Restless

On the sixth day of the second zombie rain, it was also the fourth day of city-wide smoking cessation in Future City.

"This Lone Wolf is really black. Back then, he only sold us one mutated crystal for a cigarette. Now it's two mutated crystals," someone complained.

"Yeah. And he said there are no more low-grade cigarettes left. The high-grade ones are limited per day. How can that small amount be enough for so many of us? He's clearly messing with us."

"Let's not talk too much about it. What else can we do? Let's just hope the zombies will go away soon."

When the zombie rain stops, we can go out again to search for pre-apocalypse supplies, which of course includes cigarettes.

"I don't believe the Lone Wolf Gang is the only one with cigarettes left in Future City. The other factions should have some too, right?" someone said angrily.

"Future City is also selling cigarettes now," a shout came from nowhere, immediately exciting the crowd who hadn't been able to buy cigarettes.

"The Bloody Clothes Gang is selling cigarettes too," came the news soon after.

The two major factions seized this business opportunity at the same time, taking out their stockpiles. Only the Harem Gang in the north of the city remained silent.

But people understood. Even if the gang of young ladies had cigarettes, there couldn't be many.

"Let's go. We won't buy from the Lone Wolf anymore. They deliberately emptied our cigarette supply just to sell it back to us at higher prices later, how despicable."

"Yeah, let's go buy from the other two factions instead."

A group of people left the Lone Wolf territory and headed in two different directions.

"Future City just sold out their cigarettes, too fast."

"Bloody Clothes Gang too."

They had barely walked halfway when the bad news spread.

"How could they sell out so quickly?"

Everyone was a little confused. It hadn't been long at all.

"There were people panic buying in large quantities on both sides," came the answer soon after.

Not only the three major factions, some minor factions had joined in too.

Even at the end of the world, some people still couldn't forget their merchant instincts.

With everyone crowded inside Future City now, no one dared to wander around recklessly.

There were only so many cigarettes left. How many smokers were there every day? Cigarettes are a consumable item.

Who cares about mutated crystals? With so many zombies to kill every day, we'll never run out of mutated crystals!

Wait another week, and the price of cigarettes could double again...

...

In the yard on the first floor of Xiao Jun's villa, his twin sister Jing Yi was beside him.

A young lady was reporting the news she had gathered today.

"So many people are getting restless. We can start reeling them in tomorrow then," Jing Yi said lightly. She considered this task nearly completed, flawlessly so far.

Xiao Jun looked up at the sky.

If nothing unexpected happens, this should be the last night of zombie rain in this round before dawn.

But he had a nagging sense of unease, feeling like things weren't so simple.

"Tomorrow, the price of cigarettes will definitely go up again. We'll raise our selling price along with it," he said.

"But remember one thing. Everyone is limited to a fixed quota."

This part of the original plan didn't exist.

Xiao Jun's goal was to earn enough money to help the young ladies level up, so they could deal with the external pressures more easily.

But this sense of unease made him change plans at the last minute.

In the team, Xiao Jun's words were absolute orders. Jing Yi didn't raise any objections, just made a small adjustment to the plan.

Right on time, the zombie rain arrived at dawn.

The young ladies were now extremely proficient, able to calmly face even the most vicious zombies. Chopping them up was all it took anyway.

With the expanding team, Jiang Yue had also reassigned duties. The nearly 1,000 people were divided into two teams working morning and night shifts.

Jiang Yue led the night team, while Wan Qianya and Li Jingyin led the day team.

Perfect, Xiao Jun had Wan Qianya at night and Jiang Yue during the day to squeeze dry. What could he do about it?

But after persisting for two days, both women felt somewhat overwhelmed, and the consequences of provoking Xiao Jun were still severe. So they always suspected he was secretly taking stimulants...

In the four days, 9 new third-order mutants had joined the team, mostly captain-level, since ordinary members didn't have such high salaries!

After that night, little Lolita made a new payroll, deducting food, housing and other basic necessities. The young ladies had to purchase everything else with their own wages.

Some liked spicy sticks and immediately pestered Jiang Yue to trade all their wages for them after payday, forget about leveling up.

The 9 new third-orders didn't excite Xiao Jun as much as the fact that 2 of the young ladies had sturdy mutant abilities, greatly enhancing the team's strength.

"You'll also level up tonight," Xiao Jun said, looking at Wan Qianya before him. They had enough mutated crystals for two people to level up now.

The remaining quota was naturally reserved for Jiang Yue when she returned.

Wan Qianya's level up was uneventful, with no particularly painful sensations, just some mild bodily discomfort.

Her head didn't throb severely either, only a slight swelling that quickly subsided.

This made Xiao Jun lament the unfairness silently, but he was helpless.

After leveling up, Wan Qianya was clearly much stronger, evident from the extended shaking of their bed later that night.

In addition, her mutant ability had strengthened too.

"Phantom - Enter stealth state after use, speed increased threefold. Effect ends after attacking, can be reused within 5 minutes."

Everything else remained the same, just the addition of being able to reuse it.

She could turn invisible again after slitting someone's throat, what an awesome upgrade.

No wonder she was one of the top ten masters in the last life, the assassination queen.

Xiao Jun looked forward to seeing what changes Jiang Yue's abilities would have.

Later that night, Jiang Yue dragged her weary body back upstairs.

The sounds of battle upstairs had just ended as well, and the exhausted Wan Qianya had fallen into slumber.

So before Jiang Yue could rest, she was forced into another battle...

...

"Well? How was it?"

Jiang Yue took a long breath and looked at the expectant Xiao Jun.

"I just want to sleep."

"Damn, go sleep then. I'm asking about your level and abilities, what are you thinking?"

Xiao Jun gave her a knock on the head.

"I don't have any," Jiang Yue pouted grievously.

None? I heard it in your mind voice! Xiao Jun mercilessly knocked her head again, unreasonable.

"Armor Breaker - Ignore all defenses for 10 minutes, speed doubled."

Jiang Yue had tried this ability before. The defenses ignored weren't her own body, but those of her opponents when she attacked them with weapons.

Now with her speed doubled, who could go against her head-on?

Xiao Jun even pondered getting a 40-meter long blade tomorrow and letting Jiang Yue sweep around with eyes closed after activating her ability.

Unfortunately, they were limited technically for now, and he had to consider whether Jiang Yue could even lift something so heavy...that would be awkward.

Jiang Yue finally fell into deep slumber, exhausted. Even leveling up couldn't replenish her.

Xiao Jun went to the living room alone and lit a cigarette with a flick of flame.

Tomorrow, it would be time to start reeling them in.

Tomorrow, he would find out what was causing this damn unease.