What Jiang Qi disliked were people who pretended to know what they were talking about and constantly tried to make themselves feel important. People like that loved saying and doing things that hurt others without benefiting themselves in the slightest. And behind that kind of behavior was usually only one goal: if they could make you miserable, they’d be happy.
But whether it was the first City Instance or the second Parasite Instance, she had never encountered teammates like that.
So the discussion with Yan Mei about their plan went very smoothly. In less than half an hour, they had already finalized the steps for tomorrow’s operation.
Step One: Investigate the location of the Parasite Host Mother.
During the investigation, they absolutely had to travel to the outskirts of Yu City. The process would definitely be dangerous, so they needed to prepare transportation and weapons in advance. If anything unexpected happened, they were not to linger in the outer districts. The moment they had the chance to leave, they needed to leave immediately. Under no circumstances could they risk getting surrounded by monsters in the outskirts just for the sake of gathering more information.
Step Two: Confirm whether quicklime powder could actually injure or kill the Parasite Host Mother.
After locating the parasite mother, Jiang Qi would use photo materialization to summon her old friend, the drone. Using the drone’s mobility, she would continuously transport and dump quicklime powder into the body of water where the parasite mother was hiding.
If the quicklime powder had no effect on the parasite mother, then it wouldn’t react at all, and they would have to revise the plan and switch to weapons with greater destructive power, bombs, for example.
But if the quicklime powder did work, then the parasite mother would definitely choose to flee from the contaminated water and move to a new habitat.
Step Three: Kill the Parasite Host Mothers (3 total).
The three players needed to kill three parasite mothers in order to clear the instance. Ironically, this was actually the simplest part of the plan. Either prepare massive quantities of quicklime powder, preferably measured in tons, or prepare a huge stockpile of bombs, ideally enough to blast the parasite mothers into pieces.
Of course, a plan was still only a plan. Whether it would actually work depended on its execution.
Jiang Qi set down her pen and asked, “The three-step plan for clearing the Parasite Instance is settled. Grandma Yan, Xiao Xue, do either of you have any suggestions?”
Yan Mei shook her head. “No. The plan is thorough.”
Duan Xue shook her head as well. “I’ll listen to Grandma and Sister.”
“Alright, then tomorrow…”
Jiang Qi glanced down at her phone and realized it was already four in the morning.
“Tomorrow we’ll begin the operation at ten. Is that okay?”
“That’s fine.”
Although there were only six hours between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m., that amount of rest already felt luxurious to Yan Mei and Duan Xue. Back when they cleared the Coastal Instance for the first time, they hadn’t even managed two straight hours of sleep. For three days and three nights, they had either been terrified or fighting for their lives.
Even disaster movies didn’t portray anything as harrowing as what they had actually lived through.
As Duan Xue left the room, she waved at Jiang Qi.
“Goodnight, Sister.”
“Goodnight.”
That night…
No one slept particularly well.
When the alarm rang at ten o’clock, Jiang Qi even thought she was still dreaming.
“As expected, it’s impossible to sleep well inside an instance.”
She rolled out of bed, stretched, then walked into the bathroom and splashed cold water onto her face, trying to wake herself up a bit more. While washing her hands, she deliberately checked the water first. Only after confirming there was nothing strange about it did she dare touch it.
“In the Parasite Instance, it probably isn’t as simple as getting infected the moment you touch water.”
If touching water alone caused infection, then all of Yu City would already be parasitized. How could normal humans like the front desk receptionist still exist?
She packed several important books and supplies, including food, water, and medicine, into her backpack, then geared herself up once more from head to toe. Before leaving the room, she also used the camera to take a picture of twenty bags of quicklime powder stacked inside the warehouse, slipping the photo into her pocket so she could materialize it at any time to deal with monsters.
“Huh? You’re already awake?”
The moment Jiang Qi opened the door, she saw Yan Mei and Duan Xue already standing in the hallway. She looked a little surprised. She had been planning to knock on their door to wake them up.
“Good morning, Sister!”
Duan Xue energetically explained, “Grandma and I woke up an hour ago! We even got a small cargo truck and parked it outside the hotel!”
Today they were heading to the outskirts of Yu City to investigate the parasite mother. They needed transportation for the trip and weapons for protection. Rather than making Jiang Qi prepare everything herself, it was better for each person to contribute what they could. Helping each other was what teammates were supposed to do.
That was what Grandma had said.
Reliable teammates really did make life easier. Jiang Qi instantly felt like rescuing them last night had absolutely been the right choice.
“Where did you get the truck?” Jiang Qi asked as they walked.
Could it be that Grandma Yan had secretly learned car theft skills in her younger days?
Yan Mei explained, “After clearing my first instance, I bought a beginner-level automotive repair skill book from the Survival Apartment’s special shop.”
With parasitized monsters wandering all over Yu City now, finding an ownerless vehicle was easy under the circumstances.
Jiang Qi nodded. “I see.”
She really hadn’t expected automotive repair skills to also include stealing cars.
***
First floor.
Something clearly had happened. The hotel lobby was in complete disarray. Bloodstains covered the floor, the glass entrance doors were shattered, and even the front desk receptionist was gone.
“What happened here?”
Jiang Qi immediately became alert.
At that moment, Grandma Yan patted the back of her hand. “Don’t be too nervous. I know what happened. Let’s get in the truck first. I’ll explain once we’re inside.”
“Alright… okay.”
The three of them climbed into the truck. Yan Mei was driving, and as she steered, she explained concisely, “One of the hotel guests got parasitized.”
Some of the guests in this four-star hotel were in the first stage of parasitic infection, while others were still normal humans. Early in the morning, the guests tried to leave the hotel only to discover that the front doors had been locked.
Naturally, the normal people thought the hotel staff should solve the issue.
But the parasitized monsters started smashing the hotel entrance without a word.
Grandma Yan was elderly and slept lightly. At eight in the morning, she heard movement in the hallway, got up, and came downstairs just in time to witness the scene.
“Where did the blood come from?” Jiang Qi frowned. “Did monsters attack humans inside the hotel?”
Did she need to switch hotels now?
Yan Mei nodded. “Yes. When it happened, I noticed that about half the hotel guests were in the first stage of parasitic infection. They still had control over their bodies, but their consciousness was already becoming unstable.”
“But for some reason, they suddenly went mad and started attacking normal people.”
“I originally planned to notify you, but after attacking one or two humans, those monsters ran out of the hotel and disappeared into the rain shortly afterward. That’s why I didn’t go upstairs to wake you.”
“Strange…”
Jiang Qi frowned and muttered quietly, “Could it be because the upper floors of the hotel were still dry?”
“But do the monsters hate dryness so much that they’d rather abandon fresh prey than stay and eat?”
Why did she suddenly feel like things were getting strange?
The heavy rain outside the window was still pouring down, and it was even worse than yesterday. At this rate, in less than three days, even the four-star hotel built in the center of Yu City would have its first floor submerged by floodwater.
“Grandma… the monsters outside are gone…”
Duan Xue suddenly said in a trembling voice.
Ever since leaving the hotel, Duan Xue had noticed that their small truck seemed to be the only vehicle still moving on the entire road. Looking out across the streets, there wasn’t even a single person in sight. The empty streets felt inexplicably eerie.
Not running into monsters should have been a good thing, but Jiang Qi’s expression only grew graver.
“Looks like we need to prepare for the worst.”
Yan Mei slowed the truck down. “Are we still going to investigate the parasite mother at the edge of the city?”
“We are.”
“If we don’t investigate proactively, we’ll end up completely passive.”
Jiang Qi still wanted to take the risk once, just like she had in the City Instance.
“Alright.”
Yan Mei stepped on the gas and sped up again.
Following the route from memory, the three of them drove the small truck toward the body of water where the parasite mother might exist. But ever since they left the center of Yu City, the water level on the roads had been steadily rising.
From one centimeter to two centimeters, until it nearly covered the entire tires.
Yan Mei finally hit the brakes. “No, we can’t keep driving forward. We need to switch vehicles.”
“I’ve got pictures of yachts here. Take a look.”
Jiang Qi turned around and pulled a transportation book with pictures out of her backpack. Just as she was about to ask Grandma Yan which yacht would suit their current situation best, a muffled rumbling sound echoed in the distance.
Jiang Qi froze. “Did you hear that?”
Yan Mei nodded. “I did. It sounded like… an explosion? But why would there be an explosion?”
Duan Xue wasn’t paying attention to the conversation between her grandmother and Sister Jiang because she was pressing her face against the window.
Ever since earlier, she had felt like something was watching them, but she couldn’t find where the gaze was coming from.
Who exactly was spying on them?
Duan Xue slowly lifted her eyes upward.
She saw a pedestrian overpass ahead.
She saw countless white monsters densely packed across the overpass, clinging to it. Their webbed hands and feet seemed to have some kind of suction force, allowing their bodies to hang half-suspended from the bridge without falling.
“Grandma!”
Duan Xue’s pupils shook violently. She turned to warn her grandmother and Sister Jiang to run, only to witness something even more terrifying.
Floodwater! The flood was coming this way!
And riding ahead of the flood was a powered hoverboard gliding rapidly through the air. A young man stood on the board, while a man and a woman clung tightly to his left and right legs, screaming hysterically.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”
Meanwhile, the young man cursed furiously at the three people inside the small truck.
“Damn it!”
“What are you staring at?! Run already!”
“There’s a lunatic by the river embankment who blew up the dam!! The flood’s coming early!! Damn it!! I’ve never seen anything this absurd in my entire life!!!”
What? What did she just hear? Some lunatic blew up the dam ahead of time?!
At top speed, Jiang Qi randomly snapped a picture of a yacht, materialized it beside the truck, and shouted, “Grandma Yan, hurry and use your Universal Driver’s License!”
Grandma Yan truly deserved her reputation as a former soldier. Her reaction speed was incredible. She immediately scooped up her granddaughter and dragged her onto the yacht.
“Sit tight!”
Even while crouching down and gripping the yacht’s handrail, Duan Xue still remembered to shout a warning.
“Grandma! The overpass is covered in monsters!”
Covered in monsters?!
Jiang Qi whipped her head around in fright and saw the distant overpass swarming with countless white monsters. One after another, they jumped into the water.
“!!!”
What the fu—
Which lunatic ruined her plan and was trying to get her killed?!
She was absolutely going to be enemies with him forever!