It was bound to be awkward for two strangers to suddenly be forced to stay together in the same enclosed space, but both Jiang Qi and Ye Ling were mentally mature adults. Any slight discomfort was quickly suppressed by the pressing reality of survival.
“Want to team up?”
After thinking for more than ten seconds, Jiang Qi finally voiced her idea.
Her combat ability wasn’t high.
If she only faced one or two zombies alone, she might still have a chance to escape successfully. But if the number exceeded three, there was a very high possibility she would either get bitten or lose her life.
Of course, teaming up wasn’t a suggestion she made impulsively. It was something she had carefully considered.
Jiang Qi’s greatest survival advantage was her spatial storage ring. Before hiding in the theater, she had already gathered enough supplies to barely support one to three people for thirty days.
On the other hand, she didn’t dare guarantee that she could safely hide in the theater for all thirty days without incident.
Who knew whether some accident might allow the zombies outside to break in?
That was why having a strong teammate with good combat ability was important. It would also greatly increase her chances of clearing the instance.
Hearing Jiang Qi’s invitation, Ye Ling didn’t reject it immediately. Instead, after several seconds of thought, he asked, “What’s your ability?”
“Spatial storage,” Jiang Qi replied.
A spark lit up in Ye Ling’s eyes. In truth, when he first entered the instance, his starting location had been inside a twenty-five-story office building near this shopping mall.
Because of the mission’s clear conditions and his own ability, he had chosen the “escape Rong City within seven days” route without much hesitation.
But his plan to head to the parking lot and find a car had failed halfway through.
A janitor had become infected, causing the entire office building to descend rapidly into chaos.
And since it was 10 a.m., peak working hours, the building had been packed with people. Fortunately, Ye Ling had reacted quickly enough to take the elevator down to the first floor ahead of everyone else. Otherwise, he would’ve ended up trapped inside the overcrowded building just like the others.
When he left the building, the streets outside hadn’t completely fallen apart yet. Ye Ling immediately planned to hijack a car and get out of downtown as quickly as possible. But after finally managing to seize one, he had barely driven ten meters before running into a chain collision.
With the situation becoming increasingly chaotic, he had no choice but to hide in the nearby large shopping mall. In the end, he was chased and cornered by a horde of zombies all the way to the seventh-floor theater, where he met Jiang Qi.
Although Ye Ling was pleasantly surprised by his luck in encountering a player with a spatial storage ability right at the beginning of the instance, he still didn’t immediately agree to team up because of that excitement.
“What are your plans, Miss Jiang?”
The meaning behind his words was obvious.
Jiang Qi understood immediately. “You’re planning to escape Rong City within seven days?”
“That’s right.”
Ye Ling nodded. “If you successfully escape Rong City within seven days, you earn 10,000 points. I don’t know whether you’ve checked the prices in the system shop, but frankly speaking, 1,000 points is nowhere near enough.”
Of course Jiang Qi had checked the system shop prices. Even an ordinary toilet cost 350 points! With 1,000 points, she couldn’t even afford a bed, a table, a rice cooker, and an induction stove together!
People needed to live. Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation were all necessities.
One thousand points… at best, it was just enough to keep from starving…
Wait, something about these prices was seriously wrong?!
It cost 1,000 points just to pay for one day of protection against the anomalies, while clearing an ordinary instance only rewarded 1,000 points. So after paying the “supernatural version of electricity bills,” what were players supposed to eat? Without water or food, people could only last three days at most.
Jiang Qi understood now. The Survival Apartment System was deliberately forcing players to risk their lives!
She remembered the system reminder…
[Survival of the fittest]
The instance was an apocalypse, and reality itself was also an apocalypse. If one wanted to survive in the apocalypse, they had to fight desperately for it.
The Survival Apartment wasn’t charity, nor was it humanitarian aid. It merely provided an opportunity, a platform, so that humanity in this world wouldn’t be completely powerless when faced with the invasion of the anomalies.
Jiang Qi clenched her fists tightly. Fine, fine. So fortune really did come from danger, huh?
Damn it, she just happened to hate living a miserable life the most. If she absolutely had to survive in the apocalypse, then she would survive properly.
Otherwise, she might as well die early and get it over with!
“I understand what you mean.”
Jiang Qi’s expression turned serious. “Originally, I planned to hole up and survive for thirty days if possible. But what you said reminded me that if I only scrape by and clear the instance that way, life still won’t be easy after leaving the instance. I might as well gamble on something bigger.”
Ten thousand points. At the very least, she could buy a bed without feeling heartache.
Smart people didn’t need endless probing to communicate. Ye Ling also understood clearly that if he teamed up with someone who had a spatial ability, the time needed to escape Rong City would be greatly reduced. Most importantly, they could travel light and wouldn’t need to waste time searching for supplies along the way.
So he directly extended his hand. “Pleasant cooperation?”
“Pleasant cooperation.”
Jiang Qi wasn’t about to tell Ye Ling that her spatial ability was actually single-use. They were only temporary teammates. If Ye Ling learned the truth and malicious thoughts arose in his mind, who knew what he might do?
Better to stay cautious.
After shaking hands, Jiang Qi asked, “Do you have any ideas?”
“Before I ran into the mall, I scanned a shared electric scooter with my phone. That means the phones we carry with us can still be used inside the instance.”
Ye Ling took out his phone as he spoke. “That’s good news. While the network is still working, we should plan an escape route out of Rong City first.”
“Do you have paper and a pen?”
“Yes.”
The paper and pen Jiang Qi had weren’t something she looted from the supermarket. They were items she already carried in her crossbody bag.
As for why she had them…
Because her university major was fashion design, so she had developed the habit of sketching whenever inspiration struck.
Sigh, never mind that scam of a major for now.
Jiang Qi took out the paper and pen and placed them on the floor. While staying alert for any zombies that might suddenly break through the door, the two of them used their phones to examine Rong City’s map.
Ye Ling zoomed in on the mall icon and showed it to Jiang Qi. “We’re here. Before I ran inside, I saw the mall’s name. It’s Xingguang Commercial Center.”
“This area is basically all office buildings and shopping malls. There’s also a large public hospital nearby.”
Jiang Qi frowned and complained, “Why are they all crowded places…”
Their starting location had dropped them directly into a bustling commercial district. Jiang Qi was beginning to suspect the system had deliberately given them a hell-level start because both of them had drawn useful abilities.
“We can take this route.”
Ye Ling zoomed in on a location about fifteen kilometers away from Xingguang Commercial Center.
Jiang Qi softly read the name aloud. “Rong Mountain Scenic Area?”
Rong Mountain Scenic Area was one of Rong City’s famous tourist attractions, covering a massive area. But that wasn’t the important part. The important part was that today was Wednesday, and the zombie outbreak had started at 10 a.m. It wasn’t a holiday or school vacation, so there shouldn’t be too many people there.
Moreover, Rong Mountain Scenic Area consisted of two sections: a mountain area and a lake area.
Many sightseeing routes had been built around both the lake and the mountain. If they drove into Rong Mountain Scenic Area through the east entrance, they could freely leave through any of the remaining three exits: the south, west, or north exit.
There was another important point.
The south exit of Rong Mountain Scenic Area connected directly to the highway, while the west exit led to sparsely populated rural roads.
As long as nothing unexpected happened, either of those exits could allow them to successfully leave Rong City.
Jiang Qi began checking on her phone which areas they would need to pass through during the fifteen-kilometer journey to Rong Mountain Scenic Area. After seeing the route, cold sweat broke out across her forehead.
“One… two… three universities?”
And they were three universities clustered closely together!
Jiang Qi hesitated. “Are we really choosing this route?”
Why did she feel like they might accidentally die somewhere along these fifteen kilometers?
“This route is the easiest.”
Ye Ling had already checked the other routes. Every other direction led toward different densely populated zones. Only Rong Mountain Scenic Area connected to the highway and sparsely populated regions. They couldn’t find a better, or safer, route out of Rong City than this one.
Jiang Qi scratched her head in frustration. “Then when are we making our move?”
Now that she’d decided to risk her life, she wasn’t going to act coy about it. If she accidentally died halfway through, then so be it. Failing the stage would only mean she wasn’t suited to surviving in the apocalypse.
“Right now.”
“Huh? Right now?!”
This time, Jiang Qi was genuinely shocked. Didn’t they need time to rest and regroup?
Ye Ling replied firmly, “Because there are still a lot of living people right now.”
“Zombies are attracted to sound. If we pass by the three universities now, and we’re lucky enough, those newly mutated zombies should still be busy surrounding and chasing the surviving students inside the campuses. But if we keep waiting, I’m worried the zombies won’t be able to find any more ‘food’ in the universities and will start spilling out onto the streets instead.”
That actually made some sense…
Could the reason the commotion outside the movie theater had died down also be because there were even more living people outside the mall?
Jiang Qi asked worriedly, “What if… what if the zombie outbreak at the universities happened at the same time as it did here?”
Ye Ling answered calmly, “Then leaving early or late wouldn’t make any difference.”
They might as well set out now, while their resolve was still firm and their courage still intact.
The longer they dragged it out, the more hesitant they’d become.
Seeming to notice Jiang Qi’s inner conflict, Ye Ling thought for a moment before asking, “Do you have any alcohol?”
“Huh?”
Why was he suddenly asking that?
Though confused, Jiang Qi still answered, “No alcohol, but do you want beer?”
“Beer works too.”
“What about glass? Do you have any?”
“I’ve got bottled milk in glass bottles.” As Jiang Qi spoke, she took out beer and milk from her spatial ring. “What are you planning to do with these?”
Ye Ling explained, “My Weapons Manufacturer ability can create weapons as long as I have the materials. With alcohol and glass bottles, I can make Molotov cocktails.”
“Molotov cocktails?!”
Jiang Qi’s eyes lit up instantly. That was good stuff!
She’d never seen one in real life, but she’d seen them in foreign news videos before. They should work well against zombies.
Suddenly remembering something, she hurriedly began pulling out more things from her spatial ring.
“These! These can be used to lure zombies!”
Ye Ling lowered his head and saw a pile of toys: a red crawling crab that played music while moving, a green cactus toy that could sing and dance, and more.
“…Why do you even have these?”
Jiang Qi replied awkwardly, “I grabbed them on impulse.”
When she’d been collecting supplies in the supermarket, she’d been too panicked and had tossed random things into her spatial ring as she passed by. Anyway, the 100-cubic-meter space still wasn’t anywhere close to full.