Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Where Did This Group of People Come From? [1]

Outside the gas station, the rain fell in a continuous, endless curtain.

Qin Song went into the office to destroy last night’s surveillance footage.

Qin Xi waited outside.

She rummaged a smartphone out from the taxi driver’s pocket.

In truth, when the zombie virus first broke out, there had initially been a sliver of hope to bring it under control.

Although the authorities were overwhelmed and unable to manage themselves at first, they weren’t entirely lacking the capability to handle this crisis.

It was just that all efforts were completely upended by this week-long, relentless torrential downpour!

At its peak, the floodwaters from the heavy rain reached as high as four stories tall.

The authorities’ efforts to clear out these initial zombies were blocked by the floodwaters. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

And the floodwaters, in turn, gave the zombies time to evolve and expand their ranks!

Everything was unfolding exactly as it had in their past life.

However, having a second chance, Qin Xi still hoped that a few more people would manage to survive.

After all, humans are social creatures.

And she was human too; remaining within a collective gave a greater sense of security.

So, using the driver’s phone, she sent a text warning to both the central authorities and the local governments of several major cities, alerting them that the flooding would accelerate the transmission of the zombie virus.

After sending the text, she opened the currently most popular social media platform, intending to post a video as well.

To Qin Xi’s surprise, however, the very first video that popped up upon logging into social media made her sliding finger come to a halt. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

layout within the video footage was exceptionally familiar.

At a dense traffic intersection, a section of the road had been left wide open.

In the middle of the open space, a woman who appeared slight of frame—wearing windproof goggles and a face mask—walked toward the person in the center of the open ground holding a blade.

Without a shred of hesitation, she swung it right down onto that person’s skull!

This was unmistakably the footage of her killing that zombie last night.

The discussion in the comment section had already become deeply polarized:

“Holy crap! Isn’t this straight-up murder in broad daylight?! Am I losing my mind or has the world gone crazy?!”

“Things have turned out like this already, so what are the authorities doing? Is anyone even managing this?!” Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

“To the person above, that thing was already a zombie—how does that count as murder? If she didn’t kill it, was she supposed to let it go bite more people?!”

“You say it’s a zombie so it’s a zombie? Has science proven that? How do you know it couldn’t be cured? Since when does killing someone make you right?!”

“What more proof do you need?! This stuff broke out all across the globe simultaneously—are you blind and can’t see that? How about you welcome them into your own home then?!”

“Am I the only one who thinks this lady looks ridiculously cool?! Oh my gosh, she slashed her way straight into my heart, AAAAAHHH!!”

“Stop fan-giring above—take a look at whether you can even survive first!”

Qin Xi flipped through the comment section expressionlessly without finding any particularly useful information.

She swiped down through a few more videos; almost all of them were flooded with clips of zombie outbreaks from various locations.

Meanwhile, the video of her killing the zombie last night had gone exceptionally viral. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

In just a short minute, she swiped past no fewer than five reposts of it.

Qin Xi let out a sigh.

Fortunately, she had covered her face.

Quickly operating the phone, she posted another video regarding flood evacuation.

She hoped this information would be taken seriously by people.

After sending the information, Qin Xi placed the phone back onto the driver’s body without taking it with her.

Qin Song walked out from the office, nodding at her to signal that all surveillance footage had been destroyed.

The two got into the vehicle. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Qin Song hadn’t slept for a full day and night, so Qin Xi drove on the return trip.

The off-road SUV quickly vanished into the hazy rain curtain along the highway!

The vehicle drove back to the factory up on the mountain.

Instead of parking in front of the warehouse they had originally rented, however, it pulled up in front of the standalone six-story building located at the very back.

This was the former administrative building of the factory, complete with main entrances and partitioned rooms.

It offered better structural enclosure.

The two went upstairs all the way to the top floor, picking a room that wasn’t overly large but was situated along the corner edge.

The room featured a side door that opened directly onto the rooftop terrace, offering a clear view of the situation inside the factory grounds below. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

At the same time, if anyone were to come in, they could exit via the rooftop terrace.

Upon stepping into the room, Qin Xi first cleared out all unnecessary tables, chairs, and cabinets to the rooftop terrace.

She left behind only one dining table, two chairs, and a long sofa.

Then she swept the floor roughly before pulling out the double bed.

Taking out some food, she spoke to Qin Song, who was resting on the sofa:

“Big Brother, eat something and get some sleep first.”

Qin Song had slept for a short while in the car earlier, making him slightly more refreshed now.

Nodding at her words, he wiped his hands with a wet wipe Qin Xi provided and sat down at one side of the table. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

What Qin Xi pulled out this time was a portion of Braised Yellow Chicken, a portion of Garlic Butter Shrimp, and two boxes of steamed rice.

Both were orders placed at the street food market earlier.

She also took out two cans of Coca-Cola, one for each of them.

Steering the warm, steamed rice into her stomach alongside the mildly spicy chicken, followed by a gulp of icy cold cola, Qin Xi felt every pore in her body comfortably open up!

Rebirthing to the time before the apocalypse should have been something that made one feel safe and comfortable.

Yet she and her big brother had only now found the time to catch a proper rest.

The rain outside the window grew even heavier.

As a sky-obscuring curtain of water poured down, not a single detail of the scenery outside the window remained visible. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

After finishing the meal, Qin Song had already drifted off to sleep.

Sitting on the sofa, Qin Xi finally found the time to begin working on this round’s system tasks.

The time limit for this task was five days, and one day had already passed.

The task objectives themselves were hardly easy to complete.

As for killing 30 zombies, she had only completed 14 so far, leaving 16 to go.

With the torrential rain pouring down outside right now, going out to search for zombies was genuinely quite difficult.

Besides that, as for collecting 1,000 Natural Element points, she had yet to figure out how to go about gathering them.

If she were to head up the mountain, most of the trees on this mountain were just pines and cypresses—finding 1,000 distinct element points up there wouldn’t be easy either. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

She didn’t know what the consequences would be if the task went uncompleted.

Under the current circumstances, however, Qin Xi planned to sow the corn first.

She sent her consciousness into the system space.

The originally empty green grassland was now filled with rows of storage shelves and stacked supplies.

Along the edge of the grassland, the vibrant green wheat sprouts had already grown to human calf height.

Floating above them was a line of small green text: [Wheat growing: 80% water deficient]

Beside the wheat field lay a strip of yellow soil of equal size, awaiting cultivation.

Qin Xi pulled out her tools and resignedly got to work. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Tilling the soil, leveling the ground, digging furrows, scattering seeds, backfilling soil, and watering.

Time slowly ticked away.

Until a crisp notification prompt chimed:

[Ding—System task: Sow 1 mu [2] of corn completed. Reward: 30 Points.]

Qin Xi’s tense mental focus paused for a brief moment.

Rather than immediately withdrawing from the system, however, she persevered through watering the wheat field as well before retracting her mental energy.

When her consciousness returned to the real world, Qin Xi’s forehead was drenched in sweat.

Wiping it away with a paper towel, she planned to rest for a bit before moving on to mining the iron ore. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

She glanced at the bed—Qin Song was still fast asleep, and only four hours had passed.

The torrential downpour outside had eased up slightly compared to the morning.

Walking over to the window, she could vaguely make out some of the scenery on the rooftop terrace and up on the mountain.

After watching for a while, Qin Xi turned around and returned to the sofa, pulling a blanket out from her space to drape over herself, intending to lie down for a bit as well.

Little did she know that at the exact same moment, the main door on the ground floor below was suddenly kicked open!

A team of figures rushed inside from the outside at top speed!

The torrential rain drowned out every minor noise.

Until the commotion grew louder and louder, turning exceedingly rowdy. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Qin Xi originally thought it was her imagination, until the thud-thud-thud of heavy footsteps rattled the floorboards so violently that the ground vibrated along with them.

She finally confirmed that a group of people was truly sprinting upstairs!

She sprang up from the sofa, walked briskly to the door, and pressed her ear against the door panel to listen to the commotion outside.

At the same time, Qin Song on the bed was also awakened by the noise, opening his eyes.

A cold, stern chill lingered in his eyes. Scanning his gaze across the room, he relaxed only when he spotted Qin Xi standing by the door.

Getting up, he walked over to stand beside Qin Xi, letting out an impatient “tsk” before speaking:

“There’s quite a large number of people coming up—and they’ve drawn other things along with them as well.”

Hearing this, Qin Xi subconsciously clenched her fists. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Under circumstances like these, where did this group of people come from [1]?