Unexpected Gains

For his first exchange, he traded a copy of the Chakra Refinement Technique and a mass of chakra for the Perfected Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

That single exchange had directly changed his fate.

For the second exchange, despite his anticipation, Fang Xu did not rush to take out the B-Rank ninjutsu scroll among his parents' belongings.

That kind of thing was highly valuable, but the risk was equally high. If he got junk in return, the loss would hurt too much.

Besides, what he most wanted to find out now was just how broad his exchange talent's definition of "special items" really was.

Fang Xu took a small paper packet from the very back of a drawer. When he opened it, there was a small tuft of black hair inside.

The strands were stiff and a pure black. They belonged to Obito Uchiha.

Two days ago, Obito had been sleeping so deeply in class, his head buried in his arms, that he had not even responded when the teacher called his name. As Fang Xu passed behind him, he casually plucked a small tuft from his head.

Obito had nearly jumped up from the pain, but he had only assumed his sleeping position had tugged at his hair.

Now, it was finally useful.

"Uchiha hair."

Fang Xu pinched several black Roots between his fingers, his gaze serious.

"Although it's not a Sharingan, blood, or chakra, it still came from the Uchiha clan."

"If my exchange talent recognizes it as a special item, I might get an unexpected reward."

Of course, he did not hold out much hope. A tuft of hair definitely could not compare in value to a complete bloodline.

This was more like an experiment.

If even something like hair could be exchanged for a useful return, there would be much more room for maneuvering in the future.

Fang Xu placed the Uchiha hair in his palm and silently thought to himself.

"Exchange."

The instant the thought fell, the tuft of black hair in his palm vanished without a sound.

The next second, the familiar pulling sensation appeared.

Fang Xu's consciousness seemed to be lifted upward, and the scene before him changed.

Beneath a gloomy gray sky, a ruined street stretched across his field of vision.

Cars along the roadside had crashed into a heap, their windows shattered, while dried bloodstains covered the ground.

The air was thick with the stench of rot.

At the end of the street, a young man gripped a fire axe and panted heavily.

His clothes were covered in blood, and several rotting zombie corpses lay at his feet.

The man was named Zhou Yang.

A transmigrator who had crossed into an apocalyptic world.

Having just finished killing the zombies, his face held the excitement of someone who had survived a disaster.

"I've finally saved up enough experience."

Zhou Yang wiped the blood from his face, leaned against a wall, and impatiently shouted, "System, open the Attribute Panel!"

There was no response.

Only the wind blowing through the abandoned street could be heard.

Zhou Yang froze for a moment.

"System?"

Still, no panel appeared.

The excitement on his face gradually stiffened.

Just then, more than a dozen black Roots suddenly drifted down from midair.

The black Roots floated lightly down in front of him, and several even landed on his shoulder.

Zhou Yang was completely dumbfounded.

He looked down at the black hairs on his shoulder, then at the empty space before him.

"No, where's my panel?"

"System! Don't scare me!"

"Open the Attribute Panel!"

"Attributes!"

"Character information!"

"Stat allocation screen!"

"Inventory!"

He shouted several times in a row, his voice growing more and more panicked.

Yet none of the familiar system panels appeared before him.

There were only those dozen or so black Roots that had fallen from nowhere, swaying gently in the wind.

Zhou Yang's face went Haku.

The apocalyptic world was no joke.

Zombies, mutated beasts, lack of water, lack of food—any one of them could kill him.

The reason he had dared to risk his life killing zombies was because he had a system.

He could gain experience and attribute points by hunting zombies.

Leveling up, assigning points, and slowly growing stronger.

But now, the most crucial Attribute Panel was gone.

It was like someone had ripped the steering wheel right out of his hands.

Zhou Yang anxiously spun around twice on the spot and nearly lost his grip on the fire axe.

"System, answer me!"

"Is my experience still there?"

"Do the zombies I just killed still count?"

"Can I level up? Can I assign points?"

A moment later, as though he had sensed something, his expression finally eased slightly.

The system's core functions were still there. Killing zombies still granted experience, and killing mutated beasts also granted experience.

Once his experience was full, he could level up, and leveling up granted attribute points.

He could still apply attribute points to his body, but he could no longer see the panel.

More precisely, the Attribute Panel plugin seemed to have been forcibly ripped out by something.

Zhou Yang held a black Root between his fingers, his expression shifting from panic to blankness, then from blankness to gritted fury.

"I've already transmigrated, and my system can still lose parts?"

"After killing zombies, I don't get equipment or Crystal Cores—I get a handful of hair?"

"What kind of garbage is this?"

He looked up at the dim gray sky. After holding it in for a long while, he could only curse the system inwardly for being a shoddy product.

The scene did not immediately fade.

On the gray apocalyptic street, Zhou Yang cursed for a long time until his voice was nearly hoarse, but no Attribute Panel appeared before him.

He could only darken his face and brush the black Roots from his shoulders.

"Fine! You win."

"No panel, then no panel. As long as the experience and stat points are still there, that's enough."

Though Zhou Yang said that, his expression was as ugly as if he had swallowed a fly.

For a system-based transmigrator, losing the Attribute Panel was like losing navigation.

He could still walk the road, but every step would have to be guessed.

Carrying his fire axe, he walked over to a zombie corpse, crouched down, and skillfully used the axe blade to pry open its skull.

The stench of rot immediately surged out.

Frowning, Zhou Yang rummaged around inside a few times before quickly pinching out a gray-Haku crystal the size of a soybean.

Blood and grime clung to the crystal's surface, but it carried a faint sheen. He wiped it on the zombie's clothes and slipped it into his pocket.

Then came the second corpse, then the third. He searched every zombie head with great care.

Some had nothing, while others yielded a murkier Crystal Core.

As Zhou Yang dug, he muttered curses through gritted teeth.

"Without the panel, how am I supposed to Dan absorption efficiency?"

"What if I assign my attribute points wrong?"

"Damn system, couldn't you have warned me before losing a part?"

"And these black hairs—what asshole exchanged them over here?"

Fang Xu watched carefully from outside the image.

Zombies, Crystal Cores, systems, experience, stat allocation...

The resource system of that apocalyptic world was even more interesting than he had imagined.

Although Zhou Yang had lost the Attribute Panel, the system core did not seem to have collapsed. Killing zombies granted experience, leveling up granted attribute points, and Crystal Cores were clearly an important resource in that apocalyptic world.

That meant the world was not merely dangerous. It also held a great deal of value waiting to be excavated.

"Crystal Cores..."

Fang Xu stared at the gray-Haku crystals in Zhou Yang's pocket and rapidly calculated in his mind.

In the apocalyptic world, these things could most likely strengthen the body or serve as some kind of energy material.

If he could figure out the exchange rules in the future, perhaps he could trade worthless things from the Shinobi World for a batch of Crystal Cores and solve his shortage of cultivation resources.

Even if Crystal Cores could not be used directly, they could still be studied. Energy materials from different worlds were valuable in themselves.

Especially since he was currently following a lightning-based body-tempering path. What he lacked most were resources that could rapidly restore his body and replenish his expenditure.

"This Zhou Yang is worth keeping an eye on."

Fang Xu mentally marked the apocalyptic world.