Chapter 12 Koi Possession Opens the Treasure Chest

Chapter 12: Koi Luck and Treasure Chests

The toxins in her body worked fast. Hua Diao had barely climbed a few flights of stairs when she felt her entire body burning up—not the heat of sweating from too many layers, but the searing sensation of being roasted alive. Her body rapidly dehydrated, her lips cracked and peeled, and a fine, pervasive ache spread through her very bones. Her vision swam with intermittent darkness.

Hua Diao gritted her teeth, her heart heavy with frustration.

She had clearly overestimated herself and underestimated the potency of the mosquito venom. It had struck with such speed and ferocity. No wonder the novels depicted billions dying from insect-borne diseases in the early apocalypse, reducing the global population by a tenth overnight.

Suddenly—

A sharp *snap* echoed, and the stairwell lights plunged into darkness. Several startled cries of "Blackout!" reverberated through the confined space.

For others, this sudden darkness was a terrifying blow, but for Hua Diao—who was teetering between gritting her teeth to continue climbing home or entering her island space to detoxify—it was a welcome relief.

The power outage couldn’t have come at a better time!

The Koi Deity’s good fortune was at work again.

Darkness provided perfect cover. Without hesitation, she slipped into her island space.

The damp sea breeze caressed her, bringing a refreshing coolness to her feverish body. The residual spiritual energy within the space continuously surged into her, being absorbed and significantly suppressing the toxins.

She could finally breathe a sigh of relief, no longer worrying about running out of time to acquire an antidote and accidentally bringing about her own demise.

However, the toxins were only suppressed, not eliminated. An antidote was still necessary.

Hua Diao stripped off her cumbersome gas mask and raincoat, then headed towards the location where she had placed the treasure chests.

Three identical, gleaming golden treasure chests rested on the sand, emitting a faint golden aura. The moment Hua Diao’s hand touched one of them, its lid slowly creaked open on its own.

With a mix of immense curiosity and a touch of trepidation, she craned her neck to peer inside the chest.

In the past, despite being a self-proclaimed jinx, she had always thrown herself into raffles and lotteries with the same fierce determination as a hungry wolf chasing a goose. The results, needless to say, were always a string of "Thank you for your patronage" or "Thank you for participating"—she hadn't even won an egg.

Even at company annual dinners, where the wealthy boss generously filled the lottery box with prizes to ensure everyone won something—even if not the grand prize, then at least a consolation prize, leaving only one "Thank you for participating" as a token gesture—Hua Diao somehow *always* drew that one. Year after year, she was the only one on stage holding the booby prize, while everyone else celebrated their winnings, leaving her feeling like the sole lemon tree in a field of blossoming success.

It was truly soul-crushing!

Just thinking about it made her heart ache. But now, it was different. Her luck had turned around!

She was incredibly excited about her newfound luck in drawing prizes.

She rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

Let’s see what’s inside this treasure chest.

Oh, well. The golden chest was all show; inside, it was a dull, dusty gray.

But that wasn’t the main point. The *contents* were.

At the very top lay a transparent bag of sliced toast, twenty pieces in all. It looked beautiful, with swirls of white and purple, and contained raisins, dried strawberries, walnuts, and other nuts. The ingredients were rich, and the portion was generous—enough to feed a family of three for two breakfasts, paired with milk.

As food went, it was quite valuable in the apocalypse.

But for Hua Diao, who had stockpiled hundreds of millions of units of supplies and lacked nothing in terms of food and drink, seeing the first item drawn be ordinary food with no special effects left her feeling rather unenthusiastic!

She took out the toast and set it aside, then continued to examine the chest.

Beneath it, she saw several glittering golden objects.

"Coins!"

Hua Diao’s eyes immediately lit up. Happily, she picked up the coins from the bottom of the box and counted them: ten in total. This was precisely the amount needed to upgrade to a standard membership, meaning she wouldn’t have to use her previously hoarded rice to exchange for coins.

Just these ten coins alone made her dangerous ordeal tonight worthwhile.

It was well known that in the early days of the apocalypse, finding gold coins in treasure chests was extremely rare. Most yielded copper coins, and finding silver coins was already a stroke of immense luck, let alone gold.

If she were to exchange food for coins, at a rate of 500 grams of rice for one copper coin, then one gold coin would cost five thousand kilograms of rice. Ten gold coins would amount to fifty thousand kilograms of rice.

Fifty thousand kilograms of rice, if rationed carefully, could sustain a family of three for several decades.

So, ten gold coins were indeed a remarkable fortune.

This time, she had hit the jackpot!

Hua Diao’s face was beaming with excitement. With this promising start, she felt full of confidence for the remaining two treasure chests.

"Wait—"

Just as she was about to shift her gaze to open the second chest, she suddenly noticed something else inside the first one. The ten gleaming gold coins had been so bright that she hadn’t noticed a small, dull gray object that blended perfectly with the chest’s interior color.

She reached in and picked up the palm-sized gray object, examining it closely.

It was a wooden bow, a muted gray, shrunk by dozens of times, resembling a small model. It looked quite unremarkable.

But its description utterly astonished Hua Diao.

[Item: Elven Wooden Bow]

[Rank: Common]

[Description: A training bow once used by an elf, still imbued with elven spiritual energy. It can actively absorb surrounding spiritual energy to form arrows. Suitable for beginners in archery.]

What a find!

It could even absorb surrounding spiritual energy to automatically generate arrows. This meant she wouldn’t have to worry about running out of ammunition and being left with just a gun barrel, rendering her weapon useless.

Heh. According to the novels, in the early apocalypse, out of billions of people worldwide, only a rare few could obtain weapons. Most early finds were food and some copper coins, and even single-use items were incredibly scarce.

The fact that she had directly obtained a weapon once again proved how strong her Koi luck was now.

Filled with the conviction that as a Koi, she was destined to find good things, Hua Diao promptly opened the remaining two treasure chests.

The second chest yielded two brightly colored, ruby-red berries, thirty silver coins, and a bag of black soil.

The third chest contained a scroll, a transparent stone, and three gold coins.

Hua Diao’s eyes sparkled as she patiently examined each item.

[Red Berries: Plump with juice, sweet and delicious. Consuming a whole berry can randomly increase one of your attributes by one point (with a high probability of boosting your weakest attribute).]

[Black Soil: Common soil found throughout the Fantasy Continent, unpolluted. Can be used to grow anything.]

[Space Expansion Stone: Increases the internal volume of a space by 10 cubic meters, with no change to its external dimensions (Note: Using more than 5 Space Expansion Stones within a single space requires the use of a formation).]

The last item was quite unique, resembling a rolled-up painting, about 30 centimeters long. Unlike the Elven Wooden Bow, which could enlarge for use and shrink to palm-size when not, this scroll maintained its form, taking up a considerable amount of space.

[Item: Lightning Scroll]

[Rank: Common]

[Description: A one-time-use skill scroll with an area-of-effect attack. Indiscriminate of friend or foe, with a range of up to five kilometers in all directions. The user must immediately flee the attack range after tearing the scroll, or risk achieving the "mutual destruction" achievement. If escape is unfortunately impossible, ensure your defense is comparable to a Mystic Tortoise shell, as this item only deals damage and does not handle cleanup.]