Ning Yu stood at the highest point of the Ark Base, overlooking City A shrouded in the night.
The cold autumn wind made Ning Yu's skirt flutter slightly.
Behind her, the moon was as bright as a knife placed on a crystal-clear ice block, casting the light it borrowed from the sun onto her back.
Ning Yu didn't hold Blood Kite, but it gently floated beside her, hovering up and down as if breathing.
She tapped her smartwatch, which had a loaded digital map of City A.
This watch was exchanged from the system space and was part of the same set as the button device previously used to track Lin Hao's whereabouts.
Now, there were three glowing dots on the map, representing Lin Hao, Shen Yiyue, and Shen Qianqian.
Ning Yu looked at the dot belonging to Shen Yiyue in the residential area, using it to gauge whether Shen Yiyue would chase after her tomorrow.
But only Ning Yu knew Shen Yiyue's whereabouts; Shen Yiyue had no way of tracking Ning Yu.
At this moment, Ning Yu searched the map, planning to find a suitable temporary shelter.
According to Ning Xuan's intel, trouble would soon come her way. Although she didn't know how they were tracking her, she could always interrogate them when the time came.
For now, before the enemies found her, she could continue hunting zombies to gain experience for Blood Kite.
She could also look for survivors to see if any system tasks could be triggered.
The frequency of task triggers in the Ark was lower than Ning Yu had imagined, but the rewards were indeed substantial.
It was still better than staying in one place waiting for trouble to come to her.
As a workaholic, unless it was about romance, Ning Yu wouldn't waste time that could make her stronger.
When Shen Yiyue was by Ning Yu's side, she even got caught up in the workaholic vibe, a phenomenon Ning Yu called the "workaholic contagion law."
After browsing the map for a while, Ning Yu chose a place likely to be infested with zombies—the City A Wetland Park.
It was a popular spot for relaxation, free of charge, with ample greenery, basic fitness facilities, and long jogging paths.
The more popular it was before, the more zombies it should have now, making it an excellent place to earn points and weapon experience.
Ning Yu glanced again at the residential area, where almost no lights were on. She still spotted the small apartment where the three of them lived, and the window of Shen Yiyue's room.
It was time to go. Solve things quickly and return.
Ning Yu no longer hesitated, leaping down and summoning a grappling hook device.
She disappeared into the endless night, blending into the silent city.
...
When Ning Yu opened her eyes, she saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
The air smelled faintly of dust, making her uncomfortable as she sat up. Blood Kite lay beside her on the left.
This was an unfamiliar room, a temporary shelter Ning Yu had found last night.
The room was small, likely used for rentals, with very basic amenities. The contents of the refrigerator had long since rotted.
Now that she had left the Ark Base, Ning Yu realized how precious life with water, electricity, and gas was:
Being able to eat hot meals under lights whenever she wanted, and take a hot shower after being tired.
But these were now impossible for Ning Yu. City A had been without water or electricity for a long time.
Fortunately, it was still early autumn. If it got colder in the winter, things would only be worse.
The room was empty, with just Ning Yu inside.
This feeling was both unfamiliar and familiar.
Since coming to this world, she had always been with Shen Yiyue, even if not in the same room, they lived in the same place.
Usually, when she woke up in the morning, Shen Yiyue would smile and greet her.
Either Ning Yu or Shen Yiyue would prepare breakfast, and they would eat together at the table.
But Ning Yu was equally familiar with this lonely feeling because her previous life was spent waking up in dimly lit rooms, facing each new day alone.
Ning Yu got up and stretched, walking to the window and pulling back the curtains.
The early autumn sky was overcast, but it wasn't raining yet, perhaps it would start later.
Ning Yu used to care little about the weather, so she always kept the curtains closed, uninterested in the outside world.
But she suddenly realized that, unknown from when, she had started to like sunny days, to enjoy bright rooms, and conversations with cheerful people.
This feeling of being both unfamiliar and familiar gave Ning Yu a sense of dissonance.
She took out a bottle of bottled purified water from the system space, drinking almost half of it before putting it back.
Opening her smartwatch, Ning Yu found that even though she had left the Ark Base over 10 kilometers away, she could still see the positions of the trackers.
She had no idea what the principle behind this tracker was. Did her system even launch a satellite into space?
It was incredible that it could still display the location from such a distance.
Ning Yu replaced the old solar lithium batteries with a new pair from the system space, glancing at the overcast sky and thinking that today's charging might be difficult.
The trackers for Shen Yiyue and Shen Qianqian were still in their old positions, meaning she had seen Ning Yu's message and hadn't rushed out to chase after her.
Ning Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling reassured.
But for some reason, there was an undetectable sense of loss in her heart.
She shook her head, dismissing the messy thoughts in her mind, then took out a loaf of bread and a box of strawberry milk from the system space.
Ning Yu counted, there were more than ten boxes left, enough for her to drink for quite a few days.
Although drinking water was fine, today Ning Yu decided to have a box of milk no matter what.
Sitting on the chair she had wiped clean last night, Ning Yu quickly finished her breakfast. The only convenience now was that she didn't have to deal with trash.
She discarded the packaging in the room and pushed the door open, ready to leave.
A group of zombies had gathered outside the door, probably attracted by the noise Ning Yu made yesterday, without anyone knowing exactly when they had appeared.
Seeing these troublemakers coming to her door, Ning Yu summoned Blood Kite in her hand.
"Ugh..."
"Ah..."
The zombies turned their heads, glaring at Ning Yu with malicious eyes, growling hungrily, yet somewhat listless.
It seemed they hadn't eaten in a long time.
Unfortunately for them, they wouldn't be eating today, and never again.
Ning Yu took their heads off one by one in just a few seconds.
The corridor was splattered with black zombie blood, but Ning Yu carefully avoided getting splashed, as this dress was one of the several picked out by Shen Yiyue.
Ning Yu quite liked it.
When she reached the downstairs, the motorcycle she "borrowed" last night was still parked there. It wasn't as expensive as the Ducati they rode to the Ark before.
But Ning Yu wasn't one to be picky.
Just as she put on her helmet and sat on the motorcycle, a drop of rain gently landed on the back of Ning Yu's neck.
The early autumn rain began to fall.
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
