The Day Before the Apocalypse

Idiot!

Chu Han couldn't help but curse inwardly. Who was this guy, shouting so loudly without fear of attracting a horde of zombies?!

"Stop shouting!"

Chu Han's eyes snapped open, a fierce, brutal glint appearing in them. He was about to get up and shut these people up!

But in the next second, the ferocity in Chu Han's eyes was instantly replaced by astonishment.

No dim sky, no thick smell of blood, no roaring of zombies, no scattered severed limbs…

Warm sunlight streamed through the bright glass windows. Four beds, a square table, two engineering students in striped plaid shirts sat excitedly in front of computers, their mouths flapping and saliva flying as they continuously tapped their mice and keyboards.

An environment that had ceased to exist ten years ago assaulted Chu Han's retinas. Dirty clothes were everywhere, and stinking instant noodle boxes were piled high. The messy environment, however, made him incredibly nostalgic, stirring long-forgotten memories.

Fang Rong, Deng Weibo… his university roommates!

"What's with that look? Still groggy from sleep?" Deng Weibo, sitting opposite Chu Han, glanced up when he had a moment. He had an unremarkable face and wore glasses with a prescription of five hundred degrees. He would later awaken his abilities but die during the zombie siege.

"Chu Han's awake? Damn it, I'm not playing anymore, lost again!" Fang Rong slammed the Q key a few times. He looked a bit sleazy and also died during the zombie siege.

Chu Han rubbed his eyes hard. Something in his mind grew brighter and brighter, making him tremble with excitement.

If he guessed correctly, he should have returned to ten years ago, before the zombie outbreak, when his three good brothers were still alive!

Fang Rong closed his laptop. "Chu Han, Lao Deng and I are leaving. It's already ten o'clock. Lao Deng, hurry up and pack, we're going to miss our flight!"

Ten o'clock? Flight?

What day was it today?

Chu Han leaped off the bed, shoved the nearest Deng Weibo aside, moved the mouse, and clicked on the calendar in the bottom right corner.

"What the hell are you doing? Hey, that's my computer!" Deng Weibo cursed at Chu Han.

Ten o'clock in the morning.

It was already so late?!

The day the zombies broke out was tomorrow. It would get dark at six in the morning, and the sun would reappear at noon, after six full hours of darkness, everything would collapse, and a great reshuffling would begin.

Only one day left. A sense of urgency filled Chu Han's heart, his heart pounding wildly!

"Hurry up and move aside, I just need to pack my computer," Deng Weibo said, carrying a large backpack.

Chu Han moved aside, swallowing the words that almost came out. He forcibly suppressed his inner excitement and changed his tune. "I heard there's a popular virus going around lately, highly contagious. You two should have your families buy more food and bottled water to prepare. Don't go out for a few days."

"Virus?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"The news." Chu Han knew these two never paid attention to the news.

"You actually pay attention to the news?" Deng Weibo laughed. "Got it, we're leaving!"

"Have a safe trip." Chu Han suppressed the nostalgia of reuniting after a long separation. Leaving Mingqiu City before the apocalypse would be better for them.

Fang Rong and Deng Weibo's hometowns were both in Shangjing. They had already finished their exams and booked their flights for noon today. Although Shangjing had a dense population and many zombies, as the capital, it was protected by the military. The most people survived there, making Shangjing the safest city of all, at least for the first two years of the apocalypse.

So Chu Han didn't say much more. He knew the general trajectory of the next ten years, and these two would be fine for several years.

Another roommate, Fan Hongxuan, had already returned to his hometown, Nandu. He died a year after the outbreak due to a malicious setup, which had always been a knot in Chu Han's heart. In his previous life, he had never been able to find the killer.

Nandu also had a military district and was protected by the army when the apocalypse first broke out. Chu Han was temporarily relieved, but going to Nandu to find Fan Hongxuan was imperative. In this life, he absolutely would not let Fan Hongxuan fall into danger.

His current top priority was to figure out how to survive this chaos first, and then become stronger. Only by becoming strong could he help his three brothers avoid disaster, otherwise, death awaited them no matter where they were.

In the apocalypse, the most important thing was to survive!

After Fang Rong and Deng Weibo left, the dormitory, once again empty, made Chu Han's heart ache.

Ding—

Suddenly, a rapid phone ring sounded.

Pa!

Chu Han immediately hung up the incoming call, ignoring the three missed calls on the screen, and dialed his home number.

Doo—doo—

After two rings, his mother's joyous voice came from the other end: "Xiao Han?"

Hearing the long-lost voice, even Chu Han, whose heart had become as hard as iron after ten years of darkness, couldn't help but his voice tremble slightly. His parents had lost contact since the zombie outbreak, and he hadn't found them for a full ten years.

He didn't dare to imagine what had happened…

He suppressed the excitement in his heart and said, "Mom, where's Dad?"

"He's here, what's wrong, son?" His mother on the phone noticed something unusual in Chu Han's tone.

"Mom, Dad, you must do as I say!" Chu Han's tone was so serious that his mother on the other end of the phone fell silent for a moment.

"I have a classmate who's from Shangjing, yes, Fang Rong. His dad knows some inside information. He says there's a new type of virus appearing in the country, it's highly contagious and deadly. You should quickly prepare food and bottled water at home, the more the better. Go buy it now, the virus has already started spreading." Chu Han knew that talking about zombies would be too terrifying, and his parents wouldn't believe him, so he had to make up a lie.

His parents were in Anluo City, and he was in Mingqiu City. There were no direct high-speed trains or direct flights between the two cities, and they were too far apart. Not to mention one day, he wouldn't even have time to rush back in two days, so he could only have them prepare there first and minimize the danger.

With a second chance at life, he was determined to go to Anluo City to find his parents!

"Oh! What are we going to do?" Hearing that people would die, his mother was at a loss. With the SARS outbreak in '05, she didn't doubt Chu Han's words at all.

"Mom! Don't worry, just don't go out, you and Dad," Chu Han quickly reassured her. "But you must prepare enough food, we don't know when this virus will pass."

"Alright, I'll go prepare with your dad right away," his mother immediately agreed. "You be careful over there too. Are you short on money? Mom can send you some more, you get more food."

"No, I have enough here. You guys prepare more, but you must buy everything before today. Don't go out tomorrow, and... don't go anywhere, just wait for me in Anluo City!" Chu Han instructed. His parents were over fifty, facing zombies would be too difficult.

After hanging up, the call he had previously rejected came in again. Chu Han callously hung up once more, then dialed Fan Hongxuan's number. He repeated the lie he had previously concocted. Although Fan Hongxuan was confused on the other end, he agreed to do as Chu Han said.

Having done all this, Chu Han immediately put on his jacket, checked the cash in his wallet, and quickly walked to the door. He needed to buy supplies.

The more, the better, the faster, the better!

Just as Chu Han was about to step out of the room, he suddenly stopped. He turned his head and scanned the items in the dormitory, his eyes shining. Computers, as well as messy tablets, speakers, and various other peripherals. They could be sold for quite a bit of money. Although not all of these items were his, they had become scrap after the apocalypse broke out.

Chu Han's heart beat faster and faster. Now was not the time to act thoughtlessly. He needed to quickly minimize the danger as much as possible. Family, friends, supplies, and—weapons!

Chu Han quickly began to sort through his belongings, not stopping until he had emptied the dormitory of all valuable items. By the time Chu Han was dragging a huge box along the small path on the Mingqiu University campus, it was already two hours later. He was sweating profusely in the hot summer sun.

"Chu Han, where are you going? Don't you have an exam at twelve?" someone behind him asked in surprise.

Chu Han turned his head, unable to recognize who it was for a moment. He could only casually retort, "I can't pass it anyway, so it's better not to take it and retake it next semester."

An exam? Who cares about exams when the apocalypse has arrived!

"You do have some self-awareness," another voice said with clear disdain.

Chu Han narrowed his eyes. The person was wearing an expensive white t-shirt and trendy black pants. Chu Han didn't even recognize the brand of the shoes on his feet.

It was quite a coincidence to run into Duan Ming at a time like this!

"Duan Ming, you have a good name." Duan Ming, short life.

Duan Ming clearly didn't understand Chu Han's meaning and looked at him strangely several times.

Chu Han didn't give him any extra attention. He dragged the large box and walked towards the school gate. His phone, set to vibrate, kept buzzing in his pocket.

He found a shop that bought used electronics and sold the entire large box of items for four thousand yuan. Adding the original one thousand in his wallet, it totaled five thousand. Chu Han's mind raced. The prices from ten years ago were already blurry in his memory, and he was a bit unsure of what he could buy with this amount now.

First, he needed a weapon. It was the most important item among everything. Zombies could only be killed by destroying their heads. The weapon must have killing power. He couldn't get a military hammer now. A regular hammer wasn't as good as an axe, but an axe could get stuck easily and required strong skill.

He walked into a weapon shop. The shop owner frowned instinctively when he saw such a young person enter. "This is a place that sells handicrafts. If you're not buying, don't disturb my business."

Chu Han was clearly a university student, and his attire was ordinary. The shop owner didn't believe Chu Han could afford anything in his shop.