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After all the work we did, we ended up unlocking enough exosuits for everyone, with three to spare. Yet that wasn’t the most shocking thing we learnt today; that dubious honor had to go to the fact that Bitong could somehow control those three extra exosuits remotely!

There were no pilots to be had in these pilots -completely unmanned – though there were some delays in response time, and precise movements were impossible.

Bitong, Lixiang, Jiaojiao and I were the vanguard of this contingent. The Lans were our rearguard, while the remaining survivors formed the center. Then, right at the helm of all of us, were the three unmanned exosuits, controlled by Bitong as they cleared the path ahead of zombies.

After killing a few zombies, Bitong suddenly said, “They count.”

It was a weird declaration that had no heads or tails, at least not to outsiders. To us, however, her meaning couldn’t be clearer. Even zombies killed through remote means such as Bitong’s counted as part of her kill count. In other words, as long as the finishing attack was in some way linked to us, the points would be credited to us. Still, I couldn’t be sure if this rule held up even at long distances.

Roughly two kilometers of travelling later, we came upon some survivors hiding out in a building. Rather, they waved and called out to us for help. With regards to them, my opinion was still the same as before: if we could save them, we would. Thanks to that, our numbers swelled by another ten.

This time, we had no spare exosuits to give them. Thus, they had to hide amongst the main contingent, flanked on all sides by those with exosuits.

According to the map, we’ve arrived at somewhere known as Northern Waters River. This river spanned 200 meters across, and stretched up to a massive 250 km, cutting across the entire southern section of Southern Plains. According to our planned route, we had to cross this river at the Northern Waters Bridge, in order to leave the southern district of the city.

Had this been normal times, this river would be filled with cruises, ferrying wide-eyed tourists across its scenic waters. Unfortunately, the river as it was now was more akin to the River Styx with its deathly silence. Using my detachable bits as an aerial drone, we counted at least a dozen cruises floating eerily on the river. In all likelihood, they were now inhabited solely by zombies…

Speaking of detachable bits, these could normally be used to fire lasers, but an entertainment exosuit’s laser wasn’t meant to do damage. Still, its camera functions came in handy.

While surveying the river, we discovered that the bridge was currently held by five police exosuits, backed up by two fully armed squads of policemen.

As a side note, when the Northern Waters Bridge was built centuries ago, it was a landmark of its time. Now, it stood tall and proud as a famous ancient wonder. Anyone who visited the city had to have visited the bridge at least once, else it would have been a wasted trip. This bridge was one of the symbols of this city.

“Should we go over and help? There’s quite a bit of farming to be had there!” Suggested an excited Jiaojiao. Ever since attaining this exosuit, she seemed to have forgotten how to even spell the word ‘fear’. She practically leapt for joy when her adorable eyes spotted the pack of roaming zombies.

With a police blockade ahead that was currently engaged in battle, she immediately made that suggestion, without any thought at all for safety. And… that was where she messed up.

In order to facilitate passing down commands, all of us were on a public channel of communications. In other words, what she said could be heard by others as well, and some things were best kept a secret.

“Farming? Do you think we’re playing a game here?!” Bitong immediately chided the girl. While I couldn’t see her face from here, I knew she was just trying to remind the girl to keep quiet.

“Okay…” Naturally, Jiaojiao understood that as well, but she still had to act out the part of a dejected child. “It’s just less scary if this was all a game, that’s all…”

Nice job!

“We have a situation!” Charged with handling the detachable bits, Lixiang suddenly interrupted the well-acted play. “They’ve spotted us.”

Spotted us? Oh… you mean one of the police exosuits have spotted us…

The exosuit in question turned around to face his companions, seemingly conversing with them before waving in our direction -was he telling us to come over? Perhaps he was trying to figure out who we were, or which organization we belonged to.

Barely a moment later, the police exosuit had locked onto our location, and after performing a few acrobatic leaps over the period structures between us, he landed in front of us.

The police in the suit was numbered 3739. He did not reveal his face, but based on his voice, he shouldn’t be too old.

“Greetings. I’m a member of the Southern Plains Police Department (SPPD), serial number 3739. May I ask if you’re planning to leave the city? And where did you get the exosuits you’re currently wearing?”

The policeman immediately opened in an interrogative tone. However, he was merely doing job, so I couldn’t blame him there. More importantly, we hadn’t done anything wrong, and had even saved a lot of people; there was nothing to hide on our part.

“We’re all survivors here, most of us just came out of Joyworks Game City. That’s where we procured these suits.” Bitong answered on her own initiative. She was the one more used to such encounters, so there was no need for me to intervene. “Officer, these are all entertainment exosuits. You may check them yourself -none of the weapons have been unlocked.”

Having said that, Bitong took out one of her swords to show the officer.

Honestly, 3739 probably could have seen for himself that these were all entertainment exosuits, but protocol had to be followed. As for why no one seemed to mention the anti-theft system… Well. He never asked. He probably thought it was pointless to ask as well. After all, our lives were in danger right now. What was he going to do? Arrest for us something minor like arming ourselves illegally? Given our numbers, that would be suicidal.

As expected, he skipped over the topic entirely. “I’m sure your journey here must have been hard as well. But the bridge is still being cleared, it’s not safe to go over at the moment.”

“We can help too!” Jiaojiao suddenly chimed in. “Our exosuits might not have any good weapons, but they can still smack some zombies around. And more people would make cleaning the area faster.”

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