“Honestly, driving is easier than riding a bike.”
Gao Lan rested one hand on the wheel and the other casually on the armrest box—less like a driving instructor, more like a gang big sister taking her underling out for a joyride.
“No traffic rules now, no other cars fighting you for lanes, and it’s an automatic. If you still can’t learn this, you might as well go ride a tricycle.”
Ji Li: “…” He sat there meekly, not daring to make a sound.
On the dashboard, Eno had its back to both of them, looking out the window, occasionally chirping little sound effects—clearly in a good mood.
Eno: [••]♪
“See? Even Eno agrees.”
It doesn’t know squat!
Ji Li grumbled inwardly, his eyes sweeping over the driver’s seat, matching each component to the operations Gao Lan had explained.
Simple, if you called it simple: an accelerator, a steering wheel, a handbrake, a foot brake. Done.
But anyone who had never driven carried a natural awe of big machinery like this.
Ji Li was busy reviewing the controls when he suddenly heard Gao Lan go “huh?” He looked up sharply, and his eyes went wide.
Ahead, on the Elevated Bridge, vehicles were piled along both edges of the lanes, some straddling the railings entirely, half their bodies hanging in the air, teetering.
Nearly every car bore scorch marks. A tanker truck lay overturned not far from the ramp, burned down to its frame—surely the origin of the fire.
“What happened here?”
Gao Lan murmured and pulled the car to a stop, moving to get out and look, but Ji Li stopped her.
“Sis, let me. Don’t kill the engine.”
Gao Lan froze for a beat, then nodded. “Be careful.”
Ji Li grunted, unbuckled, pushed the door open, and walked toward the roadside. A few minutes later he climbed back in, face full of confusion.
“It was a pileup that caused a huge explosion. But wreckage stacked this neatly along the roadside definitely wasn’t from the impact. It’s more like something pushed it all over there.”
“Pushed it? Who could push that many cars? Don’t tell me someone went joyriding on a forklift?” Gao Lan asked, baffled.
Ji Li shook his head. “No idea. And the strangest part—there are tons of footprints on the ground, but I didn’t see a single zombie.”
Gao Lan held the wheel in silence for a while. “…Let’s head into the city and look. If anything feels off, we run immediately.”
Ji Li had no objections. The SUV rolled forward, following the road signs toward central Cheng’an City.
A few minutes later, the car came off the Elevated Bridge, and Ji Li and Gao Lan spotted the roadside gas station at almost the same moment, instantly thrilled.
“No wonder there was a tanker on the bridge—it must deliver here!” Gao Lan spun the wheel and parked beside the station.
There had been a crash here too, but fortunately the queue of cars waiting for fuel had formed a protective ring, keeping the out-of-control vehicles from slamming straight into the station.
But that also meant several cars had zombies trapped inside, all of which whipped into a frenzy at the sound of activity, slamming against the windows again and again.
Seeing this, Ji Li handed the gasoline-filled Space Bracelet to Gao Lan. “Sis, you fill the gas. I’ll handle the zombies.”
Then he grabbed the Golf Club and Window Breaker and got out.
Killing zombies trapped in cars was no different from catching turtles in a jar. All Ji Li had to do was press the Window Breaker once, then stand by the window and wait for the zombies to offer up their heads.
A dozen-odd minutes later, Gao Lan came running over, all smiles. “Little Ji, the Space Bracelet’s full. Let’s buy a few more, yeah?”
Ji Li was crouched on the ground digging out Zombie Cores. He looked up. “Full already? Can you tell how much is left?”
“A little under two thousand liters. Two more Space Bracelets will be plenty.” Gao Lan held up two fingers, beaming.
Ji Li thought for a moment, then stood. “Then fill mine. I’ve still got room in mine.”
While packing up last night, he had made a special trip to the rooftop to empty his bracelet, then duplicated it—all to free up a space dedicated to storing liquids.
He now held two Space Bracelets of 64 cubic meters each. Forget two thousand liters of gasoline—add another zero and it would still fit.
Worth mentioning: Space Bracelets could be bug-exploited for mass duplication. Who knew what the skill’s actual criteria even were.
Hearing this, Gao Lan froze for a moment, but she recovered quickly and nodded as if nothing were wrong. “Even better. I’ll teach you to use the fuel nozzle.”
After a round of instruction, the two swapped jobs—one catching gasoline in the Soup Bucket and transferring it into the bracelet, the other back to killing zombies.
Ten minutes later, Ji Li finished transferring the gasoline, and Gao Lan came over with the cores.
“Fifteen. Eight for you—makes up for the one I shorted you last time.”
Gao Lan handed over the counted cores. Ji Li pocketed them without so much as a glance, looked around, and muttered, “How come there’s no convenience store?”
“Try the rest room.” Gao Lan stored her cores and pointed at a small single-story building nearby. “Probably because this gas station’s too small, they never built one.”
Ji Li nodded, half understanding, and the two headed for the rest room.
Its door hung wide open, no zombies inside, everything intact—though there wasn’t much of value either. The only worthwhile finds were a few portable fuel drums and Hand Fuel Pumps.
“These are great. No more mouth-siphoning with these, and the material’s more corrosion-resistant too.” Gao Lan passed Ji Li two manual pumps. “Squeeze the bulb and it pumps. Two for you, one for me. My space is limited—one’s plenty.”
Ji Li swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue and silently stowed the pumps. Seeing Gao Lan about to leave, he hurriedly asked, “You don’t want the drums?”
Gao Lan waved a hand. “They’re yours.”
Ji Li opened his mouth, then closed it, and obediently stored the four 30-liter drums in his bracelet.
Back in the car, Gao Lan still sounded unsatisfied. “This gas station’s too small. If only we could find a big one. Four thousand liters won’t last that long once we actually start driving.”
“Gas stations should all be in the suburbs, right? Maybe we could look around nearby, see if there’s a ring road…”
The rest of the sentence died under Gao Lan’s half-smiling gaze. Ji Li straightened his back instantly, hair standing on end.
“Sister Lan, I…”
“Spare me.” Gao Lan waved a hand and started the engine.
“I’m just reminding you. I know you trust me, but this is still the apocalypse, and you can never be too careful around people. Watch everything you say and do from now on. Don’t let your guard down.”
Ji Li wanted to say he wasn’t a child—that the years after losing his parents, working odd jobs all over, had long since tempered him into someone more mature and worldly than the average college student.
But remembering the community workers who visited every holiday, the counselor who had proactively helped him apply for student loans, the roommates who took turns dragging him home for Spring Festival, Ji Li swallowed the words and said softly:
“Got it, Sis. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Gao Lan smiled, spun the wheel, and the SUV followed the lane toward the city center.
A dozen-odd minutes later, three cars came roaring up and screeched to a halt beside the gas station.
Three men sat in the lead car. The man in the passenger seat leaned out the window, swept his gaze around, and slapped the car door.
“Damn it! Someone already stripped this gas station!”
“Relax, it’s just a few zombies. Fuel first.” The middle-aged man in the driver’s seat got out and pulled an iron drum from the trunk.
The people in the other two cars did the same. Carrying their drums, they walked to the pumps, took down the nozzles, aimed at the drum, and pressed the handle—only to hear no sound of flowing liquid.
The middle-aged man looked up in confusion, saw the number on the pump display, and cried out, “Where’s the gas?!”
“This pump’s dry too!”
“The hell?! Not even one liter?!”
“Even if the tanker flipped, there should be some left!”
“What now? Our car’s tank is almost bone dry!”
The man who’d slapped the door came over. “What’s wrong?”
“Brother Xiong! Both pumps are empty! What do we do?!”
Chen Zhixiong’s brow twitched hard. He pushed past the others to the pump.
Confirming it really was dry, he lifted his foot to kick the machine, but held himself back at the last second and turned to a young man in his early twenties:
“Little Yu, where’s the nearest gas station?”
Yu Shen blinked. “Brother Xiong, the Cheng’an City map hasn’t been revealed yet. Want me to reveal it?”
“Yes, yes, do it!”
“On it!”
Yu Shen answered, closed his eyes, and five minutes later spoke with them still shut. “The closest station in a straight line is five kilometers out, but it’s a thirty-minute drive.”
Chen Zhixiong frowned. “Can we avoid going into the city?”
Yu Shen opened his eyes. “Avoiding the city, it’s an hour and twenty minutes.”
“Why so long? My car’s got maybe half an hour of fuel left!”
“Avoiding the city means detours. Nothing I can do about that.” Yu Shen spread his hands, then quickly added, “Though if we turn left off the Elevated Bridge we came in on and head up the hill, we’ll pass a Higher Vocational School and a New Media Group company. There should be plenty of zombies holed up indoors—and cars, definitely cars.”
At those words, Chen Zhixiong’s expression eased slightly. “Cars mean fuel. Then we go up the hill.”
The group piled back into their cars and turned toward the hills.
On the way, the middle-aged man spoke up. “There’ll be Players on that hill.”
Chen Zhixiong snorted. “So what? If they’re useful and obedient, we take them along. If not, they make fine bait.”
The man in the backseat leaned forward with a snicker. “Wonder if there are any women. Running for our lives or not, the brothers have been on a dry spell for days.”
“Oh, get lost. It’s barely been two days, you drama queen. You never touched a woman before?” Chen Zhixiong laughed and cursed.
“Between us? Never. If I hadn’t ended up in the apocalypse and met you, Brother Xiong, I’d still be living the ascetic life. Forever grateful!” The man pressed his palms together and bowed solemnly to Chen Zhixiong.
Chen Zhixiong roared with laughter, and the two launched into talk about women. The middle-aged man driving frowned, a flicker of disgust crossing his eyes before he suppressed it, then coughed to cut them off.
“What I meant to say is, the fuel at that gas station was probably siphoned by the Players on the hill.”
Chen Zhixiong had been annoyed, but at this he pressed eagerly, “How so?”
“Gas station underground tanks are monitored for reserve levels—no station waits until it’s bone dry to refill. And those tanks hold thirty cubic meters at the small end, fifty at the big end. How big was that tanker? But none of that is the point.”
The middle-aged man tapped the steering wheel and said slowly, “The point is, we’ve been in this apocalypse for eight days, and a Space Bracelet only gains one cubic meter per upgrade. Yet the station’s entire fuel reserve was drained. Do you understand what that means?”
Chen Zhixiong clearly disliked the man’s way of talking. He clicked his tongue. “No! Just say it!”
The middle-aged man glanced at him and smiled faintly. “It means either the Players up there have skills stronger than yours—able to slaughter zombies by the dozen and harvest cores hand over fist to upgrade their bracelets—or one of them is a Space Ability User.”
“So when we get up that hill, rein in the bandit act. Probe their strength first, and bide our time.”
