A Game Account Carries The Entire Apocalyptic City - Chapter 4

The moment Qi Li returned home, she fell against Qi Ning’s trembling, tear-soaked shoulder.

At present, she was the tallest of the three children in the family.

When her younger sister Qi Ning wrapped both arms around her neck and pulled her tightly into an embrace, Qi Li could only bend down slightly and lower her center of gravity to accommodate her.

“Sister, where did you go? Are you hurt anywhere?” Qi Ning asked with a sniff.

Grandma and Mom also stood on either side of Qi Li, looking her over with both joy and worry.

The relief of regaining someone they had thought lost filled their chests. They were too emotional to even speak, only continuously running their hands over Qi Li.

Suddenly, Grandma noticed a bulge in Qi Li’s pocket.

When she pressed her fingers against it, it was still warm inside.

Grandma asked, “Li, what’s in here?”

Qi Li hurriedly pushed Qi Ning upright and wiped the tears from her face with her thumb.

“Alright, alright, I’m perfectly fine. You’re already this old, what are you crying for…… I’ll explain later. Grandma, let’s give Qi Xing the injection first.”

Carrying the medical pack, she entered the bedroom and quickly went to Qi Xing’s bedside.

She pressed the back of her hand against Qi Xing’s forehead.

Her head was burning hot, and the dense sweat on her forehead instantly dampened the back of Qi Li’s hand.

A faint, foul, bloody smell came from Qi Xing’s left leg, so strong that even the blanket couldn’t contain it.

Thank goodness she’d made it back in time.

Thank goodness she’d managed to buy medicine.

Qi Li felt as though she herself had narrowly escaped death.

She hurriedly took the antibiotic injection from the medical pack. The medicine was already loaded into a disposable syringe.

She found Qi Xing’s vein and injected it.

Qi Xing was deeply unconscious and didn’t move throughout the entire process.

Qi Li turned around and quietly told the family behind her, “This is a powerful antibiotic injection. Once she gets it, Qi Xing’s infection and fever should clear up.”

She tucked the blanket around Qi Xing’s arm, stepped aside, and began pulling things out of her jacket pocket—

When she took out the eggs with their clean, evenly colored shells, everyone stared at what she was holding in astonishment.

Mom, Grandma, and Qi Ning all seemed to widen their eyes in the dim light!

They weren’t seeing things, were they?

These were…… six whole eggs?

Qi Li held them in both hands. They were unquestionably real.

“Li…… where did you get these?” Mom was so shocked that she even forgot to take them.

“Sister, did you go kill infected?” Qi Ning immediately guessed.

After Qi Li bought the powerful antibiotic she’d just mentioned, how could she possibly have had money left to buy eggs?

And food that looked this pure was often priceless even when available.

Fifteen crystal coins couldn’t possibly accomplish all of this.

Unless—

Qi Li had killed an infected and exchanged its crystal for more crystal coins!

How could she go do something that dangerous all by herself?

“No.” Qi Li shook her head.

“These eggs are already boiled. Eat them while they’re still warm.”

The three of them looked at the eggs in Qi Li’s hands and fell silent for a moment, seemingly thinking.

Then Mom walked over and led Qi Li outside.

When they reached the refrigerator, Mom opened the door and said,

“Li, you eat one of the eggs you brought back. I’ll save one for your aunt. Grandma and Qi Ning can share one. When Qi Xing wakes up later, we’ll give her one, and then I need to clean her wound. We’ll put the rest in the refrigerator and save them for Xing too, okay?”

Without question, Qi Xing was the person in the family who needed nutrition most right now.

Qi Li: “Okay.”

Mom put three eggs into the refrigerator, then took some hot water and an egg back to Qi Xing’s bedside to keep watch over her.

After a while, Qi Li opened the refrigerator while no one was around.

She intended to put her own egg back inside.

But she suddenly discovered that there were already four eggs in the refrigerator.

Qi Li froze for a moment, then withdrew the egg in her hand.

Normally, she and Qi Ning shared the same bedroom.

At that moment, Qi Ning was sitting alone in the bedroom applying medicine to the injuries on her hands.

They were all scrapes she’d gotten yesterday while fleeing in a miserable state from the infected chasing and trying to bite her. Fortunately, none were serious. Disinfectant was enough.

Qi Li entered the room and approached Qi Ning, who was sitting beside the bedside table.

Qi Ning’s hair reached her shoulders. She tied it up when she went out, but naturally let it down at home. Her fine black hair fell over her shoulders, giving her a quiet appearance. From the side, the tip of her nose looked like a small, gleaming white clove of garlic.

Whenever she faced Qi Li, her clear, youthful eyes and brows were usually smiling.

“Sister, where exactly did you go by yourself yesterday? When are you going to tell us?”

Qi Li stared at her, then suddenly frowned and bent down.

She said nervously, “Wait, Qi Ning. I think you’ve got a cavity.”

Qi Ning: “Huh?”

She barely had enough nutrition to keep herself alive, and somehow she could still feed a cavity?

But Qi Ning was made a little embarrassed by the comment. “N-No way, Sister. You must’ve seen wrong, right?”

Qi Li gripped her chin. “Open your mouth. Let me take another look.”

Sitting on the bed, Qi Ning instinctively leaned backward. “N-No need. I’ll have Auntie check it later. If I have a cavity, I’ll just get the tooth pulled.”

Qi Li leaned down and stared at her insistently. “Hurry up. Open your mouth.”

Under Qi Li’s unquestionable pressure, Qi Ning could only obediently open her mouth.

Just as the edges of her ears began to heat up, Qi Li suddenly stuffed half an egg into her mouth.

Qi Ning: “Mmph!”

She didn’t even know where Qi Li had produced it from. Her movements had been lightning-fast.

The warm, savory taste of egg instantly spread across Qi Ning’s tongue.

The yolk crumbled under the pressure, scattering like powder across her tongue and melting there.

Qi Ning’s expression went from thunderstruck to stunned to innocently clear, her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel that had suddenly been given a delicious nut.

Qi Li smiled and left.

Using the same method, she fed the remaining half of the egg to Grandma.

At noon, Mom came out carrying a large basin of bloody water with bits of flesh floating in it, sighing, “Xing has had it rough. This afternoon, I’ll warm up another egg for her to eat.”

After hastily eating a gray cake, Qi Li went to check on Qi Xing. Fresh gauze had been wrapped around her leg, and her high fever had subsided under the effects of the antibiotic. It looked like she’d made it past the dangerous stage.

But she was still unconscious. Even on the rare occasions when she woke up, her awareness remained hazy.

Her cheeks were sunken, with almost no flesh left when touched, as though there were only a layer of skin stretched over bone. Illness had reduced her to skin and bones.

……

While sitting with her family in the living room, Qi Li placed all fifteen crystal coins back on the coffee table.

Grandma looked surprised and picked them up. “Li…… you didn’t spend the money you took with you?”

They had assumed that after Qi Li managed to get both medicine and eggs and accomplish something this significant, she must have spent all fifteen crystal coins.

But……

How were all the crystal coins still here?

Everyone looked at Qi Li in confusion and astonishment.

Qi Li shook her head and told them, “Yesterday, I went somewhere else.”

There was no way she could hide something this important from her family.

She told them everything about her strange experience of transmigrating to another peaceful world, the shop inside the Walled City and Survivors app, and how she’d bought the antibiotic injection and eggs from that shop.

Qi Li: “I know this sounds unbelievable, but without that shop, there’s no way I could’ve gotten eggs this pure.”

Qi Li: “I think the shop in that world could be incredibly useful to us. No matter where it came from, it saved Qi Xing today, so it’s real.”

After the three listening to her story spent some time absorbing all of this,

the first thing Mom asked was:

“Can you go to that other world whenever you want? If you run into infected, can you transmigrate over there and hide?”

Qi Li: “I don’t know yet. I don’t have enough experience.”

Mom exhaled softly and patted her back. “Then try it more. This is such a good opportunity.”

Grandma gazed at the crystal coins thoughtfully, with a trace of worry in her expression. “Then let’s use the coins we saved to buy Xing something nourishing again. I just don’t know when the combat team will arrive. When will it finally be safe to go outside……”

The infected had been here for four days, yet the combat team still hadn’t arrived.

Had something unexpected happened?

Unexpectedly, even though the thought had only crossed their minds and hadn’t been spoken aloud, it soon became a prophecy.

Just after nightfall, the administrator of the Fenglu Community group chat suddenly tagged everyone.

Emergency Notice: The combat team originally assigned to support this community will be unable to arrive in the immediate future!

The combat team en route was attacked by a subhorde of infected led by a high-level infected host and is currently locked in fierce combat!

The high-level infected host blocking their path has been classified as A-level danger. The garrison has ordered the combat team that encountered it to make every effort to eliminate it, in order to prevent an intelligent high-level infected from rapidly spreading the infection virus.

The danger levels of infected incursions ranged from C-level to S-level.

A massive zombie horde outside the city gates was S-level.

A disaster involving a high-level infected capable of commanding groups of infected and possessing powerful offensive abilities, or a group of more than fifty ordinary infected, was classified as A-level.

Below that, B-level and C-level dangers were distinguished according to the abilities and numbers of the infected.

Threats had to be prioritized according to severity, because with the number of combat teams currently available inside the city, it was simply impossible for them to cover everything and arrive whenever called.

In the apocalypse, resisting disasters caused by the infected wasn’t solely the responsibility of the military.

At present, several low-level infected were wandering aimlessly through Fenglu Community.

The community’s danger level had been assessed as C-level.

Under circumstances like these, before combat-team reinforcements could arrive, the most important thing was for every household to lock down and defend itself.

Do not go outside, do not make noise, do not attract zombies. Above all, make sure you do not become another source of infection.

The administrator called on everyone in the group: [Right now, all we can do is strengthen our own defenses.]
[After dark, shut all doors and windows securely, turn off every light, do not make loud noises, and absolutely do not go outside. Wait for the combat team’s rescue! They will definitely come!]
[Do not panic, and do not spread panic!]

Most of the residents who immediately responded expressed understanding and cooperation.

Situations like this, where ordinary families in the apocalypse had to wait quietly for rescue, had already become commonplace.

Normally, every household kept enough emergency food to last a few days.

Qi Li’s front door was tightly shut, and even the cracks around the windows had been covered with opaque tape.

Qi Li only kept one bedside lamp on in the bedroom.

She crouched beside the bedside table holding her phone, its light illuminating the unconscious motion of her teeth grinding against her bitten lower lip.

Then she pressed her forehead against the phone, closed her eyes, and sighed.

Messages in the group chat continued multiplying across the screen.

Complaints soon followed, because not everyone had enough food reserves to look after themselves, and everyone’s tolerance for fear was different.

[Zombies have been pounding on my door at night for the past two days. I think they’ve already caught my scent. I might die. Why are you abandoning us!!!]
[Ms. Wang, calm down. You’re not being abandoned. The combat team will come immediately after dealing with the high-level infected. They’re already nearby! Shut your doors and windows tightly tonight, barricade them with furniture, and whatever you do, don’t open the door!]

[My family has no food left at all. We haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. Can anyone lend me some? Otherwise I’ll starve to death before the zombies even get the chance to bite me.]
[@XXX, which residential complex are you in?]
……
[We’re in the same complex. DM me. (I don’t have extra food left. I can only help one person. Everyone else, please don’t add me.)]

[Does anyone know for sure how many days at most it’ll take the combat team to arrive?]
[If I’d known, I would’ve bought more gray cakes last week. They might not fill you up, but at least you wouldn’t starve to death.]
[The night before last, a zombie was eating my neighbor downstairs. Hearing the sound made me want to throw up. I honestly just want to die. At least then I wouldn’t have to live through this horror every single day.]

[Voice Message 30’]
[Listen, this is my hallway. Building X, Unit X. An infected has climbed up here.]
[@XX DON’T MAKE A SOUND!! DON’T OPEN THE DOOR!!]

Qi Li raised her head, looked at the messages, and tapped the voice recording.

Broken, intermittent snarls moved on the other side of a door.

The hideous sound slowly struck the walls and echoed through the hallway.

It was easy to imagine the infected making that sound with its sticky, blood-slicked mouth hanging open, exposing two mutated rows of sharp teeth.

That building was right beside theirs. The infected was wandering nearby.

Qi Li lightly bumped her forehead against her phone.

The mechanical motion repeated again and again as she sank into thought.

Their family did have emergency food stored for times when they needed to wait for rescue.

But for Qi Xing’s wound to recover, she still needed erythromycin ointment, nutritional fluids, and meat.

If they couldn’t obtain the crucial supplies she needed during recovery, then even if Qi Xing survived, her leg could still be left permanently disabled.

If they simply sat around waiting to be rescued now, they would be pushing Qi Xing into the abyss.

Qi Li could never do that.

She had to make full use of tomorrow’s opportunity to transmigrate.