo: "Just insert this card on the windshield side, and swipe it when you enter or exit the gate."

"Thank you." She took the card, put it away, started the car, and slowly drove out of the residential area.

The base was much larger than she had imagined, with wide and smooth main roads and even scattered green trees along the roadside.

Most of the shops on both sides of the road were open, with all sorts of signs hanging on them, but the types of goods they sold were somewhat unexpected to her.

The shops selling daily necessities were the most numerous, with a dazzling array of items from pots and pans to clothes and shoes; there were also many repair shops, repairing appliances and patching tires, with parts and tools piled up at the entrance.

However, there were very few food shops, and when you did see a few, the entrances seemed rather deserted.

Ye Qiumian slowed down and spotted a shop with a sign that read "Fresh Vegetables," so she turned on her turn signal and pulled over. She got out of the car and walked over. The shop didn't have many vegetables; there were only two or three shelves with a few leafy greens, such as romaine lettuce, lettuce, and water spinach, which looked quite fresh.

There were also some apples, peaches and bananas in the small basket next to it, their bright colors indicating that they had been carefully selected.

"Boss lady, how much is this romaine lettuce?" Ye Qiumian asked casually.

The middle-aged woman who was doing the accounting looked up and saw a customer. She immediately greeted her warmly: "Beautiful lady, this lettuce is very fresh. It was just taken from the back warehouse. Ten crystal cores per pound."

Ye Qiumian paused for a moment while picking vegetables.

Ten crystal cores per kilogram?
She did some mental calculations: after the apocalypse, crystal cores became the universal currency, and one level-one crystal core could be exchanged for about two kilograms of grain.

The price of this romaine lettuce is really not cheap.

She didn't say much, but pointed to the vegetables on the shelf: "Two pounds of romaine lettuce, and two pounds each of lettuce and water spinach."

Then he turned to the fruit section and said, "Give me five apples, four peaches, and a bunch of bananas."

When the proprietress saw that she had bought a lot, her eyes instantly crinkled into crescent moons with a smile, and she quickly began weighing and bagging the vegetables.

He kept muttering, "You have such good taste, young lady! The vegetables and fruits here are the best in the base. Look how fresh they are. They were all grown in greenhouses specially built by the military, with dedicated personnel to oversee them, and the water used is completely unpolluted."

As she packed the produce, she sighed, "When they first came out, they were so popular that you couldn't get any. The supply couldn't keep up with the demand. Later, we had no choice but to sell them at a higher price, otherwise, how could we possibly have enough for so many people? Only now, with a higher price, can we sell them here steadily."

Ye Qiumian listened quietly, paid over two hundred crystal cores, and returned to her car carrying several heavy bags.

There was still plenty of space in the trunk, so she put the vegetables and fruits in and then glanced at the surrounding shops.

There were two fast food restaurants not far away, but there wasn't a single person queuing up in front of them.

It goes without saying that at this moment, who would be willing to use their crystal cores to eat a fast food meal?
A single meal would cost at least a dozen crystal cores, enough for an ordinary person to buy a small bag of flour from the military's food bureau—enough to feed a family for more than half a month.

Looking away, Ye Qiu Mian started the car, preparing to drive a little further to take a look.

After leaving the vegetable shop, Ye Qiumian glanced at the navigation and drove towards the few meat shops in the base.

The butcher shop was even more rudimentary than the vegetable shop, consisting of a semi-open shed with a few pieces of red and white meat hanging on an iron rack. They looked fairly fresh, but the quantity was pitifully small.

The boss was a burly man who was wiping the counter with a rag.

Seeing a customer arrive, he looked up and said, "What would you like? These are all I have; I just received them today."

Ye Qiumian glanced at the price tag and frowned slightly. Ordinary pork cost thirty crystal cores per pound, which was more than twice as expensive as vegetables.

"Why is this meat so expensive?" she asked.

The boss straightened up and wiped his hands: "Is this pretty young lady new to the base? This meat is very precious."

There aren't nearly as many large-scale pig farms as there used to be. Even military-run pig farms are limited in number. With so many people at the base, they can't possibly supply enough. It's good enough if they can even buy meat at all.

He pointed to an empty iron hook next to him, "But occasionally, if we're lucky, we can get meat from mutated beasts. Those teams that go out to kill zombies, if they come across a lone mutated beast, they risk their lives to bring it back. We collect it and then sell it. The meat is more expensive, but it's said that eating it can replenish your strength, so many people are scrambling to get it."

Ye Qiumian understood.

In the apocalypse, survival is difficult enough, let alone eating meat.