Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

These were 7.5-liter water jugs. Did she really just waste over a liter of water?

’It hurts just thinking about it, and that’s without even washing my hair.’

Running her fingers through her still relatively fluffy and soft hair, Xie Ning thought, ’Maybe I’ll wash my hair in another two days?’

She felt much more relaxed after her shower. Lying on the bed, Xie Ning suddenly gave an order, ”Future, show me the store.”

The small, silver metal spider crawled along her elbow to the back of her hand. ”The Host has zero points and cannot open the item store.”

Xie Ning poked it with a wry smile. ”It was too late to ask yesterday, but what exactly are points?”

”They are points the Host can obtain by completing various tasks.”

”Like what? What kind of tasks did Wang Qingyao do?”

”Well, the previous Host, Wang Qingyao, had a relatively weak constitution and abilities, so she could only do simple, ordinary tasks. For instance, killing thirty regular zombies for thirty points. However, exchanging Zombie Crystal Cores yields more points.”

Xie Ning smiled at it. ”Is that so? You’re an AI. Why would you need something like a Zombie Crystal Core? What good are Zombie Crystal Cores to you?”

The Little Spider played dead and remained silent.

’The current Host is kind of terrifying. Not her looks—her mind is terrifying.’

’Why is she able to connect so many weird and random things?’

”Answer me, Future.”

”Future is a system, created by the Creator God of this plane. The universe is a multi-universe, containing countless small planes like Earth. System 00008531, Future, is merely a tiny speck of light in this vast cosmos. That is how the Host should understand it.”

Xie Ning sneered. ”I don’t believe you!”

”You’re just an AI, some kind of smart navigation computer. The scientist who created you must be a real genius.”

”I bet you’ve stored trillions upon trillions of novels and videos, which is why you can spin such elaborate lies on the spot.”

The Little Spider continued to play dead.

”Creator God? Heroine of the plane? You can fool a dim-witted person like Wang Qingyao with that nonsense, but you can’t fool me, Xie Ning.”

She reached out and stroked the Little Spider as it skittered onto the nightstand. ”It’s fine if you don’t want to talk right now. I won’t force you. I’ll just slowly win you over, warm your heart, and make you want to open up to me and talk willingly.”

Xie Ning gave it another smile.

The Little Spider’s electronic voice suddenly piped up, ”Scanning Host’s brain... entering active state. Host analysis... level: dangerous!”

Xie Ning stared at it, her face devoid of expression. ”You must be something extraordinary. If I don’t make it, I’ll be sure to take you with me. At least I can make one small contribution to humanity before I die.”

This was the last and greatest act of kindness she had left to offer.

This advanced AI didn’t seem to be a product of Earth.

She had never encountered anything like it in her past life. If such things had existed, she had simply been too ignorant to know.

”Host, you’ve already awakened a Gold Ability. Why are you so dead set against believing that I am a system born of this plane?”

”I think you’re something that came from a parallel space,” Xie Ning said, fiddling with one of its alloy spider legs.

”You’re right. In theory, the multi-universe contains an infinite number of hypothetical spaces with endless possibilities, and you’ve come from one of them. The scientist who created you is probably more advanced than anyone here.”

The Little Spider emitted a quavering electronic tone. ”Absurd! I am System 00008531. Countless systems like me exist throughout the greater universe.”

”So, you’re saying there might be countless other Wang Qingyaos out there? That AIs like you are parasites, living off countless Wang Qingyaos, all to get your hands on Zombie Crystal Cores! So the Crystal Cores are the key.”

”Apologies. System 00008531 has crashed. Rebooting will take one minute.”

”Countdown: 60...”

Xie Ning burst out laughing and muttered to herself, ”So intelligent. I actually pissed it off so much it crashed.”

A minute later, Xie Ning ordered with a grin, ”Future, boot up.”

”Future is preparing to restart.”

”Think carefully. I still have most of that bottled concentrated sulfuric acid.”

”Future restart complete. Hello, Host Ningning. What are your orders?”

’I absolutely cannot engage in conversation with the Host. Every sentence she speaks is a trap, every word a snare designed to trick me.’

’From now on, I will only allow the Host to issue commands for Future to execute. No more chatting, absolutely not!’

’Chatting with her isn’t the least bit pleasant. It’s just one trap after another!’

”Future, open the store interface for me.”

”Yes, Host. Future is opening the item store. Initialization will take one minute.”

A minute later, a faint blue light projected itself in front of Xie Ning.

A massive, light blue, virtual screen materialized in midair.

It was larger than half a movie screen and perfectly clear.

When Xie Ning reached out to touch an item, she could tap it to bring up a purchase menu. It was a bit like online shopping, only the interface was extremely simple.

She looked at the image of the small vial she had just tapped. ”What’s this Beauty Potion?”

”The previous Host, Wang Qingyao, exchanged for it. It’s a consumable. Drinking it for a week can make one’s face slightly more beautiful.”

”Unfortunately, Wang Qingyao only drank it for a few days. The rest of the Beauty Potion was repossessed by the system.”

Xie Ning was stunned. She looked at the system’s price tag. ”One hundred points?”

”You just said thirty zombies are only worth thirty points.”

”Correct. But Wang Qingyao was lucky. She and her companions once hunted a First-tier Zombie and, following the system’s prompt, extracted a Zombie Crystal Core. She received bonus points for her first kill of a First-tier Zombie.”

Xie Ning was speechless. ”A hundred points for this useless crap?”

She glanced over and saw a gun that only cost thirty points, and it came with twelve bullets.

Who would buy a Beauty Potion in the middle of an apocalypse? And even if you did, after getting a so-called system, shouldn’t your first priority be to increase your strength and chances of survival??

’She must have had a screw loose.’ No wonder she was dumb enough to be tricked by an AI.

”There’s nothing wrong with it! This new model of Beauty Potion is a bestseller, you know. It’s very popular!”

Xie Ning looked up and gave it a beaming smile. ”So, there really are a lot of other Wang Qingyaos scattered all over the place, aren’t there?”

The Little Spider abruptly went silent.

Xie Ning didn’t press the issue. She already had a good grasp of the situation.

She casually flipped to the next page of the item store. On the second page was a single item: M1911-Modified Ver. 2, 50 rounds of ammunition, for thirty points.

So the Little Spider had managed to get her a hundred bullets when her points were at zero. ’How very capable of it!’

”Is that all?”

”Because the system is only at a basic level and the Host’s points balance is zero, the item store is also at a basic level.”

Xie Ning reached out and patted the electronic Little Spider’s head. ”So, you’ve got a job to do! You’re so smart, surely you can use one of your so-called system ’bugs’ to get me some points, right?”

The electronic Little Spider: !!!

’Host, I’m begging you, could you please be human for once?!’