Days in the Infinite

"If I could dig out all the walls around the merchant's store and carve a massive trench, turning the house into an isolated island… would that make this place an absolute safe house?"

Li Ke gazed at the stone blocks that had appeared out of thin air on the invulnerable walls, unable to stop himself from contemplating the idea. If the walls were truly invincible, he wouldn't need to worry about their defensive capabilities at all. He could simply focus on building up defenses elsewhere.

The problem, however, lay in the sheer scale of such an undertaking. Attempting to complete this project before the next Blood Moon by himself was utterly impossible. The only outcome would be being overwhelmed by an endless sea of zombies.

Perhaps if there were three people working together, it might be feasible, but the cost would be steep—they wouldn't be able to do anything else in the meantime. Moreover, the trench would become their sole retreat. If they miscalculated the number of zombies, they'd have no escape route.

Until he found a tool that allowed him to fly—or until his team size increased—this plan was nothing more than a pipe dream.

"Really… But if I had more people, why wouldn't I just build an even stronger fortress instead?"

Li Ke let out a frustrated sigh, staring at the invulnerable walls with a mixture of helplessness and regret.

If he had dozens of people, he wouldn't need to rely on such walls in the first place. With enough machine guns and ammunition, they could potentially even take on the zombies head-on.

After all, these zombies could be killed with a shot to the head or by tearing apart their bodies. They weren't the kind of fantastical undead creatures that defied logic.

With a dozen machine guns, a sturdy fortress, and an arsenal of Molotov cocktails and other weapons, defending against the zombies wouldn't be that difficult. Additional personnel could handle the special types of zombies.

But the issue was simple: he didn't have that many people.

And if he did, he wouldn't need the invincible walls.

"What a pity… I'll just see if I can dig a big enough trench through mining."

Li Ke sighed again, his thoughts drifting back to the sea of corpses and blood he had once experienced. The memory made him shudder. Shaking off the thought, he returned to his mining work.

Time passed quickly, and by the time Li Ke felt the pangs of hunger, the sky had already darkened. He glanced at the RV, now reduced to little more than scrap metal, and sighed. Without further delay, he began constructing his house.

Using a two-story wooden frame, he left an opening for a window and upgraded the structure piece by piece with his stone axe. Before long, a standard wooden shack stood in front of him.

To protect the shack from direct zombie attacks and facilitate combat, Li Ke added a makeshift wooden fence around the perimeter. Though functional, the structure looked oddly out of place.

Still, he made sure to add wooden planks to the base of the shack, creating a floor to avoid sleeping directly on the asphalt road.

The only downside? No bed.

Searching through his construction list yielded no results for a bed or even a sleeping bag. With no better option, Li Ke scavenged through some of the houses refreshed during his previous tasks and found various bedding materials. He decided to make do for the night and revisit the task houses tomorrow to see if he could find a bed—or perhaps even craft one himself.

Li Ke made another trip to the merchant's shop, not to do anything strange with the female merchant, but simply to purchase some meat. After adding fuel and materials to the furnace to continue smelting iron ingots, he suddenly found himself teleported out of the shop.

"So, it really is impossible to stay in the shop at night…"

Staring at the now-closed shop door, Li Ke sighed and returned to his house. He whittled down some branches into skewers and started grilling meat outside his shack.

The aroma of roasted meat began wafting through the air. As the night deepened, Li Ke couldn't help but feel a pang of loneliness.

Back when Erina was around, she would always stay by his side. Even though the young girl didn't dare speak loudly at night for fear of attracting those bolt-like zombies, her presence was comforting.

Now, however, Li Ke no longer feared these zombies. In fact, he almost wished they'd show up to provide him with experience points.

Glancing at the nearly-full experience bar, which promised another level-up soon, Li Ke continued grilling meat while pondering his next steps.

He didn't know much about construction and couldn't build a base using real-world materials like reinforced concrete. Instead, he was limited to using the defensive facilities available in this world.

In other words: layered defenses.

"I really need to find a cement mixer soon."

Li Ke mused aloud. Although the merchant's shop had a cement mixer and a chemistry station, both were broken and unusable.

Fortunately, the materials needed to repair the chemistry station weren't too extensive. By tomorrow, Li Ke should have enough components to assemble it. With a functioning chemistry station, he could stop crafting gunpowder by hand and significantly increase production efficiency.

"Loneliness…"

Li Ke glanced toward the merchant's shop. Earlier, he had leveled up from mining, but he hadn't allocated his points yet due to his focus on his tasks. By the time he was ready, the shop had already closed.

Now, even without doing anything, he found himself yearning for company. Having someone by his side, even in silence, would make his current situation far more bearable.

The sense of solitude weighed heavily on him as he stared at the crackling fire and the lifeless surroundings. The eerie silence was broken only by the wind.

Before, with Erina's companionship, the loneliness was manageable. But now, in this dangerous world, Li Ke felt the crushing weight of isolation.

After hastily finishing his meal, Li Ke returned to his shack. Curling up under the musty and slightly foul-smelling blankets, he drifted off into a restless sleep.

Elsewhere, however, two other outsiders were not faring much better.

"These guys just keep coming!"

Lady Kiri swiftly pulled the trigger, the makeshift machine gun crafted by Li Ke springing to life in her hands. Each burst of bullets tore through a zombie's eye socket, shattering its skull and neutralizing it.

Beside her, a trembling Tsunade clung to a small tree with her eyes closed. Whenever Lady Kiri shouted in alarm at approaching zombies, Tsunade would swing the tree with force, sending the undead flying.

"This world is just too bizarre!"

Lady Kiri muttered in frustration. Ever since arriving, many of her practical combat skills and marksmanship techniques had become unusable. Her physical strength had also been reduced to the level of an ordinary person from her own world.

To make matters worse, the bullets provided by Li Ke didn't match the caliber of her revolver, significantly diminishing her combat capabilities.

Tsunade's situation was even worse. Her fear of blood already crippled her abilities, and the lack of proper nourishment in this world only compounded the problem. The air itself seemed to lack something vital, further weakening her strength and stamina.

"Damn it…"

Lady Kiri cursed as she tossed a homemade grenade, dragging Tsunade—still clinging to the tree—toward a nearby bridge to retreat.

After parting ways with Li Ke, the two had ventured into another town. But the moment Lady Kiri fired her first shot, everything started to spiral out of control.

The two of them scavenged for food, and killing ordinary zombies wasn't much of a challenge. However, due to their misjudgment based on the appearance of the zombies during the day, they underestimated the strength of the night zombies that Li Ke had warned them about.

So, when Lady Kiri saw a zombie approaching their camp, she instinctively pulled the trigger without hesitation.

That single gunshot roused all the zombies in the town.

"Looks like that guy wasn't lying!"

Out of breath, Lady Kiri dashed onto the bridge and turned to Tsunade, who was also panting lightly.

"Damn it, I really have turned into a player!"

Kiri couldn't help but curse when she noticed the "Press E to pick up" option displayed on her gun. Her trust in Li Ke skyrocketed.

"Yeah, it seems he didn't lie about most things... But why did he have to say it like that? Never mind, here, take these explosive tags and throw them!"

Tsunade, slightly recovered after distancing herself from the smell of blood, suppressed her fear and pulled out two strange pieces of paper. She stuck them to a rock and handed it to Kiri.

Without hesitation, Kiri hurled the rock. The explosion took out a large group of pursuing zombies, but soon after, more zombie noises came from the distant forest.

"This is endless!"

Frustrated, Kiri fired rapid shots while trying to find a vantage point. Suddenly, Tsunade grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her up.

"What are you doing?!"

Kiri yelped in surprise, and the next moment, she saw strange markings spreading across Tsunade's body. Then, like an off-road vehicle, Tsunade bolted forward.

Her breathing steadied, and in a calm tone, she began explaining their situation.

"This is one of my secret techniques. It temporarily enhances my strength and speed. These monsters have a limited detection range, so if we get outside of it, we'll be safe!"

"Ohhh, that makes sense!"

Kiri cheered at first but quickly clamped her mouth shut and stopped shooting.

Tsunade, exerting all her strength, ran for over 200 meters at incredible speed while minimizing the sound of her footsteps. Finally, she collapsed to her knees, trembling uncontrollably.

As Kiri landed lightly on the ground, she noticed Tsunade's pale skin drenched in sweat. The strange markings were still visible, but it was evident that psychological stress had left Tsunade immobilized.

Kiri glanced at the zombies, which had stopped at their previous location and were wandering aimlessly as if searching for something.

"A detection range of about 100 meters? That's ten times what it is during the day... This is a real problem."

After checking her nearly depleted ammunition, Kiri, now less reckless, helped Tsunade onto her back. Without much thought, she headed back toward Li Ke.

Now that some of his words had been proven credible, cooperation seemed like their best option.

However...

"That method for returning still sounds unbelievable."

Kiri muttered under her breath.

The journey back was smoother than before since they had cleared most of the zombies along the route during the day. Even so, by the time they cautiously returned to the small town, it was already around two or three in the morning. Fortunately, Tsunade had recovered from her hemophobia by then, sparing Kiri from carrying her the entire way.

But as they approached, the sight of scorched buildings and a few intact houses left them confused. They briefly thought they'd taken the wrong route, but after spotting the collapsing gas station and the untouched store, they realized they were in the right place.

"Did those houses appear because of that guy? Could it be related to the weird options I keep seeing? It's just like those video games played by the elites in the Imperial Army!"

Kiri pointed at the buildings, a wry smile tugging at her lips. She vividly remembered that this area had been a complete ruin earlier.

"It's possible. There's no shortage of strange phenomena in this world."

Tsunade, however, wasn't particularly surprised. After all, her grandfather had techniques capable of instantly building structures, so this wasn't beyond her imagination. More importantly, Kiri had also gained similar abilities, allowing her to store her gun in some bizarre space and even craft strange items.

Everything was unfolding just as Li Ke had described, which was one of the main reasons they decided to return.

As for whether Kiri might be working with Li Ke...

Tsunade stole a glance at Kiri, who grinned with boyish charm. Deciding not to dwell on it, she dismissed the thought.

After all, her weaknesses had been laid bare before Kiri. If Kiri were truly an accomplice of Li Ke, she would've acted by now.

Then again, it wouldn't make much difference. With her hemophobia, surviving alone in this world was impossible.

After walking a short distance, they spotted a wooden crate next to the merchant's shack. The crude box, completely out of sync with the rest of the architecture, coupled with the lingering aroma of food, confirmed that Li Ke was nearby.

Sharing a glance, the two women refrained from disturbing him and instead pitched a tent. While roasting some meat, they waited for dawn.

The night passed quickly. When Li Ke woke up, he immediately smelled the scent of meat wafting through the window he had deliberately left open. Pushing the door open, he saw the two women sitting around the campfire, once again cooking outdoors.

"Good morning, buddy! Come join us for breakfast!"

Kiri greeted him with a wave, inviting him over. Li Ke, noting their somewhat disheveled state, tactfully refrained from asking about their ordeal. He silently walked over and pulled two jars of honey from his inventory.

"Some sweetness in the morning is the best way to start the day."

Having been briefed by Li Ke about honey's benefits, Kiri and Tsunade accepted the jars without hesitation, though neither drank, signaling they weren't injured.

Kiri's roasted meat still wasn't particularly appetizing and felt a bit too greasy for breakfast. Li Ke took out some canned peas to share, and the three of them quietly ate most of the food together.

After finishing, Tsunade finally spoke up about the matter at hand.

"Make me a player. My hemophobia makes me unable to fight, so I have no choice but to rely on you."

As soon as she finished, Kiri sent Li Ke a party invitation and a friend request.

Without hesitation and without asking why Tsunade didn't let Kiri turn her into a player, Li Ke placed his hand on her shoulder and selected the option.

A wave of emptiness swept through Li Ke as his experience points dropped significantly. At the same time, Tsunade felt something suppressing her lift slightly.

"What a strange sensation. I feel like my strength has recovered somewhat."

Kiri blinked in surprise and tested her arm with a few quick movements.

"So it wasn't just my imagination?"

Earlier, she'd thought the feeling was a fluke.

"No, it's real. I can sense my chakra recovering slightly, though not much. It seems restoring our full strength will require continued leveling up."

Tsunade summarized her thoughts, but Li Ke refrained from chiming in—it had nothing to do with him.

He was just an ordinary person, but evaluating the strength of his companions was still necessary.

"So, strong individuals are suppressed when they enter? Tsunade, what level of power can you currently manage?"

Li Ke asked cautiously. Tsunade tilted her head, then stood up and walked over to a surviving concrete utility pole. Without a word, she punched it.

The pole snapped cleanly at the point of impact and crashed into the surrounding rubble.

"About this level."

Tsunade's expression was one of annoyance. The suppression was severe—what once would have upheaved nearly 50 meters of earth now could only break a utility pole.

A single punch to break a pole?

Li Ke nodded thoughtfully.

"How many attacks like that can you manage now?"

"Three punches, I'd say. Chakra recovery is pretty slow. But if it's just regular punches without full power, I could keep going all day."

After pondering her response, Li Ke stood up, retrieving an iron pickaxe and axe from his inventory.

"In that case, Lady Tsunade..."

Standing a head taller than the 160-centimeter-tall Tsunade—whose chest was undeniably extraordinary—Li Ke lowered his head seriously.

"Hm?"

"From now on, all the digging and mining duties will be yours!"

A top-notch laborer—a miner, no less!