Chapter 38
[Mission Section]
[Daily Missions] …
[Basic Missions]
(1) Please identify the human in Highland Shelter who is about to turn into a zombie, and save the little town that is still temporarily quiet and peaceful. [Complete the mission to earn 2000 Twisty Coins]
A zombie had appeared inside the shelter?
Wei Cheng shot upright in bed, countless faces flashing through his mind.
A wave of fear rose in him. Every morning, he and Guanguan spent their time hustling for meal tickets in the crowded cafeteria. If a zombie outbreak happened there, it would be extremely hard for two little children to get away without exposing their secret!
About to turn into a zombie meant they had not transformed yet?
By now, Wei Cheng already knew that the system never made things difficult for him and Guanguan. Since it had issued the mission now, that meant the person who was about to turn had to be among these 1,281 people!
He gradually calmed down and pulled up the detailed high-definition map of Highland Shelter once again.
Coming up the winding mountain road, one could first see the densely packed villa district. Further ahead was the luxurious high-rise hotel, where they earned meal tickets every day.?? the lush wild woodland, there was a dreamy stretch of hillside, where adults with plenty of points and meal tickets would sit leisurely under the pavilions. Beyond a murmuring stream, many male survivors worked every day reinforcing walls that were already solid enough, because behind them lay the steaming hot spring villa district. This was where the highest-ranking leaders of Highland Shelter and their trusted followers lived, and it was also where the base’s stockpile of supplies and guns was kept.
The clever thing about this map was that it showed each survivor’s vital status clearly.
For example, the villa they were staying in had eight little red dots pulsing around it.
The four members of the Qiao family, Grandma Jiao, he and Guanguan, and the dog Little Apricot?
The pulsing red dots represented heartbeats.
At the top of the map, it showed: Current Personnel in the Shelter: 1281 people.
There were nearly 681 red dots in the white villa district, 400 in the hotel, and 200 in the hot spring villa district.
As long as one red dot stopped pulsing, that meant the person had died and turned into a zombie.
He reached out and tentatively touched the red dot representing his own heart. A prompt popped up:
[Would you like to mark this?]
Mark?
He selected [Mark], and the map instantly displayed [Survivor No. 1].
His eyes widened slightly. He quickly touched Guanguan’s red dot too, and it popped up as [Survivor No. 2].
That way, even if new survivors arrived from outside or hunters returned from missions, things would not become too chaotic. It would also make it much easier to find the survivor who was about to turn into a zombie!
He quickly numbered all the current red dots.
With the map in hand, finding the zombie would be easy. The difficult part was figuring out who should be the one to kill it.
That would be a huge merit.
Wei Cheng suddenly paused. He got up and looked at the black wolf puppy sleeping soundly in the dog bed downstairs.
If that merit could help him and Guanguan move with the dog into a house with a wide courtyard, that would be ideal.
—
Wei Cheng stayed awake the entire night, but the 1,281 red dots on the map kept pulsing.
Survivors No. 16, 38, and 19 moved from the white villa district to the hot spring villa area to reinforce the walls. Survivors No. 982 and 983 came down from the mountaintop and were heading toward the hotel…
The red dots on the map kept moving, making it more and more dizzying to watch.
Suddenly, Wei Cheng felt a heavy pressure on his chest.
Looking down, he saw that at some point a very plump little child had climbed on top of him.
Guanguan’s new curls were sticking up wildly. One little hand was touching his brother’s face, his expression grave. “Big brother, if you were stealing chickens, why didn’t you bring Guanguan?”
“Stealing chickens?”
Wei Cheng immediately understood and laughed. That was exactly the kind of scolding Director Wang used for the older kids at the welfare home who stayed up at night and spent the daytime exhausted and sluggish.
“I wasn’t stealing chickens. It’s that we got a new mission.”
“A new mission!”
“That’s right, a new mission.”
Wei Cheng carefully explained the difficulty of the mission and what kind of benefits they would get if they completed it.
Guanguan’s eyes lit up. “That’s great! If we get a big yard, then Guanguan and Little Apricot can play outside every day!”
Wei Cheng smiled too. “That’s why we have to complete this mission well. No matter what, Highland Shelter has given us a long stretch of peaceful life. Big brother still hopes we can find that human who is about to become a zombie.”
He struggled a little, then moved the very heavy Guanguan off his chest and let out a breath. “Big brother needs to keep watching the map at all times, so today we won’t go to the hotel cafeteria to earn meal tickets. I already prepared breakfast for you. Can Guanguan brush his teeth and wash his face by himself, and then help feed Little Apricot?”
Guanguan nodded happily. “Guanguan can!”
He climbed backwards off the bed with surprising agility and scampered into the bathroom, psyching himself up. “Guanguan brush teeth! Guanguan wash face! Guanguan feed self and then feed dog!”
The moment Little Apricot heard Guanguan’s footsteps, he ran over at once.
“Little Apricot, you’re hungry!”
Wearing his little bear pajamas, Guanguan stood on tiptoe and took down a large bag of dog food from the cabinet, then brought out some dog snacks too.
Smelling food, the little black dog hooked his chubby paws around Guanguan and would not let go. “Woof!”
“Little Apricot, Guanguan’s pants are going to fall down!” Guanguan hitched up his pajama pants and then plopped onto the floor.
He poured Little Apricot a huge bowl full of dog food, and the little black dog pounced on it and started attacking it in a frenzy.
“And this meat-meat too!”
Guanguan opened half a bag of dried meat and dumped it all beside the dog bowl. Rubbing the crumbs off his little hands, he said generously, “Eat, Little Apricot. Guanguan likes meat-meat too!”
Little Apricot was already lost in the fragrance. His little black snout was buried in the dog food and dried meat, and he could barely pull himself out, only giving a little bark from time to time.
Boss Guanguan, next life I’m following you too!
Watching Little Apricot eat so eagerly, Guanguan swallowed too. “Is it that tasty?”
He secretly reached out and picked up one piece of dried meat, lifting it to his nose to sniff. It smelled kind of good.
“Guanguan!”
Guanguan immediately dropped the meat and stood up, waving his hands. “Guanguan didn’t steal the dog’s dried meat!”
When Wei Cheng came downstairs, he saw dog food and dried meat scattered all over the floor, and when he looked at Little Apricot, the little dog was on the verge of puffing up like a stuffed chicken-wing rice roll again.
Luckily, he had come down in time.
When a child was suddenly very quiet, trouble was always brewing.
He laughed helplessly and picked Little Apricot up by the scruff of his neck. “Guanguan, Little Apricot can’t eat this much. He’ll overstuff himself.”
With both hands tucked behind his back, Guanguan stared longingly at the dried meat on the floor. “Then Guanguan will eat it for him!”
“Why are you so interested in dog jerky?”
Wei Cheng gathered up the dog food and dried meat from the floor, smiling as he said, “Dog jerky doesn’t really taste like much to people. Go eat breakfast first. Later big brother will buy you a bag of beef jerky, and we’ll go out and eat it together, okay?”
Guanguan held up one little finger. “Guanguan also wants a little bit of piggy chest!”
“Pork jerky? Fine, I’ll bring that too.”
Once he saw Guanguan go off to eat breakfast, Wei Cheng also checked Little Apricot’s stomach. It was not that swollen, and the dog still seemed energetic, so only then did he feel relieved.
Leaving Little Apricot in the safe house, Wei Cheng took Guanguan out.
There was one more person in the living room now.
It was none other than the Qiao family’s male head, Qiao Dasheng, who had returned safely from a mission. The whole Qiao family was gathered around him, talking.
Back in the safe house, Wei Cheng had already noticed a new batch of red dots entering through the shelter gates, and not long after, one red dot had come into their villa.
That person was Qiao Dasheng. Which meant that Driver Uncle, who had gone out on the mission with him, must also have returned safely.
Originally, Wei Cheng had been thinking of killing the zombie himself. But since Driver Uncle was back, it might be better to turn this into a favor.
After all, there was someone important beside that man who would become quite formidable in the future.
Qiao Dasheng looked up and froze when he saw Guanguan too. “Isn’t this child…”
Qiao Yaoyao panicked. “Dad, don’t look at him, don’t look at him!”
Guanguan let out a little huff and lifted one foot, refusing to look at Qiao Yaoyao.
Suddenly, Wei Cheng asked, “Mr. Qiao, do you know which villa your former driver lives in?”
Qiao Dasheng frowned slightly. “You mean Shen Zheng? He lives in Villa No. 33.”
Their own was Villa No. 21.
Wei Cheng nodded. “Thank you.”
Guanguan was wearing a knitted little bear hat and a deliberately worn-looking down jacket. Because he was afraid someone might steal his beef jerky and pork jerky, he had specifically chosen to wear his little yellow duck backpack on his front.
“Big brother, where are we going?”
Wei Cheng lowered his voice. “Driver Uncle is back. We’re going to find him.”
His gaze dropped again to one red dot whose heartbeat was growing slower and slower.
[Survivor No. 163]
That person had stayed in Villa No. 35 and had not come out.
Wei Cheng said, “We have to hurry.”
Guanguan swallowed a sweet piece of pork jerky, grabbed his little backpack tighter, and pumped his short little legs faster. “Guanguan speed-up!”
After walking for almost ten minutes, they finally reached Uncle Shen’s house.
By coincidence, Shen Zheng was just opening the door to come out.
“Guanguan? Chengcheng?”
Shen Zheng had two bruised streaks on his face, but they did not diminish his gentle warmth. “I was just thinking of asking management where you two had gone. How did you find me? Come, come in quickly. Uncle has tasty things here!”
Wei Cheng frowned. “Uncle, something big has happened. You have to believe us!”
Shen Zheng blinked. “What big thing?”
“There’s a zombie in Villa No. 35!”
Wei Cheng forced himself to look frightened and shaky. “I… I noticed yesterday that someone there seemed off. His face looked terrifying, and he was staggering around. Later I saw him enter that villa.”
Shen Zheng hesitated. “Maybe he was just malnourished…”
“Uncle, go check, please. What if he really turns into a zombie?”
Shen Zheng thought for a moment, then gripped the knife at his waist. “All right, I’ll go take a look. You two stay here and don’t run around.”
“Uncle, you have to hurry! If it really is a zombie, then you’ll have saved the entire base!”
Shen Zheng’s expression turned serious, and he ran toward Villa No. 35 at once.
Wei Cheng could not help but worry for him.
The red dot representing Survivor No. 163 was pulsing more and more slowly.
Then, in just a few moments, the red dot fell like a leaf drifting on the wind and lost all signs of life.
The very next second, someone shouted in panic, “Zombie! Zombie! Someone turned into a zombie!”
Even after cutting off the zombie’s head in one slash, Shen Zheng was still stunned.
Because he had arrived in time, the survivors living with the infected person had not been harmed.
Soon, the villa filled with managers and hunters.
The manager leading them stepped forward, checked the corpse of the freshly transformed zombie, and clapped Shen Zheng on the shoulder with a hint of envy. “Well done. You earned yourself some merit.”
