For as many days as the torrential downpour lasted, Song Yu remained stationed inside that towering skyscraper, with her and Xiao Hei operating primarily within this immediate sector.
On the morning of the 17th day of the game, the relentless five-day deluge finally ceased.
Song Yu and Xiao Hei were finally able to venture outdoors to conduct exploration.
She prepared to head off first to find Shuyuan and clear out the items stashed in her backpack slots, and then track down Chen Su to cash in her entire reserve of mutated blood.
One must bear in mind that Song Yu’s backpack slots currently held a staggering 782 vials of Tier 1 mutated blood, 213 vials of Tier 2 mutated blood, 37 vials of Tier 3 mutated blood, and 9 vials of Tier 4 mutated blood.
Leveraging terrain advantages, Song Yu had eliminated 4 Tier 4 zombies, all in broad daylight, netting 12,000 RMB and triggering multiple talent drops.
Xiao Hei’s Three-Finger Art talent experience had likewise accumulated to 5 points; there was a fighting chance it might scale up to Level 2 prior to evacuating this instance.
Once all this mutated blood was completely cashed out, her final destination would be the seaport district.
Song Yu’s itinerary was thoroughly mapped out.
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The raid operation orchestrated by the players previously had resulted in the mass casualties of a vast number of players across Yangliu City, leaving the surviving player population at a fraction of a tenth of its original count.
Through five days of torrential rainfall, Song Yu had managed to stockpile clean water capable of replenishing 53,000 hydration units, alongside 70,000 hydration units’ worth of polluted water.
The majority of it was stored securely inside Xiao Hei’s spatial storage.
Yet their food reserves were nearly exhausted, leaving them with a mere 10 portions of standard nutrient meals.
“With it raining this long, mushrooms should be sprouting everywhere, right?”
Song Yu gazed up at the skies that had cleared with such great difficulty; a trace of lingering chill still hung heavy in the air.
The mere thought of the tender, savory flavor of wild mushrooms made Song Yu’s mouth water uncontrollably.
And bamboo shoots!
If memory served correctly, right behind the village Song Yu had previously stayed in lay a massive expanse of bamboo groves!
The moment that thought bloomed, Song Yu’s footsteps quickened noticeably.
Following five consecutive days of heavy rainstorms, the zombies had suffered a fair share of impacts as well, with negative buffs manifesting across a vast majority of their bodies.
For instance, [Decaying], [Osteoporosis], [Anosmia]…
A bizarre assortment of afflictions.
Because Song Yu and Xiao Hei maintained relatively adequate resource reserves, neither of them had fallen victim to any health complications.
Even had health issues cropped up, the pharmaceutical supplies on Song Yu’s person were more than sufficient to resolve them.
The zombies roaming the streets were rotted and decrepit to the core, allowing Song Yu to eliminate them cleanly and effortlessly.
Song Yu figured she should manage to locate Shuyuan before nightfall.
Along the journey, Song Yu encountered members hailing from both the Qilin and Watchers organizations; the vast majority of the city’s surviving NPCs had thrown their lot in with them.
The remainder consisted entirely of fiercely independent, highly formidable lone-wolf NPC merchants.
Due to the preceding actions of the player base, their attitude toward Song Yu leaned quite cold and aloof.
Yet aloofness aside, they harbored zero overt malice, and upon seeing Song Yu traveling alongside a dog, they still proved willing to field her inquiries.
Song Yu and Xiao Hei successfully extracted Shuyuan’s current coordinates from their directions.
Inside the old library of Yangliu City.
Situated a fair distance away from their current position.
Conversely, Chen Su’s newly active operating zone wasn’t overly distant from Song Yu. Human and dog sprinted at maximum athletic capacity down the street, forming a uniquely striking spectacle.
In under two hours, Song Yu and Xiao Hei tracked down Chen Su’s whereabouts.
The surrounding vicinity of Chen Su’s encampment was populated by numerous players. A superficial sweep of the eye was all it took for Song Yu to recognize that these players were all afflicted with multiple negative statuses.
Their sickly appearances were glaringly obvious.
Judging by appearances, they wouldn’t survive another two days.
Song Yu calmly stepped right past these players to locate Chen Su.
Chen Su maintained an indifferent attitude toward Song Yu as well, completely devoid of her previous friendliness.
Then again, the bond between the two of them had never run deep to begin with.
Song Yu checked Chen Su’s inventory manifest, deliberated for a moment, and swiftly cleared out every last drop of mutated blood on her person.
She traded for a 50-liter drum of gasoline tailored for sedans, priced at 1 vial of Tier 4 blood.
Song Yu bypassed trading for the keys, relying on her Lockpicking Artisan talent instead—she could simply brute-force the attempts a few extra times.
For the remaining mutated blood, Song Yu exchanged for 60 cans of randomized meat, 60 cans of randomized fruit, and 60 cans of randomized vegetables.
In the aftermath of the catastrophic calamity, the baseline pricing for commodities at Chen Su’s camp had inflated by a minimum of 10-fold.
Compressed biscuits that previously cost 10 vials of Tier 1 blood now spiked directly to 1 vial of Tier 2 blood, while every other category of supply manifested varying degrees of price surges alongside strict purchase limits.
Song Yu’s 240 cans instantly drained 5 vials of Tier 4 blood from her reserves, and this represented the absolute maximum quota she and Xiao Hei were permitted to purchase.
She also swapped for 60 portions of standard nutrient meals. Beyond that, Song Yu acquired a bag of flour, 2 packets of yeast, a standard seasoning condiment kit, rain boots, raincoats, umbrellas, lighters, and various odds and ends.
Every single vial of mutated blood was spent down to the absolute last drop.
Regrettably, she fell short of funds to secure additional backpack slots.
“Have mercy, please spare a little…”
Just as Song Yu and Xiao Hei prepared to depart, someone clutched desperately at Song Yu’s trouser hem, gasping in a feeble, dying breath.
“Spare some medical supplies, please.”
Song Yu had initially assumed this individual intended to beg her for food, never imagining they would demand medical supplies instead.
Yet on second thought, compared to food, they likely found themselves facing an even direr shortage of medical drugs.
Post-rainstorm cities didn’t necessarily lack food and drink; it was merely a question of whether people possessed the courage to forage for them.
Song Yu lacked the surplus of saintly benevolence required to indulge them; her personal medical reserves were modest, consisting primarily of bandaging items geared toward restoring health pools.
With a gentle wrench, she tore her hem free from the player’s grip, swept her gaze across the surroundings, and bypassed striking up any further conversation as she turned and walked away.
While these players looked on the verge of expiring any second, one must never underestimate this demographic.
Swarming her and Xiao Hei remained a very real possibility.
With this volume of people congregated here, even had Song Yu unholstered her firearm, she lacked the capacity to wipe out every single individual instantaneously.
Never pursue a cornered beast—that axiom applied precisely to this sort of crowd.
They were likely far less frail than their sickly appearances suggested.
Departing from Chen Su’s encampment, Song Yu scouted out an open clearing and set to work cracking the lock on a sedan.
Failing to require more than a couple of trial attempts, Song Yu successfully kick-started the gasoline-fueled sedan into operation.
Song Yu possessed no driver’s license, but traffic police certainly didn’t exist in this world—who on earth was going to penalize her for driving without a license?
The sedan rumbled, clanked, and stumbled its way onto the road as Song Yu steered along the mapped route leading toward the library.
Possessing a vehicle afforded an immense level of convenience; she estimated she might even squeeze in a trip to forage for bamboo shoots in the mountains before nightfall.
Intermittent droplets of rain spattered against the glass windows as Song Yu kept her gaze fixed intently on the road ahead.
The purchasing power of mutated blood at Chen Su’s camp had plummeted drastically, stripping away any practical incentive to continue hunting zombies.
Expenditures failed to align equivalently with yields.
To accumulate those vials of mutated blood, Song Yu had expended a massive portion of her nails and crossbow bolts, leaving very few behind.
And the payout amounted to this pitiful trickle of goods.
NPCs and players occasionally crossed the streets along the way. While cruising past a cluster of unfinished, abandoned buildings, Song Yu abruptly spotted numerous human silhouettes lingering atop the skeletal concrete structure.
Judging by their tattered, wretched attire, they gave off the distinct impression of being players.
With this many players congregating here, were they plotting yet another scheme?
Yet before long, a sign dispelled any lingering doubts in Song Yu’s mind.
[Player Trading Market — Straight ahead! Zero violence tolerated!!]