More than one person had gone missing.

Half of the researchers who were originally being protected at the F City Survivor Base disappeared overnight.

To this day, it remains an unsolved mystery at the F City base.

Hearing Yu Hongfei’s account, Lin Chu couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Things like this always gave her a strange sense of familiarity.

Before she could think further, Yu Hongfei rubbed his hands beside her and looked at her with hopeful eyes.

“I’m leaving tomorrow. Can we make a deal with all the zombies you’ve dissected today?”

After speaking, he seemed to think his request was a bit much, so he scratched his head and quickly added, “I’ll give you 2 extra points per zombie as a bonus.”

Lin Chu shook the packet of seeds she had just received. “Of course. But since I’ve taken the specialty products you brought back, you can skip the bonus points.”

Yu Hongfei was short on points, so he grinned at her and thanked her repeatedly.

“I’ve been saving them up for you. Wait here, I’ll go get them.”

Watching Lin Chu walk away, Yu Hongfei let out a small sigh of relief and couldn’t help but silently admire her sharp instincts.

It’s better not to learn the truth about these worlds too early.

But when he turned around, he saw Zheng Ziyu looking at him thoughtfully.

Yu Hongfei immediately put on his trademark grin, causing Zheng Ziyu to look away involuntarily.

Before Lin Chu brought out the dissected zombies she had been collecting, Yu Hongfei didn’t know how many “a few” actually meant.

But he figured that after being gone for so many days, Lin Chu still remembered him—he was already very grateful. He’d be sure to give her some extra perks.

Lin Chu had dissected 17 zombies and packed them into 17 burlap sacks.

Since she couldn’t carry them all at once, she brought them out two by two.

To save time, Lin Chu carried them out while Yu Hongfei submitted the tasks to the system.

By the seventh one, Yu Hongfei was already too stunned to speak.

By the tenth, his mouth was practically wide enough to hold a whole egg.

By the time he received the seventeenth sack, his face had gone completely numb.

He no longer knew how to express his shock and gratitude.

Lin Chu had quietly calculated exactly how many zombies he needed to complete the task.

And during the days he was out on his mission, she had collected that many for him.

Of course he understood—she had given him the ones she had saved up for herself.

After submitting the 17th zombie, Yu Hongfei reached the task limit.

This time, he earned a total of 350 points.

Half of those had to go to Lin Chu, leaving him with 175 net points.

With those, plus the points he earned from completing the mission and the final world settlement, he now had enough confidence to enter an S-level world.

Lin Chu had already settled with him for the points used earlier to exchange for body-strengthening pills. Now, only the 175 points from today needed to be exchanged.

Yu Hongfei took out a list from his space and handed it to Lin Chu.

“These are the items available for exchange in my system’s shop. See what you want.”

This was Yu Hongfei’s fourth mission world, so his system shop was a higher level than Lin Chu’s and had a wider variety of items—many of them more advanced.

Lin Chu looked through the list for a while, then her eyes suddenly lit up.

It was like someone handed her a pillow just as she needed to sleep. She had been worrying about finding a suitable water container, and now she saw the perfect one on the list.

Calling it a water container didn’t quite do it justice—it was more like a water storage space.

According to Yu Hongfei’s notes, the container was the same size as a regular 12L water jug but could hold up to 12 tons of water inside.

At first glance, it seemed kind of impractical.

After all, the shelter had a water supply. And if someone went outside, who would lug around such a big jug?

But after hearing from Yu Hongfei that future worlds would become increasingly difficult—even affecting water supplies in shelters—Lin Chu realized she needed to plan ahead while water was still abundant.

What might be too bulky for others wasn’t a problem for her—she had space. She could store it anywhere.

One water storage container cost 150 points. A bit pricey, but Lin Chu could afford it.

An average adult uses about 3 tons of water per month.

If she used it sparingly, 12 tons could last her over four months.

Which meant it could get her through four mission worlds.

With the remaining 25 points, Lin Chu exchanged for a “Heart Protection Pill.”

It was said that as long as a person was still breathing, taking this pill could keep them alive for 24 more hours.

It was essentially buying a last chance at survival.

Lin Chu had always valued her life highly and didn’t hesitate long before making the decision.

So her 175 points got her just two things.

But Lin Chu was perfectly satisfied.

Yu Hongfei didn’t ask why she wanted those two items and simply made the exchange without fuss.

As for the 70 points from Zheng Ziyu, Lin Chu had already exchanged them for 35 bottles of nutrient solution.

Since both she and Zheng Ziyu were newcomers, they had access to the same items in their system shop, and there wasn’t much worth exchanging.

Nutrient solution didn’t taste great, but it was useful.

Since she had extra bottles, Lin Chu would drink one whenever she lost track of time dissecting zombies and forgot to eat.

After the transactions, Yu Hongfei gave them some advice about what to expect in future worlds.

Lin Chu and Zheng Ziyu listened carefully.

“Once the world level goes up, natural disasters in the apocalyptic world might not just be one kind—be sure to watch out for that.”

“Avoid conflict whenever you can. You have a shelter and resources. Worst-case scenario, you just hole up for a world.”

“You don’t have spatial storage, so before being dropped into a world, make sure to carry a backpack and pack your essentials. If you don’t manage to deploy the shelter, you’ll have to survive on just those supplies.”

“Sometimes, if you’re unlucky, you’ll be dropped into extreme environments. Don’t panic when that happens.”

…

At the time, Lin Chu still didn’t understand what Yu Hongfei meant by “extreme environments.”

Not until 7 days later, when she was dropped into her second world.

But that’s a story for another time.

In her final few days, Lin Chu barely stepped outside. She focused on completing all her daily tasks.

Aside from that, she trained physically every day and recycled two boxes of trash daily to level up her “Turn Waste into Treasure” skill.

On the fifth-to-last day of the zombie world, that skill successfully leveled up to Level 2.