My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 31

A Habit

By dawn, piles upon piles of corpses were already stacked up outside the house. After standing guard for an entire night, everyone was exhausted, but they still followed Chen Gu’s suggestion. Taking advantage of the lull before new enemies arrived, they had to hurry up, deal with the corpses outside, and leave quickly.

The reason the daytime in the apocalypse was safer than the night was that many nocturnal animals, despite having mutated, couldn’t change their habits. During the day, these mutated beasts would temporarily hide, only to emerge again after dark.

            

However, the daytime apocalypse was only relatively safer than the night. After all, the human population before the apocalypse was enormous. Afterward, at least half of humanity had turned into zombies, not to mention those who were scratched or bitten and infected by the virus. Therefore, the number of zombies far exceeded anyone’s imagination. Zombies were unaffected by day or night, so they would continue to be drawn by the heavy stench of blood here. A single misstep could even attract higher-level zombies.

Furthermore, not all mutated beasts were nocturnal. In short, in the apocalypse, one could never let their guard down.

When Chen Gu said “deal with the corpses,” he meant digging out the crystal cores​¹ from the brains of the dead zombies and mutated beasts, then carving off a few pieces of mutated beast meat before leaving. Two years into the apocalypse, although some people were still unaware that espers also had crystal cores in their brains, it was common knowledge that zombies and mutated beasts did. In some large bases, like Nanhai Base, crystal cores had even become a form of currency.

            

While everyone was going from corpse to corpse digging for crystal cores, Ren Chenxi walked around the corpses once, her eyes glued to the now-empty first twenty slots on her backpack panel. Thank heaven and earth, in this game world, even though many of the game settings were similar to online games Ren Chenxi had played before, the rule that item drops would disappear after a certain amount of time didn’t exist here. As long as an item dropped by a monster wasn’t picked up, it would remain there forever.

During the last few waves of zombies and mutated beasts yesterday, Ren Chenxi had ignored everyone’s advice and, despite her injuries, had stubbornly smashed nearly ten 1st- and 2nd-order zombies to death, while also hitting over twenty mutated beasts. With that, plus what she’d gained from fishing in troubled waters,​² Ren Chenxi’s backpack suddenly contained 18 level-1 crystal cores, 16 level-2 crystal cores, and 7 level-3 crystal cores.

While Ren Chenxi was feeling satisfied with her haul, the others, busy digging for crystal cores, were completely baffled.

            

“Weird, what’s going on? This zombie’s brain has no crystal core!”

“Mine too. Could it be that these zombies weren’t even 1st-order?”

Under normal circumstances, espers of similar levels could sense each other’s rank, and likewise, they could sense the rank of zombies and mutated beasts. However, when there was a large level disparity, a high-level esper could hide their rank from a low-level one. But… zombies and mutated beasts couldn’t hide their ranks, unless… they were already dead.

            

Once a zombie or mutated beast died, an esper could no longer sense its rank, but they could still determine it by the crystal core in its brain. But when faced with a brain that had no crystal core, the espers were at a loss.

“A zombie that’s not even 1st-order? Do those even exist?”

“It’s not just the zombies. A few of the mutated beasts over here are the same, no crystal cores in their brains!”

            

“That’s strange. Look at the size of this wolf, it’s clearly mutated! Could it be that a mutated wolf’s crystal core doesn’t form in its brain?”

“Then what about the zombies? Why do some have crystal cores in their brains and some don’t? I think you’re the one with no brain!”

“Then you tell me where the crystal cores are!”

            

“I think the crystal cores were probably knocked out of their brains. Let’s search the area carefully, maybe we can find one or two that dropped~”

“…I think you’re even more brainless!”

Listening to everyone’s discussion about the “missing” crystal cores, Ren Chenxi, who had monopolized all the “dropped items,” gave a guilty shrug. She turned her head away, took out a dagger, and pretended to go help Jian Dan and the others dig for cores, but they stopped her. According to them, Ren Chenxi only had one functional hand right now, so she wouldn’t be much faster helping. She might as well rest and recover on the side.

            

Regarding the wound on her left shoulder, Ren Chenxi might have been worried and anxious about it before. She would have feared that the bone in her shoulder might not recover, or that the wound might get infected, or that even if it healed, it might affect her combat ability. But now, Ren Chenxi had no such worries at all. Although she was a bit reluctant to admit it, she had to say it was all thanks to that Wooden Goddess that she’d obtained five SR-rank recovery cards.

A recovery card could restore 70% of one’s health. Yesterday, after being bitten by the mutated wolf, her health had only dropped by 20%, so one recovery card was more than enough to get her back to full health. However, the recovery cards produced by the system were different from the recovery potions Ren Chenxi had used in online games before. Recovery cards didn’t cause the player’s health bar to shoot back up instantly upon use.

From the detailed description of the recovery card, Ren Chenxi learned that while it would restore a player’s health and could slowly heal wounds and other ailments in the process—even if you were disemboweled or had every bone in your body shattered—as long as your health didn’t fall below 30% and you could ensure you wouldn’t continue to lose health after using the card, then by the time your health bar was 100% full, your injuries would naturally be healed.

            

Of course, under normal circumstances, if someone was disemboweled with all their bones shattered, their health would definitely be below 30%. In that case, by the time the recovery card’s effect ended, their health would at most be restored to 70%, and their various injuries would only be slightly healed, not fully. They would certainly require further treatment.

As for the recovery card’s healing speed… Ren Chenxi had used one on herself last night, and so far, her health bar had recovered by less than 5%. According to the card’s information, its effect could only restore 5% of the user’s health per day. At this rate, Ren Chenxi would have to wait at least four days for the wound on her left shoulder to fully heal.

However, even though her health had recovered by less than 5%, Ren Chenxi could clearly feel that her shoulder wound was much better. So, when she unconsciously shrugged her shoulders, she didn’t feel any discomfort.

            

On the other side, however, when Mu Ning saw Ren Chenxi shrug, she couldn’t help but think, How can this person be so careless with her own body? Her left shoulder is that injured, yet she insists on moving it. Moreover, why did that shrug look so familiar? In her memory, when that person made her unhappy, didn’t he also seem to shrug just like that?

Mu Ning was only puzzled for a moment before Chen Gu’s voice called out again.

“Boss, do we still want the meat from these mutated wolves? They’re exactly like that 4th-order mutated leopard we met in the woods! So greasy and disgusting! I saw it yesterday, but I wasn’t paying attention and put my hand on one. Now my hand is covered in oil!”

            

“My hand’s covered in oil too. So annoying. Soap and detergent are so expensive now…”

Subconsciously, Mu Ning looked at Ren Chenxi again. Then, she saw Ren Chenxi sneak a peek in Chen Gu’s direction before quickly looking away, her shoulders giving another shrug…

Could it be that the missing crystal cores in the zombies’ and mutated beasts’ brains, as well as those greasy mutated beast corpses, have something to do with her? Also, do twin siblings share the same mannerisms?

            

“Boss, should we just give up on these mutated wolf corpses? We’ve dug through five of them in a row and found no crystal cores. Let’s just skip them and check the other mutated beast corpses, okay?”

Zhang Tongqi’s question interrupted Mu Ning’s thoughts. She glanced around and saw that there were still so many corpses to “process,” so she nodded. “Then don’t bother with the mutated wolves. Dig through the other mutated beast corpses first.” After speaking, Mu Ning also found a zombie corpse and began to dig for its crystal core. With practiced ease, she accurately plunged a sharp dagger into the zombie’s head, and with a twist and a pry, she broke through the thinner part of the temporal bone.​³ Then, Mu Ning peered through the hole and saw that the spot where a crystal core should have been was empty.

Mu Ning turned her head to look at Ren Chenxi again. She saw her standing obediently to the side, not looking at anything in particular, just staring blankly into the distance. For some reason, that side profile felt incredibly familiar again. Once, she had piled a drawer full of various cookies, chocolates, and small cakes on a desk and demanded to know if Ren Muhui had put them there. He had stood just like that, hands folded obediently over his stomach, standing ramrod straight, guiltily looking elsewhere, not daring to glance at the huge pile of snacks…

            

So, without realizing it, I’ve actually remembered so many of Ren Muhui’s habits?

“Boss, more zombies are coming! Ugh, this is so annoying! More new corpses to deal with!”

A sigh broke Mu Ning out of her daze. She looked into the distance and sure enough, several low-level zombies were shambling over. Just as she was about to say she would handle them, Ren Chenxi moved before her, walking toward the zombies.

            

“You guys keep busy. I’ll take care of these zombies.”

In the latter half of last night, Ren Chenxi’s precise aim had already stunned Chen Gu and his group. So, even though her left shoulder was still injured, they firmly believed she was capable of dealing with these few low-level zombies.

Only Mu Ning watched Ren Chenxi’s back with a hint of worry. But when she saw her take out a zombie with a single long, sharp piece of crystal, the heart that had been in her throat settled back down. It seemed that the xuemei named Tang Ying had now become a dedicated tool person​⁴ providing “ammunition” for Ren Chenxi. After being pressured by Ren Chenxi for a whole night, this little girl whose ability had seemed useless had actually advanced. After advancing, the items she crystallized became much harder. Even a 3rd-order esper like Chen Gu had to put in a great deal of effort to shatter them. Thus, the newly advanced Tang Ying could only find small objects to crystallize and give to Ren Chenxi as “ammo.”

            

After a whole night, Ren Chenxi had gradually mastered the pattern for dealing with low-level zombies and mutated beasts. Now, even without using an R-rank explosion card, she could easily kill a low-level zombie or mutated beast.

Mu Ning watched as Ren Chenxi effortlessly knocked down all the zombies with one hand, her gaze sweeping over the fallen bodies. A thought suddenly struck her. If she were to go and dig into these zombies’ brains right now, she wondered if there would be any crystal cores inside.

Unfortunately, before Mu Ning had a chance to verify this, Ren Chenxi suddenly called out in a loud voice, “These zombies are dealt with. You guys keep busy. I’m taking their crystal cores, okay!”

            

“Go ahead, go ahead!”

The group didn’t even lift their heads. They still had so many corpses to process here; who had the time to worry about the new ones Ren Chenxi had just made? Only Mu Ning remained, staring as Ren Chenxi slowly walked toward the zombie corpses. She took out a dagger, looking the part, and after stabbing a few of the zombies’ heads, she moved on to the next corpse.

“…” Why does it look like she’s just going through the motions of digging for crystal cores!

            

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