A resolute-looking man suddenly opened his eyes from the endless darkness. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar surroundings, his mind could not process it for a moment.
After taking a moment to recover and carefully observing the vaguely familiar room, the man broke out in a cold sweat.
"This isn't my home!"
A thunderclap exploded outside the window, followed by inhuman howls.
The man leaped out of bed, his body taut and his teeth clenched.
"So the coma in my memories was real? What exactly happened during this time?"
Whoosh!
A pure, glass-like flame suddenly sprang up in his hands.
"Fuck! I just started and I'm already spontaneously combusting? w(Д)w"
Feeling the familiar warmth, the man lightly flicked his right hand, leaving trails of fire through the air.
"Huh? It doesn't seem hot."
Three months after the zombie virus outbreak.
At the entrance of a small villa, the lower halves of the iron fences on both sides were covered in ivy.
Smack!
Creak~
A tall girl slammed open the villa's practically useless front gate.
She hurried inside, terror written across her face.
Chaotic yet heavy footsteps chased after her.
Three burly men!
"Ah!"
Whether she had tripped because she was running too fast or simply run out of strength,
she fell flat on the ground at the entrance to the villa's inner courtyard.
Hearing the footsteps closing in behind her, the girl raised her head, revealing a dirty, round little face.
Though she was disheveled and pale, the contours of her face still made it clear that she was a pretty little girl.
At that moment, her lips were pressed tightly together as tears streamed down her face.
Thinking of her fate, the girl felt an indescribable sense of helplessness.
"If they catch me, I'll have to go back to hauling bricks and scrubbing toilets."
"Hehehe~"
Seeing the girl fall, the men gave lecherous grins.
Their pace immediately slowed, as casual as cats toying with a mouse.
"Run, then! Keep running! If you run around again, I'll feed you to the zombies!"
The leader was Bearded Boss Zhao. His expression was vicious and his tone arrogant as he sneered repeatedly.
Hearing the words "feed you to the zombies," the girl's body trembled even harder, as though she had remembered something.
"Wait, Boss!"
The men froze.
"There's something I'm not sure whether I should say." The youngest man in the group spoke up.
"If you've got something to say, spit it out!"
The young man rubbed the stubble on his chin and said loudly,
"Actually, feeding someone to zombies isn't practical, because the strong smell of blood will draw in all the zombies nearby. Then we'll likely be surrounded and attacked. It's hard enough dealing with one zombie, let alone possibly attracting a whole Zombie Swarm."
"Besides, in such a depressing post-apocalyptic environment, we should always maintain a sunny mindset and face life positively in order to stay away from mental illness."
Seeing his boss's expression gradually darken, the young man quickly added,
"To sum it up, after getting a tiny bit of twisted psychological pleasure from feeding someone to zombies, we won't be far from death ourselves."
The middle-aged man in the group's eyes lit up. He felt the young man had a point.
But seeing that the boss's face had turned so dark it looked ready to drip water, he hurriedly cut in.
"Boss, we ran all the way here. Zombies may have heard us and followed behind. Let's get this little bitch inside first and talk later."
The middle-aged man, who looked to be in his thirties, was no pushover either, but he was cautious enough.
In the apocalypse, anyone who was not cautious had long since become one of the zombies.
Bearded Boss Zhao's gloomy expression eased slightly. Staying alive was what mattered most in the apocalypse.
"Mm, get the little bitch inside first."
He turned to the girl on the ground. "I'd been holding back and wasn't planning to do anything to you, but you actually dared to run away today. You need to be punished."
Then he revealed the sort of grin every man understood, his eyes openly invading the girl's slender body.
"Wuwu... Please, I really don't want to haul bricks and scrub toilets anymore! Can't I help manage the kitchen instead? The food I make is really delicious!"
The girl's voice was as pleasant as silk and bamboo, crisp and textured. Yet it now carried a trace of sobbing that made people pity her.
The men's faces darkened. Letting her manage the kitchen would mean she'd eat all the food herself within days!
Though the girl looked slender, she ate more than all of them combined.
She claimed it was because she was still growing.
The young man frowned, realizing things were not so simple.
"Boss, but the authorities said they'll be clearing out the zombies soon. What if they settle accounts afterward..."
The other two froze for a moment.
Bearded Boss Zhao slapped the young man on the head.
"Are you fucking trying to pick a fight? You think the authorities will fucking prosecute me for using child labor during the apocalypse? Besides, didn't I pay them?"
In the apocalypse, was that even money? It was just a few sheets of paper. The middle-aged man coughed awkwardly twice.
"What? You got a problem with that?"
He did, but there was no need to say it. Looking at Bearded Boss Zhao's massive muscles, the middle-aged man answered with a serious expression,
"I think it's perfectly reasonable. In fact, you might've even paid a little too much."
The young man looked regretfully at the girl on the ground, who had already begun sniffling softly, and sighed.
He knew that although the girl was tall, she was definitely underage. She was only sixteen.
Damn!
How could a sixteen-year-old girl eat so much!
None of them noticed that the hidden camera beneath the second-floor window shifted slightly.
"Roar~"
A low growl came from the road not far away.
It was a cry full of primal aggression. It was clearly made by a human, but it was definitely not normal!
"Quick! The zombies from the neighboring yard are coming out!"
The young man pulled a short length of tough wire from his faded jeans.
He precisely inserted it into the front door's lock cylinder.
Less than ten seconds later, there was a click, and the door opened.
It was somewhat dark inside, perhaps because the curtains were drawn.
Of course, the city had completely lost power on the third day after the zombies arrived, so everyone had long adapted to darkness.
Now, darkness even gave humans a sense of security. Zombies at night were not as terrifying as they were during the day.
They could see a dark red wool carpet spread across the entrance.
"It looks so neat. No one's probably been here before. Hurry and lock me in the kitchen under strict guard!"
The girl seemed to have found the motivation to live. Her crystal-black eyes suddenly lit up, glowing faintly in the darkness like those of a greedy little kitten.
(ー_ー)!!
Black lines slid down the three men's faces. They could now be certain of one thing.
The little girl had run away because she had come out looking for food.
If they gave her enough to eat, she could probably stay at the Gathering Place until adulthood.
She might even become the best brick-hauler in the small Gathering Place!
But with dozens of people eating every day, where could they find that much food? Going out to look for supplies meant avoiding zombies, and most people did not dare to go outside.
Because they had seen it with their own eyes: someone had gone out to seek help from the authorities, only to be pounced on by a zombie hiding inside a car.
In front of everyone in the supermarket, a swarm of zombies drawn by the scent tore the man apart and ate him.
That day, the supermarket was filled with a pungent, sour stench.
From then on, no one dared mention going outside again.
They could only guard the radio in the supermarket, listening endlessly to the authorities' broadcasts and waiting for the so-called rescue.
Fortunately, the supermarket had plenty of supplies. If they rationed them carefully, everyone could survive for a while longer.
Bearded Boss Zhao and the middle-aged man stood at the door, lifted the girl up, and prepared to enter the house.
The young man pulled a serrated stainless-steel dagger from the leather pouch at his waist.
In the apocalypse, a locked-up house was often far from normal.
Better safe than sorry!
After observing for a while, he heard nothing. If there were zombies inside, they would have rushed out as soon as the door opened.
Though people's bodies gradually rotted after turning into zombies and their eyes could barely see, their hearing and sense of smell became exceptionally sharp.
The young man relaxed and stepped through the door.
The wool carpet beneath his feet suddenly collapsed, and the young man fell straight in.
"Ah~~~~ Bang!"
His long scream and the sound of impact came from the muffled underground.
At that moment, inside a finely decorated room, a long chime rang out. Then all the lights came on, and a well-proportioned young man walked over to a wall of monitors while yawning.
The other two were startled and stood at the doorway, craning their heads inside.
Holy shit!
The entire section beneath the large wool carpet at the entrance was hollow, with only a few wooden supports holding it up.
"Xiao Yang, how are you?" the middle-aged man asked while lying flat on the ground, but the basement was too dark to see clearly.
Several groans came from below. "I think my leg is broken. Hurry and find something to pull me up."
Hearing Xiao Yang's response, the two men relaxed. As long as he was not dead, it was fine.
"What the hell is this? Who digs such a huge pit at their front door? How is anyone supposed to get in? Whoever did this has a hole in their brain."
Bearded Boss Zhao cursed a few more times, still holding the girl.
The instant she saw the young man fall, the girl was startled. The kitchen around the corner in the living room suddenly seemed separated from her by an uncrossable chasm.
She suddenly wanted to recite a poem:
Sometimes, the farthest distance was not between heaven and earth,
but rather,
the kitchen was on the other side of the pit, while she was on this side.
"Boss, someone may have lived in this house. The pit at the entrance was dug so neatly, so it was obviously arranged in advance. I guess the real entrance isn't here."
After saying that, the middle-aged man still felt puzzled. The hole was simply too neat.
It looked as if it had been dug by a machine.
Bearded Boss Zhao nodded and took out the Taiji Sword he had been carrying on his back.
"Hurry and find somewhere to get in. I feel the zombies are getting closer," Bearded Boss Zhao said solemnly.
"Um, Boss, Old Meng, do you smell something?"
Bearded Boss Zhao sniffed. "Did you piss yourself from fear?"
"No, my constipation that's been troubling me for days just cleared up a little."
The middle-aged man let out a breath. "Damn, I thought you pissed yourself. Wait! You fucking shit your pants?"
"Ahem."
The young man coughed awkwardly a few times. "Don't mind those details! I smell meat in the house. Cooked meat. It smells like steak!"
The two men had not noticed anything before, but after sniffing carefully, they both caught a faint scent of meat, whether from suggestion or because it was truly there.
"Smack, smack."
"It's been a while since we had meat."
"There's definitely someone here!"
Bearded Boss Zhao and the middle-aged man exchanged a glance and spoke in unison.
But none of them were afraid. The several sharpened weapons in their hands gave them plenty of confidence.
They were a team that had worked together to kill a zombie!
The middle-aged man circled the first floor of the villa, feeling around continuously. At last, behind a billboard against the wall, he discovered a small door.
Bearded Boss Zhao dragged the girl to the back entrance.
The girl looked utterly unwilling. The kitchen in her view and the faint scent of steak were both gone.
Sigh... Life was not worth living.
After fiddling with the door a few times and opening it, the middle-aged man first poked a foot inside to make sure there was solid ground.
"Looks like this is the real entrance to the house. The person hiding here had some clever tricks, but nothing more than that."
After nodding toward Bearded Boss Zhao, the middle-aged man walked inside.
I have to check every floor tile carefully. I can't fall into another trap. With that thought, the middle-aged man walked in.
Crash!
With a huge bang, the marble floor beneath the middle-aged man suddenly slid aside, revealing a square hole one meter wide.
Caught completely off guard, the middle-aged man fell straight down.
"Ah~~~ Thud! Ah!"
Rhythmic cries and the sounds of falling came from underground.
The bearded man did not even need to look to know that the middle-aged man had been trapped just like the young man.
"Cough, cough. My leg is broken too, boss."
Bang!
Another loud crash rang out. The marble floor that had been sent away earlier slid back in from the right side of the door, returning to its original position and burying the middle-aged man's unfinished words underground.
Hiss... Creepy.
"This damn marble can be moved around whenever it wants? Are we playing a game here?"
The bearded man instinctively took a step back.
After freezing for a moment, the bearded man's gaze sharpened, and a surge of blood rushed to his head.
He could think of a way to use ropes to rescue his two brothers.
But!
He could not swallow this humiliation!
Before he had even seen the villa's owner, he had been scared off by a few petty tricks. How was he supposed to keep making a living if word got out?
The bearded man was called Zhao Laoda. He had once been an unknown nobody and had even spent time in jail several times, but the apocalypse had given everyone a chance to start over!
Zhao Laoda, who had practiced some martial arts, had been planning to make a name for himself in the apocalypse.
He pulled out two lengths of nylon rope from his pocket and skillfully tied the girl to the jujube tree in the yard.
"Hey! Hey!" The girl was so angry her eyes bulged, but she did not dare speak loudly.
The surrounding Zombies could come over at any moment.
Zhao Laoda took the hemp rope off his back and aimed at an open window on the second floor.
"Go!"
He hurled the hemp rope upward, and the modified hook at its end caught on the windowsill.
After tugging it a few times, Zhao Laoda clenched a dagger between his teeth, braced himself against the wall, and climbed up the rope.
You think you're safe just because you're hiding inside? You're nothing but a cowardly little bastard.
With that thought, Zhao Laoda quickly climbed to the second floor.
He cautiously peeked inside.
Clean. Empty. There was clearly nothing there.
This time, Zhao Laoda deliberately stuck one foot inside and stepped around several times, making sure the solid wood floor beneath him had no tricks.
He tested it from several different angles before finally climbing all the way in and planting both feet firmly on the wooden floor.
Safe!
"The owner probably never imagined I could get in through the second floor. There isn't even a single setup here."
"Heh, still too inexperienced. Holy shit!"
Whoosh!
Before Zhao Laoda could finish speaking, a square piston slammed down from the ceiling. He only had time to instinctively raise both hands.
A tremendous force struck him, sending Zhao Laoda and the solid wood floor crashing down to the first floor.
Both man and floor smashed straight through!
Crack, crack~~
The first-floor ground seemed to have eyes as a huge 2m x 2m opening suddenly split open.
"Ahhhh—Thud! Fu—ck—ahh!!"
Zhao Laoda fell from the second floor and was hurt even worse than the first two men!
When Xiao Liu and the middle-aged man heard Zhao Laoda's scream, they instantly covered their faces in unison.
"Total wipeout!"
Xiao Liu looked up at the camera on the wall and gave a bitter smile.
"This house is kind of freaky."
First chapter—please vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets!
This is not a dark story. It is meant to be a fun, interesting apocalypse story. The system abilities have already been rationalized—symbolically respecting Newton, at least—so please do not overly apply the settings of other apocalypse novels or the Minecraft game to it. Yes, that means you Minecraft players who insist on infinite water from four blocks.