Around three or four in the morning, in a half-dreaming, half-awake state, Mu Shan seemed to hear something calling.
“Ya ee~ Ya ee~” The sound was faint, yet right at hand.
Mu Shan jolted awake and sat up, grabbing the small knife by her pillow in one swift motion.
The safe house was pitch black. From the vague shadows, no new creatures had appeared. She cautiously turned on the overhead light. Once her eyes adjusted, Mu Shan quickly found the source of the noise.
“Ya ee~”
The melon seed she had planted in the flowerpot had grown into a lush, short-stemmed sunflower. It had the standard two leaves plus a flower disk, with tender yellow petals dotting the edge of the black disk.
…If not for the extra mouth on that flower disk, it would actually have been quite cute.
“Ya ee~” The sunflower let out a cartoonish little pet sound.
Mu Shan squatted down and watered it with a cup.
【Magical Sunflower (Auxiliary Type)
Quality: Excellent
Description: Provides random yields +1 +1 +1
Usage: Must be planted in soil, requires 2 hours of sunlight and ample water daily
Note: Kui Kui dreams of becoming a star】
Since it was still dark, Mu Shan noticed no yields. She placed the singing sunflower and the constantly swaying, dancing peashooter on the same stone step.
—A singing and dancing duo.
Though not an attack-type item, any harvest was good. Satisfied, Mu Shan climbed back into bed to catch some more sleep.
Amid the howling gale and pouring rain, she wrapped herself in the blanket, bundling up like a silkworm cocoon.
It was another rainy day with no sign of the sun; the sky hung dark as night.
The card album yielded three cards. The item cards were a bloodstained broken stick and a rusty knife—worthless. After materializing them, she tossed them in the corner.
[Environment Card: A Water-Logged Basement]
Mu Shan held the card. Given the system’s penchant for disgust, this was likely some eliminated player’s safe house.
After washing up, she took the mop and cleaned the entire safe house inside and out, even scrubbing the stone steps spotless. She wrung out the rag and wiped down the iron frame bed, the new storage cabinet, and everything else until gleaming.
She skipped breakfast, waiting until around ten to eat brunch, saving a meal that way.
Today’s system meal service provided shrimp and bacon tomato pasta, served with garlic roasted bread, mushroom bisque, and a small slice of Black Forest cake.
Mu Shan hadn’t had dessert in ages. The rich chocolate and cream brought a full dose of happiness.
Since she couldn’t go out anyway, she sat in the sunroom with her plate, listening to the pattering rain while eating bite by bite with a small fork.
The ceiling offered no view, only wind-blown trash and leaves landing on the glass roof, pelted by rain into spreading water stains.
She couldn’t open the door to check the flood level anymore; if the current forced it open, it might not close.
The sunroom entry door had a peephole. From inside, the water had already covered part of the door panel.
Her sunroom sat on a hillside. Conservatively, the lowest water level down the slope was at least 1.8 meters.
Mu Shan didn’t know how the other new players were faring. Barring those who’d bought waterproofing upgrades, most safe houses likely had leaks by now.
Some might even drown from floodwater pouring into basements.
She tilled the soil, watered the plants, cleaned, and inventoried supplies.
Bored that afternoon, Mu Shan lay in bed for a long time, letting her weary body from days past finally rest.
Disappointingly, with no sunlight from the rain, the sunflower wilted, its flower disk drooping like a hunched office worker.
Insufficient light meant no +1 yield effect either.
For dinner, she casually ate a scorched pancake to tide her over. Listening to the ever-heavier rain, occasionally hearing “thud thud” impacts on the glass roof, Mu Shan grew anxious, fearing it might shatter. She frequently checked in and out of the sunroom.
The rain peaked on the 11th day.
It was like the heavens dumping basins of water straight down; the glass roof saw nothing but sheets of rain, no sky in sight.
The main quest was now officially halfway done—a system reminder to all players, perhaps.
Fortunately, the safe house big gift package’s waterproofing upgrade held up perfectly; no leaks in the sunroom.
But the escape passage door seams began seeping. Mu Shan immediately bought a reinforced waterproof door for 50 gold and installed it on the inner side of the hidden door.
Having freed up two item card slots, her card album now had four empty slots total.
On the 11th day, the three cards were: [Character Card: Ordinary Zombie x2], [Item Card: A Bathtub].
Besides her [Player-Turned Zombie] character card, Mu Shan already had two ordinary zombies. She needed a way to use them up, or she’d draw no new cards for the next nine days.
The materialized bathtub was pink, the kind for kids’ baths. It could float, but with the wind and rain outside, using it as a boat seemed unrealistic.
On the 12th day, the two item card slots yielded junk weapons too. The system seemed to know she’d finished the side quest and stopped drawing high-value items.
But at noon came a surprise—the heavy rain stopped, and the sky cleared unusually.
Mu Shan rushed to bring out the sunflower for sun, then darted in and out hauling blankets, clothes, damp shoes, and socks to dry. If not for the sunroom’s limited space, she’d have emptied the whole wardrobe.
Humans really couldn’t go too long without sun.
After days of gloomy rain in the instance, Mu Shan felt soggy all over; her clothes could be wrung out, and her hair was nearly sprouting mushrooms.
But the rain stopping didn’t mean the water receded.
Peering through the sunroom peephole, she saw the surging water nearly level with it.
Mu Shan startled. It felt like the sunroom was a half-submerged bowl… The city’s flooding had reached terrifying levels.
Calm after a moment, as long as the sunroom didn’t leak, she was safe.
Mu Shan hauled a small table from the basement and placed it by the orange tree.
The final meal service finally gave Chinese food: a plate of braised pork with potatoes, a bowl of egg fried rice, and a small pot of pickled fresh soup.
Braised pork was also her mother’s specialty: glossy five-flower pork, fatty yet not greasy, jiggling on the chopsticks, with flavorful, sweet potatoes.
She pretended it was her mother’s cooking and ate it all with the rice, not leaving a single grain.
Through the sunroom’s glass roof, the sky was a clear blue wash, cloudless.
Birds occasionally skimmed overhead, vanishing quickly.
Mu Shan lazed in the sun for a bit, then thought of something.
She moved the small table to the corner and climbed onto it.
The sunroom was 2.5 meters high. No ladder, but she could manage.
She fetched a stool from the basement and stacked it on the table.
Mu Shan geared up with the rope, peashooter flowerpot, small knife, long pole, plastic bags. She wore a parka for warmth and donned the electric scooter helmet.
She flipped the switch first, waiting for the glass roof to unfold, then climbed up.
With her boosted strength and agility, Mu Shan’s athleticism far outstripped that frail college girl from before the instance.
Not only could she hack zombies barehanded; this wall-climbing feat, using hands and feet, she pulled off effortlessly.
Mu Shan sat in the sunroom roof’s triangular section, taking in the safe house surroundings.
The wind tousled her short hair, revealing the girl’s amber eyes.
Water stretched endlessly around, save for lampposts and trees poking above. The park resembled an ocean.
C City should rename itself—C City Inland Sea.
Mu Shan sat carefully on the load-bearing part of the glass roof, adjusted her position, then took out the 【Mysterious Fishing Rod】 to fish.
No bait needed for the hook; cast into water, reel every 10 minutes, and equipped with a swimming expert title.
Mu Shan held the rod one-handed, propping her chin with the other, idly gazing at the rippling surface.
Ten minutes later, she reeled in: a plastic bucket.
Checking it for leaks, Mu Shan tied it to the rope with satisfaction and lowered it bit by bit to the ground. Then cast again.
Fishing would be a time-waster normally, but in a flooded city now, it was perfect pastime.
Unknowingly, Mu Shan stayed up there nearly two hours. Besides junk household goods, she shot dead several water-tossed zombies.
Thanks to them, she found a way to handle ordinary character cards.
She materialized the cards; two ordinary zombies went “plop, plop” into the water, promptly headshot by the peashooter, netting her 2 gold coins.
This way, she could draw new character cards daily and offset the lack of outdoor gold farming.
As the sun dipped west, Mu Shan ended her half-day fishing and shakily climbed down the wall.
Rubbing her face, she found her cheeks numb from cold—tomorrow, she’d need a cotton jacket up top.
Good news: the magical sunflower had revived, calling “Ya ee~ Ya ee~” with golden specks scattered around its pot.
Mu Shan touched one; the specks dissolved into light, replaced by a system prompt.
【Gold Coins +1 +1 +1 +1 +1】
Five gold coins total—averaging one per hour from the magical sunflower.
Not much, but Mu Shan was content. Risk-free steady income, a pleasant surprise.
The flood besieged the safe house. Thereafter, though no more heavy rain fell, the water level rose bit by bit each day.
Mu Shan didn’t feel cooped up. She spent most days atop the sunroom fishing, scavenging trash, sniping zombies.
When too cold, she’d go inside for taichi.
On the 15th day, she even hooked a live grass carp—gray, at least three jin, thrashing lively.
Mu Shan brained it with a brick and cooked it right away. Guts for fertilizer, meat into a fresh pot of soup.
Constantly sniping moving targets sharpened her peashooter accuracy. Sometimes a zombie bobbed on the surface; Mu Shan could predict its path, one pea to the head.
By the 17th day, water lapped just thirty centimeters from the glass roof. Mu Shan constantly cleared drifting trash nearby, lest it surge into the sunroom.
Park trees were mostly submerged, many lampposts snapped. The water surface was wreckage-strewn; only distant gray high-rises hinted at the once-crowded city.
Mu Shan feared daily the flood would topple the sunroom, but the system wasn’t that cruel.
She survived stubbornly, day after day.
She even thought she could write a book like Life of Pi.
That afternoon, as Mu Shan fished a drifting suitcase with the long pole, a loud “buzz buzz” motor roared.
She whipped around to see a yacht speeding past from behind, figures faintly visible aboard.
Mu Shan tensed instantly, grabbing the peashooter and watching the yacht warily.
With the instance’s final days near, trapped players might starve, thirst, or drown. Her floodbound sunroom was like a lone islet, defenseless against invaders.
The yacht circled wide around her house—perhaps wary of her “gun”—before veering far off without approaching.
Mu Shan breathed a sigh of relief. When she lowered her head, she found her whole body exhausted, her palms red from pinching.
On the eighteenth day of the Main Quest, the flood completely submerged the Sunroom.
Mu Shan looked up at the vast expanse of water outside the glass ceiling. Quite a bit of garbage had stranded on the roof of her house. She felt like a sunken ship—perhaps even the Titanic.
Cut off from sunlight, the Magical Sunflower no longer produced gold coin bonuses.
But after so many days of accumulation, she had gathered a pile of broken bowls, basins, wooden sticks, and the like. In addition, by killing swimming zombies and using character cards, she had earned nearly thirty gold coins.
Under well-fed conditions, the Magical Sunflower produced twenty-four gold coins for her each day. Her account balance now stood at 1597 gold coins.
No matter what the next instance brought, she had the capital to protect herself.
On the nineteenth day, the Sunroom had fully transformed into an underwater passage in an aquarium. The garbage on the glass ceiling had been swept away by the undercurrents, leaving it spotless.
She could no longer guess the true water level depth in C City. Through the glass ceiling, she saw only schools of colorful fish drifting by; she could not see the surface at all.
Faint blue light filtered into the Sunroom, the water rippling gently.
That afternoon, as she weeded the field, she suddenly sensed a shadow overhead.
She looked up and saw a human.
Mu Shan startled and raised her hoe defensively. But she quickly realized it was the bloated face of a male corpse.
At first, she thought it was a zombie, but then she realized it was not—it was actually a player.
【Cannon Fodder Player 589613 (Deceased)
ID: Chen Hao
Profession: None】
The man appeared to be in his thirties; Mu Shan judged from his clothing.
She gazed calmly at this pitiful person stranded on her house’s roof.
Had he drowned, starved, or been killed? Mu Shan did not know.
She simply watched the man as his body slowly drifted away with the current.
Like a traveler passing by, offering a greeting.
On the twentieth day, the water level rose even deeper. The Sunroom was a deep blue haze where almost nothing was visible, as if the house had fallen into eternal night.
Mu Shan silently tended to the plants and fruit trees before returning to the Safe House.
In the absolute silence and darkness, she always lost herself in random thoughts. She thought about the system’s responses, other players’ remarks, He Yuncong’s situation…
According to a veteran player, after an instance task ended, players entered a place called the Blank Zone for a day of rest before the next instance.
The use of the word “rest” suggested the Blank Zone was not dangerous, and his expression had seemed relaxed.
Even with this guess, Mu Shan still packed some food, water, and medical supplies. She equipped all her gear as well.
What would the next instance be like? Would she survive? Who else would she encounter?
Viking Battle Axe in her left hand, Peashooter in her right, Mu Shan stayed in the Safe House. She stared coldly at the system prompt that popped up before her, silently regulating her breathing.
【Cannon Fodder Player 537099, you have completed the [Zombie Siege] Main Quest
Growth Rate: 60%
Rating: Good
Evaluation Evidence: Resource reserves, personal ability, Safe House upgrade
Rating Correction: Cannon Fodder Player — Ordinary Player】
【Rewards for this Main Quest:
Gold Coins +1000
Newbie Pass Extra Reward: Gold Coins +200
Safe House Gift Pack x1
Attribute Point Card x3
Water/Gas/Electricity Supplement Card x5
Gas Mask x1】
【This instance has ended. You will be teleported to Blank Zone – A3 Area for a temporary 1-day stay】
【Safe House teleporting. Please do not move】
As the system prompts vanished, the lights in the Safe House suddenly went out completely. The house began to shake, like an earthquake.
Mu Shan had to release her weapons and grip the iron frame bed with both hands to maintain balance.
“Clang!” The water cup on the table overturned and rolled across the floor with a gurgle.
In the darkness, unknown fear made her heart race and her pupils dilate. She opened her mouth to breathe rapidly, her ears straining for any sound from outside.
Vast floodwaters parted on both sides of the Sunroom, the deafening “crash” of water roaring in her ears. Something like garbage or a corpse slammed into her Sunroom, then quickly fell away.
Her little house shot up like a rocket, rapidly leaving the water surface.
Mu Shan gritted her teeth against the violent tremors of the ground, her hands clenched until they nearly gave out.
Hot liquid traced her eye corner and cheek. In the darkness, no one saw it.
When the city lights went out, the star-filled sky—long obscured by light pollution—emerged. With human noise gone and silence reigning, higher deities slowly descended amid the stars.
She did not know how much time passed before Mu Shan felt the ground “thud” to a stop, the shaking ceasing.
【You are now located in: Blank Zone – A3 Area】