(A place that takes in Brain-eating demons~)
(The intelligence of the characters in this book depends on the author's intelligence. The author's IQ is 135, so I'll try to avoid writing anything brainless, but my mental state is unstable and I tend to go off the rails.)
Dragon Country, Liaoda dormitory.
"I was reborn...? What year is it?!"
Hearing his roommate suddenly start raving, Chu Yunyi jolted awake.
"What got stuck?"
"If something's stuck, go wash it out. Why the hell are you yelling?" Chu Yunyi said sleepily, glancing out the window.
He checked the time:
12:30 p.m.
Chu Yunyi wasn't surprised to be getting up at this hour.
Wasn't it standard practice for college students to wake up in the afternoon and have breakfast when they had no classes?
Besides,
Chu Yunyi was now in his university internship period, and everyone who was supposed to leave the dorm had already gone.
Last night had been their farewell drinking session.
The others had gotten completely plastered.
Chu Yunyi had drunk more than they had, but his kidneys were strong (about one-tenth as strong as the readers who made it this far).
Six bottles of beer barely counted as a mouthwash; they only got him a little tipsy.
But after he took a piss, he flushed the alcohol right out and sobered up completely.
So,
He'd downed eight liang of beer last night, and now that he'd gotten up, he felt no worse than a little dizzy.
He glanced at his roommate, who was sitting there in a daze after getting out of bed.
Thinking that his ride home would be there soon, Chu Yunyi, unusually, didn't make a couple of snide remarks.
He wasn't exactly a pleasant person.
Good morals and manners had nothing to do with him. Everyone who knew him called him the "God who governs abstraction in ancient Greece."
And now,
The university internship period had arrived. All the students had to find a way to get proof of an internship before the school would issue their diplomas.
Chu Yunyi wasn't in a hurry.
He was basically a full-time writer and a part-time student. Getting his editor to stamp a form when they had a free moment would be easy.
Throughout his years at university,
He hadn't listened to a single word in class, yet he hadn't failed a single course.
You could put it down to forty percent luck, fifty percent having a good relationship with the teachers, and the remaining ten percent skill.
"Ding↑ ding↓ ding↗~~~ Ding↑ ding↓ ding↗~~~" His phone rang, and Chu Yunyi answered with a couple of acknowledgments.
His ride was here.
From Liaohai City to Xiahe City, then on to Heitu Town where he lived, the trip was 114.514 kilometers as the crow flew.
The drive would take about five hours.
Knowing the driver was waiting, Chu Yunyi slung his backpack over his shoulder and left.
There wasn't much to pack: the laptop he usually wrote on, along with a power bank, earphones, and similar things.
He left his spare clothes, bedding, shoes, and socks behind.
He'd used them for years. They were due for replacement anyway.
He'd just reached the door
When his roommate suddenly called out to him.
The guy didn't usually talk much and was a bit of a blockhead.
But he'd also helped cover attendance and reminded Chu Yunyi about exam times. After living together for years, they were at least acquaintances.
He said,
"Hey! Brother Chu, um... never mind. Just go."
Watching him struggle to get the words out, Chu Yunyi replied, "If you have something to say, say it. If you need to take a dump, go take one."
The two looked each other in the eye. Seeing Chu Yunyi's expression, his roommate spoke up after all:
"You probably won't believe me."
"I had a dream that lasted several years. In it, the apocalypse came, and several kinds of special viruses appeared."
"The first was called the 'Gluttony Virus.' The patients were known as Gluttony patients."
"They were like zombies... no, they were even scarier than zombies, and..."
"Ugh... what am I even saying? Brother Chu, just pretend I'm talking in my sleep."
"How could there be an apocalypse or anything like that?"
"Anyway, be careful on the way."
Watching his roommate babble nonsense, Chu Yunyi pursed his lips and muttered:
"Nutcase."
Chu Yunyi assumed he'd woken up confused and was spouting nonsense right out of bed.
The first thing that came to mind when his roommate mentioned the apocalypse was a zombie outbreak or something like that.
But to Chu Yunyi, a professional writer who knew a little about everything, that was all a joke.
Zombies? Give me a break.
Twelve hours after a human body died, it began to decompose; after twenty-four hours, the muscles started to rot.
Would zombies move around on sheer willpower?
Besides,
Even if they were somewhere between living and dead, they'd still count as carbon-based life forms, right?
At the end of the day, what carbon-based organism could withstand a single 7.62 round?
Even if a zombie outbreak really happened,
With Dragon Country's capabilities, would it take a week to lock everything down, two weeks to clear them out, and three weeks to raise them as a new source of clean energy?
As he thought about it, Chu Yunyi made his way downstairs.
He gave the driver the last digits of his phone number and climbed into the car.
"Unless..."
As a writer, Chu Yunyi had a nimble mind. He quickly came up with several conditions that a zombie outbreak would have to meet.
"First, it would have to spread through the air, and the virus would need to survive in the air for at least a dozen hours."
"Second, the zombies would have to retain their vitality and at least evolve. Otherwise, they couldn't withstand heavy firearms."
"Third, the incubation period would have to be long, and the outbreak would have to happen all at once. Catching people by surprise would give them some chance."
If even one of those three conditions was missing, the apocalypse would be brought to an end in no time.
As he thought,
Whenever inspiration struck, he made a note of it.
Chu Yunyi opened his phone and jotted it down in his notes.
Still,
This kind of clichéd zombie apocalypse probably barely appeared in novels anymore.
At least, it wouldn't happen in his world.
When the driver saw Chu Yunyi had finished what he was doing, he asked:
"Heading home, young man?"
"Yeah."
At that, Chu Yunyi's gaze dimmed a little.
He wanted to say he was already homeless, but he didn't want the driver looking at him with pity or sympathy.
Twelve years ago, his father had gone overseas and never returned.
Three years ago,
His mother was suddenly diagnosed with cancer.
Cancer didn't hurt in its early stages, and there weren't any distinguishing signs or symptoms. By the time there were obvious symptoms, it was usually in the middle or late stages.
She underwent chemotherapy a few times, but didn't make it.
Chu Yunyi wasn't all that heartbroken, though he did feel sad.
He'd cried a few times at first, but gradually came to terms with it.
Still, if he went home and saw the sofa his mother used to lean on, or the kitchen where she'd cooked so often, he couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable.
Along the way,
He chatted with the driver for a bit, then started feeling carsick. With his eyes closed, he drifted into sleep.
A dream within a dream.
The sky and earth were one, all a bright white.
Since it was a dream, the light wasn't particularly dazzling.
Chu Yunyi's consciousness shifted. He clicked his tongue. "Tsk, why am I dreaming about this damn billiard table again?"
"Will it ever end?"
At the center of the dream,
There was a dark green Round Table. Just as Chu Yunyi had remarked, it looked a little like a billiard table.
A black ball sat in the middle of the Round Table, surrounded by eight pockets.
Unfortunately,
Chu Yunyi didn't have a body in the dream.
Otherwise, his obsessive-compulsive disorder would have kicked in, and he'd have to shove that lone black ball into a pocket.
Heitu Town.
"Young man, we're here." The driver gently shook Chu Yunyi, waking him from his dream.
The driver went around to the passenger-side door and lit a cigarette.
He also opened the door for Chu Yunyi.
"Mm... oh." Chu Yunyi grabbed his backpack and got out.
The driver had driven him a few times before, and they'd already added each other on WeChat. Chu Yunyi had paid for the ride in advance.
He glanced at the sky, which was nearing dusk.
Chu Yunyi suddenly felt a wave of hunger.
He'd slept nearly twelve and a half hours that day, but he was still hungry.
"Let's go to that place. I used to eat there all the time when I was a kid."
He walked into a dog-meat restaurant and ordered a bowl of lamb soup and some lamb shaomai.
That's right.
The sign said dog meat, but they sold lamb.
Heitu Town was a place full of colorful characters. As a kid, Chu Yunyi had thought the townspeople were funny. It wasn't until he grew up that he realized this was what the hell people meant by "abstract."
Florida in America? Compared with Heitu Town, it was like a mayfly gazing up at the sky.
"Hehe, here's your lamb soup." The owner set down a bowl covered in salt and pepper and minced cilantro, then turned back to the kitchen to fetch the shaomai.
Chu Yunyi picked up the bowl and took a sip.
Something felt a little gritty. He spat it out and took a look.
A fingernail... a human one!
"You son of a—!" Chu Yunyi's face changed dramatically as he slammed the table and stood up.
(P.S. This book focuses on subverting tropes and conceptual abilities. The first three chapters might be a little abstract, but the various conceptual abilities will keep building, and things will get more and more satisfying. The protagonist will slay a god around chapter 60. This god isn't particularly powerful; in my view, a god doesn't have to be invincible. As long as it has a [Divine Authority], even a dog can become a god—and the protagonist can easily kill it.)
Before you continue