Upstairs, the short-haired girl who'd just been pulled back asked in confusion, "Qingqing-jie, we worked so hard to scavenge this food. If we give it to them, what are we supposed to eat?"

"Yeah, Qingqing-jie, they probably didn't see our food. Even if we don't say anything, they'd never know, right?" said another girl-quiet, bespectacled.

"You girls think too simply. What happens if we tell them we have nothing, and then they come up here and search?"

"This..."

"I guarantee they already searched the other rooms. Which means they noticed those rooms had already been picked clean. You think they won't figure out who did it?"

"They would."

"Exactly. We hid the food, sure, but they can already guess our dorm has supplies. Otherwise they wouldn't have asked."

"Them finding it themselves versus us offering it voluntarily-those are two completely different things. Understand?"

"Understood." The other three girls nodded.

"Relax. Even if we share the food, we won't starve. Once they clear the zombies downstairs, we can go out and scavenge. Don't forget-we're Tier 1 evolvers now too."

"Besides, haven't you noticed? They don't even seem to care about ordinary crystals."

"If we work hard and show our value, maybe they'll toss us a few extra crystals. Our strength goes up again, and then are we really going to worry about finding food?" Liu Qingqing smiled.

"Oh, right. Qingqing-jie, we'll follow your lead."

"Mm. But remember-don't try to be clever. If they give us something, take it. If they don't, we don't ask. Clear?" Liu Qingqing's tone turned serious.

"Clear."

Soon, the girls brought down most of their dorm's food and water-bread, biscuits, melon seeds, that sort of thing.

Yang Bin looked at the pile in front of him, smiled, and turned to Liu Qingqing. "You're smart. Don't worry, we're not eating your food for free. One extra crystal each-call it payment for the meal. Sound fair?"

"Really?!" All four girls' eyes went wide, barely containing their excitement.

"Of course." Yang Bin nodded.

For his group, the one thing they weren't short on was crystals. They'd killed over three hundred zombies that morning-at least a hundred of those were Tier-1. Digging out all those crystals later was going to be a chore in itself.

"Thank you so much!" The girls' faces flushed with excitement.

Sure enough, Qingqing-jie was right.

After eating and resting briefly, they went back to killing zombies.

This time, the three of them rotated. They kept going until past six in the evening, only stopping when the light faded.

One full day. Over seven hundred zombies. Their hands were numb by the end.

Of those seven hundred, at least half were Tier-1 Zombies. They also ran into three Tier-2 Zombies-one in the morning, two in the afternoon.

Yang Bin consumed all the Tier-2 Crystals. Including yesterday's, that made four Tier-2 Crystals since he'd reached Tier 2.

Same as Tier 1-diminishing returns the more he ate. By the fourth crystal, it only added about thirty kilograms of strength.

But something was bothering him.

According to the official data, Tier-2 Peak should cap at around 500 kilograms.

He felt like he was already there.

No precise measurement to confirm it, but it had to be close.

"Does Tier 2 really cap at just four crystals? Or is it because of my cultivation?" Yang Bin thought.

"Shouldn't be. I can feel the crystals still have some effect. So it's the cultivation pushing me past?"

"Forget it. One more night of cultivation and I'll know for sure."

Yang Bin pulled out four crystals and handed them to the girls-the meal payment he'd promised.

"Head back. We continue tomorrow."

"Mm, thank you so much." The girls bowed their heads gratefully.

"Don't thank me. We each get what we need." Yang Bin smiled.

Once Liu Qingqing and the others left, Yang Bin's group looked at the rooms piled high with zombie corpses.

All three felt their scalps tingle.

"Bin-ge, we're digging these out ourselves?"

"What else?"

"Why not get the girls to help? I don't think they'd dare skim any off the top."

"No need. They don't know how many crystals are in there. If they see the actual number, they'll start feeling like the deal's unfair. Then they won't work as hard."

"Besides, crystals are still scarce out there. Better that nobody knows how many we're sitting on." Yang Bin said.

"But what do we even need this many Tier-1 Crystals for?" Hu Wenliang asked.

"Little Orange needs to eat. And if we expand the team later, you can never have too many of these." Yang Bin said.

"Fine. Let's dig."

"I'll point, you two dig."

"Why us?"

"I know which corpses have crystals. Unless you'd rather crack open every single one?"

"......"

Working together, it took over an hour to extract every last crystal-368 in total. Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang were completely spent.

"Done. Stash the crystals, let's go rest. Still gotta get up tonight to watch the stars."

"Mm."

The three moved to a different dorm room. The one near the stairwell was now a zombie storage unit.

Lying on the bed, Yang Bin reached for his phone out of habit-no signal.

"Great. This thing's officially just a flashlight now." Chen Hao said flatly.

"Didn't I tell you to download some adult films? Did you?"

"No. When was I supposed to find time for that?"

"Shame." Yang Bin sighed. His phone was too old anyway-memory nearly full. Couldn't have downloaded anything even if he'd tried.

"Hehe, you guys don't have any, but I do." Hu Wenliang said smugly.

"Ha! Knew we could count on you. Quick, pull it up." The two crowded over immediately.

"Sure thing."

Hu Wenliang opened the video player without hesitation.

"Foreign or domestic?"

"Japanese!" Both answered in unison.

"You got it!"

Hu Wenliang quickly found a Japanese film.

But the moment Sadako's figure crawled onto the screen-

"Tch..."

Yang Bin and Chen Hao instantly lost all interest.

"What? This horror movie totally fits the vibe right now."

"Do you not have any of those... adult films?" Chen Hao stared at him.

"Oh... you meant that kind. Should've said so earlier."

"Hehe, so do you have any-"

"No."

"......"

"Bin-ge, I want to hit someone."

"Same."

Moments later, screams echoed from inside the dorm room, scaring the girls upstairs into huddling together and trembling in their beds.

23:50. Three guys and one cat climbed to the Rooftop to watch the stars. They stayed until five in the morning.

Yang Bin felt the power inside his body. His confusion only deepened.

Another thirty-plus kilograms of strength gained today.

His power now exceeded five hundred kilograms. But the third corner hadn't lit up-meaning he was still Tier 2.

"Can cultivation push strength past the upper limit?" A spark of excitement lit in Yang Bin's eyes.

If that was true, then their group's strength would far surpass anyone else at the same level.

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