“Mutant mantis scythes! Mutant mantis scythes! Only 1,000 points—you won’t lose out, you won’t get scammed…”
“A roll of mutant spider silk, 500 points. You can take it to the handicraft shop under the research institute to have it made into protective clothing—absolutely worth every point…”
“Mutant cabbage worms! Mutant cabbage worms! 200 points each, folks! Huge clearance sale! Hundreds of pounds of meat here…”
Qin Sang and Xu Lin walked down the street, listening to the rising and falling cries of street vendors, and felt as if they’d been transported back to the marketplaces of the old days. The stalls were set up directly on the ground. The more particular vendors used wooden tables to display their goods. Against the backdrop of battle-scarred, dilapidated buildings, there was even a certain post-apocalyptic thriving energy to it all.
“I didn’t expect everyone to adapt so quickly!” Qin Sang couldn’t help but remark as she watched the bustling, crowded scene.
“Yeah,” Xu Lin agreed. As someone working in the information division, he had seen even more of the bigger picture.
No one could have imagined that just a week ago, the appearance of the black energy masses had led to the deaths of so many people. Back then, everyone felt their lives were hanging by a thread. Many scrambled to find any way out, and quite a few even took their own lives. The scale of it was even more severe than when the mutant parasites first appeared.
And yet, under such dire circumstances, just a week later, humanity had miraculously adapted once again.
Looking at the scene before her, Qin Sang felt that humans were even harder to kill than cockroaches. Truly—in just one week, everyone had grown accustomed to a brutal environment where death could strike at any moment.
Case in point: right as they were standing on the street watching the commotion, a three-meter-long mutant earthworm suddenly burst out of the ground not far away.
People screamed. But after the screams died down, some fled while others rushed forward en masse, quickly slaughtering the mutant earthworm.
Of course, disputes followed immediately. Too many people, too few energy cores. With just one core, those who had a hand in killing the creature started arguing among themselves.
Fortunately, officers from the management bureau were stationed at the market, so no one dared to actually come to blows. In the end, they agreed to sell the core for points and split the proceeds evenly.
See? Just like that—it was remarkable.
“Pretty lady! Want to buy some mutant cabbage worm meat?”
Just as the two of them happened to stop by a stall selling cabbage worms, the vendor called out to them.
Qin Sang looked at the massive cabbage worm on the ground, over three meters long, rolled up like a tire and left lying there. Its entire body was green, with only its eyes and mouth black.
Hmm. Qin Sang looked away. She found that the larger the insects got, the more nauseating their details became.
“200 points for all that meat! You won’t lose out, you won’t get scammed…”
The vendor kept pushing his sales pitch, but Qin Sang simply shook her head.
It wasn’t that she was picky—it was that mutant cabbage worm meat tasted like excrement. And because its energy content was low and it was easy to kill, the price was naturally low.
This was the kind of meat only those who couldn’t afford better would buy—for example, some of the surviving ordinary humans.
Yes, after successive disasters—the high temperatures, the insects growing larger, the insects evolving into mutants, the mutants evolving again after absorbing the black energy masses—the number of surviving ordinary people had plummeted.
Earlier, there had been numerous conflicts online between ordinary people and spatial ability users, even spilling over into real life.
But after several waves of catastrophe, the number of ordinary people had sharply declined. No matter how many conflicts there were, they couldn’t sustain the same fervor.
The world was gradually becoming dominated by spatial ability users.
Take now, for example: with daytime temperatures exceeding ninety degrees, ordinary people couldn’t walk under the sun without high-temperature protective gear, unlike spatial ability users.
This market was located in the suburbs, about an hour’s walk from their village. But she and Xu Lin had driven over in a newly developed vehicle, taking only about ten minutes.
Their purpose here was to see if they could buy mutant plants or mutant plant seeds.
Yes, the emergence of mutant parasites had previously brought mutant plants into humanity’s field of vision.
But just as the research institute was making some headway, the black energy masses appeared—and suddenly, no one had time to pay attention to mutant plants anymore.
Now, many of the mutant insects had been killed off. Those that remained had banded together in sparsely populated areas.
So research on mutant plants had once again come back into focus.
However, plant mutation was probably harder to come by. They’d walked the entire way without even seeing anyone selling ordinary rice, let alone mutant plants.
Xu Lin: “How about posting a task on the app?”
The survival app had a community bulletin board where people exchanged supplies and even posted tasks like the official channels.
Qin Sang shook her head. The authorities were also collecting mutant plants. Those who had them tended to prefer trading with the government, since it had access to a lot of weaponry and equipment.
Take the laser sword Xu Lin had used last time, for instance. She later learned it had only recently been developed; the one he had was a prototype.
And laser weapons didn’t stop at swords—there were also laser cannons and laser rifles.
It was precisely because of such weapons that humanity had barely managed to hold on against the evolved mutant insects. For now, both sides were locked in a stalemate.
Of course, there was another force that couldn’t be underestimated.
—
“Are those pet cans?”
Qin Sang suddenly noticed a stall ahead displaying some pet supplies.
Xu Lin: “Yeah, and pet food too.”
Several people with cats and dogs were squatting in front of the stall, picking through the items. These cats and dogs had all grown considerably larger in size. Most importantly, they now emitted energy fields—they had evolved into mutant animals.
Yes, the mutant cats and dogs were another force that helped push back the mutant insects.
“No way, 100 points is too little. Every can of cat food I sell is one less—factories aren’t producing this stuff anymore.”
“Oh come on, cats don’t rely on canned food these days anyway! They can hunt for themselves—they eat mutant insects. There are plenty of mutant insects out there…”
“Then don’t buy it.”
The vendor, likely the stall owner, said this and snatched the can right back from the haggling woman’s hand.
The woman had a beautiful Ragdoll cat at her feet, about the size of a small dog, weighing an estimated thirty pounds or more.
So beautiful!
Qin Sang praised it silently in her mind, but she didn’t go over to pet the cat.
Mutant cats and dogs these days had very high intelligence.
She had come here to buy some cat treats and canned food to take back for Little Tabby. Little Tabby had also evolved into a mutant cat. Still a kitten, it was now about the size of an ordinary adult cat, weighing just over ten pounds.
Though the cat treats and canned food from before the apocalypse no longer served any real nutritional purpose, it was still nice to give Little Tabby an occasional treat.
Everyone at this stall was thinking the same thing.
Judging by their clean clothes and the absence of any body odor, it was clear they were doing quite well for themselves.
In this water-scarce apocalypse, being able to stay so clean definitely relied on their own mutant cats and dogs.
“Forget it, forget it, I’m done talking to you. So stingy over such a little thing…”
The woman grumbled under her breath, but her hands moved quickly as she scanned the QR code hanging at the stall and transferred the points over.
It was only then that Qin Sang actually noticed the vendor.
“Why are you here selling stuff?”
Qu Meijing was just feeling pleased about another batch of points added to her account, bringing her one step closer to buying a laser weapon. When she heard the question, she looked up and spotted Qin Sang and Xu Lin standing a few meters away from their stall.
She waved and greeted them directly.
Qin Sang nodded, thought for a moment, then walked over and picked out some cat toys, canned food, and treats.
Before Little Tabby grew up, she might as well let it play with some ordinary cat toys.
“Qin Sang, which one do you want? I’ll give you a discount.”
Seeing how enthusiastic Qu Meijing was, Qin Sang just shook her head. “No need. Whatever the price is, that’s what I’ll pay.”
“Oh, but—”
Qin Sang stared at her steadily until Qu Meijing looked away. Only then did she continue picking out items.
It wasn’t that she was being cold—it was simply that Qu Meijing was the type of person who put a price tag on everything she did.
If she got a discount now, who knew what Qu Meijing would ask for in return later?
And sure enough, her instincts were right. After dealing with the other customers, Qu Meijing directly asked Qin Sang whether she could get her hands on some laser weapons.
As she said this, she kept glancing at Xu Lin.
Xu Lin: …
Qin Sang knew it. If Qu Meijing hadn’t stepped up to fight alongside them during several village crises, Qin Sang honestly wouldn’t have bothered with her.
“Laser weapons are in short supply and are prioritized for combat units.”
The authorities released a limited number on the app store every day. But with so many people across the country—even after all the deaths, the population base was still enormous—a few thousand or even tens of thousands of people were fighting over each weapon. It was normal not to be able to snag one.
Hearing Qin Sang’s response, Qu Meijing looked disappointed.
Qin Sang didn’t pay it much mind. After making her purchases, she left.
On the way, Xu Lin said directly: “We can still get one or two laser weapons internally. But they can only be used by you, Uncle Qin, and Aunt Qin.”
Qin Sang: “I know. Good things should go to family first.” And if there were extras, she’d get one for Fa Ge too—he’d put in tremendous effort defending the village over the past few months.
But before they even made it out of the market, someone stopped them.
Xu Lin was about to push the person aside when the man said he had a way to buy laser weapons.
Qin Sang raised an eyebrow. This guy must have overheard what Qu Meijing said earlier.
“We—” Qin Sang was about to say they weren’t interested. Usually, when someone was that eager to sell something, there was something fishy about it. But on second thought, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. If it was a scam, they’d definitely report it.
In this day and age, selling counterfeit weapons was the kind of low-down, despicable act that would curse someone’s descendants for generations.
As it turned out, the man actually led them to a decent stash of laser weapons.
Qin Sang couldn’t tell if they were real or fake, so she signaled Xu Lin with her eyes to check.
Xu Lin examined each one and nodded. They looked genuine—just refurbished. Probably decommissioned from the battlefield earlier.
Qin Sang: No way.
But the weapons were real. Qin Sang asked directly how many points for one.
“Ten energy cores for one laser rifle.”
Qin Sang: Might as well just rob someone.
But even if she didn’t bite, others did. Before she even left, she saw Qu Meijing being urgently dragged over, and she actually pulled out ten fully charged energy cores to make the trade. Qin Sang didn’t even know what to say.
So she said nothing at all.
It even reminded Qin Sang of that classic pre-apocalypse line: “She’s the perfect customer for selling health supplements.”
She thought the matter was over. But just a few days later, she heard that someone had died in battle when their laser weapon malfunctioned.
Qin Sang felt genuinely sorry when she heard the news.
At this point, every human life lost was irreplaceable. Word had it that hardly any women dared to conceive after the apocalypse began, and those who did ended up losing the baby—whether voluntarily or otherwise.
With living conditions this harsh, even life itself seemed to know not to be born at such a time.
Anyway, back to the point. When Qu Meijing heard about it, she stormed straight back to the market to confront the seller.
And she wasn’t the only victim—quite a few others who’d been scammed gathered together. Qin Sang found it almost darkly amusing when she heard about it.
Even with mutant insects threatening their lives every day, people were still falling for scams.
Qin Sang was just planning to watch the drama unfold. Little did she know, it would soon drag her into it as well.
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