When disaster strikes mankind, the plants in nature continue to grow vigorously.

The forests were still thick and green, and the mist from the mountains still hung thick. When the sun shone brightly on the earth, the shadows of the trees cast their shadows on the black road.

A gray city off-road vehicle drove over the blood-stained mountain road and headed towards the unknown distance.

Lu Cai sat in the middle of the back seat, silently cleaning his gun. The supermarket vest, stained with zombie brain matter, was crumpled up and thrown at his feet.

Cheng Mushen on the left had his eyes closed, and it was unclear whether he was truly asleep or just pretending to be asleep. Zhao Manman on the right wiped her face with the cuff of her short sleeve, looking extremely frightened.

Lin Yong occasionally looked at Lu Cai through the rearview mirror, but did not dare to speak.

"This gun is your car rental fee." Judge Lu said coldly.

Lin Yong nodded quickly: "No problem."

Lu Cai was still angry, but she was also reluctant to part with the pistol. After a fierce battle, she discovered that the gun's bullets seemed to be in unlimited supply.

When fighting against zombies, time is life. Not having to reload bullets can save a lot of time and increase her chances of survival.

Cheng Mushen opened his eyes without knowing when: "Your shooting skills are very accurate."

Knowing that he was deliberately testing him, Lu Cai sneered: "That's right, if you don't have some skills, you will be eaten by the Zhongshan wolves."

Cheng Mushen didn't respond, looking at Lu Cai with a chilling gaze. Then he looked at the gun in her hand. Player weapons only return to their original state after being stored in the system item slot, so hers was always "in use."

If Lu Cai wanted to, she could just press the trigger and kill him. He shouldn't have put away his weapon.

Cheng Mushen didn't want to waste a resurrection card.

Also, as an NPC, Lu Cai's skills are too good. He may be a key NPC. Keeping him may trigger the main quest.

After thinking about it, Cheng Mushen closed his eyes and turned his face to the window.

Lu Cai had just felt a chill emanating from Cheng Mushen. She had already tightened her grip on her gun, wondering if she would have to fight a duel here. Then the chill disappeared...

She breathed a sigh of relief, but also secretly remembered to stay away from Cheng Mushen. He was a selfish man and in a crisis, he would definitely escape by stepping on the corpses of his companions.

The car sped along and no one spoke.

Lu Cai took out the pocket book from her pocket, opened the cover, and added a few more lines under the string of "2222" - cashier, bumblebee, can shoot, and is quite agile.

She stopped writing, thought for a moment, and added, "Do you like shooting games?"

Zhao Manman, who was standing aside, was attracted by her behavior. She leaned forward and watched Lu Cai writing quickly, but she didn't see what was written on the notebook.

"Do you work in a supermarket?" Zhao Manman's eyes fell on the red vest.

Cai Lu closed the notebook and stuffed it into her trouser pocket. "Hmm." She glanced at Zhao Manman. "Are you still studying?"

Zhao Manman smiled and extended her hand: "Hello, I'm a student at H City Medical College."

Also an NPC.

Cai Lu hesitated for a moment, but finally reached out his hand, gently squeezed the other person's fingertips, and then let go.

"A top student..." Lu Cai sighed. Then he looked at himself, a 20-year-old supermarket cashier. It seemed he wasn't doing so well in school.

"Oh no!" Lin Yong, who had been driving, suddenly spoke up, and the others immediately became nervous.

Cheng Mushen looked out the window with a vigilant expression: "What's wrong?"

Lin Yong replied tremblingly, "That zoo—" The car slowed down and he had already pulled over. "I passed by it once before."

Lu Cai followed his gaze and saw a small square on the side of the road ahead. The small square was empty and deserted, with a large wooden gate at the far end - H City Animal World.

There is no village or shop around here, only a lonely zoo, just like a warning sign hanging at the gate - Danger, do not enter!

"Leave a mark and keep driving." Cheng Mushen frowned.

Lin Yong turned off the engine and opened the windows. Lu Cai watched as he stretched out his hand, and a dagger landed in his palm.

"This is a souvenir given out when entering the community, and my name is on it." Lin Yong muttered. This souvenir didn't have much killing power, and he thought Cheng Mushen would not accept it.

Holding the dagger blade, he swung it towards the tree pit on the side. The dagger blade sank into the soil and stood there crookedly.

The car continued on its way, this time everyone was on edge, paying close attention to the changes outside the car window. It was unknown how much time had passed, but before they could even register the change in the road, the zoo reappeared on the side of the road.

Lin Yong got out of the car to retrieve the souvenir dagger, his face looking a little ugly.

"Drive the car in." Cheng Mushen frowned, and then a submachine gun appeared in his hand.

Cai Lu clenched his pistol.

The car slowly drove around the corner of the driveway, and a gentle breeze blew through the weeds in the flower beds on both sides.

The sun was shining brightly, but their hearts felt as if they had fallen into an icy cave.

The moment the car entered the small square, it suddenly stalled and stopped. Lu Cai saw a row of words trembling above Lin Yong's head, as if due to signal interference:

Downloading the side story...

But he himself sat in the car seat unconsciously.

Lu Cai hurriedly turned to look at Cheng Mushen. He looked exactly like Lin Yong, a wooden figure with a vacant gaze. The text above Cheng Mushen's head flickered, changing to "Download completed, loading..."

There was a ding-dong sound in her ears, and she felt a space behind her. Then she leaned back and fell on the hot concrete floor, with the dazzling sunlight shining on her face.

The air stagnated, and noisy voices came from all directions.

Lu Cai quickly stood up and was shocked by the scene before him.

It was still the same small zoo square, but now it was bustling with people. She watched the visitors, mostly young people with elderly people and children. The square was dotted with small carts selling drinks, caps, and other small toys and souvenirs.

She looked up at the zoo sign and discovered an electronic screen underneath it. Red electronic text scrolled by:

Today's announcement: The spotted hyena viewing area is temporarily closed. (June 17, 2021)

Lu Cai frowned and clasped his hands together, only to find that in addition to the gun, he also had a smooth zoo admission ticket in his hand.

A tourist from behind pushed Lu Cai and then squeezed past her. Seeing the gun in her hand, the tourist also looked calm, as if it was not strange for her, a person with black blood on her body and a gun in her hand, to stand at the zoo entrance.

Looking at this strange scene, she finally became convinced of one thing—

Her life was truly a game. Cheng Mushen and the others were players, and she was just an NPC.

Holding the ticket in her hand, she couldn't help but frown. What is this? A hint?

I looked up at the zoo ticket gate again and saw a tall and skinny young man mechanically repeating the ticket checking action.

Cai Lu queued up to enter and handed his ticket to the ticket inspector at the ticket gate.

The ticket inspector tore open the ticket and handed her the information sheet. "The spotted hyena viewing area is closed today. Visitors can go to the information station to visit other animal areas."

Cai Lu raised his eyebrows and was about to ask more questions when the tourists behind him squeezed in.

Information station? Cai Lu recalled the ticket inspector's words and picked up the introduction page of the admission ticket.

Single-person sightseeing bus, herbivore route (choose one of three: A, B, or C), information station, carnivore viewing area (African Wildlife Safari), marine animal viewing ("Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" themed lounge)...

The sightseeing bus is not difficult to find. There is an open space on the left after entering the door, where many sightseeing buses are parked.

Lu Cai walked up to line up. She watched the tour bus manager stamp the ticket and then signal the tourists to sit down in their respective groups. The passengers in front were all sitting in large multi-person tour buses.

When it was Lu Cai's turn, he stamped a red mark on her bill, looked up at her, and pointed to a fully enclosed four-wheeled electric vehicle on the side.

After getting the receipt back, I randomly picked a small electric car. They were all white, so there was nothing much to choose from.

The key was in the keyhole on the front of the car. She put the pistol into her trouser pocket, turned the key, the battery display lighted up, and her right foot rested on the brake.

Cai Lu gripped the faucet handle, turned the direction slightly, twisted the right handle, and the car wobbled out.

This speed, 20 yards, no more. Lu Cai turned the handle all the way down and walked forward unsteadily, resigned to his fate.

——

The car body shook and Lin Yong tensed up nervously.

Since the side storyline was dropped, he has not received any side quests, and what is even more terrifying is that Cheng Mushen is not around.

If only Lu Cai could come in... He knew that he was daydreaming. The side quest NPCs and the world view NPCs did not interfere with each other. Although they were in the same game copy, they always existed in parallel. This was the iron rule of the system.

He drove slowly along route A, his four wheels rolling over the shiny black asphalt road. The sun was scorching outside, and the car was also stuffy and unbearable.

Could this really be animal viewing? A sika deer passed by a slow-moving sightseeing bus, its ears perked up curiously, and it peered through the closed window glass.

Lin Yong looked at the sika deer outside the window, speechless, and he didn't know who was watching whom...

He turned the handle quickly and the car sped away. The deer was frightened and jumped for a moment, but then it reacted and chased after him happily.

Sweat oozed from his forehead, slid down his cheeks, and finally dripped from his chin.

He had just passed an alpaca when he saw tourists running hurriedly up the road ahead.

[Ding Dong——]

The system task reminder sound sounds.

[Side story: Crazy Zoo.]

[Mission Description: It's a wonderful weekend, and you and your friends are visiting the zoo. However, you encounter an unexpected chaos and are separated by the crowd.]

[Mission Objectives: 1. Find the lost friends; 2. Find out why the zoo has fallen into "madness."]

[Failure penalty: Players who fail will be deemed dead (ps: Resurrection card props will not be available in the side story)]

Lin Yong wiped the sweat from his head, a submachine gun appeared in his hand, and he pushed open the door of the tour bus.

After walking a few steps against the crowd, he saw a crooked zombie roaring and charging towards him. He raised his gun and fired a shot at the zombie's head.

The crowd screamed at the sound of gunfire, and the zombies staggered and fell.

Lin Yong continued walking forward a few steps and saw a lot of zombies rushing up from behind. The tourist who had been bitten just now quickly twisted on the ground, twisting into a ball with his hands and feet almost broken.

Seeing its pupils quickly turn white, Lin Yong hesitated for a moment and fired a shot at the transformed tourist.

He raised his gun, and the zombies running in front of him were almost all ripped open, their intestines and internal organs dragged all over the ground, but they were unconscious. A few more gunshots rang out, and several zombies fell to the ground.

The large intestine of a running zombie was dragged on the ground and was pressed down by the figure who had just fallen beside him. The intestine was pulled and the running zombie was also pulled down.

Lin Yong knocked down a few more before he saw a cheetah charging towards him. Its facial fur was covered in black slime, its eyes were white, its teeth were bared, and a large piece of flesh had been gnawed off its throat.

No way——

He took two steps back, no longer caring about the zombies in front of him, and swept directly at the cheetah.

The bullet sank into the cheetah's fur and embedded itself in its flesh, but it felt nothing. It was moving too fast to aim.

Racing with a cheetah on a wide, flat surface is simply courting death.

Lin Yong turned toward a small patch of dense forest high above the grassy plains. The trees were transplanted for ornamental purposes, and their trunks were relatively close together. Zombies possessed incredible speed and strength, but their brains weren't very effective, so they would simply ram into obstacles.

He quickened his pace, the beast-like roar approaching from behind him. Finally, he leaped up almost instantly. He heard the whirring wind and a grunt. Lin Yong's face twisted, and he sprinted sideways into the woods.

Boom——

A muffled sound.

He just had time to turn around and, through the gap between the overlapping tree trunks, saw the cheetah lying on the grass. It got up and tried to charge again, but Lin Yong raised his gun and shot the cheetah.

——

A gunshot was heard in the distance, and Lu Cai was startled. She stopped the sightseeing bus, but found that the tourists around her seemed not to have heard the gunshot.

There were several black swans swimming on the lake on one side, and tourists were standing on the shore taking photos of the swans.

After parking the sightseeing car, Chief Lu took out his pistol, opened the door and got out.

The soles of his shoes tread on the steaming asphalt path, and he glanced around cautiously. If he were attacked here, the situation would be very grim. There was no place to hide, and the sightseeing bus's power and hull were not strong enough.

And the only place to hide... Her eyes fell on a brown single-story building not far away.

Public toilet.

"Ah——" A scream came from the direction of the zoo gate.

Lu Cai turned quickly and saw staggering figures running after the scattered tourists. She took a few steps toward the restrooms and noticed that many tourists were flocking to the only building on the empty plain.

When she ran to the sink at the front door, both the left and right doors were closed and locked.

The tourists who were blocking the door were banging on it and shouting, but nothing moved inside.

Lu Cai didn't waste time arguing with the people inside the gate. She decisively ran onto the main road. Once she finished the herbivore sightseeing route, she would reach the information center. There was a large building complex nearby, like a food street, a place for tourists to rest and relax.

With so many buildings, it is not difficult to find a place to hide and take cover.

She had already traveled a long distance on a sightseeing bus, so she gritted her teeth and waited for the rest of the way until she reached the information station, where she might be able to get some clues to this "side storyline".

She rushed onto the asphalt path and mixed in with the tourists, a group of people running wildly on the road.

The path was winding and the flower bed at the corner blocked his view. Lu Cai squeezed forward from the gap between the tourists in front. Suddenly, there was a cry of surprise from the front of the team, and everyone suddenly scattered and hid.

She slowed down her pace and the crowd dispersed. She saw a man in a zoo work uniform throwing a young woman to the ground. There was a chewing sound mixed with the sound of biting and blood splattering. The woman twitched and struggled, but could not utter a single scream.

A little girl with naturally curly hair was sitting next to them crying. She looked no more than three or four years old.

The zombie lowered its head and bit, screaming one after another. He seemed to be attracted by the little girl's crying. He tilted his head slightly, revealing half of his rotten face, with bones vaguely visible and white eyeballs in his eye sockets.

With a bang, before it could move, Lu Cai put an end to it.

Looking at the little girl with tears and snot all over her face, Lu Cai paused, hesitated for a moment, and reached out to pick her up.

The little girl hugged her neck tightly. Lu Cai held the little girl with one hand and raised the other hand to shoot the young woman on the ground who was twitching and twisting with her eyes turning white.

He glanced hurriedly behind him and saw a large number of crooked but agile zombies chasing and biting the scattered tourists.

She ran towards the consultation center.

He was clearing the scattered zombies ahead with his gun, but unfortunately, holding a three-year-old child in his arms really affected his speed and accuracy. A tall zombie lunged at him, its mouth wide open, oozing large amounts of black and red slime.

Lu Cai dodged and shot it in the head, then moved down to see the long-sleeved shirt jacket it was wearing.

His hands were quicker than his brain. Lu Cai grabbed the back of the man's shirt and, using the force of the man's fall, flipped it in the opposite direction and pulled off the blood-stained shirt jacket.

He quickly straightened the sleeves of his jacket, used it as a simple sling, and tied the little girl to himself.

"Hold on tight, I won't care about you if you fall—" He patted the little girl's back gently and felt the thin arms around her neck tightening even more.

Lu Cai held the gun in both hands and fired at the zombies that were shaking and attacking around him.

There was a strange roar in the distance. She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a golden tiger with a staggering gait and sagging flesh leaping out from the grass and flowers on the side.

Its body was covered with bloody wounds, as if it had been attacked and bitten by a group of ferocious beasts. It was lying on the ground in extreme pain.

She turned and ran, only then realizing the true danger of this "side plot."

When humans who have "climbed to the top of the food chain" encounter carnivorous beasts that have turned into zombies due to virus infection, can they still maintain the pride of being the "master of the world"?