"Ha..."
A faint drowsiness made him yawn.
"The last one, whatever, let's smoke it."
"Next time, have those guys bring me a couple more packs."
After hesitating for a moment, he pulled out a crumpled soft-shell cigarette from his coat pocket.
Click.
Sheltered from the sea breeze, it took a while for the lighter in his hands to ignite the dancing flame.
Drip, drip, drip, drip...
However, the distant sound of a fire alarm made him stop his action.
"...Huh?"
When he saw a fire truck speeding towards the dock, he was dumbfounded.
Screech!
Then there was the harsh sound of an emergency brake.
"Ugh!"
Straw Man hurriedly jumped off the car and started vomiting.
Not believing in misfortune, he switched places with Mossy Mushroom only to find that whoever sat next to Ree Shil was the most unfortunate.
Next off the car with pale faces were Mossy Mushroom and Little Apricot.
Ree Shil himself was fine. He walked to the back door of the car and opened it.
It wasn't like they were dying, but at least the Ghostfire Brothers were crawling out of the car.
"I'll never speed again..."
"No, what we did doesn't even deserve to be called speeding."
"I would have chosen to walk back if I knew this would happen."
Their faces were bruised, and traces of tears and snot remained on them.
"Sorry about that, I was driving fast because it was late at night."
"But I feel like I'm getting better at it, don't you think?"
Ree Shil looked at Mossy Mushroom.
"Um... Big brother, thank you for bringing us back."
"I'll take you to meet Mr. Liu."
Little Apricot forced a smile and changed the subject.
Mr. Liu was a retired military man and the owner of the building.
Among the 15 people there, he was the only survivor who had not been spared due to going out to sea.
At that time, he had witnessed the entire outbreak of the Zombie Beast disaster on-site and had reluctantly killed all the infected tenants in the building with his power.
In many ways, he was the leader of their group.
She had talked about this information earlier on the way to the building.
"Okay, thank you for introducing us."
"At this time, Mr. Liu should be on duty on the roof."
"So the person pointing a gun at us on the roof now is Mr. Liu, right?"
Ree Shil had noticed him earlier.
"Little Apricot, who is this stranger you've brought back?"
Mr. Liu steadied his gun.
He had been scared when he thought his building was going to be demolished by the fire truck, and he had even accidentally lit his beard.
"Mr. Liu, don't shoot, don't shoot!"
"Big brother here is a good guy!"
Little Apricot hurriedly waved her hands.
"Yeah, Mr. Liu, Little Apricot isn't lying."
"If it wasn't for big brother, we might not have made it back."
"That's right, that's right, big brother is like this."
The Ghostfire Brothers confirmed her statement and gave a thumbs up.
"Oh? Well, bring them up first."
Mr. Liu was a bit skeptical but still threw down the keys to the main gate.
As they walked up the stairs, passing by room after room, Ree Shil found that all the rooms were tightly closed, and the doors had been reinforced.
It was clear that the survivors here were cautious.
Upon reaching the top floor, they saw Mr. Liu waiting for them.
Although his gun was no longer pointed at them, he still held it in his hand.
Then Little Apricot began to recount the events.
"Hmph."
After listening to her words, Mr. Liu snorted coldly.
"As for your sneaking away, I'll deal with that tomorrow."
"For now, you three can go rest."
Appointing Ghostfire Eldest Brother to cover for his duty, he sternly sent Little Apricot and her two companions down from the roof.
Knowing she had caused trouble, Little Apricot dared not make a sound and scurried away with her head down.
"Thank you."
"Little Apricot is still young and inexperienced. This time, we really are thankful we met you."
Mr. Liu's eyes softened only after seeing Little Apricot leave.
As he said thank you, a panel of text immediately appeared in front of Ree Shil and his companions.
[Safely escort Little Apricot back to the camp - 1/1]
[Congratulations, mission accomplished]
[Obtain 1 card draw chance]
This was much more substantial than Mr. Liu's simple thank you.
"Judging by your accents, I guess you guys are not locals."
Mr. Liu looked at Ree Shil.
Of these three young men, he felt that the other party was likely the decision-maker.
The other one seemed dim-witted, and one was a dwarf, both of which didn't look too reliable.
"That's right."
On the way here, Ree Shil had already fabricated a story about their background.
Although it was definitely not perfect, it was still somewhat reasonable, and if the other party didn't delve too deeply into it, they wouldn't be exposed.
"Alright, you guys have done a lot today."
"There's an empty space downstairs, you guys can squeeze there for tonight."
"Have a good rest, we can talk about it tomorrow if there's anything."
As expected, Mr. Liu didn't raise any questions, and had the Ghostfire Eldest Brother take Ree Shil and the others downstairs.
However, after settling them down, Ghostfire Eldest Brother returned.
"Mr. Liu, why don't you take a break, and I'll do it."
He respectfully stood by Mr. Liu's side, wanting to help light the lamp.
"..."
Mr. Liu didn't speak but just extended two fingers toward him.
Ghostfire Eldest Brother understood and took out an unopened pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
He quickly unwrapped the packaging and handed one to the other party.
"Hiss... exhale!"
Mr. Liu lit the cigarette and took a deep drag.
The strong and spicy smoke passed through his throat and drilled into his lungs.
The smoke turned into a thin white fog and was exhaled from his mouth.
"Just now... Little Apricot mentioned that they killed hundreds of Zombie Beasts with just the three of them?"
"Absolutely true, and it happened in an instant, so fast that none of us could see it clearly."
"There's such a thing... tell me the details, don't leave anything out."
As Mr. Liu spoke, his gaze remained fixed in the distance.
Although he couldn't see anything in the pitch-black night.
That direction was towards the city district.
...
When Ree Shil woke up, he found that their Survival Challenge Stage 1 had already been completed.
With the previous PVE scene and escorting Little Apricot's hidden mission, a total of 3 card draw chances had been accumulated.
Just entering the instance for one day and having such results was already a big win.
Even if they leave the instance now, they would not have lost anything.
Following this, it was Stage 2.
[Survival Challenge 2: Survive in the City of Zombie Beasts for 72 hours - 0/1]
[Complete Challenge 2 to get 1 card draw chance]
[And unlock Survival Challenge 3]
Stage 2's requirement was much longer than Stage 1, 72 hours, which is 3 days.
But annoyingly, the reward for card draw chances remains at 1.
After discussing amongst themselves, the one guy, one mushroom, and one grass decided to stay and hold on here.
After all, they had food and a safe place to stay now.
If they encountered another wave of Zombie Beasts outside and didn't trigger a PVE scene, they wouldn't be able to defeat them, and they would immediately be swarmed and have their faces eaten off.
Moreover, Ree Shil always felt that escorting Little Apricot back might be just the first part of the hidden mission.
Perhaps there are follow-ups, and the key to unlocking the missions should be on these survivors.
So, while they stayed back, they also started interacting frequently with everyone.
After getting along for a while, they didn't trigger any mission.
Instead, they found that everyone in this building was kind and warm, with an atmosphere of strong unity in the face of the apocalypse.
Of course, part of the warmth was because of their generous contribution of supplies they brought back using the fire truck the other night.
In order to trigger a mission, Ree Shil had the Straw Man show off a few moves, easily knocking down several Zombie Beasts that had strayed into the dock.
In short, the 3 days passed in the blink of an eye.
The only gain for the trio was passing the Survival Challenge Stage 2, and accumulating a total of 4 card draw chances.
[Survival Challenge 3: Survive in the City of Zombie Beasts for 240 hours - 0/1]
[Complete Challenge 3 to get 1 card draw chance]
[And end the mission to leave the instance]
Stage 3 lasts for 10 days, and Ree Shil felt a sense of urgency.
Yes, urgency.
Because they still hadn't found any new clues for the hidden mission.
Early in the morning, the three of them gathered in the room to discuss where to go from here.
...
...