Card Room

Before going to the supermarket, Yu Hanjiang told his teammates a few things.

He looked extremely seriously as he spoke. “Based on the information obtained from Xiao Lou’s meeting, there is currently no cure for this infection. Once infected, these parasites will quickly eat up the human brain, letting the human body become their puppet. We need to survive in this secret room for 14 days. When acting, you must pay attention to protect yourself and don’t let yourself be infected! Otherwise, not only will you die but you might also bury the entire team with you!”

The group nodded solemnly to show their understanding.

The acting of the bugs was the most terrible thing. If a teammate was infected, they would pretend to be a normal person by everyone’s side. Then at night, while everyone was sleeping, they would secretly bite everyone… then everyone would collectively change to a bug.

It was disgusting to think about.

Yu Hanjiang paused and glanced at his pale teammates. “In addition, on the surface, the parasitized people look normal. They might pretend to be normal humans and approach us. This situation is unpredictable. So in this secret room, the eight of us are one team and can’t cooperate with any other challengers or save anyone—remember, we only care about ourselves.”

It was a bit heartbreaking to see someone die without saving them but it was already difficult to take care of themselves in this situation. It was impossible to judge if the person they saved was infected or not. Therefore, it wasn’t wrong for Yu Hanjiang to set the rules in advance. Their team of eight could only believe in themselves and be responsible for themselves.

Xiao Lou stated, “Everyone, listen to Group Leader Yu and don’t care about others. In these 14 days, no one should leave the team without permission unless Group Leader Yu orders it. Even if you have the internal urge to go to the bathroom, you must resolve the problem with the card.”

Previously, a sister had given them the temporary toilet card in Endless Seas. These material cards were kept by Xiao Lou. It was dangerous to leave the team so in these 14 days, it was best to eat and live together. No one could separate.

Their teammates were aware of the grim situation and looked at each other.

Ye Qi replied, “Understood. The eight of us will form a group and try not to contact strangers!”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Then let’s go to the supermarket to buy materials. If there are strangers who try to get close to you then immediately move away. Be careful not to be suddenly attacked.”

Yu Hanjiang ordered and the eight people acted collectively.

It was 1:30 and no one had eaten, but they didn’t feel hungry at all. Perhaps it was because the first day in this world was too exciting. Everyone was nervous and forgot about eating.

***

Mo Xuemin’s decorating company was located diagonally opposite the centre square and there was a large supermarket 500 metres away.

At this time, the streets were blocked by vehicles and the traffic on the entire street was paralyzed.

The sidewalks were full of horrified screams and blood on the ground. Obviously, those who were infected had attacked humans in a frenzy and there were countless people who were scratched or bitten. These people scattered and brought the parasites to other areas.

The city centre was completely messed up. It was only a matter of time before the entire city was infected.

Just then, a scream came from the sidewalk opposite the square. They saw an infected person chasing two young girls to bite them. The two girls were running quickly. One of them was wearing high heels and could only run a few metres before the infected person threw herself up and bit the girl’s ear. The girl sat on the ground, covering the bloody wound and crying.

“Help—”

However, no one around her took care of her. Even her friend running with her didn’t help. She saw the scene and her expression changed. Then she instantly turned and ran away quickly!

This bloody scene sent a chill down Xiao Lou’s spine.

Curiously, after the infected person bit the girl’s ear, she didn’t continue to attack. Instead, she left the injured woman behind and looked for her next target.

Xiao Lou walked forward while speaking to Yu Hanjiang through the heart channel, “It seems the infected person just needs to spread the parasite. As long as they pass it on, they won’t continue to attack. It is just like some creature invading the earth and quickly attacking to occupy the land. Will the bitten people become their kind?”

Yu Hanjiang also saw the scene across the street and frowned. “I’m curious. How do they judge who is their own kind and who hasn’t been infected yet? On the surface, it is difficult to distinguish between infected and non-infected people.”

Xiao Lou thought about it. “They should have their own language, signal or smell.”

It could only be explained in this way. These things were actually quite smart. They could instantly determine who was their own kind and who needed to be attacked. It seemed that after they occupied the human brain, they would send signals to their companions to avoid an accidental injury.

Low level zombies might attack each other. After all, they had no IQ. However, forget their high level parasites harming each other. They could actually sense each other and might even cooperate when acting. This was… terrible.

Once the entire city was infected, wouldn’t the eight of them enter a bug nest?

Xiao Lou’s face was white. “This secret room requires us to survive for 14 days and there is no restriction to stay in the urban area to survive. Can we escape?”

Yu Hanjiang answered, “Looking at their actions, it isn’t possible. We can only follow 3 of Spades’ clearance method. Escape to the suburbs, find a remote place, occupy a building as a base and arrange traps to eliminate these bugs.”

Xiao Lou nodded.

They just arrived in front of the supermarket. The two of them stopped communicating with each other and walked in with their teammates.

The city was in chaos and there was a traffic jam on the road. Currently, it was afternoon and the supermarket was very deserted. There were only a few young people buying food. They seemed to have no idea what was happening outside and were patiently picking vegetables and fruit. One couple was talking and laughing as they bought tomatoes.

Yu Hanjiang glanced around and found no obvious abnormalities, so he took everyone into the supermarket.

The temperature of the supermarket was very low. The entrance of this area happened to be selling fresh vegetables and the open freezer was air-conditioned. Xiao Lou couldn’t help his teeth chattering even though he was wearing thermal clothes.

Shao Qingge sneezed and rubbed his nose. “Why is it so cold?”

Xiao Lou stated, “Maybe the heating is broken. Let’s speed up and do out shopping.

After entering the supermarket, it was the frozen area and the fresh food area. In the vegetables and fruit area, some aunts were responsible for weighing the products to help customers calculate the prices. There were also a few men wearing white hats in the cooked food area who were making roast duck. The cupboard was filled with freshly cooked trotters and chicken legs. The smell filled the air and everyone’s appetite was aroused by the fragrance. They all remembered that they didn’t eat lunch.

However, the supermarket wasn’t a place to eat. Yu Hanjiang told them, “Buy things to eat. We shouldn’t touch these cooked foods.”

It was unsure if the only method of transmission was blood transmission. What if it was spread through the food as well?

In Endless Seas, Shao Qingge had spent money to buy a lesson. Things in the Spades room shouldn’t be eaten casually. Only vacuum-packed sealed foods such as instant noodles and biscuits were the safest.

Ye Qi gulped and moved his eyes away from the roast duck as he quickly followed Yu Hanjiang.

The eight people soon left the cooked food area and entered the depths of the supermarket.

They didn’t find that behind them, the aunts responsible for weighing fruits and vegetables, the chefs cooking food and the women selling fresh meat products collectively turned their heads to look at the group’s back, a weird smile on their faces.

***

This supermarket was very large and was like a maze. They walked around several corners before eventually seeing the daily necessities and snacks area.

A large amount of milk was stacked in the aisle with the sign ‘today’s promotion’. Xiao Lou lifted a box of milk to look at the production date and shelf life. The shelf life of this milk was three months and they could save a bit of money, so he directly placed two boxes in the shopping cart.

Ye Qi grabbed four boxes of compressed biscuits and four boxes of instant noodles. Meanwhile, Liu Qiao placed dozens of boxes of chocolates into the shopping cart.

Old Mo and Long Sen went to grab the mineral water while Qu Wanyue was responsible for counting the supplies. Yu Hanjiang went to find the schoolbags.

Since they needed to pack lightly this time, they naturally couldn’t bring things like canned fruits and snacks. They just brought enough supplies. Everyone pushed the shopping cart and quickly scanned the goods. Yu Hanjiang also grabbed eight school bags quickly.

This supermarket didn’t have a lot of schoolbags for sale.  The colours were different and there were some student bags printed with cartoons. Nevertheless, now wasn’t the time to pursue details so he just placed them in the shopping cart.

Qu Wanyue counted the supplies. “There’s almost enough.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Go.”

Things like toothbrushes, towels and other toiletries had been prepared using the ‘washing bag’ material card and these cards could be brought into the secret room. Therefore, only food and commonly used medicine were needed in the survival room.

The eight people walked around a corner and saw a group of girls quickly sweeping up goods. They had several black school bags of the same style in their shopping cart. No wonder why the area that sold schoolbags was empty. They bought it first.

In addition, they also had a lot of mineral water, milk and biscuits in their shopping carts.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other. A challenger team?”

Ye Qi found these girls as well and whispered, “Why do I feel like they’re familiar? Have I seen them somewhere before?”

Xiao Lou thought carefully and soon remembered. “Previously in the World Weekly Endless Seas, there was the team of 10 girls who left the Caribbean. All of them were wearing convenient sportswear and flat shoes and their hair was tied up. Based on the clothing, this should be them?”

Old Mo confirmed it. “Yes, it is the people from Luoying Pavilion.”

At that time, the female team had adopted the clearance method of capturing another ship. Judging by the final number of people who cleared the instance, they should’ve survived. Their actions when encountering sharks wasn’t clear because Xiao Lou wasn’t there.

These girls were obviously an elite group of Luoying Pavilion.

Listening to Brother Jiu, the president of Luoying Pavilion was Chu Huaying, code-named Spider Goddess. She was one of his surviving teammates from J of Clubs.

Xiao Lou had never seen Chu Huaying but a woman who could survive the nightmare room of J of Clubs was definitely a very powerful character.  Due to Brother Jiu, Xiao Lou also had a good impression of the Luoying Pavilion.

This group of well-dressed girls were unified in action and were well-trained. Unexpectedly, they also came to 8 of Spades.

Ye Qi said, “The presence of Luoying Pavilion shows that this survival secret room isn’t just the eight of us. Perhaps there are other guild challenger teams?”

Xiao Lou recalled how they often encountered other challengers in the Spades secret room and nodded. “It is possible since the Spades secret room often matches multiple teams together. However, this time isn’t like finding the gem in Liuxi Village. There isn’t a competitive relationship between challengers and we need to face the parasite problem together. It is just that the bugs can disguise themselves and it is difficult for challengers to achieve absolute trust and cooperation. It is a blessing to go our own way and not drag each other down.”

Professor Xiao’s analysis made sense and his teammates had no plan to join forces with these girls.