Bad news usually doesn’t come alone.
For instance, after the System couldn’t find the male lead, it quickly discovered that his disappearance had caused a new problem.
That was, the laboratory previously used to study the male lead hadn’t been destroyed.
In the original plot, after the apocalypse arrived, the loved one of one of the lab workers developed a fever. At that time, the male lead was still locked inside the lab, so this worker brought their loved one to the laboratory. The loved one was in the lab’s break area, where the staff had no protection, leading to the entire lab being wiped out and turned into zombies.
Now, with the male lead having escaped, that worker naturally wouldn’t bring their loved one over, so this laboratory was consequently preserved.
This change was very troublesome, as it would clearly become a new faction.
The System was also utterly exhausted mentally.
And at this moment, its contracted worker sent it another message.
The email title was: 【Regarding the Progress of “Supply Procurement” and Request for Assistance】
The System opened it.
Vast swathes of written report.
【Our department officially signed the “Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement” with villagers of Three Suns Village on April 8th. This agreement aims to establish a long-term, stable strategic cooperative relationship through resource exchange.】
【Core Content: Our side leads professional rescue operations, while the other party is responsible for providing sustainable water resources. This framework agreement achieves resource complementarity and represents a strong alliance between our department and the villagers of Three Suns Village. Our department has thereby overcome the dilemma of water scarcity, and the villagers of Three Suns Village have resolved their lack of automobiles.】
The System: “…” In simpler terms, someone gave her water, and now she has to provide them with a vehicle?
【The signing of this framework agreement signifies…】
More large blocks of text followed. The System recognized every character, but it was irritable now, its mind unable to calm down. It truly lacked the patience to read, and these words were hard to understand.
The System: “…” It often felt the other party was deliberately speaking this way just to torment it.
But thinking about it, this contract worker came from a workplace novel world. That was just how things were in workplace novel worlds.
It continued reading.
Soon, it saw content the other party had highlighted in bold and red. Right, this was also a benefit of someone from a workplace novel: she seemed to know it wouldn’t finish reading, so she highlighted a section in bold red for it.
【Request for Assistance: There are too many zombies. To successfully complete the agreement’s contents, please closely monitor my status. Should a critical situation arise, please provide timely aid.】
This section was easier to understand.
The male lead was gone, the plot was in chaos, and now this contract worker kept sending it reports for every little thing.
Even trading for a bucket of water required a report to it. Despair.
And it couldn’t not reply. If it didn’t reply now, ten reports would come.
It couldn’t refuse either, because refusal would be even more troublesome.
Previously, when she refused to join the organization, it had replied with a no.
Then, what followed, it experienced the onslaught of an overachiever cultivated in the workplace world.
From itself to the Novel Character Labor Center, every day, they received her persistent application reports and mental state reports.
Besides, the System felt there wasn’t a major problem. So it agreed.
Yun Qingyue received the message without surprise.
Her car traveled on the National Highway, with quite a few vehicles on both sides. Soon, they reached the edge of the city.
A group of people wearing green protective suits were clearing vehicles from the roadside. As Yun Qingyue passed by, her eyes thought they were mistaken.
No mistake. People in green protective suits were clearing the zombies from the cars on the roadside.
Only one thought filled her mind: Their protective suits must be incredibly high quality, seemingly able to withstand zombies directly.
The quality of those protective suits was truly excellent.
Yun Qingyue found it strange where this group had gotten such impressive protective suits. Before the apocalypse arrived, she had tested every protective suit on the market, and none met the data provided by the System.
After all, most protective suits on the market back then were designed to protect against poison gas and viruses, not against attacks.
But now wasn’t the time to wonder about this. She drove her car onto the bridge and re-entered the city.
Descending from the bridge, there were still some zombies along the roadside, but not many. The situation was much better than Yun Qingyue had originally imagined.
They drove along River Ring Road, with the large river on the left and Western-style houses on the right.
With a single glance, Yun Qingyue saw a large piece of white paper plastered on the third-floor window of a Western-style house on the right. It read:
“Mom turned into a zombie, in the living room. My little sister and I are in the bedroom, please save us”
The window next to it also had white paper stuck on it.
“Zombie at the door, haven’t drunk water in two days.”
And the window above that read: “Everyone downstairs are liars, only two sloppy men at home, don’t be fooled.”
There was also a large sheet: 【Liars, give me back my mineral water!】
Yun Qingyue: “…” The apocalypse had only been a few days, and it was already this dramatic?
Yun Qingyue’s car moved forward. Soon, she entered Orange Street.
As soon as she entered, she heard something playing on both sides of the road.
Yun Qingyue listened carefully.
“The apocalypse has arrived. The old order has crumbled, a new civilization is being built. If you have awakened an esper power, please join our Esper Association…”
Yun Qingyue listened intently. An Esper Association was recruiting members.
It figured. This novel was called “Apocalyptic Overlord,” so naturally, many people in this world would want to be that overlord. Recruiting espers everywhere now was normal.
Yun Qingyue even suspected that for such a large-scale recruitment drive to start so soon after the apocalypse, the force behind it might be the male lead.
But this matter had nothing to do with her. Her mission today was still to help the elderly woman find her family.
The elderly woman’s son’s breakfast shop was on Orange Street. They drove less than five kilometers before arriving.
Opposite was the Sixth Elementary School. Two or three zombies wandered at the school gate, and the school itself was empty.
Overall, the city’s situation was much better than she had imagined. She had imagined the city would already be mountains of corpses and seas of zombies.
Opposite the school was a snack supermarket. Its massive glass windows were shattered, and the snacks inside had been looted. Only some empty plastic bags fluttered about.
The elderly woman’s son’s breakfast shop was right next to the snack supermarket. Its glass door was also broken, and the tables and chairs inside had been pushed out.
Yun Qingyue drove the car straight to the breakfast shop’s entrance, directly crushing the two zombies at the door.
The elderly woman got out of the car and went inside to check the situation.
Yun Qingyue also got out of the car. She raised her head and looked at the upper floors of the shop building.
Below were shops, and above were residential areas.
“Is anyone home upstairs? Is anyone there?”
The two people who had been in the car were now out. Probably emitting a very delicious scent, zombies from the other side began to gather towards them.
Yun Qingyue pulled the elderly woman back, only to see her, with red-rimmed eyes, dragging a sack of flour out from some corner of the shop.
Yun Qingyue didn’t have time to ask where she had dragged it out from, especially since the shop had already been looted once.
She quickly helped the person drag the sack of flour back to the car, then bundled the elderly woman back inside.
Immediately after, she got back in herself. The zombies lunged but hit empty air.
But at that moment, someone upstairs responded.
Sure enough, there were still people alive up there.
“Are you people from the Esper Association?” It was a man’s voice.
“No.” Yun Qingyue shouted back, “We’re looking for the family who runs the Eat-Your-Fill Breakfast Shop. Do you know what happened to them?”
The voice quickly replied, “I can tell you, but you need to trade.”
“What do you want?”
“Do you have any water? Preferably some food too.”
The elderly woman immediately agreed, “I have some here. Give it to them.”
Yun Qingyue said, “Wait a moment, let me deal with the zombies.”
Several zombies were still slapping at the car windows. They couldn’t make the trade like this.
Yun Qingyue floored the accelerator. The car surged forward, then swiftly turned around, directly sending these zombies flying.
Once Yun Qingyue was sure the zombies couldn’t get up for a while, she got out and said to the person above, “How do I get the stuff to you?”
Just as she finished speaking, she saw a basket tied to a rope being lowered from above.
Yun Qingyue put two bottles of water and a small packet of peanuts inside. These peanuts were what her colleague buddy had shelled yesterday. She had fried them last night, thinking they could eat them during outdoor missions.
They came in handy now.
Once the items went up, the other party did indeed speak.
“Their family had bad luck. The first day, the boss developed a fever and fell unconscious. The second day, he turned into a zombie. The boss’s wife and their daughter were also bitten. They disappeared afterward.”
Yun Qingyue recalled the bloodstains in the shop, knowing the other party’s words were most likely true. She sighed.
By then, the sky was darkening. Yun Qingyue looked at the elderly woman beside her.
————————————
The sun set over the mountains. Yun Qingyue still hadn’t returned.
She had left at 11 a.m., and now it was 6 p.m. She still wasn’t back.
The two kids had charged everything in the car that could be charged. They sat on the roof of the RV, watching helplessly as the sun went down.
Yun Qingyue still hadn’t returned.
The little sister suddenly whispered, “Mom and Dad also went out and then never came back.”
Her older brother had already been thinking about this. Now that his sister voiced it, he almost couldn’t hold back his tears.
For the two children, after losing their parents, the first person they encountered was Yun Qingyue.
Yun Qingyue and Brother No. 59. Their feelings for Yun Qingyue were deeper.
It was Yun Qingyue who had picked them up from the roadside and given them food.
Brother No. 59 had always been distant, neither close nor far, barely saying a few words.
Now that it was dark and Yun Qingyue still hadn’t returned, the two children retracted the solar panels and stared at the entrance of the gravel yard, looking like they were holding back tears.
Experiment Subject No. 59 found the atmosphere inside the car somewhat unbearable. He went out for a walk.
The wind outside was very cold. He didn’t know why he recalled the previous two nights, when he slept on one side, while in the RV, the other person wrote away with a scratching sound. At those times, the room was very quiet, faint light drifting through the small RV. He didn’t want to kill this person, and this person felt neither fear nor hatred towards him.
Those two nights, he fell asleep to the sound of that steady heartbeat.
In the end, he still came back and sat with the two kids, his eyes looking ahead.
The two kids beside him had already begun to cheer each other up.
“Sister Yun will definitely come back.”
“Right, Sister Yun drives really well, she’ll definitely come back.”
No. 59 didn’t say a word, just listening quietly.