Chapter 10: Another Group of Survivors

"Vice monitor, this is the first time we've spoken so properly; usually I just listen to the monitor, since I'm her deskmate," Luffy shrugged, glancing at Su Ningxue's profile—she was quite pretty, really. Then, his gaze shifted to her back and hips, which were rather shapely. That red envelope was especially prominent.

Su Ningxue's cheeks flushed, thinking Luffy was trying to flirt with her, even looking at her hips—such shamelessness. If he wants to pursue me, I’ll need to consider it.

"Right, aren't you Qin Bailin's lackey? How did you suddenly get so powerful?" Su Ningxue looked at Luffy with curiosity, her cheeks still tinged pink, lightly biting her lip as she spoke.

"Of course, even a lackey can grow stronger," Luffy replied with a smile, extending his hand and placing it behind Su Ningxue's hips.

"Uh..." Su Ningxue froze, her face now red as a peach, teeth clenched and voice trembling, "You... what are you trying to do?"

"Nothing, wait a moment and you’ll see. No need to be shy, I’m just sensing your constitution—I won’t take advantage of you," Luffy said righteously.

Even Su Ningxue could hardly believe him—this was clearly taking liberties.

"Ding, red envelope opening, requires 20 seconds. 20, 19, 18…5, 4…"

Su Ningxue’s face was as red as an apple—if this wasn’t taking advantage, then what was? Tears nearly welled in her eyes; how could he bully her so?

"Ding, red envelope opened successfully. Congratulations, host, you have received a divine beast, stored in temporary inventory."

Luffy’s eyes widened—did he hear that right? He actually drew a divine beast? Not only did he take liberties with Su Ningxue, he got a divine beast for it? Wasn’t this hitting the jackpot?

Luffy quickly withdrew his hand and turned to walk back to his dormitory.

Su Ningxue, meanwhile, was still caught up in her fantasy—he must like her, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken such liberties, wouldn’t have touched her for so long. He must like shapely hips.

She didn’t even notice Luffy leave.

Back in his room, Luffy summoned the virtual screen with a thought, clicked on the temporary inventory, and saw an egg—multicolored, quite remarkable, but somehow it looked just like a hard-boiled chicken egg.

He immediately tapped the multicolored egg.

"Ding, would you like to incubate?"

Luffy, of course, clicked "incubate".

Then, the multicolored egg began to crack open with a "crunch, crunch…" sound.

A creature, resembling a teddy dog, appeared before him—adorable and tiny, no larger than his palm, barking "woof woof" like a puppy. Was this the divine beast? Wasn’t it just a teddy? And so small, too—what a scam.

"System, are you messing with me? This is a pure teddy, not a divine beast," Luffy said, speechless.

"Ding, host, you’re unaware—this ranks among the top hundred divine beasts in the universe and can continually evolve. It’s a rare treasure, and at its final evolution, it may enter the top ten. All products from the system are premium."

"Yeah, right, premium. Teddy, come here," Luffy said, exasperated.

"Woof woof," the teddy barked twice, then leapt onto Luffy’s shoulder.

"Wow, impressive leg strength—just born and already able to jump so high," Luffy said, surprised at the teddy’s abilities. He’d underestimated it.

"What attack methods do you have?" Luffy turned to ask the little teddy.

"Woof woof," the teddy replied—it could bark.

"Get out," Luffy muttered, rolling his eyes and heading outside. This divine beast seemed rather useless; he decided to try opening other red envelopes.

Su Ningxue saw Luffy emerge, a tiny teddy perched on his shoulder, and her eyes sparkled with affection. "Wow, Luffy, how do you have a teddy? And it's so small—is it mutated?"

"This is a teddy divine beast—I'll let you play with it for now," Luffy said, patting the teddy off his shoulder and scanning for any new red envelopes.

But over the next hour, not a single red envelope appeared—perhaps because he’d just drawn a divine beast.

Zeng Hongsen approached, "Boss, do you like Su Ningxue? How could you take liberties with her just now?"

"Get lost! Why would I like her? The one I like is Qin Bailin. I was just treating her injury—she was hurt on her hip," Luffy shot Zeng Hongsen a glare, watching the flames die down after burning for half the day.

At eight in the evening, Luffy led everyone into the dark campus, digging up crystal cores one after another, occasionally finding second-tier ones.

Three hours later, they had combed the entire school, collecting a total of two thousand crystal cores—over five hundred from zombies, the rest from wild beasts.

Including the second-tier cores, they had amassed two thousand two hundred in total—a lucrative haul without much effort.

Luffy realized that after reaching a hundred times normal strength, no matter how many enhanced dragon blood pills he consumed, it was like a stone sinking into the sea—he couldn’t break through to the second stage.

He exchanged two thousand crystal cores for enhanced body-refining solution, totaling two hundred and twenty vials.

He gave each person three vials, keeping the remaining seventy for himself.

However, even after taking three vials, none of them could reach thirty times normal strength.

Most only reached twenty times strength—after all, the body-refining solution couldn’t compare to dragon blood pills, and the effect diminished after the second vial.

Only Zeng Hongsen managed thirty-five times normal strength.

Still, they had all become formidable—fifty people made for an elite squad.

Luffy saw that the system shop had no new pills; breaking through to the second stage seemed as distant as ever.

He needed to find a way.

On the eastern side of the teaching building stood the dormitory; a few men stood at the windows, gazing down—every zombie in the dormitory had vanished.

These men were covered in blood, though their muscles were solid.

"Someone else made the same discovery? Killing zombies to get their crystal cores and eating them to grow stronger?" Zhang Rishan squinted at the darkness below.

"Boss Zhang, maybe so. They have numbers, and got thousands of crystals in no time. There are many people in the teaching building, but fewer in our dormitory," Wu Cheng, thin and sharp-eyed, held a kitchen knife.

"How about we go over there and kill them all?" Zhang Shan’s heavy frame resembled a mountain.

"Good idea. We’ll take all their crystals and eat them—then we’ll get even stronger," Zhang Rishan said, eyes narrowing. "But we’ll wait a few hours, until they’re asleep—then we strike."

"Boss, you’re so smart," Zhang Shan said admiringly to Zhang Rishan.

Zhang Rishan was already at the second stage, with thirty-five times normal strength. After evolving to the second stage, some people gained abilities, such as increased speed.

Zhang Rishan’s speed was especially fast.