CR: Chapter 200

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.

Xiao Lou whispered, “We should avoid the blood on the ground. The parasite is spread through blood. People who are bitten might have living pathogens in their blood. Try not to touch the blood.”

Ye Qi had almost stepped in a puddle of blood. His face paled and he instantly jumped to avoid it.

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.

The girls of Luoying Pavilion clearly saw them. One of the tall girls who was over 175 cm came over and took the initiative to nod at Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang. “Foreigners?”

The term ‘foreigners’ had become a commonly agreed substitute to refer to challengers.

Yu Hanjiang answered with one word. “Yes.”

The two people maintained a safe distance of more than two metres. Obviously, Yu Hanjiang was worried that she was an infected person while she was cautious of Yu Hanjiang’s team. It was safer to talk from a distance.

The girl said, “I came to exchange some information. Let me first say that this world is a world of a parasite infection. The parasite will enter the brain of the infected person and control the body of the infected person. At present, I don’t know what the pathogen is. The known transmission route is through blood and parasitism. The spread of the bugs is very fast. It is like the human world is being invaded by Zerg.”

This girl spoke in an organized and calm manner. Xiao Lou looked at her with appreciation and replied, “We know the same information as you. For the transmission route, blood has been confirmed and air can be eliminated. Can it be transmitted through good? There is currently no case proof so it can’t be taken lightly.”

The girl nodded. “Since it is like a Zerg invasion, I suspect there will be a mother bug in this world. Or perhaps a leader bug. Were there any special bosses among the characters you encountered?”

Xiao Lou thought about it for a moment. “There are no characters like the boss yet. I just heard that the respiratory department of the Second Hospital is dead. There were many people there and perhaps there was a survivor who later infected the plot characters they met.”

The girl’s expression was slightly regretful. “We also thought the same thing. The Second Hospital seemed to have the first case of infection among all the hospitals but we can’t rule out someone being infected earlier but not going to the hospital. It seems that the boss isn’t very easy to find.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “Yes, after all, we have to survive 14 days. It won’t be so simple.”

Both teams were several metres apart. The girl spoke after a moment, “I wish for your good luck.”

Xiao Lou replied, “I also wish for your good luck.”

The two sides didn’t intend to join forces. After all, the setting of ‘bugs will disguise’ themselves was a bit scary. No one knew if underneath the skin, this body had been occupied by bugs or not. How could they trust a stranger?

The female team turned away and left the shopping area. They were ready to go to the cash register.

Just then, a young man wearing supermarket overalls smiled and stopped Xiao Lou’s team. “We have a discount at this supermarket. You just need to apply for a membership card. Then when you buy a box of milk, you can get another one for free. Do you want to take a look?”

Xiao Lou didn’t have time to speak when Yu Hanjiang interjected coldly, “No need.”

The young man smiled. “Chocolate is also buy one get one free. Sir, you just need a membership card.”

Yu Hanjiang’s expression was obviously impatient and he lowered his voice. “No need.”

He turned to leave but the young man reached to stop him. Yu Hanjiang quickly moved sideways to avoid him and frowned unhappily. “What are you doing?”

The boy explained softly, “I’m sorry, I’m an intern at the supermarket and the manager arranged a task for me. If I can’t complete the task then my bonus will be deducted. Sir, please do me a favour and fill out the information to get a membership card. It is very simple.”

This boy was very handsome and had a sunny smile.

If this was the real world then Xiao Lou would definitely help out. They just needed to give their mobile phone number to register with the supermarket. It was convenient to apply for a membership card and there would be various discounts every New Year’s Day…

However, now he looked at the smile of this boy and felt that something wasn’t right.

The temperature of the supermarket was getting lower and Xiao Lou was covered in goosebumps. Meanwhile, this boy was only wearing thin work clothes and a shirt, but he still had a smile on his face. Wasn’t he afraid of the cold at all?

The moment Xiao Lou noticed what was wrong, the boy turned back and reached out toward Xiao Lou’s cheek!

Xiao Lou was standing right beside Yu Hanjiang.

The boy had been talking to Yu Hanjiang and his eyes were also on Yu Hanjiang’s face. He didn’t look at Xiao Lou at all. Their teammates thought he was just an ordinary supermarket shopping guide. They didn’t expect him to attack Xiao Lou!

Seeing that the boy’s hand was about to touch Xiao Lou’s face, Yu Hanjiang’s pupils shrank and his feet kicked the boy’s abdomen, simply kicking him to the ground. This person actually dared to attack Xiao Lou. He knew to ‘threaten the east while striking the west’ and engaged in a sudden attack?

This bug did have a good idea.

It was just that Yu Hanjiang had been vigilant from the moment he appeared.

Yu Hanjiang had gone through hundreds of battles and engaged in a battle of wits with countless criminals. How could the bug injure Xiao Lou under his eyes? The moment he noticed the boy raising his hand to attack Xiao Lou, Yu Hanjiang had kicked him.

This boy was nearly 1.8 metres tall and wasn’t too light. He was kicked by Yu Hanjiang and flew back several metres. It could be seen how strong Yu Hanjiang’s kick was! There was a loud bang as the young man’s body hit the shelf in the middle of the supermarket. Countless Coke bottles crashed down and buried him instantly.

Their teammates saw this scene and were frightened.

Group Leader Yu’s movements were lightning fast. The bug probably hadn’t expected that his plan to ‘threaten the east while striking the west’ had already been seen through by Yu Hanjiang. A person who worked as a policeman had a strong sense of crisis and Yu Hanjiang had seen every move.

The boy was buried under the beverage bottles and was motionless. Yu Hanjiang picked up a mop placed nearby in the supermarket to use as a weapon. He stepped forward to see if this person was dead or alive. As a result, the beverage bottles were pushed away and countless bottles rolled all over the ground. The young man who had just been buried climbed out of the pile of bottles at a very fast speed.

He stared at Yu Hanjiang with scarlet eyes but realized this group of people wasn’t easy to deal with. Therefore, he flexibly moved on the ground to move away.

The boy crawled like a snake on the ground. The team saw the handsome guy crawling on the ground and was stunned. By the time they reacted, he had already disappeared around the corner.

Yu Hanjiang’s face was ugly. “This supermarket is also infected. Go!”

***

At this time, the cash register.

There were eight cash registers open with eight young girls standing in front of the team from Luoying Pavilion.

Since everyone had bought many things and there was no one in the supermarket at noon, they separated. Two people pushed one shopping cart to one cash register.

The girls at the cash register quickly scanned the barcode and the price of everything appeared on the computer.

The challengers of Luoying Pavilion started to pay with gold coins.

The captain who was 175cm tall just stretched out her hand to give the gold coins to the cash register girl when as a result, the cashier grabbed her hand and pointed her nails directly at the back of her hands.

The tall girl was from an elite team of Luoying Pavilion and responded extremely quickly. She retracted her right hand in a lightning fast manner to avoid the attack. Her face changed and she ordered sharply, “They are all infected. Escape!”

The professionally trained team’s executive ability was first-class. Upon hearing their captain’s words, the girls swiftly jumped over the fence beyond the cash register. They simply abandoned their shopping carts and ran faster than rabbits.

Xiao Lou was just coming to the cash register when he saw this scene.

He stood in the distance and glanced over the eight cash registers. All eight young female cashiers had the exact same expressions on their faces, as if they were carved from a mold!

There was no heating in the supermarket in winter. They were wearing short skirts yet they had bright smiles on their faces. It was too strange!

The girls of Luoying Pavilion ran away really quickly. They jumped over the fence and ran away in the blink of an eye. The attack of the eight cashiers was unsuccessful but the girls weren’t pursued. Instead, the cashiers turned their heads together and looked at Xiao Lou with a smile.

Xiao Lou, “…”

All the hairs on his body stood up as he whispered, “They’re all infected…”

Yu Hanjiang’s face was serious. “Withdraw to the supermarket first!”

The channel at the cash register was very narrow and could only accommodate one person passing at a time. It was over if they were scratched while going over the barrier. This group of bugs pretended to be cashiers and wanted to scratch the back of the customers’ hands while paying. Now that the plan wasn’t successful, they definitely wouldn’t be gentle. If they attacked with all their might at the cash register, the risk was even greater.

Yu Hanjiang wanted to return to the supermarket to discuss a strategy with his team.

His sharp eyes glanced behind him.

Sure enough, it was unknown when but the supermarket staff who were making roast duck, weighing fruits and cutting fresh meat and the customers pretending to pick vegetables and fruits had quietly come behind them.

These people didn’t make any footsteps because they crawled on the ground.

At this time, dozens of people crawled on the ground like bugs and stared up at them with red eyes.

In front, eight beautiful cash register girls were smiling at them.

The hair on Ye Qi’s body stood up. “F*k! This supermarket is actually a nest of bugs!”