After I Fully Prepared for the Apocalypse, the Ungrateful Cried with Regret-Chapter 122: The Fastest Route
When Sherry Renner got back, Nina Jacobs was already gone.
"What?
But it’s so late!"
Sherry Renner looked at the time.
Nina Jacobs had left two hours ago.
That was usually when the rescue teams and scavenging survivors returned.
’Is she planning to spend the night out there?’
"She said she’d spend a night at the old house. That girl..."
Vera Coleman sighed deeply.
Even though her daughter had secretly told her she had ways to protect herself and not to worry.
But it was impossible not to.
"Keep this quiet.
Nina’s trip is classified. For the next few days, we’ll just carry on as normal."
Daniel Hale said.
"It’s my fault.
If I had explained things sooner,
maybe Wayne Warner wouldn’t have been taken."
Leo Hale was still blaming himself.
Nina Jacobs had said those people had already noticed Wayne Warner and wouldn’t have let him go easily. Still, whenever he thought about what started it all, he was filled with regret.
He should have drawn a clear line with Bianca White sooner.
"It’s too late to talk about that now.
Nina Jacobs will be fine, so don’t worry.
Lawson and Myra Lawson still value her highly."
Daniel Hale didn’t want Vera Coleman to worry too much, so he could only offer some optimistic words of comfort.
Meanwhile, Nina Jacobs was driving toward the North Suburbs, following the route planned by the system.
The setting sun stained the horizon a blood-red.
The air was filled with the cries of zombies and unknown creatures.
The entire world seemed to be shrouded in desolate loneliness.
Sitting alone in the car, Nina Jacobs felt a momentary sense of unease.
Before, when Wayne Warner was in the car, the only sound he usually made was chewing.
But it had been surprisingly reassuring.
But now, she was all alone.
"System, is there a faster route?"
Nina Jacobs summoned the system.
The people from the Superpower User Alliance had only left a few hours before her.
’So is it possible for me to get there before them?’
Intercepting them halfway was also a possibility.
But she didn’t know which road they had taken.
If she could arrive earlier, she might be able to infiltrate them ahead of time.
[Switch to the fastest and most dangerous route for the host?]
the system replied.
"...Is there a route that’s a bit faster but not so dangerous?"
The fastest and most dangerous route.
’I’m not ready to go get myself killed.’
[Faster route found. Can save 4 hours of driving time. Host may switch at will.]
Nina Jacobs zoomed in on the map to carefully examine the route.
It turned out there was a blockage on a large bridge along the river. If she could get past that section, she could cut four hours off her travel time.
Looking at the map,
even if she couldn’t cross the riverside bridge, she wouldn’t waste too much time.
Nina Jacobs decisively tapped to switch.
’I just wonder if I can get through there before dark.’
Along the way, she tried not to stop, ramming through anything she could.
She was finally approaching the long, red section on the map.
Nina Jacobs took out her binoculars, and her heart sank when she saw the situation in the distance.
The bridge was broken in the middle.
A massive support beam had smashed onto the deck, snapping it in half.
At the same time, zombies from behind and the surrounding area were all converging on her as she stood on the roof of her car.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
There was a lot of rubble around. Nina Jacobs used her Earth Element Superpower to Control the debris and hurl it at the zombies.
Just then, an idea struck her.
’The bridge is broken, but what if I use my Earth Element Superpower to build a path across the gap?’
With this idea in mind, Nina Jacobs began to kill zombies much faster.
She hurled Fireball after Fireball at the surrounding zombies without holding back.
Rocks rose from the ground, instantly shaped into Stone Spikes by her Earth Element Superpower and shot straight into the zombies’ heads.
Vines from a Wood Element zombie crept toward her from behind.
The second the vines touched Nina Jacobs’s body, they instantly burst into flames.
The fire then traced back, striking the Wood Element mutant zombie!
"This is never-ending."
There were many zombies around, and the sky was already growing dark.
Nina Jacobs deployed her safe house, ducking inside for ten-minute rests whenever she got tired.
Combined with Superpower Enhancing Potions and Source Stones, it took her two hours to finally kill all the surrounding zombies.
By now, the sky was completely dark.
Only the car’s headlights illuminated the road, which was blanketed with zombie corpses.
A pack of Zombie Rats, drawn by the scent, arrived.
Before, Nina Jacobs would have burned them all to a crisp without a second thought.
But now, these Zombie Rats were of great use to her.
She wreathed her body in flames, preventing the Zombie Rats from daring to leap onto her.
Meanwhile, jets of flame shot continuously from her fingertips toward the rats.
SCREECH~
The piercing cries finally stopped.
The night gradually returned to silence.
Nina Jacobs collected all the Zombie Rat corpses into her system’s storage.
"Next up is crossing the bridge."
Nina Jacobs first observed the other side of the broken bridge and saw only a dozen or so zombies gathered there.
They had probably been drawn by the sounds of the battle just now.
Below the bridge was a foul-smelling, black river.
The consequences of falling in were unimaginable.
The massive beam rested on a remnant of the bridge deck that was only half a meter wide.
Nina Jacobs could only try to use her Earth Element Superpower to repair that section of the deck and make it more solid.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!
The zombies on the other side were eager to cross.
A few had even fallen off already.
Nina Jacobs’s Superpower was almost depleted; she had already used up one Superpower Energy Stone.
Fortunately, she had more than one Source Stone, so she could hold on for a while longer.
Worried about the abandoned bridge’s load-bearing capacity,
Nina Jacobs had already stored her SUV in her inventory.
She only placed a high-intensity lamp on the bridge deck.
Half an hour later, the section of the bridge deck was more or less repaired.
Nina Jacobs also created several Stone Spikes on the side to serve as handrails.
"Alright, why don’t you guys try it first?"
Nina Jacobs moved a little closer, even stepping one foot onto the half-meter wide section of the bridge.
ROOOOAR—
Sure enough, a mutant zombie started walking across the bridge deck toward her.
It was a rather large Wind Element mutant zombie.
Nina Jacobs remained vigilant while observing the bridge deck under the zombie’s feet.
"It looks sturdy enough."
The moment the zombie successfully crossed over, Nina Jacobs finished it off with a Stone Spike.
Immediately after, she used Fireballs to take care of the few remaining zombies on the other side.
She finally stepped onto the half-meter-wide remnant of the bridge.
Just in case, she had put on a double-layered waterproof suit.
It was leftover from when she used it for protection against acid rain.
This way, even if she accidentally fell into the river, she could still swim back to shore.
A fetid wind blew across the bridge. Nina Jacobs was already halfway across the broken span.
’The repairs from my Earth Element Superpower are quite solid and reliable.’
After reaching the other side, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She opened the system map again and switched back to the safest route.
As expected, the remaining journey was shortened by nearly five hours.
[Host has completed a route change. "Route Planner" title triggered. Reward: foldable dagger x2.]
’Foldable daggers?’
’They sound like they could be useful.’
To recover her stamina and Superpower,
after crossing the riverside bridge, Nina Jacobs decided to deploy her safe house and rest for a while.
The night was now as thick as ink.
Even with her car’s headlights on, visibility was barely a meter ahead.
Hitting a zombie wasn’t a big deal, but it would be dangerous if she crashed into a collapsed building.
The air inside the safe house was fresh, and Nina Jacobs had been hungry for a while.
She took out a portion of mildly spicy rice noodles and started eating.
"Wayne Warner is probably going hungry today."
she couldn’t help but mutter to herself as she ate.
