People always forgot what they had just gone through after receiving their rewards.
The group returned with full harvests. The water on the road was deeper than in the morning, and many zombies were swept away by the undercurrents. The Wuling mini-boat drifted along the city routes.
Aside from Mu Shan, the others still needed the Old Driver to help deliver goods, so there was no extra small talk. They unloaded the luggage and parted ways.
“Sister, hope we can meet again—!!”
After getting out of the car, she heard Zhang Haiyang waving from the car window. Li Mei and Feng Wei behind him both turned their heads to look at her.
Mu Shan waved back, shouldered her bag, and propped herself on the golf club to wade forward through the water.
She knew that after leaving this instance, the chances of seeing these people again were minuscule.
They were on a tree diagram, driven by the system, walking into fork after fork.
It was not a far distance, but she waded for about half an hour.
The park was already an ocean, with plenty of garbage floating on the surface. That small stream piled with zombie corpses had burst its banks.
The hillside where the safe house was located only had a sharp tip protruding. Mu Shan knew those flood-control sandbags were no longer of much use.
She entered the sunroom, took off her soggy rain boots and threw them on the ground, then went barefoot into the basement.
She took off her outer clothes and pants to wait for washing, placed her backpack on the table, rolled up her sleeves, and meticulously washed her face, neck, hands, and arms, making sure not a speck of blood or dirt remained. Only then did she slump in the chair to rest.
There was an open space in the center of the safe house, now piled full of the spoils she had scavenged this trip.
Mu Shan sorted the frozen meat into categories and packed them into plastic bags, stuffing them into the freezer compartment of the fridge. To prevent mix-ups, she tore off a few pieces of paper and wrote labels like “chicken legs, yellow croaker, chicken wings, hairtail.”
There was still a pack of ribs that wouldn’t fit, so she temporarily put it in the fridge compartment, planning to eat it over the next few days.
She put the medicines into the emergency medical kit. Masks, medical gloves, and disinfectant alcohol were all key supplies, sorted and stored neatly in the overhead cabinet.
Mu Shan tore off a piece of paper and stuck it on the cabinet door, clearly listing all the medicines she had on hand and how many boxes of each.
Fortunately, she had swept up the storage boxes during her scavenging too—the others didn’t want them—and Mu Shan used these boxes to organize the supplies neatly.
She opened a carton of milk, cut open a bag, and poured it into a small pot. She sniffed it; no sour smell, so it should be drinkable.
The boiling milk bubbled up. After cooling a bit, a layer of milk skin formed on the surface.
Mu Shan added a little white sugar to the hot milk, took a sip, and felt a warm comfort, sighing in relief.
She opened the four mystery box gift packs placed on the desk.
The prop mystery box yielded a yellow banana peel with black spots, looking just like one someone had eaten and discarded. Mu Shan distastefully pinched it up with two fingers; the sticky feel was just like a fresh banana peel.
【Banana Peel (Auxiliary Type)
Quality: Excellent
Description: Has a chance to cause slipping effect upon use
Usage: Throw on a necessary path
Note: “Someone always fails to see the banana peel underfoot.”】
It was actually a fairly useful item, but still only good against single opponents; she’d be helpless against groups.
There was also an ugly metal badge in the box, crudely made, red with green coloring, engraved with “Luck +1”.
【Good Luck Favor Me (Auxiliary Type)
Quality: Common
Usage: Pin on clothes
Description: Gives your unlucky life a tiny bit of solace; effect random
Note: “Some people still can’t win 5 million even with luck +1.”】
Mu Shan: ……
She grumbled as she pinned the ugly badge to her clothes, planning never to take it off, even for sleep.
There were three white gift boxes left, stacked together. Mu Shan wasn’t in a hurry; she finished her milk and opened them one by one in order.
【Safe House Gift Pack:
Choose one of the following three upgrades
1. Basement safe house expansion (+1m)
2. Add ground-level defensive structures (basic type)
3. Sunroom absolute waterproofing project】
The system never fought unprepared battles. Mu Shan actually really wanted the defensive structures, but in just this one morning, the water level had nearly submerged the small hillside. It was only a matter of time before it reached the sunroom.
And today was only day 9 of the main quest survival, not even halfway. Given the rain and flooding, by day 20 when the instance ended, who knew how deep the water in C City would be.
Mu Shan chose the sunroom absolute waterproofing project, while thinking self-deprecatingly: It couldn’t possibly flood 10 meters deep in the city, right? Haha…
【Player obtained: Sunroom absolute waterproofing project】
【Construction period: 10 minutes. Sunroom inaccessible during this time.
Countdown: 9:59】
A rumbling noise came from overhead, like someone endlessly hammering the walls with “clang clang clang”. Mu Shan pretended not to hear it. She sat on the bed, legs crossed, and opened the third box.
【Food Gift Pack:
Extra reward for 100% task completion
For three consecutive days, player receives one gourmet meal service per day
Today’s meal: Angus beef burger + side + cola combo】
The indoor light dimmed for a second, then brightened again.
A plastic tray appeared out of thin air on the small table in front of Mu Shan, identical to the one she had bought at the restaurant before: a medium cola with water droplets condensing on the cup.
The white paper box held a massive beef burger packed with ingredients. The side combo was fries and chicken nuggets, with two snow-white napkin sheets underneath. The napkins had a subtle “System produced, guaranteed premium” watermark pattern.
Mu Shan grabbed the burger and took a huge hot bite, savoring the complex explosion of pickle, beef patty, and cheese in her mouth, her taste buds cheering.
Refreshing!
After devouring such a huge burger and sides, plus the earlier milk, she felt she wouldn’t need dinner that night.
Mu Shan slurped her cola and casually opened the last box.
【Self-Service Q&A Opportunity:
Extra reward for 100% task completion
Player may ask the system one question
System will answer if permissions allow】
Mu Shan’s movements paused. She set down the cola cup.
There were too many questions she wanted to ask: How could she leave the instance? What controlled human life and death? Where did the Main God System come from…
For a moment, she really had the impulse to ask, just ask!
But soon, Mu Shan regained her reason.
Even the Type II Gas from the research institute was restricted as 【Quest item, cannot use】. The system was so stingy; if she asked a question beyond permissions, she’d just waste the opportunity for nothing.
The only consolation was that the self-service Q&A was an extra reward for 100% task completion, meaning she might get another chance in the future. Optimistically, other players might have already gotten the answers she wanted.
Mu Shan took a deep breath and said, “I want to know if Mu Rong, Jia Qiufang, and He Yuncong are still alive in the instance?”
The people she mentioned were her parents, and her childhood sweetheart who grew up with her.
Three virtual dots always hovered before her eyes. After she finished speaking, the three dots rippled like a phone’s voice input.
Then she heard the system’s voice for the first time.
It was an emotionless electronic synthesized male voice: “Answering Player 537099: Among these three, one remains alive in the instance. The other two are dead.”
Mu Shan clearly felt her heart skip a beat. For an instant, she seemed to lose her ability to breathe, but she quickly reacted.
“Who’s alive?! Where is he?!”
“This self-service Q&A opportunity has been used.”
The three hovering dots slowly vanished. The safe house held only Mu Shan’s rapid breathing.
She punched the bed with a thud. Her knuckles turned white from clenching, tears falling from her wide eyes, splashing onto the bed sheets and staining them gray in small patches.
Although she had mentally prepared herself, hearing the outcome from the system’s mouth made her heart ache as if it had been chopped to pieces.
Had her mom and dad died in such a terrifying instance? What had they gone through? What monsters had they encountered… Had they suffered?
Mu Shan didn’t dare think about it. She buried her head in the quilt, not letting the system see her crying face.
Ten minutes later, the sunroom renovation finished, and the “clang clang clang” noise stopped. Only then did she crawl out from under the quilt.
She sniffed, got up, and washed her face with cold water. Rubbing her swollen red eyes, she threw the eaten burger wrappers and empty cup into the trash.
Calming down to think, the system’s answer was actually easy to guess.
Among the three, He Yuncong was from the first batch of disappeared humans. Governments worldwide had investigated; almost all were elites and outstanding figures from various fields.
He Yuncong was a year older than her. The year he vanished, he was studying abroad on some research project. Mu Shan had known this neighbor brother since third grade. His parents had passed early; only his grandparents were elsewhere.
He Yuncong had always been gentle and attentive, the perfect “other people’s child”, excelling not just in academics but with exceptional athletic talent too.
After the first batch including him vanished, it caused massive social panic. But a month later, another batch disappeared.
No one could stop the process until half a year later, when her parents were selected by the system too.
Mu Shan figured that, despite the half-year gap, whether by age or physical strength, He Yuncong’s survival odds were higher than her parents’.
She couldn’t sit still. She opened the system interface and started scrolling randomly. The known friend interface required face-to-face to add friends for contacting other players. The system didn’t support online search.
Mu Shan checked the mall too; there were contact-type items, but all had restrictions. The only unrestricted messenger item 【Heaven’s Messenger】 required the player to have light-element bloodline.
Mu Shan felt defeated.
After a while, a familiar prompt popped up before her eyes.
【Detected player has contact needs. Attempt transaction with Main God System?
Transaction principle: One-for-one equal exchange】
Mu Shan was stunned, then sneered coldly.
“How to trade?”
【Obtain location info or personal info on specified target
Trade items: Anything owned by the player】
【Cannon Fodder Player 537099
Exchangeable items: Sanity (100k gold), Courage (100k gold), Perseverance (80k gold), Lifespan (150k gold), Love (500k gold)】
The same spiel as before, not even bothering to raise prices.
Mu Shan stood with a cold face, opened the basement iron door, and walked out: “Thanks, no need.”
She had to survive—not just survive, but find him, and live on long-term.
The sunroom had been upgraded with full waterproofing, but visually, there wasn’t much change. At most, the door and window seams were tighter, which felt like a big psychological letdown.
But Mu Shan looked at the slowly rising floodwaters outside and knew she had definitely chosen right.
She rested in the safe house for the afternoon. Around three o’clock, feeling her strength recovered, she eagerly opened the sunroom door to check the water level.
But the situation was not optimistic. The park water surface was almost level with indoors; flowing water was already surging over the threshold with the waves.
Mu Shan moved some sandbags to block the main door. Gazing at the ocean outside, she knew she could no longer go out.
Fortunately, the food reserves in the safe house were ample enough to last until the next instance.
Since she couldn’t go out, she picked up the hoe leaning against the wall and started tilling the sunroom soil. The orange tree the agronomist sold her was thriving, its green branches spreading out, the fruits hanging and turning more golden by the day. Mu Shan checked it daily for bugs.
After weeding and airing it out, she inspected the seals on all three doors and returned to the basement.
Because she had eaten so much at lunch, Mu Shan skipped dinner. She lay on the bed looking at the pitch-black room, carefully listening to the howling wind above and the water battering the sunroom walls.
It felt absurdly like she was about to be swept away by the flood.
(Main Quest Day 9)