Lin Chu stared at the tomato plant, suddenly doubting her memory.

She had always had an excellent memory and was certain she had never planted a tomato under the potato trellis.

She immediately called over Xiao Er.

“Xiao Er, did you plant this tomato here?”

If Lin Chu’s memory was good, Xiao Er, being a robot, had an even better one.

It looked at the tomato plant and shook its head immediately.

“No, Master. I’ve never planted a tomato here.”

Upon hearing Xiao Er’s answer, Lin Chu looked over all the tomato seedlings in the front yard.

Sure enough, she spotted something unusual—

The high-grade tomato seedling that was originally in a pot had vanished.

Lin Chu crouched down and reached out to examine the tomato seedling beneath the potato trellis.

But perhaps it was just her eyes playing tricks on her—she thought she saw the seedling tremble ever so slightly.

When she focused again, the tomato seedling stood there perfectly still, as if nothing had happened.

The moment her hand touched the seedling, a system prompt popped into her mind.

It really was the high-grade tomato seedling.

But…

How did it get here by itself?

Could it choose its own ideal growing environment?

Was that what made it high-grade?

Although puzzled, Lin Chu knew she wouldn’t be able to figure it out right now anyway.

She simply told Xiao Er to keep a close eye on this seedling and report immediately if anything unusual happened.

After Xiao Er agreed, she went into the bathroom to wash off the dirt and grime, even using her full-body cleansing shower gel.

After bathing, Lin Chu sat on the floor of the activity room and began her final inventory check.

She had already maxed out both daily missions in the flood world.

From the mud-clearing task, she had collected a total of 1,200 liters of purified water and 100 space storage water bottles, each holding 12 liters.

Eighty of them had been used to store floodwater from the flood world.

The remaining twenty still held purified water for drinking while out and about.

After all the tasks and expenses in the flood world, Lin Chu still had 875 points left.

Of those, 175 points were reserved:

• 150 points for the security door,
• 5 points for the peephole view,
• 20 points for water and electricity.

She didn’t know if the water in the next world’s shelter would be usable, but she still decided to reserve 10 points for utilities.

After the task settlement, she would receive an additional 80 survival mission points.

At that point, she would have 780 points available for discretionary use.

“780 points—should be enough to upgrade the shelter and the front yard, right?” Lin Chu mused, mentally calculating her options.

Soon, it was exactly noon, and the familiar fireworks-like notification exploded in her mind.

[Congratulations to the Host for completing the flood world’s main quest and surviving for 30 days.]
[Reward settlement now in progress.]
[Congratulations to the Host for earning 80 points.]
[Host level has been updated. Please open the system panel to review.]

Seeing the points credited, Lin Chu happily opened her system panel.

---

Name: Lin Chu
Gender: Female
Age: 26
Points: 955
Talent Skill: Turn Trash into Treasure (Level 2)
Common Skill: Danger Awareness (Level 1)
Shelter Level: 2 (Upgradeable)
Current World Security Door: Not deployed
Countdown to Next Mission World Deployment: 23:59:59

---

Sure enough, the shelter met the conditions for an upgrade. Lin Chu immediately opened the upgrade panel.

[Upgrade Requirements:]

1. Complete Main Quest in World 2
2. Submit 200 points

[Requirements met. Upgrade to Shelter Level 3?]

Looking at the second requirement, Lin Chu couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of her forehead.

The main quest reward in this world was only 30 points more than the last.

Yet upgrading the shelter now required 150 more points than before?

How did the system dare to ask for so much?!

It reminded Lin Chu of the ruthless capitalists in the real world who constantly exploited workers.

Wages never kept up with inflation—the eternal pain of the working class.

But she had no choice. She had to upgrade the shelter.

Ever since the system told her that reaching Level 3 would unlock the shelter relocation feature, she had been waiting for this moment.

If she could relocate the shelter, she would have much greater mobility in future mission worlds.

Holding back her heartache, Lin Chu pressed the Confirm Upgrade button.

A familiar fog surrounded her.

Luminous white text once again floated before her eyes.

[Upgrade countdown: 30 seconds]

The upgrade was taking longer now, which gave Lin Chu a strange sense of satisfaction—at least the points weren’t wasted.

When the countdown reached zero, the fog dispersed, and the new shelter in front of her made her eyes light up.

The shelter’s area had expanded significantly, and the activity room in front of her had grown by a full ring.

What’s more, a fireplace had been embedded in the wall between the activity room and the bedroom!

Above the fireplace was a thick square pipe connected to the ceiling.

With this fireplace, if she ever encountered an extreme cold apocalypse, she could use the smokeless charcoal Bai Wei had sent her a few days ago for heating.

After examining the fireplace and confirming the smoke could be vented outdoors, Lin Chu walked to the bedroom—only to find that the entryway beside the door had been deepened.

The 1-meter-long foyer was now 2 meters long, and beside her bedroom door was a second door.

This one was much wider—about 1.5 times the width of her bedroom door—and looked like an old-style sliding door.

When she touched the door, a prompt appeared again, letting her choose from various door styles.

Most of them were sliding or folding types.

Lin Chu had a pretty good guess as to what this new room was for.

In the end, she picked a wood-colored barn door that matched the style of her bedroom door.

In the next moment, the generic sliding door was replaced by her selected barn door.

Lin Chu pulled it open and stepped inside.

Inside was a 2-meter-long, 1.5-meter-wide rectangular room.

On the left was a small window that looked out into her yard.

On the wall directly opposite the door hung a range hood, and below it was a simple stove.

An induction cooker was embedded into the stove.

A proper kitchen at last—Lin Chu’s lips curved into a satisfied smile.

After inspecting the new kitchen, she turned around and entered the bathroom on the opposite side.

The bathroom was now twice as deep as before. The space that had only allowed her to bathe while standing over the squat toilet now had a separate shower area.

Farther inside was the dissection room she had added earlier for anatomical work.

Just as she reached to pull back the curtain to the dissection room, the system prompted her with a question.