Chapter 049: The Biochemical Plague
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Tokyo, Ginza commercial district, inside a café opposite Mitsukoshi Department Store.
Su Cheng sat on the second floor of the café, right by the transparent glass, and glanced at the countdown on his phone screen.
Only five minutes remained before the game began.
What struck him as odd was that this time, the instance was set in the bustling center of Ginza, at exactly noon—quite unlike any of his previous experiences.
“Excuse me, is anyone sitting next to you?” As Su Cheng adjusted his composure, waiting for the instance to begin, two girls who looked like tourists approached.
Su Cheng noticed several empty seats nearby and smiled at the girls. “No, there isn’t.”
“Great! Are you here in Tokyo for sightseeing?” The girl in blue sat down beside Su Cheng, chatting with him enthusiastically.
Although Tokyo’s weather was cooling with the season, the blue-clad girl and her companion were dressed lightly—off-shoulder tops paired with skirts and black stockings, inadvertently revealing delicate collarbones and slender, fair thighs.
“I know a great bar nearby. How about we go for a drink after dark?”
Su Cheng pressed his lips together, realizing these two girls were bar touts, trying to lure tourists to spend money at their establishment.
The prices at such bars were astronomical, and the trick was well-worn—a trap for unsuspecting visitors who wouldn’t realize they’d been fleeced until the bill arrived.
Most of these predatory bars operated under gang protection; even if the victims complained, it rarely made any difference.
“Sorry, I’m allergic to alcohol.”
Seeing Su Cheng wasn’t taking the bait, the two girls exchanged awkward smiles and went off to chat with other tourists.
At that moment, the screen changed, displaying a line of blood-red text.
Instance created. Loading…
Current Instance: Biohazard City
Difficulty: Three Stars (Hard)
Background: On September 20th, Tokyo suffered an unprecedented outbreak of biological plague. Medical, logistics, energy, and police departments collapsed completely. Terrifying bio-zombies rampaged through the bustling streets, plunging the city into an unparalleled crisis.
The government immediately enacted the Tokyo Lockdown Plan. Survivors trapped within the city were shrouded in the shadow of the bio-plague, struggling desperately to survive in the ravaged metropolis.
Players participating: 136
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Game Mode: Ranked Points Battle
Clear Condition: Survive 72 hours in the plague-ravaged city and make it into the top fifty on the points leaderboard.
“Sir, your white coffee.”
The café server placed a steaming cup of aromatic white coffee in front of Su Cheng.
He lifted the cup to drink, only to see an eyeball floating on the surface. It looked freshly gouged, bloodshot and staring straight at him.
Finding a fly in your coffee is nauseating; finding an eyeball is horrifying.
Clearly, the game had begun.
A pungent stench wafted from nearby. The skin of the server who brought Su Cheng his coffee began to decay rapidly, his face swelling with disgusting boils, a beast-like roar rising from his throat.
“A bio-plague infected?”
Without warning, the server transformed into a bio-zombie, snarling and lunging at Su Cheng.
Bio-zombies, ordinary humans mutated by the plague, were slow but possessed superhuman strength and an insatiable craving for fresh flesh.
Swish.
Just as the bio-zombie lunged at Su Cheng, a sharp blade pierced its heart, the tip gleaming coldly as it protruded from the creature’s back.
The bio-zombie collapsed with a thud, a pool of foul, black-red blood spreading beneath it.
“Help, a murderer!” The other patrons, unaware of the situation, saw Su Cheng draw his blade and assumed he was a killer, screaming in terror.
“Call the police!”
A middle-aged man nearby, face pale with fright, fumbled for his phone, trembling as he dialed emergency services.
But to their horror, the bio-zombie whose heart had been stabbed struggled to its feet as if nothing had happened, its beastly claws plunging into the man's abdomen, yanking out a bloody length of intestine and stuffing it into its mouth.
Scenes of gore that belonged only in films unfolded before their eyes. The café patrons were paralyzed with fear, screaming and fleeing in all directions.
“Help me.”
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The middle-aged man, eviscerated by the bio-zombie, was not yet dead, his cry a mixture of terror and despair.
“As expected, piercing the heart isn’t enough to kill these infected.”
Su Cheng circled behind the feasting bio-zombie and, before it could react, drove his blade through the back of its skull. He twisted the handle violently, pulverizing its brain like a high-powered blender.
“Player Su Cheng has killed an infected (LV1), earning 10 points.”
It appeared that destroying the infected’s brain was the only way to kill them completely.
Ordinary level-one infected posed little threat to Su Cheng; what truly worried him was the omnipresent bio-plague. If it continued to spread unchecked, the entire city would become a living hell.
From the information provided by the game, it seemed the plague could be airborne, meaning players had a high risk of infection themselves.
Moreover, this game used a ranked points system—only the top fifty players could clear the instance. That meant hiding in a sealed safehouse until the game ended wasn’t an option; participation and point accumulation were mandatory.
The difficulty this time was unexpectedly high, and Su Cheng felt the challenge acutely.
“Besides hunting infected, points can also be earned by completing game-issued missions. It seems accomplishing tasks is the fastest way to gain points; main quest rewards are generous.”
The main quest was to investigate the origin and truth behind the bio-plague, though Su Cheng had no clues for now.
“Bounty Mission: Find the original infected of the bio-plague. Each original infected killed grants 500 points.”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Killing a common infected only earned 10 points, while hunting an original infected offered 500. Clearly, the originals would be much harder to deal with—likely elite-class monsters.
Yet, while the risks of hunting them were high, the rewards were considerable, offering Su Cheng a chance to break into the top fifty.
After accepting the mission, a radar appeared on the game screen. Within a kilometer radius centered on him, countless red dots appeared.
These were ordinary infected, and at the center of the cluster was a skull icon.
Just as Su Cheng reached the café entrance, a human head dropped in front of him with a heavy thud.
It was the head of the blue-clad girl who had just tried to chat him up.