Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 29

Upon hearing the sound, everyone present shot to their feet and drew their weapons. Jin Ye’s finger was already on the trigger guard.

Tang Yu quickly made a hand gesture, signaling Jin Ye not to fire blindly. She shifted her position, allowing Jin Ye and Xiao Li to move closer.

The person in the cabinet must have noticed their arrival long ago but hadn’t retaliated. Either they were incapable of fighting back, or they chose not to.

Tang Yu licked her gums. The faint, almost imperceptible human scent wafting from the cabinet told her that a human was hiding inside, not a zombie.

With a creak, the cabinet door was pulled open a crack.

A thin sliver of light squeezed into the wooden cabinet, illuminating a pair of blue pupils.

After getting a clear look at the situation, everyone present was taken aback. Jin Ye slowly lowered her gun.

It was a little girl, about five or six years old, huddled in a corner and clutching a teddy bear. Her eyes were fixed on the uninvited guests, her entire body trembling slightly with fear. But she was very restrained, managing not to let out a single scream, even after seeing two zombies.

Xiao Li breathed a sigh of relief, put away her gun, and slumped onto the small bed, no longer paying attention to the child. Professor Zhou also turned away to rummage through her leather case.

Tang Yu was a little surprised. She pointed at the little girl with a look of confusion. “Is she a player too?”

She hadn’t seen any child players on her journey.

Jin Ye shook her head and explained, “Not a player. Players have to be over sixteen to enter the game. This is an NPC.”

“An NPC? There are human NPCs in the game?” Since waking up, Tang Yu had only seen players; she had assumed no one else existed in this world.

“Yes, there are original inhabitants. You could see a lot of them when the game first started. They served as shopkeepers, doctors, nurses, and other roles, but their numbers are very low now.”

Jin Ye glanced at the little girl in the cabinet and continued, “They can’t upgrade their physical abilities, so they’re usually the first to die in a fight against zombies. Aside from quests, players don’t really care whether they live or die, so you rarely see NPCs wandering the streets anymore. Most of them have found a place to hide and just try to survive.”

Tang Yu squatted down, bringing her eyes level with the little girl’s. She tentatively reached out her hand. The little girl shrank back, the fear in her eyes deepening.

Tang Yu turned back to ask Jin Ye, “Do they have their own consciousness? Or are their actions and speech all pre-programmed by the game?”

“Their base data is code, but they have independent consciousness. That’s not surprising; most entertainment AIs have self-awareness these days.” Seeing that the little girl posed no threat, Jin Ye stopped focusing on her and turned to organize her backpack.

Tang Yu turned back to study the little girl. Being stared at intently by a zombie, the child’s fear had reached its peak. Completely oblivious, Tang Yu even bared her teeth in a smile. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not a bad person.”

The little girl finally couldn’t take it anymore and burst out crying with a wail.

Tang Yu was instantly flustered. She clumsily tried to soothe the child, “Hey, I didn’t mean to scare you! Don’t cry, please don’t cry.”

To the child’s eyes, her gestures looked like another threatening display, and she began to cry even harder.

Tang Yu looked back at Xiao Li with a pleading expression. She sent a voice message in their group chat: “She can’t understand me. Help.”

Xiao Li roared with laughter. “It’s fine! Just ignore her. She’ll calm down on her own in a bit. That’s how NPCs are.”

Tang Yu was skeptical. Just then, Professor Zhou suddenly stood up, pushed Tang Yu aside from in front of the little girl, and offered the child an oval, sugar-coated pill.

“Don’t be afraid. They won’t hurt you. Here’s a piece of candy,” Professor Zhou said with an amiable smile, her voice softening.

“What did you give her?” Xiao Li asked, craning her neck curiously.

“Vitamin D,” Professor Zhou replied.

“Did you trigger a quest? Are you giving it to her for points?” Xiao Li asked earnestly.

Professor Zhou paused for a moment, not answering Xiao Li’s question. She took out a bl00d collection needle and asked the child softly, “What’s your name?”

“Huang Qianqian.” The little girl took the candy, watching the others warily, but she obediently answered Professor Zhou’s question.

“Are you feeling unwell anywhere?” Professor Zhou asked as she freed a hand to pull the little girl’s arm and examine it. A moment later, she pulled the child out of the cabinet and squeezed her knee joints.

Huang Qianqian shook her head. She didn’t understand the question.

“I’m going to draw a vial of your bl00d. In exchange, I’ll give you a jar of these candies.”

Pulled from the cabinet, Huang Qianqian seemed to have lost her protective shell. She stood there helplessly, tightly clutching her doll. Her small frame looked malnourished, and her legs weren’t straight when she stood. Seeing that the people in the room truly meant her no harm, she hesitated for a moment before nodding.

While drawing bl00d, Professor Zhou instructed the little girl, “You can only eat one of the candies from the jar each day. You haven’t had enough sunlight, so your bones haven’t developed properly. This will help you supplement your Vitamin D, understand?”

Huang Qianqian nodded obediently, though it was unclear if she understood.

Tang Yu crossed her arms, watching the two with great interest. Professor Zhou would show such an amiable smile to players, but never with such a gentle tone. Tang Yu couldn’t tell if Professor Zhou was treating Huang Qianqian as a test subject or something else entirely.

“She’s certainly patient with NPCs,” Tang Yu remarked to Jin Ye.

“Yeah, and she even gave her medicine. I’ve rarely seen a player who pays this much attention to an NPC,” Jin Ye said, also a little surprised.

After finishing the bl00d draw, Professor Zhou placed the vial in her leather case and began to talk with Huang Qianqian.

From the little girl’s fragmented account, they learned that her family had originally lived here. After the virus outbreak, her father was infected and turned into a zombie, while her mother had managed to keep them both alive until now.

That explained why the room was so neat and clean.

A few days ago, her mother had gone out to find food and never returned.

Huang Qianqian’s mother had told her to hide in the cabinet when she was alone. She and her black cat had hidden in there for two days. Several groups of people had passed by outside, but since there were no supplies left to scavenge in the small shop, they hadn’t lingered.

The black cat had run off last night, and now she was all alone.

After a moment’s thought, Tang Yu rummaged through her backpack, pulled out a cold roasted sweet potato, and handed it to Huang Qianqian. They had roasted it in the village before setting out, as rations for the road.

Huang Qianqian was starving, but she still managed a soft “thank you.” Only after getting a nod of permission from Tang Yu did she take the sweet potato and wolf it down, devouring even the skin. She hadn’t eaten in two days.

The others gave Tang Yu a strange look. Jin Ye couldn’t help but remind her, “She’s an NPC, not the same as a real human.”

Tang Yu tilted her head, momentarily stunned. “But she’ll die if she doesn’t eat, right?”

“…That’s true.”

Just as the little girl swallowed her last bite of food, a crisp system notification chimed in Tang Yu’s mind. She let out a small sound of surprise and looked up to meet the others’ equally confused gazes.

Clearly, they had all triggered something.

Tang Yu opened her game panel and discovered a new quest.

“Huang Village Villager Favorability has reached 2, triggering the ‘Lifesaving Medicine’ quest. Current objective: Find the lifesaving medicine.”

It was another quest prompt with pitifully little information.

Tang Yu asked Jin Ye and Xiao Li about their quests in the group chat and was relieved to find that all three of them had received the same one.

But Professor Zhou stared at her panel for a long time. Logically, a single sentence could be read at a glance; there was no need to scrutinize it so carefully.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Tang Yu had Xiao Li ask about it.

Professor Zhou didn’t hide anything, but her tone was filled with confusion as she explained, “My quest must be different from yours. I need to concoct a medicine, but the formula I was given is very strange. It includes several chemicals that are lethal at a dose of just five grams. Is this… really medicine?”

Xiao Li, however, focused on something else. “You got a formula prompt?”

“Yes. If you earn enough points, you can unlock different basic skills. It’s a kind of cheat, I suppose.”

Hearing this, Tang Yu glanced at her own points. After completing the Zombie King quest, she had accumulated 160 points. Adding the 20 points from establishing the camp, she now had 180, very close to the 200 needed to unlock the next basic skill.

A 200-point skill was unlikely to be anything advanced, but it was better than nothing.

Professor Zhou asked the others, “I plan to start searching for the ingredients in the formula tomorrow. I’ll have to look in either a hospital or a chemical plant. What are your plans?”

Tang Yu glanced at her quest again. It only said to find the lifesaving medicine, giving no hint as to where to look or what the medicine even was. Unlike Professor Zhou, they had no clear objective and could only investigate one step at a time.

Besides, Tang Yu hadn’t even decided if she wanted to do this quest. After all, the first thing on her mind was still how to scheme against Song Lengzhu.

Should they go with Professor Zhou? But that would mean they were just helping her complete her quest. They knew nothing about medicine and could only act as bodyguards, which would be incredibly boring.

Besides, judging by Professor Zhou’s speed when escaping, she didn’t seem to need their help anyway.

Tang Yu’s gaze shifted, focusing on the words at the beginning of the quest prompt.

The quest had unlocked when their villager favorability reached 2, likely because of the food Tang Yu gave the girl and the medicine from Professor Zhou. If they accumulated more favorability, could they get more information?

Tang Yu looked at Huang Qianqian. The girl was no longer afraid of her, and her eyes kept darting toward the door, a look of both anxiety and anticipation on her face.

“The kid is still waiting for her mom,” Tang Yu suggested. “Why don’t we help her look for her? We might trigger something.”

“Her mother has most likely turned into a zombie,” Jin Ye said. “A mother who could protect her daughter and keep her alive this long wouldn’t just leave her for two days and not come back, unless she was unable to. But it’s still a good idea to check.”

After a brief discussion, they decided to part ways the next day. Tang Yu’s group would take the little girl with them, since they needed her for identification.

Xiao Li learned from Huang Qianqian that her mother was slender with dark blue eyes. She usually wore her long hair tied back with a clip and had been wearing all black and carrying a shovel when she left.

As for any other distinguishing features, six-year-old Huang Qianqian couldn’t provide a clearer description.

With a child now in their group, Tang Yu gave the large bed to the girl and Professor Zhou, while she herself pulled two chairs with backrests together and made do for the night.

Before dawn, they were all awakened by something scratching at the door.

Tang Yu reached for her knife, but Huang Qianqian ran happily to the door. “It’s Xiao Hei!”

They cautiously opened the door and found that the black cat from last night had returned. It held an instant noodle packet in its mouth. Upon seeing Tang Yu and the other uninvited guests, it immediately moved to shield Huang Qianqian, flattening its ears and letting out a low growl.

Huang Qianqian crouched down and petted the little black cat, soothing it. Then she pulled the packet from its mouth. Inside were only a few broken crumbs of dry noodles, as if they were someone’s leftovers.

It was impossible to know how long the cat had run to find even this tiny bit of food, only to tirelessly bring it back.

The group was slightly moved. Cats rarely protect their owners, but this little black cat not only shielded its master but also knew to go out and find food for her. It seemed the mother and daughter had raised it well.

The soothed black cat relaxed its aggressive posture. It sniffed at the group and then rubbed its cheeks against their pant legs a few times.

Jin Ye smiled. “It’s marking us with its scent. It’ll be familiar with us now.”

Tang Yu squatted down and stroked the little black cat’s head. The fluffy sensation put her in a great mood, and she couldn’t resist giving it a few more pets.

The little black cat’s nose was damp. It nuzzled the back of Tang Yu’s hand before running over to the little girl’s feet.

“Let’s go. Since we’re all awake, we’ll head out now.” Tang Yu tucked the little black cat into her backpack, leaving its head poking out, and led the group out the door.

Xiao Li walked in the middle, holding the little girl’s hand. Cloaked by the darkness, the group slipped out of the small convenience store.