“This is my roommate, Lin Huizhou, and his little sister, Lin Lingmeng.” Xiao Xingzhi stood at Zhang Xiangyi’s side, ramrod straight.
Lin Lingmeng had been met already, she stood beside Lin Huizhou now, eyes rimmed red but extremely happy.
Lin Huizhou had bundled himself up tight, and to let people recognize him he’d specially removed the cloth covering his face, revealing handsome features, sharply defined, but not the standard flower-boy look. His skin was wheat-colored, and beneath his clothes was a body brimming with hormones, the rugged-tough-guy aura hit you full in the face.
Thing is…
Were these two really blood siblings?
One a pure little white flower, and that’s meant as a compliment.
One an iron-blooded tough guy…
“We’ve met.”
The first instant she saw Lin Huizhou, Zhang Xiangyi knew, this was the young man at the gas station who’d asked her how to get to Yuting.
Xiao Xingzhi froze, glanced at Zhang Xiangyi, and knit his brows. In a bad mood?
Then he shot another unfriendly glance at Lin Huizhou, instantly on high alert.
“When was this…”
Lin Huizhou of course caught his roommate’s odd state and immediately offered an explanation, after which the smile never left his face. “Xiao Xingzhi, this is…”
“The genius of our department’s new cohort, Zhang Xiangyi!”
Zhang Xiangyi: “……” Has he no shame?
Caught off guard, Xiao Xingzhi ran into a certain someone’s reproachful glare and instinctively looked away, clasping his hands together tightly as if searching for something to steady him, yet still unable to calm the fluster inside.
“Nice to meet you both.” Zhang Xiangyi squeezed out a smile, salvaging her image as best she could.
“Oh, right, are you two going to Jiangcheng’s tier-one shelter?” Lin Huizhou changed the subject directly. “I got a message from my mom on the way here telling me to bring Meng-Meng to the shelter to help out. If you two are going, we can go together, safety in numbers.”
Zhang Xiangyi’s eyes flickered. “Your mother is…”
“Oh, both my parents are officials, right here in Jiangcheng. It’s the apocalypse now, isn’t it? Setting up the Jiangcheng shelter is what my dad’s in charge of.” Lin Huizhou thought for a moment, then went on, “But the facilities aren’t complete yet. Going by your strength, you could also take your time.”
Lin Lingmeng’s eyes lit up, and she said to Zhang Xiangyi, “Sister Xiangyi, don’t worry, if you two go, there’ll definitely be benefits!”
Lin Lingmeng hadn’t gotten the message herself, but although her brother loved to bully her, he didn’t joke around on big matters like this.
The first message she’d received had told her to stay with her brother, not to go looking for them for the time being, and to keep herself safe. Now her brother was saying their parents wanted them to go find them, which proved the shelter was safe!
Xiao Xingzhi felt nothing in particular. He leaned back against the sofa, draped his arm once more along the backrest behind Zhang Xiangyi, with his own little agenda. Already guilty-conscienced, when he met Lin Huizhou’s grin-filled gaze, Xiao Xingzhi glared right back. “For now we won’t go. Maybe later. If you want to leave, leave quick, I’m not keeping anyone.”
Zhang Xiangyi saying nothing meant she didn’t want to go for now, and Xiao Xingzhi’s reply was nothing if not righteously self-assured.
“All right. Let’s add each other’s contacts first. If you two come later you can message me, or Meng-Meng.” Lin Huizhou didn’t push. He’d come to find Xiao Xingzhi mainly to see whether the guy was still alive.
Now that he was living perfectly well, he wasn’t worried.
What’s more, right now his heart felt sweet as could be.
Lin Lingmeng looked a little crestfallen, but she perked up again quickly. “Sister, remember to come visit me!”
“Okay.”
Zhang Xiangyi smiled at Lin Lingmeng. She quite liked this girl.
By the time Xiao Xingzhi had seen the siblings off and come back, it was already late.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Leaning in toward Zhang Xiangyi, Xiao Xingzhi bent at the waist to meet her fair little face. “Ever since I went out with Lin Huizhou and came back, your expression’s been off this whole time. Are you not feeling well, or…?”
Zhang Xiangyi shook her head. “I’m not unwell. I’ve just been thinking about something.”
“Mm?”
“Did you look at the game software?”
“What about it?”
After Zhang Xiangyi gave Xiao Xingzhi a rough rundown of what she’d learned, she said, “What do you think?”
“You want to go for that Game Field-Testing Bureau?”
“Yes.”
Zhang Xiangyi took out her phone, tapped to the points leaderboard, scrolled all the way to the bottom, then turned the screen to face Xiao Xingzhi. “I’m dead last, and you’re second-to-last. If the two of us keep operating like we did in the last instance, the negative points will only pile up higher. Forget affording things in the Shop, we couldn’t even afford the secondhand market.”
Even with the barter function, when the two of them couldn’t even afford to eat, what else could they possibly have to trade?
“If we go work for a national department, yes, we’d be going in and out of games often, the danger factor goes up, but at least food and warmth wouldn’t be a problem.”
Zhang Xiangyi had thought it through quite a bit. Resources in the real world would only dwindle, and there was no telling when the nation would be able to manufacture more. Even if production could resume as it had before the apocalypse, output wouldn’t be high in the short term.
What the two of them had now would feed them for a while, but what about after that while?
What you couldn’t afford in the game, you couldn’t find in the real world.
Starving slowly to death, Zhang Xiangyi didn’t want to die that undignified a death.
Whereas if they went to a national department, food and warmth would be solved, and they might even be given some support in the way of combat strength.
In short, lots of upsides.
Zhang Xiangyi’s eyes went red with want.
After she’d finished laying it out for Xiao Xingzhi, he said at once, “Sure, let’s go.”
Zhang Xiangyi cautioned, “It’s very dangerous.”
Xiao Xingzhi waved a hand. “What isn’t dangerous these days?”
Zhang Xiangyi added, “We might not get to eat all that well.”
Xiao Xingzhi placed both hands on her shoulders and forcibly steered her toward the dining room. “Don’t overthink it. Having the nation at your back beats going it alone by a mile. Besides, you heard it too just now, Lin Huizhou’s parents are in charge of the Jiangcheng shelter. The whole Jiangcheng shelter is run by them, so we’ve got connections too. We won’t end up too badly off.”
After pouring Zhang Xiangyi a cup of milk, Xiao Xingzhi went into the kitchen, pulled out the wickedly pungent snail rice noodles, and started boiling water.
“As for where to live, they’ll definitely have arrangements over there. If you find living there uncomfortable, we can stay here too. Even if there’s a large-scale zombie tide, we can hide in the basement, holding out for a while wouldn’t be a problem.”
“And another thing…”
Listening to Xiao Xingzhi’s nagging, Zhang Xiangyi had already completed the initial paperwork to join the Game Field-Testing Department.
“Survive” app—
YourDreamIsFake: Ahhhhhhh! Sister, you two are really coming?! My brother and I will come pick you up right now!
Rich: No need. Xiao Xingzhi and I will head over later. Are there any requirements to join this department?
YourDreamIsFake: Hold on, lemme go ask my mom.
While she waited, Xiao Xingzhi’s nagging didn’t stop.
YourDreamIsFake: Game Field-Testing Bureau membership requirements.docx
YourDreamIsFake: Game Field-Testing Bureau administration.docx
YourDreamIsFake: Game Field-Testing Bureau rank structure.docx
YourDreamIsFake: ……
One Word file after another. Zhang Xiangyi fell silent looking at them.
So this was great-power speed?
This detailed.
Membership requirements:
1. A first-instance game rating of Hard or Hell, pre-apocalypse employment in public security agencies, the military…, formidable strength, passing the Game Field-Testing Department’s selection. Meeting any one of the above suffices.
2. Possessing a special skill, e.g.: lockpicking, disguise…
3. Possessing a patriotic heart, in both reality and the game world, you may not harm your own kind, and you must offer help when necessary. Once the nation calls, no matter what you are doing, you must respond actively to the summons.
……
Selection contest:
……
Administration:
1. After joining, all are registered players, then assigned according to individual circumstances to the Game Science Department, the Defense and Control Department, the Field-Testing Department, the Investigation Department…
The Game Science Department aims to study the game’s essence… requires talent with the following skills…
The Defense and Control Department aims to protect the nation’s talents who enter the game…
The Field-Testing Department…
The Investigation Department…
Players within the Bureau are graded one star to five stars:
One-star player requirements and benefits: ……
Two-star player requirements and benefits: ……
……
Rank structure:
Game Field-Testing Bureau Director, department heads, section chiefs…
Before she’d finished browsing, Xiao Xingzhi carried out the snail rice noodles. “No zombies around here for now, so eat this stinky stuff quick.”
“What are you looking at so intently?”
He handed over a pair of chopsticks too, only to find her gaze still glued to the phone screen, never mind answering him, she didn’t even spare him a glance.
“Take a look while we eat.” Zhang Xiangyi accepted the chopsticks and forwarded the whole batch of files Lin Lingmeng had sent her to Xiao Xingzhi. “The nation’s really something, putting out this many documents this fast.”
Especially how exceptionally thorough they were: how to join each post, what you’d do, how to rank up, and so on, all spelled out crystal clear.
The Field-Testing Bureau hadn’t even settled on a director yet, Zhang Xiangyi’s eyes shone.
Did she dare to dream one?
Right now definitely not. She had self-awareness, after all.
Her rating was only Hard, and there was Hell mode too, where the big shots gathered. If she could finagle a team leader spot she’d thank her lucky stars.
“Which one do you want to go to?”
“The Field-Testing Department, I guess. There’s no point us going to the Game Science Department, too useless. The Defense and Control Department, protecting people… fine if they listen, but running into ones who don’t gives me a headache, and I can’t stand that. The Investigation Department’s bound to be a hassle, right now they have to investigate where the game came from, and later if anyone gets into trouble in a game, that’s the Investigation Department’s job too, plus all the domestic squabbles, who knows.”
Whereas the Field-Testing Department was the freest. As long as you followed the rules, the number of games each star level had to enter varied.
The higher up, the fewer. As long as you hit the requirements, wrote up the instance’s internal intel and compiled it for the higher-ups, and let the authorities publish it uniformly, that was it.
Roughly: enter the game, gather instance intel, write a report.
Just three steps. Zhang Xiangyi was quite satisfied.
Xiao Xingzhi nodded at that. “Then let’s go for it. Just tell Lin Huizhou and it’s settled. Looks to me like we meet the membership requirements too, it’s the star-rating and post evaluations afterward that are the bigger hassle.”
But if you only wanted to be a rank-and-file member, it wasn’t a hassle at all.
He knew, though, that Zhang Xiangyi definitely wanted to wangle some kind of title, and so did he.
A soldier who doesn’t want to be a general isn’t a good soldier.
“That’s no problem at all~”
In a good mood now, Zhang Xiangyi messaged Lin Lingmeng and then started slurping her noodles in earnest. Who knew when the next chance to eat snail rice noodles would come.
Mmm, so good!