Worth Affirming

"What?"

Robert flipped through the notebook, trying to remember whether he had written that sentence out of boredom before leaving yesterday.

'You are not alone!'

Who wrote it?

The question surfaced in his mind. Robert studied the sentence carefully, then picked up the pen on the table and copied the same words beneath the crooked, twisted handwriting.

As he finished writing, his heartbeat quickened. His eyes widened, and he slowly set down the pen.

"Sam, we need to go!"

Yes! Someone else had definitely written that sentence. The handwriting was so ugly that even drunk, he could not have written it. It had to be another survivor!

Thinking of the huge noise from the direction of the Empire State Building last night, he had every reason to believe it had been made by another survivor fighting the Darkseekers!

He had to go take a look!

After hurriedly gathering the materials on the table, Robert sprinted toward his car, with Sam following behind on all fours.

Man and dog got into the car, started it, and headed toward the Empire State Building.

As he drove, Robert kept praying that he would see another living person, hoping this would not end in disappointment again.

"Please!"

He softly breathed out the word, accelerated to sixty miles per hour, and shook his head with reddened eyes.

The dark red minivan sped through several deserted streets. The weeds bent beneath the wind kicked up by the vehicle, while Sam stuck his muzzle out the passenger-side window, gulping in air as his tongue flapped in the wind.

South Street Seaport was only three kilometers from the Empire State Building. Robert arrived nearby in just five minutes.

Once he entered Fifth Avenue, Robert was startled by what he saw. Fifth Avenue had become a massive dump.

Tables, chairs, computer towers, fire extinguishers, mops, buckets, and vast sheets of paper had turned the place into an open-air landfill.

Robert did not come to the Empire State Building area often. There had once been too many people here, and an astonishing number of Darkseekers hid in the buildings on both sides. There were not many supplies, either.

The last time he had come here was a year ago, when he had taken the remaining shells from several tanks nearby. Back then, there had not been so much junk piled up here.

Robert parked by Fifth Avenue, cautiously raised his M6920 Rifle, and prepared to enter the "dump" on foot to investigate.

"No, no, Sam. Stay in the car!"

Seeing that Sam wanted to get out too, Robert immediately raised his hand and shut the door, making him stay inside.

The piles of debris were too high for Sam to enter. There were too many things blocking the view, and the footing was terrible. If Sam followed him in, Robert would be distracted.

Robert found a spot with relatively stable footing and began making his way deeper into Fifth Avenue.

The table fragments and all kinds of strange objects beneath his feet made it extremely difficult to walk. After much effort, Robert had only gone seven or eight meters when he quickly made a discovery!

Robert was standing at an intersection. His next step had originally been meant to land on a pile of messy reports, but the ground gave way more deeply than he had expected. Even with all his attention focused beneath his feet, he had nearly stumbled and fallen.

After awkwardly steadying himself, he looked down in confusion. Finding another foothold, he pushed aside some debris, bent down, picked up the stack of papers that had nearly made him fall, and tossed it away.

Then he saw a cracked depression in the ground, along with a pattern that resembled an animal footprint.

"What is this?" Robert ran his hand over the tiny cracks in the depression, his confused expression tinged with unease.

Only after a long while did he stand up, then notice that one of the tanks originally parked at the intersection on the left was gone!

A tank could not just vanish. It was an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, weighing fifty or sixty tons. It could not simply disappear!

He looked around like a madman, trying to find the missing tank or any sign that it had moved.

Then, in the office building behind him, he saw the chassis of an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank that had smashed through the wall and become embedded in the reception desk.

Things were becoming harder and harder to understand. Robert shook his head blankly, looked at the tank that had crashed into the lobby, then lowered his gaze to the enormous footprint beside his feet and cursed.

"What the hell happened here?"

Temporarily putting aside the footprint and the tank, he continued toward the Empire State Building with his rifle raised.

Though he already knew something unimaginable had happened here, when Robert shoved aside the debris and saw the "meteor crater" in front of the Empire State Building, he was still so shocked that he could not speak.

The once-intact asphalt road before him now had a huge web-like depression in it.

It looked roughly ten meters across and perhaps a meter and a half deep.

Robert stepped over the debris before him and jumped into the pit, moving forward carefully as he observed it and tried to guess how it had formed.

"A meteor?" he voiced the most likely answer, but another question soon arose. "If it really was a meteor, then... where is it?"

Robert walked to the center of the pit and looked at the two foot-shaped indentations in the ground. His lips trembled twice before he sighed. "They look like two meteorites shaped like the bottoms of feet."

"Actually, those were made by the bottoms of feet."

A strange voice sounded beside him. Robert, who was on alert at all times, instantly raised his rifle, spun around, and aimed toward the right.

At some point, Li Wei had appeared at the edge of the pit. He was examining Robert, who looked exactly like Will Smith, with great interest. "Relax. I'm not afraid of that thing, but I still don't really want to get shot in the face with it."

The moment he realized it was a living person, Robert froze briefly before immediately lowering his rifle. The guarded look on his face gradually gave way to excitement.

A living person!

After three years, he had finally seen another living person!

No one could entertain themselves by role-playing with a bunch of mannequins all day. He had not seen another living person in three years, and Sam was his only source of social interaction. The growing loneliness had nearly driven him into schizophrenia, making him desperately wish he could talk to another version of himself.

Now that he had finally seen another living person, Robert could not help stepping forward and saying excitedly, "You're a person—no! My name is Robert Neville! Do you need food? Or water? Or medicine? Oh, sorry, I'm just so happy!"

He was so excited that he could barely speak properly. His gaze toward Li Wei was burning with enthusiasm as he started walking toward the edge of the pit.

His steps were unsteady, and he nearly tripped.

Li Wei smiled and reached out to pull Robert up, introducing himself. "Li Wei. Just an ordinary salesman."

Last night, he had creatively "assimilated" a large number of nearby Darkseekers, converting them all into Key energy. Perhaps because its functions had been restored just a little, the energy conversion efficiency had increased significantly.

Though he still did not understand why the Key could obtain energy from the lives he assimilated, its charge had risen to 56.88%, for a total of 16,341 Darkseekers.

He wanted to leave this world sooner. It was far too boring. Electronic products had practically vanished, there was no endless joy brought by the internet, and there was not even anyone for him to tease!

What joy was there in a world like this?!

What reason did he have to stay?!

There was still one reason...

He would help "Will Smith's" dog, Sam, survive. A dog's loyal spirit of protecting his owner was worth affirming. The first time he watched the movie, it had even made him cry!

A tactful way to put it:

The previous three chapters had been revised. You can go back and read them.