Three days had passed since the intense battle.

On that day, the “information pheromones” emitted by “Xu Jiajia” had attracted all the parasites from the hospital and its vicinity. With many of them devoured by the black bugs and the rest exterminated, the area became eerily quiet and safe.

The fight had forged a bond between the student squad and Qi Zhen’s team. Everyone helped each other gather weapons, check for injuries, and ensure their safety.

Following the battle, Xu Xi and Lin Wu discussed extinguishing the persistent fire in the hospital. Grateful for their rescue, Qi Zhen’s team eagerly offered their assistance, fetching several fire extinguishers from the hospital’s other buildings.

Together, they extinguished the fire, preventing it from spreading and causing unnecessary casualties. Despite most of Hai Ru City’s remaining survivors having fled to nearby cities, a significant number of normal residents still remained.

Qi Zhen, who had traversed multiple districts and saved many people, was well aware of the city’s current state. He had also encountered several lawless gangs during his missions. For some, the disaster was an opportunity for lawlessness and seizing resources, despite the high risk of encountering parasites.

Their confrontations with such groups led to the rescue of several young girls and their families. These missions had made Qi Zhen’s team aware of the city’s perilous state. Before their hospital mission, they had planned to rescue as many as possible and leave the city in two buses. However, the current mission had nearly led to their demise, reducing their numbers from seven to five.

Despite the loss, they continued their efforts. They swept through the remaining hospital buildings, collecting useful medicines, protective gear, and a significant number of blood bags from the blood bank. Although they couldn’t carry everything, the additional hands from the student squad proved helpful.

While the group regretted not being able to take all the supplies, they recognized their limitations. Qi Zhen informed them that they had reached the capacity of people they could safely escort out of the city with their available resources and vehicles.

Yu Xi’s discreet actions had ensured an abundant stockpile of medical supplies in her space, collected from the ruins of previous worlds. She periodically replenished these supplies, contributing a portion to her team while maintaining a substantial reserve.

As for the medical supplies and blood bags left behind this time, they were meant for this body.

This time, she didn’t plan to take on any extra tasks and intended to leave after staying for a month. After a month, the body would lose her dominant consciousness and be replaced by a mechanical consciousness, living out its days according to the trajectory she set before leaving. If she left nothing behind in such a difficult apocalyptic world, this body probably wouldn’t last long.

With this in mind, she suddenly had a thought and asked the system: If there were no responsibilities or attachments—like in a zombie apocalypse—would it be a good idea to let the body die reasonably after she left?

System:

Yu Xi: …

Would she ever be crazy enough to return to the same apocalypse twice?

So… there might really be a need to go back a second time?

But no matter how she asked, the system remained silent. It seemed to have dropped a reminder, leaving her to decide the rest.

Yu Xi knew the system never spoke needlessly. Whether she would return a second time or not, she wanted the mechanically conscious body to live on safely and peacefully after she left.

Thus, Yu Xi decided to leave Hai Ru City with Qi Zhen and his escort team. Even though the nearby Lian City had fallen, it was struggling to maintain order thanks to lessons learned from other coastal cities.

Qi Zhen and his team, after finally escorting people out of Hai Ru City, couldn’t just abandon them in Lian City. Their destination was farther west, Yuan City.

Separated by a wide body of water, Yuan City had swift lockdown measures, meticulous entry disinfection, and longer quarantine periods, making it a relatively safe city.

Yu Xi’s destination, however, was farther north, in Fang City.

Yu Xi parted ways with the others at the national highway junction leading to the Yuan City quarantine zone, surprised that Lin Wu chose to accompany her to Fang City.

She didn’t know if Lin Wu’s mission was completed or why he hadn’t left the apocalyptic world yet. She didn’t hide her intentions and told him she had only about ten days left in this world, after which she would leave.

“That’s fine, my remaining time is about the same, and my destination is also Fang City,” he said. With that, Yu Xi had no objections.

Lin Wu then explained his plan, starting with finding a vehicle in a nearby town, then gasoline, followed by a trip to the supermarket. But before he could finish detailing the plan, Yu Xi took out an RV.

Lin Wu: …

After that, he was continually amazed by her. They spent most of the day traveling, heading directly north from the national highway between Yuan City and Lian City, avoiding Lian City’s lockdown area.

Along the way, they passed several towns in Lian City’s suburbs, all of which had been ravaged by the black bugs. The empty streets and lifeless buildings cast a pall over their spirits.

“Qi Zhen and his team will report the situation at the hospital when they reach Yuan City. I heard they have some research data that they will submit as well. Preventing Hai Ru City from being overrun by giant worms is already a significant achievement; there’s no point in overthinking it,” Lin Wu said to comfort her.

Yu Xi, driving the RV, responded, “I’m just thinking about what happens after we leave. Will this world’s apocalypse ever end?”

Would a normal world that had turned into an apocalypse remain that way forever, or would it eventually end?

Lin Wu couldn’t answer that question. They were too small, like leaves caught in a current, and all they could do was ensure their survival.

The RV bypassed Lian City and found this high ground in the northern outskirts. They were not far from Teng City and planned to spend the night here.

When Lin Wu heard Yu Xi asking if he ate beef or if he had any dietary restrictions, he assumed she would bring out something like a beef or chicken burger. In reality, he wasn’t picky at all. For the past three days, they had been traveling by car from Hai Ru City, constantly taking detours, eating, drinking, and sleeping in the car. The most they had were some bread, cookies, and vacuum-sealed food. He would have been satisfied even if she had just cooked a bowl of instant noodles using the RV’s kitchen.

However, Yu Xi surprised him once again. She brought out a hot pot, a double-flavored beef hot pot with original bone broth and spicy soup, already prepared and ready to eat!

With no one around and the insect repellent circle in place, Yu Xi felt safe opening the windows beside the booth, drawing back the curtains to let in the warm orange sunset of the evening. The RV had electricity, so she used an induction cooker for the hot pot.

The gentle evening breeze blew softly, and on the table, the double-flavored beef hot pot was boiling. The marbled beef only needed a quick dip in the beef bone broth, then a light sprinkle of sea salt and pepper. No other seasoning was needed, and the result was tender, juicy, and incredibly flavorful beef.

Although Lin Wu had been prepared, he was still amazed by the delicate texture and the light, creamy flavor of the beef in his mouth. He then remembered that Yu Xi had mentioned the beef was M9 marbled beef.

Of course, he had eaten M9 beef before, but such terms had long been forgotten in the depths of his memory. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had quietly sat down to enjoy a good meal. Since his death and subsequent revival in the task world, his mind had been entirely focused on completing tasks and avoiding disappearance.

The system tower had divided areas, consisting of the inner tower and the outer tower. So far, all the taskers he had encountered were from the outer tower, with task levels ranging from the simplest C-level to the most challenging A-level.

After completing ten tasks, there was an opportunity to challenge an S-level task. Failure meant disappearance. Success granted a vacation in a peaceful world. This peaceful world wasn’t his original world but a world before it was engulfed by the apocalypse.

The vacation lasted three months, during which no tools or abilities beyond the peaceful world’s understanding could be used, as violators would be erased by the system.

Despite these restrictions, many taskers were eager for the chance because points could be converted into a large amount of the world’s currency, allowing taskers to enjoy a wealthy and worry-free life in a peaceful, serene world for three months.

After the vacation ends, the tasker returns to the system tower and can choose whether to challenge an S-level difficulty task world or randomly select a task from C-level to A-level again.

And so on and so forth.

Each time an S-level world is completed, there is a three-month vacation opportunity in a peaceful world. Many taskers work hard to complete tasks and challenge S-level worlds for this three-month vacation time. When a tasker accumulates ten successful S-level world completions, they can challenge an SS-level world. Upon success, they receive richer rewards and the opportunity to enter the inner tower area.

However, the specific rewards and the process of entering the inner tower remain unknown to him because the taskers he encountered had at most only challenged S-level worlds, which are reputed to be hellishly difficult with a high likelihood of death.

This was Lin Wu’s first S-level task.

Reflecting on the hospital ordeal still filled Lin Wu with dread. He looked up at the person across the table, intending to express formal thanks, but Yu Xi suddenly slapped the table.

“What’s wrong? Is there a situation outside?” Lin Wu almost reached for his weapon.

“No,” Yu Xi looked at him, her expression serious. “I realized eating hot pot feels strange because I forgot the drinks.”

With that, she took out two bottles of Coke and two bottles of Fanta. “Want some?”

Lin Wu: …

A while later, an additional round takeout box appeared on the table. She opened it to reveal large peppered prawns: “… Want some?”

Lin Wu: …

After another moment, there was a serving of yellow rice cake and ice cream puffs on the table.

Yu Xi explained, “Sometimes, after eating too many savory foods, you crave something sweet. This yellow rice cake is especially good, cool, slightly sweet, not greasy, and a bit sticky.”

Lin Wu: …

He finally understood why she invested all her points into upgrading her space. With her enigmatic food-loving habits, a smaller space wouldn’t even hold all her food!

But even so, she was still a powerhouse. She had numerous special tools and her physical strength surpassed his.

Maybe it’s because she tackled tasks with this mindset that she was stronger than him?

Should he learn from her methods?

At this moment, Yu Xi had no idea that when Lin Wu returned to the system tower after this task, he would draft a new task plan and upgrade his space again. From then on, whenever he entered a new task world, he would first spend some time in restaurants packing his favorite foods. In the midst of life-and-death situations, he would find moments to enjoy the tranquility and beauty of good food, savoring the reality of being alive.

Of course, that’s a story for another time.