Chapter 21

When the squad arrived at the town's central hospital, they unsurprisingly spotted that same pickup again. After all, the town was small; no matter which way you circled, there were only a few roads.

"Hey! Watch out for Bone Corpses—" The pickup was speeding straight toward the squad, and the squad, themselves being chased by several mutated zombies, were about to warn them about the troublesome things on their tail when they saw the pickup make a sharp ninety-degree turn, veering away from them. Among the long string of zombies trailing behind the pickup, the ones leading the pack were precisely those mutated zombies—

Damn, mutated zombies!

The people on the pickup didn't look at ease. When the vehicle was pushed to its limits, it was hard for those on board to steady themselves for aimed shots, and moreover, mutated zombies were frighteningly fast to begin with.

"This is bad..." One squad member counted the mutated zombies on the scene with a tap of his finger. "Six in total! How are there so many? How are we supposed to deal with this?"

The moment he finished speaking, a "bang" rang out. The woman, straining to hold her gun, squeezed the trigger again.

One of the two zombies chasing closest to the pickup—its head snapped back as if struck hard, the skin stretched taut over bone bursting open and splattering black, viscous fluid.

"What a shot!" Someone exclaimed in admiration.

"That leaves five now..." Another team member glanced at the one who'd just counted, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "Still think we can't handle it?"

"Handle it my ass! Don't you act brave." The squad's morale was instantly boosted. Damn right! If she could take one down, what was he hesitating for? He raised his gun, itching to try, only to find how difficult it was to aim accurately from a jolting vehicle.

"Want to cooperate?" The squad leader extended an olive branch.

Lin Tu nodded in agreement.

The two teams had no prior experience working together, but they made up for it with capable members and a clear shared goal. Before long, they had synced up smoothly and taken down the remaining five zombies.

Even so, the two teams didn't close the distance immediately after the collaboration ended. The formidable skill each side had displayed during the fight made both wary, and their first instinct was to size each other up carefully.

The squad members' identities were fairly easy to guess: discipline, military uniforms, and some even had military insignia on their shoulders. They were clearly affiliated with some organization, or even the government.

Lin Tu and her group's identities were harder to pin down. The squad members—especially the leader—studied them in silence. An odd combination, reckless behavior, yet abnormally strong. Any single one of these traits on its own would be a puzzle hard to solve.

"Who the hell are they..." Someone from the squad muttered.

But then...

"No matter who they are, they're our civilians," the leader said with a smile, stepping out of the vehicle first. "Hello! We're members of the 32nd Battalion Tactical Unit of the Joint Security Forces. I'm Yu Liu. Glad to see you all alive and well!"

Seeing this, Lin Tu and the others also got out of the pickup and introduced themselves.

Lin Tu, who looked the most refined, was the one who killed zombies most ferociously. Karen, who looked like she could throw down, was instead standing off to the side, cradling... a bare seedling sprout. And the driver, who swung the wheel like a raging bull, was a sullen-faced Zhang Zisheng with a cute face but a boyish wolf-cut hairstyle—

The squad members couldn't help but marvel. Up close, they seemed... even weirder!

"If you don't mind my asking, what brings you to the central hospital?" Yu Liu inquired.

"Gathering some medical supplies," Lin Tu said.

There was no way she could mention grinding zombies as the objective; collecting supplies was far more reasonable. Besides, she'd seen how Luo Yongzhi had been barely saved by IV fluids at death's door the day before, so she'd already planned to come to the central hospital pharmacy for medical supplies—

High-potency injectables and prescription drugs that weren't easy to obtain in a peaceful society could all be found in the hospital pharmacy. Yesterday, they'd only grabbed medicine from the emergency room; the pharmacy itself should still be well-stocked.

With this batch of medicine, Lin Tu wouldn't have to worry about running out of treatment for serious injuries anytime soon.

"We're here to gather medical supplies too," Yu Liu said with a slight frown, as their objectives seemed to overlap. Before the atmosphere could turn awkward, he continued, "But we're mainly collecting medical equipment. If you're willing to let us have the equipment, we'll gladly let you have most of the medication."

Both sides immediately came to an agreement.

There were still quite a few zombies lingering in the hospital. The two squads worked together to clear out the first and second floors, freeing up the pharmacy on the second floor. Since every examination room and ward had medical equipment, Yu Liu and Lin Tu's group prepared to part ways—the former to continue clearing zombies upward, the latter to haul medication.

After telling Lin Tu and the others to be careful, Yu Liu specifically assigned two squad members to help carry things and guard the entrance to keep zombies from slipping in.

Lin Tu used her Single-Use Backpack to pack away the high-potency injectables and medicine she needed, then made a show of loading some medicine into the pickup. Just as she was about to leave, something struck her—there was still a mutated zombie in the lab on the fifth floor.

Not that she was worried it would threaten Yu Liu's team. After all, those two doors were securely locked, and with their experience, they wouldn't be foolish enough to go poking around.

What she was thinking of was... the words the doctor had kept repeating even in his dying moments.

"Why do you need so much medical equipment?" Lin Tu asked the team member, leaning against the car door.

"We have a dedicated medical lab," the team member said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. He was a rookie who'd been scraped into the army after the catastrophe. Because his situational awareness wasn't sharp enough, he'd nearly been caught by a zombie earlier. Lin Tu's shot had saved his life, and he was deeply grateful. "Our main base is a fleet stationed on the Lena Delta near the Arctic Ocean. There are medical researchers on board. This equipment is for them."

Lin Tu's curiosity was piqued. "Do you know about the fall of the North Falls Sea Base?"

"Of course," the team member sighed. "North Falls Sea was our own country's safe base. They stockpiled a ton of resources in the early days, so they apparently stopped going out to clear zombies for a long time. That just let the zombies surrounding them multiply."

"It was our partner base. Every time we went south, we'd stop by, spend the night, and sell off surplus supplies. Now, we don't even have a safe place to rest! Blame it on the sheer number of zombies, especially those bone corpses, which are even scarier than ordinary ones! Between North Falls Sea sending out a distress signal and them being overrun, there was barely half an hour. There was no time for us to help."

"Of course, there wasn't much we could do even if we'd tried... If a strong base like North Falls Sea couldn't hold out against the zombies, we'd have fared even worse." The team member kept sighing. "You know what our fleet is called? The Ship of Hope. Our fleet mainly carries scientists, loaded with seeds, genes, and stuff like that. Most of the soldiers stay on the ships to protect the fleet—even if the whole planet was wiped out, they wouldn't care. Soldiers like us who go out to search and rescue... take me, for example. I'm just here to make up the numbers."

"You're doing a great job," Lin Tu said, patting him on the shoulder. "If you brought back a piece of good news, would that count as a merit?"

"Not really," the team member chuckled. "Depends on what kind of news it is."

"News about a cure for the zombie virus," Lin Tu said. The moment the words left her mouth, she saw the team member's eyes light up with barely contained excitement.

"You... you can't be joking!"

"Just tell your squad leader that." Lin Tu then recounted the whole story in a low, rapid murmur.

.

After getting the medicine, Lin Tu and her group drove back to the west side of town, near Combatants.

Once they confirmed that the North Falls Sea Base had fallen, Dong Huadan and the others had begun to think about hunkering down in the basement for the long haul.

Dong Huadan had said that for a D-level disaster like this one, with mutant monsters, it usually wouldn't be more than a month or two before mutated zombies were everywhere. The fact that Lin Tu had run into six mutated zombies in just a single morning while scavenging supplies in the town center was proof enough that Dong Huadan's assessment had some merit.

After all, just yesterday, Lin Tu had thought there were at most only two or three zombies in the whole town besides the one Karen had mentioned.

Without a safe human base as a refuge, the only reliable way to survive was to stockpile enough supplies and lie low in some remote place, lasting as long as possible.

So, over the past two days, almost everyone had gone out to scavenge supplies from all directions, doing their best to turn the basement into a fortress that could last over two months.

When she returned to the basement, Lin Tu found that Dong Huadan and the others had already collected quite a bit.

The main hall was layered with thick, clean quilts, two of which already covered Luo Yongzhi, whose condition was stabilizing. The remaining ten or twenty were still piled up, not yet spread out; on the other side were all sorts of food and water brought back from outside—rye bread, plain cakes, and various other breads, chocolate chip cookies, milk wafers, and other biscuits, boxed milk, canned cola, ham sausages, jelly, lollipops, and other snacks.

"Take whatever you need!" Dong Huadan's voice came from the storeroom. Lin Tu walked in to find Dong Huadan arranging a few pots of freshly planted bean sprouts. Beside the sprouts were a few bags of mushroom spawn.

"We found all this from houses you cleared that we hadn't gotten to scavenge yet. Don't be shy now," Dong Huadan said with a smile when she saw Lin Tu walk in empty-handed.

"I'll grab some in a bit," Lin Tu said, not standing on ceremony, and recounted the day's events. "If the mutated zombies keep increasing, I'll be staying home too, not going out."

When it came to holing up at home, Lin Tu felt she had a good handle on things. Her safehouse wasn't far away anyway, and the food, clothing, and supplies inside were nearly enough to get her through the next two months or more.

"I knew it..." Dong Huadan sighed. "We'll need to gather more supplies then."

Lin Tu had actually been curious before when Dong Huadan had mentioned collecting supplies. Logically, players could carry vouchers with them, so how could they be short on supplies?

It was only after some probing that she learned a single rye bread voucher cost a whole point! If you only ate two rye breads a day, that would be 180 points in three months, nearly more than the reward points for clearing a Lower Three-Stage world.

And vouchers for other food, clothing, shelter, and the like were even more expensive.

That's why most players started hoarding supplies once they entered a disaster, using whatever the disaster world produced and avoiding vouchers as much as possible.

When the squad had been eating rye bread every day before, it was because they were too busy rushing from their landing point to Combatants to stock up. And they hadn't stocked up at Combatants either, because they'd planned to keep moving toward the North Falls Sea Safe Base, where they could stock up at their leisure.

Who would've thought... North Falls Sea would fall.

That said, rye bread wasn't entirely useless. When you were starving to death, a portable, non-perishable rye bread voucher could save your life. At that point, you wouldn't just pay one point—people would pay a hundred, even ten thousand points for it.

"There's one more place in this town that might have a lot of supplies—the town center supermarket," Dong Huadan said. "Would you be willing to go?"

Lin Tu thought it over. What she'd stockpiled before the disaster started, plus what she'd scavenged after, was more than enough to get her through the next two months with extra to spare. But no one ever complained about having too much stuff.

Besides, her Single-Use Backpack only had half a month of use left. That was a whole forty points! If she didn't stock up as much as possible during these two weeks, the time would expire, wasting the points, and she'd have to haul things back and forth manually.

With that thought, Lin Tu realized she wasn't exactly swimming in supplies after all.

She'd initially wanted to buy a solar panel, but then decided against it because Sunshine Port didn't get much sun, so the panel wouldn't generate much electricity anyway. Who knew what the next disaster world would be? Lin Tu felt she needed to prepare in advance. If she could stock up on a few of these things, so much the better.

On a similar note, Lin Tu also wanted to hoard some cool summer clothes and cooling balm for mosquito bites. If she happened to run into a flood, things like inflatable kayaks, swimsuits, and goggles would be important to have on hand.

Besides those, there were daily necessities like rice, flour, oil, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, and the like.

And if she could collect some gold and silver, that would be nice too... Lin Tu thought secretly. To someone who'd grown up in peacetime like her, gold and silver were no different from points.

"I'm in," Lin Tu said firmly.

.

The next morning, two cars set off for the town center supermarket.

Tian Jingjing and the others were all a bit tense before setting out. When they saw Zhang Zisheng, who had just as little experience but was as calm as a cucumber, they couldn't help but be puzzled.

"Didn't you say before that you weren't optimistic about Sister Lin going to fight zombies?" As soon as she said this, Zhang Zisheng hurriedly clamped a hand over Tian Jingjing's mouth, looking a bit flustered—

"Don't talk nonsense."

The contrast was too stark. Tian Jingjing only wanted to ask more. Their commotion drew the attention of Zheng Yangyang and Han Yu.

The four of them had entered the disaster world in the same batch. Like all newcomers, they'd started from F-level disasters. Sometime between completing three F-level and three E-level disasters, they'd joined Luo Yongzhi's squad one after another.

Disaster classification was very particular. Although D-level was only one tier higher than F-level, compared to relatively simple natural disasters like earthquakes, hailstorms, and tsunamis, these worlds also had monsters and other more difficult situations, or two natural disasters stacked on top of each other.

If you were really unlucky, you'd encounter a D-level disaster evolution.

That's why many people, when looking at their survival odds, would rather do three E-level disasters to skip one D-level than actually go to a D-level disaster. But in reality, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"Remember what the captain said about how it's only when you start D-level worlds that you're really a player?" Zhang Zisheng said helplessly.

"Yeah," everyone said, not understanding where she was going with this.

"I think the captain meant that only by surviving D-level disasters do we really start fighting against them," Zhang Zisheng said, rubbing her chin. "On that first trip to the central hospital, how many points did you all earn following Sister Lin?"

At that, Zheng Yangyang lit up. He'd earned a solid 17 points! The others weren't far behind.

"Guess how much I earned yesterday following Sister Lin?" Seeing everyone shake their heads, Zhang Zisheng said, "44.5 points."

The others: "?" A sudden wave of deep regret and sourness welled up in their chests—what was that about?

"It's not just about the points," Zhang Zisheng said. "It's just that I suddenly realized that earning enough points in a few days to feed myself for a month was something I used to stress about. It feels like we're so small in the face of a natural disaster, but as long as we think of different ways, do different things, we can create more chances for survival. Just like Sister Lin..."

Zhang Zisheng looked through the glass toward the car ahead, her gaze burning with intensity.

The others seemed lost in thought, but no one pressed further.

When they arrived at the town center, unexpectedly, a few squad members were there, waiting for Lin Tu and her group as if they'd been lying in wait.

"Is it her?" After murmuring among themselves, they blocked Lin Tu's car.

"Is it the active substance you mentioned yesterday?" The team member was excited.

Lin Tu nodded. "That's right."

The team member hastened to say, "We contacted the fleet yesterday. Once the message got to the scientists, they found that the active substance really might be the breakthrough!"

Everyone got excited.

"Did you hear anything else from that bone corpse?" the team member asked.

Lin Tu recounted what she'd heard verbatim. The team member nodded while jotting it down. "Great, great! Thank you! This information is very important. If you remember anything else, be sure to contact me right away."

He gestured to the hospital not far away. "We've set up a temporary base over there. To gather more intel, the commander decided we should keep monitoring what that bone corpse says around the clock. It's a shame though..."

He sighed deeply. "Apparently, that medical scientist's ideas about active substances were nothing short of genius. It's just too bad he's dead. Otherwise, there might already be a cure for the zombie virus."

Everyone had already sighed over this once before, and they sighed again now. Dong Huadan encouraged him, "There's still a chance. Hang in there."

The team member nodded, full of hope.

Lin Tu heard a rumbling sound and looked into the distance. Several trucks were driving in a line toward the hospital.

"Did you find some supplies?" Lin Tu asked, noticing the same label printed on all the trucks.

"Ah, right! I was so caught up feeling sorry that I forgot to thank you!" The team member hurriedly said. "Thanks to you clearing out the zombies nearby, we managed to grab a batch of solar panels from the nearby power plant without much trouble. If we cover the roofs with them, the hospital will have a steady supply of electricity for a long time. That so-called national-level lab is full of high-tech equipment that uses a lot of power."

Lin Tu immediately spoke up. "What a coincidence! I need solar panels too. Can you spare a few for me?"

The group behind her, including Dong Huadan, chimed in as well. "If you can spare some, we'd like a few too. We can trade supplies for them, or even take less—just enough to boil hot water occasionally."

"I'll go ask the commander right away. Oh, one more thing..." The team member turned to leave but suddenly thought of something and called back loudly, "If you ever need to find us, just come to the hospital. You're welcome anytime. Just mention that lady's name. Lin..."

Chinese names were indeed tough for foreigners to pronounce. He opened his mouth, struggled awkwardly, but just couldn't get Lin Tu's name out.

"Lin Tu!" Karen gave a cold laugh.

"Oh, right right right! Sorry, I'll remember it next time." With that, he jogged off to ask about the solar panels.

"Excellent!" Cheers erupted from the car behind. Lin Tu cracked a smile too.

"Let's go! To the supermarket!"

The tense, oppressive atmosphere from the ride over vanished without a trace. When they reached the supermarket and found even more supplies than they'd expected, everyone got even more cheerful.

After clearing out the store, the players found an excuse to split off from Karen.

Unlike Lin Tu, Dong Huadan and the others had to pay extra points to take too many things out of the disaster world, so they only planned to stock up on what they needed for this round.

Lin Tu was different. She pulled out her Single-Use Backpack and waved it happily. "Let's do it like this—three portions of everything. Leave a little for the folks who come after us."

Three portions of quilts, bedding sets, electric blankets, and other bedding; toothbrushes, toothpaste, facial cleansers, skincare products, and other toiletries; pots and pans, plastic wrap, dish soap, and other kitchen supplies; tissues, sanitary pads, wet wipes, and other daily essentials; slippers, underwear, hats, scarves, sunglasses, and other clothing; and of course, the swimsuits and goggles she'd mentioned earlier.

And finally, three dog portions of dog food, chew toys, and dog clothes.

Remembering her daily struggles with bathing, Lin Tu also grabbed a portable shower device. It had a water reservoir at the bottom, a hose and nozzle connected on top. When she needed to shower, she could fill the tank, press a button, and water would flow from the nozzle automatically.

Since she planned to buy [Long-term Power] for the next disaster, Lin Tu also picked out a refrigerator, a freezer, two air conditioners, a rice cooker, fans, and other appliances. These things were bulky and heavy, and stuffing them all directly into the Single-Use Backpack might exceed its weight limit. So Lin Tu hauled them one by one with a hand truck onto the pickup.

While she was lifting all this equipment, the others had already finished their scavenging. When they saw Lin Tu grunting as she hefted a fridge onto the pickup, which already had two air conditioners on it, they were all incredulous—this is a disaster world, wake up! Just surviving is enough, what's with the air conditioning!

But even as they grumbled, they still pitched in to help.

Lin Tu had Karen keep an eye on the truck while she and the other players went back inside to continue hoarding food.

Food couldn't be measured by portions for a few people. Lin Tu planned to stock up a three-month supply of everything. A thirty-jin bag of buckwheat rice, six bags of pasta, over a dozen thick ham sausages as big around as a thigh—some dried, some cured, some ground up into a paste and packed in various shapes, and some packaged whole—a sack of potatoes, six bags of marinated pork belly, and so on.

Of course, canned goods were a must. There were the venison, king crab, and pickled cucumber cans she'd found in the residential houses before. These three kinds had been certified by Lin Tu as especially delicious when sandwiched between bread, so she stocked up two full boxes of each. There were also canned fatty pork, and fish cans like pink salmon, sardines, and salmon.

Finally, there were the snacks: chocolate, chips, cookies, jelly, gummy candies, cream puffs, milk, and so on. They packed so much that not just Lin Tu, but even the other players' hands were getting tired.

Before leaving the supermarket, Lin Tu stuffed the entire small display rack on the checkout counter—the one holding gum and chocolate candies—into her Single-Use Backpack.

Looking at the row of empty checkout counters, Lin Tu felt a strange sense of accomplishment—

Hoarding feels great in the moment, and it feels even better when you never stop.

The group split up to organize their loot at their respective homes, and we won't dwell on that.

Because there was so much stuff, it wasn't until the third day that they finally went to the hospital to pick up the solar panels. When they got there, they learned that some of the scientists had hit a snag with the active substance. They'd decided to travel south in person, coming to the central hospital to see if they could find any clues in the lab where the doctor had done his research.

The stakes were high, and to ensure adequate safety and supplies, the entire combat unit of the Ship of Hope had been killing zombies and gathering resources night and day, expanding the safe zone centered around the hospital.

After picking up her solar panels and learning how to install them from the workers, Lin Tu was about to head home when Yu Liu warmly invited her to join the squad on their missions, offering her a one-tenth share of the supplies they collected.

This wasn't very appealing to Lin Tu at first, but when Yu Liu specifically mentioned that she could practice hand-to-hand combat and shooting with the military instructors, her interest shot up.

"Deal!" Lin Tu agreed to Yu Liu's invitation.

Each morning, she'd report to the hospital for shooting practice with the instructors. From noon to the afternoon, she'd go out on missions. And in the evening, she'd come back for more combat training.

Lin Tu already had some experience with boxing and shooting; with expert guidance, she honed herself into a razor's edge, even making a bit of a name for herself within the combat teams.

On the morning of the seventh day, the scientists finally arrived at the hospital. The lead scientist was carrying a potted flower, and he immediately spotted Karen, who was sitting in the sun watching over her seedling. He was about to head straight for the lab to check things out, but for some reason, he wandered over to Karen instead. Karen eyed him warily and quickly pulled the seedling closer to her chest.

"You..." The two pot-holders stared at each other, both at a bit of a loss. Finally, the scientist spoke first. "You're holding a plant too."

"It's not mine. It's my boss's. The one in the middle of that group." Karen tilted her head, directing his gaze over to the shooting range.

A woman with her hair tied back in a ponytail stood there. She was slim but had a strong, defined build. She raised a gun, calmly aiming at the target.

Bang. A perfect bullseye. The rookies watching let out a cheer.

As if sensing the gaze, the woman turned her head coldly, her narrow eyes still carrying the sharp chill of someone fresh from aiming.

"Hmph," Lin Tu seemed to think of something. She set down her gun and walked over to Karen.

"Your flower looks well cared for." Lin Tu had used [Beginner Plant Affinity Voucher] earlier, which let her sense whether plants were thriving or dying. This flower clearly showed no sign of infection. The reason she'd turned around just now was that she'd felt a vitality from it—distinct from the corn seedling, but fainter.

"It has to be. We need to extract active substances from this Hellflower." The scientist said with hope. "If we succeed, our world will be saved."

"It will be saved..." Lin Tu had said those words countless times over these past few days. Then something suddenly occurred to her. "Maybe I can help."

"Help?" The scientist frowned.

"She's the one who told us about the active substance." A man nearby who recognized Lin Tu quickly explained to the scientist.

The scientist's frown melted away immediately. "Alright, give it a try."

When they reached the fifth-floor lab, Lin Tu once again saw the mutated zombie made of the doctor and Xiaoling. Sounds still occasionally emanated from its cranial cavity, but among the various human voices, none mentioned active substances.

"Try extracting some and see?" Lin Tu said. "I'm just saying it's a possibility. No guarantees."

Her beginner-level plant affinity might be able to sense active substances too...

Unfortunately, the results were destined to disappoint her. She did sense a certain "aliveness" when the substance was extracted, but the moment the experiments began, that sense of "alive" turned into "dead."

"What a shame..."

After saying goodbye to the scientist, Lin Tu went about her usual zombie-killing routine, feeling a little deflated.

While driving her little pickup back home, she suddenly spotted a few familiar faces.

It was Officer Robert and the two nurses.

Just a few days had passed, but they'd changed drastically. More disheveled than before, yet carrying an upward spirit of resilience. When they saw Lin Tu, surprised smiles spread across their faces.

"Sister Lin!" The nurse with thick arms called out, using the same title as everyone else. "We got the smoked fish! We also went to a car shop further north and drove back two RVs!"

She was eager to repay Lin Tu and quickly ran around to the back of the house, then came back lugging a large string of smoked fish.

The fish were glistening with oil, and two of them were as thick as a thigh. A rich smoky aroma wafted off them—whether stewed into soup, sandwiched in bread, or paired with alcohol, they'd make for fine dishes!

Lin Tu's eyes lit up. "Are you short on anything? I'll trade you!"

In the end, Lin Tu led them over near Combatants, where the two groups swapped supplies. Lin Tu traded toothbrushes, toothpaste, washbasins, towels, cooking oil, and other daily necessities for over twenty smoked fish.

After the exchange, Officer Robert and the others prepared to head back the way they'd come. Lin Tu suddenly thought of the scientist and quickly asked Robert and the nurses, "Do you remember anything the doctor said about active substances or making medicine?"

The three shook their heads blankly. Still, Lin Tu brought them back to the hospital anyway.

If they remembered anything, great. Even if they didn't, it was best they stayed at the hospital.

It was currently the safest place nearby. Quite a few people had come upon hearing the news and were settling in around the hospital. Nora and her mother had also been placed in a hospital room at Lin Tu's arrangement.

"If you remember anything, go find the scientists," Lin Tu instructed.

Learning that the doctor had really been on the verge of creating a cure for the zombie virus—and that it had earned the scientists' recognition—made the three of them even more sorrowful, but it also steeled their resolve: they would carefully rack their brains to remember every last word the doctor had ever said.

.

Time slipped by, day after day. By the 49th day of the disaster, Lin Tu had already followed the main force to clear out most of the city neighboring the town.

On this particular night, she suddenly felt her phone buzz—"vroom"—in her sleep.

[Congratulations! You have successfully cleared the Newcomer Disaster World—D-level Disaster: Global Zombie Crisis]

[The disaster has ended early. On April 28, 2304, *** successfully developed the zombie virus antidote. Your status before this time node was: ALIVE! Main quest complete! Clear conditions met! (D-level random reward unlocked)]

[Player Performance Rating: SSS]

[World Whisper: In a world of pitch-black chaos, you became a beam of light illuminating a pure land. This land is slowly recovering its vitality because of you. A girl whose fate you changed has rebuilt the Northern Continent. When the new era arrived, the people of this land did not forget the figure who had long been gone. A part of the Northern Continent will forever bear your unpronounceable name.]

[Congratulations! Side quest complete: Defeat D-level zombies x1693; (S-level random reward unlocked)]

[Congratulations! Special achievement unlocked: Lin Tu City (post-disaster rebuilt city in D-level disaster world), The Female General's Dream (Note 1)]

[Note 1: As Nora grew older, she could never forget that afternoon. She once again saw the neighbor uncle who had nearly killed her—by then, he had already turned into a zombie. Nora felt no fear at all. Unlike all the other children, she bravely raised her gun and killed him, just as she'd practiced countless times. That night, she dreamt of that big sister. That hand stroking her head filled her with strength once more. From then on, she often had that dream, but she could only ever see the big sister's back. She knew it was because she was no longer afraid. She had become a frail old woman. She had become the ruler of the entire Northern Continent. She had rebuilt this world.]

[You may now begin drawing random rewards... as well as special achievement rewards...]

TL Note:

"Hoarding feels great in the moment, and it feels even better when you never stop (一时囤货一时爽，一直囤货一直爽)" is a play on the Chinese internet meme "一时...一时爽，一直...一直爽" meaning the more you do something, the more satisfying it becomes, here used jokingly about stocking supplies.