Chapter Twenty-Two: The Crystal Core

It is precisely because of the establishment of fixed connection channels that there are so-called special regional barriers and special pricing. Each time the spacetime engine crosses a world barrier, it requires a three-day cooldown period. For instance, even if Lin Lei had already earned enough contribution points to return from this zombie world, he would still have to wait three days before he could activate the spacetime traversal. Upon returning to Earth, it would likewise require at least another three days before he could cross over again.

Furthermore, according to the principle of not exploiting the same spacetime repeatedly, if Lin Lei chose to return to this world, it would not count as a field assignment; he would have to pay the full travel cost, and the system would automatically cease recycling any resources from this world. In other words, Lin Lei could come here for a vacation and spend contribution points, but he could not come to work and earn them.

With this promise from the system, Lin Lei finally felt at ease. This romance could continue—at most, it was just a long-distance relationship.

The battle had ended completely. Yang Chunxi left some people behind to clean up the battlefield, primarily to retrieve spent shell casings for reloading. With the ammunition supplied by Lin Lei and the recycled casings, Niutou Mountain wouldn’t need further ammo resupply in the short term.

Thus, the management committee unanimously decided to exchange all spoils of war for rice. As for instant noodles, those were considered a luxury; hardly anyone had chosen them when the agreement was signed.

For every hundred level-one zombies, if exchanged for bullets, Lin Lei had to pay Niutou Mountain five hundred rounds while pocketing a difference of thirty-five hundred rounds—a neat sevenfold profit. If exchanged for instant noodles, he paid one hundred packs (ten boxes) and earned a margin of fourteen hundred and ninety boxes—a whopping one hundred and forty-ninefold profit. For rice, he paid one hundred jin, and profited by one point nine five tons (three thousand nine hundred jin)—thirty-nine times the cost.

After much discussion, the group chose what seemed the most advantageous exchange, though for Lin Lei it wasn’t the most profitable, yet certainly better than exchanging for bullets. To the people of Niutou Mountain, the most luxurious instant noodles were, for Lin Lei, the cheapest option, all because the system’s exchange was based on material, not product.

After consulting the data center and deducting previously paid ammunition, Lin Lei ultimately provided the group with sixteen tons of rice. As for the residual odds and ends, he simply gave away the fourteen hundred boxes of instant noodles he had already redeemed but couldn’t sell, half as barter, half as a gift.

“Brothers! Tonight’s dinner is on Boss Lin—beef soup to your fill, instant noodles galore!” After the handover of supplies, Yang Chunxi ran out of the warehouse, calling out loudly to the crowd in the square.

Hearing the cheers outside, Lin Lei couldn’t help but grumble, “Damn! I shouldn’t have given away the instant noodles. Tonight it’s beef soup, but tomorrow it’ll probably be pickled vegetable noodle soup. If you want to eat instant noodles, just eat them—why say I gave them out?”

With the zombie threat gone, the ordinary people in the camp naturally emerged from the underground shelters, and the entire camp was suddenly alive with voices, brimming with a touch of everyday warmth.

Yang Xueli, meanwhile, led the idle Lin Lei around the camp. Truthfully, there wasn’t much to see in such a settlement; it felt a bit like visiting a girlfriend’s relatives. For the occasion, Lin Lei had exchanged one contribution point for candy. Whenever someone stopped to chat with Yang Xueli, he would hand out some sweets.

As a result, more and more people came over to greet them.

“Sorry for the trouble. We’ve all lived together for nearly four years and know each other well—it would be rude not to say hello,” Yang Xueli apologized once they finally had a moment alone.

“It’s just a few sweets, nothing much. In fact, this kind of neighborhood camaraderie is more interesting than what we have back home,” Lin Lei replied with a smile.

“What’s it like where you’re from?” she asked curiously.

“It’s much like before the apocalypse,” Lin Lei said after a moment’s thought.

His world had never faced an apocalypse, so it was naturally the same as this place was before the catastrophe.

“There’s still such a wonderful place in the world?” Yang Xueli’s face was full of envy.

It had been just over four years since the apocalypse began—she, too, remembered what life was like before.

“Would you like to go there?” Lin Lei suddenly asked.

“Huh? Do you mean you want to take me away?” Yang Xueli was surprised.

“Would you want to go?” Lin Lei asked.

“Just me?” she replied.

“For now, I can only take one person. And once there, you won’t be able to return for some time.”

Unless Lin Lei could earn over a hundred thousand contribution points a day, or unless Yang Xueli was willing to maintain the master-servant contract, there was truly no way to bring her back.

“Can I think about it?” Yang Xueli asked, clearly conflicted. She admitted she had feelings for Lin Lei, but it was impossible to agree to run away with someone she’d only known for a few hours, to a place unknown and out of reach for the foreseeable future.

“It’s fine, take your time. Besides, I don’t have the means to take you now—I have my own missions to complete. Even if you agreed now, I’d have to finish my tasks first, and come back for you later,” Lin Lei explained.

“Are you leaving soon?” Yang Xueli caught the note of farewell in his voice.

“In two days,” Lin Lei replied.

“Then… wait for me two days. I’ll give you an answer,” she said.

“All right, I’ll wait for you.”

Perhaps influenced by the looming parting, silence fell between them.

They reached the door of a room piled with miscellaneous items. Suddenly, Lin Lei quickened his pace and entered, stopping beside a glass jar.

Pointing to the multicolored, multifaceted crystals inside, he asked her, “Where did you get these?”

He hadn’t asked the name—clearly, the system had already told him.

“Of course, they’re crystal cores dug from mutant beast brains! You can’t eat them, and they’re not useful for anything else either—just incredibly tough and jewel-like, so we collect them. Not every mutant beast has one; usually, one or two appear for every ten level-one beasts. Level-two beasts drop them more often, and their cores are bigger,” Yang Xueli explained.

As for level-three mutant beasts, they’d never encountered one, and even if they did, they might not be able to kill it.

“Mutant beast crystal cores? Is that really the best name you could come up with?” Lin Lei muttered.

“What do you call them on your side? What are they actually for?” Yang Xueli was very curious. Anything that made Lin Lei so interested must be more than just hard.

“We call them mutant beast crystal cores too—see, naming things is just as random, even across worlds.” Lin Lei smiled. “You should collect as many as you can. When you reach level four as an evolver, these can help you train and fight.”

The reason he complained was that the system had named them exactly the same.