Chapter 332: She Has Her Own Scavenging Rhythm
Yu Jiang opened the Instance Map. The town covered a large area, and only some buildings on the map had name labels.
Supermarket, school, park, library, hospital, resort hotel—all were there.
Known Instance Information: This place is remote and was less affected in the early Doomsday period, so it could serve as a Shelter to house survivors.
Not far behind Yu Jiang, there was a collapsed iron wire fence and sheet metal, which should have been the defense line set up by the Shelter before, but now rusted and brittle like paper.
Looking back, the roads and buildings were very blurry—no, the outlines were wrong; they were exactly the same as the street ahead. She had encountered a Ghost Wall.
Yu Jiang wasn’t stubborn enough to go back and check. The top priority was to quickly gather clues around her.
She took out the fire tongs and flipped over the wooden sign on the ground.
Logically, with this style of map, she probably wouldn’t understand the text that appeared, especially since the writing was smudged. But with the Instance system, it had likely been processed—the wooden sign had Chinese characters.
“xxxx Shelter, this place is very safe, with supplies”
It was the welcome billboard for the Shelter.
Yu Jiang pondered for a few seconds and finally realized what was wrong: there were no signs of enemy invasion or intense battle here.
The house nearby was originally a coffee shop; the tables and chairs inside were neatly arranged, and the door was locked.
Yu Jiang hadn’t seen even a ghost shadow so far. Making movement rashly wasn’t a wise decision.
The Instance had prompted: Do not be discovered.
She planned to go to places marked with names on the map first—the chances of meeting up with teammates were higher there.
This Instance provided a map, and the street details were clear enough, but she had no idea where she was.
The map didn’t show teammates or her own position.
This was why she chose Tali Town. No matter how many people Heartless Water found or how good the skill combinations were, without clues, even meeting up was difficult.
Yu Jiang zoomed in and dragged the map to study it for a good while, but still couldn’t determine where she was.
Time was already 6:30 PM, but the sky hadn’t changed.
Ahead was a dim street paved with flat stone bricks. Besides her own footsteps and breathing, there was no sound at all—quiet enough to make one uneasy.
Yu Jiang walked forward for about 16 minutes and was still on this town main road. The buildings on both sides of the road were similarly arranged in height, but differed in details like shop window sizes and interior layouts.
The map had the main road, and ahead it led to the resort hotel, with the park opposite the hotel.
Normally, she should have seen the hotel building after ten-plus minutes, but there was nothing.
Most places on both sides of the road were shops, all doors locked, quiet inside, with no abnormalities visible.
A wiped-out Doomsday town with everything so neatly arranged, even the locks intact—that in itself was the biggest abnormality.
Trouble appeared—keep walking forward, and ahead was a patch of darkness. Turn back to check for oversights, and she might not return to the previous position; behind also turned into endless darkness.
Even the Instance Channel and Player List couldn’t be opened.
A small alley appeared on Yu Jiang’s left, also paved with stone bricks, darker than outside. She feared going in and not being able to come out.
The antique candlestick and gem ring bought from the Monster Merchant earlier—she had them with her and didn’t plan to reveal all her trump cards at the start.
Yu Jiang took the bayonet and decided to carefully search nearby first. If no clues were found, then consider going forward or into the alley.
Walking alone in the dark, eerie town, she had never missed zombies so much—this situation was worse than being surrounded by zombies.
Drip-drop,
Clang,
In the silent air, sounds popped up from time to time, as if right by her ear, against her back, or very far away.
The street actually had nothing to search—it was all in plain sight, houses locked, and she had already checked the trash on the ground.
Can, gauze stuck with brown solid, travel brochure, official tent cloth—all found, no clue prompts.
Got it—if no clues were found, she would be trapped and die on this street.
Yu Jiang stood in front of the shop glass door, squinting to peer inside, not missing any corner.
As she was thinking, suddenly a short, genderless moan sounded behind her. Her back hairs stood up instantly; in her peripheral vision, she glimpsed a shadow passing behind the glass. When she turned, nothing was there.
Non-entity type Monster?
Yu Jiang had just turned her head when she suddenly met a pair of eyes—no eyelids, rotting eyeball, dead silent.
What the hell—she wanted to see clearly, but it vanished, and the clock on the shop wall suddenly started moving.
Drip-drop, drip-drop—each tick of the second hand felt like a blow to her temple, her head starting to ache along with it.
The shop door had been locked earlier, but now suddenly opened.
The alarm clock inside showed the wrong time and made cuckoo cuckoo sounds, making one’s heart race even more.
Yu Jiang rushed into the shop, took down the clock—the sound wouldn’t stop. A note was stuck to the back of the clock.
“Found you, hehe, 5, 4, 3”
Her subconscious countdown in her mind matched the rhythm of the second hand.
Before finishing the count, bang bang—Yu Jiang swung the crowbar and smashed the alarm clock.
What the hell, trying to scare her. She was already in the shop and had her own scavenging rhythm.
Let her see if this town really had supplies.
Yu Jiang broke the counter lock. It looked new outside, but the notebooks and coins inside were all rotten.
If not, knock down the wooden trim on the wall—might as well, since she was here. It seemed like good wood; taking it out could earn 50 crystal coins.
Monster dragging heavy steps outside the street: Let it see what the noise was.
Then it saw Yu Jiang knocking while chuckling. Its outstretched finger trembled—unclear if from anger.
Yu Jiang kept paying attention to the movement outside. She found a clue in the drawer.
June 20th, pick up supplies in front of the hotel door.
The back of the note was a simple drawing diagram: left left right left right left.
Had to memorize it—this thing was gradually blurring and disappearing.
And a twisted shadow appeared outside the door—no, accurately, it was reflected on the glass; there was no one at that position.
Blink again, and the shadow on the glass was gone too.
It came in—good grief, this Monster could use Invisibility.
Yu Jiang stared ahead, listening carefully to the heavy, chaotic footsteps—this had a pattern, so she could pinpoint its position.
Yu Jiang feinted, dodged to the side—seemed like fear, but she had already predicted its next step. When the rotten stench hit her face, she decisively swung her weapon and stabbed down.
Then quickly retreated and ran out through the half-open glass door.
She didn’t expect one stab to kill it; she also had to guard against the Instance’s warned ‘Assimilation’—couldn’t let it grab her.
That thing took a stab, and its Invisibility seemed to vanish too. It looked truly terrifying, to say the least.
The thing without eyelids she saw earlier was it; other parts of its face wrapped in bandages, yellow-brown liquid seeping out, bones in its hand and body creaking.
It had a health bar, but this thing had infinite respawns. The bayonet dealt 40 health points damage.
The system message said: 【Your blade can deal true damage to Monsters, but this is their turf. Even if killed, they will return after a short time.】
So the Instance started with: before being killed by it, find clues and escape.
