With the Avenger Type-100 Amphibious All-Terrain Vehicle – a ride built to handle the gnarliest terrain – Luo Jie and his crew picked up some serious speed. They finally rolled into the temporary safe house Wu Niang had marked on the map just as the afternoon sun was dipping toward the horizon.
The place was a classic old-school Japanese courtyard, maybe four or five hundred square feet. Thick whitewashed brick walls ringed the perimeter, with only two solid black wooden gates – front and back – connecting it to the outside world. Short of running into some tank-like elite zombie demolition crew, not even a horde of the dead could breach that outer defense. Gotta hand it to Wu Niang; she had an eye for good real estate.
The area around the compound had clearly been cleared out. The whole street was dead quiet, not a single shuffling body in sight. Only the dried, dark brown bloodstains on the ground told the tale of the fights that had gone down here.
Luo Jie parked the ATV but didn't rush to knock. First, he launched his USS Micro UAV Recon Drone. Good thing there wasn't some cliché thug hijacking scenario inside. Wu Niang and Boxer were hauling watermelons out of the courtyard well. When they spotted the familiar silvery-gray drone hovering above, they even waved happily at the camera.
Once Luo Jie and the others were inside, Boxer stepped up to bar the main gate again, bracing it with iron frames and planks.
Wu Niang darted over and gave Luo Jie a polite hug, grinning. "Yeyan! You finally made it! We were so bored waiting here."
"Bored enough to start chowing down on watermelon, huh?" Luo Jie chuckled, tapping the watermelon beaded with water she was holding.
"There's a fruit store nearby. When Boxer and I were clearing out the surrounding dead, we grabbed a dozen or so while we were at it," Wu Niang explained, then with a swift chop of her knife, she sliced the melon into neat wedges. "Here, you must be tired from the trip. Have a slice to cool off."
"Thanks, Sister Wu Niang," Safi said politely as she took a piece. Despite her sharp tongue with Ross, the girl always came off as well-behaved and well-mannered around others.
While Ju Chuan Jingxiang took Miyamoto Rei inside to redress her wounds, Luo Jie gathered Wu Niang, Ross, and their respective teams for a quick powwow on the courtyard veranda. To keep Ju Chuan Jingxiang from overhearing – not that she'd understand anyway – Luo Jie fired up the USS Micro UAV Recon Drone's communication function. They could chat secretly via text, like shooting the breeze in a real-world internet group chat.
"Let's roll! I'm ready!" Ross piped up, waving his hand enthusiastically… only to get smacked sideways by Safi.
"You mean ready with your 15 gigs of meme stash, right?" Safi scoffed. "You never have any good ideas anyway, Yeyan. Mute him. Just let him watch."
"Nooooo!" Ross yelped, clinging to Safi's not-exactly-long-but-well-proportioned thigh, sniffling and blubbering. "What's the point of group chat without meme wars? I'd be no better than a salted fish!"
"Let go, you pervert! – Twin Dragons Plucking Pearls!" "AAAH! Again?! My eyes!"
Wu Niang and Boxer exchanged confused glances at this "Ross's Daily Tumble" spectacle, then looked to Luo Jie for an explanation.
"These two…"
"Pretty close, aren't they?" Luo Jie said, unfazed, munching on his watermelon.
"…" Wu Niang facepalmed internally. Where exactly do you see "close" in that?
Boxer frowned slightly at Ross, now rolling around clutching his eyes. "Is his eye gonna be okay?" The Ivory Mountain Chieftain's team had quite the stark contrast: Wu Niang looked dainty and refined but was actually a straightforward, rough-and-tumble tomboy, while Boxer, all cool exterior, was a thoughtful, somewhat introverted sweetheart.
"Oh, don't worry about him," Luo Jie grinned. He'd initially thought Safi's go-to "Twin Dragons" move was brutal, but that changed when she'd shared the stats of one of her items.
Titanium Dog Eyes Type: Accessory Rarity: E (Blue) Level: 1 Skill 1: Eye Protection – Additional 200 Strength to eyes, increased resistance to flash blindness. Description: No one's gonna blind these titanium peepers.
200 Strength. That was higher than the base Strength of Luo Jie's F-Rank Purple USS Combat Armor (Prototype 1). Not even a regular bullet could take out those freaky Titanium Dog Eyes, let alone a finger poke.
"Alright, let's get down to business. Here's the plan moving forward," Luo Jie clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention – except Ross's, obviously.
"I've got Nan Lixiang's address. Our next target is that two-story villa."
Excitement flickered across their faces. Anybody who'd seen the original knew what that villa meant. It was one of the biggest treasure troves in the Highschool of the Dead Illusionary Realm, right after the Takagi Estate and Higashimachi Police Station. From what the original plot hinted, there were at least four F-Rank Blue or higher ranged weapons there, including a rare sniper rifle. And let's not forget the most valuable vehicle in this scenario: a modified Hummer H1 military edition. Even if they didn't know the quest to unlock the place yet, enough points could still let them force-certify and take the gear. For this group, it was practically a full-on equipment upgrade.
"Oh, right, how's Chieftain doing?" Luo Jie suddenly asked Wu Niang.
"I messaged him via the system earlier. He got to Higashimachi Shopping Mall on the other side of the Bed River before the outbreak hit, like you said. He managed to clear most of the customers with a fake alarm right before everything went down. He's holed up there with some survivors now. Safe, but he says he's dying of boredom…"
Luo Jie could picture Chieftain's current state and smiled. "Well, he's earned his rest."
"Yeyan, there's something I've been meaning to ask," Wu Niang said. "Looking at the map, escaping Bed City doesn't require going through Higashimachi Mall. In the original story, Komuro and the others only passed through because the Takagi Estate fell and they were fleeing. Since we're not escorting Takagi Saya, we don't need to go to the Takagi Estate either. So why did you send Chieftain there?"