Chapter 429: Doomsday Trading System (1)

In the previous plane, Xie Yang lived until the end of her natural life before departing.

At that time, the Hengyi Group was already a world-renowned top-100 enterprise.

When the domestic real estate market fell into a slump, it had already adjusted its track, shifting from developing commercial housing to whole-house smart systems, and the technology companies it invested in became the industry's leading enterprises.

However, as technology developed with each passing day, certain topics also emerged—for instance, humanity's reliance on high technology might bring about its own catastrophic destruction. This triggered various "doomsday theories."

Xie Yang's grandchildren also followed the trend of building safe houses, spending huge sums of money on renovations, modifications, and stockpiling all sorts of goods, which left her—at that time leisurely enjoying her retirement on a tropical island—unable to laugh or cry when she heard about it.

Little did she know that the doomsday her grandchildren worried about for nothing was something she herself would soon experience—

【Host, Host, wake up!】

"Hmm?"

This sleep felt like it had lasted a very, very long time; Xie Yang felt as if her bones were aching.

She struggled to pry open her sore, swollen eyelids, and before she could even take in the environment of this body, the Main System stuffed the memories of the person she was possessing into her mind.

【Host, receive the memories later; deal with the Sub-system first, someone is coming.】

Only then did Xie Yang notice a child, looking like a New Year print doll, cowering in the corner of her sea of consciousness—

On its forehead, two cute, sky-pointing braids were tied with red silk ribbons; it wore only a striking green silk bellyband; it had no shoes on its feet, and its chubby little feet were curled up. If there were a floor, it would probably have already dug out a two-bedroom apartment with its toes by now.

【Who are you? Are you the target I'm supposed to bind with?】

Look, even its voice was soft and powdery.

Xie Yang was amused; she had originally intended to recycle it and send it back to the factory, but now she felt like teasing it.

"That's right! I am the target you are to bind with."

The ignorant, newborn little system quickly perked up: 【Then can I start the binding?】

"Sure."

【Ding! Congratulations to the Host for binding with the Everything Trading System. I am your trading assistant, Tuantuan. If the Host has anything she doesn't understand during the trading process, she can summon Tuantuan at any time. Tuantuan is very happy to serve the Host!】

"Boom!"

Before the cute, naive Sub-system could finish its introduction, the wooden door was kicked open by an external force.

A crowd of people stood at the door, their expressions ranging from disgusted to impatient.

"I'm telling you, Third Aunt, isn't the little cousin perfectly fine? How could it be as serious as you said?"

"I said it was impossible; Alienation wouldn't happen without any signs. In my opinion, her constitution is just too poor; she gets a fever whenever she's a little tired, doesn't she usually do that anyway? Why make such a fuss?"

"I'm telling you, Third Sister-in-law, are you trying to say we don't have enough trouble or chaos? What time do you think it is, and you're still playing such jokes?"

Yu Baozhi fixed her eyes on her daughter, who was huddled in the corner of the room with her knees hugged to her chest, and confirmed that she was fine and not undergoing Alienation. The heavy stone in her heart fell, and she hurriedly waved her hands to explain:

"No, no! I'm not joking. When we were preparing to rest after dinner, Yang Yang told me her body was burning up, saying she had been scratched by a Zombie's fingernail while out looking for supplies in the afternoon. She locked herself in the room because she was afraid of hurting me if she underwent Alienation. At that time, she was truly burning up all over and her eyes were bloodshot. I'm definitely not lying to you all. I stood guard outside the door until past nine o'clock and never heard a sound from her. I was afraid something had happened to her, so I went to call you."

"Alright, alright, stop making things up! If she had really been scratched by a Zombie's fingernail, she would have already undergone Alienation; how could she have waited until now?"

"It's not like there isn't another possibility..."

"Brother Cong, you don't mean to say the little cousin survived the Alienation and became an Ability User, do you? Look at that cowardly look of hers; if she's an Ability User, I'll perform eating shit for everyone."

"..."

Xie Yang really wanted to offer a steaming pile of shit to this brother who spoke, but unfortunately, she didn't have one.

【The Everything Trading System has it! We have everything, Host, do you want to trade?】

The cute, chubby little Tuantuan suddenly spoke up.

Xie Yang: "..."

Before she could say anything, the little Tuantuan exclaimed:

【Oh no! It's not possible right now! The Host doesn't have any Trading Coins.】

"..."

This little guy looks so cute and naive, could it be a little "green tea" bitch?

The Main System let out a muffled laugh, its entire avatar shaking as if it were having a seizure.

Xie Yang knew what it was laughing at; the poor have no say.

But she couldn't be bothered with it right now; she had to deal with what was in front of her first.

"Alright, alright, it's already very late, and we have to leave the city tomorrow, so everyone go get some rest."

The head of the family, Xie Yongguo, spoke with a dark face. Everyone stopped talking and turned to return to their chosen rooms to rest.

This was the third place they had found after escaping the Zombie-infested Relocation Residential District.

Compared to the first two storefronts where they would wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of Zombies clawing at the rolling shutters and floor-to-ceiling glass windows, this place was clearly much safer; at least they weren't as terrified.

This was an office building, and most of the units in the building were occupied by foreign trade companies, so it was also called the Foreign Trade Building.

It was just that foreign trade business had been sluggish in recent years, and the office units were very deserted.

Some had closed down, and even though the rent hadn't expired and they hadn't been transferred, they just sat empty.

Some were still holding on.

However, the day the doomsday descended happened to be a Saturday, and the employees were all on holiday. Apart from the security guards and a few employees who had come in to work overtime voluntarily, there was no one in the building.

The Xie Family used an alarm clock to lure the Alienated security guards and employees into the conference room and locked them inside; after that, it was safe here.

However, this safety was only relative.

For one, it was too close to the commercial street, where there were many Zombies, and there was a gradual trend of them moving toward here; for another, the foreign trade company units displayed only things like clothing and textiles, daily ceramics, kitchenware, glass crafts, gardening supplies, home decor, woven and rattan-iron crafts, as well as bathroom equipment and wooden furniture. There wasn't much food—just the snacks and drinks in the breakrooms and some small snacks found in employees' drawers. How could that be enough for a large group of people to share?

Besides, it was only a power outage now; if the tap water were to be cut off one day, what would be the difference between hiding here and waiting for death?

Just then, a drone flew overhead, and the loudspeaker hanging from it repeatedly played a notice.

It called for the survivors to head to the city bypass entrance in groups, where the government had set up a temporary Safe Base.

Once inside the base, one could apply for various positions based on their own abilities and specialties to earn work points to exchange for three meals a day and a place to stay.

It sounded much more reliable than trying to survive on their own; at least this Safe Base was built under government leadership, not some small, amateur Shelter.

One can head to the base from here, but the journey is quite long; if a vehicle cannot be obtained, one can only go on foot.

Therefore, during these past few days, the Xie Family would go out during the day to search for supplies, hoping to collect more useful items so that when they reached the base, they could trade for things they needed with others.

The other few families all had strong laborers, and the things they carried back were not few.

Only in the family of Lao San, on the day the apocalypse descended, Xie Yongcheng happened to have gone to the University Town to deliver things to his son, and as a result, he was blocked in the University Town by a zombie army.