Chapter 29: Synthesis

Su Xiao had been out for just over an hour and returned with 21 Level 1 Yellow Treasure Chests and one Safehouse.

It was shaped like a little duck—one of those floating children’s toys—but with a beak that functioned as a doorknob. Unfortunately, she couldn’t use it.

The moment she obtained it, the game system immediately reminded her that the maximum number of bound Safehouses had been reached.

So this Safehouse was useless to her.

After discovering that the Alliance badge from 1349 carried a signal, Su Xiao had instantly thought of bartering with the Alliance—requesting an electronic map with live GPS, or even modifying her own phone to track her position.

Once the signal had been lost, her phone had become nothing more than a paperweight—completely useless.

With a map, at least she could go find Jiang Qiqi when she got bored.

Now that the Apocalypse Game had started, no one knew what would happen next, or when it might end. With no internet, no games, no food, and no clear purpose, it was easy for people to lose their reason for living.

So she might as well head south to look for Jiang Qiqi.

If Jiang Qiqi was alive—and doing well, even capable of protecting herself—then the two of them could be bored together. But if Jiang Qiqi was doing badly… In an apocalypse, those who were struggling to survive might never be found again.

As for 1349—

She had approached that man only because of his Safehouse.

She ran because she realized that the man had gained attributes from the Apocalypse Game. An ordinary person couldn’t possibly take a Safehouse from someone like that.

And although she had taken the Safehouse, she hadn’t bound it immediately. That meant she hadn’t taken it for herself.

Clearly, it was a mission the Alliance had given her.

And she wasn’t the only one the Alliance had trained for this.

Under normal circumstances, in the apocalypse, everyone would look out for themselves. So what did the Alliance use to convince her to uphold its beliefs?

What exactly did the Alliance want?

There were too many questions Su Xiao couldn’t figure out on her own. Regardless, she now had a spare Safehouse, and if the Alliance wanted it back, they’d have to meet her demands.

She opened the Communication Center to check messages.

The scrolling speed of the screen had slowed considerably—probably because the earthquake had stopped and everyone had gone out to scavenge for supplies.

Su Xiao wanted to post information about the Yellow Treasure Chests in the exchange center, but she’d already used up her quota for the day when she traded blueprints earlier that morning. So now she had to message each survivor individually.

It took her three minutes to compose and send the message to everyone in her chat list:

“If you find a complete corpse of an infected and burn it, a Yellow Treasure Chest will appear. These chests may contain medicine.
P.S. I have a Yellow Chest Easter Egg, which allows for double the usual medicine.
(Please share this with other survivors. The medicine chests may become a limited resource.)”

She gave this information out for free.

First, because she couldn’t find and burn that many corpses alone—her access to medical chests was limited.

Second, since she already had the Yellow Chest Easter Egg that doubled medicine, once this information spread, even if other survivors found Yellow Chests, they’d seek her out to open them for maximum gain.

Third, the Yellow Chests might eventually become obsolete. If they only spawned by burning intact corpses, and a disaster came that made even finding dead bodies difficult, the medicine supply would vanish.

So she had to rely on the survivors to gather resources faster.

Fearing the information wouldn’t spread quickly enough, Su Xiao even sent private messages to people across the World Channel one by one.

Turtle Hermit was the first to reply:

“Brother, you’re incredible! This kind of critical intel, and you’re just giving it away for free?”

Su Xiao replied generously:
“You’re welcome. What you have is what I have.”

Turtle Hermit: “…”

Why did it feel like he had become someone’s lackey in the apocalypse?

Holding the keys to three critical Easter Egg resources… she wasn’t wrong.

His envy, jealousy, and frustration all turned into a single message:

“If you rise to fortune, don’t forget us! But I’m missing a lighter right now. I just saw a few survivor corpses. I can go back and handle them. If you’ve got one, help me out.”

There were towns and even bunkers in the desert.

Unfortunately, after the quake, many of the bunkers collapsed, burying corpses beneath the rubble. Most had suffocated under the sand and later became infected.

Out of familiarity, Su Xiao sent him a lighter free of charge.

By then, she had already received numerous messages from survivors asking for more information.

But she didn’t respond.

Her only task was to spread the word. Someone would try to gather the resources—it was inevitable.

Not long after, she saw someone in the World Channel using the medicine chest intel to trade for a food chest.

Smart move.

If Su Xiao hadn’t used up her message quota, she’d have done the same.

Before she knew it, it was already 3 p.m. Just as she was about to head out and look for more medicine chests, Turtle Hermit came rushing in with 78 Yellow Treasure Chests.

Turtle Hermit:
“Brother! I’m counting on you!”

Su Xiao was surprised.
“Open them all?”

Turtle Hermit:
“Yeah. I checked them—they’re pills. Pretty small. I swapped for two storage boxes—perfect for storing pills. Each box holds hundreds. So open away! I’m pretty infected right now, need to take two right away.”

Don’t ask why. Just assume it’s to keep Su Xiao from screwing him over.

After all, this was the apocalypse—people’s hearts changed fast.

Just earlier, he’d seen someone who looked like a high-level player while walking down a road.

Even though they didn’t speak the same language, he was just excited to meet a living human being.

In times like these, seeing another person felt like finding proof that you were still alive. So he had eagerly approached, trying to offer help.

Who knew that guy would stab him the moment they met? If he hadn’t cleared a timed challenge earlier and leveled up his defense, he’d be dead in that desert right now!

He hadn’t held back either—smashed that bastard’s head in with a hammer.

And just like that, he was once again the only living person in the desert.

After killing someone, his mentality shifted.

In the past few days, when he hadn’t run into others, he’d kept a positive, trusting attitude.

Now, he realized that kind of mindset would only get him killed faster in the apocalypse.

Better to work with people like his good “brother”—trustworthy and distant.

Once confirmed, Su Xiao collected the 78 Yellow Chests. The moment she did, the chests stacked automatically.

Suddenly, a system notification rang in her ear:

[You now possess 99 Level 1 Yellow Treasure Chests, the maximum storage limit. It is recommended to ask Xiao Mo to help you synthesize Level 2 Treasure Chests. Of course, this may tire Xiao Mo out a bit.]

Su Xiao’s hand, which had been ready to open a chest, froze.

She had been searching for a way to upgrade basic treasure chests since yesterday—and it had been hidden with Xiao Mo all along!

This Apocalypse Game really was full of surprises.

Su Xiao quickly asked, “Xiao Mo, can you help me synthesize the Level 1 Yellow Treasure Chests into Level 2 ones?”

Xiao Mo replied immediately:
“Of course! Three Level 1 Yellow Treasure Chests can be synthesized into one Level 2 Yellow Treasure Chest. How many would you like to synthesize?”