Chapter 67: Ofuo |
"Do you know where to find your mom?" Bai Mu gripped the steering wheel, executing a tricky drift to squeeze through the narrow gap between two crashed cars and the curb.
He drove away from the mall and onto the wide open road. Order hadn't completely collapsed yet. The virus had only erupted in a portion of the Infected. Some clueless bystanders were even crowding around the crash sites, wildly snapping pictures with their phones.
"Mommy works in a very, very tall building." Lucy unzipped the back of her stuffed toy and pulled out a photograph of a skyscraper. "This is where mommy works."
Bai Mu took the photo. He could tell at a glance that it was an Administration Building located in a prosperous commercial area of the city, its black glass facade reflecting the shadows of pedestrians.
On the back of the photo was the building's address: Building B, Number 73, Firebird Street, Crown District, along with a string of phone numbers.
It seemed Lucy's mother had prepared this photo just in case her daughter couldn't explain things clearly. If Lucy ever needed her, she could take this picture to the receptionist at the children's amusement park.
During the Journey of Death Script, Bai Mu had studied the nearby maps. Going by his own perceived time, that was only a few hours ago. Just that morning, he and his three teammates had woken up in Lucy's house, holding a map and discussing their driving route for a while.
Because of this, Bai Mu knew how to get to the Crown District. It was located in the central-western part of the city. Heading there meant they had to drive straight into densely populated areas.
Places with more people were naturally more dangerous, but that was to be expected. This was a Paradise Script, after all. There was no way it would let you laugh and joke your way through a casual sightseeing trip to finish the quest.
If the Main Quest had been to bring Lucy's mother back, it would have actually been easier for Bai Mu. Even though Lucy's mother worked in a densely populated area, Bai Mu was fully equipped. While he might not be able to single-handedly carve his way through an entire army, he was confident he could fight his way in and out.
After all, the Special Infected hadn't mutated yet. The normal Infected were just frenzied ordinary people. With Bai Mu's current methods, he could handle them effortlessly even without using guns or bullets.
But bringing Lucy along completely changed the difficulty. She was a nine-year-old girl with zero combat ability. Lifting a baseball bat was a struggle for her. Just the fact that she wasn't crying or throwing a tantrum was already a massive help.
Hiding her somewhere wasn't an option either. Aside from the question of where would even be safe, the moment she left Bai Mu's side, the timer in his quest log would stop ticking.
So far, Bai Mu had protected Lucy for twelve minutes. This metric was directly tied to his final rating at the end of the Script. The rules clearly stated that he had to drag this little burden around with him. If Lucy died in an accident, his rating would likely tank, and he might end up with absolutely no rewards.
However, looking at it from another angle, it wasn't entirely a bad thing.
At the very least, the content of this Script posed no real threat to the Players' lives.
If they truly encountered a situation they couldn't handle, a Player could simply kill Lucy themselves. They wouldn't get any rewards, but they would instantly return to the Community.
Bai Mu could progress through the Script without any psychological pressure. Because as long as he wanted to, he could bail out and teleport back to the Community at any time.
Of course, he had no intention of doing such a thing.
Since he had accepted the quest, he would naturally see it through to the end. Besides, he actually quite liked Lucy. The little one was sitting obediently in the passenger seat right now, strapped in with her seatbelt, her eyes full of adoration for him.
She took a small packet of chocolate cookies from her backpack and handed it to Bai Mu. "Big brother, this is for you. Mommy says that when someone helps you, you have to remember to say thank you."
[You have received the "Ofuo" gifted by Lucy.]
To his surprise, this item actually counted as a Consumable with special effects, rather than just regular food to fill his stomach.
[Name: Ofuo]
[Type: Consumable]
[Quality: Normal]
[Effect: Instantly restores 10% Stamina, and increases your lowest basic attribute by one point. Lasts for 30 minutes.]
[Note: Lick it, twist it, then dunk it.]
"Thank you," Bai Mu replied. He tore open the packaging and tossed the cookie into his mouth.
He had unleashed [Charger's Dash] once, which consumed 30% of his Stamina.
As long as he wasn't starving, his Stamina slowly recovered over time. It had already climbed back up to 76%, regenerating at a rate of roughly 1% every two minutes. The moment the cookie went down his throat, his Stamina instantly spiked to 86%.
This was the first Consumable Bai Mu had ever obtained that could instantly restore Stamina. Moreover, a yellow (+1) icon appeared next to his lowest attribute, Agility. It was just a tiny cookie, yet it was incredibly useful.
As a key character in the Script, building affinity with Lucy apparently wasn't just a stepping stone for the Main Quest. She could actually provide some minor assistance along the way.
Come to think of it, they had already become friends in the previous Script.
He had always been good to his friends. Take his old yellow dog, for example. Even when Old Yellow got too old to walk, he had shared his precious food with the dog, seeing it through to a peaceful death before burying it whole in the earth.
He patted Lucy's little head. Whenever he made a promise, he always kept it. He never lied to himself. Since he said he would protect her, he would naturally see it through to the end with everything he had.
...
He drove Lucy through the city, quickly entering the downtown area.
It was around three in the afternoon. Since it wasn't rush hour yet, traffic on the roads wasn't too congested.
However, the streets were already descending into utter chaos. As he drove, Bai Mu made a rough mental tally of the normal people and Infected he saw. Initially, the ratio was about two to one, meaning roughly a third of the population had gone mad.
As time went on, the number of Infected skyrocketed. Whenever normal people were bitten, the virus inside them seemed to receive a signal, erupting in an incredibly short amount of time.
By the time Bai Mu had been driving for half an hour and reached the inner city, the ratio of normal people to Infected was already approaching one to one.
The streets were filled with people fleeing for their lives. Traffic laws no longer existed, as Infected and pedestrians alike darted haphazardly across the roads.
Cars couldn't move an inch here. Police sirens wailed in the background.
Bang!
An officer had opened fire, shooting directly at an Infected lunging toward him.
The attacker was a black street thug with twisted dreadlocks. In the narrow alley next to the Infected, there was a makeshift stall that hadn't been packed up yet. Stolen phones, sneakers, and designer bags lay scattered across a blanket on the ground.
These young cops had never seen anything like this before. They panicked and emptied their magazines in a frenzy. Bai Mu shook his head. Most of their bullets were completely wasted. They didn't know the first thing about conservation.
They couldn't drive any further; the roads were completely blocked. Fortunately, they weren't too far from their destination.
Bai Mu took Lucy and stepped out of the car. Just like back at the mall, he put a gas mask over her face, picked her up with one arm, and proceeded toward the Crown District on foot.
Along the way, he smoothly stripped a gun and some ammo from an officer who had turned into an Infected. He knocked the guy down with his baseball bat and efficiently looted everything he needed in a few swift motions.
He performed this task with more skill than a professional pickpocket. There was no telling how many corpses he had looted in the past.
When Lucy asked what he was doing, he simply told her not to be afraid. He said he was just playing a game with the mister, and that today was a special holiday that only happened once every ten years, where everyone celebrated like this.