I loaded the dream game

Xia Zhi took his sleeping bag and lay down next to the door. Although this looked dangerous, it was actually the safest approach.

At this distance, he could easily hear any noise coming from outside the door. Even if he fell asleep, if the door was opened by something, he would be awakened immediately because it hit him.

Sleepiness filled his heart. Xia Zhi yawned, tightened his sleeping bag, and said incoherently, "Good night, Yukinoshita-san."

He had been through a lot today and was very tired, so after closing his eyes he quickly fell into a deep sleep. In the silent room at night, only his even breathing echoed.

After a long while, the girl's voice came from the other side:

"OK, good night."

……

It was another morning, and Yukinoshita came to the gardening area on the rooftop, preparing to water the vegetables planted there.

After taking care of the vegetables and fruits in the gardening area, the girl breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on a bench nearby. She raised her head and looked at the bright and sunny sky. The golden sunlight fell, shining warmly on her face. A refreshing breeze blew past her ears. She couldn't help but squint her eyes slightly, enjoying the relaxation and comfort of this moment.

More than a month had passed since she came to this place. She found that she had gradually gotten used to this kind of life and no longer felt uneasy as she did at the beginning. It was hard to say that there was no influence of that person in this.

"He should be back soon, right?" Yukinoshita thought to herself, got up and went downstairs, returned to the Academy Life Department classroom, washed her hands, and began to prepare lunch.

On the third day after arriving here, that person, no one knew how he did it, actually repaired the solar panels and battery packs on the rooftop, allowing their quality of life to suddenly enter the electrical age. It was as if they had returned to pre-apocalyptic modern civilization.

In addition, Xia Zhi would bring back some things from outside from time to time, such as a small sofa, a spring bed, comic books, and game consoles. Occasionally, he would bring back some flowers and daily necessities. While filling up this small room, it unexpectedly gave people a home-like feeling.

However, such warmth is only limited to the layout of the room. For the two people living here, they always maintain a distance from each other that is neither far nor close. Even if they want to be warm, they cannot feel it.

This distance is determined by the personalities of the two. Yukinoshita is not the type who will take the initiative to make friends, while Natsuji is the type who doesn't care whether to make friends or not. So, in this atmosphere where the two can feel each other's presence all the time yet deliberately keep a distance, they live dependent on each other but not too close to each other, which eventually leads to this weird way of getting along.

After bringing the last dish to the table, Yukinoshita sat down at the table, supporting her chin with her hands crossed, staring intently at the city skyline outside the window, her thoughts seeming to drift away with the white clouds.

After coming to this place for more than a month, she has figured out a lot of things, and the one that concerns her most is the name "Mizunoka City".

As far as she knew, there was no city with this name in the country. After getting the map for comparison, she was even more certain of her idea - the area marked as "Mizunogaoka City" on the map, as well as several surrounding cities, should have had another name in her memory.

What's more, if she remembered correctly, before she came to this strange place, the season was still spring with warm weather and blooming flowers, but the current climate is clearly autumn, and the time span is at least half a year.

In addition, zombies are irrational creatures that should only appear in fantasy works. All signs indicate that if there is nothing wrong with her mental health, it can only mean that she has come to another world.

Is this good news or bad news? Yukinoshita doesn't know, but no matter what, if she wants to know the answer behind this, she must survive first.

But if she wants to survive in this doomsday world, she can't rely on herself alone. She was deeply impressed by a sentence Xia Zhi once said: People can live alone, but they can't survive alone.

No matter how stubborn she was, she had to admit that without Xia Zhi, she would not be able to live as well as she did now. Although that person's personality was not very likable, he was surprisingly reliable at times.

"By the way, it's about time for him to come back."

Yukinoshita looked up at the clock hanging on the wall and frowned slightly.

Normally, the boy should have returned for dinner by this time in the past, but it was almost past dinner time and the food on the table was getting cold, but he still hadn't returned.

What happened?

Yukinoshita looked out the window. She didn't know when the originally clear sky had turned gloomy. Looking at the gradually darkening sky, she couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Chapter 10 The First Rainstorm

Xia Zhi did run into a little trouble—he couldn't find his way back.

Since he had already walked through the area surrounding the academy in the past month, he wanted to explore further afield, but he accidentally left the area marked on the map.

Just when Xia Zhi was thinking about whether to spend some dream points to update the map, the sky suddenly became gloomy and soon it started to rain heavily.

To make loading easier, he now drives a small van, with his morning harvest loaded in the back.

Things like gasoline barrels and canned snacks are not afraid of rain, but comic books and some poetry novels that Yukinoshita likes are packed in cardboard boxes, and it would be troublesome if they were soaked by rain.

In order to avoid the rain, Xia Zhi temporarily drove the car into an underground garage, intending to go back after the rain stopped.

"I hope Yukinoshita-san can leave some food for me."

After clearing out the zombies in the underground garage, Xia Zhi sighed as he looked at the incessant heavy rain outside.

It was definitely impossible to get back in time for dinner, and he didn't know how long the rain would last. He just hoped it would stop before dark, otherwise he would have to go back in the dark.

Xia Zhi, who had nothing to do, sat back in the car and began to sort out in his mind what he had gained during this period of time.

During this month, he and Yukinoshita cleared out the zombies in the Megumi no Oka Academy, then drove two large trucks to block the school gate. After repairing some damaged walls, they successfully completed the two side quests of [Establish a safe base] and [Clear the zombies in the academy], and were rewarded with 150 dream points.

Adding some small side quests and occasional achievement rewards, he earned a total of more than 200 dream points. After deducting the dream points used to repair generators, batteries and school walls, as well as other miscellaneous consumption, he currently has 173 dream points left.

What can 173 dream points do? He tried it before the summer solstice. In this instance, it only takes 400 dream points to revive a dead person, which is surprisingly cheap. In other words, the points he has now can be rounded up to almost revive half a person.

I just don't know if such a modification will have any effect on Yukinoshita. If it does, it means that the girl will have an extra life. Even if she dies accidentally one day, I still have hope of resurrecting her, so I don't have to watch the main mission fail in vain.

As Xia Zhi thought about this, he couldn't help but yawn.

"Let me get some sleep first." He thought to himself.

He looked up at the rain outside which showed no sign of stopping. He put down his seat, pulled the quilt beside the seat over himself, found a comfortable position, lay down and closed his eyes.

……

When Xia Zhi woke up again, it was already afternoon.

The dim light and the continuous sound of rain reminded him that the rain outside had not ended yet.

Xia Zhi raised his head, looked out the window, and frowned slightly.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that the rain not only had no intention of stopping, but was getting heavier.

"Boom——!"

As if to confirm his idea, accompanied by a deafening thunder, the already heavy rain immediately became even heavier. This was no longer an ordinary heavy rain, but had reached the level that could be called a storm.

“It’s not good.”

Xia Zhi felt a little worried.

The sound of rain and thunder will alarm the zombies, making them become restless when they were originally in the "energy-saving" state. Although the zombies in the Xunzhiaoka Academy have been cleared and the surrounding defense measures have been prepared, no one can guarantee that no accidents will occur.

Thinking of the girl left alone in the academy, Xia Zhi gritted his teeth, started the car and plunged into the rain.

The heavy rain blurred the car windows, and the raindrops kept hitting the windshield, making it impossible for him to see the road ahead.

Xia Zhi simply abandoned the small truck and found a heavy truck on the side of the road. After spending two dream points to project the real-time map onto his retina, he drove at full speed according to the path indicated by the dream navigation, regardless of whether there were any vehicles blocking the road or other obstacles, and just rushed forward.

Half an hour later, the surrounding roads gradually became familiar. After leaving the unfamiliar area, Xia Zhi finally let go of his last bit of vigilance and stepped on the accelerator to the bottom.

Amid the roar of the engine, the car's speed was increased to the limit. After driving for nearly an hour, the familiar outline of the building in the distance finally appeared before his eyes.

The sky had already darkened completely at this time, and heavy rain fell amid thunder and lightning. The teaching building in the distance looked as if it had been completely submerged in the storm.

Looking at the teaching building plunged into darkness, Xia Zhi noticed that the light belonging to the School Life Department was not on. This discovery made his heart sink.

"squeak--!"

Xia Zhi didn't stop the car until he was about to hit the school gate. There was no time to drive away the truck blocking the gate, so he opened the car door and rushed into the rain.

He didn't feel anything when he was sitting in the car, but after getting out of the car he immediately realized how heavy the rain was.

The raindrops hit his body hard and the strong wind almost pushed him unable to walk. Xia Zhi quickly lowered his center of gravity, lowered his head and rushed towards the teaching building not far away.

"Yukino!"

He ran upstairs and roughly opened the door of the School Life Department, but did not find the girl inside.

Where has she gone?

As soon as this question came to Xia Zhi's mind, he heard the sound of a door being opened and slammed shut at the end of the corridor outside, as if it came from upstairs.

"Rooftop!"

Xia Zhi reacted immediately, turned around and ran out of the room, rushing towards the rooftop.

When he was halfway through his run, he saw a girl running down the stairs, all wet. Although she was in a mess, she still did not let go of the two flower pots that she was holding tightly in her arms.

Yukinoshita quickly noticed the boy down the stairs. An expression of surprise appeared on her face for a moment, and her tense expression relaxed, as if she was relieved.

But the next moment, her relaxed nerves made her pay the price. She seemed to be accidentally tripped by something and fell forward uncontrollably.

"what……"

Yukinoshita Yukino closed her eyes subconsciously, almost anticipating the pain that would come from all parts of her body after falling down the stairs.

however……

"Clang-!"

The sound of a flowerpot breaking was heard, but the expected impact and pain did not occur. She felt like she fell into a warm embrace.

She slowly opened her eyes and found herself sitting on the ground being tightly protected by someone. Apart from her heart beating a little faster due to the fright, she was not hurt at all.

On the contrary, Xia Zhi was knocked back two steps and fell to the ground, causing his butt to hurt.

"You may need to lose weight." He tactfully gave the girl his advice.

"You blame others for your own weakness, and even resort to personal attacks. Don't you think this is a very bad thing, Xia Zhi?"

Yukinoshita said as she pulled herself out of the boy's arms.

She panted a few times to calm her disordered breathing, then dragged her body to sit down against the wall of the corridor next to her, looking at the scattered flower pot fragments and soil on the ground and fell into silence.

"……Thanks."

After a long while, Xia Zhi, who was rubbing his butt, heard the girl's voice of thanks.

He didn't respond, but just raised his head and looked up the stairs. The door to the rooftop over there was still rattling in the strong wind.

"The rooftop door was blown open by the wind, and the door frame is broken and can't be closed." Yukinoshita explained in a slightly weak voice: "The battery pack seems to have been damaged by water, and two solar panels are broken. I threw away the flowers and plants planted in the pots, hoping to save as many vegetables as possible, but the wind and rain were too strong. I worked for a long time and only transplanted a few plants into the pots..."

...I just broke two pots.

She didn't say the latter part.

"It's okay. Batteries and vegetables don't matter. As long as you're okay, that's fine." Xia Zhi shook his head, stood up from the ground, walked to the girl and extended his hand to her: "How is it? Can you still stand up?"

Yukinoshita nodded, took his hand and stood up from the ground.

She tucked her wet hair behind her ears, took a few breaths and said, "I left some food for you. It should be cold now. I'll heat it up for you."

After saying that, she was about to walk towards the classroom of the School Life Department. However, before she could take two more steps, she felt her feet go weak and she fell forward...

Chapter 11 The Sick Girl

Yukinoshita Yukino has a cold.

The weak girl could only lie on the bed at this moment, her face was pale, her forehead was terribly hot, and even the breath she exhaled was hot.

The rain outside still didn't stop, and in order to take care of the sick Xueshita, Xia Zhi had to temporarily give up his plan to go out and explore.

Fortunately, he had remembered to bring back some medicines, otherwise he would have been in a difficult situation facing the current situation.

Seeing that Yukinoshita's condition had obviously improved after taking the medicine, Xia Zhi temporarily gave up the idea of ​​using dream points. He filled a basin with cold water and sat next to the girl. He wet the towel and replaced the towel on her forehead that had already become warm.

"Let's use water sparingly." Yukinoshita said weakly.

When the battery pack broke down, the pump could no longer be used, and there wasn't much water stored. As it was getting less and less as time went by, she thought it was better not to waste water in this way.

"It doesn't matter, I collected rain water." Xia Zhi replied.

Yukinoshita: “…”

"I was kidding." Xia Zhi said with a chuckle.

Although rainwater looks clean, it contains all kinds of invisible dust and microorganisms. It is not suitable for normal people to use it for bathing, let alone to wipe the body of sick people with weak resistance. No matter how bad his taste is, Xia Zhi will not do such a thing.

Yukinoshita turned her head to the other side, intending to ignore him.

Xia Zhi couldn't tell whether the girl was really angry or not, so he could only remain silent, turned his head to look out the window, and listened quietly to the whistling wind outside and the sound of raindrops hitting the window.

"…You said, can we still go back?"

After a long time, he finally heard the girl's questioning voice.

"Of course." Xia Zhi answered without any doubt.

“What if we can’t go back?” The girl’s voice gradually became lower. “What if we can’t find a way to go back? Will we have to stay here forever, for years, decades, until one day we die alone, or are killed by them…”

Perhaps because of her illness, the girl finally showed her fragility which was different from her usual strong appearance. Under normal circumstances, she would never say these words to Xia Zhi, let alone show her weak side in front of the boy like this.