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A zombie outbreak. Communications and traffic being shut down at the same time. Those were definite signs of a bigger conspiracy at work.

Because of the abruptness of this disaster, the majority of the hover cars stopped functioning by the side of the streets, and were filled by zombies. Naturally, I had no love for riding next to a zombie…

“We will ride a hover car in.” Bitong reiterated, then proceeded to explain her plan. “Those hover cars have stopped working because the traffic system of this city has collapsed. The person responsible for the virus is most likely responsible for this as well. What motives they have for causing such a disaster are unknown… but I do know that I can get those cars moving again!”

Voice dripping with sincerity, Lixiang asked, “Oh? How dost thou intend to restore these cars?”

Bitong gave Lixiang a strange look, probably trying to figure out if she was actually asking or just messing with her.

“The reason why these cars have all stopped moving is because their systems are all linked to the traffic bureau, which has collapsed. The hover cars rely on the Transport Bureau like how our game accounts rely on Game City servers to function.” Having stated all that in one breath, she paused for a second, then upon seeing that we were confused, tried to simplify it for us. “Simply put, we are hacking the cars by removing them from their servers onto a private server.”

Huh…

“And thou hast such a server?”

Bitong raised her left hand, revealing her electronic implant, decorated as a pink rose, for us to see. “We will use this.”

“But even if you can open the car doors, won’t the driving systems still be offline, since the Transport Bureau handles the auto-driving function as well.” I did not know much about cars, but I knew that much at least.

“Don’t worry.” Bitong looked me confidently in the eyes. “Your big sis over here will drive!”

The plan was basically set in stone at this point, at least till Jiaojiao suddenly interrupted us with her objection. A very reasonable objection too, I might add.

“But Jiaojiao does not want to sit in a car where a zombie once sat…”

Hmm… Honestly, I don’t want to touch something a corpse touches. I mean, who even wants to use something a dead person used before? Not like they are antiques…

“It’s fine. We will just search around the vicinity for an empty car.” Bitong tilted her chin. “Over there. That’s a car park, there should be some empty cars there.”

Quiet as a mouse, we proceeded onwards, doing our best to avoid any actions that could potentially attract any zombies.

The car park wasn’t too far from us, so we made it there without incident. However, the area was like a giant car accident. In all likelihood, when their systems went offline, there wasn’t much room for the cars to maneuver before slamming into another.

However, thanks to the sturdy make of most hover cars, even a severe crash would only cause a dent on the car chassis. Normally, the passengers would be safe. In fact, we could see a number of zombies clawing away at their windows, leaving behind an awful streak of claw marks.

Underneath some of these cars were severed limbs along with multiple incomplete zombies crawling on the floor with whatever limbs they had left. For the most part however, the zombies in the car park were still whole and complete.

Sensing the presence of live prey, the zombies immediately jerked around to face us, limbed or not!

“Flame Arrow!”
“Flame Arrow!”
“Flame Arrow!”

The girls took the initiative by blowing up three unfortunate zombie heads. Then without waiting for these zombies to collapse to the floor, I charged into the zombie horde, Icy Inferno tight in hand.

Like a grim reaper, Icy Inferno swiftly brought final death to a zombie. With my other hand, I erected a Fire Wall to block off the seven or so zombies charging at us.

Thanks to my previous two attempts at casting, I now knew to use only half of my SP, leaving me able to fight.

The zombies on the left charged fearlessly into the wall of flames, their bodies bursting into flames right away, then turning to ash an instant later, all as I had expected…

Mhm. That was good front-lining right there.

Sharp as the reaper’s scythe, every swing of Icy Inferno felled a zombie. Adding on the girls peppering the area with Flame Arrows, we easily wiped out thirty zombies in a minute.

And this was a head-on battle. No tricks this time!

“Jiaojiao’s the best!” Out of danger, the little girl did a celebratory leap before exclaiming, “Just like a VR game. How fun!”

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but wonder to myself, so who was it that was shivering in fright just now? Certainly not the person jumping, right? And game… who would ever want to play a horror game like this?

“Enough horsing around, let’s go find that car.” I gently flicked her on her forehead, then went off in search of an empty car, completely ignoring the pout she gave me.

The car park ended up producing several empty cars, as we had hoped. Whether or not these cars still had owners was unknown… but the probability wasn’t high.

“There’s one.” Bitong stated before applying her AI assistant to the lock. “This should only take a couple of minutes. Everyone, get ready.”

“Got it, sis. No matter how many zombies show their ugly heads, we will guard your back while you’re working, so don’t worry.”

The girls and I took up positions around Bitong. Even though I sounded supremely confident just now, I would much rather no zombie find us.

To be honest, there were car parks nearer to Game City, like the underground ones, but those tended to be more packed. The chances of a giant car pile up were even higher there. That was why we chose this open-air makeshift car park.

Finding an empty car here was a gamble, but it thankfully paid off.

“Done.”

Two minutes later, Bitong popped open the car door with a smug smile on her face, then hopped into the car.

“Wooo! We have a car now!” Jiaojiao dove in next, and waved at me to sit beside her. “Hurry up, big brother, Jiaojiao wants a hug from big brother!”

“Ke, over here!” Bitong immediately snapped back, then glared at Jiaojiao while holding onto the steering wheel. Finally, she turned around and smiled. “Ke, come to your big sis.”

“Sister Bitong is being mean!” Jiaojiao pouted while making a face at Bitong. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to change her mind any time soon.

Lixiang had boarded the car at this point. She glanced behind us then said, “Your Highness, more zombies are coming.”

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