Chapter 3: A New Side Quest

The emergence of talent cards and legacies sent a cold sweat down Song Yu’s spine, while an indescribable emotion began to spread within her heart.

This was definitely not a good sign. With talent cards and player legacies appearing, it was clear that the battles between players would become brutally fierce.

Despite her shock, Song Yu quickly used the two talent cards. Instantly, her previously poor attributes improved significantly.

The legacies left behind by those two players contained only the items in their backpack slots.

To be precise, only the contents within the backpack slots counted as legacies, not the slots themselves.

Before dying, both players had claimed their quest rewards, which now benefited Song Yu.

Of course, the loot wasn’t much—just rewards from side quests.

Song Yu also claimed her own quest rewards. She now had four backpack slots, seven disinfectant bandages, six bottles of antibiotics (+32 health), a crossbow with six arrows (+15 attack damage), a rusty dagger (+2 attack damage), and a sharp knife.

Although she lacked food and water, Song Yu was now equipped to handle zombies.

Wrapping a disinfectant bandage around her leg, her wound immediately healed, and her health fully restored.

She devised a plan for her next moves, placing the highest priority on finding a shelter, along with food and water.

A safe shelter was essential to survive the dangerous night.

This house was definitely unsuitable, too close to the hospital.

A vehicle was also necessary; without one, she couldn’t explore long distances.

After a brief rest and search inside the house, Song Yu finally found a compressed biscuit in the kitchen (+30 fullness, -20 hydration).

For such a large house, only one compressed biscuit was truly stingy.

There were more than twenty houses in this area. Since her hospital expedition had nearly drained her stamina, she had to rest intermittently while searching.

Some houses contained zombies—mostly first-level ordinary zombies.

With her crossbow and reusable arrows, killing these zombies was easy.

After searching all the houses, Song Yu found three buckets of instant noodles (+21 fullness), three self-heating rice packs (+31 fullness), an apple (+4 fullness, +2 hydration), and five bottles of mineral water (+30 hydration).

Two of the water bottles were obtained thanks to her talent card activation.

With so many supplies suddenly acquired, Song Yu attempted to exploit a backpack slot bug.

She tried putting all the supplies into one backpack, then placing the backpack itself into a slot.

Unfortunately, she failed. The system repeatedly prompted: “Supply error, cannot store.”

Besides the supplies, zombies also dropped items, but none were food or water. Instead, she found tubes of blood and a bicycle key.

[Old Bicycle Key: Can quickly unlock the corresponding locked vehicle.]

[Mutated Blood LV.1: Mutated blood produced after zombification.]

[Player has triggered side quest—Collect Level 1 Mutated Blood (6/100)]

[Tip: Collect zombie blood to exchange for good supplies. Reward: 10,000 RMB]

These mutated blood samples had triggered a side quest for Song Yu.

Leaning on the bed in the room, she ate instant noodles dry while pondering her next actions.

It was already noon; she needed to find a suitable shelter as soon as possible.

The city center was out of the question; a remote area with fewer zombies was more suitable.

There should be residential complexes near the hospital. Song Yu drank the last drop of mineral water, and aside from stamina, her attributes were mostly restored to full.

The bicycle key she found on a zombie matched a bicycle in the house.

She changed into clothes found inside the house, slung on her backpack, and set off on the bicycle.

Outside the house, scattered zombies appeared in some numbers, mostly first-level.

In the distance beyond the cluster of houses, Song Yu saw many tall buildings. Even in daylight, that area looked gloomy and dangerous.

She avoided that direction, choosing another path, leisurely riding her bicycle.

The road was littered with abandoned vehicles and debris; these vehicles had almost no supplies left.

“Huh?”

Song Yu stopped beside an abandoned truck. This vehicle was distinctly different from the others, its black body bearing a huge red emblem—likely belonging to an organization.

She seemed to have discovered something extraordinary.

Looking around to ensure no one was watching, she gently knocked on the truck’s body. No sound came from inside.

Hesitating briefly, Song Yu opened the truck’s rear compartment.

Inside was nothing but a solitary black box, locked with a combination she couldn’t open.

[Player has triggered side quest—Lost Property of the Watchers Organization]

[Tip: Return the box to the Watchers Organization, usually active in Yangliu City’s old district.]

[Reward: Unknown]

So far, Song Yu had triggered two side quests, both seemingly quite challenging.

The merchant collecting mutated blood was at the city’s edge; the Watchers Organization operated in the old district.

She carefully inspected the truck’s cabin and found a map and a pack of twenty cigarettes (+27 morale; long-term use causes addiction) in the glove compartment beside the seat.

This was a pleasant surprise.

Opening the map, Song Yu quickly realized that she was currently at the city’s edge.

This meant she was likely not far from the mutated blood collector merchant. Song Yu already had thirteen tubes of mutated blood.

With the map, she swiftly planned a suitable shelter location, far from most large buildings.

Though inconvenient for gathering supplies and killing zombies, it was much safer at night.

She decided to kill zombies to collect blood while heading toward the shelter.

The day was already waning; she needed to find a place to spend the night quickly.

Stuffing the map into her backpack, she mounted her bicycle and set off again.

It was still afternoon; the number of zombies was not too high. Most zombies in the city seemed to be hiding, much like those inside the hospital.

On the way to the shelter, Song Yu killed many wandering first-level zombies, occasionally encountering one or two second-level zombies. She struggled considerably to kill one second-level zombie.

The mutated blood from the second-level zombie was naturally level two.

Song Yu discovered that one tube of second-level mutated blood was worth as much as one hundred tubes of first-level blood!

As if by telepathy, shortly after she completed the collection quest, a small camp suddenly appeared in a clearing beside the road.

Standing within the camp was a person bearing the shining title: [NPC—Mutated Blood Merchant Chen Su]!