Something was a little off.
Li Ke frowned. If this was a normal, living person, they would have reacted after he and the girl had circled the building twice, even if they didn't think they were zombies. But there was no reaction at all—no greeting, no attempt to drive them away, nothing.
"Strange…"
Still, Li Ke suppressed his doubts and walked to the front of the iron door. He cleared his throat and called out, "Excuse me, can you open the door?" He tried to make his voice loud enough for them to hear, but not so loud that it would attract any zombies. Still, there was no reaction. The merchant didn't rush out and destroy everything in front of her like a zombie, nor did she react in any way, let alone respond to their arrival. She just stood there like a statue, swaying, breathing, and staring straight ahead.
"What's going on?" Li Ke couldn't help but ask. He had a bad feeling about this, and the complete lack of reaction from the merchant was unnerving. But they had come all this way, so there was no turning back now.
"Should we go in?" Erina Nakiri clutched the axe in her hand nervously, looking at Li Ke with a question in her eyes.
"Yes, we have to try. You stay out here. I'll go in alone and take a look." Li Ke took a deep breath, tightened his grip on the axe, and crouched down to open the roller-shutter-like iron door. But when he grabbed the bottom of the door, he couldn't get it open no matter how hard he pulled.
"Is it locked?" Just as this thought appeared in his mind, he felt something inside his body being activated. The next moment, his fever symptoms worsened. Strange distortions appeared in his vision, and then…
'Press E to open'
A strange line of text appeared in his eyes.
A hallucination? Was he about to turn into a zombie?
Li Ke felt dizzy and quickly grabbed onto the shop's door for support.
'Ding!'
A piercing sound came from where he was touching the shop. It went straight into his and Erina Nakiri's eardrums, making them both cover their ears. Then, Li Ke felt even dizzier, which made him even more certain that he was about to die.
Because faintly, Li Ke saw several strange boxes appear in his field of vision. In the first box of the first row was the hammer in his hand.
"Am I really going to die?"
The dizziness was so strong that Li Ke couldn't help but gasp for air. It took a long breath to clear his head a little, but more hallucinations appeared in front of him. He seemed to see a strange cursor and cardinal directions above his line of sight, and on the far right, there was text that said to collect plant fibers.
Why was this becoming more and more like a video game?
"Is this my last moments?" Li Ke couldn't help but think this, but looking at the shop's iron door, he subconsciously had a thought. A thought to press E.
The next moment, something happened that made him put aside all his worries and doubts. The hand he was holding the iron door with passed right through the slowly rising door. Losing his balance, he fell through the door, his entire body passing through it and entering the shop.
"Mr. Li Ke!" Erina Nakiri looked in horror at Li Ke's body passing halfway through the iron door. She felt like she must still be dreaming, and a wave of panic washed over her. But as the iron door slowly rose, her panic disappeared, because Li Ke was fine; he had only lost his balance and fallen.
Li Ke, who had fallen to the ground, felt the very real pain from his body and the slowly fading dizziness. A thought couldn't help but appear in his mind.
"Clipping? Am I really about to die and having a hallucination?"
He looked at Erina Nakiri, who had walked over and was trying to help him up. He thought for a moment, then held out his hand.
"If it's a hallucination… it won't feel real."
He muttered to himself and pinched the chest of the crouching Erina Nakiri. A soft, full feeling immediately surged through his right hand. The warmth of a young girl was a rare experience. He could be sure that it was a wonderful sensation he had never felt before.
For a moment, he thought it was real, but seeing Erina Nakiri frozen, with her mouth agape and her face turning red, he nodded with certainty. Because a red health bar with 85/100 had appeared above Erina Nakiri's head, and she hadn't reacted in any way to his "clipping" action.
"Okay, so it's a dying hallucination? Then I won't be polite." So, his other hand reached for Erina Nakiri's equally soft and slender thigh. But before he could touch that beautiful thing, Erina Nakiri suddenly stood up, pulling her chest away from Li Ke's ever-changing right hand and his hand reaching for her left leg. With a flushed face, she whispered to Li Ke, "Mr. Li, Li, Li Ke, what are you doing?! Are you, are you going crazy? Are you turning into a zombie?"
Li Ke shook his head. The strange words in front of his eyes began to disappear. The cursors and boxes all started to vanish. It seemed they weren't truly like this; they had only appeared this way because of his perception. Also, Li Ke felt that something inside his body had gone dormant because of a certain deficiency.
As the text completely disappeared, Li Ke's dizziness vanished completely. His sanity and calmness returned to his mind. "Maybe. But if I'm not wrong, our lives might get better from now on."
Li Ke's heart began to beat faster. He had tried to call out to a system or something similar when he first arrived in this world, but he had failed. He had also tried to think about pressing E to interact or B to open his backpack. After all, he had transmigrated, so having a cheat was normal. But unfortunately, there had been no reaction back then.
If there was any difference between now and then, it was probably that he had come into contact with this shop, killed many zombies, and been infected. What was it? Li Ke was very curious, but now he wanted to confirm another thing.
He looked at the raised iron door, focused on it, and called out to that power in his mind. The next moment, that power reappeared. The words 'Press E to close' appeared in Li Ke's eyes.
"Dark… no, press E."
When this thought appeared in his mind, the door, untouched by anyone, slowly lowered.
Erina Nakiri's mouth dropped open again. She looked at the beautiful merchant who was still standing motionless in the room, then at the smiling Li Ke. Her mind was full of questions.
And watching the iron door close, Li Ke finally let out a sigh of relief and couldn't help but laugh. "Sure enough, if I'm not in a real hallucination right now, then I can already confirm a part of this world's information."
Erina Nakiri didn't quite understand what Li Ke meant. She looked at Li Ke, then at the strange merchant, and couldn't help but grab Li Ke's arm. "Li Ke, what is this place…" The sudden raising and lowering of the iron door, and the motionless, puppet-like merchant, all made her feel afraid, afraid that this was a trap.
"Ah, while I don't fully understand either, it should be a good thing." Li Ke strode toward the small room where the merchant was. As he walked, he constantly observed his surroundings, but he still couldn't find any other signs of people. There was only one door separating him and the merchant. And this door, like the one at the entrance, couldn't be pushed or twisted open, but as long as he thought about pressing E, he could open it instantly. Even if his hand wasn't on it!
Erina Nakiri watched again as Li Ke opened the door without using his hands. Her mind was in a state of shock.
Li Ke had no intention of explaining for now. He entered the room and looked at the motionless beautiful merchant. To call her beautiful was a stretch; she was just above average. Black hair, a stethoscope around her neck, and tattered clothes. But she was really "big." Her chest size was smaller than Erina Nakiri's, but it was still quite large. Most importantly, Li Ke saw a prompt on her body: 'Press E to talk to Merchant Jane.'
Li Ke couldn't help but cover his head. He wanted to laugh, but he had other things to confirm. He held out his hand and waved it frantically in front of the merchant, but no matter how much he waved, the woman in front of him didn't react at all, still smiling and looking at him.
"Li Ke, what is this…"
Erina Nakiri's fear grew again, and then she saw Li Ke swing the axe in his hand and chop it viciously at the beautiful merchant's head. The next moment, another 'ding' sounded. Li Ke's axe stopped right on a slightly-curled strand of the merchant's hair. No matter how much force Li Ke used, he couldn't chop onto the merchant's skull.
"Sure enough, an invincible building and an invincible character." Li Ke pulled back his axe, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down as much as possible.
"What on earth is this…"
"You've played games, haven't you, Erina?" Li Ke let go of his axe and leaned against a shelf behind him. He was now certain this was not a hallucination. If it were, his hand would not be aching from the recoil, and he would not have felt the sensation of touching a girl's chest.
"I have. The kind that boys really like." Erina Nakiri nodded, looking at Li Ke with confusion, not understanding why he was so relaxed and asking these questions at a time like this.
"We… are probably trapped in a video game world." Li Ke stated his guess. Erina Nakiri's first reaction was disbelief, but she looked around, then at Li Ke and the merchant in front of her. Her voice was finally a little hoarse as she spoke.
"Who… who would do such a thing… and it's not real… is it, Li Ke?" She felt another wave of fear. Things were getting weirder and weirder, and she instinctively wanted to deny it.
"It's something we can't deny. We can only choose to accept it or not. As for who did it, it's probably a malicious god or demon, but they are all things we can't resist right now. All we can do is try our best to live on." Li Ke sighed. He didn't know if this was a story like a "Main God Space" or what, but all he could do now was live as comfortably as possible.
"This person, for example, is probably someone responsible for providing supplies and giving out missions. She can't die." Li Ke sneered, reaching out and pinching the beautiful merchant's chest. The soft, warm sensation was once again transmitted to his hand, and he felt a real heartbeat and the texture of her clothes.
"Li Ke…" Erina Nakiri wanted to stop him, but the next moment, Li Ke grabbed the merchant's clothes and ripped them open. The clothes revealed the white underwear underneath, but the merchant still didn't react at all, still smiling at Li Ke and Erina. This made Erina feel even more afraid. And embarrassed. She hadn't forgotten that Li Ke had pinched her chest earlier!
"See, even when I do this to her, she doesn't react. There are probably no living people left in this world, only these NPCs and zombies. And the worst thing is, this clearly looks like a survival game. In these games, either the zombie virus makes us miserable, or various hordes of zombies increase the difficulty. We probably can't stay in this building forever, after all, it's an 'invincible' place."
Li Ke looked at the merchant, who hadn't even had a single hair broken by his axe. He couldn't help but think of the survival games he had played. But no matter what kind of survival game it was, players were never given a safe place to stay that easily, and there would inevitably be some random or scheduled disasters to attack the players, giving them something to do. While such a mechanism was perfectly fine in a game and only added to the fun, in reality...
"We probably can't safely spend the night here, Erina." Li Ke focused on the merchant, let go of her clothes, and pressed the E key in his mind. The next moment, the merchant "came to life." She smiled like a blooming flower and even waved her arm, smiling at Li Ke and Erina.
"Hello, friend, what do you need?"
In front of Li Ke, an invisible something boiled inside his body, twisting in front of his eyes and then forming three options.
Let me see your inventory.
Do you have any jobs?
Nothing for now.
Li Ke didn't hesitate and chose the first option. The next moment, he felt something inside his body boil and turn again, forming a window just like in a game, and many items appeared.
"Is this… my cheat?" Li Ke frowned as he looked at the items and the merchant, and couldn't help but feel suspicious.