Ch 68: Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

The villa area under the night sky was deathly quiet, with only a few streetlights that survived the last meteor shower casting a dim, ghostly glow along the driveway. This faint light was not enough to illuminate the entire villa area.

At this moment, those who heard the distant screams in the villa closed their doors and windows tightly, trembling as they huddled in their basements. They were grateful that the villa area was large and the villas were far apart, praying that the person causing this horror would go to someone else’s villa and not come looking for them.

The intruder entered the villa, clearly targeting the white man inside. Terrible screams filled the air, mixed with the dull sound of a blade cutting into flesh and the bald man’s laughter. The combination of these sounds was nauseating.

Yu Xi’s mind raced. She summoned the remaining half bottle of [High-Temperature Perfume] into her hand. She didn’t care about the reason; maniacs didn’t need one. She just wanted to end this quickly, so she took out her most powerful weapon. But [High-Temperature Perfume] couldn’t be used inside the villa. The space was narrow, and the furniture was flammable. She feared setting the whole villa on fire. They still needed the villa, as the meteor shower’s pattern was not yet understood.

As she considered this, she retracted the perfume and quickly mapped out a climbing route from the villa’s drainage pipe and windowsill. Moving silently across the lawn, she climbed up the drainage pipe, windowsill, and balcony, finally reaching the roof. She ran across the roof to the front of the villa and climbed down from the balcony to the lawn.

The smell of blood was now several times stronger. In one corner of the front yard lay the dismembered woman. Yu Xi kicked the front door frame and quickly retreated, using the noise to lure the man out. The bald man came out immediately, without any hesitation, as if he didn’t consider that someone might be deliberately drawing him out. Maybe he knew and just didn’t care, or perhaps he was too confident in his strength to be concerned.

When the bald man saw who had lured him out, that cold, terrifying smile returned to his face. A young girl, beautiful and slender, with a neck that seemed it could snap easily. The hand holding the axe trembled with excitement. “Finally out of your rat hole, huh? Let’s guess, do you have a gun or a grenade? Don’t be afraid, little girl. You’re so pretty. I promise I won’t kill you right away. Let’s play for a while, shall we?”

Yu Xi watched him approach, his disgusting, pathological smile growing. Her fingers behind her back quietly adjusted the [High-Temperature Perfume] from setting 3 to 4. She didn’t want to give him any chance to struggle; she aimed to turn him to ashes instantly.

Ever since seeing this bald man on the surveillance, Yu Xi had a bad feeling. It was a subtle sense, one that had proven correct many times before and had often helped her. She didn’t know exactly why this time felt so ominous, but from the moment she decided to come out and deal with him, this feeling kept her on high alert.

She didn’t understand why, facing only one person, she felt more unease than when she faced swarms of giant black insects. She knew that with the [High-Temperature Perfume], she could turn him to ashes instantly. Yet, her inner alarm only grew stronger.

Frowning, she decided not to hesitate any longer. She pressed the nozzle, and a five or six-meter-long flame shot out, lighting up the entire front yard. The ultra-high temperature turned the nearby lawn to ashes instantly, but Yu Xi soon felt something was wrong. She took two steps back and stopped the spray. In the middle of the now-ashen lawn, the bald man, who should have been incinerated, stood behind his huge axe, smiling at her.

This smile was even more terrifying than before, as if he had found an extraordinarily interesting toy. “Heh heh, a tasker?”

He twirled the axe in his hand, and Yu Xi then noticed that around his axe was a circle of transparent, glowing light, like a curved shield protecting him from head to toe. Yu Xi was inwardly shocked.

She had only seen such a sci-fi-like protective shield from one person—Lin Wu. That seemingly ordinary iron rod was actually a tool weapon that could activate various modes, one of which was a protective mode with such a transparent glow.

Yu Xi finally understood the source of that subtle sense of alertness within her. This was a tasker.

“Little girl, not bad! You’re actually a tasker who can take out such a powerful special tool. Hahaha, you seem surprised. My weapon here was exchanged for 800 points—”

His laughter paused for a moment as he glanced at the defense value displayed on the axe handle. The total defense value of 800 points had originally dropped to 756, but now, the remaining defense value was only 688. In other words, in those ten to twenty seconds just now, the opponent’s weapon’s attack equaled 68 times the normal tasker’s attacks!

What kind of overpowered special tool is this!?

The bald man’s eyes showed not only shock but also excitement and greed. He wanted to seize this special tool.

Although his laughter had paused for only a moment, Yu Xi immediately caught the several changes in his emotions during that brief instant. It seemed that the flames she had sprayed on him weren’t entirely ineffective.

If it had some effect, that was good!

Yu Xi moved quickly, circling to his rear and spraying the 4th gear high-temperature flames again. The flames were once again blocked by the translucent halo. The first test result: the opponent’s weapon’s defense was different from Lin Wu’s semi-arc; it was a 360-degree all-around defense.

This weapon tool was more advanced than Lin Wu’s.

Yu Xi’s thoughts shifted, and the [Air Hair Dryer] appeared instantly. As the opponent swung his axe and charged at her, she sidestepped to avoid close combat and used the [Air Hair Dryer] for a ranged attack.

Five consecutive air blasts exploded on the defense shield, but the opponent remained unscathed, although his face gradually showed anger. The second test result: the opponent’s defense shield could also block explosive attacks, but like with flames, it would still have some effect on him.

What exactly was this effect?

The axe blade sliced through the air with fierce force, and even though there were still three to four meters between them, Yu Xi’s sixth sense alerted her to the danger. Before her mind could fully analyze it, her body had already reacted. She quickly bent backward and rolled to the side to avoid the attack.

With a loud “boom,” a nearby tree was cut in half. If she hadn’t dodged, she would have met the same fate as that tree.

Kneeling on one knee, Yu Xi suddenly leaped up, wielding the [High-Temperature Perfume] in one hand and the [Air Hair Dryer] in the other, attacking simultaneously. The best defense was offense. Since she was fragile, she had to attack relentlessly, leaving him no opportunity to counterattack.

Half a bottle of [High-Temperature Perfume] on the 4th gear would last about five minutes. She thought she would use up all five minutes, but with a quarter of the bottle remaining, she heard the man surrounded by flames roar in anger.

“Enough already, damn it!” He retreated, quickly moving out of the flame’s range. The transparent halo around his axe flickered twice and then disappeared.

The bald man roared in anger, “You want to die!”

He threw away the axe and, out of nowhere, produced a rocket launcher, tilting his head to aim.

Yu Xi had only one thought in her mind: dodge!

At the critical moment, she heard a faint whizzing sound coming from the side. With a “thud,” something accurately pierced through the air. The bald man’s body stiffened for a moment before he fell backward, the rocket launcher in his hands firing off in the next second, causing a massive explosion in the distant forest.

The rocket launcher missed its target due to the bald man’s fall.

Yu Xi did not relax and immediately went forward to check. She saw a bloody hole in the left side of the bald man’s head, his eyes wide open as he lay there, no longer breathing. Even at the moment of his death, he likely never understood what had happened.

Yu Xi looked in the direction from which the bullet had been fired. At the other end of the yard, on the windowsill of the attic on the third floor of the villa, stood Ya Tong, lifting her head from behind a sniper rifle mounted on the windowsill.

Most likely, it was her first time shooting someone, as her face was a bit pale, but her eyes remained calm and determined. Beside Ya Tong, Yu Qi, still in shock, poked her head out halfway, looking at her safe sister in the yard and letting out a long sigh of relief.

Fortunately, because she was worried about Yu Xi, she found a way to wake Ya Tong. She originally wanted to discuss the next steps with her. But as soon as Ya Tong woke up, she noticed the bald man on the screen, unharmed amidst the flames. The scene, beyond normal understanding, sent chills down their spines.

They didn’t even have time to discuss it. Ya Tong grabbed the bag of weapons and left the shelter. They entered the villa through the back door, first startled by the gruesome sight of the white man dead in the living room. Then, at Ya Tong’s signal, Yu Qi went up to the highest attic.

Ya Tong had practiced shooting for a long time and treated firearms as a hobby, mastering handguns, submachine guns, and sniper rifles. Knowing that their combat skills were limited and rushing into the fray would only add to the casualties, she decided on a high vantage point for sniping.

She had been aiming for a long time, noticing that no matter what strange weapon Yu Xi used, the opponent remained unharmed. Ya Tong knew she had only one chance and had to find the perfect moment. Yu Qi held her breath in fright, waiting anxiously but not daring to interfere.

Fortunately, in the end, they succeeded!

“You little brat!” Ya Tong lightly scolded, her tone revealing a sense of relief after the ordeal. “How dare you knock me out a second time…”

Yu Xi felt a surge of warmth in her heart as she looked at the two of them. “Thank you.”

In critical moments, teamwork was essential…

However, as the two in the attic gathered their belongings and came down to the yard to discuss how to deal with the corpses, the area around the bald man’s body suddenly exploded with various items as Ya Tong approached.

“What happened to you two?” Yu Qi asked, confused, seeing the two staring at the ground in a daze.

“Sis, can you see this?” Yu Xi pointed to a silver card on the ground.

“What?” Yu Qi asked, puzzled.

Ya Tong, taking a deep breath, looked at a gold card floating before her. “What’s going on? What is this? A system reservation card?”

Yu Xi followed Ya Tong’s gaze but saw nothing.

There was a special card in front of Ya Tong that Yu Xi couldn’t see, and none of the scattered items, cards, guns, or even food and water on the ground were visible to Yu Qi.

Yu Xi analyzed the situation and concluded that it likely had to do with their different identities. She could see the items because she was also bound to a system, making her a tasker. Yu Qi, being an ordinary person in this task world, could not see the items that exploded from the tasker’s body, which made sense.

As for Ya Tong, since she was the one who killed the tasker, she was no longer considered an ordinary person in the task world. The items exploded when she approached, implying that she was recognized as eligible to pick them up.

Yu Xi tried to touch the items and found that she could move and take them. The rule seemed to be that after killing a tasker, the killer must approach for the items to explode, and once they did, other taskers could also collect or steal them.

However, there was one special card that other taskers couldn’t touch or see. Based on Ya Tong’s description, the card was gold, about the size of a playing card, and had a special material with flowing luster. After taking the card, a message appeared in her mind.

The message indicated that after her death, she would have a choice to continue existing in another form, and if she refused, she would face true death.

The remaining points of this bald tasker would be transferred to her account once she officially became a tasker. Given the circumstances, there was no longer any need for secrecy.

After the three of them moved the three corpses to the driveway and burned them to ashes using the [High-Temperature Perfume], they cleaned up the bloodstains inside and outside the villa and returned to the shelter. Yu Xi briefly explained the concept of taskers to them, mentioning the System Tower instead of Star House.

Perhaps because the apocalypse had officially begun, her explanation wasn’t censored.

“So, you also bound with the system after dying, which allowed you to come back?” Maybe because of the previous experiences with rebirth and space, Yu Qi quickly accepted the third revelation about the system.

She just felt heartbroken, heartbroken that her sister, so young, had to bear such a burden…

“My situation is a bit special.” Yu Xi didn’t want them to misunderstand the System Tower as something benevolent, giving her space, power, and a second chance at life… She feared it might affect Ya Tong’s future choices.

So, she carefully explained that her knowledge was limited, but her situation was indeed unique. The System Tower was not benevolent. Its rules allowed for the killing of other taskers to gain all their items and points, which essentially encouraged violence and was extremely dangerous.

Only now did Yu Xi understand why Lin Wu had been so shocked to see her unchanged appearance in a new task world. Initially, taskers only had the option to work hard to earn points for items, but suddenly, the system offered a shortcut. This temptation was immense. In harsh task environments, many might abandon their principles and choose the easier path.

What she hadn’t anticipated was the emergence of the system reservation card, informing someone of the system’s existence while they were still alive and even giving them a choice. Yu Xi didn’t know, but this occurrence was rare, extremely rare.

Normally, taskers wore masks, and their deployment in task worlds was highly scattered. Unless they saw each other using special weapons or items, they wouldn’t recognize one another. Moreover, the probability of a tasker being killed by a regular person in the task world was even smaller.

Take the bald guy just now; without Yu Xi’s [High-Temperature Perfume], which wore down his defense points, Ya Tong would never have been able to kill him with just firearms. Everything aligned perfectly – the timing, the setting, and the people involved. It was just the bald guy’s bad luck that he thought he could score big but ended up being the prey.

Yu Xi quickly glanced over the items the bald guy dropped: various real-world firearms, five or six boxes of different bullets, rocket launchers, grenades, seven or eight black cards, two silver cards, and various convenient foods.

After picking up one of the silver cards, Ya Tong showed a surprised expression. She then flipped her hand, and the silver card disappeared into her palm. When she touched the items on the ground, everything vanished upon contact.

She stared at her palm in a daze for a while before telling Yu Xi and Yu Qi, “I… have a space of about ten cubic meters.”

Yu Xi: …!!

Yu Qi: …

Three days had passed since that intense fight.

During these three days, people continued to flee to this villa area with their families, breaking into empty houses to search for supplies and temporarily settling down. The situation in Ru’er Town improved a bit with the arrival of external supplies and aid.

Although the supplies and aid were meager, they gave the townspeople and villa residents a glimmer of hope, indicating that the m government hadn’t abandoned them. As long as there was still hope, the lack of sufficient supplies was bearable.

Meanwhile, astronomers, planetary experts, physicists, and other specialists worldwide were intensely observing and calculating various data. After all, meteor showers occur many times a year on this planet. But now, the fear of meteorites had everyone on edge. Even the mention of a meteor shower, once synonymous with romance, now made people pale.

After extensive research, discussions, and international conferences, they ultimately predicted that the next meteor shower most likely to turn into a meteorite storm would occur in six days.