"Afraid that's not going to happen," Luo Jie flatly rejected the proposal, his voice grave. "As a key mode of transportation highlighted in the original work, the keys to that minibus are in the school's teacher's office. I'm afraid they were already taken by members of other player squads the moment the zombie outbreak started."
"What about other cars?" Safi asked. "I see quite a few private cars in the parking lot... And the original story did mention that Marikawa Shizuka seems to have a small family car; it should fit the four of us."
"The original owners of these cars were all teachers at Fujimi Academy, and they were mostly dead when the zombie virus broke out. Finding their car keys would be extremely difficult... And, even if we could find the keys, the school gates are already blocked. We wouldn't be able to drive the cars out anyway."
"Then let's go on foot," Ross suggested. "We can look for a vehicle after we get out of Fujimi Academy. With so many people dead out there now, finding transportation shouldn't be too hard."
It was rare for Ross to come up with a solid idea, though it was pretty much the obvious answer.
At this moment, members of over a dozen player squads were concentrated in the gymnasium, with only a small number of people guarding the relatively easy-to-defend front and rear doors. Finding a spot to climb over the wall in such a large campus would be a piece of cake.
Using a step made from piled-up old desks and chairs, Ross and Safi successively leaped over the wall. Upon landing, they immediately drew their weapons from their storage spaces and took up a defensive position with their backs to the wall.
Luo Jie noticed then that Ross's weapon was a pink magic wand about seventy to eighty centimeters long, topped with a golden star and a pair of small white wings—utterly dripping with girlish charm.
Safi's weapon, on the other hand, was a massive spiked mace, easily a meter and a half in length. The spiked head took up almost half of it, with a two-handed grip for the shaft. Its brutal, rugged design stood in stark, almost comical contrast to the girl's petite frame.
Luo Jie was dumbfounded. Had they... swapped weapons by mistake?
The mace he could sort of understand, but what was with the big guy wielding a Barbie magic wand? Was he planning to transform into a magical girl or something?
"Ah!"
Just as Luo Jie's mind was trash-talking the weapons of the members of Team Seraphim, Marikawa Shizuka, who was in the process of climbing the wall, suddenly let out a soft cry of surprise.
"What's wrong, Shizuka-sensei?" Luo Jie looked up and asked.
"My skirt... it's caught on the railing," Marikawa Shizuka said with a hint of a whimper in her voice.
Luo Jie facepalmed. Ever since he'd met Marikawa Shizuka, this had practically become a reflex action of his.
It was that skirt again! Why did it have to be so attention-grabbing...
"Hold on a second."
Luo Jie jumped up onto the wall, positioning himself face-to-face with Marikawa Shizuka. He grabbed the hem of her left skirt with both hands and applied a little pressure with his fingers.
There was a tearing sound—rip—as the soft black pencil skirt was torn open along the side, all the way up to her waist, even faintly revealing a scrap of purple lace that was less than three fingers wide.
Luo Jie nodded in satisfaction. Although there might have been a smidgen of ulterior motive, he had to admit that Saeko Busujima's impromptu modification from the original story was the most practical solution in this situation.
"Kyaa! Xiao Ye, what are you doing? This skirt is a designer brand; it was really expensive!" Marikawa Shizuka stroked the tear in her skirt with a pained expression, looking like she was about to cry.
True to the original, the focus of this big-breasted cutie was a little off.
Beneath the torn skirt, Marikawa Shizuka's long, shapely legs—neither too skinny nor too thick—gleamed even more dazzlingly in the sunlight. The skin unique to 2D characters had a translucent quality, almost like the white of a boiled egg.
Ross froze for a moment, then calmly pulled out a pair of black frogman goggles from his storage space and put them on.
Safi's forehead veins were throbbing. Her face darkened as she sneered, "Dare you wipe the drool from the corner of your mouth first...?"
Ross thought, "Oh no," and decisively covered his face, then took advantage of the momentum to forward into a roll. The whole sequence was smooth and practiced, executed with the skill of a veteran.
Safi stamped her foot in exasperation, urgently whispering, "Hey—ditch! Ditch! Ditch!"
"Olé olé olé—Aiya!"
As it turned out, there was no good end for showing off too much; playing it safe was the way to go.
...
"Xiao Ye, I'm coming down!"
Marikawa Shizuka took a deep breath and leaped from the wall, immediately being caught firmly in Luo Jie's arms.
"Ha, it feels just like that time Rika took me bungee jumping! So exciting... You look a bit skinny, Xiao Ye, but you're actually quite strong!"
Marikawa Shizuka curiously pinched the muscles in Luo Jie's arm, chattering happily about some trivial daily happenings with Minami Rika, completely devoid of any sense of urgency about their doomsday escape. She acted more like she was going on a picnic.
Luo Jie wasn't paying attention to what Marikawa Shizuka was saying. His focus had been captured by two new notifications that had suddenly popped up in his visual display.
[Detection: You have exited the Fujimi Academy premises. Automatically calculating mission rewards.]
[Large-scale Group Mission: Eliminate all zombies in Fujimi Academy and rescue survivors.]
[Mission Contribution: 8%]
[Reward Points: 800 points.]
Luo Jie's eyebrows rose slightly. It seemed that Hei Jiang and the others' actions in disrupting the original plot had triggered this large-scale group mission. While the points weren't much, it was a nice little bonus.
Adding in the points from the zombies he'd killed while rescuing Miyamoto Rei, his total points from this illusion realm now stood at 1715, placing him 6th on the overall points ranking.
Although his score and ranking weren't particularly outstanding at the moment, to avoid future trouble, Luo Jie still chose to hide his score display.
[You have gained the approval of the plot character, Marikawa Shizuka. Do you wish to designate her as a Protection Target?]
Luo Jie smiled faintly. He'd been waiting for this notification.
"Yes."
[Marikawa Shizuka has become your Protection Target. Main Storyline Clearance Mission officially initiated.]
[Warning: If the Protection Target dies midway, or if the protection relationship is terminated by any means, the player will be deducted 10,000 x Target's Point Coefficient points. Insufficient points will result in a negative balance.]
Presumably receiving the same notification, Ross and Safi from Team Seraphim both paled slightly.
They had known that there would be a point coefficient bonus upon mission completion, but they had no idea there would be a deduction penalty as well.
The higher the point coefficient, the more points they would lose if the target met with an accident.
"Marikawa Shizuka's point coefficient was what, 3, right?" Ross's voice trembled as he spoke. That meant if their protection failed, he and Safi would each be deducted 30,000 points.
And the fact that it even allowed for debt was simply the system trying to squeeze players dry!
He had originally thought, "High risk, high reward—go big or go home," which was why he'd given up on the easier-to-protect Komuro Takashi and Busujima Saeko to choose the higher-risk Marikawa Shizuka. He hadn't expected the system to catch him off guard like this.