Chapter 038 Truly One’s Own

In fact, in her previous life, Xia Xinyan’s relationship with Murong Yue wasn’t too bad. However, due to their different genders and the circumstances back then, they could only be considered allies and nothing closer.

Thus, her perspective on Murong Yue now was much more objective.

This girl could hardly be called a good person. In fact, one could say she had done her fair share of backstabbing in her previous life—though, to her credit, the people she backstabbed weren’t those she was particularly close to. If she considered someone a friend, she was generally quite reliable.

However, Xia Xinyan didn’t think that Murong Yue regarded them as friends now.

After all, just before she entered the Dungeon, she had given Murong Yue a friendly greeting.

Yet, she wasn’t unreasonable enough to impose possible scenarios onto the other party, so she remained friendly towards Murong Yue: “When did you get into the car?”

“Ah…” Murong Yue chuckled awkwardly, “Let’s not waste time. Let’s talk after we get in; it’d be bad if those madmen find us… Hey, watch out!”

Before she could finish her sentence, they noticed a few red-faced guys charging toward them from a distance, yelling. Ling Mo quickly made a decision, turned around, and ran towards the car: “Get in the car now!”

Xia Xinyan and the fat guy followed closely behind, but those red-faced guys ran much faster, almost blasting through human limits with a burst of speed that was downright terrifying.

At least in terms of pressure, these madmen felt much like zombies.

Even before Xia Xinyan and the others got in the car, the red-faced guys had already reached them.

Ling Mo arrived at the front of the car, turned around, raised his gun, and shouted: “Get in the car! I’ll cover you!”

Xia Xinyan deftly leaped over the hood and into the passenger seat, while the fat guy lagged a moment, opening the backseat door: “Old Ling, hurry up!”

Ling Mo plopped into the car, taking out a shot at the nearest red-faced guy, successfully knocking him down, and quickly pulled the door shut: “Let’s go!”

Murong Yue paused: “I drive?”

“Is that even a question? You’re in the driver’s seat, girl! Step on it!” The fat guy was shocked.

Had this girl not realized the situation yet?!

“Oh, oh…” Murong Yue finally caught on and slammed the gas pedal.

Then the car slammed right into a road post ahead.

Everyone: “…”

“Sorry, my bad!” Murong Yue hurriedly reversed the car, but before she could straighten it out, those red-faced guys had swarmed around the knocked-over guy and crashed into them, their impacts creating multiple dents in the car. One even smashed the rear window, making the fat guy scream: “Holy crap! Brothers, help! Shoot him, shoot him!”

Ling Mo instinctively raised his gun but then thought better of it, dropping the gun to grab a brick instead, delivering a harsh blow to the guy who had crashed through the window: “Die, you bastard!”

At this moment, Murong Yue finally corrected the car’s direction and once more slammed on the gas, successfully getting back on track: “Alright, alright! We made it out! Wow, I almost thought we were going to flip; are they that thick-headed?”

Xia Xinyan paused for a second, kindly giving a reminder: “You’re going the wrong way.”

Murong Yue: “…”

“Or you could go back to where you were born; you should also have been born ‘at home,’ right?” Xia Xinyan tilted her head and looked at the others, asking.

Murong Yue shook her head: “I was born in a bar.”

“I was at the office, just off night shift.” The fat guy chimed in.

Ling Mo raised an eyebrow: “You guys really had it rough.”

When compared to them, he and Xia Xinyan were the most comfortable, being born in a bed…

—He suddenly recalled the scene at that time.

The faintly visible scenery beneath that sheer nightgown…

Cough, can’t think about that anymore; there are more important matters at hand.

“Let’s just go back home,” Xia Xinyan set the navigation, whispering, “Just make a U-turn.”

Murong Yue nodded, then swerved the steering wheel—

And crashed into another road post.

“My dear sister, can you drive or not?” The fat guy was dumbfounded, “You’re going to wreck the car!”

“I can drive, of course!” Murong Yue shot back, then brutally made a U-turn, ignoring the severely deformed front of the car, and continued driving ahead, “I just flunked my driving test four times; my skills are fine, I’m just a little nervous right now.”

The fat guy: “…”

Even Xia Xinyan fell silent for a moment.

She suddenly understood why Murong Yue never drove in her previous life.

Just then, the game system suddenly provided a notification—

[Breaking News: I3 Pharmaceutical Group has discovered an unknown infectious virus W and developed a vaccine targeting it, which has been distributed to all I3 Pharmaceutical Group research facilities in the city.]

“Unknown virus W? Is this the zombie virus?” The fat guy frowned.

Ling Mo nodded, contemplating: “The game doesn’t give pointless notifications; this is likely an explanation of the Dungeon’s background—unknown virus infection leading to urban riots, and it informs us that the virus is contagious while also revealing a way to counteract the infection.”

“Then why didn’t they tell us from the start?” Murong Yue couldn’t help but ask.

“That, I’m not sure,” Ling Mo said, looking thoughtfully at the scenery outside the car, “But we can reasonably speculate… Typically, in a normal game process, when you trigger a phase, a corresponding notification is given, correlating to this Dungeon… The game might be giving this notification at this point because someone has already been infected.”

“…No way, someone got infected that quickly?” The fat guy’s expression was odd, “I still don’t understand what kind of reaction this virus has, how can we determine who is infected?”

“Does having a red face count?” Murong Yue suddenly interjected, “Those guys look like they drank several bottles of baijiu and are acting like drunken fools.”

“That should be it,” Ling Mo nodded, “But it doesn’t feel like they just turn that way upon infection; there should be a mutation process like with zombie viruses—so now I’m wondering if one of us might be infected.”

The car suddenly fell silent.

After quite some time, the fat guy hesitantly broke the silence: “That can’t be… we barely had contact… Wait, we don’t even know how the infection spreads, do we? Biting? But they’re not biting anyone.”

“Then we don’t know.” Ling Mo shrugged.

“Why don’t we go grab some vaccine first?” Xia Xinyan suggested, “Regardless of whether anyone is infected, it wouldn’t hurt to get some vaccine.”

The fat guy nodded: “I think that’s a good idea—so now the question is, where exactly are those places?”

“It’s on the navigation.” Xia Xinyan pointed to the central console.

She had just checked the research labs in the game hints on the navigation, which provided eleven results, the closest one being only two kilometers away.

“Then let’s go for this one, charge!” The fat guy was suddenly enthusiastic, “I feel like this Dungeon is a sure win; with the four of us together, we can’t possibly lose!”

“…Please, don’t jinx it.” Ling Mo shot him a sideways glance, “You’ve gotten us killed plenty in the past with your jinxing.”

The fat guy chuckled, not saying anything further.

Xia Xinyan stole a glance at Ling Mo for two seconds, sighing inwardly, leaning back against her seat with her gun and beginning to rest her eyes.

This guy is really improving quickly… Now he can analyze the Dungeon without her guidance.

Truly one’s own.