Chapter 10

A moment later, Su Han dragged him inside and set him down on the floor. She picked up the scalpel and said seriously, “Just so you know, I have zero medical experience.”
“As long as you’re fast, it’s fine,” Zhong Rui gritted out between clenched teeth.
So Su Han got right to it, slicing open the wound with a steady hand, not so much as flinching.
Zhong Rui’s brow twitched. He really wanted to file a complaint: the pain in this infinite survival game felt way too real.
“How’d you get shot?” Su Han asked as she operated, all while keeping an eye out for payment.
“Last day running my stall, someone finally snapped,” Zhong Rui forced himself to focus on something else. “Thought the guards by the supermarket would step in, but nope. They just stood by and watched. Ah, ”
Su Han fished out the bullet with practiced efficiency and continued, “So you’re saying the person who robbed you had a gun?”
“Yeah.” The word was squeezed out through Zhong Rui’s gritted teeth.
Su Han frowned. That made things a whole lot messier. Still, her hands didn’t slow; she sprinkled the wound with powder, grabbed the bandages, and wrapped him up.
Zhong Rui panted, “What do you want as payment?”
Su Han thought, If I say I want nothing, will I look like an easy target? She considered, then asked quietly, “You got any antibiotics?”
Zhong Rui met her gaze for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Are you a player?”
“Yeah,” Su Han replied.
“Name?”
“Su Han.”
“You got a personal inventory? Don’t need anything?”
Su Han angled her head, voice weighty with mock seriousness. “Keep up that census work and you’ll end up silenced for good.”
Zhong Rui shut right up. As long as she was willing to help, it meant she probably wasn’t a trash human. That stuff about “silencing” was just her dodging questions, no big deal.
He took the hint, and quietly pulled three boxes of antibiotics from his inventory. “Here.”
Su Han’s look changed for a beat. Honestly, she’d just blurted it out; she hadn’t actually expected him to have any, let alone be willing to hand them over. Did this guy hit a pharmacy or what?
She dropped her eyes, but ended up not asking further.
“Job’s done, payment received, deal’s clean, now you’re on your own.” With that, Su Han didn’t hesitate to slip out, closing the door behind her.
Zhong Rui lay there playing dead for a long time before letting out a bitter laugh. “Should’ve known better.”
Who could have guessed the looters would take out a gun the second the fight turned against them? If he’d known, he wouldn’t have bothered fighting, he’d have bailed immediately.
Day 14: prices up 100%. Residential buildings lose power for 4 hours daily; after 8 p.m., power is cut off for the night.
Day 15: prices up 100% again. The whole town is out of power and water, all day, every day.
For three days straight, Su Han stayed holed up in her room, not taking a single step outside. Hungry? She made instant noodles. Thirsty? She drank milk.
At six in the evening, just after dusk, she’d put herself to sleep, only to be jolted awake again and again by gunfire at night. But after a while, she got used to it; hearing gunshots started to feel about as normal as hearing firecrackers on New Year’s.
Of course, she still made sure to open a window every night to air the place out. Nighttime was best, pitch dark all around, impossible to tell what was going on outside. Even if someone caught the scent of instant noodles, they'd never trace it back to her.
But by day sixteen, things officially went to hell. Prices doubled across the board, and the natural gas supply was cut off.
Translation: if you wanted a hot cup of ramen, you’d have to light a fire and scrounge up your own fuel.
Su Han paced around the room, suddenly feeling lucky the owners here were loaded. Not only were the chairs solid wood, the couch, too. If worst came to worst, she could break it down and burn it for days.
That’s when she noticed something was off, why was there black smoke billowing from downstairs?
Someone pounded at the door. Peeking through the peephole, Su Han saw it was Zhong Rui. She cracked the door an inch. “What is it?”
Zhong Rui’s face was grim. “Some idiot on the third floor started a bonfire to cook instant noodles. In broad daylight. Black smoke everywhere. I’m bailing. Since you helped me before, thought I’d give you a heads up before I leave.”
“Thanks.” Su Han felt a wave of helpless irritation. Who was dumb enough to make that kind of scene? Were they just desperate for attention?
“Don’t mention it.” Zhong Rui didn’t linger, he was already heading off down the hall before she could reply.
With everything stored in her portable inventory, she didn’t have to pack. Su Han grabbed her things and ran. Of course, just her luck, right as she slipped out, a mob of thirty people came storming toward the apartment complex, clearly not here to sing folk songs.
“Perfect. There goes the best hideout I’d found.” Even if she’d dodged disaster, Su Han couldn’t help being annoyed.
She thought for a second, then walked forty minutes to another apartment block far from the chaos, planning to find a new hideaway, hopefully empty.
She’d just made it to the third floor when hurried footsteps echoed from below. There were a lot of them.
Su Han’s nerves snapped taut, a sick gut feeling. She immediately ducked into the shadows and peered down the stairwell.
Five rough-looking men clustered outside a door. One of them banged hard, shouting, “Open up!”
Another man, holding an axe, waited nearby, looking bored and pissed. After a few seconds with no answer, he spat into his palm, raised the axe, and started hacking at the door.
Su Han’s eyelid twitched. Were these people actual robbers?
While one guy chopped down the door, the other four just shot the breeze, “Don’t be fooled, plenty of people have stashed supplies. Probably living it up in there while everyone else starves.”
“Search every unit, leave no one out. When we’re finished here, we’ll hit the next building.”
“Saw Huangmao take his crew to the complex next door, better pick up the pace, or we’ll miss out!”
Su Han’s heart hammered. Residential buildings were no longer safe. There weren’t just one or two bands looting now, multiple crews, sweeping the place floor by floor! Staying put was suicide.
But… how could she get out?
If only she’d never come inside. She could kick herself. The elevators were dead; her only way down was the stairs, but those were blocked by angry men with axes.
And from the chaos earlier, she was sure, at least ten guys. Most likely working in teams of five; splitting up to cover more ground.
What to do?
Su Han stared into space, then her eyes lit up. Instead of forcing her way out, she began searching the third floor.
About half the units on each floor were empty. She darted into a random apartment and headed straight for the bedroom. After a frantic search, she finally struck gold, a closet jammed with floor-length curtains!
Su Han nearly cheered. She slammed the door shut, barricaded it with a table and chair, and yanked down all the curtains. She twisted them into a thick rope, knotting them together tightly.
“Open up! Open the door!” Angry shouts echoed just outside.
Su Han ignored them and worked even faster.
Bang! Bang! The axe crashed against the door.
She shot a glance over, no use, this wasn’t a security door. The wood exploded in splinters each time the axe hit. It wasn’t going to hold much longer. Thankfully, her DIY rope was done.
She tied one end securely to the iron window frame, threw the other out, and began her escape.
The rope wasn't quite long enough, she was left dangling a couple meters above the ground. Su Han gritted her teeth, let go, and dropped to the pavement, her legs tingling from the shock.
She checked her stats and breathed a sigh of relief, only lost 16 stamina points. Nothing major. As long as she made it out alive, she’d take it.
“Get to the first floor! Someone escaped!” The bandits had finally broken in, spotted the makeshift rope at the window.
Su Han didn’t wait, she took off at a dead sprint.
By the time the crew reached the ground floor, she was already long gone.
“Hah, hah, ” Su Han ran so far she lost track of time, never once looking back. Only once she felt truly out of danger did she lean against a wall, gasping for breath, trying to steady herself.
She forced herself to reflect: she’d gotten complacent, stuck in that apartment. Meanwhile, gangs were taking over the city. Not just a handful of young, strong men, but guys with weapons, teams of twenty or thirty working together. No single person could survive against that.
No wonder the game auto-cleared after twenty days, the difficulty ramped up so fast near the end, it was nothing like the early stages.
So… now what? For a moment, Su Han felt completely lost.
“Hey, all alone?” Suddenly, a stranger sauntered over and struck up a conversation.
Su Han’s guard shot up instantly. This was a man in his fifties, beer belly, balding, with a gleam in his eyes that made her skin crawl.
“Hey, relax, I’m harmless.” He patted his gut, forcing a friendly smile. “You hungry? How about you keep me company tonight, and I’ll share some food?”
Su Han: “……”
Now she knew exactly where that sick feeling came from. For a split second, she actually wanted to feed this guy just so she’d be justified in beating him into next week.
“Get lost. No thanks,” Su Han said coldly, turning away.
“Oh, come on, don’t be shy.” The man reached out, trying to sling his arm over Su Han’s shoulder, acting like she was already his for the taking.
Su Han lashed out with her right foot, aiming straight for his kneecap, absolutely no mercy. She kicked hard as she snapped, “Shy? Yeah, I’m so shy I haven’t socked you in the face yet! Does ‘go away’ sound that complicated? Last warning.”
“Ow, damn, that hurts!” The man collapsed, rolling on the ground with real tears in his eyes.
Worried the commotion would draw a crowd, Su Han gave him one more sharp kick before ducking out of there fast.
After wandering aimlessly for a while, Su Han was left with a bitter realization: sure, the instance map was huge, but there wasn’t a single place safe enough to call her own.
The streets teemed with gangs and petty thugs who shook down anyone they saw, demanding “protection money.” If you didn’t pay up, you got a beating on the spot. Pay once and they'd just squeeze you for more; they wouldn’t let you go until they’d wrung you dry.
Down the alleys, two gangs were in an all-out firefight. Bullets flew with relentless “rat-a-tat” bursts. Su Han, distracted for a second, ended up with a stray bullet grazing her arm.
Things got even wilder: one crew, emboldened by sheer numbers and some firepower, actually tried to raid the supermarket. Security guards pulled out guns and batons, and the whole place instantly exploded into chaos.
No matter where Su Han went, trouble was brewing. There was nowhere to hide.
Was teleporting out really the only option left?
She caught sight of the graze on her arm, and suddenly an idea flashed through her mind.