Lu Yuanming followed the White Police Officer and the Black Homeless Man as they ran downstairs.
The Man-faced Dogs, each three or four meters long, were climbing up the building's outer wall. These monsters were far beyond what people could fight—not unless they were armed, at least. So the three of them didn't hesitate; they ran into the building.
The White Police Officer had a pistol, but it was only a pistol. Never mind that he had a limited number of bullets; the gun might not even be powerful enough to kill these monsters.
At three or four meters long, they were already as huge as tigers or lions. And they were monsters in the Death World, so it was entirely possible they were impervious to bullets. No one would think a pistol was enough to kill creatures like these—especially when there were more than ten of them!
The three of them could only put their heads down and run, entering the building from the rooftop.
The building was a ruined wreck. When they ran down from the roof, they found themselves surrounded by broken walls and rubble. Holes pocked the floors, and the rebar in many of the load-bearing walls was exposed. The rooms were a mess: torn papers, broken furniture, doors hanging wide open, and rebar jutting out everywhere. The three of them had no choice but to slow down. One careless step could send them plunging through a floor or impale them on a steel bar, and the heaps of debris underfoot made it impossible to run fast anyway.
The Black Homeless Man kept muttering as he ran, while the White Police Officer was in slightly better shape. Though he looked panicked, he hadn't completely lost his nerve. As he ran, he kept pulling out his pistol to check the bullets.
Lu Yuanming wasn't doing much better. He ran behind the other two, his mind blank and his whole body trembling uncontrollably.
He had been in a vegetative state, then suddenly found himself in the body of a drug addict in a New York slum five years in the future. Then he'd encountered some incomprehensible curse or ghostly thing and died a horrible death. After that, he'd arrived in the Death World, where he'd watched another dead person jump from a building, seen monsters appear, and then been hunted by them...
Events had come at him one after another. He hadn't even had time to think through how impossible any of it was.
As he struggled to escape, Lu Yuanming's mind was naturally blank. But as he ran, thoughts slowly began to surface.
Could I still travel back?
That was the first thing Lu Yuanming wondered once he began to regain his senses.
He wasn't some unknown American drug addict. He was a twenty-three-year-old man from Chongqing, Z Country!
After becoming a vegetable, he had somehow traveled into the body of an American drug addict five years in the future.
So the biggest question now was whether he could still do what he'd managed before and travel back every seventy-two hours—to the body in the vegetative state?
Even if his Original Body was in a vegetative state, that was still better than being torn apart and devoured by monsters in this Death World!
(It's been five days since I traveled here. The first time, I sensed I could go back as soon as seventy-two hours had passed, and I tried it. After I returned to my Original Body, I didn't have to wait another seventy-two hours; I could come back whenever I wanted. But once I traveled to this world five years in the future, I had to wait another seventy-two hours before I could go back. The first seventy-two hours was three days, and because I was scared of what was outside, I spent another two days or so in the room... How many hours has it been now!?)
Lu Yuanming desperately tried to remember.
He had obsessive-compulsive disorder, a trait that had appeared when he was very young. It had grown more severe as he got older, though he had seen a psychologist and received treatment and guidance, so he'd managed to keep it confined to little things, like drinking water and eating.
Unless he'd been very active or sweated a lot, Lu Yuanming drank water every eight hours. He'd kept up the habit for more than ten years, until it had become almost like a biological clock.
According to his memory, after traveling into the drug addict's body for the second time, he'd drunk water eight times. That was sixty-four hours—just eight hours short of being able to travel back again. During those final eight hours, he'd hesitated, tried to comfort and reassure himself, imagined all the things he might encounter, then finally mustered his courage and opened the door. After that came his death, his fall, his arrival in the Death World, and the monsters spotting them and giving chase... All of that had taken at least five or six hours.
(...At the very least, I need to wait another three hours before I can go back, assuming I can still travel at all.)
Even Lu Yuanming couldn't be sure he could still travel back to his Original Body. He'd died after traveling into the drug addict's body, so he had no idea whether he could still return to his Original Body.
But at least it gave him something to hope for, didn't it?
Once Lu Yuanming had figured that out, he began looking around, trying to find somewhere to hide. If he could hold out for three more hours at most, he could try traveling back to his Original Body.
As Lu Yuanming ran and thought, the Black Homeless Man suddenly bent over by the doorway of a room up ahead. That made him stop. The White Police Officer ran past him, and just as Lu Yuanming was about to do the same, the Black Homeless Man suddenly swung a Metal Rod at him. It slammed into Lu Yuanming's left knee with a sharp crack. His leg bent backward, and he toppled to the ground.
The Black Homeless Man glared at him, Metal Rod raised, ready to strike again. Up ahead, the White Police Officer immediately shouted, "Drop your weapon! Put your hands up, or I'll shoot!!"
The Black Homeless Man spat at Lu Yuanming, who was sprawled on the ground, clutching his leg and groaning. But he obediently dropped the rod, then raised his hands toward the White Police Officer. "Hey, man, take it easy. I'm saving us both here. Those monsters are catching up. We might not be able to outrun them, but we can outrun..."
The White Police Officer's expression shifted, but he slowly lowered his pistol. Still, he kept his eyes fixed on the Black Homeless Man. "Get in front of me. Keep your hands where I can see them. Otherwise, I won't hesitate to make you the one who can't run."
The Black Homeless Man shrugged and quickly ran in front of the White Police Officer. As he passed Lu Yuanming, he kicked him in the stomach, making him retch. Lu Yuanming curled up in the corner, clutching his belly.
"Damn yellow pig. If you people hadn't come here to steal our jobs and our dollars, I wouldn't have ended up homeless..."
The Black Homeless Man and the White Police Officer were already running away, heading down the building's stairwell.
At least ten seconds passed before Lu Yuanming could bear the pain in his stomach. He stared in disbelief in the direction the Black Homeless Man and the White Police Officer had gone, unable to process what had happened.
They'd abandoned him!?
No, it was more than that!
They'd stabbed him in the back!
"Fuck, fuck, fuck! No wonder people say Black people don't mind racism—they only mind racism against Black people!!"
Lu Yuanming cursed furiously, then stopped himself and forced himself to calm down.
He tried moving his bent left leg, lifting it just a little. The pain made him howl. He'd never felt anything like it in his life. Clutching his broken leg, he screamed for a few seconds, then gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure it.
The monsters were coming. If he wasted time screaming here, he'd be torn apart and devoured!
He had to find a way to survive, at least until he could travel back again!
Fighting through the pain, Lu Yuanming looked around, carefully taking in everything nearby.
Now he understood. Why had he followed those Black and White Two Fools... no, the Black Homeless Man and the White Police Officer?
What he needed to do was find somewhere narrow and hidden to shelter in, and hold out for the last few hours until he could travel.
The drug addict he'd possessed was dead, and his soul had fallen into the Death World. Whether he could travel back to his Original Body was still up in the air, but gambling on a chance to return was far better than trying to escape more than ten pursuing monsters and hoping to survive.
Of course, it would have been even better if he could find somewhere to hide while still running. But now that his leg was broken, he could no longer leave this top floor. Finding a nearby hiding place was his only choice.
Soon, Lu Yuanming spotted several possible hiding places, though most were just piles of garbage or corners formed by broken walls. Whether he lived or died in places like these came down to luck. If the monsters didn't find him, fine. If they did, they could kill him easily.
With no other choice, Lu Yuanming dragged his broken leg along the floor. Even the slightest movement brought intense pain, but he had no time to care. He crawled forward, dragging his leg and crying out now and then, searching for somewhere he could at least hide.
Just then, Lu Yuanming heard a rustling sound from the broken walls overhead. Something seemed to be moving above him. The hairs all over his body stood on end. There was no doubt about it: the monsters had climbed from the ground onto the rooftop and were now rapidly closing in.
"Come on, come on..."
Lu Yuanming hissed under his breath and crawled faster. He was pushing so hard that his fingernails bent backward. Just then, his eyes lit up, and he immediately crawled toward a room nearby.
The room was also full of broken walls and exposed rebar. In one corner, several broken sections of wall had formed a small alcove, almost like a doggy door. It was tiny, with a narrow entrance and rebar sticking up inside, but from the looks of it, Lu Yuanming could just squeeze through. He could already hear the monsters running behind him, so he stopped worrying about anything else and crawled into the alcove.
He got his upper body inside, scraping his arms and torso against the rebar and jagged edges of the broken walls. He couldn't afford to care about the cuts; he just kept squeezing farther in. The alcove was shallow. He could barely get his whole body inside, and even if he curled up his legs, they'd be only eighty or ninety centimeters from the entrance.
But Lu Yuanming's left leg was broken. He tried to curl it inward, but the slightest movement sent pain shooting through him. There was no way he could bend it, even if he forced himself to endure the pain. The Black Homeless Man had struck it with the rod, bending his knee backward.
In other words...
His left leg stuck straight out of the alcove!
Before you continue