Gemstones are Currency

Xiao Bao woke up quickly, and Tom prepared some meat and milk for him to have breakfast. Then, they chatted casually. Xiao Bao was a lively child who seemed quite sensible. He talked mostly about playing with his kindergarten friends, occasionally mentioning his mother but avoiding any mention of his father.

Tom didn't inquire about what happened to his mother to avoid upsetting him. After a while, Xiao Bao expressed his desire to leave.

Having been cooped up on the third floor for six days, besides the orange cat, Xiao Bao didn't have anyone else. Now that he was enjoying playing with Tom, he was unwilling to let him leave and insisted on staying.

So Tom persuaded him to come downstairs with him. Learning that there were more uncles and aunts downstairs, Xiao Bao hesitated. He looked at the orange cat, reluctant to leave it behind.

Failing to convince him, Tom settled Xiao Bao and left. He knew that bringing a child along in a survival situation could be burdensome, but abandoning a child was something he couldn't bring himself to do psychologically.

Having been abandoned by his parents and shuttled between two orphanages, Tom had developed a character that feared no one. But seeing Xiao Bao, who wasn't a troublemaker, in the position of an orphan, Tom couldn't bear to leave him alone here, even though the orange cat seemed to be very close to him.

So Tom wanted Xiao Bao to come along, to protect him and let him live a brighter life. However, since Xiao Bao preferred to stay with the orange cat, Tom didn't insist.

Downstairs, everyone got along reasonably well. Several security guards were practicing driving electric cars, which was a rare form of entertainment.

Tom called Li Qiang and took him on a tour of the supermarket. The windows of the supermarket weren't high, only about 30 centimeters from the ground. Tom showed him each window, allowing him to see what was outside the supermarket.

Li Qiang didn't notice any creatures outside and remained as calm as ever. This made Tom feel somewhat uneasy; this mouse had remarkable patience.

Then Tom started modifying the seats and seat belts, and he cut open the back of the electric car, adding a bottom to turn it into a truck where batteries and supplies could be stored.

A remote-controlled toy car required six size D batteries, typically reaching speeds of around 4 kilometers per hour. Tom estimated that the cheap electric cars in the supermarket could manage about 3 kilometers per hour.

Three kilometers used to be the distance a normal person could walk in an hour. Now, it would require more than 70,000 meters, which was a distance of 7 kilometers.

There were Nanfu batteries in the supermarket, which were durable. The power provided by six batteries could keep the electric car running for 2-3 hours.

So Tom modified the back of the electric car. In addition to storing supplies, each car could also hold two Nanfu batteries. If the battery level was too low, they could be replaced to provide additional range. After this, they needed to find the nearest supermarket to replenish the batteries as soon as possible.

After completing the modifications, Tom felt a bit relieved. With electric cars, their mobility was at least back to the level of walking. Even if ants and cockroaches attacked, they could escape.

Tom only had two large red gemstones left. But many things required tripled strength, and they also had to be prepared for potential fights. Two gemstones weren't enough.

"We need to go out and collect gemstones!" Tom declared.

After discussing with everyone, they decided to proceed. Since the main entrance of the supermarket was closed, the only way in and out was through the small window at the back. So they needed to make a platform on both sides of that window.

They used to climb up the window with stacked boxes, but with the platform, it would be much easier to go up and down.

They nailed nails into the wooden frame of the window and dismantled several toys with plastic wheels. They used the wheels to make pulleys hanging on the nails. Then they found a plastic board, shaved it to a size larger than the electric car, and threaded it with nylon rope, hanging it on the pulleys.

This way, a simple platform was completed.

They placed several square weight blocks on the platform, and Tom, using enhanced strength, pulled the rope at the other end of the pulley, lifting the weights onto the window. When they needed to lift people or electric cars up, they just needed to tie the weight blocks to the rope and pull them down. The weight falling down would pull the other end of the platform up, saving Tom the trouble of using the red gemstones every time.

Tom had to be cautious about adventures outside while keeping an eye on home. Liu Lian suggested leaving Li Qiang and Cheng Fuhua behind, isolating Zheng Shiyi, who had a broken arm, under the pretext of recuperation to prevent him from inciting others to control the supermarket camp.

Tom took Liu Lian's advice. If Zheng Shiyi and Li Zexin seized power during his absence and closed the window and door, refusing to let Tom back in, the camp would be built in vain.

This time, he brought Liu Lian and Li Zexin, leaving Li Qiang and Cheng Fuhua to control the situation at the camp.

The destination was clear: the former rental building.

After a day and two nights of burning, Tom judged that the fire was almost extinguished. Many ants burned to death inside, and while it was still hot, other insects didn't dare to approach, making it the best time to collect gemstones.

The electric car was lowered from the window, and Tom, holding a big knife, looked around but didn't notice anything unusual. He gestured to Li Qiang on the window and then drove the electric car with Liu Lian, carrying Li Zexin, along the way they had come.

The decapitated corpse next to the car on the main road smelled even worse now. The three of them smelled the stench from afar, and Li Zexin vomited.

Liu Lian increased the horsepower and sped through from the other side. Tom glanced and noticed that there were fewer flies on the body, which was strange. Normally, a rotting body would attract flies from all around.

Due to the fact that flies eat while defecating, there's no such thing as them leaving after being full. This reminded him of the biscuit pushed down the stairs by Zhang Meng and the orange cat belonging to Xiao Bao.

"Could flies, by eating from an unchanged dead person, also undergo mutation?" After consuming enough human flesh, ants would fall into a deep sleep and complete their mutation process during that sleep. So, could the decrease in flies be because some of them had entered the mutation stage?

Though Tom had doubts in his mind, he didn't delve deeper. The most important thing at the moment was to return to the rental building.

The fire in the building had weakened; except for the upper floors, the ground floor was mostly burnt to ashes, leaving behind only blackened walls.

The once sturdy wooden doors had turned into charcoal, so their electric cars could easily enter.

As they entered the rental room near the toilet, the three of them got off the car. Looking around, all they could see was black ash, and the temperature was extremely high.

They took off their clothes, leaving only a piece of cloth wrapped around their waists to cool down a bit.

Li Zexin was unhappy, "It's too hot, and there's... there's nothing here... Tom, where are these ghost gemstones?"

Tom surveyed the surroundings and nodded, "Exactly, there's nothing here for now. No one is competing with us yet. Let's find them quickly!" With that, he ran to the center of the floor and started digging through the ashes with his big knife.

The thickness of the ashes used to be just a thin layer, but now they had become thicker, covering their feet like sand in a desert.

Li Zexin ignored Li Zexin's complaints and started digging with his big knife too.

"Tsk... idiot..." Li Zexin naturally didn't dare to curse Tom out loud. He could only vent his dissatisfaction quietly, kicking the black ash as he walked. Suddenly, he kicked something hard. "Ouch, what's this? It hurts!"

Li Zexin became even more displeased and picked up the hard object. Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't good. He immediately bent down to pick it up and examined it in the light from the window. "Ah haha, it's really a gemstone, a big red ruby!"

Tom and Liu Lian also found something. They each found a gemstone, but Liu Lian's was green, while Tom's was yellow.

The ant army that came back two nights ago numbered more than three thousand, with many of them being mutated soldier ants carefully cultivated by the queen. When they encountered a big fire, they would inevitably be burned and turned to ashes, leaving the gemstones in their bodies behind.

Tom had come for them specifically.

The three of them split up, but their efficiency wasn't very high.

Because ants wouldn't stay in place when faced with fire; they would inevitably scatter. Therefore, while there were many mutated ants, the room was larger, so their search area was quite broad.

Tom felt around as he walked and found three more gemstones, but only one of them was large; the other two were small.

Continuing to survey the surroundings and recalling the position of the queen when he killed her, Tom finally felt something large.

Opening up the black ash, Tom burst into laughter, "Haha, hahaha, Liu Lian, come over here."

Liu Lian hurried over, "Wow, Ange, it's huge. This gemstone... no, wait, this thing can't be called a gemstone anymore."

Tom had unearthed a large, elongated, rhomboid green gemstone, similar to the one he had dug out of the cockroach before, but this one was even bigger and seemed to have a deeper color than the cockroach's, perhaps due to the lighting.

"Call it a crystal?" Tom asked for Liu Lian's opinion.

"Haha, that's emotional. Let's call it a crystal. Just like StarCraft, such a big crystal, my god, it's so heavy. But it's green, it can communicate with animals. Are you planning to communicate with that orange cat?" 

Li Zexin, who originally didn't want to pay attention, wanted to focus on finding his own gemstone, but after hearing Liu Lian say it was big, he quickly came over to admire the magnificence of the large crystal.

Tom shook his head, "I think the function of green emeralds, or crystals, is far more than just communicating with animals. Put it in the car first, and let's continue searching."

Li Zexin looked covetously at the large crystal, unable to help but swallow his saliva. Then he came over and asked Tom in a low voice, "Tom, what do you think money is?"

Tom was taken aback by his question, "Money? Isn't money just money?"

"No, no, no!" Li Zexin waved his hand, "Money is currency, the intermediary for people to exchange goods. Before April 6th, our currency was RMB, or it could be gold. But after April 6th, in your words, it's the end of the world, and RMB is worthless! So what's the most valuable thing now?"

Liu Lian, who was by the car, heard it and immediately added, "It's the end of the world, so it's definitely bottle caps! Hahaha!"

This was a post-apocalyptic game where people used bottle caps as currency because in the post-apocalyptic world, where there was no ability to produce, the quantity of bottle caps was fixed and wouldn't be consumed, so they naturally became the currency for exchange.

Tom looked at Li Zexin's eager expression and then at the red gemstone in his hand, "Are you talking about this?"

"Yes! This gemstone can grant some people superpowers. It's like bullets in post-apocalyptic movies; they're all hard currency! Guys, hurry up and find more. The more, the better. We're going to get rich! Haha!"

Tom nodded, agreeing with Li Zexin's statement, and immediately dispersed to continue searching for gemstones.

They found two more gemstones. Suddenly, Tom seemed to see something flash in the distance, prompting him to instinctively draw his big knife from his back.

"Wow! What's that?" Li Zexin suddenly shouted loudly. Tom turned to see a small spider falling from the sky onto Li Zexin's head, its six legs tightly gripping his face.

Tom hurried over, helping the struggling Li Zexin remove the spider clinging to his face and stomping it to death on the ground.

On the other side, Liu Lian also shouted, "Spiders, so many spiders!"

Tom looked up and saw countless shadows descending from the sky, their butts trailing thin strands of silk.