Not long after she returned to the villa, Selina came back with Lisa and Maeve Preston.

Seeing the three of them covered in filth and reeking of the familiar stench of zombie brains, Flora Bloom couldn’t help but gag, covering her mouth and turning her head to breathe in some fresh air.

Lisa looked at Flora Bloom with curiosity. Thinking Flora was bothered by their smell, she took a step back and asked, "Are you okay, Flora?"

Selina looked at Flora’s reaction, stroked her own belly, and said jokingly, "Flora, you’re not... pregnant, are you?"

Flora Bloom nodded. She knew she could hide her pregnancy for a while, but not forever. She decided to tell her parents about it after everyone else got back.

After all, everyone here lived so close. Once her belly got a little bigger, she wouldn’t be able to hide it anyway.

Selina had only been joking, but she’d hit the nail on the head. She started to walk closer, but Flora Bloom held out a hand to stop her, turning her head away. "Selina, I can’t stand this smell lately... UGH." As she spoke, she dry-heaved a few more times, bringing up stomach acid until her stomach churned uncomfortably.

"By the way, where were you all morning? When I woke up, you were gone!" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Lisa piped up excitedly, "Flora, we went out to fight zombies this morning! Look, I killed two of them myself! And I even dug Crystal Cores out of their brains!" Lisa excitedly pulled the Crystal Cores from her pocket to show Flora Bloom, as if presenting a treasure.

"Zombies are such ugly monsters, but the Crystal Cores in their heads are actually so beautiful!" Selina added with a faint smile.

"Selina, you went too?"

Selina nodded. "Yeah. I’m always mooching off you all, eating your food and drinking your water. Even though I’m pregnant, I still want to contribute. Luckily, everyone looked out for me and didn’t leave me behind."

"Flora, you shouldn’t underestimate Selina. The way she goes at zombies with an axe is just as vicious as you are!" Maeve Preston said as she went into the kitchen, took out a set of cups, and began washing them with tap water.

Seeing this, Flora Bloom quickly used her water ability to rinse the cups again. Then she warned them.

"The source for the tap water is very likely contaminated by the virus. Ability Users might not get infected if they use it to bathe or wash up, but you guys haven’t awakened your superpowers yet. There’s a high chance you could get infected. Especially you, Selina. You’re carrying a baby; you can’t take that risk!"

After speaking, Flora Bloom filled the cups with spiritual water from her space, handed them to the three women, and drank a cup herself.

"You’re back. Where are the others?"

Maeve Preston sipped the water; it had that familiar, sweet, and refreshing taste. "The safe zone set up a task hall. Everyone went there to see if there were any suitable missions to accept. Selina is pregnant, and my stamina isn’t great, so we came back first."

’Task hall?’ In her past life, all the major bases had a task hall with missions posted by the base or by individuals. For example, searching a specific area to retrieve designated supplies or food, then bringing them back to the mission issuer in exchange for a specified reward.

There were also missions where the objective was Crystal Cores, with rewards like food and supplies. The missions and rewards were always varied and could be quite bizarre.

In her past life, at the beginning of the apocalypse, very few people would accept missions posted by individuals, mainly due to issues of trust. For example, someone might post a mission requiring a case of instant noodles or ten catties of rice, with the reward being a single Level 3 Crystal Core.

After so long in the apocalypse, things like instant noodles and rice had long since been scavenged from areas with fewer zombies on the city’s outskirts. Only the large supermarkets in the city center still had them.

If a squad risked their lives to go to the city center and bring back a case of instant noodles, they might lose a few members, or even get completely wiped out. Then, the survivors would return and complete the mission, only to find the issuer couldn’t produce the promised reward.

Although the base guards would punish the issuer, the lost team members were already dead. Even killing the issuer to vent their anger would be useless.

’As for a base leader like Morgan Sterling, Flora Bloom didn’t know his true strength, but if something like this happened in the early stages, it would be a huge test of the base’s stability.’

’Still, that didn’t diminish Flora Bloom’s interest in the task hall. She decided to go check it out right now, see if there were any rewards that interested her, and consider taking on some missions or trading directly with the issuers.’

Lisa had originally come back to accompany Selina and Maeve Preston. Now, hearing that Flora Bloom was going to the task hall, she eagerly volunteered to be her guide.

The task hall was originally a real estate sales office, about two to three hundred square meters in size. The two-hundred-plus-square-meter space was packed with people. The moment Flora Bloom walked in with Lisa, the overwhelming stench of sweat and zombie brains nearly made her pass out on the spot.

Flora Bloom walked in, covering her nose and mouth. The hall was brightly lit. She noticed the task hall actually had electricity. A small electronic screen was mounted on the wall opposite the entrance, with missions scrolling by in red and green text. Red represented base missions, and green represented personal missions.

On either side of the main entrance, the rules for accepting and completing missions in the task hall were posted. In essence, missions on the electronic screen were protected by the base’s authority. If either the issuer or the acceptor violated the rules, they would be punished by the base according to the severity of the violation. The most severe punishment was being hunted down by the base.

Flora Bloom looked around and saw an elevator in the hall, its lights on. Two Second Level Fire Ability Users stood guard at the elevator doors, and a "VIP" sign was stuck to the elevator.

’This Morgan Sterling is quite something!’ She glanced at the mission requirements on the screen. People who commissioned the task hall to post a mission had to pay ten percent of the mission reward as a commission—basically, protection money. At the end of the day, whether it was supplies or Crystal Cores, Morgan Sterling was the biggest beneficiary.

’The only question is whether he has the strength to maintain the task hall’s stability.’

Flora Bloom glanced at the scrolling mission list on the screen, thinking she’d take a few missions to test the waters. She picked out a few missions that offered Crystal Cores as rewards and went to a mission registration office to sign up. After another turn through the crowded hall, she still didn’t see her parents or Cynthia, figuring they had probably already gone back. So, she left with Lisa as well.

When she got home, everyone was indeed in their yard. On the ground lay a bag with several catties of rice, some canned vegetables and fruit, and surprisingly, a large fish that weighed six or seven catties.

Seeing Flora Bloom return with Lisa, Cynthia Grant was the first to come bounding over.

"Flora, look! This is what we got in half a day’s work!"

Flora Bloom looked at everyone’s filthy clothes and grimy faces, and smiled. Even though they were living in the relatively safe place she had created for them, they still chose to go out and face the world, not only striving to adapt and grow in the apocalypse, but also working hard for their own survival.

But looking at the things on the ground, Flora Bloom was a little puzzled.

’Although there wasn’t much on the ground, most of it was food that was extremely scarce in the apocalypse. You couldn’t get these things for less than three or four hundred Crystal Cores.’

’Even though there were a lot of them, not all of them were Ability Users. Besides, without the help of a bulldozer like Big Mac, getting three or four hundred Crystal Cores in a single morning would be incredibly difficult.’

Just then, as everyone was happily celebrating their hard-earned rewards, Jade suddenly pulled Flora Bloom aside.

"Mom? What’s wrong?"

"Here, for you!" Jade said, placing an A4-sized kraft paper envelope into Flora Bloom’s hand.

Flora Bloom opened it curiously and saw a bag of sparkling, translucent, multi-colored Crystal Cores. What’s more, the energy level in all of them was Level 3. Flora Bloom counted them—there were a full twenty-three!

Flora Bloom’s eyes widened as she looked at Jade. "Mom, where did so many Level 3 Crystal Cores come from?"

"On our way back, we ran into one of Young Cross’s men, Leopard Cat. He asked me to give this to you."