Bang!

Six hours had passed since the Zombie Virus outbreak began.

The streets were empty. There were few zombies, and not a single pedestrian could be found.

The occasional zombie or two was scattered around storefronts and street corners.

Zombies that stood around stupidly like this posed no threat to Lu Bai at all. Whenever he encountered one, he casually cut it down with a single strike.

Quite a few cars were parked crookedly along both sides of the road, and several were still giving off wisps of black smoke.

Beneath the dim yellow light cast by the setting sun, the place felt desolate, like a wasteland.

"Quieter than I imagined." Lu Bai walked along the sidewalk, glancing around.

A certain Shuangying's sidearm hung from his waist, while an Eight-Sided Han Sword was strapped to his back.

He looked utterly relaxed, but there was no doubt that if anything happened, he could switch into combat mode in an instant.

Come to think of it, he had left the store intending to hunt down Deathmatch participants.

He had figured that, based on the locations announced by the system, finding them should have been easy.

Unexpectedly, he had come up empty-handed at two places in a row.

To be honest, after his first two experiences, he did not hold much hope for this one either.

After all, the locations released by the system were not real-time. The delay was too great, giving the Deathmatch participants more than enough time to relocate.

Anyone who remained in place was either confident or an idiot.

Lu Bai dealt with two zombies that got in his way and gradually ventured deeper into the city.

He stopped beneath a Department Store, raised his head, and narrowed his eyes as he examined the eight-story building.

"It should be in here, right?" he muttered.

At the Fifth Floor window of the hotel diagonally across from the Department Store.

"Holy shit, babe, come look! There's someone down there! Holy shit, why does he still dare wander around out on the street?!" Tang Peng's eyes widened, his entire face pressed against the glass.

Hearing him, a woman with shoulder-length short hair hurried over. "There really is someone. He looks like a student, too?"

Tang Peng swallowed, his voice excited. "Babe, we've both seen how terrifying those Monsters are. Damn, they can even flip cars with one hit. Do you think it's safe outside now? Otherwise, how could that student possibly be fine?"

They were a couple who had come to the city on vacation.

For certain reasons, they had gone to bed late and slept until noon, only to be awakened by all kinds of Screams.

They had hurriedly gotten up and observed through the glass. The horrific scenes unfolding on the street had terrified the young couple so badly that they did not even dare open their hotel room door, much less go outside to look for food.

Being trapped in the hotel and starving for an entire day—who could stand that?

Now that they saw hope, they could not wait to go out and find something to eat.

"N-No, don't rush. Let's watch a little longer."

Zhou Meina tightly gripped Tang Peng's sleeve.

She was timid. No matter how hungry she was, she did not want to take risks lightly.

Because of that, the couple witnessed a scene that left them dumbfounded.

Bang!

Crash—

From their vantage point, the Department Store's tempered glass doors were kicked down by the student, and tiny fragments of shattered glass scattered all over the ground. How outrageous was that?

Put it this way: tempered glass could withstand pressure of 70 to 100 MPa, equivalent to 700 to 1,000 kilograms of force per square centimeter.

It would have been understandable if it had been smashed with a pointed hammer or some other tool, but for someone to kick it apart with one foot in real life was simply absurd.

Beneath the Department Store.

Lu Bai had no idea that everything he did was being watched by the young couple in the building across the street.

Of course, even if he had known, he probably would not have cared.

He limped over the broken glass.

As an aside, he had fractured his lower leg from kicking that tempered glass door.

The Zombie Virus had broken out at noon, yet the Department Store's main entrance was locked.

"There should still be survivors in the building." After making such a huge commotion, no one came out to take a look?

He muttered as he slowly moved forward, waiting for his right leg to recover.

The moment he entered the Department Store, a thick Bloody Smell rushed at him.

Merchandise on both sides had been knocked to the floor. Shoes and wallets lay everywhere, while chaotic bloody footprints made it easy to imagine the panic that had unfolded here.

Judging by the interior displays, the place had probably been packed with people before the zombie crisis erupted.

Suddenly,

A roar came from a Clothing Store.

Following the sound, Lu Bai could vaguely see a crippled zombie desperately crawling through layers upon layers of Container Clothes Racks.

"It looks like someone broke its spine."

Lu Bai was kind-hearted and could not bear to see a zombie suffer, so he drew the Eight-Sided Han Sword and put it out of its misery.

After casually wiping the blood from the blade with clothes hanging on a rack, he sheathed the Eight-Sided Han Sword and suddenly realized something he had overlooked.

Why

was there not a single corpse on this enormous first floor?

The muscles throughout his body gradually tensed. Something was definitely wrong!

The next second, blazing fire filled his vision.

BOOM!!!

On the Department Store rooftop.

Watching thick smoke billow up from below, a Crew-cut Youth crouched on the railing and clicked his tongue in amazement. "Old Song, wasn't that explosion a little too powerful?"

"Sigh, what kind of times are these?"

The Slovenly Man known as Old Song wore High-Degree Glasses. He grumbled unhappily, "Didn't you people insist on making it bigger just to be safe?"

A tall woman stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the railing. "I was only worried you'd bring the whole building down."

"Hehe, isn't our beautiful Guo here?" Old Song instantly changed expressions, revealing a lovestruck grin.

Guo Mi took out a Ladies' Cigarette and lit it. After taking a deep drag, she habitually blew out a Smoke Ring, every movement graceful.

"Enough chatting. Are you sure that guy downstairs is dead?"

"Not yet. My points haven't changed, but with an explosion that powerful, even if he isn't dead, he's crippled."

Guo Mi neither agreed nor disagreed. She turned to look toward the rooftop entrance.

There stood a burly man bare-chested, an apron tied around his waist, dressed like a standard Butcher.

With his back to the other three on the rooftop, he continuously hammered a zombie with the bone cleaver in his hand.

Anyone standing beside the burly man would have noticed that Severed Limbs and Broken Arms were already piled from the rooftop entrance all the way down the stairwell.

As though sensing their gazes, the burly man turned around and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his elbow.

Butcher: "To be safe, Peng Qi will come down with me."

"I'm involved too?" The Crew-cut Youth jumped down from the railing and said impatiently, "Fine, fine. Then I'll take those points for myself."

The stairwell was filled with a nauseating Bloody Smell, not to mention the blood, Bones, and severed limbs all over the floor. But Peng Qi walked in without changing expression, as though he saw nothing. The burly man immediately rose as well, shook off the Blood Droplets clinging to his apron, and followed him.