Chapter 600: A World Full of Despair (Please Subscribe for Monthly Passes)

Initially, Li Yue played while also studying the various settings in the game.

But as he delved deeper, he quickly became immersed in the game's content itself.

Joel and Tess were looking for a man named Robert because he had taken a batch of weapons and equipment belonging to them. The opponents they encountered in this area changed from Infected to humans.

Compared to the Infected, Li Yue felt that humans were more difficult to deal with. Most of them had guns and would seek cover based on the terrain.

After some effort, Joel and Tess finally found their target, Robert. However, they received bad news: Robert had already traded the weapons and equipment to the Fireflies.

Enraged, Tess directly shot Robert in the head. Just as Joel and Tess were discussing whether they should negotiate with the Fireflies, Marlene, the leader of the Firefly organization, known as the Firefly Queen, appeared.

Marlene told Joel and Tess that she had paid for this batch of goods, so it was impossible to return them. However, if Joel and Tess helped her complete a mission to transport a 'package' out of the city through a smuggler's passage, she would not only return their weapons but also give them more.

Clearly, Joel and Tess had no choice. After seeing the 'package,' they accepted the commission. But to their surprise, this so-called package was a little girl!

Li Yue had originally been wondering how Joel would meet the little girl. However, compared to Li Yue's surprise, Joel and Tess were not overly surprised. They were just curious why the Fireflies would go to such great lengths to escort this little girl named Ellie, with even the Firefly Queen, Marlene, present.

The two speculated privately, perhaps this was the daughter of an important Firefly higher-up? But these things were not important to smugglers like them. After all, it was no different from their usual smuggling, except this time it was a living cargo.

However, during their attempt to leave the city, they encountered soldiers. After opportunistically dispatching the soldiers, they coincidentally discovered that Ellie was actually an Infected, but one who had developed antibodies. This little girl very likely held the key to creating a vaccine for the virus.

Here, Joel and Tess had a small argument. Joel didn't believe Ellie's claim of being immune. He thought they should ignore Ellie; the reason for escorting her was not out of sympathy, but merely to get their weapons back. It was just a transaction.

But now the situation had changed, and continuing to escort her would put them in danger, something Joel didn't want to face. However, Tess chose to believe Ellie and decided to escort her to the Firefly rendezvous point.

Seeing Tess's determined look, Joel, despite not wanting to continue escorting Ellie, agreed for some unknown reason.

The Firefly rendezvous point was at the Parliament House in the city center. It was an extremely difficult journey. Compared to ordinary Infected Runners, this journey also presented more troublesome Clickers.

After enduring countless hardships, they finally reached their destination, the Parliament House. The plot took another turn. All the Firefly soldiers there were dead.

Seeing this, Joel decided to give up. After all, the Firefly soldiers they were supposed to meet were dead, so there was no need to continue the escort. But Tess, as if insane, kept pushing aside corpses, searching for clues.

Watching this scene, Li Yue had a bad feeling.

'What are we doing? This isn't our job anymore!'

'How much do you know about us? About me?'

'I know you wouldn't do something so stupid!'

'We're survivors, Joel! Always have been!'

'No, we're trying to live!'

'This is our chance! She…'

'Enough, Tess!'

'It's over! We tried, we should go back!'

Listening to Joel's words, a hint of sadness appeared in Tess's eyes, and she took two steps back. 'I'm not going anywhere. This is my last stop.'

'What do you mean?' Hearing Tess's words, Joel seemed to realize something, his voice trembling slightly. 'Our luck will run out sooner or later.'

Tess stood there, looking at Joel with a ashen face, the entire Parliament House eerily empty. 'Show me...' Joel said to Tess. He couldn't accept the fact and needed to see Tess's wound with his own eyes. And Tess did as Joel wished.

On her right collarbone, the bite mark was clearly visible. The wound was already covered with white blisters; she had begun to get infected and deteriorate.

'This is a bite mark from three weeks ago, and this is a fresh one. She wasn't lying, she really is immune!' Tess compared her wound with Ellie's, excitedly telling Joel. 'She is hope, the hope to save this world. Please, Joel! Take her to Tommy. Tommy used to be with the Fireflies, he should know where to find them!' Tess pleaded with Joel.

'I won't do it.' Joel shook his head, refusing. He was clearly unwilling to risk his life for a vague goal; he had seen too much in twenty years of the apocalypse. He just wanted to survive. Searching for Tommy, searching for the Fireflies in such a world? What a joke!

Tess pleaded with Joel, but Joel remained unmoved. It wasn't until the temporary military arrived, until Tess chose to cover Joel and Ellie's retreat, until Joel saw Tess lying in a pool of blood on the first floor from the second floor.

For the world, for Tess, or perhaps because he could no longer return to the Boston quarantine zone? Whatever the reason, Joel said nothing, silently taking Ellie and continuing on their journey.

And in this process, Li Yue finally understood.

He understood why Sarah died in the opening prologue. If his guess was correct, the main elements of the later game would revolve around the relationship between Ellie and Joel.

Unlike the tenderness he felt for Sarah twenty years ago, Joel now regarded Ellie with cold indifference. He not only refused to give Ellie a weapon but also strictly forbade her from mentioning Tess in his presence. The two were mostly silent on their journey.

Joel didn't want to talk, and Ellie, due to Joel's attitude, also dared not speak. However, in combat, Ellie could be helpful, for example, using bottles and bricks for sneak attacks. The puzzle-solving was also different. When he was with Tess, usually either Tess or Joel would help the other climb to a point, and then the other person would pull them up. But with Ellie, they needed to use some tools as stepping stones to climb.

Of course, what made Li Yue most curious was how Joel and Ellie, these two characters, would develop further in this post-apocalyptic setting.

………………

It wasn't just Li Yue who was curious; all the journalists invited to review the game shared the same curiosity.

At first, the game didn't show much charm. Although the graphics were indeed outstanding, the gameplay could only be described as decent. But as the game's story progressed, the emotional interactions between the characters completely engrossed these reviewers.

Especially in the Parliament House, when Tess became infected, it was the game's first emotional catharsis. But this was just a simple beginning.

As they continued their in-depth experience, the story presented in the game left everyone silent. In the post-apocalyptic setting, the story the game portrayed could only be described with two words: despair.

………………

After leaving Boston, Joel and Ellie needed to find Tommy, but before that, they needed a car, as walking that entire journey would be far too difficult. Joel had to find a man named Bill, who owed Joel a huge favor, a favor so big he had to help him even in this zombie-infested apocalypse.

When Joel arrived at Bill's warehouse, he accidentally stepped into one of Bill's traps and was hung upside down. Fortunately, Bill appeared just in time to help Joel kill the Infected. But during this, Bill discovered some of his things were missing and had a fierce argument with Joel, even mentioning Tess in the quarrel, which instantly enraged Joel.

But then Bill suddenly quieted down, because he saw a corpse, a corpse hanging from the ceiling. The moment he saw the corpse, Bill recognized it as the body of his good friend, Frank, with whom he had once fought side-by-side.

Joel also fell silent. Because not long ago, he had encountered a similar situation.

Inside the room, a letter left by Frank could be found. The letter stated that he had fixed the battery and taken Bill's belongings because he was fed up with Bill and this place, and thus wanted to leave, even if the outside world was more dangerous.

Handing the letter to Bill triggered a dialogue scene. Bill, leaning against the car, crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it aside, his voice trembling slightly with a choke: 'Is this how you feel? Screw you, Frank, you idiot!'

Finally, when bidding farewell to Joel, Bill, while saying they were even, told Joel to quickly get out of his town. But on the other hand, he would remind Joel that the car was low on gas.

………………

Upon arriving in Pittsburgh, Joel and Ellie were attacked by a group of Hunters. Unlike Hunters in peacetime, the Hunters in this world were exactly as the name suggested: they hunted humans!

The evil of humanity in the apocalypse was fully exposed. The Hunters rode modified Jeeps, brutally killing two survivors, a man and a woman. After a fierce battle with the Hunter team, Joel and Ellie entered their warehouse through a rolling shutter door. It was piled with clothes and unhandled corpses, all identified as uninfected humans, clearly all victims.

Besides these outsider corpses, there was also a manifest of goods. In the eyes of the Hunters, outsiders apparently only had value as loot. Ellie was very surprised, while Joel's face was calm, because he had once been a Hunter himself. To survive, he was capable of anything.

It was this part that plunged many reviewers participating in the closed beta into deep thought. Previously, the game showed Tess and Joel, and implicitly described the apocalypse. Bill's story was merely touching.

But upon reaching Pittsburgh and encountering the 'Hunters,' they could truly feel the despair this world brought. When the apocalypse arrived, causing laws and rules to collapse, everyone seemed to gain 'freedom.'

But this freedom was dangerous, incredibly cruel. It made people completely lose their bottom line, or rather, made them no longer deserving of being called human. The virus wouldn't wipe out humanity, but humans themselves would. (End of Chapter) <>