The early morning sun vanished with the swish of my blackout blinds closing. However, I wanted to spend this time while the light appeared to hunt for things. Truth be told. I was exhausted and in no state to go out there.
'Qinglan, why do you keep staring at me?'
Each time I gazed into the mirror, her red eyes would appear, almost scaring me to death.
"I'm going to sleep."
I took a quick shower because we could lose water and power at any moment.
As the hot beads of water dripped down my body, I spent the time going through the system, checking out the shop and various rules and conditions.
To my surprise, the usual lewd items and different things I saw in novels appeared, but those were useless to me right now.
'Although I am lonely, I'm not that desperate.'
Not only that, but I found my mental state changing, becoming a little clearer compared to the day before. A lot of my chaotic and stupid thoughts faded, becoming muted and more regulated.
[System Hint: This is a side effect of your mind adapting to the improvements in Spirit!]
I swiped across the panel while laying on my bed with a black pair of cotton boxers.
To my surprise, this system could access my phone's apps, contacts and messaging service.
With this I could probably contact my friends from college, but I felt fear, worried that they might never respond to me and that everyone vanished forever. Unable to just abandon or forget them, I sent a message to our dead group chat, something we used back in college as a method of choosing our activities and meals.
'Maybe, in the future, one of them might respond.'
The news sites all reported similar articles as if they were all copied and pasted from an AI service with little to no human live streams appearing. Even the cockroach king's broadcast, and Metube lacked any updates two hours ago when he just made a post of a blank image titled. "I am dead this time..."
A sense of warmth melted the cold as I wrapped myself in the quilt.
I noticed the door handle moving to our shared apartment, which caused my stomach to sink. Reaching out for my knife, I slipped to the edge of my bed and stepped on the cold wooden flooring.
Once the door opened. A loose dress flowed from a rather attractive figure with blonde hair floating on the woman's shoulders. Shen Yifei popped her head inside. Once again, an annoying system prompt appeared in my sight.
[System Hint: Would you like to recruit Shen Yifei?]
Maybe because of my improvements, I could see in the darkness as I watched her search for something in the kitchen. Though she didn't take anything, instead lifting a few items and placing them down, she finally entered the bathroom, sneakily opening the door.
'What's she looking for?'
Shen Yifei quickly left the bathroom and closed the door before turning her gaze towards my room. It seemed she couldn't see me well in this darkness, so she quietly crept towards me with a strange smirk on her lips.
'Let's see what she's after first, then apprehend her.'
My eyes narrowed as I accepted the system's prompt to view her current status. That's when I wondered if she might be useful in the future.
Affection: 185/500 (Recruitable)
Health: [●●●●●] 100% (Thirsty)
Morale: [●●●●○] 80% (Irritated, Curious, Worried)
'Well, isn't that interesting...'
It seemed that because I showed my strength and current abilities, her affection increased quite significantly, surpassing even Qinglan.
However, that might be affected by my looks and other things. I couldn't deny that a Tier B might not be the best woman to recruit.
'However, what if it takes too long to recruit Jian Roulan?'
My current limit might be two people, but my experience is close to reaching a new Rank.
I also noticed that I could purchase Tier Upgrades.
The lower-tier ones are more affordable, but a single upgrade from B Tier -> A Tier would only cost me 1,000 ZKP.
That was cheap compared to the one that instantly made someone a Tier A, which cost 10,000 ZKP, or the S-Tier one, which would cost 100,000 ZKP.
Cooking and First Aid are expensive skills in the shop. If I made her my subject, one of those might become mine.
Ignorant of my thoughts, Shen Yifei entered my room, slowly opening the door further before striding inside with light steps. Because she couldn't see her arms waving in the air as she examined the room.
I found it amusing to watch her almost kick the wooden dresser before finally falling don't the soft bed and panicking.
"Kya?! What's happening!"
Shen Yifei rolled and punched out while wrapping herself in my quilt more and more, causing my head to hurt as she made too much noise. If she wakes Qinglan, I'll kick her out right now!
[System Hint: An Upgrade Potion also improves the subject by washing blood and marrow!]
'System what does that mean?'
[The upgrade will improve the subject's body, muscles, skin and organs and expel all impurities; it also has a minor beautifying and dieting effect!]
Not everyone would become a living dead like Mu Qinglan, so I needed people to be the fodder for death if something happened, forcing us to escape.
'The skills are tempting...'
'System, will my number of followers increase when I reach Rank 3?'
[System: Error, classified!]
[Tutorial Hint: Your number of subjects will reach 4 upon hitting Rank 3!]
The only consideration now was the fact that he would need to hunt all night tomorrow to reach the right amount of ZKP, and convincing her to fight and kill zombies might be difficult compared to Mu Qinglan, who had become a living dead.
[Tutorial Hint: Different Roles are available for 50 ZKP. You can assign a role to your subjects and gain experience from related tasks!]
'Oh? But does that mean they get nothing from killing zombies?'
[Tutorial Hint: They would only grant you ZKP from killing zombies, not Experience.
[However, their role would provide an experience just the same!]
This sudden discovery made me nod and choose my next action.
However, because I spent so long focused on the system panel and planning the future, I didn't notice that Shen Yifei had disappeared from the room.
With a click, the door closed.
And silence returned.