He Lingyu instinctively lifted a hand and wiped her face. When she looked down, her palm was slick with red.
It was probably blood.
But having that much blood splash across her face was something she had never experienced in her twenty plus years of living.
After freezing for a second, she sprang up in a panic, flustered and at a loss. “Y-you, th-this, now, what am I supposed to do?”
Jun Buyan’s gaze turned razor cold. He had not expected Qu Ming to strike the chubby one from behind.
He gathered all of his ability and charged straight at Qu Ming.
Qu Ming’s mental strength was already at its weakest. Jun Buyan slammed him down in one hit, forcing a mouthful of blood out of him.
“Open the door, now!”
After landing that heavy blow, Jun Buyan supported Yao Zhien and shouted urgently at He Lingyu.
He Lingyu did not have time to think about anything else. She hurried over and opened the door, pulling them inside. At the same time, a vague suspicion rose in her heart.
Were they really just emotionless NPCs like she had assumed?
Outside, Qu Ming’s men saw their leader knocked unconscious and did not dare act further. They quickly hoisted him up and fled in disgrace.
He Lingyu moved quickly, bringing over a basin of clean water. “Wipe it off, hurry, and bandage it. But I don’t have any medicine here, you…”
Yao Zhien actually smiled as he tried to reassure her. “It’s fine. Why would I waste medicine on a little wound? It just looks scary. It’ll be better in a few days. I’ve had injuries way worse than this… hiss!”
Jun Buyan did not say a word, but the force in his hands increased as he bandaged him.
“That won’t do.” He Lingyu frowned. “It’s on your shoulder, but it’s deep. If it gets infected without medicine, it’ll be even more troublesome.”
Only now did she truly feel how important medicine was in this era.
She wondered if upgrading the restaurant might eventually reward medical supplies.
After they finished bandaging, she finally voiced the question that had been circling in her mind.
“Why did you come back? We’d only met once. And now you’ve gotten hurt so badly…”
“I said we owed you.” Yao Zhien spoke calmly, without claiming credit, a faint smile still on his lips. “How could we just leave you here? Besides, who knows how many people this restaurant might save in the future. It might become hope for a lot of people.”
In the end, he seemed embarrassed under her gaze and raised his voice to cover it. “Whoa, it’s not that big a deal. It’s getting late, we have to hurry back to base. Xiao Yan, let’s go.”
After the two left, He Lingyu did not move. She sat there for a long time, until darkness finally fell.
The lights inside the restaurant turned on automatically. Only then did she come back to herself, blinking hard to adjust to the sudden brightness.
She had thought about it again and again.
At first, she had treated everyone who appeared as NPCs inside a game. But the moment Yao Zhien’s blood splashed across her face, she felt that things might not be as simple as she had believed.
In the beginning, she had assumed this world was just a bug in the game. Otherwise, why would someone always show up to help whenever she had a task to complete?
But when warm blood hit her skin, she started to suspect the opposite.
Maybe this was no longer a “game world” at all. Maybe this world was real, with flesh and blood, and she, along with the game itself, were the true anomaly.
The conflicts were real. Human malice was real too. It was only that her luck had been good, and she had met good people first.
Once she accepted that, she felt a heavy sadness settle over her. If she had truly arrived in an unfamiliar world, then even if she cleared the game, would she still be able to go back?
She sat there through the entire night, thinking of everything and nothing. But when the first light of morning fell on her, she suddenly stood up.
Even if she returned, there was no family waiting for her, only endless work and the same days repeating over and over. If she could help people who could not get a meal here, then she would stop overthinking and simply do it. Whether she could return or not was her fate either way.
After a sleepless night, she felt exhausted. Yesterday she had been tense and on edge, and only now, after relaxing, did she realize how drained she was. She was about to rest when she discovered something.
The restaurant had no staff dormitory.
Was that reasonable?
Did that mean she would have to sleep on the floor here from now on?
She instantly felt too irritated to sleep. Better to go outside and see if she could attract more customers. If the restaurant leveled up, maybe a dorm would appear.
She went into the yard and saw the vegetables by the fence had already sprouted, though they had not borne fruit yet. She watered them, then walked to the gate and looked out.
She did not see any people, but she did see a zombie.
It swayed forward unsteadily, looking like it would reach her soon.
Now that she suspected this might not be a game world, the sight of a zombie made her uneasy. She feared that if the game’s protections failed even once, her life would be forfeit. Yet she was also curious in a reckless way. She wanted to see how these zombies differed from the ones in movies.
When it drew closer, she realized it was not as frightening as movie zombies. It was clearly different from a human, but it was not a gore soaked mess with bulging veins and white eyes.
Its eyes were still black and white, only empty and lifeless. Its skin was corpse pale with a faint bluish tint. Its teeth had sharpened and jutted out so far its mouth could not fully close.
At least it did not drool on its own, or the world would be drowning in spit.
When it came close enough, she caught the stench.
Rotten, nauseating.
The smell nearly made her throw up. She quickly turned her back so she could finally inhale something that felt like fresh air.
But from an outsider’s perspective, the scene looked like this.
A girl, completely defenseless, exposing her back to a zombie, while the zombie reached out to grab her after catching the scent of living flesh.
The reality was simpler.
He Lingyu could not stand the zombie’s foul odor and had turned away, while the zombie could not cross the restaurant boundary. It could only stretch a greedy hand toward the fragrant human, and still could not touch her.
That was exactly what Hua Yue saw when she arrived.
The sight dragged her straight back to the day her daughter died. She had failed to protect her. She had watched helplessly as zombies killed her precious child.
Hua Yue’s eyes turned red instantly. The scene before her overlapped with the past until she could not tell them apart. Only one thought remained in her mind.
‘Don’t be afraid, sweetheart. Mom will save you.’
She grabbed a wooden stick and charged at the zombie, shouting as she ran, “Sweetheart, run! It’s dangerous!”
He Lingyu spun around in shock.
Hua Yue had already clubbed the zombie down with one blow. It still writhed on the ground, looking disturbingly alert.
“Sweetheart, are you alright?”
He Lingyu stared at the woman in front of her. She looked to be in her fifties. She was clearly terrified, still panting hard, yet she looked at He Lingyu with bloodshot eyes full of concern.
Why?
Sweetheart? Was she calling her?
He Lingyu could not make sense of it yet, but she pulled the door open. “Come inside first!”
Once they were inside the restaurant, the woman gradually calmed down, her expression loosening.
“You… do you know me? We’ve never met…”
He Lingyu admitted that the concern made her feel warm, but she still wanted to understand.
“I’m sorry. I lost control.” Hua Yue forced a bitter smile. “What I saw just now reminded me of my daughter… she was also taken from behind by zombies…”
She let out a quiet laugh that carried no humor. “I must have made you laugh.”
He Lingyu understood. This was a mother who had lost her child.
So this was what a mother’s feelings were like.
Seeing Hua Yue’s grief, He Lingyu did not know how to comfort her. When she was sad, she usually ate something. So she asked, “Would you like something to eat?”
“But… I don’t have anything to pay with.” Hua Yue gave a self mocking smile. “At the base, everything is traded with crystal cores or points. I have nothing.”
Her hand tightened around the only bundle she owned. Inside were just two pieces of clothing and her daughter’s hairpin, along with a few roses folded from banknotes by her daughter.
Banknotes had been meaningless since the apocalypse, but she had kept those roses anyway, even though they had been flattened.
“It’s alright.” He Lingyu smiled. “Isn’t there one right outside?”
She had forgotten one detail.
Not every zombie had a crystal core.
Hua Yue searched inside the zombie’s head for a long time and found nothing. She sighed helplessly. “Looks like I won’t be eating here today. I should go.”
She had always been “useless.” Even inside the base, people disliked her. No abilities, too old, so she had been driven out. Better not stay here and be an eyesore.
“Wait!” He Lingyu felt awkward. The restaurant only produced food after payment, and she had no way to bend that rule. “Do you have cash or gold? Those work too.”
Hua Yue paused. Those currencies that no longer circulated… could they really be used here?
She tightened her grip on the bundle, did not touch the paper roses, and instead reached up to remove the necklace from her neck.
“Would this work?”
It was a gold necklace. In the early days of the apocalypse, when things were chaotic, bold criminals had robbed people for money and jewelry. She had always worn high collars, so she had managed to keep the necklace hidden and safe.
Later, once people realized gold and cash were useless compared to food, no one bothered robbing her anymore.
He Lingyu finally relaxed. Thankfully this aunt had a necklace, otherwise He Lingyu truly would not have known what to do next.
“Of course it works. Please wash your hands first. I’ll bring your food right out.”
She poured some water for Hua Yue, then tossed the gold necklace into the payment box.
There were only a couple of items available, so He Lingyu simply served everything.
“Auntie, eat slowly. If it’s not enough, there’s more.”
“It’s enough, it’s enough!” Hua Yue grabbed a bun and stuffed food into her mouth with the other hand.
After two buns and the sharp edge of hunger faded, she finally slowed down.
“Girl, you’re running a shop here all by yourself? Aren’t you afraid someone will come cause trouble?”
He Lingyu did not answer. She only smiled, because she did not know how to explain. Who would believe her?
“Auntie, take your time eating. I need to handle something.”
After speaking, she went to the computer.
She mainly wanted to check whether the mission had been completed.
She was desperately looking forward to LV.2.