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So aliens do look like us – two eyes and a nose.
—Mo Ke

“That was our bad, I apologise.” Another exosuit activated its visor, revealing a red, long-haired girl underneath, her age seemingly the same as the blue-haired youth, and just as good looking.

“Yeah… I knew zombies couldn’t open that door.” The third exosuit turned on her visor as well. The pilot was a young girl closer to our age, blue head of hair that was neat and short, and vaguely resembling that handsome youth.

“Live people! Finally more survivors!” Jiaojiao was beside herself with excitement as she yelled.

Ever since we left the shelter, we hadn’t encountered any other survivors. Honestly, with Southern Plains in the state it was in, nowhere was safe, and calling the situation complicated was an understatement.

However, the streets were undoubtedly the areas with the highest death rates. The virus outbreak happened in the day, a time when the streets would be the most packed. That was why most of the zombies were concentrated there.

Zombies had no intelligence to speak of, thus they wouldn’t normally enter buildings. As long as one was bold enough to clean the zombies already in the building, they would have a relatively safe hiding spot.

Assuming, of course, the people doing the cleaning hadn’t drunk the serum themselves.

I stealthily winked at Bitong, then asked, “Is there anyone else inside?”

Just based on their appearance, the three of them did not seem like bad people. Yet one could never be too careful – maintaining some distance would be the wiser choice.

“Just the three of us.” The blue-haired youth was the one to answer. “You guys have any idea what’s going on outside? Why did the world turn into a zombie survival game all of a sudden?”

“We aren’t too sure ourselves. By the way, have you guys drunk that Gene Enhancement Serum?”

Just as a precaution, I chose not to reveal that the serum was the cause of this outbreak. After all, if they knew that was the cause, their answers couldn’t be trusted.

“Gene Enhancement Serum?” The blue-haired youth paused for a second. “You mean that suspicious sounding serum that claims to be able to extend one’s life, and has been selling like hotcakes?”

“That’s right, the very same.” I looked him right in the eyes. “Have you guys drank it?”

“Nope.” He answered sincerely. “Our family is from Planet Bodono. We’ve long heard that Southern Plains of Planet Gaia is a tourist heaven, a place where you can really steep in the ancient history of the planet…”

The youth proceeded to explain his situation briefly before we exchanged names.

The youth’s name was Lan Zhi. The older, red-haired girl was his wife, Yang Fei. The other short-haired girl was their daughter, Lan Yue’er.

As the youth said, they were bonafide aliens on a holiday trip to Gaia, this city was their first stop. That’s when the outbreak happened and stranded them…

Thankfully, they did not believe in the advertising of the serum, thus they did not even buy it. If it wasn’t for that serendipitous stroke of mistrust, we would have three exosuit-clad zombies right now.

Naturally, I wouldn’t be so crass as to laugh at someone’s misfortunes… but for their first stop on this planet to be the epicenter of a virus outbreak… that was some next level misfortune right there!

I wonder though… How many of those damned serums were sold to the other planets as well? Bah. That can wait till after this whole situation blows over.

Now that we had basically confirmed that the Lan family was safe, our interactions were a lot less tense. The Lan family did not hinder us from entering the game room either. Once the girls were in as well, Lan Zhi closed the door and patched up the hole I cut.

It was then that I received a system message.

“Ding! Mission: Search for Weapons, complete. Please accept your rewards.”

The reward was a spell to create spheres of fire, Fireball. Upon accepting the reward, the knowledge started flooding into my head as before.

Every exosuit game room was equipped with ten exosuits in total. Jiaojiao in tow, Bitong started her work of adapting the exosuits. Lixiang, on the other hand, said that it would be unbecoming for me to be without an attendant in front of the aliens, so she stayed behind with me…

Huh…

Also, I know the Lans are from another planet, but aren’t they just immigrants from Gaia to begin with? How is that considered an alien?

Jibes aside, these aliens were worth having a serious talk with. They were all armed in exosuits, and based on our short exchange so far, I could tell that their judgement of the situation was adequate. They were potential allies in our quest for survival.

As we continued chatting, Lan Zhi went on with patching up the door, all the while in his exosuit. A natural reaction, seeing as our trust was only at the initial stages in a lawless zombie apocalypse. If he still had his wits about him, he wouldn’t disarm himself so quickly and gamble on a stranger’s kindness.

While we talked, his family would maintain a cautious distance from us. The fact that their weapons weren’t drawn was already a massive sign of trust.

“Oh right, so what are you guys doing here? Looking for someone?” Seeing Bitong work on the systems of an exosuit, Lan Zhi’s curiosity was naturally piqued. “Are you guys locals as well? Also, you mentioned the serum specifically just now. Is there some problem with it?”

“To be honest, we’re tourists as well. We were staying in a hot spring inn when the server jumped us…” I briefly recounted our experiences, finally ending as such, “We just escaped from one of the underground shelters. I have to say, your choice to hide here was a smart one. But it’s not a long term solution either. At the very least, a Game City would not have large stocks of food. And we still can’t be sure if the serum is the only source of the zombie virus…”

Now that I had confirmed that the serum was indeed the source of the virus, the Lans were astonished. Had the advertisement not been so ostentatious, they themselves might have bought it too. After all, in this day and age, products put on sale had to go through some level of checks…

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