Chapter 5
After Zhou Qi left the grocery store, he followed the marks he left yesterday and found the withered tree.
The dead tree that was standing tall in the soil yesterday fell to the ground today, with its trunk broken in half and signs of being gnawed.
There were also more animal footprints on the surrounding mud.
Zhou Qi's expression turned serious. He tightened his grip on the wooden stick and looked around vigilantly.
It was obvious that after he left yesterday, another creature had come here. Judging from the footprints, the creature should be quite large.
After some hesitation, Zhou Qi did not choose to return along the same route, but instead followed the original plan and tracked the shoe prints he had found before to the southeast of the ruins.
No matter what, we can't return empty-handed today.
The clues on the ground were soon lost, but not long after, Zhou Qi discovered a path that was obviously made by humans.
This means that this deserted city is not completely devoid of human inhabitants, and there should be a certain number of them.
This is definitely surprising good news!
Zhou Qi hurriedly continued to follow the path, but soon encountered a fork in the road.
These forks in the road are complicated and sometimes become narrower and narrower. As you walk along, you don’t know if it is a trick to hide the view.
To this end, Zhou Qi spent most of the day wandering around.
During this time, apart from the occasional attack by birds, he did not encounter any other living creatures, which was really frustrating.
As time went by, he had more wounds on his body, which were cut by some grass leaves.
The weeds looked harmless, but their blades were so sharp that they could even cut through cloth. The wooden stick he used to push away the weeds was already scarred.
At noon, he rested for a while in the shade, ate some bread, drank some water, and then he cheered up and set off again.
Finally, when he turned into a new fork in the road, he vaguely heard some strange noises.
Zhou was happy at first, but soon became alert again.
He thought of the animal footprints he had found that morning. In this apocalyptic world, the chances of artificially raising pets should be very small...
If he really encounters a wild beast, it will be difficult for him to escape.
So he became more cautious.
Zhou Qi tried to lighten his steps and approached cautiously in the direction where the noise came from. Finally, after he pushed aside the weeds, a slightly hunched figure appeared in his sight.
She was an old woman with gray hair. She was wearing worn but neat clothes and was standing next to a small tree.
Zhou Qi did not go closer immediately, but looked at the old man, slightly dazed.
Now is the time of day when the light is the brightest. The old woman is standing in the sunlight, and Zhou Qi can see her movements clearly.
She raised her hands with her palms facing the small tree. Faintly, one could see a faint green light flickering in her palms.
What was even more amazing was that the green tree, which was about one meter tall and covered with snow-white flowers, began to wither under his gaze, and in the blink of an eye, it produced fruits the size of soybeans.
This is not over yet.
As time goes by, those tiny fruits are growing and ripening at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The old man didn't withdraw his hands until the fruits became the size of a fist and turned slightly red.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, then bent down to pick up the basket on the ground, took out a sickle from it, and cut off all the fruits and leaves with swift movements.
During this process, the originally vibrant little tree gradually withered until it turned completely yellow and dried up.
Zhou Qi watched this scene from afar and was deeply shocked.
Maybe it was because he was watching too intently, but the old man suddenly looked at him alertly.
Zhou Qi was startled, and then he saw the old woman quickly put on the backpack, holding the sickle in her right hand, and ran in the opposite direction with agility rarely seen at her age.
"etc!"
Zhou Qi shouted subconsciously.
I finally met her, how could I let her run away like this?
He ran out from behind the haystack in a hurry, but in the blink of an eye, the old man had taken cover of the ruins and ran away to who knows where.
Zhou Qi did not give up and chose a direction to track.
What made him despair was that when he tracked it to the end, he actually went in a circle and returned to the location of the dead tree!
Still lost...
Zhou Qi couldn't help but sigh. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and sat down on a stone nearby with some frustration.
He was about to take out the water bottle to drink water, but he heard a slightly old female voice behind him.
"Waha, where are you from? Why are you chasing me?"
Zhou Qi was stunned. Although the man spoke with a strange accent, he was indeed speaking Chinese and he could understand him!
He hurriedly stood up and looked back, only to see that the old man had run to the second floor of the collapsed building at some point. He was now leaning out and looking down at him.
Zhou Qi paused and said politely, "Hello, grandma."
The old man looked him up and down, his eyes still wary. "You look unfamiliar, and your accent is unfamiliar to me. Are you from out of town?"
Zhou Qi nodded, but did not reveal too much about his situation. Instead, he said straight to the point: "Sorry, I was chasing you just now because I just wanted to exchange some fruits with you."
"Are you alone?"
"Yes."
The old man looked at him warily, "What do you want in exchange?"
This Zhou Qi was ready when he left the grocery store. He asked, "Do you need salt?"
"Salt?" The old man's eyes lit up.
Seeing that she was interested, Zhou Qi breathed a sigh of relief and took out a small transparent sealable bag from his backpack, which contained exactly three grams of salt.
"Yes, that's the salt."
Zhou Qi said, then took the initiative to pour out a little bit of salt and ate it in front of the old man to prove that there was nothing wrong with the salt.
"How do you want to exchange it?" The old man looked at the salt bag in his hand, obviously interested.
"How about I exchange this small bag for three fruits?" Zhou Qi said.
Salt can be exchanged for points, and the grocery store still has half a bucket of bulk coarse salt and a few bags of iodized salt. It is definitely a good deal to trade with salt.
"Okay." The old man nodded.
Zhou Qi's eyes showed a hint of joy, and he said: "My name is Zhou Qi, what is your name?"
"Everyone here calls me Granny Guo," said the old man.
Zhou Qi nodded secretly. It seemed that his guess was correct. There were still many people living in this deserted city.
At this time, Granny Guo had already retracted her body and appeared from another path, still holding the sickle in her hand.
Zhou Qi did not lose his vigilance. He stepped back calmly and kept some distance from her.
His initiative to step back made Grandma Guo nod her head. She took three fruits from her backpack, placed them on the stone under the dead tree, and then stepped back.
Only then did Zhou Qi step forward with confidence.
He took out a clean piece of paper from his backpack and spread it on the stone. Then he opened the salt bag and carefully poured one-third of it onto the paper.
"I'll give you one fruit in exchange for this salt." As he said this, he picked up a fruit from the stone.
As Granny Guo nodded, a line of text popped up in front of Zhou Qi.
You completed a transaction with a new customer and made a profit. Your employee experience points increased by 1.
No points reminder...
Zhou Qi frowned slightly, feeling a little unsure, but he still continued with the transaction.
Grandma Guo, who was standing in the distance, saw him pour out the salt packets in three batches and tell her every time he took the fruit. Her expression inevitably became strange.
Fortunately, this behavior only happened three times.
After folding and wrapping the paper with salt grains and placing it on the stone, Zhou Qi put the three fruits into his backpack. Then he thanked Grandma Guo and turned to leave.
At this time, Granny Guo suddenly said, "Waha, find a place to hide before dark, and don't run around."
Zhou Qi paused, thanked her, and continued to leave.
Granny Guo breathed a sigh of relief after watching the young man's back disappear at the end of the path.
Zhou Qi's height was quite oppressive to her. Although he was dirty, he must have a good family background, otherwise he would not have grown so tall in such a barren land with scarce resources.
If he hadn't looked so young and innocent, and didn't seem to have any ill intentions, she wouldn't have taken the initiative to talk to him.
Granny Guo walked over, picked up the bag of salt, opened it, and was pleasantly surprised to see the fine, white salt grains inside without any impurities.
I haven't seen salt of such good quality in many years!
She carefully picked up a few grains and tasted them on the tip of her tongue. When she was sure that it was indeed salt, the caution on her face was completely replaced by joy, and even the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes were filled with smiles.
Granny Guo glanced at the direction the young man left and felt a little embarrassed.
Such high-quality salt powder, although only a small bag, is more than what can be exchanged for three fruits. She was taking advantage of the child.
She hesitated for a moment, but finally shook her head, packed up her things and left.
If we have the chance to meet again in the future, I'll give him a few more fruits. Although the chances of meeting him again in the wasteland are a bit low...
*
[Employee "Zhou Qi" completed a transaction with a new customer and made a profit, earning +9 points and +3 experience points]
[Employee Zhou Qi completed a transaction with a returning customer and made a profit. Points +9, Experience +2]
[Employee Zhou Qi completed a transaction with a regular customer and made a profit. Points +9, Experience +1]
[You completed the daily task (1), points +2]
[You completed daily tasks (5), points +2]
[Congratulations on completing all daily tasks. Your Lucky Wheel draw number +1]
Tang Yu'an looked at the system popping up several messages in succession. He was a little confused at first, and then he was overwhelmed by great surprise.
Brother Xiaoqi successfully found a new customer and completed the transaction!
He took a look and found that his points balance had suddenly jumped from 32 to 63. Although it was still a long way from 100, it was still a glimpse of hope. And more importantly—
[Experience value is full, merchant level +1]
[Merchant level reaches lv1, and wheat, glucose, and alcohol (75% concentration) can be exchanged in the mall. For details, please visit the "Wholesale Market"]
【Unlocking new features...】
[Congratulations, the business map has been successfully unlocked! You can view it on the homepage]
[Congratulations, your portable warehouse has been successfully unlocked! Current number of slots: 5 (you can unlock more slots by leveling up)]
Tang Yu'an's eyes lit up, portable warehouse!
Is it the kind of backpack in the game? Thinking of this, he couldn't wait to explore it.
As his mind turned, the interface of the portable warehouse suddenly popped up.
Only five grids are displayed on the interface. According to the instructions next to them, these grids are small spaces of 1x1x1 cubic meters. They can be merged or separated and used individually.
Items placed in the portable warehouse will be frozen in the state they were in when they were placed in. There is no need to worry about them spoiling. Of course, there are limitations, that is, living things with life consciousness cannot be stored, and items that exceed the volume of the space cannot be stored.
And the most important thing is that you can also specify grids to share with employees!
Of course, at his current level, he can only designate a minimum unit, which is a 1x1x1 cubic meter portable warehouse, to be shared with Zhou Qi.
However, Tang Yu'an was already very satisfied. He had gained such a practical function after only upgrading to the next level. If he continued to upgrade in the future, he would definitely be able to unlock more.
After carefully reading the instructions, Tang Yu'an picked up a bottle of mineral water and put it into grid No. 1 of his portable warehouse with a silent recitation in his mind. The bottle of mineral water then disappeared from his hand.
He looked at the interface of the portable warehouse again, and sure enough, there was an extra bottle of mineral water in grid No. 1, and information was displayed next to it like an inventory.
Tang Yu'an touched his chin, turned around, opened his schoolbag, and took out a notebook and a ballpoint pen.
He wrote a few lines on the notebook, and then used the same operation to put the notebook and pen into the No. 1 portable grid, and then shared this grid with his "employee" Zhou Qi.
*
After Zhou Qi said goodbye to Grandma Guo, he continued to wander around the path, hoping to find a new customer.
He actually thought about whether he should ask Granny Guo directly, but after hesitating, he chose to leave.
They were just strangers who met by chance. If the old lady was wary of him, he couldn't trust her either - what if she saw that he was carrying a lot of goods and became malicious?
Three grams of salt were exchanged for three fruits, and coupled with Granny Guo's attitude, Zhou Qi had some guesses about the prices in this world.
What's more, his behavior of constantly looking for people to trade with seems a bit suspicious.
So Zhou Qi chose to say goodbye temporarily and planned to come back to look for this Granny Guo tomorrow. As long as they could develop her into a stable customer, they would be able to earn stable points.
At this moment, a system text prompt popped up in the void in front of him.
[Your efforts have paid off. The mysterious merchant has shared the right to use "Portable Warehouse No. 1" with you. Please check it in your personal panel.]
Zhou Qi was stunned and quickly called out the system panel. Sure enough, he saw the words "Portable Warehouse" at the bottom.
As he clicked in, the information of No. 1 portable warehouse appeared in front of him.
Seeing the notebook inside, Zhou Qi had an idea and quickly clicked to take it out, and the notebook appeared out of thin air in his hand.
He opened the notebook and saw Tang Yu'an's handwriting on it.
[Xiaoqi, I received points and experience points! 27 in total, plus the gains from daily quests, a total of 31. You're awesome! ^O^/]
My merchant level has also been upgraded to level 1, unlocking new features, including this portable warehouse.
【If you can receive it, please remember to reply to me! 】
Waiting for you, An
After reading the message Tang Yu'an sent him, Zhou Qi couldn't help but smile.
He looked around, found a secluded corner to sit in, then took out a ballpoint pen from his personal storage and began to write a reply to Tang Yu'an.
After writing it, he put it back in the warehouse. After thinking for a while, he took out all the things in the backpack and put them into the portable warehouse, leaving only an empty bag and the stick in his hand.
This way, he felt a lot lighter.
And the grocery store on the other side.
Tang Yu'an kept staring at the warehouse panel and soon saw the system message refresh next to it:
[Cell 1: Employee "Zhou Qi" took the exercise book*1]
[Cell 1: Employee "Zhou Qi" took a ballpoint pen*1]
[Cell 1: Employee "Zhou Qi" placed the workbook*1]
【……】
Tang Yu'an was delighted and quickly took out the notebook and opened it to check.
Zhou first briefly talked about what happened to him today, told him that he was fine and not to worry, and then asked him if his fever had subsided and if he had eaten lunch well.
Tang Yu'an just took his temperature and found he still had a low fever, and his throat was starting to hurt.
However, he did not tell Zhou Qi the truth, but only wished him well.
Thinking of something, he flipped through the list interface again, found a dagger, and put it into his personal storage so that Zhou Qi could use it to defend himself when necessary.
After doing all this, and watching the system messages constantly refreshing with Zhou Qi's operations, Tang Yu'an finally let go of the heavy stone in his heart.
It would be nice if I had a cell phone that I could talk to in real time.
Of course, he also knew that without satellites, he wouldn't be able to make calls even with a cell phone, but...
Tang Yu'an entered "mobile phone" in the list function, and after searching, he actually found something surprising -
Mom left her cell phone at home!
Tang Yu'an quickly took out his cell phone. Although there was no network or communication signal, it could be used to type, take pictures and record audio, which was much more convenient than communicating with paper and pen!
He checked and successfully unlocked the screen with his birthday. When he saw the photo of their family of four on the homepage wallpaper, Tang Yu'an couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat.
He took a few deep breaths and successfully held back his tears, then put the phone into compartment 1.
After exchanging a few words with Zhou Qi and telling him the lock screen password, Tang Yu'an began to study other gains.
First of all, there are three more exchangeable goods in the mall wholesale market.
Wheat: 1 point/100g
Glucose: 1 point/10g
Alcohol (75% concentration): 25 points/500ml
As they had guessed before, as the merchant's level increased, the types of goods that could be exchanged would increase.
In Tang Yu'an's opinion, the three newly unlocked things are also very useful, especially alcohol, which can not only disinfect and sterilize, physically cool down, but also act as fuel.
He quickly shared the good news with Zhou Qi.
However, Zhou Qi did not check his message immediately, probably because he was on the road or was delayed by something.
Tang Yu'an didn't care either.
He opened the lucky wheel again, used up the times he had just obtained, counted the points in his mind, and actually drew 10 points!
In addition to the portable warehouse, there is a new function entrance on his homepage panel: business map.
Tang Yu'an clicked on it curiously.
A rectangular map appeared in front of him.
However, most of the map was covered by thick black fog, with only a green bean-sized dot in the middle having color, and the words "Ping An Grocery Store" were marked with dotted lines next to it.
Tang Yu'an selected the scale bar on the right, and the entire map was immediately enlarged.
The five words "Ping An Grocery Store" remained unchanged, but the surrounding content filled the entire map and became a size that he could see clearly.
The most eye-catching thing is the golden five-pointed star in the middle, with "Ping An Grocery Store" marked with a dotted line. There is also a little man on the five-pointed star, which should represent himself.
With the five-pointed star as the center, the fog in the southeast direction was dispelled, and the terrain could be vaguely seen.
Tang Yu'an stared at the map and, combining it with the information Zhou Qi had communicated to him, he could roughly guess that these areas not shrouded in fog should be the places his brother Xiaoqi had explored.
So the different colored dots of light above...
Tang Yu'an looked at the mark next to the map:
Customers: potential customers (green), new customers (silver), returning customers (light gold), and old customers (gold).
Employee: Blue.
Dangerous Creatures: Red.
So on the map, the blue dot is Xiaoqi, and the golden dot is Granny Guo, whom Xiaoqi just met. And the red one...
Tang Yu'an was stunned.
Suddenly, a red light spot appeared at the edge of the foggy area on the map, almost overlapping with the blue light spot representing Zhou Qi. Then, the two light spots moved rapidly on the map!
Oh no, Brother Xiaoqi is in danger!
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