NinJing city was much larger than what Liu Gan had imagined. The Lucky Garden District and San Xing Corporation were actually located on the outer edges of the city. In order to reach Green Pao Bay, Liu Gan had to cross through the entire city.
Shortly after leaving the building, Liu Gan started wandering through the city’s building infrastructure as if he was lost. The entire city had zombies wandering regardless of the streets’ size. Even though these regular zombies were not a threat, killing them wouldn’t give Liu Gan experience, so it was more of a nuisance to him.
To avoid any unnecessary trouble, Liu Gan routed his path, so it avoided the large group of zombies. This type of routing made it a lot more difficult. He had even lost the direction he was supposed to head towards Fortune and Youth supermarket.
If this were a normal situation where he was alone and lost in a large city, then he would ask the locals for direction. However, now that most locals had become zombies, that was wishful thinking.
Liu Gan looked at the map he drew earlier with the PDA, especially at the marked crucial nodes. Fortune and Youth supermarket was closest to a nearby node. Right now, since he was lost, he had missed the node. It would prove to be even harder to look for the next node on the map, so he would have to change his preset plan.
Unconsciously, two hours had passed. Liu Gan with Yin He and Zhang ShengLi took a path that kept avoiding crowds of zombies. After looking everywhere for secure routes to go forward, they arrived at the edge of a large river that flowed through the city. There were river dikes on both sides of this large river and were overgrown by plants. As of that moment, there were no zombies to be seen by the river dikes. Liu Gan decided that he would use this as a resting area to recollect his thoughts.
Prior to the catastrophe, this area must have been visited for its scenery. This was the prime location for couples to take romantic strolls in the evening. There might have even been kids running alongside the river. However, now that the river dike had been taken over by the plants, there was only a lingering smell of rotten corpses aside from the few zombies nearby.
Not too far down the river, there would be occasional corpses floating downstream. Some seemed to be struggling, and it was hard to fathom that they were live people and not zombies.
“That looks like a person.” Zhang ShengLi pointed at the far end of the river bank and whispered to Liu Gan.
Liu Gan looked in the direction where Zhang ShengLi pointed, and indeed there were two outlines of people. Each one of them was holding onto a bamboo pole along the riverbank trying to fish for something.
“You sit here and don’t move. I will go check it out.” Liu Gan guessed that these two were probably local survivors, so they could tell him the route to Fortune and Youth supermarket.
If they encountered local survivors or players within the city, it was a dangerous situation. However, it was not much of a problem for Liu Gan. He trusted in his own abilities to handle the threat of local survivors and players. In fact, they should be afraid of him because he was more dangerous.
As Liu Gan drew closer, he noticed that the two figures who were in the river trying to fish for something immediately dropped onto the bank and stopped moving. Their bodies were covered in mud and aquatic plants, which provided them with natural cover.
While using his improved eyesight, Liu Gan could clearly see their facial expression and how frightened they were. These two were around ten or so years old, but it was still difficult to tell what they were doing in the river. Perhaps, they were avoiding zombies or other players, so they ended up dressing like this.
Judging from the way they acted and their facial expressions, Liu Gan guessed that these two weren’t players but were local survivors. Right now, Liu Gan was lost and needed directions. Therefore, these two were perfect candidates for providing directions to Fortune and Youth supermarket since they were locals.
Liu Gan continued walking alongside the river bank. The two figures crouched down suddenly and became even more nervous. Judging from their expressions, Liu Gan was sure that they were scared. Were they waiting to decide whether to run or to continue hiding? They knew for sure that Liu Gan had discovered them.
“I don’t mean any harm. I only wanted to ask you for directions, so if you are willing, please answer me. I can trade you biscuit and instant noodles in exchange for information.” Liu Gan walked about ten meters away from where they were lying down and asked them this question.
While hiding, these two locals knew they had been discovered and their path up to the shore had been blocked. At this point, they realized it was pointless to continue hiding. The two were whispering to each other, and then the oldest between them gathered enough courage to walk up to Liu Gan. He walked up outside of Liu Gan’s three meter range and was uneasy throughout.
Even though he was outside the three meter range, Liu Gan was able to smell this person’s odor. It was the type of sludge smell found along the riverbanks. Perhaps, they purposely wiped it on their bodies. At the same time, they had large quantities of water plants covering up their heads, so it seemed like a strange monster from the outside.
“Where do you want directions to?” The local person walked over. Even though ‘his’ face was covered in mud and the tone had a deeper tone, Liu Gan was able to recognize that he was actually a girl.
“Little girl, I just want to know the way to Fortune and Youth supermarket.” Liu Gan asked the little girl.
The little girl became even more nervous when Liu Gan was able to distinguish her gender, but she tried her best to maintain her calm while answering Liu Gan.
“It is within 5 blocks of this district. You can continue walking along the edge of river, and then after walking around 5 blocks, you will reach a forked road. At that point, follow the direction leading to a red building and walk past it. Continue walking straight past two traffic light, and you will find an intersection. Turn right at the intersection and walk ten meters. Then, you will find Fortune and Youth supermarket.” The little local girl said to Liu Gan in detail. Then, she observed his expression. This heavy stranger is particularly dangerous to her.
“Thank you. Here is your reward.” Liu Gan pulled out a bag of biscuits and instant noodles and threw them in front of the little girl. Then, he turned around and walked toward Zhang ShengLi and Yin He’s hiding place.
Liu Gan walked around ten meters or so, and then he discovered some noises behind him. He saw that the two locals were tailing him. After they discovered Liu Gan had looked backwards, they quickly froze in place. Silently, they were glancing at Liu Gan’s expression and whispering to each other at the same time.
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