As the fire inside Rong Mountain Scenic Area grew larger and larger, Jiang Qi’s group of three, after a brief rest, successfully took the cable car down to the West Gate exit.
There were only three zombies at the West Gate. The moment they spotted the group, they charged over.
Ye Ling raised his gun and fired twice, taking out two of the zombies. The remaining one had its head smashed apart by Jiang Qi, who swung her frying pan down with full force, brains splattering all over the ground.
“Ugh…”
A beat too slow to react, Qi Zhaozhao dry-heaved at the sight of the fresh brains on the ground.
Although she had experienced being surrounded by hordes of zombies before, she still hadn’t personally killed a single one. Compared to Jiang Qi and Ye Ling, who had already killed zombies themselves, she still couldn’t quite handle it psychologically.
Ever since killing the shopkeeper zombie, Jiang Qi had fully prepared herself mentally. She no longer carried any fear or emotional burden about it, so after seeing Qi Zhaozhao’s nauseated reaction, she simply comforted her lightly.
“Don’t be scared. You’ll have to get used to it eventually.”
“I know.”
Qi Zhaozhao pressed a hand against her chest and took out a mint candy from her pocket, tossing it into her mouth. The Snickers bar she had eaten while climbing the mountain earlier had been given to her by Sister Jiang, but this mint candy had already been in her pocket before she entered the Survival Apartment.
With the cool mint flavor filling her mouth, Qi Zhaozhao tightened her grip on the kitchen knife in her hand. As she passed the zombie’s corpse, she viciously hacked twice at its neck.
Next time…
She would do it herself.
“Aren’t we heading toward Fengyu Town next?”
Jiang Qi still remembered the “three-step escape plan” she and Ye Ling had made at the beginning. If they exited through the South Gate, they would take the highway out of Rong City. If they exited through the West Gate, they would leave via the rural backroads.
And the closest town to the scenic area was Fengyu Town.
Further beyond that was Heli Eight Villages.
Heli Eight Villages sat near the border between Rong City and Hui City.
Which meant that as long as they reached Heli Eight Villages, they wouldn’t be far from successfully escaping Rong City.
Ye Ling nodded. “Yeah, but there are still another two hundred kilometers before we’re truly out of Rong City. We’ll also need to find a new vehicle. Traveling on foot is too exhausting. I don’t recommend it.”
Even if you did recommend it, I still wouldn’t choose to walk, Jiang Qi thought. She still hadn’t recovered from the energy she had burned climbing the mountain earlier.
After leaving Rong Mountain Scenic Area, the three followed the road toward Fengyu Town. They hadn’t gone far before they noticed rows upon rows of shared bicycles lined up along the roadside.
Qi Zhaozhao turned to ask, “Sister Jiang, Brother Ye, should we ride bicycles?”
“Of course we should. A bicycle still counts as a vehicle.”
Jiang Qi immediately walked over and scanned the QR code with her phone. Before long, the three of them were back on the road riding shared bikes.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they rode from high noon until sunset without encountering any better transportation along the way.
Whenever they got hungry, they stopped by the roadside to eat bread and drink beverages to replenish their energy. Whenever they got tired, they found somewhere open and spacious nearby, made sure no zombies could ambush them, then lay directly on the ground and took turns keeping watch.
By the time they arrived at Fengyu Town, it was already late into the night. The three stood at the town entrance looking at one another, none of them particularly eager to go inside.
From far away, Qi Zhaozhao could already hear zombie howls coming from within the town. Nervously swallowing, she asked softly, “Are we going in?”
Jiang Qi didn’t really want to. She was exhausted and honestly had no energy left to keep battling wits with zombies.
“I’m not planning to go in. What about you, Ye Ling?”
Ye Ling shook his head. “We already have enough food on us. There’s no need to enter the town for supplies, and we can rest after clearing the instance. I’d rather use the cover of night to bypass Fengyu Town and keep moving forward.”
Jiang Qi looked a little surprised. “There might be cars in the town. You’re not going in to look for one?”
“A bicycle can still serve as transportation. There’s no need to take extra risks just for a car.”
Of course, Ye Ling knew traveling by car would be much easier, but compared to wasting another night inside the town because of a vehicle, they might as well push through overnight and continue on. Maybe there were greater rewards for clearing the instance earlier.
Besides, he had a feeling that getting out of Rong City sooner was better.
“Alright then, let’s keep moving.”
Jiang Qi replied while pounding her aching thighs.
Who would’ve thought that one day she’d first experience extreme mountain climbing inside an instance, then speed cycling afterward? The kind of “special forces-style travel” she had never experienced during university somehow ended up happening inside an instance instead.
Life really was full of surprises.
***
When the sun rose on the third day, Jiang Qi’s group was only fifty kilometers away from escaping Rong City. After traveling through the night without sleep, they sat down to eat in the middle of the wilderness.
Jiang Qi spread a blanket from her spatial ring onto the ground and immediately collapsed onto it.
“Help… my legs don’t even feel like my own anymore…”
She had barely finished complaining before her eyes closed, and she instantly fell asleep, so quickly that even Ye Ling couldn’t help commenting,
“At twenty-two, your stamina shouldn’t be this terrible, right?”
Qi Zhaozhao struggled to suppress a laugh. “That’s just how young people today are.”
“How so?”
“Fragile, but hard to kill.”
Ye Ling felt the description was crude but accurate, so he said nothing more and simply took food out of his backpack to share with Qi Zhaozhao.
Qi Zhaozhao accepted it. “Thanks.”
The extreme cycling over the past day and night had been exhausting, but it had also gradually helped Qi Zhaozhao understand Jiang Qi’s and Ye Ling’s personalities better.
Twenty-seven-year-old Ye Ling was actually still young himself, but perhaps because of his profession, he was calm and steady, rarely ever panicking or losing his composure. Whenever they occasionally encountered groups of zombies during the ride, he would always lead them on wide detours.
Compared to taking risks, he preferred safer and more reliable methods.
Twenty-two-year-old Jiang Qi also possessed calmness and steadiness, but compared to Ye Ling, she was more flexible and adaptable. She wasn’t obsessed with absolute safety, and instead leaned more toward maximizing benefits.
If taking risks was the most worthwhile option, then she would choose to take them.
For Qi Zhaozhao, who was only eighteen, both Brother Ye and Sister Jiang were people worth learning from.
If she wanted to survive properly in the apocalypse, she had to adapt to its rules for survival.
After eating her fill, Qi Zhaozhao gathered her courage and asked, “Brother Ye, next time we run into zombies, can you leave one for me?”
Hearing this, Ye Ling showed no particular reaction and simply nodded.
“Sure.”
“Thanks a lot!”
“No need.”
Two hours later, the still-sleeping Jiang Qi was woken up so Qi Zhaozhao could rest. Another two hours later, the sleeping Qi Zhaozhao was woken up so Ye Ling could rest.
After a total of six hours of regrouping and recovery, the temporary three-person team set out once more.
This time, they had no intention of stopping again.
Perhaps because the three of them were escaping Rong City so quickly, when they passed through Heli Eight Villages, they were shocked to discover there were actually still living people in the village rather than zombie-like walking corpses.
As the three passed by, some villagers even tried to block their path.
“Hey! What exactly is going on in the city?! The power’s been out and nobody’s come to fix it?!”
Jiang Qi had no intention of stopping to argue with the villagers. It was too much of a waste of time.
“We’re leaving directly. Ignore them.”
Qi Zhaozhao nodded. “Okay.”
After shaking off the villagers, Jiang Qi looked back at the village and seemed to understand why they hadn’t run into any major trouble since leaving Rong Mountain Scenic Area.
Because today was only the third day of the instance.
The Survival Apartment’s original clearance condition requirements had been seven days and thirty days.
Three days wasn’t even halfway to seven!
Following that line of thought…
If there were similar instances in the future, did that mean the earlier people took action, the lower their chances of dying while escaping actually were? Jiang Qi pondered silently.
At dusk on the third day of the instance, bathed in the warm golden glow of the setting sun, Jiang Qi once again heard the familiar electronic voice of the Survival Apartment system.
[System: “Congratulations to player “QiQiQi” for escaping Rong City Instance within 7 days and receiving 10,000 points.”]
[System: “Because you are among the first 1,000 players to clear Rong City Instance, you have received a special Rong City reward. The player may choose one item they came into contact with in the Rong City Instance to bring back to the apartment as a reward souvenir.”]
Huh?
The first 1,000 players to clear it even got a reward souvenir? Who would want this kind of reward?
Before Jiang Qi could complain about the system any further, her vision blurred.
[System: “Player is returning to the Survival Apartment…”]
[1]
[2]
[3]
When Jiang Qi regained consciousness and opened her eyes again, she had already returned to her own empty fifty-square-meter apartment.
“I’m back…”
She could finally get some proper rest!
Jiang Qi immediately opened the Survival Apartment app and ordered necessities from the ordinary shop: a bed, a toilet, a water heater, a rice cooker, and other everyday essentials.
“Wait a second!”
“The reward should be allowed to be something practical, right?”
Jiang Qi suddenly remembered the double-door refrigerator she had come across in the Rong City Instance.
“Hehehe…”
[System: “Player QiQiQi, are you sure you want to choose the double-door refrigerator from the Rong City Instance as your commemorative reward?”]
“Confirm.”
With a flash of golden light, a double-door refrigerator worth 1,022 points in the ordinary shop appeared out of thin air inside Jiang Qi’s fifty-square-meter apartment.
Jiang Qi threw herself at it excitedly.
“Aaaaahhh, refrigerator, I love you!”
Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!
Jiang Qi enthusiastically kissed the refrigerator’s smooth, gleaming surface several times.
[Ding!]
“What’s that sound?”
Hearing two notification chimes from her phone, Jiang Qi looked down and realized they were friend requests from Ye Ling and Qi Zhaozhao. She immediately accepted them.
Ye Ling’s ID was “Shanling,” simple and easy to understand.
Qi Zhaozhao’s ID was “Zhaozhao Loves Milk Tea,” which suited her cute, bubbly image perfectly.
[Ye Ling: Jiang Qi, have you checked the instance page yet?]
[Jiang Qi: Not yet. I’ll go take a look.]
Jiang Qi had been completely immersed in shopping just now and really hadn’t paid attention to the instance page. But the moment she opened it, she saw that the previous three instances had all been refreshed.
Now there were three entirely new instances displayed on the page.
[① Symbiosis]
[② Parasitism]
[③ Infection]
“Symbiosis… Parasitism… Infection…”
Jiang Qi softly read the names of the three instances aloud, inexplicably feeling that every single one of them carried an eerie and dangerous atmosphere.
“Symbiosis and parasitism…”
“Why were those split into two separate instances?”
Was it because their meanings were different?
Jiang Qi knew that symbiosis referred to a mutually beneficial relationship between two organisms, where both sides profited, while parasitism meant one organism living off another, surviving by absorbing nutrients from its host.
Then what about infection? Did it refer to a viral outbreak apocalypse?
Jiang Qi felt things couldn’t possibly be that simple.
She casually tapped into the regional forum, wanting to see whether other players had also gotten refreshed instances, and then noticed one thread with an extremely high level of discussion.
The title was: “Hidden Rules of the Survival Apartment System”
“So the Survival Apartment has hidden rules too?”
Interested, Jiang Qi opened the thread and started reading.