Chapter 82: Enormous Gains

“One bar of cigarettes for one upgrade crystal, and he’s selling them at twenty upgrade crystals each—he’s more ruthless than any profiteer from before the apocalypse.”

“The important thing is, he’s willing to gamble. If the zombies hadn’t come today, or if there hadn’t been any evolutions, the rush to buy cigarettes wouldn’t have been so frenzied. For all the effort he’s put in, the biggest beneficiaries would have actually been the other three major factions.”

“He dared to gamble—and he won.”

Chen Gang nodded thoughtfully.

“But this person doesn’t seem to have much ambition. He’s assembled a women’s faction.”

“Perhaps his ambitions are even greater than that.”

...

At this moment, Fang Xia was sitting in the bathtub, while the twin sisters behind him scrubbed his back diligently.

This sort of task had become second nature with practice. Even the usually shy younger sister had grown used to it after a few times.

“Put some strength into it! All those snacks I’ve given you have gone to waste.”

The elder sister looked aggrieved—why always blame her? Why not say something to the younger one?

“At least the younger one helps earn money. What about you?”

“How do you know I can’t do it? Why don’t you give me a chance? How else would you know?”

...

The elder sister puffed out her chest with pride—luckily Fang Xia had his back to her and couldn’t see it.

The younger one covered her mouth, giggling quietly at the side. After spending so much time together, they understood Fang Xia’s personality well enough to know he wouldn’t mind a little teasing.

“All right, I’m going to rest. Call me when it’s time to eat.”

After staying up for a whole day and night, Fang Xia was feeling drowsy. There was still the zombie rain to deal with tonight.

As for Liu Rui and the others who had gone out, Fang Xia wasn’t worried. With their strength, even encountering a fourth-tier zombie wouldn’t be a problem.

“A fourth-tier showing up is already outrageous. Surely a fifth-tier won’t appear,” Fang Xia muttered to himself.

If that were the case, there really would be no way to survive.

But judging by what had happened since the apocalypse began, though things often seemed hopeless, there was always a sliver of a chance—like nature’s own law of survival of the fittest.

With these thoughts, Fang Xia drifted into sleep.

“Brother Fang, time to eat.”

A gentle voice called softly. The twin sister stood beside the bed, waking him.

Glancing outside at the darkened sky, Fang Xia stretched comfortably and climbed out of bed.

“Just like the past few days, after the night ended there wasn’t a trace of zombies in Dawn City during the day. The drop rates from the supply crates have gotten even better, too—now everyone in our group is armed,” Liu Rui reported at the dinner table.

“Good,” Fang Xia nodded. A thousand-person team, all well-armed and at least second-tier fighters—right now, there wasn’t a single group in Dawn City that could compare.

“Yun Yun, how were cigarette sales today?”

He took a bite of creamy tofu, then a big mouthful of rice—pure satisfaction.

“Brother Fang, today we sold a total of three thousand four hundred and forty-one packs of low-grade cigarettes, and fourteen packs of high-grade. But… we’re running low on low-grade stock.”

Actually, the number should have been higher. Yun Yun remembered counting over six thousand packs yesterday—so how had it dropped by half today?

But then, all the cigarettes had been handed to Brother Fang yesterday, and today he’d only given the salesgirls thirty-five hundred packs. Was he saving the rest for his own smoking?

“Starting tomorrow, we stop selling the low-grade ones. Only high-grade cigarettes—take it or leave it.”

Low-grade cigarettes at two upgrade crystals a pack had brought in nearly seventy thousand upgrade crystals in one day.

And a thousand upgrade crystals could take a salesgirl from Tier II to Tier III. Seventy thousand meant seventy more Tier III fighters—astonishing.

“Liu Rui, select a hundred salesgirls and get them ready to upgrade.”

Fang Xia took out thirty thousand upgrade crystals from his storage and handed them to the little girl.

“Is this enough?”

“It’s plenty! I still have more than ten thousand left,” she replied quickly, tucking them away, puzzled at how Fang Xia could have so many upgrade crystals.

Her own stash of over ten thousand came from deducting a portion of the daily zombie earnings, used to pay the salesgirls their wages.

“Remember, everyone who uses them must write an IOU. Their wages will be docked accordingly.”

The little girl nodded. Even if she didn’t see the point of IOUs in a lawless world, she just followed Fang Xia’s instructions.

“Oh right, call Li Qianwan up here when you go downstairs.”

Second-tier upgrade crystals were now useless for Fang Xia—he needed third-tier ones to advance from Tier IV to Tier V.

But third-tier zombies were still extremely rare. Even if Fang Xia wanted to upgrade, there was nothing he could do for now.

“Tomorrow, start up our service market. Besides cigarettes, start selling surplus weapons. Also, set up an exchange—low-grade upgrade crystals for high-grade ones. I’ll give you the pricing later.”

Fang Xia hadn’t spent all day just for cigarettes.

No matter how many he sold, they were still only first-tier upgrade crystals—barely useful for Fang Xia and the other two major factions.

Dawn City was better off, since it had a large number of Tier I fighters who needed a vast amount of upgrade crystals.

But for Fang Xia’s group, under a thousand people, Tier I crystals would soon become obsolete—they’d become mere currency and medical supplies.

With everything organized, the heavy atmosphere finally lightened.

The elder twin quickly reached for her chopsticks.

She’d been holding back painfully; with the earlier tension, she hadn’t even dared to pick up food.

Her sister Jingyi gave her a look of disdain—how embarrassing.

Dinner was over quickly. The looming threat of a new wave of zombies weighed on everyone like a mountain. Only by rapidly strengthening themselves could they hope to survive.

“Li Xiaochun, go upgrade.”

A thousand second-tier upgrade crystals were handed over.

Li Xiaochun glanced around, pointed at herself as if in disbelief.

There were already five girls in the group with resilience abilities, and nobody knew how many more would emerge.

Currently, the group’s second-tier upgrade crystals were only enough for two people to reach Tier IV. Li Xiaochun had assumed the two fire-wielding girls would get the spots, and hadn’t expected to be chosen herself.

“Why are you standing there? Go on,” Fang Xia urged.

Only then did Li Xiaochun, suddenly realizing, clutch the pile of crystals and hurry to her room.

Not long after, Li Qianwan came upstairs as well. This was her first time in the area where the group leader and his wives lived.

Yes, his wives.

Who would believe anyone not a group leader’s wife could come to the second floor?

Many of the salesgirls were secretly competing to see who would be the next lucky one to ascend to the second floor—some had even started placing bets.

Li Qianwan had seen the betting list, and her name was right there. So, she’d secretly given money to her former roommate to bet on herself…