After putting away the camera, Jiang Qi took out her phone to check the time.
11:35
It was almost noon.
Her gaze drifted toward the gloomy, dim weather outside the bus window and the relentless pounding rain. Around her, she could still hear the passengers chatting.
“This rain is driving me crazy. It’s been pouring for an entire month already. When are we ever going to see the sun again?”
“The clothes in my house are all getting moldy!”
A middle-aged woman, around fifty years old, complained to the friend traveling with her.
“Tell me about it. I’ve been drying laundry with a heater lately.”
Her friend sighed helplessly. “The weather forecast says there’s still another half month of rain coming. Just endure it. At least the city’s drainage system is still functioning properly, so there hasn’t been any flooding yet.”
Their conversation caught Jiang Qi’s attention, and she quietly glanced over at them.
A whole month of rain? Flooding?
Could Yu City be located near major rivers?
Jiang Qi immediately searched for Yu City’s geographical location in this instance world on her phone. Sure enough, the city sat directly along the path of two major rivers. The search results also brought up records of a catastrophic flood disaster that had struck Yu City over twenty years ago.
The system isn’t planning to trigger a flood disaster in Yu City seven days from now, is it?
Jiang Qi felt the chances of that not happening were very low.
From the discussions among players in the regional forum, it was obvious that the Survival Apartment’s instances only became more difficult as time passed.
Even if “parasites” and “flooding” were technically two different concepts—
What if the system intended to force players to fight both a flood disaster and a parasite apocalypse at the same time?
The more Jiang Qi thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Which meant she needed to secure things like a boat and life jackets before the flood crisis arrived.
“Kill one Parasite Host Mother to obtain 10,000 points…”
Jiang Qi kept turning those words over in her mind. If the system preferred players to actively escape instead of hiding and surviving cautiously, then in the Parasite Instance, perhaps the system also preferred players to take the initiative and fight back rather than passively run away?
Just as she was thinking, the bus slowly came to a stop at the station.
Jiang Qi instinctively glanced out the window, and that was when she noticed someone, a tall, skinny man.
Why did he catch her attention?
Because among all the pedestrians carrying umbrellas, he was the only one walking in the rain without one, allowing the torrential downpour to completely soak his hair and clothes.
Wasn’t he cold?
Confusion appeared on Jiang Qi’s face.
With a clunk, the bus doors opened. The drenched man boarded through the front door after swiping his card, then stood stiffly beside the handrail without moving farther inside.
Jiang Qi noticed that his skin was deathly pale, grayish white, utterly devoid of color, like the skin of a corpse.
Something’s wrong.
Should she follow this obviously suspicious person? Or should she get off first and make preparations?
She took less than three seconds to decide before standing up and hurrying toward the rear exit.
“Driver, wait! I need to get off!”
The driver, who had just been about to start moving again, paused.
“Sorry, excuse me.”
Because she needed to get off, Jiang Qi inevitably brushed against the standing passengers inside the bus. As she passed by, her fingers accidentally touched the pale man’s hand.
Tsk! So cold!
Was he even alive?
Jiang Qi forcibly restrained the urge to stare at him and acted as though nothing had happened as she stepped off the bus and quickly ran into the bus stop shelter.
The rain was pouring heavily, and she hadn’t brought an umbrella, so she could only call a taxi first.
But during the five minutes she spent waiting for the taxi, the expression on Jiang Qi’s face gradually became more serious. Her gaze casually swept over the pedestrians without umbrellas.
One.
Two.
Three.
In just five minutes, she had already spotted three “humans” behaving strangely like the pale man from earlier.
There were men, women, and even elderly people.
All of them walked through the rain without umbrellas, as if they had no idea they might catch a fever or get sick from doing so.
One passerby noticed an old grandmother walking alone in the rain and kindly stepped forward to support her.
“Grandma, why are you out here alone? Where’s your family? Let me help you over to the station to get out of the rain. You’ll get sick if you stay soaked like this.”
The old woman slowly turned to look at the young man supporting her. Her eyes held no emotion whatsoever, and yet from where Jiang Qi stood not far away, she could clearly see a transparent nictitating membrane sweep rapidly across the old woman’s eyes through the curtain of rain.
“?!”
A transparent nictitating membrane?!
How could a human eye have something like an animal’s nictitating membrane?!
In an instant, Jiang Qi understood why this instance was called Parasite.
Because these oddly behaving humans had most likely already been parasitized by some unknown entity.
No, she couldn’t waste any more time!
She needed to find a way to arm herself immediately!
Beep beep.
The taxi arrived right on time. The moment Jiang Qi got in, she asked, “Driver, do you know where the biggest library around here is?”
“The library?”
The driver thought for a moment before answering, “The biggest one nearby should be Yu City Library.”
“Is it far?”
“Not really. About 10 kilometers.”
Jiang Qi spoke politely. “Then please take me there, Driver.”
“Sure thing. No problem.”
On the way to the library, Jiang Qi first downloaded an offline map of Yu City onto her phone. Then she used a payment app to take out a 50,000-yuan loan as living expenses for the instance.
After all, whether she cleared the instance or failed, she wouldn’t need to pay it back. There was no reason not to borrow it.
Finally, using the borrowed money, she booked a standard suite in a four-star hotel located on higher ground near the city library.
Once everything was done, Jiang Qi stared out the window in deep thought.
She needed to carefully think about how to clear the Parasite Instance…
***
Yu City Library.
The moment Jiang Qi entered the library, she headed straight for the magazine section. She found a colorful cookbook magazine, paid for it at the counter, then carried it to a corner outside the surveillance cameras’ range.
First, she flipped the cookbook open to the page with the egg tart instructions. Then she took out her camera, aimed it at the picture of the egg tart, and snapped a photo.
A few seconds later…
Jiang Qi looked at the freshly baked, still steaming egg tart in her hand and finally let out a huge sigh of relief.
“So it really works like this!”
The materialization camera didn’t actually need to photograph a real physical object in order to materialize it. Even pictures printed in books could be turned into real objects.
In that case…
She decided to take a risk.
And try hunting a parasite mother.
Over the next few hours, Jiang Qi went through her now-familiar routine of stockpiling supplies.
The difference was that this time, everything she hoarded was books, and they all had to include pictures and explanations.
For example, Weapons Enthusiast Collection.
The series was divided into thirteen categories, including Fighter Jets, Classic Weapons, Rifles and Machine Guns, Tanks, Infantry Weapons, and more.
Jiang Qi lowered her head to look at one volume titled Missiles, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly. “Okay, this one’s a bit too ridiculous, haha.”
Even if she somehow managed to make one, she wouldn’t know how to use it!
“Sigh… if I’d known, I would’ve picked the Basic Firearms Mastery skill book.”
Who could’ve guessed that the item she got from this lottery draw would actually be capable of producing real guns?
Besides those, she also gathered books about transportation, medicine, gourmet recipes, and, of course, fashion magazines.
By the time Jiang Qi had carried all the books she thought might be useful back to the hotel room in three separate trips, the already gloomy sky had nearly gone dark.
The rain was still pouring. Jiang Qi’s clothes were completely soaked through, so she hurried her pace, planning to return to the hotel room with the last few books she’d picked up to fill in the gaps, then finally rest.
Wait, those people are…
Carefully wrapping the books in her arms with a raincoat and carrying a transparent umbrella over one shoulder, Jiang Qi narrowed her eyes and strained to see what was ahead. Standing on the road leading back to the hotel were three “humans” that looked like ghosts.
They stood motionless in the rain, their eyes locked onto Jiang Qi as she ran toward them. Their gazes followed her every movement, and from time to time, a translucent membrane swept across the surface of their eyeballs.
“…”
Jiang Qi’s heart tightened, but between turning to flee and charging forward, she chose to rush ahead.
All the books and supplies she’d spent the entire afternoon painstakingly stockpiling were still inside the hotel. If she ran away now, wouldn’t all that effort have been wasted?
Without caring about anything else, Jiang Qi lowered her head and sprinted forward. The three “humans” staring at her seemed unable to resist the attraction and chased after her for several steps as well, but only several.
Because the moment they saw Jiang Qi run into the brightly lit hotel lobby, they stopped.
The “human” that had chased her the closest let its gaze fall upon the clean, brightly illuminated floor inside the lobby, and an expression of disgust and aversion appeared on its face.
But when it lifted its head again and looked at the fresh, living human inside the lobby, greed resurfaced across its features.
Rustle rustle.
A long, snake-like tongue slowly licked across its wet lips.
***
They didn’t follow her inside?
Why?
Clutching the books in her arms, Jiang Qi quietly observed the infected outside from within the lobby. Was there some difference between the inside of the hotel and the outside?
Her eyes moved back and forth between the hotel interior and the entrance.
“Ah! I get it!”
Water!
Outside the hotel was wet, while inside the hotel was dry!
These parasites liked water and hated dryness. Could it be that they could only survive and reproduce in moist environments?!
Jiang Qi suddenly turned to look at the television in the hotel lobby, which was broadcasting the news.
[Red flood disaster warning issued for Yu City. Residents in xxx District and xxx District are advised to evacuate immediately… Citizens of Yu City are urged to prepare for flood disasters…]
So she really had to fight both floods and parasites at the same time?!
As Jiang Qi walked toward the elevator, she recalled the emergency survival measures for flood disasters.
① Quickly move to higher ground and seek a safe area.
② Store enough drinking water, food, warm clothing, and commonly used medical supplies.
③ After flooding occurs, do not walk or drive through floodwaters to avoid drowning or electrocution, and do not come into contact with rats or other wild animals.
④ Ensure drinking water safety. Avoid food that has come into contact with floodwater to prevent outbreaks of infectious disease.
Jiang Qi had already prepared the corresponding supplies for all of the above.
Moreover, Yu City Library itself was located in one of the city’s higher-elevation areas, and the same was true for this four-star hotel.
Jiang Qi figured that even if severe flooding really broke out midway through, this hotel should still be able to hold out for a few more days.