Chapter 262: Can’t Win

Since the target location is too far from the respawn point, it’s necessary to find some safe places along the way.

These buildings have been abandoned for a long time. Moss covers the walls, vines creep everywhere, and the entrance to the once bustling shops is in ruins. The ground is blanketed with thick leaves, and patches of tall grass sprout from the broken roads. Shrubs tenaciously grow from the cracks in the walls.

The whole scene gives off an odd sense of contrast. On one hand, the lush shrubs and wild grasses make the place seem vibrant, full of life.

But the gloom-ridden buildings, with their pitch-dark windows and doorways, make it seem like at any moment a horde of zombies might come crashing out, gnashing their teeth.

This building faces the street, but the shop on the ground floor is no longer recognizable. You can still see traces of corroded metal from where the advertisement board was once fixed to the wall.

“The metal here corrodes worse than anything else.” Yang Bo noted that the other materials on the ground weren’t as severely corroded as the metal.

Yang Bo had several tasks this time. The first was to control the cyborgs using his Optical Ability.

The second was to establish a safe outpost midway.

The third was to figure out what exactly was going on with these zombies.

“I just can’t shake the feeling that these zombies aren’t entirely human!” Yang Bo mused. Simple biological human bodies shouldn’t become like this because the human body’s functions wouldn’t allow it.

If that were true, would they be immortal? “Something must have happened in this world,” Yang Bo thought as he cautiously avoided the noise-making shrubs and wild grass.

This made him even more curious about how these zombies distinguished between natural sounds, explosions, and human sounds. How did it work? What state were the zombies usually in? Were they more like corpses?

On the side of the street-facing shop, there was a staircase leading up, thick with green moss. The walls and floor were coated in grime, and the exposed metal railings had long since rusted away.

“It seems the steel embedded within these buildings is still intact,” Yang Bo carefully stepped onto the stairs. Along the wall, you could clearly see a ‘rat path,’ the trail frequently traveled by rats.

The first floor was all storefronts, so there were no residential units.

Yang Bo had already tested using his Optical Ability to control a cyborg. He was only controlling it, without intercepting the transmitted Electro-Optic signals.

That would be too complicated and energy-consuming. Besides, the remote-control world of this game was too oppressive. The optimizations in the virtual imaging made things look more pleasant.

The Electro-Optic ability allowed for quicker reactions when controlling cyborgs. Yang Bo’s method wasn’t to directly control them with his Mind Control, but rather to simulate Electro-Optic signals via his hands.

In other words, he was mimicking how he controlled devices with external equipment while gaming. He couldn’t bypass this piece of equipment, or he’d surely be found out.

Unless there was a camera watching Yang Bo’s hand movement on the external equipment, it would be impossible to know his hand wasn’t moving at all.

Carefully and silently, Yang Bo made his way to the second floor. The metal door there had turned into a pile of rusty rubble by the entrance.

He first glanced at the room across the staircase. It was covered from wall to wall with mildew.

An audacious thought crossed Yang Bo’s mind. He controlled the cyborg with his Electro-Optic ability, directing its finger to tap the wall, producing a faint sound.

“Seems like the sound was filtered out.” But Yang Bo didn’t hear any reaction through his virtual device, which didn’t surprise him.

This game was optimized, after all. In reality, this scene would have been even more oppressive.

“Looks like I have no choice but to use the Optical Ability,” Yang Bo decided.

Of course, Yang Bo wouldn’t interfere with the cyborg’s signal. He would only act as its ears.

Yang Bo made the cyborg tap the wall again. This time, he distinctly heard a sound through the cyborg.

“In the living room of the unit on the right, it seems like there’s one?”

“And four in the unit across?” Through the echo, Yang Bo picked up on some unusual details.

“Two more on the third floor?”

“The fourth floor seems to have two as well?” Since the wall was solid, sound carried faster. Although the building looked eight stories tall from the outside, there were more levels added on top. It seemed like Yang Bo had just scanned the whole building using a soundwave.

It’s possible the sound wasn’t even a loud one. In buildings like this, if someone bangs downstairs, every level might hear the noise, thanks to the sound carrying through the walls.

Since Yang Bo didn’t modify the cyborg’s data, the monitoring system wouldn’t detect anything. Just as in some games, only anomalies in data would trigger alerts. But Yang Bo’s setup was similar to silent eavesdropping.

“With this capability, it’ll do. Now, time to put it to the test.” The scan had revealed several suspicious points.

Yang Bo directed the cyborg to peek into the unit near the stairs. Sure enough, a zombie was lying on the floor. The moment the cyborg showed itself, the shriveled zombie immediately ‘woke up’ and turned its head toward the doorway with a ferocious look.

Then, in the next instant, it leapt into the air with a strange hiss.

“There’s no way this thing was purely human!” Yang Bo thought. Even though he’d killed a zombie last time, it was just a corpse then. He hadn’t seen them activate.

“It feels almost like a cyborg, right?”

“But there was no metal inside the zombie’s body.”

“Could it be some other kind of modification?” Yang Bo pulled out his cold weapons: a composite shield and a hammer.

The cyborg lunged at the zombie, and the two collided. Just then, Yang Bo heard another commotion from the unit behind. It seemed like that zombie had been disturbed.

The cyborg used its shield to block the zombie, and then brought the hammer smashing down on its head.

The zombie’s head immediately burst open, causing it to lose all strength.

Blade Mastery +2! Yang Bo was stunned by the prompt. What kind of job did this zombie have when it was alive?

No time to think; another four zombies rushed in from the next-door unit. Despite their shriveled bodies and rubbery muscles, they moved with surprising agility.

“These zombies’ bodily fluids are corrosive?” Yang Bo noticed his character had been poisoned and was losing health. Puzzled, he used his superpower to inspect it and discovered that the cyborg had been corroded.

Even the shield had lost durability. The remote-controlled cyborg’s shield was being eaten away.

It wasn’t just four zombies as the scan had indicated. There was a fifth – a zombie dog. Its four legs appeared unsteady, but its speed was terrifying!

Yang Bo relied on his Dynamic Vision as the zombie dog charged, and he smacked its head clean off with a hammer blow.

Tracking +2! “This is way better than hunting small animals. At least the Justice Gang won’t interfere.”

“Should I drag the Justice Gang into this mess?”

“Cyborgs aren’t exactly cheap.” Yang Bo continued using Dynamic Vision, calmly observing the incoming zombies. He had already calculated their speed and trajectory.

The cyborg moved like a martial arts master, blocking with its shield and swinging the hammer like it had eyes, knocking out zombies one by one. Restraining them at the doorway prevented them from swarming all at once.

Blade Mastery +2! Another one down.

Vehicle Mastery +2!

Shooting +2!

“Why would I get shooting skills for killing zombies?” Yang Bo then heard movement from upstairs and prepared to hold the doorway. The skills he gained from those four zombies were odd.

Their clothes were so ragged it was impossible to tell what they used to wear, except that the small zombie seemed to have been a child from its size.

“Damn it, time to run!” Ten minutes later, Yang Bo had to leap out of the window and flee.

These zombies’ bodily fluids were too disgusting. Any contact showed as ‘poisoned,’ meaning the cyborg was being corroded.

After killing eleven zombies, Yang Bo had earned five Blade Mastery skills, four Vehicle Mastery skills, and even received two Cooking skills!

“This game company sucks,” Yang Bo muttered as he took out an antidote from the character’s backpack and used it, only to find that it didn’t do anything for the cyborg. The antidote was a waste of money, only useful to the player character.

“Maybe the game will repair cyborgs after players log out?” Yang Bo wondered, deciding to head back to the respawn point to test his theory.

“Weapon and armor durability repairs cost money too. This crappy game sure takes realism seriously.” After returning to the respawn point and spending over 100 credits, Yang Bo’s equipment was repaired but his in-game currency was down 100 credits.

Yang Bo logged out of the game, planning to check tomorrow whether his cyborg had been repaired from the corrosion.

“I bet the daily log-out time limit is meant to allow time to fix remote-controlled cyborgs,” Yang Bo mused as he browsed the game forums.

“No rush to deal with the Justice Gang. I’ll wait until I really need some cannon fodder.” He figured there would be a time when they’d come in handy.

Once on the forums, just as he expected, complaints were flooding in. One player said their character had been eaten alive by a zombie horde and joked about needing a psychologist. They wanted to sue the game officials.

The biggest complaint was that zombies had poison. Any contact led to poisoning.

Moreover, equipment durability decreased faster when in contact with zombies.

There were also paid guides circulating about various methods to deal with zombies.

Yang Bo didn’t pay to look. The urban ruins environment was practically a disaster zone. If you used ranged weapons, you could barely see anything. Who knew when you’d bump into a zombie around a corner?

But if you used melee weapons, you risked getting poisoned – gross.

And if you opted for firearms, congratulations! Zombies would come running from all directions.

Some players were trying to rally everyone to clear out the zombies at once, since it seemed they didn’t respawn after being killed.

“No chance.” After glancing at the map, Yang Bo concluded that unless they got a well-trained army together to methodically clear the area, in-game players were too diverse and disorganized for that to work.

“Could zombies be another type of cyborg?” Yang Bo thought back to how strangely the zombies had reacted to seeing his cyborg. They had stayed like statues until the moment his cyborg peeked in, and suddenly they ‘powered on’ immediately.

“If only someone in the military were here. They’d definitely know something. I wonder if anyone in the Bounty Hunter Guild knows anything?” Yang Bo stood up to admire the rainy twilight outside the window. It looked like a storm was rolling in.

“All these random skills are ridiculous.” As Yang Bo looked at his growing collection of mixed-up abilities, he sighed. He decided to just focus on a few key skills for now and let the others be.

Just then, Yang Bo heard knocking at the door. He opened it to find the Fat Boss.

“Once the storm passes, we’ll leave. The supplies I ordered have arrived.” The Fat Boss stepped inside after Yang Bo invited him in and closed the door.

Yang Bo understood – the Gene Serum materials had arrived.

“How long will we be staying this time?”

“A week. The Government compensation has been processed. They’ll repair the dormitory building as soon as possible, and it only takes a day to fix. We’ve already received our compensation, too.”

“You’ve been compensated three million credits this time. However, you’re required to keep the incident confidential.”

“Boss, maybe I should just stick with you for the compensation. Every time I get involved, something happens.”

“There won’t be a next time. They got everyone behind it on March Planet this time.”

“So, Boss, does that mean there are others on other planets?”

“Yeah, similar to the Red Earl. Extremist terrorist groups. You know how messed up these people are. They kidnapped influential figures and politicians and attacked us just to divert police attention.” The Fat Boss didn’t mention the Grey Ash Organization by name.

Yang Bo nodded, convincingly. The Fat Boss then asked, “Did this situation affect your superpowers at all?”

“No,” Yang Bo replied, demonstrating his Light Power by pulling the curtains back and activating it.

“Good, good.” The Fat Boss, reassured that Yang Bo’s powers were fine, was even more pleased. He was already planning to leave as soon as possible once this storm cleared, determined to keep this genius away from others’ influences.

Light-based superpower, unlocks warplane, various lock technologies, and pharmacology skills – where could you find talent like this?

“Take a good rest.” With that, the Fat Boss left, having delivered his message.

Yang Bo saw him off and decided to turn in early, planning to check on the game tomorrow.

The next morning, sure enough, was stormy. When Yang Bo went to his internet room, Zhou Rui had sent him a message reminding him to have breakfast.

“That’s odd.” Having been a single man in his previous life, Yang Bo found it strange to be invited to eat by a woman.

Then he saw another message from the Fat Boss asking what he wanted for breakfast. Yang Bo sighed, deciding, “It’s easier being alone. A little milk and a snack will do.”

He went out for breakfast, politely informing the two that he could handle his own meals from now on, no need for them to go out of their way.

Back in his room, it was time to log back into the game. What else were stormy days good for? In his previous life, Yang Bo had spent his vacation days from work gaming. Of course, he’d go on short dates too, chasing brief romances. If it worked out, maybe it’d last 20 minutes; if not, just three to five minutes.

“What kind of fix is this?” Yang Bo logged in, checked with his Optical Ability, and saw that the corroded parts of the cyborg had been repaired. But the fixed areas were a bit off in color, like freshly patched plaster against old wall paint.

“Whatever. I’ll take other cold weapons this time.” Yang Bo realized bringing the hammer had been a mistake, with all the brain matter and poisonous fluids splattering everywhere.

Time to work on the second update.