Chereads / Asterin in a Otome Game / Chapter 4 - A strange encounter

Chapter 4 - A strange encounter

Asterin blew gently on the noodles. She was currently having a hot meal in the house. Thankfully, the electricity and water hadn't been cut yet, so she was still able to have hot noodles. Enjoying it, she contemplated her next course of action.

Soon, bases will pop up everywhere. The military bases will be established first, then some small bases by people who didn't want to pay the heavy tax to stay in the military bases. If the timeline right now were before the game starts, there would only be three bases so far. Code Zero, Iceberg and Charlie.

Asterin frowned. "Code Zero, Iceberg and Charlie… out of all those bases, Code Zero is the base that the female lead will join at the start and where most of the romance takes place, while Iceberg is the base that will lead in science and making the vaccine. As for Charlie…"

Asterin flinched. Charlie was the base that will get utterly destroyed once the game starts. It will be taken down by a mass zombie horde which will kill most of Charlie's inhabitants. It was also where one of the male leads resided before the game started.

The fourth male lead, the cutie of the entire game, Feng Mian. Often referred by fans as the 'pastel boy'. With his soft, fluffy pink hair and light blue eyes, it was an extremely deserved title.

And as the number one fan of Feng Mian, Asterin had decided at that exact moment to head towards Charlie to see her beloved Feng Mian.

Packing up all the necessities for travelling, Asterin headed out, slicing off a zombie's head and pulling out the nucleus. She happily jumped around, grabbing a map she had nabbed from the supermarket.

Reading it, she was immediately stumped. From what she knew of Charlie, it was located an entire city away. Sighing, she sat down on a bench, thinking.

Asterin, a normal high schooler, had no idea how to use a vehicle. After trying countless ones, she managed to realise that she needed a key. Her plans crushed, she sat there, ignoring the blood puddle beside her. As a crazy fan for the cute Feng Mian, it was torture to know that she couldn't see him due to lack of transport.

"Hey lady, why are you just sitting here? Do you need help?" Asterin looked towards the voice. This voice was remarkably familiar, almost like someone she knew…

Yup, she definitely knew who this was. Classic blonde hair with sunshine blue eyes, this was the generic kind university student. The 1st male lead, codenamed 'Sunshine', Chryses. As of right now, he was crouching next to her, smiling gently.

Chryses, out of all the male leads, was definitely just there for variety. He was the tutorial male lead, and the most generic one. But he was undoubtingly, the kindest and nicest. Seeing him, Asterin relaxed.

Rather than another male lead, this one was the easiest to deal with. Why all the male leads were just popping up could be addressed on another date.

"Oh, you're probably surprised about why I just came up to you. I'm sorry, you just looked distressed." As Chryses spoke, Asterin snapped out of her thoughts.

"Ah, I'm sorry. In truth, I wanted to head towards a base in another city. However, I don't know how to get there." Asterin easily gave away what she wanted to do, knowing Chryses, he would probably extend out a hand to help.

He was, to be honest, to kind. However, for her darling Feng Mian, she would do anything. Including taking advantage of Chryses. Suddenly, a pang of guilt flashed through Asterin.

Supressing it down, she smiled at Chryses. As expected, Chryses had a worried look on his face. "Oh no. Hm… how about this. I can't send you all the way but I can send you near to that city. Would that be, okay? Ah, don't misunderstand, I'm not going to do anything to you."

Asterin smiled happily, nodding at Chryses. "Thank you, that would be just fine." Chryses seemed relieved to hear those words. Chryses then pulled out a set of keys, walking to a car. With a click, it unlocked.

Both of them got in, buckling their seatbelts. As the car started moving, Asterin was suddenly faced with a massive problem.

It was deadly quiet. Trying to make conversation was hard, as Chryses would answer in short, quick answers. An entire hour passed with this awkward silence. Contemplating, Asterin tapped her head. How was it that as the female lead, it was so easy to make conversation, while as 'Eria', it was so hard?

"So why are you heading to that particular city?" Chryses probably had noticed the silence and tried to break it. However, this question was slightly hard to answer. Asterin couldn't very well say that it was because she wanted to see a cutie named Feng Mian.

"Well… out of all the bases, Charlie seemed the safest, so I decided on it." Asterin gave a vague answer, hoping that that was enough for Chryses. Thankfully, it seemed like it was. Asterin was contemplating another question to ask when the ground shook a little.

…and collapsed under their car. An underground road opened up. Having little control of the vehicle due to the shaking, Chryses could only hold on to the wheel as the car slid down this hole. Asterin held onto her seatbelt. Whatever this was, it definitely wasn't in the original game.

The car slid down the road, before coming to a stop just before a door. Asterin and Chryses exchanged glances, each walking up to the door and pushing on it. It was a pull door.

Realising this, Asterin calmly pulled on the door, pretending to not be embarrassed. Chryses seemed to be going through the same crisis, pulling on the door with a little more strength than before.

It looked like an underground lab. It had some odd test tubes that contained strange liquids. Right in the middle, a metal pillar was surrounded by computers.

As Asterin walked toward it, the ground shook once more, and another bunch of rocks and dirt fell, covering the door. Chryses, who was lagging behind, could only jump backwards, separated from Asterin by a massive dirt pile.

Asterin looked at the pile. Frowning she turned back to stare at the metal pillar. When the ground shook, she had accidentally pressed a few buttons. The metal pillar was now slowly creaking open, revealing its contents. Asterin sucked in a deep breath, staring at it.