PSW – Chapter 4

“I’ll wait until things get a little more chaotic.”

Zheng Yi carefully sharpened her fire axe. This initial period right after the apocalypse broke out was the most crucial; she had many plans to put into action. Clearly, she was going to be very busy for the next couple of days.

After she finished sharpening the fire axe, she went downstairs and unlocked a shared bike, taking advantage of the fact that the network signal was still up.

It wasn’t even evening yet, and the sun had been bright at noon, but now the entire sky darkened. A fierce wind swept in without warning, sending dry leaves swirling into the air.

Zero One watched Zheng Yi get on the bike. [You’re…]

“Going on a zero-dollar shopping spree at the supermarket,” Zheng Yi said as she pedaled. “Clothes, blankets, that sort of thing. In short, there’s no better time than now.”

She was completely broke. Her only chance was to take advantage of the initial chaos to hoard more supplies. In a few days, the supermarket would be picked clean. If she waited until then, she’d probably be reduced to robbing zombies.

Zheng Yi lived in a relatively remote, older residential complex. The nearest large supermarket was about a fifteen-minute bike ride away.

During that short fifteen-minute ride, Zero One watched a car lose control and careen down the road, causing what could only be described as a horrific crash. But that wasn’t the most terrifying part. The most terrifying part was when someone crawled out of the mangled wreck—a person covered in blood, with half the skin on their face sloughing off.

More and more people were streaming toward the supermarket.

Zheng Yi stored the shared bike directly in her backpack and followed the crowd, rushing into the supermarket to begin her shopping spree. There was barely any room to push a cart; everyone was frantically grabbing food and water.

‘Zero One, could you please help me put supplies into the supply box in my backpack?’ Before leaving the house, Zheng Yi had emptied one of her supply boxes and placed it in her backpack. When the boxes were empty, multiple could fit into a single backpack slot, but she hadn’t brought too many.

[I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.] Zero One was troubled.

‘It’s fine.’ Zheng Yi grabbed a hat from a shelf and put it on, then pulled a mask from her pocket and did the same. With that done, she brazenly took out the supply box and began rapidly tossing autumn and winter clothes and bedding inside.

Fortunately, most people’s attention was on the food section, which was on the second floor of this supermarket. All the household goods were on the first floor.

“What the fuck, am I dreaming?” Of course, a few passersby noticed her crazy and bewildering actions. One man, in particular, froze in place when he saw a full box of supplies simply vanish.

Before Zheng Yi could cause a commotion, the first floor erupted into chaos. The roars of zombies filled the air as they staggered toward the frantic shoppers. Control was lost. Order collapsed.

After leaving the supermarket, Zheng Yi rode the shared bike straight to a pharmacy. Before she even went inside, she saw the shattered display window and toppled shelves, medicine boxes strewn across the floor.

Taking the fire axe from her backpack, Zheng Yi entered the pharmacy. She moved quickly past the counter, grabbed a shopping bag, and tossed in common anti-inflammatory and cold medicines. As for alcohol, she had already stockpiled an entire case of medical-grade alcohol in barrels, so she didn’t need to grab any here.

Just as Zheng Yi was about to leave, the pharmacy’s inner door was thrown open, and a zombie in a white lab coat came staggering toward her.

[Watch-]

With the bag of medicine in one hand and the fire axe in the other, Zheng Yi didn’t even let Zero One finish its warning. She leaped over the counter, and the fire axe flew from her hand, striking the zombie squarely in the head and knocking it to the ground.

Only then did Zheng Yi calmly walk over, yank the axe free, and wipe it clean on the zombie’s clothes. After standing up, she remembered that Zero One had been trying to say something. “Zero One,” she said gently, “what were you about to say?”

[I was going to say, nice work.] Zero One rephrased. [A Saint who specializes in physical deliverance seems pretty good, too.]

Zheng Yi gave an innocent smile, checked herself for bloodstains, and then got on her bike to head home.

The chaos continued, and talk of zombies and the apocalypse exploded across all channels. Every available information network repeatedly broadcast the emergency notice. Meanwhile, Zheng Yi, after a busy day, was curled up on her sofa at home, catching up on sleep.

Zheng Yi rested until late at night before having a simple meal. Afterward, she emptied three slots in her backpack, storing the supplies in her apartment.

Once that was done, she grabbed her fire axe, a flashlight, and an iron chain, and headed out again.

[Are you planning to use the cover of night to go loot the supermarket again?] Zero One was confused. From its perspective, Zheng Yi’s supplies were more than sufficient; she seemed to have thought of everything. Besides, after a full day of chaos, the supermarket was likely crawling with zombies by now.

“Oh, no,” Zheng Yi said, her voice full of emotion. “All these poor, displaced zombies are wandering about. How pitiful! I just want to give them a home!”

[…] Zero One had trouble grasping her meaning for a moment, but Zheng Yi’s actions soon made everything clear.

She, Zheng Yi, was heading out under the cover of darkness to “save” zombies!

Under the moonlight, Zheng Yi quickly spotted a lone zombie, which also spotted her. As it stumbled toward her, she swung the axe in her right hand, striking its lunging arm. Simultaneously, she pulled an iron chain from her storage space with her left hand and smashed it against the zombie’s head. After knocking it down with a kick, she stepped on its back, cleanly severed both its legs with the axe, then chopped off its left arm and shattered its jaw. Finally, she wrapped the chain around its neck, locked it, and began dragging the zombie behind her like a dead dog.

The whole sequence was executed in one smooth, fluid motion.

[Host, you’re… that strong? Then what about your grades in gym class…?]

“My dear, if you want to blend in, you need a bit of proper camouflage,” Zheng Yi’s voice was incredibly gentle—if you ignored the casual tug she gave the chain as she spoke.

Everything that followed completely reshaped Zero One’s worldview—if a system could even have one. Ah, it probably does, it thought. After all, it has to cultivate a Saint.

It watched as Zheng Yi dragged the zombie like a dead dog into the vacant rental unit across the hall. She took it to a side bedroom and used pre-installed iron chains to bind it securely.

As Zero One watched, Zheng Yi began to weep before the zombie, chant Buddhist sutras for it, and then recite all sorts of saintly lines with heartfelt emotion.

[…This won’t count as a success. It’s just a zombie. Being a Saint doesn’t mean you’re an idiot.]

“You always have to try new things,” Zheng Yi said with a laugh. After repeated tests failed to earn her any Saint Points, she took advantage of the pre-dawn darkness to quickly go downstairs and “rescue” another zombie. This time, she didn’t shatter its jaw or harm its arms; she only severed its legs and chained it up, rendering it immobile.

Then, she once again tried a variety of “saintly” actions and recited “saintly” lines to the zombie. Clearly, Zheng Yi hadn’t given up; she was still trying to find a loophole in the system to earn Saint Points from zombies.

Zero One’s attempts to dissuade her were fruitless, so it just let her continue. This Saint system has been bound to more than one host, it thought. How could there still be so many loopholes to exploit? If this actually counts as a success, the system’s judgment is just plain idiotic!

And then, she succeeded.

To be safe, Zheng Yi mixed her own blood with a clump of dirt and threw it to the zombie. The scent of blood drove it into a frenzy, and it roared as it devoured the offering. Paired with classic saintly lines and an expression of profound compassion for all living things, everything fell perfectly into place.

“You see, even though he’s become a monster, I haven’t given up on him. I’m using my own blood to save and feed him, risking my life to come and care for him.” Zheng Yi maintained an expression of holy light, as if she were about to deliver all of humanity from suffering. “If that’s not being a Saint, what is?” she explained softly.

[…You make a very good point.] Zero One mused, unable to find a reason to object. [So, those other rooms?]

“Mhm, I’ll get the ‘people’ who need help moved in as soon as I can~”

Within a single day, performing the same saintly act on the same target would only yield Saint Points the first time—a rule implemented by the main system to prevent hosts from exploiting loopholes to farm points. But this hardly affected Zheng Yi.

Excellent, Zero One thought. A perpetual motion machine for Saint Points. Zheng Yi had even created her own “daily quests.”

Between her stockpile of supplies and the zombies in those rooms, this daily routine of earning a fixed number of Saint Points could probably keep Zheng Yi alive and well until the world collapsed.

[While we are the Saint Growth Plan system, the system is merely a type of auxiliary ‘cheat.’ Our ultimate goal is to see the original plot through, allowing it to continue until it successfully incubates.] Zero One chose its words carefully. [This method of yours is certainly excellent, but in the original story, it wasn’t just a zombie virus. There were also extreme heat, severe cold, earthquakes, flash floods… all of it.]

“Don’t worry. Everything is just beginning, isn’t it?”

“By the way, Zero One, as long as there are survivors, the flame of humanity continues, and the world isn’t destroyed—does that count as a success?”

[Yes, your understanding is perfectly accurate.]

…

The emergency notice broadcast continuously for three days. On the fourth day, nearly all communication devices went dead.

During that time, quite a few vehicles came to Zheng Yi’s complex. They would shake off pursuing zombies and rush inside, most of them there to rescue their parents and families.

For those four days, Zheng Yi made her rounds to each room at dawn, offering her deepest sympathies to her zombie comrades and expressing profound condolences for their misfortune before collecting her Saint Points. She had “saved” five zombies in total. Except for the first day, when she hadn’t gathered a full set and only earned one point, she received five Saint Points each subsequent day. As for the first zombie whose jaw she had shattered, Zheng Yi mercifully granted it release from its suffering.

Host: Zheng Yi
Saint Points: 16
Backpack Slots: 3
Special Ability: –

[My dear, what are you doing?] That night, after finishing her daily tasks, Zheng Yi did something unprecedented: she went downstairs. When Zero One saw her standing motionless at the building’s entrance, pressed against the wall, it finally had to ask.

“Why can’t I put this whole building into my backpack?”

Excellent. Very ambitious. Zero One was momentarily speechless. Why don’t you just touch the ground and put the entire world in your backpack while you’re at it?

Of course, it didn’t dare to ask that out loud.