Global Darkness

"Sharpen it?!"

The shop owner was astonished by Chu Han's request to sharpen the hammer-axe. This kid, without a word, picked out a hammer-axe and then asked for it to be sharpened. Once this axe was sharpened, its power and sharpness would be incredible!

"Sharpen it, the sharper the better." Chu Han remained calm. He didn't realize that his calm words, coupled with his steady gaze honed by the apocalypse, made the shop owner's heart tremble.

"Young man..." the shop owner was about to speak.

Clang!

A dagger was suddenly placed on the counter. Chu Han's voice rang out, "Help me sharpen this dagger too. I'll give you two thousand for both. I'll pick them up tonight. Here's a thousand as a deposit."

Chu Han flawlessly cut off the shop owner's words, even increasing the price. This dagger was worth at most two hundred.

The shop owner swallowed and decided not to argue with the money.

Chu Han immediately left to gather other things. Time didn't allow him to haggle and negotiate here.

The axe was for dealing with zombies, while the dagger was for defending against people.

The early stages of the apocalypse were manageable, but once surrounded by zombies, morality and humanity quickly degenerated. People would kill entire families for a single biscuit, and some, unable to bear the hunger, resorted to cannibalism.

Actually, he wanted a trench knife more than a dagger, but most of the ones sold on the market were defective. Their imprecise design made them almost anti-human, failing to serve their purpose and severely hindering flexibility.

Good trench knives, like war hammers, weren't easy to come by.

Next, Chu Han bought a hiking backpack, waterproof and tear-resistant. He was prepared for long-term movement. Although the country would send troops for rescue, it would be too late. He still needed to return to Anluo City to pick up his parents. He removed all the straps and accessories from the hiking pack. Zombies had hearing, and extra items would only cause trouble.

Following that, Chu Han bought the most expensive clothing he had ever owned, a mountaineering suit costing over a thousand yuan. It was dirt-resistant, easy to dry, and of superior quality. He didn't want to end up almost naked, like in his previous life, while on the run.

Then Chu Han bought some medicine and gauze. These were rare items in the apocalypse. He then filled the water bladder in his hiking pack. After doing all this, he spent the rest of his remaining money on dehydrated biscuits and dried beef, filling the hiking pack to the brim.

He didn't need to eat fancy food; he just wanted to survive. Dehydrated biscuits and dried beef could be stored for a long time. As for other things, he only had this much money, and too many items would hinder his mobility.

By the time he finished everything, it was already evening. The clear sky, warm sunlight, no rotten stench, no blood-stained streets... Chu Han stood at a crossroads, gazing at the last sunset before the apocalypse, filled with mixed emotions.

Ability users appeared three months after the outbreak of the apocalypse. Two of his three roommates were ability users, but he was the one who survived for ten years.

He was a nobody, an ordinary person, but he survived. During this time, he experienced...

Buzz—

The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated again. Chu Han took it out, looking at the twenty-odd missed calls, all from the same person.

"Hello." Chu Han pressed the answer button.

"Are you trying to die?!" a furious female voice came from the other end of the phone, along with the sound of a water cup smashing heavily onto a table.

Chu Han moved the phone away and glanced at the name on the screen: Ding Xue.

Honestly, in the ten years of the apocalypse in his previous life, he had met no less than twenty people named Ding Xue. But returning to ten years ago, he couldn't remember who this Ding Xue was.

"What do you need?" Chu Han said as he walked, glancing back at the sunset one last time before turning towards the weapon shop. It was time to pick up his dagger and axe.

"I called you over twenty times and you didn't answer!" Ding Xue on the other end of the phone was so angry she felt like exploding. She was like a roaring lioness, "Why didn't you come to the exam today? Do you know that if you don't take the exam, you won't even have a chance for a make-up test, and you'll have to retake the course next semester! Don't you want to attend classes properly? Don't you want to graduate..."

Ding Xue rambled on the phone. Chu Han's footsteps suddenly paused. He finally remembered who she was – his class monitor from university! Ding Xue's personality was nothing like her name. When her temper flared, she could storm into the male dorms filled with shirtless guys.

"Class monitor, are you alright?" Chu Han gave a nostalgic smile. He didn't know what happened to Ding Xue in his previous life. He hadn't seen her since the apocalypse broke out. Maybe she was dead, maybe she had turned into a zombie...

"You're asking if I'm alright?" Ding Xue snorted, "Just wait to retake the course next semester!"

"Class monitor, do you want to buy some food to stock up?" Out of politeness, Chu Han reminded her. Although he had almost forgotten about Ding Xue, not even remembering what she looked like, they had been classmates for two years.

"Don't change the subject!" Ding Xue was indeed the class monitor; her thoughts wouldn't be easily swayed by Chu Han.

"Buy some food and bottled water to prepare." Chu Han didn't say more and directly hung up. With ten years of survival experience in the harsh apocalypse, this was already more than enough kindness.

"Hello? Hello?" Ding Xue trembled with anger in her dorm room, her chest heaving due to extreme fury. She was a proud daughter of heaven, a rich and beautiful woman, with excellent academic performance and strong work ability. She had always been the one to hang up on others, the one who ordered people around. When had it ever been Chu Han, the slacker, who hung up on her?

"You scoundrel!" Ding Xue, who had always had things go her way, couldn't help herself and burst into tears. Having never received such cold treatment, she felt incredibly wronged.

—

Arriving at the weapon shop, Chu Han handed over the last thousand yuan to the owner and, under the owner's strange gaze, took the axe and dagger and left. Fortunately, the owner had wrapped them securely. Otherwise, if he had appeared on the street holding an axe in one hand and a dagger in the other, he probably wouldn't have had to wait for the apocalypse to cause panic.

Returning to his dorm, Chu Han used hot water to prepare the remaining two packs of instant noodles. Such junk food was a delicacy to him now.

Chu Han took off his pants, intending to change into his mountaineering suit. When the apocalypse broke out, there would be a six-hour dark period.

During that time, everyone, even all living things, fell into a coma. When they woke up, the world had changed drastically, with eighty percent of humanity turned into zombies. The temperature would also drop significantly during this period. Chu Han was used to being prepared, so he decided to put on his mountaineering suit in advance.

After putting on the mountaineering suit, he placed the axe within reach, its familiar position from his previous life. As long as there was danger, he could immediately grab his weapon.

Next, he used a strap to tie the dagger to the outside of his right forearm. He tied it this way because he was accustomed to using long weapons with his right hand and a dagger with his left. This position not only made it easy to draw the dagger with his left hand but also served as protection for his right forearm. In his past life, this very binding position had saved him from a near-arm amputation.

After finishing all this, it was ten o'clock at night, eight hours before the apocalypse.

—

The silence of the night passed, and the morning sun shone brightly.

The time on the phone read 6:00 AM.

Then, the screen went black.

The sky outside, which had already brightened, suddenly turned dark. No time zone in the world could see the sun.

The chaotic sounds in the dormitory hallway, the familiar roars of zombies, accompanied by women's screams…

Wait, why would there be a woman in the male dormitory?

Chu Han was startled as soon as he woke up, then shook his head. Perhaps on this day ten years ago, he would have been just as surprised, but he'd forgotten. This minor shock was nothing compared to everything else.

As he got up, Chu Han suddenly felt something was off. He casually picked up his phone, and sure enough, it was black and wouldn't turn on.

He gave a wry smile. No one knew what had happened during those six hours of darkness until a professor proposed the "reforging theory" five years into the apocalypse.

Returning to the beginning, returning to the primitive.

Earth's magnetic field had changed, data had been altered, previous academic knowledge was overturned, and a vast amount of things needed to be re-explored and researched. Everything humans were familiar with was disrupted and reorganized, even human genes. One of the greatest disasters brought about by this change was that 80% of humanity had turned into zombies.

Fortunately, the change wasn't total; a small portion remained, allowing humanity to eke out an existence. Energy was still eternal: fire could provide warmth, oil could burn, and cars could still drive.

The dormitory door was being slammed by zombies outside, with the occasional scraping sound of something sharp against the door, producing a grating noise. Those were the zombies' claws. Unlike human fingernails, zombie claws were extremely sharp and hard.

Chu Han took out a compressed biscuit and started chewing. The apocalypse had arrived, and the battle for survival had begun. His first priority was to replenish his energy.

Currently, these zombies were still the lowest-level Tier 1 zombies. They were slow-moving, had weak senses, and lacked strength. Apart from their frightening appearance, they were not to be feared as long as one had a weapon and they weren't in large numbers.

It was currently exam week at the school, and many students had already left. Those remaining were a small portion who still had exams to finish. Therefore, Mingqiu University at this time was not truly dangerous compared to other places. This was also why he had chosen to stay in the dormitory before the apocalypse arrived.

After finishing the dehydrated biscuits, Chu Han glanced out the window. Although the sun had reappeared, the sky was still hazy. Below, several zombies were gathered, devouring something. The ground was littered with human bones with scraps of flesh and blood.

The sudden chaos had come too quickly and too directly. Chu Han even felt that these zombies had "awakened" earlier than humans.

Chu Han got up and slung his backpack on, gripping the iron axe tightly with both hands. His current stamina was insufficient, and swinging the axe with one hand was too strenuous, even though this axe could only be considered a "small weapon" in his previous life.

The moment he gripped the iron axe, his previously calm eyes instantly changed.

Fierce, brutal, like a man-eating beast!

To survive, to protect his parents and three brothers, he would do anything now!