Kiri was, without a doubt, a naturally cheerful and enthusiastic girl. Aside from today, Li Ke had rarely seen her looking down. It was only during moments of absolute, undeniable despair like this that she would ever let a serious expression slip onto her face.
Yet now, as Li Ke flicked his lighter to guide their path, he saw that the familiar smile had already returned to her lips.
Amused by the heavy gloom plastered across Li Ke's face, Kiri laughed. She dragged him down to sit right next to Tsunade, placed a bottle of beer beside the trembling ninja, and waved her hand dismissively at Li Ke.
"Come on, wipe that bitter look off your face, will you? There's absolutely nothing we can do about our current situation anyway."
Li Ke felt a sudden wave of irony. If he remembered correctly, he had said those exact words to Erina before. Now, Kiri was repeating them back to him. It was a surreal feeling that left him completely speechless.
"Yeah. Since we're powerless against it, we might as well make friends with despair."
Li Ke managed a weak smile. His life was borrowed time anyway. Between his initial zombie infection, the first brutal Blood Moon, and his constant struggle for survival when he was still weak, he had been walking a tightrope from day one. Even if this iron bunker failed right now and he died, it wouldn't be a shock. There was truly no point in obsessing over it.
If there was a chance to fight back, he would fight. If not, he would spend his remaining time laughing. The end result wouldn't change either way.
"Cheers!"
Kiri cheered, raising her bottle high. Li Ke smiled and clinked his glass against hers. Only Tsunade remained motionless. She kept clutching her head, trembling violently in her corner as if Li Ke and Kiri were nothing more than hallucinations.
Li Ke and Kiri downed several drinks, polishing off almost all the remaining beer over the synchronized roaring and scratching of the undead. While getting drunk in a crisis wasn't the smartest tactical move, no one could realistically blame them given their current circumstances.
Outside, the zombies roared continuously. The reinforced steel walls groaned under a barrage of heavy thud-thud-thud sounds. But soon, the violent clawing noise faded. It was replaced entirely by muffled howling, accompanied by the occasional sound of teeth gnashing or limbs scraping against the metal.
Suddenly, the last trace of ambient light outside their tiny viewports vanished entirely.
Both Kiri and Li Ke knew what this meant. The zombies hadn't stopped attacking. Instead, the horde had completely buried the fortress. New waves of sprinting zombies from the distance were packing themselves tightly over the ones closest to the walls. The innermost layer of monsters was now pinned down under the crushing weight of their own kind, unable to move at all. They could only snap their teeth and scrape their arms in vain, sending chaotic friction noises through the iron plates.
Before long, even those scraping sounds died out. Nothing was left but a low, vibrating chorus of muffled groans. With the immediate threat contained by the crush of the pile, Li Ke's mind finally relaxed a fraction. Exhausted and feeling the heavy buzz of the alcohol, he slid down and leaned his back against the iron door—the most vulnerable breach point in the bunker. If anything tried to break through, he would feel it instantly.
In the heavy darkness, the two of them chatted idly about anything and everything. They compared the bizarre differences between their home worlds and shared stories about the unique foods they missed. The conversation drifted aimlessly, covering vast amounts of ground without focusing on any one thing.
As the chaotic sounds of the zombies grew distant, Tsunade seemed to recover a fraction of her senses. She quietly reached out, picked up her beer, and slid closer to Li Ke and Kiri. Though she remained silent, she slowly sipped the alcohol, listening to their lighthearted banter while quietly tasting the flavor of this alien world's brew.
Li Ke had to admit that the beer in this 7 Days to Die world was genuinely high quality. Aside from hitting his head a little too fast, the flavor was flawless.
If he weren't someone who generally disliked drinking, he would have gladly hoarded a massive supply of it.
Enveloped by the dark, cozy atmosphere, the muffled roars of the zombies began to fade, growing fainter and fainter. At first, Li Ke worried he was simply drifting off to sleep. He quickly splashed cold water from his inventory onto his face to snap awake. But he realized instantly that his senses weren't playing tricks on him.
The horde outside was actually growing quiet.
He glanced at his watch. Without realizing it, time had slipped away, and it was already four in the morning. He pressed his ear against the iron plating to listen carefully to the outside world. Aside from a few stray, scattered groans, the deafening roaring had completely died down.
Even so, he didn't dare try going outside. He just kept his back firmly against the door, waiting patiently for the break of dawn.
Kiri did the same. She leaned close to Li Ke, helping him guard the single most vulnerable breach point in the entire bunker.
But between the heavy darkness and the growing silence, Li Ke's consciousness began to drift. Even though he kept up a disjointed conversation with Kiri, the lack of real food left his mind feeling completely fuzzy.
"Dammit..."
Splashing his face with another bottle of water from his inventory, Li Ke rubbed his temples to force a bit of clarity back into his brain. But just as he shifted his weight to change positions, he realized something unexpected. At some point in the dark, Tsunade had crawled into his arms and fallen fast asleep.
As he moved slightly, he was immediately met with an intense sensation of softness. Tsunade's relatively short stature combined with her famously voluptuous figure created an experience that was honestly hard to put into words.
How could he even describe it?
It was an overwhelming feeling of fullness. Just by having her lean against his chest, Li Ke felt like something was about to burst.
As a matter of fact, something really was about to burst.
His brain had been too foggy from exhaustion to notice it before. But now that he was wide awake, the sheer, unbelievable softness pressed against him was impossible to ignore.
As a direct consequence, a certain part of him that had been perfectly relaxed moments ago was now rapidly turning rock-hard.
Even though his mind was completely spent, his lower half showed absolutely zero signs of fatigue. It felt as if his "little brother" had also inherited his five-fold strength multiplier, alongside a ten-fold boost to stamina and durability.
"..."
Well, talk about a system buff.
Flicking his lighter open, he looked down at Tsunade's sleeping face, which still bore traces of tear stains and lingering fear. Li Ke let out a helpless sigh. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer so she could sleep a bit more soundly. Then, he went back to leaning against the heavy door, waiting out the night.
Still, he didn't forget to glance over at Kiri.
Kiri was sitting nearby, absentmindedly spinning her revolver. Noticing his gaze, a knowing smirk played on her lips.
"What? Is one not enough for you?"
"...I was just going to ask if you wanted to get some rest too. I already napped a bit."
Li Ke was telling the truth. He really had accidentally dozed off for a short while earlier, and right now, he was physically incapable of falling back asleep anyway. Seeing the clear signs of exhaustion on Kiri's face, he tentatively extended the invitation.
Kiri flashed him a mischievous, teasing smile. In the next instant, the tall, leggy beauty nimbly stepped over the makeshift barricades blocking the door and slid down effortlessly right next to him.
"Well, I won't say no to that," Kiri purred playfully. "After all, even a big sister like me wants someone to lean on every once in a while!"