As the sounds outside the door gradually grew quieter, Lin Ya finally felt a little relieved and now had time to start planning for her future.
She knew very well that in this dangerous new world, staying far away from the protagonists of the story was her only choice.
As a supporting character, she had no ambition to compete with the female lead for the spotlight, nor did she have any fantasies about challenging the male lead. All she wanted was to survive, find a safe shelter, and quietly make it through this disaster.
Although this supermarket had temporarily provided her with a place to stay, Lin Ya knew she could not remain here for long. She was worried that as time passed, other survivors would discover this place.
A weak woman like her guarding a supermarket filled with supplies was undoubtedly like waving a red flag in front of greedy people. She had to act cautiously and could not allow her existence to become someone else’s target.
Therefore, she made a plan for herself: live quietly for three months and wait for the male and female leads to leave the city.
During this period, Lin Ya would regularly go out to collect supplies. She carefully made her way through the ruins of the city, searching for anything that might be useful. She always chose places that looked as though they had already been looted, because there usually would not be too many zombies there.
She also began learning how to protect herself. She practiced using the knives she had found in a hardware store. Although she knew she could never become as strong as those warriors, at the very least, she needed to be capable of protecting herself from harm.
Lin Ya’s life was simple, but she felt content. She knew this world was no longer the world it had once been, but she believed that as long as she was strong and smart enough, she could always find a way to survive.
During those three months, Lin Ya experienced countless challenges and dangers.
Whenever night fell and everything around her became silent, her thoughts would involuntarily drift back to her life before transmigrating. Those wonderful days when she never had to worry about food or clothing and never had to fight zombies seemed like a distant dream, gentle yet elusive.
Once again, she wanted to curse the heavens and wonder why they had transmigrated her into this world for no reason at all. Yet when dawn came the next day, she could only put her strong facade back on and continue struggling to survive alone.
But the twists of fate often came unexpectedly. One day, when she happened to pass by the familiar sanitary pads on a supermarket shelf again, a shocking realization suddenly struck her. She had already gone more than three months without experiencing that familiar monthly cycle.
The sheer terror made her entire body tremble.
Without having time to think any further, she quickly dug out the pregnancy tests she had scavenged from a pharmacy. Don’t ask why she had such a thing. The nearby pharmacies had already been looted by the male lead and his teammates, so when she entered one, she could only take whatever she happened to find.
Staring at the row of pregnancy tests in different styles before her, Lin Ya’s eyes widened as the expression on her face froze in terror. On every pregnancy test, the two unmistakable lines seemed to coldly announce the same fact.
She was pregnant.
Her heart pounded violently inside her chest, almost as though it would leap out of it. Her mind was in complete chaos as countless thoughts rushed through her head, leaving her feeling suffocated. The dim light inside the supermarket fell across her pale face, making her expression look even more frightened.
Lin Ya’s breathing became rapid, and she felt a wave of dizziness as her body involuntarily sank onto the dirty floor. Her gaze wandered over the rows of pregnancy tests, her heart filled with confusion and fear.
In this apocalypse, she could barely guarantee her own survival, so how could she possibly protect an innocent child? She did not know what the future would bring, nor did she know whether this child would become a burden or the motivation that kept her going.
Lin Ya’s fingers unconsciously stroked her lower abdomen. There was still no visible change there, but an enormous storm had already erupted in her heart. She imagined what the child might look like and the difficulties they might face in the future, and tears inevitably welled up in her eyes.
She needed to find a base and live somewhere close to it. Once the child was born, she would definitely need to take the baby to a hospital.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A burst of rapid gunfire suddenly came from outside the small supermarket. It was immediately followed by the sound of footsteps and the low growls of zombies.
This left Lin Ya, who was staring at a pile of pregnancy tests, incredibly frustrated and angry.
“How ironic. Everyone else who transmigrates gets some amazing cheat ability and powerful allies everywhere, but I transmigrated here with nothing, and now I’m even pregnant! Did I blow up the Milky Way in my past life or something? Is fate really going to screw me over this badly?”
One disaster after another had left Lin Ya with the overwhelming urge to simply lie down and give up on everything.
Suddenly, a golden light appeared in her field of vision. She blinked, thinking she must have seen it wrong, but the light grew brighter and brighter until a familiar figure appeared before her.
It was a Sunflower, the very character from the game she had played before transmigrating.
Lin Ya was startled and moved backward slightly. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was not seeing things. The Sunflower’s petals trembled gently in the sunlight, as though it were smiling at her.
“This… this is…” she stammered, unable to believe her eyes.
The Sunflower suddenly spoke in a young and adorable voice.
“Please collect sunlight. Please collect sunlight. Please collect sunlight!”
Lin Ya’s jaw nearly dropped.
“You… you can talk?”
The Sunflower continued repeating the same words.
“Please collect sunlight. Please collect sunlight. Please collect sunlight!”
“Artificially Intelligent Idiot?”
Lin Ya was speechless. Aside from that one sentence, the Sunflower seemed unable to say anything else. Still, she muttered to herself as she walked over to it and reached out to touch the sunlight surrounding the Sunflower. Two suns immediately flew into her body.
A small sun then appeared in her mind, with the number 50 written beneath it. Further to the left was a Sunflower with another 50 written underneath it. Below the Sunflower was a Peashooter with 100 written beneath it.
She was familiar with this. Collecting sunlight could be used to plant Peashooters, and the Peashooters could shoot zombies!
But these were zombies in the real world, not the zombies in the game that only knew how to walk in a straight line! Wasn’t this cheat ability a little too useless? Other people’s spatial abilities could store food, while other supernatural abilities could kill zombies, and some even came with spiritual springs and all sorts of other advantages.
But what about her? If she could only shoot zombies that were standing in a straight line, what would happen if a zombie turned a corner? Would her Peashooter simply get to take a break?
She was completely speechless. Lin Ya looked at the Sunflower that kept urging her to collect sunlight and felt utterly helpless. She raised her hand and collected several of the suns closest to her before sitting back down on the floor.
The gunshots and footsteps outside continued approaching her, while the sunlight surrounding the Sunflower illuminated the small supermarket with a warm glow.
“Sunlight fading, Sunflower fading!”
Suddenly, the Sunflower stopped repeating those two sentences and simply disappeared. Lin Ya hurriedly ran over, but she only had time to touch one small sun.
The other suns disappeared into the air along with the Sunflower, while a fully grown Sunflower, as large as a washbasin, was left on the floor.
This sight left Lin Ya, who had always played Plants vs. Zombies, so shocked that her mouth hung wide open. She had never known that this thing could not only produce sunlight, but could actually be eaten.
Had the game been upgraded, or had the plants that came with her mutated?
Lin Ya picked up the Sunflower and examined it from every angle, only to discover that there was absolutely no difference between it and a Sunflower grown from the ground.
She gently plucked off a sunflower seed and peeled it open with her fingers. The milky-white seed kernel was plump and full, making her want to swallow it in one bite.
Lin Ya slowly chewed the seed kernel and felt a refreshing fragrance fill her mouth. The taste was far better than the sunflower seeds from before the apocalypse.
Without thinking any further, she quickly took a small shopping bag from the supermarket out of her backpack and spread it flat on the floor. Then she gently knocked the Sunflower against it, causing a large pile of sunflower seeds to tumble down with a rustling sound.
She gathered up the sunflower seeds and put them into a small supermarket bag. From now on, she would never have to worry about running out of snacks!