CH 29

An Minghui returned the things he confiscated from Hao Jian and the others. Hao Jian said unexpectedly, “This is, you believe we’re not infected by the virus?”

“We confiscated your things to make sure that there are no dangerous goods inside. Since you don’t plan to stay here for a long time, we naturally don’t need these anymore. But we still have to trouble you to stay in the isolated observation area to let others see that we’re enforcing the rules.”

Hao Jian suddenly remembered something and asked, “By they way, where are the refugee bases in Jiangshi?”

“When choosing a place for the camp, it must be a relatively safe place. Because Jiangxin Island is surrounded by rivers, even if zombies can swim over, it is easy to clean them up. Therefore, places like gymnasiums, schools, and conference centers that are closed areas and have a wide viewpoint can be used as temporary shelters.”

“School? I think schools in the countryside don’t seem to have many people.”

“How can the countryside be the same as in the city? Every household in the countryside is equivalent to a single-family residential building that has at least 70 to 80 families. Some people whose home environment doesn’t have precautionary measures are transferred to refuges. Schools have teaching buildings and playgrounds, plus the surrounding walls. They’re enough to accommodate people who have no shelter.”

“Then how do you guarantee your food?”

AN Minghui was silent. Although crops have just been harvested last month, there are now very few rice farmers. The food in this city is mainly bought from other places. The food on the market was robbed as early as when the people started to panic.

The country has grain storages to store grain for emergencies, but the granary is not here and it needs manpower and a long time to transport grains from the granaries, which is not only time-consuming but also dangerous.

Besides, the current environment does not support farming. After eating a meal, no one knowns then the next one comes along.

However, it is impossible for them to tell the people about these things. An Minghui would not even tell Hao Jian and only said, “Anyway, the country has a way, don’t worry.”

Hao Jian didn’t ask much, but said, “You just said that the conference center is also a refuge point. . . Although Peng Mao said that a new commercial center is going to be built there, it still belongs to the suburbs. It stand to reason that the zombies over there will be lesser than the city. It’s right to have closed areas, but when we passed over there just now, we found that there were a lot of zombies nearby.

An Minghui said, “From the past few days, panic broke out the city. Some people hid, and some people were busy fleeing the city. So I think there should be many zombies in the suburbs. As for meetings. There are team members to guard the center so don’t worry.”

Since An Minghui said so, Hao Jian didn’t worry about it anymore.”

After she went back, An Minghui asked them to replace the straw mats in the fence, cleaned them up, and gave each of them a piece of food. The door wasn’t locked anymore.

“Hey, what did you talk about? Why did it take so long?” Peng Mao asked.

Hao Jian ignored him, but said to Lian Ru Ning, “The reason why we didn’t hear of any shelters on the radio was also their arrangement. But it’s certain that the guards all over the country received orders for the construction of shelters. According to the information, there are such refuge points in Southern City that are in larger scale compared to here.”

After listening to Hao Jian, Lian Ru Ning also understood what she meant. Compared to the previous reason that the used to convince herself and the officers regarding her family’s survival, it was much more reassuring to hear.

Although there are still no news from her family, she knows that there is an evacuation point. Maybe her family moved to the evacuation point?

Hao Jian didn’t tell Lian Ru Ning about the lockdown of the city center.

The downtown area of South City is very large, and at least half of the three districts belong to the city center.

Lian Ru Ning mentioned that her home is in the urban area, and even the campus where her mother teaches and the campus of Nanhai University School of Fine Arts where her brother his studying belong to the area very close to the city center, so telling her about the situation will only worry her even more.

“We will rest here for one night to recharge and leave tomorrow morning.” Hao Jian instructed.

Lian Ru Ning didn’t object but Peng Mao hesitated.

Hao Jian figured out what he was thinking and said, “You are from Jiangshi. Now that you’re safe, there is no need to follow us. I will also ask Xin Ting tomorrow morning that her arm needs medical treatment. It will only get worse afterwards if she continues to push herself.”

Peng Mao didn’t say a word and Hao Jian took it as an agreement.

After eating, Hao Jian and Lian Ru Ning pondered about leaving tomorrow.

“Adjutant An Minghui said that their other team would go out nearby to search and rescue trapped citizens every morning. The zombies gathered here were cleaned up by them, so we can follow their lead when they leave tomorrow morning.

Lian Ru Ning was a little lost and a little lucky. Although their team may have changed from four to two, at least there won’t be more people going in danger because they want to accompany her back to Southern City.

As they were talking, gunshots were suddenly heard nearby. The gunshots didn’t just rang, but continued one after another.

People who are familiar with or strangers to gunshots were startled. Many onlookers ran out of their tents. Everyone’s expressions were a mixture of worry and fear since the presence of these sounds meant that there were zombies nearby.

They are all survivors who escaped from the hands of zombies. Fear towards them have been buried in their bones.

Hao Jian saw a group of people coming down from the embankment through the barb-wired fence. They were clearing the zombies on and behind the embankment. Hao Jian guessed that the group of people who went out in the morning came back.

Sure enough, after a while, the door opened again. Several guards in team uniforms cam in with a few embarrassed people who were locked in the fence next to Hao Jian and the others. The guards walked into a tent while undressing.

“Why are they taking off their clothes?” Peng Mao became familiar with the guards and asked them casually.

“It’s to check for trauma and disinfect.”

Peng Mao stared, “Then why didn’t they check us like that?”

“They have to go out on duty everyday, how can they be like you? Moreover, people who come from outside can’t tell whether they have been infected with the zombie virus by simply looking at the wound.”

“What do you mean?” Peng Mao was puzzled, but Hao Jian understood.

The newcomers next to them said, “Don’t you know? Having sex can also spread the virus.”

“Fuck, I didn’t know this in the movie!” Peng Mao was shocked.

“You believe in movies so much, who don’t you live in the movies?” The man gave him a blank look.

Hao Jian and Lian Ru Ning didn’t interrupt. They saw An Minghui hurriedly walked into the tent. After a while, he walked out again and came straight to Hao Jian, “Miss Hao, is it convenient to have a talk?”

Hao Jian went out and followed him to a place far away from the crowd. An Minghui frowned, “I’ll get straight to the point. You said there was something abnormal on Civic Avenue?”

Hao Jian understood what he was asking, “What happened to the refuge point over there?”

An Minghui was silent, seeming to debate to tell her or not. After a while, he said, “The Jiang City Rescue and Evacuation Headquarters is in the Conference Center, and the Civic Park opposite the Conference Center is also the largest refuge point in Jiang City. . .”

“Are there any special places in Civic Park that can be used as a refuge point?”

“Although it’s called a park, it’s actually a place full of lakes. It has seven or eight islands in the lake. The area of each island is about the same size as here. Bridges connect each island. Behind it is a large forest, and this terrain is conducive to setting levels.”

“It invaded by zombies?”

An Minghui shook his head, “Although our refuge site is not big, there are related equipment to get in touch with the headquarters, but I don’t know what happened. We suddenly couldn’t get in touch with that side, so I thought to ask you. Do you know anything or remember some details?”

“We also took a quick glance. Originally, we had to leave Jiangshi from Civic Avenue. It is precisely because of the large number of zombies pouring out that we were forced to come here.”

“Okay!” An Minghui sighed.

The system that never appeared was suddenly online and Hao Jian was shocked as soon as she heard it, “Congratulations to the host for triggering the hidden mission – help An Minghui go to the conference center to investigate!”

“What the hell?” Hao Jian subconsciously opened her mouth.

An Minghui who was about to leave heard this and looked back at her, “What did you just say?”

Hao Jian pursed her lips, until the voice in her mind stopped. She then reluctantly said, “Are you planning to send someone to the conference center to investigate? If you’re still looking for candidates. . . what about me?”

An Minghui blinked. Unexpectedly she changed her words temporarily and she was still forced to look like this.

He said, “I do plan to sent people there to investigate about the situation, but out daily tasks can’t be stopped so I planned to recruit some people from the public to take charge of our daily work while our team members go to the conference center.”

“I am not very interested in searching and rescuing survivors everyday.”

“Searching and rescuing survivors is a sacred and difficult task.”

“I’m not underestimating that kind of work. On the contrary, I admire and respect all of you who are risking their lives to save people.”

An Minghui looked at her weirdly, “Then you and I have to be thankful that you didn’t join the guard, otherwise someone like you who doesn’t obey orders will be a headache. Not to mention you won’t have good fruit.”

He changed the conversation, “Aren’t you leaving tomorrow morning? Why are you so interested in the center all of a sudden?”

“To understand what happened there and then go to other places in the future to better prevent things like this and deal with it, right?”

“You can follow along, but our equipment will not be borrowed and our people will not necessarily take you into consideration when the time comes.”

“I just want to take the ride and won’t bother you. Since I made this decisions, I have already put my life and death out of the picture and if I die, there is nothing to resent.”

When the system notified Hao Jian about the hidden mission, Hao Jian was indeed caught off guard.

Ever since she got this system, it had only announced one main task, ‘Send partner Lian Ru Ning to Southern City.’

The system mentioned that there are main tasks, side tasks, daily tasks, and reward tasks, but didn’t mention anything about hidden tasks.

The system’s voice had no emotion but with a hint of contempt, it said, “I said it’s a hidden task, how can I casually mention it?”

“You mean couldn’t. You didn’t know that there was a hidden mission, didn’t you?”

“. . .” The system snorted, “The task is issued by the central system, of course this system doesn’t know!”

Hao Jian replied, “Then what is the reason for triggering this hidden mission? When I passed by the Civic Avenue earlier, it wasn’t triggered, which means that the location is not the key for triggering the mission. The same for the activation of the Main Mission. It also wasn’t determined by the location.”

When the main quest was activated, it triggered because Lian Ru Ning said that she was going back to Southern City. And this hidden mission was triggered when An Minghui decided to explore the situation at the conference center.

These two tasks have one thing in common.

“So like side quests and reward quests, the key to triggering them is to find relevant characters when the right event occurs? The main quest is related to Lian Ru Ning. She is my love, so it is the key to triggering the main quest. This is normal, but what about An Minghui? Is he and important person?”

The system has long known that Hao Jian’s mind is sharp so it wasn’t a surprise, “Please figure it out yourself.”

“You didn’t deny, that is to say. . .” Hao Jian sneered, “You, or the central system behind you can control the overall situation. It at least knows everyone well and it can even predict what character can play, right?”

The system chose to pretend to be dead without detecting and analyzing that the thought behind Hao Jian’s previous sentence was actually such an idea.

After a long time, it said, “The host’s question is not within the scope of the system’s understanding and the system doesn’t have the relevant authority to obtain answers.”

Hao Jian knew that the system was hiding something but chose not to press the issue.

In fact, she doesn’t have to do the hidden task and there will be no punishment even if she doesn’t do it.

However, unlike the Main Mission, which only announced the mission but didn’t include the reward, this hidden mission threw out a very considerable reward that made Hao Jian agree.

‘Hidden Mission: Help An Minghui go to the conference center to investigate! Completing the mission rewards 100 experience and 500 points’

The experience she can gain in this task is equal to her killing 20 zombies which is equivalent to 50 points. Now, her experience is 228, and her points are 279. Originally, her points were only in double digits, but they came back only because she was killing more than 20 zombies today.

Of course, points are not as important as experience to her. If she can complete the task and kill 30 to 40 zombies, she will be able to rise to level 3 soon.

As the system mentioned, the higher the level, the more permissions are available. The closer they are to Southern City, the more threats and reason they need to ensure their lives.

She returned to the isolation area and met Lian Ru Ning’s inquisitive gaze. She suddenly regretted that she had decided to do the hidden mission without discussing it with her “Love”