After passing through the heavily congested road in front of the university gates, they only had the final 7 kilometers left before reaching Rong Mountain Scenic Area. This stretch of road had no bustling commercial districts or densely populated residential neighborhoods.
If the city center and outskirts were divided by the first and second ring roads, then they had already reached beyond the third ring, while Rong Mountain Scenic Area was located between the fourth and fifth rings.
With the pressure suddenly eased, Jiang Qi quietly studied the girl they had rescued. She had short hair, a round face, black-rimmed glasses, and was wearing a purple hoodie and jeans. Whether in temperament or appearance, she looked far more youthful and inexperienced than either Jiang Qi or Ye Ling.
“What’s your name? How old are you?”
Having already vented her emotions, Qi Zhaozhao wiped away her tears and answered in a hoarse voice, “My name is Qi Zhaozhao. I’m eighteen. Before entering the instance, I had just started my freshman year of college.”
No wonder she looked like such a kid.
Jiang Qi’s guard instantly lowered quite a bit. “Zhaozhao, can I call you that?”
“Yes.”
Qi Zhaozhao had clearly forgotten that after introducing herself, she was also supposed to ask the others to introduce themselves.
“Why were you hiding in a car trunk? And why were there so many zombies at the university entrance?”
Now that they had already rescued her, Jiang Qi couldn’t bring herself to throw the girl out halfway through the journey. Since she couldn’t kick her out, the least she could do was figure out her background first.
Only after confirming Qi Zhaozhao was trustworthy would she invite her to join their temporary team.
While Jiang Qi spoke with Qi Zhaozhao, Ye Ling remained silent the entire time. On one hand, women were naturally more likely to lower their guard around other women. On the other hand, he trusted Jiang Qi’s judgment.
From the time he had known her until now, Ye Ling felt that Jiang Qi was the type who looked innocent on the outside but, in reality, had very firm ideas of her own.
The apocalypse was the ultimate test of human nature.
Anyone who could still remain emotionally stable during a crisis was no ordinary person.
“At the beginning…”
Just recalling what had happened after entering the instance made Qi Zhaozhao miserable again, but she still told them everything she had experienced without hiding anything.
She might not have been the type with exceptionally high IQ or EQ, but she wasn’t ignorant of how the world worked either.
When facing people who had saved her life, honesty was better than keeping secrets.
This could also be considered a way of repaying their kindness.
***
Qi Zhaozhao’s experience upon entering the instance was similar to Jiang Qi and Ye Ling’s. She had also appeared out of thin air inside the instance. However, the place she materialized was inside a university classroom. For a brief moment, she thought everything that had happened before was just a dream and that she had finally woken up.
It wasn’t until she realized all the students around her were strangers, and even the professor lecturing at the podium was someone she didn’t recognize, that she finally confirmed she had truly entered an instance.
The mission notification for clearing the stage gave her two choices: either gather supplies and hide, or leave Rong City as quickly as possible.
Before Qi Zhaozhao could decide which option was better, she encountered another player in the teaching building hallway.
The other party was a man in his thirties whose real-world profession was a teacher.
This teacher believed there was strength in numbers and that working together would greatly increase their chances of clearing the instance.
Qi Zhaozhao was still a student and naturally trusted teachers, so she agreed to team up with him and even took the initiative to search the campus for more players.
Unexpectedly, there really were quite a lot of players dropped into that university. By the time Qi Zhaozhao regrouped with the teacher, their team had already grown to ten people.
But that was also when the zombie outbreak began.
Everyone panicked and ran toward the university gates, only to discover there were zombies there too.
Among the group was a sanda coach. He was the first to use his ability to deal with the passengers and driver on a bus who had already turned into zombies. After successfully taking the driver’s seat, he turned around and shouted at everyone:
“Get over here! We’ll drive out together!”
Qi Zhaozhao was the slowest runner and ended up lagging behind the group.
Watching the other players board the bus one after another made her incredibly anxious, and then…
“And then what happened?”
Jiang Qi, completely absorbed in the story, quickly asked.
Fear flashed through Qi Zhaozhao’s eyes. “There was a guy in the group wearing a black hoodie and a mask. I don’t know what he did, but he locked the bus doors.”
Ye Ling frowned. “Locked the doors?”
“He didn’t want the players who got on the bus to get off again?”
Qi Zhaozhao nodded firmly. “Right. I don’t know how he did it, but none of the players who boarded could get back out. Even using their abilities didn’t work.”
“I didn’t make it onto the bus in time, and when I saw more and more zombies gathering around, I had no choice but to use my ability and hide inside the trunk of a car.”
“And after that… I ran into you two.”
Jiang Qi couldn’t understand it. “That’s so strange. Even if they were locked inside the bus, couldn’t the people inside just smash the windows and escape?”
Could it be that breaking the glass didn’t work either?
Ye Ling also felt something about the situation was off. He asked, “Before you hid in the trunk, did you see whether the players on the bus were still alive?”
“They were alive!”
Qi Zhaozhao remembered this part very clearly. “After the doors were locked, the players inside caused a huge commotion, and it attracted a lot of zombies. But none of the zombies surrounding the bus managed to get inside.”
That made things even stranger.
Jiang Qi and Ye Ling exchanged a quiet glance. Both of them remembered the scene they had witnessed yesterday when they first came near the university district. So all those gathered zombies had been there because there were still living players inside the bus?
“There’s always a reason behind a person’s actions, unless they’re mentally unstable.”
Ye Ling analyzed, “The person you mentioned… his behavior seemed more like he wanted to ‘trap people’ than ‘kill them.’”
Qi Zhaozhao carefully tried to recall her already blurry memories and realized that was indeed the case.
After trapping the other players inside the bus, the guy in the black hoodie had disappeared.
“But why would he trap people inside the bus…”
No matter how they thought about it, they couldn’t figure it out.
None of the three people in the car had any clues. Fortunately, they were almost at Rong Mountain Scenic Area, so they stopped dwelling on the issue. Jiang Qi patted Qi Zhaozhao on the shoulder and introduced herself.
“My name’s Jiang Qi, and he’s Ye Ling. We’re both older than you, so you can call us Sister Jiang and Brother Ye. We’re planning to head to Rong Mountain Scenic Area. Want to come with us?”
“Rong Mountain Scenic Area?”
Qi Zhaozhao looked confused because she had never heard of the place before.
“Well, here’s the thing…”
Jiang Qi briefly explained the “three-step plan” she and Ye Ling had come up with, along with their respective abilities.
“So? Interested in working together?”
Qi Zhaozhao’s eyes lit up as she nodded vigorously. “Of course I’m interested!”
“Sister Jiang! Brother Ye! I’ll stick with you two from now on!”
A space-ability powerhouse and a weapon-manufacturer powerhouse inviting her to cooperate?
If she refused, wouldn’t she basically be an idiot?!
“Your abilities are amazing. Unlike me, my time-stop ability consumes way too much mental energy. I can only use it three times a day, and each use only lasts three seconds. Any more than that and I can’t handle it.”
Qi Zhaozhao sighed.
The aftereffects from using her ability earlier were still giving her a headache.
“You think time stop isn’t amazing?” Jiang Qi blurted out. “Your ability is practically assassin material!”
“Assassin material?”
After realizing Qi Zhaozhao was just an ordinary college student, Jiang Qi stopped being so guarded with her words. “Think about it. If you get into a conflict with someone and they want to kill you, you just freeze time, then slash their throat with a dagger within those three seconds. Wouldn’t they be dead instantly?”
“Time stop is the kind of ability that lets you one-shot your opponent. How is that not strong?”
Qi Zhaozhao was stunned speechless.
Ever since obtaining her ability, she had only ever used time stop to help herself escape. It had never even occurred to her that it could also be used to attack people.
But…
She didn’t dare kill anyone.
In the end, Qi Zhaozhao could only reply vaguely, “Yeah, when you put it that way, it really is pretty amazing.”
From the rearview mirror, Ye Ling could already see the deep frown on Qi Zhaozhao’s face. He didn’t even need to guess what she was thinking, but honestly, that was normal. No one could become cold-blooded and ruthless right from the start.
As for whether Qi Zhaozhao would ever use her ability to kill in the future…
That would depend on whether she was ever pushed to that point.
***
“We’re here.”
After arriving at their destination, Ye Ling parked the car at the east entrance of the scenic area.
Jiang Qi poked her head out. “Those entrance barriers… cars can’t get through, can they?”
But thinking about it, that made sense. Scenic areas usually didn’t allow tourists to drive inside.
“Sigh, looks like we’ll have to walk.”
Jiang Qi sounded regretful.
Qi Zhaozhao leaned closer to the window and cautiously observed the surroundings outside. “Why aren’t there any zombies around here at all?”
“Because it’s currently the off-season for tourism.”
As he explained, Ye Ling unfastened his seatbelt. “Everyone, get out. We’re going in.”
“Okay.”
Even though she really didn’t want to get out of the car, Jiang Qi had no choice. She took out her frying pan, then handed Qi Zhaozhao a brand-new frying pan and kitchen knife.
“Zhaozhao, remember to stay behind us. If we run into zombies, try not to scream, or you’ll only attract more of them. Got it?”
Qi Zhaozhao followed Jiang Qi out of the car and nodded vigorously. “Got it.”
“I won’t hold you guys back!”
“That’s good.” Jiang Qi patted Qi Zhaozhao’s hair encouragingly.
“Let’s go.”
“Mhm!”
After getting out of the car, the three of them made their way to the east gate of Rong Mountain Scenic Area. No one knew what had happened there, but there wasn’t a single person or zombie in sight.
Either the ticket sellers and gate attendants had escaped quickly when the zombie outbreak first began, or after turning into zombies themselves, they had been lured away elsewhere by living people.
Ye Ling scanned the surroundings and found no traces of blood. “There probably aren’t any zombies nearby. Let’s head in first. The scenic area is huge, and if we want to reach the south and west gates quickly, we’ll need some kind of transportation. Even bicycles would work.”
If their group still had only two people, Jiang Qi’s electric scooter would have been usable. But with three people, it couldn’t carry all of them, so they had no choice but to find another vehicle.
“What about that?”
Qi Zhaozhao suddenly pointed toward a sightseeing cart parked inside a nearby shed.
The other two turned to look and saw one of the common open-sided tourist carts used in scenic areas.
Jiang Qi hesitated. “It should… work, right?”
Although it wasn’t enclosed and offered no real protection, there didn’t seem to be any better transportation options.
The three climbed into the sightseeing cart. Ye Ling was still the driver. Why?
Because the other two didn’t know how to drive. Jiang Qi technically had a driver’s license, but after getting it, she had never actually driven on the road, which basically meant she couldn’t drive. As for Qi Zhaozhao, she had only just started her freshman year and wasn’t even at the stage where she needed to take driving lessons yet.
And so, the slow-moving sightseeing cart leisurely traveled through the beautiful scenery of the scenic area.
No zombies. No growling. No screams.
For a moment, even Jiang Qi, who was responsible for keeping watch, felt unaccustomed to it.
Ah… she really hoped the road ahead would stay this safe.