"Congratulations dear! The total number of level one zombies have increased from seven to fifteen!"

The system’s voice suddenly echoed inside Bai Li’s mind again, sharp and clear, breaking the quiet moment right after her fight. She had just stepped out of that dark apartment and returned to the staircase, her hand still loosely holding Whisperfang, her body relaxed but alert as always. Hearing the number jump like that made her pause mid step, her foot resting on the next stair as she processed it. Seven to fifteen. That meant she had already taken down more than she initially thought, and somehow hearing it counted out like that made it feel more real than before. But the system didn’t stop there.

"Ding... The host has successfully killed two high potential zombies with special traits within the first 12 hours of the apocalypse!"

"Ding... Hidden achievement unlocked!"

"Ding.... Rewards are being generated."

"Ding... Rewards generation successful!"

"Ding,,,, Please check the system panel for further information!"

The notifications came one after another without any break, like the system had been waiting for this moment to speak non stop. Bai Li didn’t interrupt it, didn’t even react outwardly much, but her eyes did sharpen slightly as she listened carefully to every line. A hidden achievement. Rewards. That part definitely caught her attention. Even though she knew those two special zombies had been a bit different from the rest, especially the fast moving ones inside the apartment, she never really thought of them as anything close to a serious threat. At most, they forced her to move a bit more carefully and think a bit faster. That was all. So hearing that killing them triggered some kind of hidden achievement was honestly a bit unexpected.

Still, surprise aside, Bai Li wasn’t the kind of person who would question good things too much.

A reward was a reward.

And in a world like this, anything that gave her an advantage was something she would take without hesitation.

She slowly stepped onto the next stair and then stopped completely, shifting her weight slightly as she leaned back against the railing. The cold metal pressed lightly against her back, grounding her for a moment as she closed her eyes halfway and focused inward. With just a thought, the familiar system panel appeared in front of her vision, floating clearly in her mind like always. The top part still showed her basic information, nothing new there, but as her gaze moved downward, she immediately noticed the rewards section that had appeared just below.

Her attention locked onto it instantly.

She mentally tapped on it.

And just like that, the section opened.

Inside, there were two separate rewards listed.

Bai Li’s brows lifted slightly at that.

Two?

She didn’t remember the system ever telling her how many rewards she would get, so seeing two sitting there quietly made her feel a small flicker of curiosity. It wasn’t a big reaction, but enough for her to take it a bit more seriously. Maybe those "special zombies" really were something different in the system’s eyes. Or maybe the hidden achievement itself carried more weight than she expected.

Either way, she wasn’t going to overthink it.

She focused on the first reward and clicked it without wasting time.

Immediately, a block of text appeared in front of her, the first line looking like a title, and below it a longer description followed. Bai Li’s eyes moved slowly over the words, reading carefully, not skipping anything. Her expression stayed calm, but there was a slight shift in her focus as she began to understand that whatever this first reward was, it didn’t look like something simple at all.

"System update 3.0 : Interdimensional market. [Will be unlocked once the update is completed.]

Update time: 100 seconds.

Description: The interdimensional merchants are a group of merchant associations spread all over the multiverse. They don’t usually set up their business in such a remote and poor world like this but since the virus affected the world, the world is slowly undergoing a massive change or an evolution thanks to the exposure to the spiritual energy of the universe, the status of this world is slowly being elevated from a remote to a potential world which can advance a lot in the universe.

The interdimensional merchants set up their business to primarily trade valuable items from one world to another in exchange for equivalent value. And they dont stay in one place at all times but appear in different places for a fixed amount of time all over the world and will continue to come and go.

The crystal cores from zombies and plant cores from mutated plants, beast cores from mutated beasts, and many more newly invented treasures from this world is very valuable to them.

The new update would keep a track of when and where the interdimensinal merchants would appear and the host can gain valuable items from other worlds in exchange for crystal cores or more.

The latest information: The interdimensional market would open at 5 pm exactly in the jinghua city hospital where the host had previously visited!"

Bai Li read through every single line slowly, not skipping anything, her eyes moving from top to bottom while her expression gradually turned more and more serious. At first glance, it just looked like another system feature, something useful but not too shocking, but the more she read the description, the more she felt like this wasn’t just some simple add on. There were too many important words hidden in there. Multiverse. Spiritual energy. Evolution of the world. Interdimensional trade. Every single one of those things carried a meaning that was much bigger than just surviving a zombie outbreak.

She leaned a little more against the railing without realizing it, her fingers unconsciously tightening around Whisperfang as her mind started connecting things together. From the very first moment she appeared in this world, she had already felt that something was off. It never felt like a normal apocalypse to her. Zombies alone were already strange enough, but even those zombies didn’t behave like something that came from a simple virus. Then there were mutated plants, mutated animals, crystal cores, and the idea of people awakening superpowers. None of that matched with normal logic. It wasn’t something that could just happen because of some random infection spreading across the world.

Even when the system had first mentioned spiritual energy before, she had already suspected that there was something deeper behind all of this, but the system refused to explain anything at that time. It had simply told her that she wasn’t qualified to know yet, which honestly annoyed her a bit back then. But now, reading this description, it felt like she was finally seeing a small part of the bigger picture. This world wasn’t just collapsing. It was changing. Evolving into something else entirely.

"A remote world... becoming a potential world..."

She murmured softly in her mind, repeating the line to herself.

That meant this world was being pushed into something bigger, something connected to a much larger system beyond just this planet. If interdimensional merchants existed, and they were willing to come here because of the changes happening, then that meant this world had suddenly become valuable in some way. Valuable enough to attract attention from outside.

That thought alone made Bai Li’s breathing slow down slightly.

This was no longer just about surviving zombies.

This was about stepping into a much larger stage.

She didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.

But one thing was clear.

She needed to get stronger.

Because if this world was truly entering some kind of universal system, then the dangers would definitely not be limited to just zombies.

She closed her eyes for a brief second and took a slow breath, letting all those thoughts settle down instead of letting them run wild. Overthinking right now wouldn’t help. She didn’t have enough information yet, and even if she did, she didn’t have the strength to deal with everything immediately. What she needed to do was simple.

Get stronger step by step.

Complete what the system asked.

And survive.

Everything else could come later.

Her eyes opened again, calm as before, but this time there was a faint sharpness hidden inside them that hadn’t been there earlier. The confusion was gone. In its place was a clear direction.

Then her attention shifted back to the reward itself.

Interdimensional market.

Now that part...

That part was actually exciting.

Bai Li’s lips curved slightly as she thought about it.

Trading items from other worlds.

That alone sounded insane.

If what the system said was true, then those merchants would bring items that didn’t belong to this world at all. Weapons, tools, maybe medicine, maybe things she couldn’t even imagine yet. And in exchange, they wanted crystal cores and other resources from this world. That meant the things she was already collecting would become currency.

That was perfect.

She was already planning to gather as many crystal cores as possible anyway, and now those cores had even more value than before. They weren’t just for upgrading her own abilities anymore. They could be traded for things that might give her an even bigger advantage.

Bai Li felt a small sense of satisfaction at that thought.

This reward was good.

Really good.

And then her eyes landed on the last line again.

"The interdimensional market would open at 5 pm exactly in the Jinghua city hospital..."

She paused for a second.

Hospital.

The same place she had visited earlier.

Her expression didn’t change much, but her thoughts moved quickly.

That place would definitely be dangerous by now. Hospitals were always crowded, and with the outbreak happening suddenly like this, it was probably one of the worst places to be. High density of people, injured patients, panic, and chaos. It was the perfect breeding ground for zombies.

Which also meant...

More zombies.

More danger.

But also...

More opportunities.

Bai Li didn’t hesitate for long.

She had already made up her mind.

"I’ll go."

Her decision was simple and direct.

She would go there before five, observe the situation, and then enter the market when it appeared. No matter what kind of danger was waiting there, she couldn’t ignore something like this. If the market was real and useful, it could become one of her biggest advantages in the future.

She needed to see it with her own eyes.

Confirm it herself. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

With that thought, Bai Li didn’t waste any more time. She directly focused on the system panel again and pressed the update button in her mind.

Immediately, the system responded.

"Ding..... Initiating the system update 3.0. Interdimensional market would get unlocked with this update!"

Her eyes stayed fixed on the panel as the progress bar appeared.

"Ding.... Updating starts now.... 1%...2%....10%... 20%.....40%...60%...80%.....100%"

The numbers moved quickly, almost too fast to follow properly. Within just a short moment, the entire process was completed.

"Ding.... Update successful! System 3.0 has been successfully loaded!"

The system panel flickered slightly, then stabilized again.

Bai Li looked at it carefully, scanning through everything once more. Just like before, most of the layout remained exactly the same. Her basic information was still there, her attributes were unchanged, and all the previous functions were still in place.

The only difference...

Was the new feature.

"Interdimensional market."

It now existed clearly on the panel, no longer locked, no longer greyed out.

After the update was completed, Bai Li didn’t stay focused on the new feature for long and quickly shifted her attention back to the rewards section again, because she clearly remembered there was still one more reward left waiting for her. She didn’t like leaving things half done, especially when it came to something that could directly affect her strength, so without wasting even a second, she mentally clicked on the second reward option.

The moment she did, a new line of text appeared clearly in front of her eyes.

"New title given to host: ’The fast learner’"

.

.

.

To be continued.