Free Web NovelChapter 134: Chapter 134: Denglin City in the Apocalypse Era
A sense of incongruity struck, unable to imagine a group of monsters in white lab coats dropping not some strange prop, but Gold Coins instead.
Out of the sixteen monsters, only four dropped items, totaling four Gold Coins.
Bai Wu was curious, what exactly were the game coins used for?
Did upgrading the item prompts require spending Gold Coins?
Wu Jiu gestured for Bai Wu to pick up the Gold Coins, he himself was not concerned with their use; after all, managing resources like these were Bai Wu’s responsibility.
When Bai Wu saw these monsters, he actually caught two segments of content, the remarks in Prayle’s Eye were strange:
[As one of the earliest Mutants, he had always wanted to gain freedom, but everyone sought to extract from him the secret to saving the world. Thus after escaping the laboratory, he was very angry, feeling estranged from his own powers. If Evil Fallen were compared to flowers, then where he tread, flowers would bloom in his wake. And what you see, are the flowers that bloomed because of him.]
He...
Bai Wu could ascertain that these people became Evil Fallen after being infected by something from a super-powerful Evil Fallen Body.
This super Evil Fallen was the secret that Denglin Technology had been hiding all along.
But with such scant clues at hand, Bai Wu asked,
"Captain, did your experience points increase?"
Mo Cheng was stunned. Experience points, what the hell? Could there really be something like protectors or guardians or emperors in legends?
Wu Jiu shook his head, no such notifications appeared.
Bai Wu nodded, having a rough idea of the situation.
"It seems that killing monsters doesn’t yield experience points... it just has a chance to drop Gold Coins. It looks like leveling up comes from some other method. Maybe it’s from completing tasks?"
Bai Wu hadn’t figured out what was going on yet, but all they could do was keep moving forward.
"Is there anywhere nearby to get something to eat?"
Despite it being a game, the feeling of hunger was exceptionally real, especially after the encounter with the monsters, making both Bai Wu and Wu Jiu feel weak.
Their hit points—one was down to seven, the other to fifteen—both indicated that they could only be restored with food and not through potions.
This meant that the life reduction brought about by hunger could only be replenished by eating.
"Most places are probably closed, and many people have looted supplies and shut themselves in their homes... besides, this is the tech park area, practically devoid of convenience stores, supermarkets and the like, and there are pitifully few diners. But I’ve stashed a bunch of canned goods at home."
"Where do you live?"
"West City District, a twenty-five-minute drive."
Not too far. Bai Wu nodded, and as they went downstairs, he asked:
"Then let’s go to your place. Is your home safe?"
"I’ve rented the place. It should be safe, I guess. Monsters run rampant across Denglin City; I haven’t been in contact with the landlord for months, and all the neighbors around have disappeared too."
"Then why didn’t you stay at home and come to the company?" Bai Wu looked at Mo Cheng.
Mo Cheng said,
"The company is everyone’s hope. It’s said that there’s a prophet inside, right at headquarters. We firmly believe that the prophet can guide us, find a way for us to survive."
The prophet was right. Perhaps it was the prophet who told you how to survive, that’s why you exist in this form... surviving for seven hundred years?
Bai Wu didn’t say this out loud, but he felt increasingly that this pixel-styled region was hiding astonishing information.
They continued downward, and on the sixth floor, they encountered a group of Evil Fallen, but they were all level one mutants.
Using the previous tactics, they dealt with the problem neither easily nor dangerously.
Wu Jiu and Bai Wu’s strength had decreased due to the pursuit and killing of the Evil Fallen, as reflected in the data, their life points were -2.
This building had yet to be escaped, and both of their life points had been significantly reduced, even though they had not been touched by the monsters at all.
On the other hand, the NPCs’ life points had not changed at all. This made Bai Wu feel the unfairness, the treatment of the players was just too bad.
Now they were on the second floor, with only the lowest level left to leave this place, but the door downstairs was locked.
That wasn’t a problem, as the three of them had planned to go to the basement through the garage and find a vehicle to leave.
The problem was that there were too many Evil Fallen on the first floor, dense and numerous, startling one would alarm all the others.
Among them, there were even three level-four mutants. [Life Points 14/14, Attack 6, Defense 0, Movement Speed 1.]
The total stats of the three people, if not using the terrain to their advantage, even the team leader couldn’t withstand them. A single touch would kill Mo Cheng.
Bai Wu and the others were at the stairway on the second floor, looking down at the monsters below, which seemed attracted by the scenery outside the glass door, wanting to leave.
But low-level Evil Fallen were like zombies, not much brains. For some reason, they weren’t opening the door.
"In this situation, if a level one player wanted to survive, it wouldn’t be possible to choose to fight." free𝑤ebnovel.com
Bai Wu asked Wu Jiu to take out the bottle of liquor—
[A bottle of liquor that can attract monsters. Occupies one slot of bag capacity. Cannot be sold.]
It could make one forget a day’s memories, indeed it was a great thing, but if they couldn’t leave this place, it was meaningless.
Bai Wu didn’t feel too sorry about it, he swung the bottle of liquor in the opposite direction of the stairway and smashed it over there.
The sound of the shattering bottle and the sudden scent of the alcohol instantly attracted the monsters below.
The effect of the game item was exaggerated; the scent of the liquor diffused in a circular pattern, and the Evil Fallen, smelling it, became instantly agitated.
The Evil Fallen on the first floor rushed crazily toward a certain direction, and Bai Wu and the others even felt a slight shake.
"Damn it, what kind of liquor is this? Were our people, before turning into monsters, all drunkards?"
The sight of monsters flooding toward a bottle of liquor made Mo Cheng feel incredulous, especially seeing the monsters pile up on top of each other, setting off his fear of clusters.
"Let’s hurry out of here," Wu Jiu urged.
Bai Wu reluctantly departed; that liquor must have been very fragrant, what a pity.
...
...
The journey from the first floor to the garage was very safe. The monsters from the second and basement levels had all gathered on the first floor, and the effect of the liquor bottle was unexpectedly good, allowing Bai Wu and the others to reach the garage as if they were invisible.
After searching around, they found that the treatment of the scientists wasn’t as bad as the public knew, at least in terms of vehicles, there were many that a person couldn’t afford even if they had used up all their savings at birth.
Of course, in the game, all the attributes of the vehicles are the same.
[Vehicle, Life Points 60/60, Movement Speed 6.]
[Through Spirit Possession diffusion, every car here has the same capabilities. They have watched humans ignore traffic rules over and over again, and they became angry! As a result, they decided that running a red light would result in a flat tire, drunk driving would lead to an explosion. Also, whether in the game or outside the game, they do not need to refuel.]
Spirit Possession diffusion, Bai Wu remembered, this was a certain chance to give a collective Spirit Possession of the same attribute to similar objects.
Yeah, if I had these cars in my previous life, traffic cops would probably be out of a job.
Not having to worry about refueling was an unexpected surprise. But Bai Wu and Wu Jiu discovered something...
When Bai Wu got into the car, the following prompt popped up:
[Lack of driving skills, unable to start the car.]
Clearly, the scenario’s creator wasn’t much of a gamer, making things unrealistic where they should be real, and excessively strict where realism wasn’t necessary.
"I can’t drive."
"A security guard can’t drive?" Mo Cheng was surprised.
"Does a security guard have to know how to drive? Can’t a security guard diligently walk on foot? Can’t a security guard focus his skill tree on strength, rather than technology? When will security guards finally stand up for themselves?"
Mo Cheng felt a headache coming on:
"Big brother, stop, stop, I can drive, although I failed the second test three times before passing..."
"The second test? The second test is pretty tough," Bai Wu said honestly.
No car keys needed, the three quickly found a vehicle resembling a Hummer, and with Mo Cheng’s guidance, they soon started it and left the parking lot.
There wasn’t much in the way of secrets in the Denglin Technology’s subsidiary building; most of the secrets were in the headquarters.
Only by heading to the headquarters could Bai Wu find the real secrets that the area wanted to hide or protect.
But for now, they were speeding on the highway, with a tidal wave of monsters behind them, a mix of level two and level three ones.
In other words, the streets were more than ten times more dangerous than the subsidiary building.
Even though the vehicle’s speed was far greater than the monsters’, the sheer number of them, combined with the engine noise, excited many monsters.
They emerged from sewers, burrowed out of storefronts, or jumped down from building windows.
This Hummer was essentially a walking meat bun, and they were a pack of starving mad dogs.
The three inside the car weren’t completely safe either; Wu Jiu and Bai Wu had to occasionally lean out the window to kick away the Evil Fallen that got too close, trying their best to prevent them from touching the vehicle.
Despite this, the car’s health had dropped by half, smoke was starting to billow from the engine hood, and according to a game from Bai Wu’s past life, this meant that if the vehicle was hit by monsters a few more times, the engine hood would catch fire and then explode.
Fortunately, Wu Jiu and Bai Wu managed to prevent that from happening.
And the NPC’s driving was very steady.
Although Mo Cheng was panicking, he still demonstrated solid driving skills, not at all like someone who had failed the second test three times. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
During the journey to the West City District, Bai Wu observed all the way and confirmed that the year 2128 was indeed the real apocalypse.
The entire city was shrouded in some kind of gray dust, as if in the era of the Industrial Revolution.
All along the way, they saw nothing but corpses, bloodstains, shattered doors and glass, haphazardly parked cars, fallen billboards, potholed roads...
The number of humans was probably exceeded by the number of Evil Fallen. Perhaps compared to the present situation, beyond the tower there had not yet evolved many rules that made survival difficult, but no one could say for sure whether one might suddenly become an Evil Fallen due to a breakdown.
The tide of Evil Fallen was eventually left behind by Mo Cheng due to the significant difference in movement speed.
The West City District wasn’t far from the headquarters of Denglin Technology, and Bai Wu hoped to find supermarkets and convenience stores for supplies along the way.
But, as Mo Cheng had said, all the visible supermarkets and convenience stores were devoid of any edible food, as all the goods had long been swept clean.
There were still plenty of humans in the city, but in Bai Wu’s view, their fate wouldn’t be good. The day they ran out of food, they would have to face the dangers and difficulties of going out to search for food.
Even many people didn’t have the luxury of food from the beginning.
In the post-apocalyptic world, every resource became scarce.
Bai Wu suddenly wondered, who was the last human in this world? How long did he hold on before becoming an Evil Fallen?
Could there be a possibility that, seven hundred years after the Era of the High Tower, there were still survivors beyond the Tower?
The three of them finally arrived at the transfer station—Mo Cheng’s residence. It was a single-unit building.
Mo Cheng’s supplies amounted to a total of one hundred and twenty-one cans of luncheon meat, labeling him as the wealthiest in Denglin City under the present conditions wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
As Mo Cheng had said, there were no Evil Fallen in the building, which made it a small safe zone. At 7:40 p.m., the three of them huddled in Mo Cheng’s serviced apartment, eating canned food and drinking bottled water.
The three pixelated block figures lacked any visual indication of chewing while eating food, with their mouths simply opening and closing, and the meat disappearing.
"The food here is enough to keep you going for quite a while, as long as you don’t court death by making loud noises at night or turning on the lights, and stay calm. However, you’d better control your appetite," Bai Wu offered his friendly advice.
Mo Cheng said:
"What about you? Won’t you stay here? Without you, I couldn’t possibly have made it back. It would be good for me if you were willing to stay."
"Then what originally could have kept you alive for thirty days would only last for ten."
Bai Wu shook his head and continued:
"You stay here, don’t go out. Just stay put. We’re heading to the headquarters of Denglin Technology. By the way, how long does it take to get there from here?"
"It’s not far, but it takes an hour on foot... But are you really going to that place? Why? It’s not just ordinarily dangerous there."
Although not well acquainted with Bai Wu and Wu Jiu, Mo Cheng still hoped that they would stay."
"When we were in the car earlier, we were surrounded by monsters. I want to know something. Are the numbers of these monsters so huge because there have always been so many in this city, or is it because of that monster from the headquarters building you mentioned? Could he have caused so many infections in the city in a single day?"
Before Bai Wu could finish, Mo Cheng waved his hands and said:
"You mustn’t provoke him... He’s on a completely different level from the other monsters... Don’t go, or you’ll become one of them too!"
"Is there information about this monster hidden in the headquarters building?" Bai Wu asked again.
"There should be, I’m not sure though. Anyway, don’t go. There are a lot of monsters in Denglin right now. Indeed, many escaped from that experimental subject in the headquarters building, but in these years, many monsters were also born inside the city of Denglin."
The world mutated, and over several years, some humans became Evil Fallen, while others mastered and adapted to the rules. They suppressed their emotions and hid cautiously within these city walls.
Perhaps there was a certain balance that could be maintained between humans and Evil Fallen. Many people were reluctant to leave Denglin City, either because they couldn’t or didn’t want to leave.
The latter believed that scientists could find a way to stop the Evil Fallen.
But all that hope was shattered yesterday.
This was the information Bai Wu had gathered so far. After eating their fill, and acquiring the news that they would not lose life value due to hunger for the next eight hours, the two set off for the headquarters building.
As they closed the door to Mo Cheng’s house, both of them received a notification.
[Mo Cheng’s call for help has been completed. Level increased by two. Gained a merchant’s favor.]
Bai Wu advanced to level three. Wu Jiu advanced to level seven.
As the two were curious about what a merchant’s favor entailed, they suddenly saw a large, fat creature with six eyes, eight ears, and a body like an octopus outside Mo Cheng’s apartment building, waving its tentacles at them.
"I am a merchant from Black Gold Island. If you have Gold Coins, you can come to me and exchange them for various goodies, skills, luck, life, equipment, all up for grabs, ho ho ho ho."
