"When was this TV series broadcast? Why have I never seen the people in it before?" Meng Xingxiu's attention was attracted by the TV. There was nothing he could do. There was really too little entertainment here. He hadn't seen a TV since the power shortage.

No, I should say that I have never seen any electronic equipment or entertainment facilities again.

"I'm not too sure, maybe it's played randomly." Shi Jiu glanced at the character on it and shook her head. She had never seen this person before.

The two of them first made a bucket of noodles and opened some sausages to share. Maybe because they didn't have breakfast, they ate particularly fiercely.

"It's been a while since the end of the world, right?" Shi Jiu supported his cheek, seemingly expressing emotion but actually asking a question.

"Yes, there are..." When Meng Xingxiu heard this question, he wanted to say that it was a few months, but suddenly he found that his thinking seemed to be stuck, and even his hands holding the instant noodles became a little slow.

He looked at Gao Ziang and found that he was also confused.

"What's wrong?" Shi Jiu looked at the expressions of the two of them and couldn't help feeling a little strange. Their expressions gave off a sense of emptiness, as if they didn't know what day it was.

"It's been several months, I guess. I don't have any specific time records, so I can only estimate it based on how many zombie suppressions I participated in."

Gao Ziang's confusion lasted only a moment. He quickly remembered that he had participated in the large-scale search for supplies almost every day before and came up with a rough estimate.

Now looking at them, their expressions have returned to normal. It must have been an illusion just now.

Shi Jiu nodded and agreed, "Yeah, which base nearby did you come from?"

Gao Ziang took over the conversation, "The base we're staying in is called Ping'an Base. It's one of the four existing bases in City B. The area around it used to be a relatively low-rise residential area. At the beginning of the apocalypse, it was taken under control by officials. They gathered willing residents and some psychics from the surrounding area to clean up the residential area several times. Later, they built special buildings to enclose it, forming a base."

"Originally, the base we were staying at was pretty good, but then the leadership changed, and the management got worse day by day."

Meng Xingxiu slurped his noodles, quite dissatisfied with the base where he was currently living. Anyway, he would not live there in the future, so it didn't hurt to say it out loud.

"At first, everything was fine. We had to hand in a certain amount of supplies to live in the base, and the same was true for the rooms we lived in. We could go to the mission hall they had set up to take on missions. At that time, quite a few researchers had developed entry and exit cards that could be used to check our mission status, whether we were a member of the base, and so on."

"At that time, electricity was also limited in supply, also for better conservation and utilization. They also had their own communication network. Although we couldn't use it or charge it, it was somewhat comforting."

As he spoke, Gao Ziang's mood became a little depressed. "Things were originally pretty good. Although I thought the end of the world was terrible at that time, as long as we work hard, things will gradually get better."

"But not long after, there was a major shakeup in the upper management. We're out of electricity now, and our ID cards are useless. We have to hand over supplies every time we enter or leave. Furthermore, the atmosphere is getting worse and worse, and the prices for exchanging supplies are getting higher and higher. Many people are hoarding large amounts of supplies to trade with the people above them. I haven't seen those senior executives I used to meet in a long time. I guess..."

"Yes! Some of them are even secretly collecting crystal cores, but they are exchanging them for very cheap supplies." Meng Xingxiu suddenly remembered, "Is there something strange about this crystal core?"

Shi Jiu held a crystal core in his hand and heard his words, "Maybe those people want to research something. Don't you think this thing is useless?"

"Then why did you collect the crystal core?" Gao Ziang asked. Although it was useless, there were rumors in the base that this thing had been studied, but nothing had been found.

At the beginning, they all thought that the crystal cores in the bodies of zombies and strange beasts could be absorbed by holding them in their hands as described in novels, and then their superpowers could be enhanced.

Although neither of them is a psychic, they hope that this crystal core can stimulate their superpowers. At the very least, they can keep it in their hands and make deals with psychics.

But subsequent attempts told them that this was not a novel, but reality, and reality would never be as beautiful as novels. Today's psychics simply had some superpowers and were stronger than ordinary people, but because there was no way to upgrade, they were currently in a rather embarrassing situation.

When many people with special abilities first discover that they have special abilities, most of them become crazy and arrogant, and they feel like they are saviors. But just when these people are enthusiastically fighting zombies and digging crystal cores, thinking that they can upgrade themselves to become powerful, reality gives them a hard slap in the face.

It's totally useless!

The sparkling crystal core can flash charming light, but it cannot provide any energy. After experiencing various situations, they finally gave up their obsession with the crystal core and only asked specialized people to continue researching it. The zombies also continued to be fought, but their enthusiasm was reduced a lot because there was no greater benefit in return.

"I'm just following orders." Shi Jiu smiled back, implying that she was just an employee. Whether the crystal cores could be used or not had nothing to do with her. Her goal was just to collect them.

But if they have superpowers and can't upgrade, what's the point? This apocalypse doesn't look like it's going to destroy humanity directly, otherwise there wouldn't be such a thing as superpowers. There must be some breakthrough they haven't found yet.

While Shi Jiu was thinking, he asked again, "Are your daily supplies the same things you produced in the past?"

"Yeah, now we're just surviving on supplies with a longer shelf life. I don't know what to do after we run out of them."

After Gao Ziang finished eating, he half-collapsed on the sofa. Wow, it has been a long time since he had eaten so much. It feels so good to have his stomach filled with food. Meng Xingxiu next to him did the same thing.

"Aren't there exotic beasts? Those animals can't be eaten after they mutate?" Shi Jiu felt puzzled. It seemed that someone had mentioned the meat of exotic beasts before.

"Those are edible, but the taste and quantity are far less than normal food. There is too little edible meat, and the land is now polluted."

Meng Xingxiu sighed. The world has changed. In the past, resources on Blue Planet seemed inexhaustible. Land could be found everywhere, water could be used whenever needed, and electricity was even more indispensable.

"We haven't seen vegetables for a long time. If this continues, I'm afraid our bodies won't be able to hold on sooner or later." Gao Ziang is not worried about himself for the time being. He is more worried about his family. He is afraid that the children and the elderly will not be able to hold on for much longer.

"Yes, those people with special abilities not only have special abilities and improved capabilities, but more importantly, their physical constitutions have also changed, as if they have evolved. If we continue like this, we won't be able to hold on for long before problems arise. There are not many medicines available now." Even the carefree Meng Xingxiu couldn't help but worry about his future condition.

"Well, it sounds like a big problem." Shi Jiu thought about the harshness of the outside world. In fact, once the zombies appeared, how could it be good? The appearance of this kind of monster meant that danger was everywhere. If her hotel could not block the zombies, she could still be invincible here. She was afraid that she would have to fight the zombies while getting the crystal cores.

"Let's at least deal with the problem that can ensure our own survival first. Do you need to reserve a long-term room?" She currently has no good way to deal with these things, so it is better to set up her hotel first.

Back to reality, the most important issue at the moment is housing. Gao Ziang had already thought about it and decided to rent a place for a few days to try it out.

"Well, I'd like to rent two rooms for five people, probably for a week. Can I see the rooms first?"

It’s not that he doesn’t want a room for each of them, after all, the payment is per person, but his parents live in one room, and he and his wife and children live in another, so it’s enough for them to be able to take care of each other.

After looking at the room, they finally decided to rent it for a week. Meng Xingxiu next to them also said, "I want to rent a room for a week, too. I only need one room."

"Okay, I'll register this. Mr. Gao, there are five of you, and the seven-day period is... I just said I'll give you a 40% discount on the first day, so today is the first day, so it's 30 crystal cores. The next six days will be 300 crystal cores, for a total of 330 crystal cores."

After Shi Jiu counted, he pointed out a total of thirty-five sets of toiletries, as well as the room cards for 101 and 102 and gave them to him.

"You can put your things in first and go pick up your family. If you're worried you might lose the room card on the way, you can put it back with me for safekeeping."

"Okay, thank you." After Gao Ziang thanked him, he took the things and went into the room first.

"Mr. Meng, your seven-day stay is worth a total of 70 crystal cores." Shi Jiu calculated the crystal cores, repeated what he had just said, and gave him the room card for room 103 and toiletries for seven days.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for doing a good deed every day. Unlock the discount function. Reward: The number of people who prepaid this time will be included in advance. Lucky Cat Cash Register*1. Note: If the guest wants to cancel the rental, it cannot be refunded. Please be aware of this.]

Shi Jiu had just collected the money when a message popped up on her tablet reminding her that she had unlocked a new achievement.

"The number of prepaid people... do you mean the long-term rooms just reserved?" Shi Jiu was surprised. With this calculation, six people, seven days, even if the discount for the first day is deducted, there are a total of 400 experience points!

Because she found out in the previous level that experience points were calculated based on the number of people, and each person counted as 10 experience points, which was more than enough to upgrade to level 2 now.

Her eyes lit up. She didn't expect that she was still thinking that the employee summon ticket was unusable in the morning, but before the afternoon, she had accumulated enough experience points to level up.

Shi Jiu couldn't help but rub her hands. She wondered what good things reaching level 2 would bring her!