Chapter 2 Automobiles

Walking alone under the dim streetlights, Lin Wu felt a tinge of fear facing the ever-darkening unknown world. The sound of an engine approached from behind. Lin Wu looked back to see a red car coming his way, its bumper missing, the hood dented, only one window intact, and traces of zombie blood not yet refreshed on its body.

Lin Wu stepped aside, and the car, coughing like it had had too much to eat, clanked to a stop before him, emitting black smoke. The driver was a middle-aged man in his late thirties: "Need a ride?" He had a high forehead, thinning hair, a large head, a protruding brow, and a round belly.

"Dude, just so you know, I'm a guy," Lin Wu reminded him casually as he pulled open the passenger door and climbed in.

"I like your honesty," the middle-aged man said as he started the car.

"A guy?" Lin Wu asked quizzically.

"No," the middle-aged man didn't elaborate, but drove with one hand and stretched out the other, "Stone."

Lin Wu reached out: "Paper?"

Stone burst out laughing and explained, "My name's Stone."

Lin Wu smiled awkwardly and shook hands with Stone: "Lin Wu."

"Lin Wu? That's such a boring name. Do you know what my wife's name was?" Stone continued without waiting for a reply, "Her name was Broken Stone. The first time I heard it, I almost fell over laughing, and that's how we met, fell in love, and got married."

Lin Wu expressed his doubt: "As far as I know, married people don't participate in the drafting."

Stone sighed, "Just got divorced two days ago."

Out of curiosity, Lin Wu asked, "Why get divorced?" Is being married not good? If it's not good, why do so many people get married, some even several times over?

Stone glanced at Lin Wu, "What an interesting question. Why get divorced? Obviously, because I got married in the first place, which is why I can divorce." He snapped his fingers, and a tag appeared on Stone's forehead: experienced driver, divorced. Players could choose to display tags, but couldn't forge them. All tags were related to a player's experiences.

To be polite, Lin Wu also displayed his own tags, but he was more curious about what features a divorced tag might have.

Stone, having sized up Lin Wu's character to about 80 percent, said, "I have a map of North City in my bag."

Lin Wu reached out, but ended up grasping nothing: "Bro, I can't take your bag."

"Let's form a team." Stone initiated the team formation, adding Lin Wu to the team at the friend level. With friend-level team status, teammates could take any items from each other's bags and could set permissions to refuse others from taking items from their own bags.

"We are in..." Lin Wu observed the map, "We're currently to the north of Future City on Highway 117. If we drive 30 kilometers along this road, we'll reach North Town in Left County, which is a part of North City..."

Suddenly, a person appeared in front of the car with arms spread wide. Stone, true to his reputation as an experienced driver, managed to bring the car to a hard stop using system power in a situation where it seemed impossible to avoid a collision. Since the car had no seat belts, Lin Wu flew through the windshield, slid over the hood, collided with the person, and both tumbled onto the road.

"Fuck!"

"Motherfucker?"

"Fucking alpaca!"

The first curse was blurted out subconsciously by Lin Wu as his head broke through the windshield.

The second one came from shock. Stone, holding the broken brake pedal, was filled with disbelief. As an experienced driver, was breaking the brake pedal with a single stomp a testament to his ability, or was it a mockery of his strength?

The short-haired girl who had stopped the car grabbed Lin Wu by the collar, her anger evident as she interrogated him. Fortunately, she quickly grasped the situation, fixed Lin Wu's clothes for him, and then punched his chest lightly with her fist. "Sorry about that."

Stone got out of the car and tossed the brake pedal aside, "The brake pedal's broken." He wasn't blaming the short-haired girl who had stopped the car; rather, his tone carried a hint of helplessness.

The short-haired girl wasn't bothered by the detail, after all, cars were for driving, not just for stopping. She turned to Stone and said, "Uncle, my friend got infected. Can you help us?"

In the illumination of the car's headlights, Stone and Lin Wu saw a long-haired girl lying on the roadside with a cloth wrapped around her slender, snow-white thigh. Stone and Lin Wu walked over and crouched down to look. Lin Wu searched for the wound on the lower leg, curious as he had never seen a wound inflicted by a zombie. Stone, on the other hand, was observing the thigh bound by the cloth; he often saw thighs without cloth wraps, and he never tired of the sight.

Lin Wu turned to Stone, "I don't see any wound."

Stone said, "It looks like her leg is broken." After looking for so long, he had to come to a conclusion.

The long-haired girl explained, "My leg isn't broken, my calf got scratched, and the wound has already healed. The infection level is at 4%."

Lin Wu puzzled, "Then what's the deal with the cloth wrap?"

The short-haired girl came over, squatted down, and tightened the cloth strip. The long-haired girl let out a yelp, "Ouch!"

The short-haired girl explained, "After being bitten by a poisonous insect, the way you tie the cloth can reduce the speed of blood circulation."

Lin Wu said, "I get that, but does it actually work?" This lady thought outside the box.

The short-haired girl, "I don't know. Help me get her into the car."

Stone immediately volunteered, "I have a secondary attribute of strength, I'll do it."

"Be careful," said the short-haired girl as she quickly opened the rear car door and climbed into the back seat to help Stone move the long-haired girl.

Lin Wu stood still, wondering, "Why can't she walk onto the car by herself?"

Holding the long-haired girl in a princess carry, Stone looked back at Lin Wu after hearing the question, "Asking questions is good, but too many questions aren't." A full-sensory game where 100% pain meant 100% touch.

Oh? Lin Wu raised another question, "Now that there's no brake pedal, can the car still be driven?"

Stone, intending to help the girl into the car, paused after Lin Wu's question. He took a few steps back while holding the girl, looking at the car in deep thought as if contemplating the philosophy of life. After a long, long while, Stone said, "It can drive, but it might not be able to stop."

Lin Wu: Was this old driver really a proper old driver?

Before Lin Wu could question further, guttural sounds like phlegm stuck in a throat emerged from the dark areas on both sides of the road: Hungry...

Everyone fell silent to listen and realized the noise wasn't coming from just one source, but many. Lin Wu saw Stone mouthing the word: Zombies.

Stone instantly stuffed the long-haired girl into the back seat of the car and shut the door, her head getting caught in the process. Without a second thought, Stone kicked the door shut. In the face of life or death, the decorative flowers meant for lightening up one's life seemed utterly superfluous.

Lin Wu, using his agility, slid onto the engine hood and squeezed through the broken windshield into the passenger seat.

Stone gave him a thumbs-up: "Cool." He released the handbrake and revved the engine, and the car slowly picked up speed with a clatter. A dozen or so zombies burst from the dark areas into the light, running and desperately lunging at the car. Luckily, they were a step ahead of the zombies. Stone drove away, leaving the horde behind to continue their aimless wandering.