Worth Affirming

"What?"

Robert flipped through the notebook back and forth, trying to recall if he had written this sentence out of boredom when he left yesterday.

'You are not alone!'

Who wrote it?

With this question emerging in his mind, Robert carefully observed the sentence above. He picked up the pen on the table and imitated the writing underneath those crooked, distorted characters.

As the sentence was finished, his heartbeat grew faster and faster. His eyes widened, and he slowly put down the pen.

"Sam, we have to go!"

Yes! This sentence must have been written by someone else. The handwriting was so ugly that even if he had been drunk, he couldn't have written it. It was definitely another survivor!

Recalling the loud noise from the direction of the Empire State Building last night, he had reason to believe that the sound was made by other survivors fighting against the Darkseekers!

He had to go over and see!

After frantically tidying up the materials on the table, Robert ran quickly toward his car, with his dog Sam moving its four limbs to follow behind.

The man and the dog got back into the car, started the engine, and drove toward the Empire State Building.

While driving, Robert kept praying in his heart, hoping to see a living person, hoping that this time would not end in disappointment.

"Please!"

He whispered the word. The car accelerated to sixty miles per hour, and Robert shook his head, his eyes reddening.

The dark red business vehicle passed through several deserted streets. The weeds were bent by the wind whipped up by the car. Sam, in the passenger seat, poked its mouth out the window, gasping for air, its tongue swaying with the wind.

South Street Seaport was only three kilometers away from the Empire State Building. It took Robert only five minutes to arrive near the Empire State Building.

After entering Fifth Avenue, Robert was startled by the scene he saw, because Fifth Avenue had now become a massive junkyard.

Tables, chairs, computer towers, fire extinguishers, mops, buckets, and large piles of paper had turned this place into an open-air landfill.

Robert didn't come to the Empire State Building often because there were many people here, the number of Darkseekers hiding in the buildings on both sides was staggering, and there were no supplies to be found.

The last time he came here was a year ago when he went to transport the remaining shells from several tanks. Back then, there wouldn't have been so much debris piled up here.

Robert parked the car on the side of Fifth Avenue and cautiously raised his M6920 rifle, preparing to walk into this "junkyard" to check the situation.

"No, no, Sam, you stay in the car!"

Seeing that Sam also wanted to get out, Robert immediately raised his hand to close the car door, telling him to stay inside.

The height of this debris was not suitable for Sam to enter; there were too many things blocking the view, and it was very difficult to walk. Having Sam follow would only distract him.

Robert found a relatively stable spot and began to venture deep into Fifth Avenue.

The fragments of tables and all sorts of strange things underfoot made it really hard to find a footing. After a great deal of effort, Robert had only walked seven or eight meters, but he soon made a discovery!

Robert was currently standing at an intersection. His next step was supposed to land on a pile of messy reports, but the depth after landing was a bit different from what he expected. Even though all his attention was focused on his feet, he nearly tripped because he stepped into empty space.

He steadied himself in a somewhat disheveled manner and looked down at his feet in confusion. Finding a new foothold and pushing aside some of the surrounding debris, Robert leaned over to pick up the stack of papers that had almost made him fall and tossed them aside.

Then, he saw a cracked depression on the ground, along with a pattern that looked like an animal footprint.

"What is this?" Robert touched the cracked little pit with his hand, his expression filled with confusion and a hint of unease.

After a long while, he stood up and saw that one of the tanks originally parked at the left intersection was actually missing!

A tank couldn't just disappear. That was an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, weighing fifty or sixty tons; it couldn't just vanish into thin air!

He looked around like a madman, trying to find the missing tank or any traces of its movement.

Then, he saw the chassis of the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank embedded in the front desk of the office building behind him, having crashed through the wall.

Things were becoming increasingly incomprehensible. Robert shook his head in a daze, looked at the tank that had smashed into the front desk of the office building, then looked down at the giant footprint by his feet, and cursed.

"What the hell happened here?"

Setting aside the footprints and the tank for the moment, he continued to advance toward the Empire State Building with his gun raised.

Although he already knew that something incredible had happened here, when Robert pushed aside the debris and saw the "crater" in front of the Empire State Building, he was still too shocked to speak.

On the ground in front of him, the originally intact asphalt road had a massive, spiderweb-like depression.

The diameter was estimated to be about ten meters, and the depth was perhaps one and a half meters.

Robert crossed the debris in front of him, jumped into the deep pit, and cautiously observed as he moved forward, guessing how this depression had been formed.

"A meteorite?" He voiced a more likely answer, but soon a new question arose: "If it really was a meteorite, then... where is it?"

Robert walked to the center of the crater, looked at the indentations on the ground that resembled two feet, his lips trembled, and he sighed: "It looks like two meteorites shaped like the soles of feet."

"Actually, that was caused by the soles of feet."

A strange voice came from his ear. Robert, who was on high alert at all times, instantly raised his muzzle and turned to aim at the right side.

Without him noticing, Li Wei was standing at the edge of the crater, looking with great interest at Robert, who looked exactly like Will Smith. "Don't be nervous. Although I'm not afraid of that thing, I still don't really want to get shot in the face by it."

Seeing that it was actually a living person, Robert froze for a moment, then immediately lowered his gun, the vigilant expression on his face gradually being replaced by excitement.

A living person!

For three years, he had finally seen a living person!

No one would be bored enough to spend all day roleplaying with a bunch of mannequins; having not seen a living person for three years, his only social interaction was with Sam, and that growing sense of loneliness had almost driven him to schizophrenia, making him wish he could talk to another version of himself.

Now that he had finally seen a living person, Robert Neville couldn't help but step forward, excitedly blurting out, "You're a human, ah no! My name is Robert Neville! Do you need food? Or perhaps water? Or medicine? Oh, sorry, I'm just so happy!"

Because he was overly excited, he couldn't even speak properly, his gaze fixed on Li Wei with such intensity as he strode toward the edge of the pit.

His steps were messy, and he nearly tripped over himself.

Li Wei smiled and reached out a hand to steady Robert, introducing himself, "Li Wei, just an ordinary salesman."

Last night, he had "assimilated" a large number of Darkseekers nearby in various ways, converting them all into Key energy; perhaps because its functions had been repaired just a little, the energy conversion efficiency had increased significantly.

Although he never understood why the Key could extract energy from the life forms he assimilated, it had risen to 56.88%, totaling sixteen thousand three hundred and forty-one Darkseekers.

Because he wanted to leave this world sooner—this world was too boring, electronic products had almost completely vanished, there was no infinite joy brought by the internet, and there wasn't even anyone for him to tease!

In a world like this, what joy could there be!

What reason did he have to stay any longer?!

There was still one reason...

To help "Will Smith's" dog, Sam, survive; the dog's spirit of loyalty in protecting its master was worth affirming, and it had even made him cry when he first watched the movie!

High emotional intelligence:

[The previous three chapters have been revised and can be reread]