Infinite Days Chapter 4

Erina Nakiri gripped her axe nervously, looking at Li Ke with doubt.

"Yeah, I still need to give it a try. You stay out here for now—I'll go in alone first."

Li Ke took a deep breath, tightened his grip on his axe, and crouched down to open the iron door that resembled a rolling shutter. But when he hooked his fingers under the bottom of the door, he found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it to budge.

"Locked?"

He stared at the door, and the moment the thought crossed his mind, he felt something stir inside his body.

The next second, his fever symptoms seemed to worsen. Strange distortions began to appear before his eyes, and then...

'Press E to open'

A line of bizarre text appeared in his vision.

Hallucinations?

Was he about to turn into a zombie?

Li Ke felt dizzy and hastily grabbed the store's door for support.

'Ding!'

A piercing sound erupted from where he touched the store, drilling straight into his and Erina Nakiri's eardrums, forcing them to cover their ears in pain.

Then, Li Ke felt his head spin even more, making him even more certain he was nearing death.

Because, faintly, Li Ke saw several strange grids appear in his field of vision, and in the first slot of the first row was the hammer in his hand.

"Am I really about to die?"

The dizziness was overwhelming, making Li Ke gasp for breath. He took a long inhale to clear his head a little, but even more hallucinations appeared before him.

He seemed to see strange cursors and north-south indicators above his line of sight, and on the far right of his vision, there was even a line of text that read 'Collect Plant Fiber'.

How was this looking more and more like a game?

"Could this be... hospice care?"

Li Ke couldn't help but think, but as he looked at the store's iron door, he still subconsciously formed a thought in his mind.

A thought of pressing E.

The next moment, something that made him set aside all his worries and doubts happened.

The hand he had been using to support himself on the iron door passed straight through the slowly rising door. Losing his balance, he tumbled headfirst into the store, his entire body passing clean through the rising iron door and entering the shop.

"Mr. Li Ke!"

Erina Nakiri watched in terror as half of Li Ke's body passed through the iron door. She felt like she must not be awake yet, and a wave of panic washed over her.

But as the iron door slowly rose, her fear faded, because Li Ke was unharmed—he had just lost his balance and fallen.

Lying on the ground, Li Ke felt the very real pain radiating from his body and the gradually fading dizziness. A thought couldn't help but surface in his mind.

"Clipping through walls?? Could I really be about to die, and this is all just a hallucination?"

He looked at Erina Nakiri, who had walked over and was trying to help him up. After a moment's thought, he reached out his hand.

"If it's a hallucination... there shouldn't be any real sensation."

Muttering to himself, he placed his hand on the chest of the crouching Erina Nakiri. A soft, full sensation immediately flooded his right hand, and the warmth of the young girl gave him a rare experience.

It was, without a doubt, a kind of beauty he had never touched before.

For a split second, he thought it was real. But when he saw Erina Nakiri frozen stiff, her mouth hanging open and her face starting to flush, he nodded with certainty.

Because, above Erina Nakiri's head, a red health bar reading 85/100 had appeared, and she hadn't reacted at all to his boundary-crossing action.

"Yeah, it must be a deathbed hallucination. Well then, I won't hold back."

So, his other hand reached for Erina Nakiri's equally soft and slender thigh.

But before he could touch that wonderful thing, Erina Nakiri suddenly stood up, pulling her chest away from Li Ke's constantly groping right hand and the hand reaching for her left leg. Her cheeks flushed bright red as she whispered urgently at him.

"M-Mr. Li Ke! What are you doing! Have you lost your mind? Are you turning into a zombie?"

Li Ke shook his head. The strange text began to fade from his vision—the cursors, the grids, all of it started to disappear.

It seemed they weren't really like that; they only appeared that way because of his own perception.

And Li Ke felt that something inside him had fallen asleep, as if lacking some essential component.

As the text completely vanished, Li Ke's dizziness disappeared entirely, and his rationality and composure returned to his mind.

"Maybe. But if I'm guessing right, our life from now on might get a little easier."

Li Ke's heartbeat gradually quickened. After arriving in this world, he had tried calling out to systems and the like, but all had failed. He had also thought about pressing E to interact or pressing B to open a backpack in his mind.

After all, since he had already transmigrated, having a cheat was only natural.

But unfortunately, there had been no reaction back then.

And if there was any difference between now and then, it was probably that he had touched this store and killed a lot of zombies.

Oh, and that he had been infected.

What exactly was it?

Li Ke was curious, but right now he wanted to verify something else even more.

Looking at the iron door that had risen, Li Ke stared at it intently and called upon that power in his mind. The next moment, the power appeared again, and the words 'Press E to Close' materialized in his vision.

"Darkin... no, press E."

The thought surfaced in his mind, and the next instant, the iron door, untouched by anyone, slowly descended.

Erina Nakiri's mouth fell open once more. She glanced at the beautiful female merchant still standing motionless in the room, then at Li Ke, who now wore a faint smile. Her mind was filled with question marks.

Watching the closed iron door, Li Ke finally let out a sigh of relief and couldn't help but laugh.

"Sure enough, if I'm not currently trapped in a real hallucination, then I can already confirm some information about this world."

Erina Nakiri didn't quite grasp what Li Ke meant. She looked at him, then at the eerie merchant, and couldn't help grabbing his arm.

"Li Ke, what exactly is this place..."

The iron door rising and closing abruptly, along with the merchant who stood still like a wooden puppet, filled her with fear—fear that this was a trap.

"Ah, even I'm not entirely sure, but it should be a good thing."

Li Ke strode toward the small room where the merchant was. As he advanced, he kept observing his surroundings but found no trace of anyone else. Between him and this merchant, only a single door stood in the way.

And this door, like the one at the entrance, couldn't be pushed open or twisted. But as long as he imagined pressing E in his mind, he could instantly open it.

Even if his hand wasn't even on it!

Erina Nakiri watched again as Li Ke opened the door without using his hands, her mind reeling from the shock.

Li Ke didn't bother explaining to her for now. He directly entered the room and looked at the beautiful female merchant who hadn't moved at all.

Call her beautiful—she was above average at best. Black hair, a stethoscope hanging around her neck, and her clothes were quite tattered.

But she was really big. Her chest was noticeably smaller than Erina Nakiri's, yet still substantial.

Most crucially, Li Ke spotted a prompt on her: 'Press E to Talk to Merchant Jayne.'

Li Ke couldn't help covering his head. He wanted to laugh, but he had other things to verify. He reached out and wildly waved his hand in front of the beautiful merchant's face. No matter how much he waved, the woman before him showed no reaction, still smiling at him.

"Li Ke, this is..."

Erina Nakiri's fear grew again, and then she saw Li Ke swing his axe directly, slamming it hard into the beautiful merchant's head.

The next moment, another 'ding' rang out. Li Ke's axe stopped just above the merchant's slightly upturned hair. No matter how much force he used, he couldn't land a blow on her skull.

"Sure enough, invincible buildings, invincible characters."

Withdrawing his axe, Li Ke took a deep breath to calm himself as much as possible.

"What is this..."

"You've played games before, right, Erina?"

Li Ke let go of his axe and leaned against the shelf behind him. He was now certain this wasn't his hallucination.

Because if it were, his hand wouldn't ache from the recoil, nor would he have felt the sensation of touching a girl's chest.

"I know, the kind boys really like."

Erina Nakiri nodded, looking at Li Ke with some confusion, wondering why he was so relaxed at a time like this and asking such questions.

"We've probably been thrown into a game world."

Li Ke voiced his guess. Erina Nakiri's first reaction was disbelief, but after looking around, then at Li Ke and the merchant before her, she finally spoke, her voice dry.

"Who, who would do something like this... and it can't be real, right... Li Ke."

Fear gripped her again. Things were getting stranger and stranger, making her instinctively want to deny it.

"There's no denying it. We can only choose to accept it or not. As for who did it—some malicious god or demon, probably. But either way, we can't fight it right now. All we can do is keep trying to live."

Li Ke sighed. He didn't know if this was some kind of infinite loop from a system space or what, but for now, all he could do was live as freely as possible.

"Someone like this—she's probably the type responsible for supplies and handing out quests. She can't die."

Li Ke let out a scoff, reached out, and pinched the beautiful merchant's chest. Warmth and softness transmitted to his palm again, along with the feel of real heartbeat and fabric.

"Li Ke..."

Erina Nakiri watched his actions, wanting to stop him, but the next moment, Li Ke grabbed the merchant's clothes and yanked them open.

The torn clothing revealed a white bra underneath, but the female merchant still showed no reaction, smiling at Li Ke and Erina, making Erina feel even more afraid.

And embarrassed—she hadn't forgotten that Li Ke had pinched her chest earlier!

"See? Even if I treat her like this, she doesn't react. This world probably really has no living people left—just these NPCs and zombies. And worst of all, this looks like a survival game. Either it uses zombie viruses to finish us off, or it throws hordes at us to make survival harder. And this building—we probably can't stay here forever, since it's an 'invincible' spot."

Li Ke looked at the merchant, whose hair hadn't even been severed under his axe, and couldn't help thinking of the post-apocalyptic survival games he'd played.

But no matter which survival game it was, they never let players have a safe shelter so easily. There were always random or timed disasters attacking the players to keep them busy.

Such mechanics were fine in a game—they only added fun.

But in reality...

"We probably can't spend the night here safely, Erina."

Li Ke stared intently at the female merchant, let go of her clothes, and pressed that E key in his mind.

The next moment, the female merchant 'came to life.'

Her smile bloomed like a flower, and she even waved her arm, flashing a grin at Li Ke and Eriina.

"Hello, friends. What do you need?"

Before Li Ke, something formless boiled within his body, then twisted in front of his eyes, coalescing into three options.

1. Let me see your inventory. 2. Do you have work? 3. Nothing much.

Li Ke chose the first without hesitation. The next moment, he felt that something inside him boil and turn again, forming a window just like in a game, filled with many items.

"So this is... my golden finger?"

Li Ke frowned at the goods and the female merchant, suspicion rising in his heart.

Chapter 5: Divine Talent

Li Ke looked over the large pile of goods—canned food, bandages, concrete, and the like—all undoubtedly things needed to survive in this post-apocalyptic game.

But the problem was...

What the hell were Duke Casino Tokens? Something like bottle caps in Fallout 4?

And more importantly...

"I actually have an inventory?"

Staring at the large empty spaces to the right of the item column, Li Ke found this world truly interesting.

With a thought, he took out the gold bar he had found in that room, intending to keep it as a souvenir. Looking at the bar, smaller than his pinky finger, he silently thought 'press E.'

The next moment, the gold bar in his hand vanished into thin air, replaced by a golden item appearing in one of the empty slots to the right of the item column.