Leave a comment

Don’t worry, my driving skills are top of the class!

-Duanmu Bitong

“But this one isn’t delusional… this one really did awaken memories of her past life…”

Sometimes, the creature known as a middle schooler could only be described as inscrutable. To be able to lie to oneself so convincingly… was really a talent in itself.

“Just like a VR game then…” Not even bothering to pay attention to Lixiang’s delusions anymore, Bitong continued focusing on the arrow-shaped flame floating on her palms. “But I guess that’s not true either, since this is all happening in real life.”

I wasn’t entirely sure why she said that, but judging by her maintaining a floating arrow of flame on her palms, she seemed to have just discovered something about her powers.

Regardless… “We should leave soon.”

Even though the girls were all registered with the system now, before accumulating a vast amount of points, they were still relatively vulnerable. I did not want to see them hurt in any way, so procuring some entertainment exosuits was still our first order of business.

“Mhm.”

“Kay.”

“This one will always be at Your Highness’s side, ready to serve and protect.”

The heat from the flame spell had already dissipated significantly. At the very least, walking was possible as long as one did not linger too long at a single spot.

I swiftly led the girls out of the shelter, following the guidance of our electronic map towards Joyworks Game City.

The roads were littered with zombies, as one would expect, but they were scattered about. Adding on the fact that the girls just learnt some spells, our trip was a smooth one. Furthermore, we already had experience working together in VR games, so unless we were completely surrounded, these zombies did not stand a chance.

Their newly learnt spell, Flame Arrow, was a powerful fire attack that had a 100% accuracy rate on whatever targets they locked on. As a spell, it could be fired off instantly, required little energy, and was quite destructive for its level. Its only weakness was that there wasn’t much room for scaling -suitable for weaklings, but a lot less effective against zombie equivalents of BOSS monsters.

As a side note, we did not encounter many survivors en route to Joyworks Game City. We did not even encounter any policeman or soldier. Yet this sense of abject desolation did not end there. Because of the in-built system within each hover car, every hover car we encountered ceased to function completely. The collapse of the city’s traffic system meant that every car was in effective lockdown. Some were parked along the sides of the road, with a zombie locked inside and banging away at the windows. Others had smashed into a nearby lamp or object.

Because car doors required an electronic implant to open, and these zombies did not possess the intelligence required to operate their own electronic implants, these locked-up zombies were basically harmless.

We first hid in the vicinity of Joywork Game City’s entrance, observing the thoroughfare from a safe distance away. Honestly, there wasn’t much to see. Just a bunch of zombies blocking the entrance… a definite obstacle to entry… but also a massive hassle to clear. Mostly because there was a risk of attracting more zombies.

The fact that we hadn’t encountered any survivors yet was probably due to them congregating in shelters or buildings. By my estimates, that shelter we fled from had at least three to four thousand people. Judging by how much of a mess that was, there shouldn’t be many who got out of that gauntlet. Perhaps a few hundred lucky ones.

Those were the stakes we were working with now. A low survival rate with no restart button here to save us from death. One false move was all it took and game over.

“Look at all the monsters…” Jiaojiao gasped as she snuck a peak from behind me.

“Game City has always been a popular spot to congregate. I’m sure the virus struck when the crowds were high as well… But for it to be this bad…”

“They are numerous. But if we gather them up, and His Highness throws out his wall of flames…” Lixiang was completely vested in the whole magical world set up at this point. Magical girl was basically her identity at this point. Primal Angel of the Apocalypse was probably her ethnicity…

As a bonus, she seemed to object a lot less to Bitong now.

“That could work, but how do we attract their attention to one spot?” I gazed at the mass of zombies before us. There was a good hundred meters of empty space between us. Taking into account what would be required to enact Lixiang’s plan, I soon discovered that the plan wasn’t going to work at all.

The zombies moved too slowly, and the area was too spacious to erect a flame wall that could catch them in their mindless meandering.

It was at that point that Jiaojiao made her opinion heard as well. Fists tightened, she said, “Jiaojiao thinks we can just charge right in, then make a beeline for the room where the exosuits are stored.”

“That’s just too haphazard…” I was left a little speechless by the sheer absurdity of her brute force approach. Yes. We might have had the power to break through that blockade, but there was no telling what kind of dangers awaited us inside. If we were to rush through and then find ourselves facing another horde, we would be completely surrounded at that point.

And it would be of our own doing!

“Her plan is a little rough, but there’s some wisdom to it.” Surprisingly, Bitong agreed with Jiaojiao’s suggestion. “With some adjustments, of course.”

“Sis, what’s your plan?”

Everyone turned to look at Bitong in unison, eagerly anticipating her opinions.

She pointed at a nearby hover car, lips curled into a devious smile. “We can drive that hover car into the horde.”

“Huh?”

Drive it? Aren’t they all locked down now?

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE