Chapter 1 Moonlit Branches

The moon hung full in the branches, and the sound of cicadas chirping on the windless summer night was especially irritating.

Mingmei had just finished handing over her shift to the night staff at the cafeteria when she came outside and saw Mu Chen leaning against the wall, staring up in a daze.

As her footsteps approached, he turned to look at her, smiling and extending his hand. Mingmei stepped forward and placed her hand in his palm, asking, "How long have you been waiting?"

"Not long, I just got here."

Mingmei noticed that his hair was still wet, as if he had just taken a shower. Mingmei could even smell the fresh scent of soapberry.

"Here."

"What's this?"

Taking the plastic package from Mu Chen, Mingmei opened it and saw that it was dried fruit.

"Today, when I was out searching for survivors outside the city, I came across these supplies. With the current weather, the shelf life of these foods is greatly reduced. I checked the date, and they were produced not long before the zombie outbreak, so they should be okay for now."

"Thank you, I like them very much."

With that, Mingmei took one out and held it to Mu Chen's mouth. Mu Chen took the dried fruit from Mingmei's hand and ate it, his eyes fixed on Mingmei, watching her take a piece and eat it herself.

She looked up, meeting Mu Chen's gaze, and the two smiled at each other.

"Where's your dormitory? I'll walk you over."

"It's quite close to here," Mingmei raised her eyebrows, staring into Mu Chen's eyes and asking, "Do you really want to walk me back?"

"Then..." Mu Chen chuckled, "Walk with me a little longer."

"Okay."

...

"Hehehehehe..."

At this moment, in the virtual conference room, while all the teachers were frowning and staring intently at the live broadcast in front of them, watching this extraordinarily oppressive otherworld game, one of them stood out as a very obvious "outlier."

As Mingmei's sister-in-law, Ms. Cheshire never expected to see Mingmei and Mu Chen "sweetening the deal" at this time. The corners of her mouth were practically touching her eyes.

Knock!

No wonder Lu Xiaoyao was so obsessed with their relationship!

Tsk! She felt like she had missed so much.

"What are you..."

Dennis turned his head and noticed the expression on Cheshire's face, and his eyes became subtle.

All the teachers were sweating for their students, but—was she indicating that her student was performing well?

He couldn't help but glance at the live broadcast Cheshire was watching, his eyes becoming even stranger, and then he looked back at Cheshire. His gentlemanly demeanor made it difficult for him to exclaim, "So, this is the real Cheshire."

Dennis could only choose to silently turn his head and continue watching his own student's broadcast.

But as he watched his own broadcast, Dennis felt inexplicably uneasy, and a terrible thought vaguely arose in his mind: "If only I had sent Bai Xiao and Yuan Fang together."

On the other side, Xu Wensong noticed the broadcast Cheshire was watching, exclaimed in surprise for a moment, and curiously asked, "Are they a couple?"

"Yes," Cheshire replied with a smile, "Many people in our family have a good impression of Mu Chen."

"That's good, they look very well-matched."

Xu Wensong praised with a smile. Of course, he knew the relationship between Mingmei and Cheshire.

Then he looked at his own student, a lone seedling, still outside the base, and, with the heart of an old grandfather, he turned his attention back to Wang Wenfei.

At this moment, Wang Wenfei and several refugee NPCs were sheltering for the night in an abandoned building. By the campfire, she stared blankly at the face of the NPC in the game who was related to her.

That face was so much like her sister, Wang Wenying.

Not like the sister she could only see when she stared blankly into the mirror in *Blood Battle Prelude*, but like this, from a third-person perspective.

At this time, Wang Wenfei was looking at this NPC in the game who looked exactly like her sister. Coincidentally, her name was A Ying, and their relationship in the game was that of sisters.

"What's wrong? Are you not feeling well?"

The A Ying in front of her reached out and touched her forehead, her expression becoming puzzled. She muttered, "You don't have a fever, so why do you look so pale?"

"Maybe I used too much of my ability during the day and I'm a little exhausted..."

Wang Wenfei shook her head to indicate that she was fine, but as soon as she said that, a flash of disappointment crossed A Ying's eyes.

"I wish I had an ability too, so that Feifei could relax a lot."

A Ying added another piece of firewood to the fire with a melancholy look. Noticing the flash of anxiety on Wang Wenfei's face when she looked over, she smiled before Wang Wenfei could speak and said, "Feifei has grown up and knows how to take care of people. Your sister is really happy... But your sister would rather be able to stand in front of Feifei when something happens and let Feifei always be a child."

The firelight reflected on that gentle, familiar face. At that moment, Wang Wenfei broke down. Tears instantly fell from her eyes, and many images flashed through her mind.

Her parents' worries and expectations, her grandfather's eyes full of anticipation, she had retreated, but again and again, she was forced to move forward...

But after experiencing so much, she had also decided to move forward on her own.

No matter how bumpy the road ahead, she would walk in the front, sheltering her family from the wind and rain.

"It's okay, I can do it. Sister, I also want to, I also want to grow up and protect you."

Wang Wenfei cried, but the corners of her mouth struggled to turn upward. Sitting up straight, with tears blurring her vision, she looked at A Ying, hiccuped, and smiled very awkwardly. "Sister, don't worry, I'll protect you!"

...

"These past few days, I've been out with the team searching for survivors and have met a lot of players."

Mu Chen held Mingmei's hand and walked along the base's cement road in the moonlight, talking about his work these past few days.

"They're all assigned outside the base?"

These past few days, Mingmei had basically been going between her dormitory and the cafeteria. Among the ability users who came to the cafeteria to eat, players didn't make up a large proportion.

The few times she did encounter them, they weren't acquaintances.

"Most of them, if their scores aren't very high, will generally try to improve their own strength. Of course, they also prioritize surviving. I've also seen some players outside the city who are ordinary people, but they chose to stay directly in the base."

"Yes, if your score is really low, and you can't even choose a good ability, I think it's better to give up the identity of an ability user. Being an ability user isn't necessarily safer."

Mingmei said this as she looked at Mu Chen. For two days, Mu Chen had almost the same routine as Mingmei working in the cafeteria, leaving early and returning late, and the stench of blood on him every time scared her.

"By the way, what's the state of the zombies here? Is there any possibility of them improving?"

"Improving?"

Mu Chen frowned slightly, not quite understanding what Mingmei meant.

"My parents and older brother experienced a world like this... The zombies there could evolve just like ability users, and even... turn into humans?"

Mingmei described all this uncertainly, but before Mu Chen could speak, Mingmei herself denied the possibility of zombies turning into humans in the game: "There are no conditions for them to turn into humans here, so they shouldn't turn into humans, and this process takes a very long time, so the game will probably skip that.

"But is it possible for zombies to evolve and become stronger... I think it's possible, after all, our abilities also have growth attributes, don't they?"

"Yes, when I was fighting zombies outside the city today, I did feel that some zombies were different..." Mu Chen recalled the details and confirmed Mingmei's guess. "I'll report this to the higher-ups tomorrow."

"Sigh, sure enough, this game... surviving peacefully for a year definitely isn't that simple."

Mingmei sighed deeply, remembering the "glorious years" her godfather used to tell her about when she was young, and her expression became complicated. "Actually, zombies aren't the scariest thing in a world like this..."

"The scariest thing is the human heart." Mu Chen said what Mingmei wanted to say, then looked at Mingmei and talked about the most memorable thing he had encountered during the day.

"I met a player during a rescue operation today who almost committed suicide."

"What? Suicide?"

Mingmei looked at Mu Chen in shock. Mu Chen nodded. "Yes, it was Lou Jia, a close call."