Hope is Always Beautiful

Slaying zombies is physical labor. For any ordinary person, it requires not just stamina but technique; it is by no means as simple as just hacking, slashing, or stabbing.

But for Lin Fan, it was relatively simple.

The Frostmourne in his hand represented evil and darkness, yet in the hands of the righteous Lin Fan, it bloomed with the most brilliant display of its existence.

A zombie's head soared high, spinning in the air before dropping to the ground.

Squelch!

Squelch!

With every swing of his blade, the group of zombies roared hideously. Their strength and speed were formidable, and for some reason, Lin Fan felt these guys were much faster than before.

However, he didn't take it to heart. Running fast? Maybe it was because they were lean with long legs.

Having great strength? That was likely because they were built sturdier.

There was once a "God of the Elevator" who settled things in a single bout.

Now, there was a "God of the Stairwell," wielding Frostmourne and hacking away at the zombies before him.

The stairwell was narrow, making it difficult to unleash the full power of Frostmourne, but he still had his feet. The weight of his kick was something no zombie could withstand; with one strike, it was like a landslide, preventing the zombies from advancing even half a step. They collapsed backward, piling up and forming a mountain of corpses.

"You guys, I don't have to bear legal responsibility for hacking you. You're outnumbering me and trying to bite me with mouths carrying biochemical viruses—this is self-defense."

He wasn't very familiar with the law, but he had studied the aspect of self-defense quite thoroughly.

At this moment, he could only use the sword in his hand to pierce the zombies' heads.

Squelch.

He pierced a zombie's skull, pulled out Frostmourne, and thrust it toward another target.

The zombies, having tasted blood, were frantic. They roared and tried to crawl over to bite him, even when blocked by the corpses of those in front. Gradually, the stairwell became completely clogged.

It was just like a clogged toilet where too much toilet paper had been thrown in; you try to flush it, but it all just gets churned together. That was essentially the situation.

[Zombie killed]

[Points +1]

Starting from the rooftop access, he had already descended three floors, but he could no longer move forward.

He looked at the foul blood on the walls and the floor.

It was dirty—thoroughly dirty.

If the property management of this residential complex saw this, they would definitely be furious. A perfectly good stairwell ruined like this; if other residents saw it, they would surely complain.

"Sigh!"

Lin Fan held Frostmourne, looked at the situation before him, and shook his head. It was truly blocked; he could only hear the roaring from behind the mountain of corpses. He turned around and headed back upstairs.

Returning to the rooftop, he looked at the dust left behind by the fireworks.

He thought of the man who had jumped off just moments ago.

He must have been in great pain.

Or perhaps, it was a form of release.

He walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked down. A large crowd of zombies had gathered, all trying to climb up from the stairwell.

So many zombies.

Really, so many.

Should he hack them?

No, he wouldn't. There were too many.

He didn't want to dirty someone else's environment in a stranger's residential complex; that was a very immoral thing to do.

He huddled in a corner, maintaining a state of silence.

Silence = staying put + not making any noise.

He understood; he would quietly wait for the zombies to leave.

That uncle was right—without the attraction of sound, the zombies would leave on their own.

In his eyes, these zombies were like onlookers at a scene; seeing something happen, they would drop whatever they were doing and gather around to see what was going on. Even if they didn't know what had happened, in a crowd, they acted as if they had seen it with their own eyes, communicating with those around them and recounting the sequence of events to latecomers.

Until the event ended, they would disperse with the crowd.

The scene of the incident would then become completely quiet.

These zombies were just like that.

After an unknown amount of time, there was no movement below. He took a cautious look; they were truly gone, leaving only a few scattered zombies behind.

Continuing to climb down from the top was definitely out of the question; it would easily set a bad example for the children. Of course, even the adults shouldn't learn from it—it was too dangerous. If you fell, your head would definitely crack open, and your brains would be splattered everywhere.

He left the rooftop and took the elevator straight to the first floor.

Don't let the large number of zombies from earlier fool you; their brains didn't seem very smart. They didn't understand how to advance along two routes—one taking the elevator and one climbing the stairs. But if they really did that, perhaps the zombies would have had a conflict. Why should I take the stairs while you take the elevator? If that happened, the elevator would surely be overloaded and break down.

Ding!

The elevator doors slid open.

A zombie stood swaying outside, looking incredibly dull-witted. Seeing such deceptive behavior truly annoyed Lin Fan; people could be honest with one another, and surely, humans and zombies could be just as transparent.

Why sway back and forth, giving off such a foolish vibe?

But such feigned ignorance was useless.

Everyone knew the true nature of a zombie.

How could it possibly hope to deceive him?

Roar!

The sound of the elevator opening startled the zombie, which let out a roar and lunged forward.

Squelch!

It was dealt with easily. Stepping over the corpse, he pushed open the fire door and left the building.

Sunshine Residential Complex.

"Xiao Qing, when do you think this apocalypse will finally end?"

Lin Fan sipped his cola, looking at the rotting corpse. Even though Xiao Qing had already turned into a corpse, it didn't stop him from conversing with her.

"I feel like it should be soon. As long as we work hard, we'll definitely be able to end it early. The once-bustling Huang City will return to our sight."

"Oh, right, it's a bit messy and dirty here. I think I can tidy it up for you. No need to pay me; we're familiar enough that there's no need to stand on ceremony. If you feel bad about it, just let me take some things from here as compensation."

"Since you aren't saying anything, we'll consider that a deal."

"Time to head home, cook, and eat."

One listened, one spoke.

The scene was harmonious and warm, a beautiful snapshot of a compassionate society.

Scanning the code to check out, he headed home.

Old Man Wang and Old Man Zhou were waiting at the main gate. During the time he had been gone, the two capable old men had used wooden planks to block the view beneath the iron gate.

If an adult stood in front of the gate, they would only be able to see the top of the other person's head. If they wanted to see what was happening inside, they would have to stand on their tiptoes.

Of course, at a height of only 1.7 meters, it was an average height that blocked ninety percent of people. The remaining ten percent were those taller than 1.7 meters who could see into the complex, or those who, even on tiptoes, would still only see the wooden planks.

"Good day, you two," Lin Fan said with a smile, greeting them.

Old Man Wang laughed. "Take a look at this fence. What do you think? Old Man Zhou and I have been busy all day, and this is as far as we got. We're mostly lacking tools. If we had the right tools, Old Man Zhou and I could tinker with it and make it even better."

Lin Fan looked at the completed fence. "I think it's quite good. You two are truly clever and handy. If it were me, I definitely couldn't have done it this well."

One must be humble.

Of course, he didn't actually know if he could do it well, as he had never tried.

Therefore, it might have been humility.

Or perhaps it was the truth.

The two old men felt more and more that Lin Fan had so many shining qualities.

He had a good personality, a good temper, and was kind, sincere, humble, and helpful. How many people possessed such qualities? More importantly... the boy still maintained a sense of childlike innocence. Just look at the sword strapped to his back; it was clearly something children loved to play with.

"I'll head back to cook now," Lin Fan said, sensing it was getting late. It was lunchtime, and he needed to wash the rice and cook a delicious meal.

Lunch was very important; it ensured he would have plenty of energy for the afternoon.

"Oh, why bother cooking? Just come eat at our place," Old Man Zhou said. Don't let his scholarly appearance fool you into thinking he didn't understand social graces; he was quite capable in that regard. Plus, with Old Man Wang giving him "lectures" from time to time, he had made great progress.

Lin Fan waved off the kind offer. "No thanks, I'd rather eat at home. I like the smell of a home-cooked meal."

With that, he hurried away.

"You two should head back early as well," he added, a well-intentioned reminder.

"Heh, this kid..."

The two old men looked at each other, surprised that the boy was still being so polite with them.

Back home.

Lin Fan rinsed the rice, set the small rice cooker, and took the vegetables out of the refrigerator. Clatter, clatter—the sound of the kitchen knife hitting the cutting board filled the room. He placed the chopped vegetables into a bowl.

He returned to his computer desk.

The internet hadn't been cut off yet.

He didn't know why the network was still running after all this time.

That was a situation that required a professional to explain.

He refreshed the LOL forum.

No new posts, no new replies.

Everything seemed to have frozen on that day.

He looked at a post from back then.

[Begging for 100,000 to save a life. Just 100,000. I will work like an ox or a horse to repay you all.]

The content was about his mother being ill and in urgent need of surgery fees; he had sold everything he could and borrowed from everyone he knew...

He clicked on it.

Many people had replied—all fellow gamers. Who doesn't run into hard times? Some transferred a hundred, some twenty, some five.

Lin Fan had also transferred a hundred yuan.

Although he was poor himself, he was willing to lend a helping hand.

There were also comments calling the poster a scamming son of a bitch.

But they were immediately met with a barrage of angry rebukes.

The top-rated comment was...

"Even if you're using your mother to scam money, I'll still donate. Even if I'm being scammed, I'll feel at ease, because it's worth it if your mother is okay."

Sitting in front of the computer, he watched that comment quietly.

A smile appeared on the corner of Lin Fan's mouth.

Look, back then, so many people were kind.

Although there were unserious people among the netizens, perverts, and trolls with Gatling-gun mouths, even so, who wasn't a good person at heart?

Clicking the mouse, he returned to the homepage and posted a thread that likely wouldn't receive any replies.

[Everyone, are you still there?]

He posted it.

He refreshed the page, but the view count remained at '0'.

He opened a movie website and started a film.

Lin Fan sat there, watching it intently.

The sound of the movie filled the living room.

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

PS: Seeking votes.

Thanks to Wu Xing Wu Chen Wu, God, Book Friend 20171208140257564, ewe233, Mo Yu, Late Winter, Big Shot Sister, Book Friend 20200308133803416, Lin Fan is a Crossdresser, Wulin Fatty, and other book friends for their tips. Thank you, thank you.