Chapter 279: [Unswerving Devotion] Zombie Siege
Seven players in total: three male and four female.
Looking at it this way, one of the female players was bound to be left unpaired.
Though that wasn’t necessarily set in stone either.
After all, the game hadn’t specified that male-male or female-female pairings were forbidden.
Particularly given that this clearly involved so-called romance, where two people binding together constituted a couple—for most girls, acting alongside someone of the same gender might prove far more natural.
“Ahem. I am He Li. May I know if it is convenient for everyone to share your names?”
The male player who posed the couplet introduced himself first.
Everyone followed suit, offering their names in somewhat archaic, formal language, though it sounded rather bizarre in practice.
Regardless, it was close enough; capturing the general flavor was sufficient.
“Then… is anyone willing to walk alongside me?” He Li inquired once more.
This was an open invitation to form a team.
The group exchanged glances.
A female player named Xia Xueyin stepped forward, holding out a handkerchief.
“I am willing to accompany you, young gentleman.”
He Li unfastened a jade pendant from his waist as well.
The moment the two exchanged tokens of affection, they received a system prompt confirming their bound status.
[System Notice: From this moment forth, the two of you are a pair of deathlessly devoted lovers. Please be sure to risk your lives to protect each other’s safety.]
The remaining two female players exchanged a glance, a sense of crisis washing over them.
This meant that unless two among the three of them bound together, one was guaranteed to be left unpaired.
They turned their eyes onto Bai Cha as well.
Bai Cha appeared perpetually dazed and absentminded, exuding a sense of being completely detached from the group.
“Xu Taotao,” Zhang Wanxi spoke up. “What have you been dwelling on this whole time?”
Snapping back to her senses, Bai Cha offered a forced, strained smile.
“I simply… suddenly realized that something seems slightly off with my household.”
Everyone paused in surprise.
“What’s off?”
Bai Cha spoke with a touch of distressed anxiety: “I just abruptly recalled that when I looked in the mirror today, I kept feeling like the person inside the mirror wasn’t quite in sync with me. Then again, perhaps it was merely my illusion—maybe the candle flame flickered.”
Her complexion appeared all the paler; though her lips uttered these words, they provided zero comfort to herself.
She had chosen a topic, and the remaining few players refrained from rushing into teaming up for the moment, joining the conversation together instead.
When all was said and done, the game had merely just begun. Teaming up required only exchanging tokens of affection, yet if someone ended up left unpaired right now, that unpaired individual would face an extraordinarily high level of danger.
No one could guarantee that the unpaired person wouldn’t be themselves. It appeared on the surface that females outnumbered males by one, but what if the unpaired person happened to be one of the male players instead?
“Now that you mention it, strange occurrences have been happening at my place recently as well,” Lan Yan-xi chimed in.
“Lately, bizarre scratch marks keep appearing on the walls of my house, as if scraped out by someone. I have no idea what is going on.”
Bai Cha exchanged a glance with Lan Yan-xi.
In that case, the residences of every player held a high probability of harboring issues.
“Nothing out of the ordinary at my place for now,” He Li stated.
Xia Xueyin said, “Speaking of mirrors, I recalled that the mirror in my room was inexplicably shattered by someone.”
The remaining two male players and Zhang Wanxi indicated that they hadn’t noticed any issues either.
Everyone fell into thoughtful silence.
BANG—
A firework detonated in the sky overhead.
Exclamations of awe erupted from the crowd.
“It has begun! It has begun! The Heavenly Official bestows blessings!”
Instinctively, the group raised their heads to look up.
Fireworks bloomed one after another—a dazzling array of fiery trees and silver flowers, breathtakingly beautiful to behold.
Yet amid the booming bursts of fireworks, the chime of a bell echoed from within Biyi Tower.
Bai Cha cast her eyes toward Biyi Tower, yet out of the corner of her vision, she caught an anomaly within the crowd, her gaze lowering once more.
Unnoticed by anyone, the crowd had turned eerily silent, every single person standing rooted to the spot while tilting their heads up to watch the fireworks, utterly motionless.
Their expressions had turned stiff and numb, and dark, purplish-black blood vessels had crept across every inch of exposed skin at some unknown moment.
Realizing something was wrong, Bai Cha tugged at the person beside her.
Certain players noticed the anomaly as well, nearly gasping out loud in shock.
Fortunately, everyone reacted with lightning speed, swallowing their cries back down.
Exchanging silent, subtle glances, the group set about making a retreat.
Yet the street was far too densely packed with people.
This made moving away exceedingly difficult.
The fireworks overhead continued to explode; taking advantage of the fact that the people on the street remained fixated on watching the fireworks, the group wished only to head back to their respective homes first.
Even if home was no safe zone, as the spawn point assigned to each individual, it ought to be slightly better off at the very least.
To evade the crowd, the several players dispersed from one another almost entirely.
DONG—
Another bell chime echoed from Biyi Tower.
As this second bell chime rang out, the fireworks overhead steadily dissipated without a single new firework blooming to replace them.
Virtually in the exact same instant, every player drew out their self-defense props.
Sure enough, every single person who had been watching the fireworks steadily shifted their gazes onto them, bit by bit.
A middle-aged woman stood right beside Bai Cha, staring fixedly at her. Dark blood vessels blanketed her face, her eyes showed nothing but whites, and she reached a hand sprouting long, black fingernails out toward Bai Cha.
“Run!” He Li shouted, taking the lead to sprint forward.
He dragged Xia Xueyin along—they were currently a bound couple, after all.
Bai Cha was running as well, her cloak yanked off her frame amidst the sprint.
Truth be told, a long dress like this was thoroughly inconvenient for running.
For a game explicitly themed around romance, why on earth does a scene that can practically be called a zombie siege appear?
Bai Cha deployed a Golden Bell Shield around herself, then sprinted in the direction of Biyi Tower.
They hadn’t been far from Biyi Tower to begin with.
She refrained from using blades or weapons—after all, how could a character with her background wield a knife?
Even though the current situation clearly permitted the usage of props.
The highest density of people gathered right by Biyi Tower.
Attempting to charge into the building proved extraordinarily difficult for Bai Cha.
Other players noticed her movements as well.
This structure ought to indeed be quite critical—those two bell chimes alone indicated something was amiss.
Consequently, they charged inward right behind Bai Cha as well.
With far too many people on the street, fleeing back home might not be achievable anyway, so attempting to charge into the building for a look proved far more worthwhile.
Sensing immense resistance ahead, Bai Cha knitted her brows, equipping her “Ghouls’ Bane” title.
The resistance before her diminished significantly in a single instant.
Those NPCs veered out of her way immediately.
Bai Cha successfully burst into the building.
By rights, the interior of the building ought to be lively as well; after all, viewed from the outside, the interior had shone brightly lit.
Yet upon stepping inside, absolute pitch darkness met her eyes.
Dim lamps lined both sides, though the light ran exceedingly faint—barely sufficient to allow one to discern shapes without being blinded by complete darkness.
Yet discerning specific details inside the building remained impossible.
Exercising caution, Bai Cha refrained from moving.
Behind her, several players burst inside one after another.
Once inside the building, every single person outside halted in their tracks, staring in this direction with expressionless faces.
The lanterns outside had turned into a uniform array of blood-red lanterns at some unknown moment.
Casting light across their faces, it rendered them all the more terrifying to behold.
The states of several players appeared rather disheveled and messy. Confirming that the people outside wouldn’t step inside, they turned their gazes into the building with even heightened vigilance.
Because this merely implied that far greater danger lay hidden inside this structure.
“Who will exchange tokens of affection with me?” Zhang Wanxi spoke up abruptly, pulling a hairpin from her hair.
