No One Survives

The middle-aged man, fierce in voice but weak at heart, hurried out of the room as if fleeing.

Zhou You had initially wanted to stop him for more details, but the system warned that doing so would directly result in game failure—so he could only shake his head and begin a simple search of his surroundings.

At first glance, this was just an ordinary security booth, small and somewhat shabby, with various security equipment scattered haphazardly around the room. By the door hung maps of municipal departments, along with patrol routes and instructions for his post.

However, unlike a typical security guard responsible for a single residential complex, his patrol area covered the entire block. There was no work computer or similar equipment in the room—only an old television set. Zhou You tried it and found it had been broken for a long time, completely unusable.

On the desk, a few newspapers were piled up, but due to the game's limitations, most of the text was blurred as if soaked through with water, making it extremely difficult to read. Only a few words could be pieced together here and there.

"Accidents... frequent..."

"Tycoon... gravely ill... in emergency treatment..."

"Urgently hiring... desperate need... generous compensation..."

"A street vendor... died from overwork... his family..."

"Corruption... investigative journalist... about to..."

"Acquisition... slaughterhouse..."

Zhou You studied them for a long time but found no useful clues.

After all, most of the words were fragmented beyond recognition, making it impossible to guess their meaning. He could only infer from "urgently hiring" and "desperate need" that this recruitment news might be related to his current task—but "generous compensation"?

He hadn't forgotten that the opening introduction had stated this job would only keep him from "starving to death."

Finding nothing useful here, Zhou You turned to look at the other side.

There lay a sign-in book.

The paper was about four inches square, not particularly old, but probably due to rough handling during use, it was covered in mud stains and grease. The first page listed the day shift patrol personnel and duty roster, which seemed normal. But when he flipped to the second page—the night shift roster—his expression darkened.

The names were different this time. Unlike the nearly fixed personnel on the first page, the night shift patrol changed names every other day, and none of the names repeated.

But more importantly...

None of them had completed their shifts.

On the sign-in sheet, only the "arrival" column had checkmarks, while the "departure" column was completely blank.

—So, what had happened to those employees? Why couldn't they even come back?

Thinking about this, when he looked again at the security uniform stained with what seemed to be blood, a wave of chills ran down his spine.

As he was lost in thought, a crisp chime suddenly rang out. Zhou You looked up at the clock and realized that, in this short time, the hour hand had unknowingly pointed to 11.

It was time for the night patrol.

Although the game hadn't specified any penalty for being late, he didn't want to test the consequences. So Zhou You simply tightened his jacket, took one more look around the security booth to make sure he hadn't missed anything, picked up his flashlight, and walked out.

Outside the security booth.

The night street was deathly silent.

From the patrol instructions, Zhou You had learned that this block was originally slated for redevelopment into a new urban area, so most residents had already moved away, leaving only a few stubborn holdouts refusing to relocate.

It seemed like a reasonable explanation.

But the problem was...

He suddenly looked up and glanced around.

None of the old buildings had any lights on, nor any signs of human activity. Occasionally, faint rustling sounds could be heard from behind locked doors, but as soon as he focused on them, the noises would immediately fall silent, as if everything he had just heard was some kind of illusion.

—This was wrong.

Very wrong.

Normally, even if it was 11 PM and more than half the people had moved away, such a large block couldn't be completely devoid of any sign of life, nor could there be not a single lit window.

Unless...

Zhou You didn't dwell on the exaggerated assumption in his mind. Instead, using the dim light of the streetlamp, he walked up to a door, hesitated for a moment, then gently knocked.

No response.

Then he gave it a slight tug.

The lock wasn't tight. Even a random out-of-shape guy could probably pull it open with a bit of effort, let alone a young man like him.

"So if something unexpected happens during the patrol, could these residential buildings serve as emergency shelters..."

Thinking this, Zhou You leaned down to peer through the crack in the door.

Then...

—He saw a face.

A grayish-blue face, floating in midair, devoid of any flesh or bone, bizarre, twisted, and... staring straight at him.

In an instant, Zhou You's whole body jolted, and he leaped backward.

"—You have been eroded. Sanity damaged. Current sanity: 85/100."

...Suddenly encountering such a face-to-face scare, even with his temperament, it startled him. Fortunately, that ghostly face seemed to exist only within the building; after he moved away, it didn't chase after him, only leaving behind a rustling sound.

Zhou You took a few deep breaths, calming himself down a bit—but then, as if remembering something, he suddenly held his breath, tilted his ear, and listened carefully.

Once everything fell completely silent, the other noises became increasingly clear.

Thus, the entire block was filled with that rustling sound from all directions. However, because there were simply too many, Zhou You could no longer distinguish the exact number.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or... had it already reached tens of thousands?

How many buildings were here? And how many ghostly faces?

"Damn..."

After a long moment, Zhou You let out a heartfelt exclamation.

"I know you don't want me to cut corners, but did you have to make such a big show of it..."

But since the other party had gone to such lengths, he had no choice but to abandon the idea of taking shortcuts. He turned and continued walking toward the main road.

Time passed little by little, but aside from that scare earlier, this stretch of road surprisingly encountered no other monsters. In fact, it was almost smooth sailing to complete this segment of the task.

According to the map shown in the security booth, the patrol route he needed to take was roughly divided into four areas.

From the security booth to the current Yuan Shun Intersection was the first segment; from Yuan Shun Intersection to Shan Huai Hutong was the second; from Shan Huai Hutong to Chang Song Slope was the third; and then a loop around the bottom of Chang Song Slope would finish the job.

But although he had easily completed a quarter of it, Zhou You didn't feel relieved at all. Instead, he had a nagging sense of unease.

—After all, this was at least a mid-to-low erosion scenario. How could its difficulty possibly be lower than Building Four, which was a beginner scenario? And on top of that, it had just thrown that face-to-face scare at him, warning him not to think about cutting corners. There was no way it would let him finish the rest of the path so easily...

Yet just as Zhou You was starting to fall into doubt, not far from his line of sight, a glimmer of light suddenly caught his eye.

Moreover, unlike the dim yellow streetlights, that light had the bright brilliance unique to incandescent lamps.

It was also the only somewhat bright light in this gloomy city.