Chapter 20.2: Wartime
They had bought so many things today, eaten so well, and felt so happy—how could they not celebrate by going to watch a movie?
When they arrived, they discovered that the cinema had even launched a VR screening hall.
The staff smiled and said:
“Of course, VR screenings give a much better experience—but they cost five times the price of a normal hall~”
Song Xi hesitated a little and looked at Wang Moning. “I want to watch it. Do you want to?”
“I want to too. Let’s go!”
Wang Moning was actually even more decisive.
Velvet Star’s technology wasn’t as advanced as Blue Sea’s, and she had never watched a VR movie before. It was expensive, but somehow, spending money together felt more reassuring than spending it alone.
The two quickly reached an agreement and happily went in to watch a VR movie. Even after leaving the cinema, they were still savoring the experience.
“It was amazing. VR really is different—it feels like you’re actually inside it.”
“Yeah, and the plot was great too. So satisfying. Let’s come again tomorrow—I saw in the ad that there’s a horror movie. Watching horror in VR must be even more intense!”
At the mention of horror movies, Wang Moning’s eyes lit up. She nodded eagerly:
“Yeah, yeah! Hehe, it’s a bit expensive, but we earned so many points before. We should enjoy ourselves when it’s time to… huh?! Why do we only have this little left in our points?!!”
Wang Moning looked at the remaining citizen points on her phone as if struck by a bolt from the blue.
Wait—no, that wasn’t right. She had… actually bought a lot of things.
She immediately pulled up her point transaction records, and sure enough, every expense was clearly listed and matched perfectly:
“Oh my god… I actually spent this many points?”
Song Xi leaned over to take a look at her points, then at her own. She didn’t seem too shaken.
After all, she was someone who had lost a 300-square-meter house along with Dark Star’s destruction and still managed to start from scratch again.
“It’s fine. Isn’t the whole point of earning points to spend them?” Song Xi patted her on the shoulder.
“I was already planning to ask you to go out with us for a big job. We’re in a wartime state now, so we can take loans to buy weapons. With our squad’s qualifications, we can borrow a lot of good stuff.”
Wang Moning realized—shamefully—that she was tempted.
But her remaining rationality tried to hold her back.
“Um… didn’t they say this city is full of zombies and it’s very dangerous?”
Song Xi laughed.
“Ningning, what do you see? Zombies?”
“Uh… if not zombies, then what?”
“Points!”
“All those zombies on the ground—what does that mean? It means the nuclear crystals in their heads are everywhere! It means we can just go out, kill a few, and come back with a huge amount of crystals that we can exchange for points!”
“Right now everyone’s going crazy over it. People are lining up to go outside the city to kill zombies for points—the quarantine facility is about to expand to fifty times its original size. Haven’t you noticed how few people there are on the streets today? They’ve all gone out to grab crystals!”
Wang Moning listened, stunned. It sounded absurd, but thinking about what people from Blue Sea were usually like, it also felt like something they would actually do.
Seeing Song Xi’s anxious expression—like she was ready to sprout wings and fly out immediately—Wang Moning felt a little moved.
Wang Moning knew that Song Xi had always loved fighting. Now that everyone else had gone out while she stayed in the city, watching zombies get taken down by others—how frustrated must she be feeling?
“Captain, did you stay behind just to persuade me?”
Because she knew Wang Moning might hesitate, so she deliberately used such an indirect way to help her recognize her true feelings?
Song Xi replied, “No. It’s because when the central intelligence announced it to the whole city, I was in the shower and didn’t see the message in time. By the time I tried to book an outbound slot, they were already full.”
She said this with deep regret.
“They said it’s to prevent total wipeout, so residents can only go out in batches. I was a bit late booking, so the earliest slot I could get is tomorrow.”
“……”
After joining Blue Sea, Wang Moning had heard that everything there used to require queueing.
She hadn’t expected that now, when eating, showering, and using the bathroom no longer required queues, even going out to kill zombies did.
Song Xi, after lamenting for a while, suddenly cheered up on her own.
“Hehe, but I’m not actually the worst off. I heard some people got scheduled three days later—that’s real bad luck.”
“Oh right, Ningning, are you going? If you’re not going, I’ll remove your name. Don’t worry, cancellations don’t cost anything.”
Wang Moning looked at Song Xi, who became bright and energized the moment she talked about fighting again tomorrow.
Something in her heart felt itchy, like it was being lightly scratched over and over.
She thought of those days of adventure—of climbing across to another building using only a rope; of her first zombie kill, when she was inexperienced and almost got blood in her eyes before a teammate reached out and covered them, only lowering their hand and smiling at her after it was over.
And of the moment she finally learned how to angle herself to avoid blood splatter, when her teammates, sitting around a fire while cooking, all applauded her and praised her for being impressive.
The zombie they used for practice had been specially captured by the captain. To teach her how to properly protect herself, they had gone to great lengths to “lure” a zombie onto the rooftop.
Later on, she was able to join combat as well. Although she still couldn’t compare to her teammates, at least she was no longer a burden.
From then on, Wang Moning wasn’t as afraid anymore, because she knew she had the ability to protect herself.
Looking back now, she realized that in a very short time, she had gained friendship, confidence, experience…
And points!!
“I’m going.”
Wang Moning took a deep breath.
“I’m part of the Exploration Squad too, of course I’m going with you.”
“Okay then~ let’s go take out a loan for weapons together.”
Song Xi accepted it very naturally.
People from Blue Sea had always been like this—they didn’t interfere much with others’ decisions. If Wang Moning went, she accepted it; if she didn’t, they would still remain friends.
As they passed through a city gate, Wang Moning was once again stunned by the long queues.
Behind it, the quarantine facilities were still being built at full speed. Construction workers were moving so fast their hands almost seemed to be sparking.
In the past, quarantine centers were single-story buildings. Now, with the surge in population, they had evolved into multi-story complexes.
One room per small compartment. As soon as one person finished quarantine, the next would move in—and even that wasn’t enough. They kept expanding.
Wang Moning stared blankly, a strong sense of urgency rising in her chest.
“Is the entire region here?”
With so many people, could they even compete?
Forget weapon loans—if they spent most of their points and then went out, would there even be any zombies left to kill?
“More than that.”
Song Xi looked at the queue with envy.
“It’s a rare chance to earn a huge amount of points. If there weren’t population limits, at least 200 million people would go out.”
“Sigh, I’m jealous. They’re the first batch—the closest zombies will probably be completely wiped out by them. They won’t leave us even a single one.”
Wang Moning was also starting to feel a bit jealous.
The nearby zombies that had already been cleared by the military—how easy would those be to deal with? Not only that, they might even be able to pick up some nuclear crystals the army had missed, plus scrap materials from the ruins.
Waaahhh, why hadn’t their squad been assigned to the first day?!
“It’s okay, Ningning.”
Song Xi encouraged her.
“As the saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way. If we want to, we can definitely lure zombies over.”
“Mm! We can do it!”
Wang Moning felt inspired.
Behind them, construction workers who were building at lightning speed said:
“Hey you two! Since you’re not going out today, why don’t you come help out with some part-time work? Work five hours and your weapon loan limit can increase by 200 points.”
Wang Moning and Song Xi: “!!”
“We’re coming right now!”
—
Gu Gaga Safe City.
Gu Gaga was frowning as he reviewed various documents.
The city had too many zombies, and the military had begun developing a sense of fear toward combat. He was planning to allocate more resources so the troops could be better supplied—and therefore more willing to fight.
“City Lord! City Lord, something’s wrong! It looks like Blue Sea Safe City has been invaded by zombies!!”
Blue Sea has been invaded?
Given what he knew about Blue Sea’s combat strength, Gu Gaga’s first reaction was: impossible.
That was Blue Sea. With how cautious their city lord was, even if their city was invaded, Blue Sea itself wouldn’t be.
He immediately stood up, walked out to the balcony, and took the binoculars from his guard.
One glance—and his heart skipped.
A massive wave of “zombies” was pouring out of Blue Sea Safe City, surging forward at high speed like wolves and tigers—
From afar, their momentum looked overwhelming, several levels stronger than ordinary zombies.
Could it be that the zombies had mutated? From the way they were rushing toward the ruins and tearing into other zombies, had they gained the ability to devour each other and grow stronger?
Gu Gaga frowned deeply, lost in thought—then suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why are zombies surging out of Blue Sea Safe City? Even if Blue Sea had been invaded, shouldn’t they be pouring in instead?
He was too curious to bear it. Gritting his teeth, Gu Gaga spent nuclear crystals in the system shop to buy a higher-magnification, clearer pair of binoculars.
This time, he could finally see what those running “zombies” were actually doing.
Gu Gaga looked through the new binoculars—and his eyes suddenly widened.
No. That wasn’t right!
Those weren’t zombies. They were humans?!
A vast, overwhelming mass of humans.
They were like rapidly spreading moss, their clothes flashing in different colors as they swarmed across the ruined zombie city, taking it over.
——Blue Sea Safe City——
Countless residents were breathing the air above the ruins. The air quality wasn’t great, but as they watched the staggering zombies approaching, they felt like they were smelling something far more attractive—
the scent of points.
No fear. No hesitation. No cowardice.
The residents of Blue Sea stared directly at the zombies’ heads, raising their weapons, their eyes filled with intense fighting spirit—and greed.
With Dark Star destroyed, the residents had been forced into cramped living spaces. Logically, they knew that simply surviving was enough.
But emotionally, the people of Blue Sea had been starving for release.
—Archers drew their bows.
—Axe-wielders charged forward.
—Gunners fired, one shot per target.
—Teams planning bigger operations worked together, casting massive nets to trap entire groups of zombies.
—And those relying purely on brute force swung baseball bats the moment they saw a head.
A head dodged—
“Hey! What kind of eyes do you have?! I’m a human!”
The baseball-bat wielder quickly apologized:
“Sorry, sorry! I’ll be more careful next time. I’ll give you this zombie as compensation.”
He dragged over a zombie. The nearly-hit resident chopped off its head in one clean strike, accepted the “gift,” and—having received compensation—calmed down a bit.
“Alright, we’ll be more careful next time.”
The two parted ways right there, because there simply wasn’t time for idle conversation.
There were only so many zombies—first come, first served. Everyone was racing against the clock.
——Above them, rifles protruded from pitch-black firing ports in the city walls, with soldiers stationed behind as support.
——Motorcycles, ridden with reckless skill, sped through the zombie horde, drawing them into scattered pursuit before picking them off one by one.
——Drone swarms flew across the battlefield, ready to provide covering fire at any moment while transmitting live footage back into the city.
The central AI then compiled the data, extracted key information, and provided residents with maps, routes, and risk warnings.
Gu Gaga’s attention was suddenly drawn to a motorcycle weaving through the zombie crowd.
“WOOHOO!!”
The rider, fully immersed in her own driving skills, sped through a dense group of zombies with a teammate behind her.
That teammate swung a blade, severing a zombie’s head, then tossed it to another motorcycle rider.
That rider caught it, pulled out a specialized tool, and smoothly extracted a nuclear crystal.
She then raised the crystal high and shouted something loudly.
Her hands were stained with blood, yet her face was full of smiles.
No—it didn’t stop there.
Gu Gaga swept his binoculars across the battlefield. Most of the Blue Sea residents were… smiling.
Transparent masks couldn’t hide those smiles; splattered with blood, the expressions looked even more striking—almost blinding.
They weren’t being driven out.
They had come here willingly to kill zombies.
The people of Blue Sea were not afraid.
—In fact, they seemed to be enjoying it.
Gu Gaga’s leaves trembled slightly above his head.
Too terrifying.
More terrifying than parasitic plants.
What kind of civilization was this?
Was this kind of civilization… even normal?
Gu Gaga silently lowered the binoculars.
For the first time in his long life, he began to question his existence as a tree.
He had originally planned to try picking up some easy “leaks” from the battlefield.
Now, however, he was starting to worry that he might be the “leak” someone else came to pick up.
“Attos.”
He issued an order to his guard.
“Allocate one thousand nuclear crystals. I’m moving.”
—
Cheng Qisheng was reviewing the exploration team’s “travel log.”
This was her daily leisure time.
Suddenly, a portion of her attention left behind in the safe city flickered. Qin Zhi was reporting an anomaly, so she immediately shifted her main focus back.
An anomaly? Let me take a look—
Cheng Qisheng checked it.
And discovered… it really was an anomaly.
Why was there an empty stretch of land here? Wasn’t this where her neighboring Gu Gaga Safe City had arrived before?
She zoomed in on the image, zoomed out, then zoomed in again.
Coordinates confirmed—no mistake.
Cheng Qisheng fell into deep thought.
So…
Where did my neighbor go?
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HAHAHA Gu Gaga be like: no thanks