Chapter 2: Working on 003
Fantasy shattered in an instant.
The only two hand-cranked generators I had were the ones I bought from Pingshao before.
"As long as you have the stamina, you'll have more electricity than hardship!"
After seeing this advertising slogan, Zhang Ye couldn't control the impulse in his heart and placed an order on the spot!
Who doesn't have moments of battery anxiety?
Hand-cranked power generation.
Just thinking about it, it's basically the modern take on starting a fire by friction!
But after the thing arrived, Zhang Ye only cranked it for less than ten minutes before tossing it aside.
This thing is too tiring!
It's supposed to charge the phone, but who knew that after more than ten minutes of cranking, not only did the battery percentage not increase, it dropped by one percent!
He gave it his all and cranked it a few more rounds, barely getting back the one percent he lost, but his arm felt like it had been broken, unable to be lifted for a long while.
He had been tricked.
Zhang Ye was furious and wanted to return the product.
But the seller blocked him with a single line.
"Shipping fee on your own."
"Eighteen yuan in total."
What the hell!
Zhang Ye wanted to curse on the spot.
Keep in mind, the two hand-cranked generators together had only cost him nine yuan and nine.
Now you want to return them and the shipping is eighteen?
Do I have to pay an extra nine yuan on top of that?
What a swindler!
He threw the things in the trash can there and then.
But who could have thought, the next day, an unknown virus outbreak would hit the city.
The bald uncle next door nearly devoured Zhang Ye alive, but at the moment of life and death, Zhang Ye suddenly awakened a system called "People's Entrepreneur."
From then on, a selfless proletarian revolutionary dedicated to the power generation cause lived on the second floor.
Simply called Worker.
Any zombie captured by Zhang Ye and added to the employee list had to follow his commands.
The fear of the apocalypse vanished in an instant.
Zhang Ye stood straight, already envisioning the grand scene of countless zombie hordes conquering lands for him!
"This is my kingdom!"
But a few minutes later, he calmed down.
First, the number of zombies he could control was clearly limited; after completing the first system task, Zhang Ye's employee list could only ever hold up to ten zombies.
Second, the bald zombie in front of him didn't seem to be as obedient as Zhang Ye had imagined.
"Turn left!"
"Atten-tion!"
"At ease!"
No matter how much he shouted, the zombie showed no reaction.
It just kept cranking the generator non-stop, as if pre-programmed like a machine.
"Working?"
It was then that Zhang Ye finally noticed the fine print.
"That shouldn't be."
"It sounds like such a powerful system."
"Could it be that after all this, I can only assign work to zombies?"
He tried reluctantly for a long time and eventually realized the hunch in his heart was right.
For now, he could only arrange simple tasks for the zombies.
Like manual power generation.
But it seemed that the power generation business was also hitting a bottleneck.
There weren't enough hand-cranked generators.
The only two I had were already operating at full load.
An old and a new zombie were working feverishly, turning the cranks.
But the two connected generators could only keep the phone from shutting down, at best.
Thinking of getting back to a modern electric-powered life with this bit of electricity?
Nothing but a dream.
"Sigh."
"A great undertaking undone before death."
"What use is this system to me! How do these zombies help me!"
Zhang Ye lay bored on the bed, mumbling his own adapted lyrics, but his mind was still pondering the power generation issue.
The hand-cranked generators had too little power; even ten or twenty more wouldn't be enough to power a computer.
That's the high-spec computer he spent a good few thousand on!
RTX 4080!
Just the power of the graphics card was over two hundred watts.
Adding in the other hardware, the total power should exceed four hundred watts.
Even if the zombies cranked the hand-cranked generators until they smoked, in the end, they could at most just make the computer case's fans turn a few times.
Unless he had a more powerful generator.
But where to find one?
Zhang Ye couldn't help but light up his phone screen again.
The network icon was still disconnected.
He tried to open Pingshao, and sure enough, it was stuck on the loading page.
"Gurgle."
Just then, a grumble came from his stomach, refusing to be ignored.
Zhang Ye sighed; only then did he remember he had been so preoccupied with hunting stray zombies today that he had forgotten the most important matter.
The landlord's home was out of food reserves.
It was time to find something to eat.
As for the new system quest, it would have to wait.
——
After all, it was a struggle for livelihood.
"Sigh."
"If only I owned a supermarket."
Zhang Ye looked at the zombies wandering across the street and sighed again.
It was already the end of the world.
He had even awakened a system.
But how come life seemed unchanged in the end?
He still had to work to fill his belly; those two zombies were good for nothing but rattling a generator—useless for anything else.
Too stupid.
That was why they wouldn't take orders.
Perhaps the virus had altered their brain structures, rendering them utterly incapable of understanding complex commands.
At most, they could perform simple tasks.
Like:
"Stand up!"
"Sit down!"
"Walk a few steps if you're not sick!"
Even with such simple commands, they would occasionally fall over due to their uncoordinated bodies.
If zombies couldn't be relied upon, he could only depend on himself.
The supermarket was just across the street.
If Zhang Ye could take care of the zombies inside, all the food and drinks packed on the shelves would be his.
But the problem was how to do that?
The supermarket doors were transparent.
He could see the situation inside without entering.
The splattered blood, the disheveled shelves, and those dozen or so zombies occasionally walking out from between the aisles.
"I'm outnumbered."
Zhang Ye withdrew his gaze from the supermarket.
Beside him was a zombie tilting its head with a blank expression—this was the newly captured No. 003 employee.
"Go! Kill them!"
Zhang Ye suddenly ordered, pointing in the direction of the supermarket.
But No. 003 didn't budge an inch.
With its current level of intelligence, it couldn't comprehend the meaning of his words at all.
Kill?
How to kill?
With what to kill?
And who were "they"?
The zombie shakily lifted its own claw as if to touch its nearly smashed head by Zhang Ye, its expression unexpectedly puzzled.
Zhang Ye was speechless.
No way.
It couldn't understand such a simple command?
What use was it to him? Those two back home who could generate electricity were more useful!
He should be able to use his high-voltage electric baton another dozen times or so.
Zhang Ye really wanted to shout:
"Even if I'm outnumbered!"
"I could still take the enemy's head amidst a host of troops!"
Then, carrying his electric baton, he would charge in and engage in a tense and thrilling fight with those equally hungry zombies.
But that was only wishful thinking.
Zhang Ye knew all too well.
He was here to fill his stomach, not to deliver takeout.
If more than a dozen zombies swarmed him.
There would only be one outcome.
An extra meal.
And he would be that meal.
"If only these zombies wouldn't attack me, that would be great."
"Then I could just haul all that food and drink back home right under their noses."
Zhang Ye murmured, as if he could already see his home stuffed with supplies.
Just then, the nearby No. 003 suddenly moved.
It strode confidently towards the supermarket, nonchalantly pushed open the door as if returning home.
What is this guy up to?
Zhang Ye's eyes instantly widened in shock.
Only to see No. 003 sweeping a bunch of snacks off the shelves, then stuffing them all into the pockets of its clothes.
At this moment, its status had changed.
No. 003 employee.
Working.