Something was definitely off.
Li Ke's brows furrowed deeply.
If this woman were a normal, living human, she should have shown some kind of reaction by now. Even if she didn't mistake them for zombies, they had actively circled her perimeter twice. A real person would have at least called out, waved, or brandished a weapon to drive them away.
But there was nothing. No greetings, no warnings, no movement at all.
"Strange..."
Suppressing his growing confusion, Li Ke stepped up to the reinforced iron gate. He cleared his throat and raised his voice just enough to carry inside.
"Excuse me! Can you open up?"
He kept his voice at a controlled pitch—loud enough for her to hear, but quiet enough to avoid alerting any straggler zombies. Still, his words met a wall of absolute silence.
The merchant didn't react like a zombie triggered by human vocal cords; she didn't thrash or start tearing at the barrier. But she didn't act like a human either.
She stood there like a lifelike mannequin, rhythmically swaying on her feet, breathing steadily, and staring blankly into the distance.
"What is going on here?" Li Ke muttered aloud. A heavy sense of foreboding settled in his stomach, and her complete lack of autonomy made his skin crawl.
But they had already come too far to turn back now.
"Should we go in?" Erina asked, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her axe. She cast a tense, questioning glance toward him.
"Yeah. We have to try," Li Ke breathed, tightening his own grip on his fire axe. "You stay back for now. I'll head in alone to check it out first."
Taking a sharp breath, Li Ke squatted down and hooked his fingers under the lip of the heavy, shutter-style iron gate. He threw his back into it to pull it open, but the metal barrier refused to budge even a millimeter. It felt completely immovable, as if welded to the earth.
Is it locked from the inside?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a sudden, violent jolt pulsed through his veins, as if a dormant engine had just ignited inside his body.
In an instant, his fever spiked drastically. The world before him began to warp and distort in bizarre geometric patterns, and then...
[Press 'E' to Open]
A floating, neon-green line of text materialized directly across his vision.
A hallucination?
Am I finally turning into a zombie?
A wave of intense vertigo hit him, forcing Li Ke to lean heavily against the trader's reinforced metal door for support.
Ding!
A sharp, digital chime resonated from the exact spot where his hand made contact with the shop's frame. The sound was so unnaturally crisp that it pierced right through his and Erina's eardrums, forcing them both to instinctively clap their hands over their ears.
Li Ke's head spun even faster. The crushing dizziness convinced him that his final moments had arrived.
But as his vision swam, a series of transparent, hollow squares began to superimpose themselves across his field of view. There, sitting quietly in the very first slot of the bottom row, was a perfect digital rendering of the heavy hammer currently clutched in his hand.
"Am I really dying...?"
The vertigo was suffocating, forcing him to draw ragged, heavy breaths. He took a long, desperate lungful of air, fighting to clear his consciousness, but the "hallucinations" only multiplied before his eyes.
Right at the top of his vision, a horizontal compass bar flickered into existence, complete with subtle markers pointing toward North and South. And there, tucked into the far right corner of his eye, a faint text prompt hovered in the air:
[Gather Plant Fibers: 0/10]
Why does this feel more and more like a video game?
"Is this some kind of end-of-life hallucination?" Li Ke couldn't help but wonder.
Yet, as his eyes remained locked onto the immovable iron gate, an instinctual urge took over his mind. He focused entirely on the concept of interacting with it—the mental equivalent of pressing the 'E' key.
The next second, reality completely shattered any doubts he had left.
The hand he had been leaning against the iron gate slipped straight through the solid material as the shutter began to raise itself. Completely caught off guard, his center of gravity shifted, and he tumbled straight through the metal barrier, landing face-first inside the shop.
"Mr. Li Ke!"
Erina watched in sheer horror as half of Li Ke's body clipped directly through a solid metal wall. For a terrifying second, she thought she was trapped in a nightmare. But as the iron gate smoothly slid all the way up, her panic subsided. Li Ke wasn't hurt; he had simply lost his balance and wiped out.
Sprawled out on the floor, Li Ke winced at the completely real, throbbing ache radiating from his shoulder. As the intense vertigo finally began to recede, a sudden, wild thought crossed his mind.
Clipping through objects?! No way... Am I really on my deathbed, dreaming all of this up?
He looked up at Erina, who was rushing to his side to help him up. After a moment of frantic calculation, he decided to test his reality.
"If this is just a dying hallucination... there shouldn't be any physical feedback."
He reached out, his hand trembling as he attempted to touch the girl's shoulder to see if she was a solid presence or merely a trick of his failing mind. The sensation of her coat under his fingertips and the warmth radiating from her were startlingly vivid.
For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath. Erina stood paralyzed, her eyes wide with confusion and a hint of alarm at his erratic behavior. As she began to turn a bright shade of red from the unexpected proximity, Li Ke noticed something even more jarring: a floating red bar above her head, displaying [85/100 HP].
It really is like a game interface, he thought, his mind racing. If this is a hallucination, it is the most detailed one I could have ever imagined.
He moved to steady himself, his hand nearly brushing against her as he tried to stand, but Erina quickly stepped back. Her initial shock turned into a flustered outburst as she looked at him with a mix of concern and indignation.
"M-M-Mr. Li Ke! What are you doing? Is your fever getting worse? Do you think you're turning into one of those monsters?"
At the sound of her voice, the strange overlays in his vision began to shimmer and fade. The health bars, the inventory slots at the edge of his sight, and the glowing prompts all dissolved into the dim light of the shop.
It appeared that these visual elements were not a physical part of the room, but a way his mind was interpreting a strange new reality based on his own history with games. He felt a surge of energy within him subside, as if a switch had been flipped off due to exhaustion.
As the UI disappeared, the last of his dizziness vanished with it. His rational mind took over, and a wave of realization hit him. He wasn't dying, and this wasn't a dream—which meant his strange behavior was very real, and very hard to explain.
"Maybe," Li Ke muttered, a sharp grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "But if my guess is right, our lives out here are about to get a whole lot easier."
His heart hammered against his ribs in sheer excitement. When he had first dropped into this hellhole, he had desperately yelled out for a "System" or an AI assistant, but nothing had answered. He had even mentally tried interacting with things, or imagining opening a grid inventory screen.
After all, as a transmigrator, rolling into a new world with a cheat code was standard protocol.
But back then, the world had utterly ignored him.
If there was any difference between his situation yesterday and his situation right now, it was the fact that he had crossed into this merchant's territory, slaughtered a bunch of zombies, and...
Oh right, he was infected.
What exactly had triggered it?
Li Ke was dying to know, but right now, he wanted to test another theory first.
Locking his gaze onto the fully raised iron shutter door, he concentrated on the mechanism and mentally channeled that strange, invisible energy. The next split second, his mind was rewarded with a sharp visual text prompt: [Press 'E' to Close].
"Darkin... wait, no. Just press E."
The moment that command locked in his mind, the heavy iron shutter—untouched by a single human hand—began to slowly, mechanically slide back down toward the concrete floor.
Erina's jaw dropped all over again. She glanced at the gorgeous, entirely motionless merchant woman behind the desk, then at the grinning Li Ke. Her brain was completely overloaded with questions.
Watching the heavy door seal them securely inside the fortress, Li Ke let out a massive breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Perfect. Assuming I haven't completely lost my mind and crawled into a permanent hallucination, I think I've officially figured out how this world works."
Erina couldn't wrap her head around his cryptically triumphant attitude. Shifting her gaze between him and the eerily silent woman behind the desk, she instinctively reached out and grabbed Li Ke's sleeve.
"Li Ke... what exactly is this place?"
A steel shutter door opening and closing by itself, coupled with a pristine human merchant standing perfectly still like a hollow puppet—everything about this compound screamed that it was a highly elaborate, terrifying trap.
"Honestly, I don't fully understand it either," Li Ke said, stepping toward the small trailer room where the merchant stood. "But trust me, it's a massive win for us."
He scanned the blind spots as he advanced, but the compound remained entirely abandoned. There was nothing separating them from the merchant except a single interior door.
And just like the front shutter, this inner door wouldn't budge when he manually pushed or turned the handle. But the moment he visualized hitting the interaction key, the latch clicked, and the door swung wide open.
He didn't even need his hands on the frame to trigger it!
Watching the door swing open entirely on its own a second time, Erina's sanity took another severe hit.
Li Ke didn't bother explaining the mechanics to her just yet. He strode straight into the room and locked his eyes on the pristine, motionless woman.
Up close, she was definitely attractive—well above average, with straight dark hair and a clinical stethoscope draped around her neck, though her clothing was noticeably worn and tattered.
But above all else, she was incredibly top-heavy. While her chest wasn't quite as voluptuous as Erina's, it was still remarkably prominent.
Most importantly, hovering directly over her shoulder was a glowing, golden system prompt:
[Press 'E' to Talk to Trader Jen].
Li Ke buried his face in his hand, a hysterical laugh bubbling up in his chest. But he still had one final, crucial rule of the game to verify. Stepping right up to her face, he began frantically waving his hand back and forth directly in front of her eyes. No matter how wildly he gestured, the woman didn't blink. She simply maintained her pleasant, static smile, staring blindly through him.
"Li Ke, what are you..."
Erina's terror spiked anew—and then completely froze as Li Ke suddenly hoisted his fire axe and swung it with terrifying force right at the merchant's skull.
Ding!
A metallic chime echoed through the room. Li Ke's heavy axe blade stopped dead in its tracks, hovering a mere millimeter above a stray lock of Trader Jen's hair. No matter how much weight he threw into the handle, an invisible, microscopic barrier completely absorbed the kinetic energy, rendering the skull entirely untouchable.
"Exactly as I thought," Li Ke breathed, lowering his axe and taking a slow, deep breath to calm his racing pulse. "An completely indestructible structure, and a completely invincible NPC."
"What on earth is going on here...?"
"Erina, have you ever played a video game?"
Li Ke let go of his axe and leaned against a nearby shelving unit. He was absolutely certain now that this wasn't a hallucination. If his brain were just misfiring on his deathbed, the recoil from hitting the invisible barrier wouldn't have actually hurt his hands, and his earlier attempt to check her physical reality wouldn't have felt so remarkably vivid.
"I know what they are," Erina nodded, casting a thoroughly bewildered glance at him. She couldn't comprehend why he was suddenly so relaxed, let alone why he was asking about arcade hobbies at a time like this. "They're those things guys are always obsessed with, right?"
"I think we've been dropped straight into a video game world."
Li Ke voiced his theory calmly. Erina's immediate instinct was utter disbelief. But as she surveyed the fortified room, shifting her gaze between Li Ke and the eerie, frozen shopkeeper, her voice turned dry and strained.
"Who... who would ever do something so insane? This can't be real... right, Li Ke?"
A fresh wave of terror gripped her. The sheer absurdity of the situation triggered her survival instincts, making her desperately want to deny everything he was saying.
"Denying it won't change reality," Li Ke sighed, a weary edge to his voice. "We can either accept the rules of this place or let it crush us. As for who did it? Probably some malicious god or a demon. Either way, it's a power far beyond our ability to fight back against. Our only job remains the exact same: do whatever it takes to survive."
He couldn't tell if they were trapped in some twisted, infinite-world trial or a rogue simulation, but his ultimate goal was to live as comfortably as possible.
"Take this merchant, for example. In gaming terms, she's the designated supply-and-quest hub. She's fundamentally unkillable."
Li Ke chuckled dryly. To prove his point, he reached out and firmly grabbed the front of the woman's tattered lab coat. The physical feedback was immediate—the soft fabric, the distinct warmth of flesh, and even a steady, rhythmic heartbeat pulsing underneath.
"Li Ke...!" Erina gasped, her face flushing as she moved to stop him.
But before she could grab his arm, Li Ke gave the tattered coat a sharp tug, peeling it slightly to the side to reveal the edge of her white undergarments. Yet, the merchant woman didn't blink. She didn't flinch, push him away, or scream. She simply stood there with her pleasant, static smile, staring blindly through them both.
The display made Erina's stomach turn with a mix of existential dread and intense embarrassment. After all, she hadn't forgotten how frantically he had touched her own shoulder and arm just moments ago to verify his reality!
"See? No matter what I do to her, she won't react," Li Ke said, releasing the fabric. "There are no living human survivors left in this town. It's just us, a bunch of mindless zombies, and static NPCs. And the absolute worst part? This is definitively a survival game. In these settings, the world relies on things like progressive infection stages or massive, timed zombie waves to kill the players. Which means we can't just hide out in this 'indestructible' compound forever. The game's programming won't allow it."
Staring at the trader—whose hair hadn't even been displaced by a full-force axe swing—Li Ke's mind raced through every survival sandbox game he had ever played back on Earth.
None of those games ever let a player sit in a completely invincible safe zone indefinitely. The system always utilized random spawns or fixed-interval disasters to force the players out into the world.
In a digital game, those mechanics added excitement and replayability.
But in a real, physical world...
"We won't be allowed to stay here safely past dark, Erina."
Locking his eyes onto the merchant, Li Ke focused his mind on the golden prompt and mentally executed the interaction command.
The next instant, Trader Jen 'snapped' to life.
Her static pose vanished as she fluidly waved her arm, her eyes locking onto Li Ke and Erina with a vibrant, welcoming smile.
"Hello there, friend! What can I do for you today?"
Simultaneously, a surge of invisible energy boiled within Li Ke's veins, causing the space directly in front of his eyes to ripple and warp. The distortion rapidly crystallized into three glowing, semi-transparent text options:
1. [Let me see your inventory.]
2. [Do you have any jobs?]
3. [Just looking around.]
Without a shred of hesitation, Li Ke selected the first option. The dormant power inside him spun like a gyroscope, projecting a massive, grid-aligned trading interface into his field of vision, packed to the brim with icons of medical supplies, canned rations, and blueprints.
So this... is my system?
Li Ke stared at the glowing catalog and the smiling merchant, a profound sense of skepticism suddenly creeping into his chest.