(PS: I almost habitually updated this chapter under Honghuang Calendar just now... Also, Xiao Z is still asking for votes and tips. Everyone, please show your support~~~~)
The pistol he'd found was useless, which left Lu Yuanming deeply disappointed.
But he didn't throw it away. Whether for comfort or some other reason, he carefully slipped the pistol into his inner pocket.
He continued exploring, but after seeing two corpses, he slowed down even more.
Gradually, Lu Yuanming began to feel unbearably thirsty and hungry.
When he'd been back for sixteen hours—the second time his instincts had told him to drink water—he'd already felt thirsty. He'd been able to endure it then, but by the time he'd explored the ground floor of the building, he'd wanted water four times. That meant he'd been here for thirty-two hours.
Although Lu Yuanming found it strange that he could feel thirsty and hungry in the afterlife, when he'd already become a soul, it didn't change how unbearably thirsty he was now.
For a normal human being, going more than twenty-four hours without water meant being at least partially dehydrated.
A person could survive for nearly thirty days without food, as long as they had water.
But without water, they would die of thirst in four to seven days.
Lu Yuanming was now in an extreme state of thirst and hunger. He'd searched the building for a long time but hadn't found a single source of water. There was no tap water, nor any other kind. He'd even checked the toilets, but they were completely dry.
There was no food, either—not even fresh water.
The only option was to gnaw on corpses, human or monster. But that would be the death of him. He would never touch a human corpse, for one thing. And as for the monster corpses, their lower halves were at least doglike, but they were already rotting. Was he supposed to eat rotten meat?
Lu Yuanming was sure he wouldn't find food or fresh water in the abandoned building, but he didn't dare leave it either.
Of course, he knew he'd have to leave eventually. He couldn't stay trapped there forever. But before leaving, he needed to make sufficient preparations.
Since the pistol was useless, he needed another weapon and some protective gear.
During those thirty-odd hours of exploring, Lu Yuanming had also searched for weapons and armor. There wasn't much to choose from. For weapons, he'd found a few broken pieces of rebar. The longest was nearly a meter long and about as thick as three fingers put together. Its broken end was extremely sharp, making it suitable as a kind of spear. The only drawback was that it was rather heavy. It was the best weapon for attacking that he'd found in the building.
As for armor, there was nothing he could do. Lu Yuanming had scavenged bits and pieces, tearing some wooden planks off old, discarded furniture and hanging them over his front and back. They barely stayed in place. Honestly, the planks were only good for reassuring him. A monster could punch right through them—and so could an ordinary human.
That was the extent of Lu Yuanming's weapons and armor. By his own assessment, they were just a little better than chicken weaklings—maybe duck weaklings, but definitely nowhere near goose weaklings.
That was why Lu Yuanming didn't dare leave the building. The outside world was far too terrifying. Even though he'd resolved to grow stronger as a soul in this afterlife, making up his mind and throwing his life away were two different things.
As Lu Yuanming agonized over whether to leave the building while growing more and more thirsty and hungry, his parents and younger sister were burning joss paper money in the timeline of his original body.
In most parts of Z Country, people did this before their family reunion dinner for Spring Festival. They burned joss paper money to honor their ancestors and pray for a new year with fewer disasters and more good luck.
Lu Yuanming's body lay on the sofa in the living room. His parents and younger sister were on the balcony, burning joss paper money in a small fire basin. As they did, they said things like "Ancestors, come collect your money" and "Ancestors, please bless us," or prayed for Lu Yuanming to wake up soon.
Meanwhile, Lu Yuanming was on the second floor of the building, once again wanting to leave because of his thirst and hunger. But leaving just like that was dangerous. His rational mind told him he needed to plan more carefully, so he was caught in a state of indecision and anxiety.
Just then, he was astonished to see some Light Particles appear out of thin air. At first, there was one. Then more and more appeared, until eleven Light Particles floated around him.
Lu Yuanming was overjoyed. He reached out to scoop them up, but forced himself to hold back. This was the afterlife. What if some kind of ghostly curse had taken the form of Light Particles?
Besides, when he examined them closely, he saw that they were colorless. They only seemed to glow. Each one was about the size of his little fingernail, colorless and translucent, completely different from the White Light Particles that had appeared after he killed the monster. The difference was immediately obvious.
"So... what exactly are these?"
Lu Yuanming didn't dare touch them right away. He carefully stepped around the Light Particles and started moving, but they moved along with him, staying about half a meter away. They neither moved farther away nor came any closer.
After observing and waiting for more than ten minutes, Lu Yuanming was certain that these weren't ghosts or curses, and that they didn't seem to pose any danger. Only then did he cautiously bring a finger close and slowly touch one.
It didn't hurt or burn him. When he touched it, Lu Yuanming felt something like a bubble or plastic wrap. The Colorless Light Particle didn't break. It simply let his finger touch it, and then he was able to pinch it between his fingers.
Lu Yuanming fiddled with and examined the Light Particle, but after a long while, he still couldn't figure out what it was. He even put it in his mouth and chewed, but it kept its shape. It looked fragile, yet was incredibly resilient. It definitely wasn't one of the White Light Particles that appeared after killing a monster!
After playing with it for a long time, Lu Yuanming had no choice but to give up. He was hungry and thirsty, and didn't have much energy to investigate this thing that had suddenly appeared.
"I'm so thirsty. I wish I had a Big Bowl Covered Tea, or even a huge bottle of Mineral Water."
Lu Yuanming played with the Colorless Light Particle in his hand. Now he lay on the floor, waiting for the seventy-two-hour mark to arrive. He'd decided to explore outside only after he could travel back again, even though that meant he'd have to keep enduring his hunger and thirst. He muttered to himself as he thought about the food and drinks he'd enjoyed in the past.
Then, all of a sudden, his hand grew heavy, and he felt a burning pain. Startled, he immediately flung the thing away and rolled one or two meters to the side.
He thought the Colorless Light Particle had finally hurt him. But when he looked at where he'd been lying, he froze.
On the floor where he'd just been lying were a large bottle of Mineral Water and a bowl of Big Bowl Covered Tea. The tea had spilled all over the floor, leaves and boiling water alike. It was the boiling water that had burned him.
"?"
Lu Yuanming's mind was full of questions. He looked all around, above and below him, then focused his gaze on the Colorless Light Particles.
One, two, three... ten. There were ten Colorless Light Particles in all, one fewer than before. The one he'd just been playing with was gone!
Lu Yuanming had a few suspicions. He hurried to the bottle of Mineral Water, carefully examined the water's color and texture, shook it, opened the cap and sniffed it, then dipped a finger in and tasted it. Yep, its color, smell, and taste—it was definitely water...
Lu Yuanming didn't bother investigating any further. He bent over the bottle and gulped down water until his stomach was bloated. Then he flopped down beside it, overwhelmed with happiness.
Two or three minutes later, Lu Yuanming cautiously pinched off another Colorless Light Particle and pressed it against the floor. At the same time, he imagined white rice, Spicy Diced Chicken, hot pot, sweet-and-sour pork ribs, Shao Bai, Chopped Chili Fish Head... and other delicious dishes.
And then, as if by magic, a large bowl of white rice, a pot of hot pot with meat and vegetables, a plate of sweet-and-sour pork ribs, and half a plate of Shao Bai appeared on the floor... half a plate?
Lu Yuanming immediately dug in. As he ate, he pondered the half plate of Shao Bai.
"One Colorless Light Particle can manifest something based on what I have in mind, but it's not unlimited. I can't manifest as much as I want. There's some kind of equivalent exchange involved. I'll need to test the exact formula. And the source of these Colorless Light Particles is still a mystery. They seem to have appeared out of thin air, but they're floating around me. They must have something to do with me, but I haven't done anything..."
Lu Yuanming thought it over carefully. He was certain the Colorless Light Particles had appeared for no reason. He hadn't done anything during that time. He hadn't killed any monsters or changed anything.
"...Maybe some higher being, like a god, took pity on me when I was about to starve and gave me this perk? No, maybe they're joss paper money that the living burned for me."
Lu Yuanming had eaten nearly all the food, and his stomach was completely swollen. He lay lazily on the floor, studying the nine remaining Colorless Light Particles. He joked as he thought things over, but as soon as he said that, he suddenly froze.
As a native of Chongqing, Z Country, Lu Yuanming had been taken by his parents to burn joss paper money ever since he was little. Whether it was for the Qingming Festival, a death anniversary, or Spring Festival, they did it two or three times a year. He vaguely remembered his parents saying that the joss paper money was food for their ancestors—part of the offerings made to them.
"That's it! If I calculate right, Spring Festival is only a day or two away. My parents must be burning joss paper money right now, and they're sure to be talking about me. I'm dead now, and although my soul crossed through time, aren't ancestors people from the past, too? In other words... could these Colorless Light Particles be offerings? Or maybe something like the faith in novels?"
Lu Yuanming stared at the nine remaining Colorless Light Particles, his eyes shining. He pinched off another one. This time, instead of thinking about food, he thought about something else. He wanted to test this sudden idea of his.
Slowly, the Colorless Light Particle disappeared. In Lu Yuanming's hand lay a translucent bullet!
Lu Yuanming immediately pulled out the pistol, put the bullet in the magazine, and reassembled it. He pointed the pistol ahead, but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Part of him was afraid to get his hopes up only to be disappointed; another part feared the gunshot would attract monsters.
As Lu Yuanming hesitated, a sudden cry came from the street outside the building. It was the shriek of a child!
Lu Yuanming ran toward the second-floor stairwell and peered through a collapsed section of the stairwell wall toward the street. A few seconds later, he saw people.
Two adults and five children were running along the street. Three Man-faced Dogs were charging after them. One girl looked about seven or eight years old, but she was quite fat. As she ran, she stumbled and fell to the ground. The others kept running, and then, right before Lu Yuanming's eyes, a Man-faced Dog pinned the fat child down with both paws and lunged at her with its gaping maw.
In a single bite, all that remained in the Man-faced Dog's mouth was a heap of torn flesh...
Lu Yuanming's pupils contracted. He clapped a hand over his mouth, while the six survivors ran straight toward the building where he was hiding, rushing in through the first-floor entrance. Close behind them, the two Man-faced Dogs that hadn't caught any prey charged into the building as well!
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