Would the game… actually swallow Xiao Hei’s reward?
Song Yu’s expression turned somewhat subtle, but this thought was quickly dismissed by her.
It shouldn’t be that shameless.
Counting Xiao Hei’s rewards, Song Yu’s total earnings for this game session had already reached nearly two million.
This sum of money was roughly enough to cover her grandmother’s surgery fees and subsequent treatment costs.
From here on out, she and Xiao Hei just needed to hunker down and survive hard.
Having completed the side quests, Song Yu quickly browsed through the remaining merchandise in Chen Su’s inventory.
First were the backpack slots. Tier 4 blood could be exchanged for 1 slot, up to a total of 10 slots.
Song Yu exchanged all of them.
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Not only that, Song Yu also exploited a minor bug by cashing in Xiao Hei’s share as well.
As a result, Song Yu’s backpack slots directly skyrocketed to 25!
After making these exchanges, Song Yu still had 10 vials of Tier 4 blood, 10 vials of Tier 3 blood, 14 vials of Tier 2 blood, and 5 vials of Tier 1 blood remaining.
However, much like the backpack slots, once any supplies were exchanged up to a certain quota, their prices would start to increase.
For instance, the arrows for the crossbow and the nails for the nail gun began doubling in exchange cost after every 100 units.
Still exploiting Xiao Hei’s bug, Song Yu traded for 733 arrows and 800 nails.
Chen Su also had firearms available for trade, but they were very expensive.
A single military pistol (+50 attack damage) cost 10 vials of Tier 4 blood and came initially equipped with 3 bullets.
Moreover, the firearms available for exchange at Chen Su’s camp totaled only 3 types, with a single piece of each.
Song Yu hesitated for a moment before biting the bullet and trading for the pistol.
This was meant for deterring other players; the difference between having a gun and not having one was truly massive. With a single shot like this, over ninety percent of players would likely lose their lives.
With her weaponry fully equipped, Song Yu cast her gaze toward protective gear.
Equipment similar to the windbreaker Chen Su wore provided 4 points of defense along with cold-weather resistance, priced at 3 vials of Tier 3 blood.
Song Yu exchanged for one, and also traded for a police dog vest that Xiao Hei could wear, priced identically.
With the remaining blood, Song Yu stockpiled 400 bottles of mineral water, 40 portions of standard nutrient meals valued at 1 vial of Tier 2 blood each (+50 fullness), 17 rolls of disinfectant bandages, and an extra 7 matches.
Still exploiting Xiao Hei’s bug, Song Yu spent every single vial of mutated blood she had on her.
She distributed a portion of the supplies into Xiao Hei’s spatial storage; should the two of them ever get separated, Xiao Hei wouldn’t end up starving, dying of thirst, or perishing from illness.
With this spending spree, Song Yu had practically cleared out Chen Su’s entire stock of mineral water, leaving a pitiful 31 bottles of redeemable mineral water remaining on the manifest panel.
Fortunately, the exchange inventory refreshed every single day.
Song Yu’s personal supplies had all been transferred into her backpack slots, with several empty slots still remaining.
After sharing a lunch with Xiao Hei at Chen Su’s camp, she prepared to set out for the old district.
Song Yu was extremely curious about the rewards offered by the Watchers organization.
Furthermore, Chen Su had pointed out a path for her regarding Xiao Hei.
“A beast tamer recently arrived in the New District; perhaps he can resolve your problem.”
Straddling her bicycle to depart, no sooner had she left the camp than Xiao Hei alerted Song Yu that someone was tailing them from behind.
Song Yu didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.
These people were likely eyeing the excessive supplies Song Yu had just traded for at Chen Su’s end and wanted to pull off a robbery.
Song Yu didn’t care; she’d kill anyone who came knocking, which would just hand her extra talent drops.
However, until Song Yu finally returned to her temporary shelter, those players never showed their faces.
These players were being extremely cautious as well.
Song Yu packed up and took everything inside the house—bedsheets, blankets, pillows, firewood, and the barbecue grill—bringing the lot with her.
The old district and new district were a great distance away from her current location at the city’s edge. With the entire city currently swarming with zombies, Song Yu had no way of reaching the old district within a single day.
She had to change her shelter.
Fortunately, with Xiao Hei by her side now, her requirements for a shelter weren’t quite as strict anymore.
The moment any danger arose at night, she would know immediately.
Song Yu reopened the map, plotted out her route, and noted that once night fell, the zombies across the entire city would respawn and potentially grow even more numerous.
“…”
Song Yu’s movements suddenly paused; she felt like she had discovered yet another new problem.
Never mind, she would resolve the side quests first and deal with the rest later.
The entire journey to the old district would take two full days, and she needed to reach Tianhe Residential Community before nightfall.
Without hesitation, Song Yu took her dog, hopped onto the bicycle, and immediately set off.
The density of zombies along the roads was high, which might also be part of the reason why players had no spare time to target other players.
Song Yu carefully skirted around the zombies. Unlike the villages, urban buildings harbored massive hordes of zombies inside them, making them extremely perilous.
On the way toward Tianhe Residential Community, Xiao Hei spotted a swarm of zombies laying siege to a house.
Song Yu wasn’t initially sure whether the occupants inside were NPCs or players, but the moment the people inside spotted her, they immediately started screaming at the top of their lungs, attempting to divert the zombies’ pressure onto her side.
With a mindset that malicious, they definitely had to be players.
Song Yu rolled her eyes hard and muttered a silent complaint internally.
Fortunately, the main bulk of the zombies wasn’t lured over by this stunt. Having now entered the urban zone, Song Yu could no longer ride her bicycle.
The profile was simply too large.
Trailing a small pocket of wandering zombies, Song Yu and Xiao Hei slipped into a narrow alleyway.
The two zombies wandering inside the alley were swiftly eliminated by the nail gun in Song Yu’s hands, while Xiao Hei dashed forward swiftly to snap up the mutated blood dropped on the ground, stashing it away into its treasure cave.
The cooperation between human and dog was remarkably seamless.
Meanwhile, the zombies behind them blocked Song Yu’s escape route out of the alley, but this presented no real obstacle for her.
In three steps flat, she trampled onto a trash can by the wall and scrambled up onto the perimeter fence.
Xiao Hei similarly utilized the trash can, and was hoisted up onto the fence by Song Yu.
Ever since acquiring those two talents, Song Yu felt that her physical fitness had improved immensely.
It was a genuine, tangible reaction within her own body. Song Yu had been a sickly weakling dependent on medicine since childhood, but now, handling so much physical exertion every single day without a hint of fatigue felt truly miraculous.
The zombies roared as they surged into the alley, only to drop one after another within the narrow pass.
Song Yu continuously nocked, drew, and fired her arrows, most of which struck the zombies squarely in the head—for Tier 1 zombies, a single-strike kill was entirely achievable.
Regrettably, the mutated blood dropped on the ground was pitifully scarce, barely enough to trade for a single block of compressed biscuits.
After slaughtering this wave of zombies completely, Song Yu pulled out the map to take another look; she had arrived roughly in the vicinity of Tianhe Residential Community.
With night rapidly descending, Song Yu pondered for a moment and decided to spend the night right here.
As luck would have it, one side of the alley bordered an old apartment building. Song Yu pushed open a window and hopped inside with Xiao Hei.
The stairwell was pitch-black, and the twilight of the setting sun was on the verge of fading away completely.
Guided by Xiao Hei’s warnings, Song Yu swiftly cleaned out all the zombies inside the stairwell, fighting her way all the way up to the rooftop.
Standing on the rooftop of this twelve-story apartment building, Song Yu witnessed a scene she would never forget in her entire life.