A single-player post-apocalyptic game, but with an all-female teammate mod.

Seeing another living person suddenly filled him with surprise and excitement, making his breathing become quite heavy.

He instinctively wanted to go up and say hello, but the moment he took a step, the agitated horde of corpses immediately brought him back to his senses.

To communicate with the girl in the cheongsam with long orange hair, you have to deal with this group of mycelium zombies first.

But something's strange...

Why aren't these monsters attacking her even though she's within their aggro range?

Despite his doubts, Aono put the fire axe back into his backpack and took out the flamethrower again, carrying it on his shoulder.

There are about thirty mycelium zombies nearby. If we take care of them all, we won't lose money; in fact, we'll make a profit.

However, it's unrealistic to deal with thirty at once; you need to lure them in.

Luring monsters was a piece of cake for Aono.

He had already figured out the monster's habits, weaknesses, and range of hatred.

After adjusting his position to ensure the flames wouldn't accidentally harm the red-haired girl, he took out a digital stopwatch from his backpack.

Set a timer for three seconds, then throw it forcefully.

The stopwatch was still in the air when the shrill ringing began.

The mycelium zombies, which mainly rely on hearing to locate their prey, instantly huddled together.

Aono decisively jogged a few steps to bring the horde of corpses into his attack range.

"boom--"

At full power, the outermost few mycelium zombies were quickly roasted into charcoal.

However, the stopwatch used as bait had already been shattered by the mycelium zombie.

It's alright, there are still seven or eight more here in Qingye.

Ever since he discovered that he could use this trick to lure monsters, this little gadget has become a regular item for him.

As he retreated, he also charred the zombies that pounced on him. Seeing that more zombies were about to rush over using their corpses as a firewall, Aono decisively put away his flamethrower, turned around, and started to run away.

While running away, he took out his electronic stopwatch again.

Timed, then discarded.

Then take out the flamethrower again.

Fire.

The movements were fluid and seamless, performed in one go.

It may seem like it could be surrounded by the loss of mycelium at any moment, but in reality, it turned out to be a close call.

This was repeated four times. When the flamethrower ran out of energy, Aono had basically dealt with the mycelium zombies around the red-haired girl.

The remaining few were also half-burnt to death, so they pulled out stone spears and easily finished them off.

"Done, not bad, I leveled up again and even got a new blueprint."

While being careful not to enter the aggro range of other mycelium zombies, Aono slowly approached the only other splash of color in this gray-white world.

A moment later, Aono stood there in a daze, staring at the beautiful, youthful girl with long, bright orange hair in front of him.

She stood there alone, the afternoon sun filtering through the leaves, casting dappled shadows that fell on her long, orange-red hair, which resembled burning clouds.

Dazzling and magnificent.

A short, plain white cheongsam clung to the girl's fair and smooth skin, with indigo piping and frog buttons winding along the hem, outlining an alluring curve on the soft fabric.

Her slender, fair arms and long, straight legs were exposed, gleaming like jade in the sunlight.

Her long, orange-red hair cascaded over her shoulders, making her skin appear even whiter and more radiant than snow.

That delicate and lovely face was adorned with a pair of smiling almond-shaped eyes, a small and straight nose, and naturally red lips, exuding a gentle yet spirited charm.

It appears both incredibly beautiful and full of contradictions in this apocalyptic world teeming with monsters.

Aono felt somewhat dazed, a strange sense of familiarity and unease constantly clashing and intertwining in his mind.

Having been silent for several days, Aono was already feeling quite stifled. When she suddenly encountered someone, especially a beautiful young girl, her joy temporarily overwhelmed all other emotions.

Seeing that the girl in front of him did not speak, he took the initiative to say, "Hello, my name is Qingye. You just arrived, right? Don't worry for now, I have already killed those monsters."

The red-haired beauty flashed a bright smile, "Hello, my name is Dudu."

"Hmm, it's not safe here. Let's go home to the shelter first!"

Aono was very excited, but he still tried his best to control his words and actions.

"Thank you for saving me from the monsters."

The girl's smile became even gentler, and she even bowed slightly.

"It's alright, no need to thank me. This world is full of all kinds of monsters, and it's only right for us humans to help each other."

"..."

This time, the red-haired girl said nothing.

The sudden silence left Aono somewhat bewildered.

He looked up at her, his gaze meeting the girl's beautiful blue eyes.

Those were clearly a pair of bright blue eyes, yet they made Qingye instinctively take two steps back.

Those clear eyes, like lakes, held no emotion whatsoever, like two lifeless glass beads.

He quickly looked away, then subconsciously glanced at the deep cleavage revealed by the other person's collar, and the snow-white, full breasts.

Seemingly realizing he had been somewhat impolite, he immediately shifted his gaze.

This time, the attack landed on the other person's long, exposed legs.

Straight and slender, smooth and delicate, without a trace of blemish, it is like a fine work of art.

Just looking at it made Aono a little restless.

Arriving in this world without even spellcasting materials, I've been feeling quite depressed these past few days.

Suppressing the instincts rising within him, he tried to talk to the girl again.

"Dudu, it'll get dark soon, let's go back to the shelter first."

"Don't worry, I'm really not a bad person. I also suddenly came into this world a few days ago."

"Dudu..."

No matter what Aono says, the red-haired girl's reply is always the same two sentences.

Even when a wandering monster was dealt with by Aono, her expression and actions did not change in the slightest.

By this time, even the naive Aono realized what was happening.

The initial excitement and joy faded, and the doubt and sense of unease that had arisen from the moment he saw the person instantly linked together with his own, leading him to a very ominous suspicion.

"This idiotic game... it can't really be what I'm thinking, can it...?"

Aono's heart sank. He looked up again and met the red-haired beauty's unchanging, doll-like blue eyes.

For a full minute, his eyes were getting sore, but the girl opposite him maintained her smile without even blinking.

Undeterred, he reached out and touched the girl's pretty face, hoping for some kind of reaction.

The next moment, a familiar panel popped up, shattering his last shred of hope.

------

Name: Zhou Meili

Occupation: Chef

Trust rating: 0%

【recruit】

------

Aono stared at the simple panel, took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled.

Okay, it's confirmed. They're not real people, just NPC teammates that can be recruited in the game.

No wonder those monsters didn't attack her.

Before becoming teammates with the players, these survivor NPCs are practically invincible.

Even if the monster follows the player, it will only fixate its aggro on the player.

Conversely, they won't help the player in any way before becoming teammates.

As for why the art style and post-apocalyptic survival theme don't match at all...

It's probably because of the 2D mod with all female teammates.

Besides this mod, Aono currently knows of the following mods that are also working: auto-pickup mod and backpack expansion mod.

The red-haired beauty wasn't a living person; she was just an NPC without any intelligence, which disappointed Aono.

But something is better than nothing.

At least after successfully recruiting her as a teammate, you will not only have an extra helper, but also an additional 10% increase in combat power.

He tried clicking "Recruit," but a prompt appeared.

Insufficient Trust Points

3. Teammate Recruitment

"Oh right, it seems like you need a certain level of trust to recruit someone as a teammate... How much is needed again? 50%? Or 60%?"

Aono carefully recalled the game content that he didn't know much about.

However, he had only completed the tutorial and had not yet progressed to the gameplay of recruiting teammates.

Moreover, given his usual approach to this game, aside from upgrading the shelter, the gameplay is likely just a perfunctory exercise.

He couldn't think of how to increase the trust value, but he did remember the specific identity of the beautiful girl in front of him.

He had no recollection of the name Zhou Meili, but the fact that she called herself Dudu, coupled with her profession as a chef, reminded him of some content he had glimpsed when he downloaded the mod.

It's unrealistic for a player to develop and expand the shelter on their own.

Gathering survivors and recruiting teammates is essential.

And there are quite a few of them.

Aono checked the number of characters in the all-female teammates mod at the time, and it seemed to be more than a hundred, or maybe more than two hundred.

They were all anime beauties, some of whom he knew very well, and some of whom he only knew what they looked like.

He has dabbled in all kinds of characters, including those from games, anime, mainstream anime, ecchi anime, and hentai anime.

Raiden General, Tifa, Mai Shiranui, Tsunade, Kagami-ryu, Shizuka Hiratsuka, Shiyu Kasumigaoka, Hirano Yukinoshita, Saeko Busujima, Akane Nanao, Natsuka Murasaki...

At the time, he was praising the mod creator for their wide range of interests while excitedly downloading it.

Unsurprisingly, the red-haired beauty who works as a chef in front of us is none other than Dudu, the female protagonist of "Cooking Master Boy".

"So Dudu's real name is Zhou Meili."

After making a listless sigh, Qingye began to worry as the sky grew darker.

No matter what he said or did, even if he went too far by putting his hand inside the girl's clothes, she didn't react at all except for repeating those two lines.

No, it's not fair to say there was absolutely no reaction.

As he kneaded her full, round breasts, the girl's heart seemed to beat faster, and her voice became softer.

Seizing on this single difference, Aono, as a last resort, decided to try even more extreme interactive behaviors.

He untied the rope of Dudu's blue and white cheongsam with one hand.

His fingertips traced the girl's flat, taut, and elastic abdomen, teasingly circling around her cute little belly button a few times.

The fabric of the clothes was already very soft, and the girl's skin was even more silky smooth. As soon as the buttons were undone, the entire garment slid down to the floor with unparalleled smoothness.

Black lace trim?