Exploration

Exploring now was not a wise choice.

From nine in the morning until now, Bai Yi had already fought two bloody battles: helping Wang Ziyi's shelter out of a siege in the morning, then killing Rotting Corpses in the afternoon to replenish the shelter's flesh and bone reserves.

As a result, Bai Yi was not in particularly good condition. His talent's active effect was already on cooldown, and his sanity had only just recovered to "75/100."

But Bai Yi needed to verify something. He did not believe the treasure chest's countdown had been set for no reason. These twelve hours had to mean something!

Bai Yi changed out of his bloodstained clothes and quickly took a shower, washing away the bloody smell from his body as well.

Candle in his left hand, bone knife in his right, journal at his left hip, revolver at his right.

Once this familiar routine was complete, Bai Yi lit the candle and stepped into the darkness.

The faint candlelight spread outward, enveloping Bai Yi from all directions without a single blind spot.

The black mist was driven back. It continuously tried to invade the illuminated area, and when it failed, it actually formed black tentacles that pressed against the light.

The sight made Bai Yi shudder slightly. It further confirmed his suspicion—this black mist truly was "alive."

Not daring to waste time, Bai Yi began moving through the darkness. Since the light only covered a limited area, he had not brought Little White along and had left it behind to guard the shelter.

Within the black mist, Bai Yi could not see anything beyond the light, nor could he distinguish direction. He slowly advanced based on his memories of previous explorations and his sense of the shelter's location.

Silence. A silence as lifeless as death.

Along the way, Bai Yi did not encounter a single creature, whether living or dead.

It was as though he were the only person left in this world.

[Psychological State: Anxiety 32/100]

Exploring in the darkness placed immense pressure on Bai Yi. He did not know what lurked within the black mist, nor did he know what lay ahead.

The Rotting Corpses that had once been everywhere had all vanished. Bai Yi did not know whether the darkness held no danger, or whether he simply had not encountered any yet.

Thus, he took every step with extreme caution.

Bai Yi did not enter the collapsed buildings around him. Instead, he kept moving along the broad highway.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, ..., forty minutes, fifty minutes.

[Psychological State: Anxiety 54/100]

He had no idea how far he had walked and could only make a rough estimate based on the time in his journal.

After nearly an hour of exploration, the candle was almost burned out, yet Bai Yi had still found nothing.

Forget gains—there was not even the slightest danger.

But the more it was like this, the more anxious Bai Yi became. Gradually, he stopped being cautious and stopped treading carefully. Instead, he began searching wildly and rummaging around at random.

Seeing that the candle was about to go out, Bai Yi had no choice but to stop. He noticed that something was wrong with his emotions.

[Anxiety 100/100]

"I've been affected."

Bai Yi cast aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind, calmed himself, and thought carefully.

"What can be confirmed is that there should be no danger in the black mist for now." With that thought, Bai Yi opened his journal.

In the team group chat, Zhang Zhen had already used his talent to search. There were no creatures of any kind within a five-kilometer radius of his shelter.

Zhang Zhen was overjoyed. He had found an iron ore factory and was taking advantage of this time to mine pig iron like mad.

"I should have thought of Zhang Zhen's talent earlier. Was it because of the psychological influence...?"

Just as the candle was about to go out, Bai Yi replaced it with a new one.

After that, he stopped exploring blindly and began heading back. With the candlelight to guide him, he also started searching inside buildings.

To avoid wasting time, Bai Yi avoided ordinary residential buildings and specifically searched places like shopping malls.

Most of the malls were completely empty. Everything had been moved away, and the empty shelves that remained were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Because of the time constraint, Bai Yi could not inspect every place thoroughly. He could only conduct a rough search before moving on to the next location.

After replacing another two candles, Bai Yi discovered a locked storage room in an underground supermarket.

The door could be pushed open by a narrow crack. By the candlelight, Bai Yi saw a chain lock fastened around the handles from the inside.

He compared the gap and found it was just wide enough to fit his knife through. Bai Yi took two steps back, then slashed forward with all his strength.

The chain snapped at once!

Pushing open the door, Bai Yi carefully entered.

The shelves inside the storage room were filled with food that had long since rotted and grown moldy. At the same time, Bai Yi noticed moldy blankets neatly laid out across the floor.

"Someone lived here."

Bai Yi continued searching. The storage room was not large, and it did not take him long to make a full circuit.

During that time, he found a table with an opened bag of bread and a piece of moldy bread on it.

"There are traces of someone having lived here, but there's no sign of anyone—not even a corpse. Where did they go?"

This result sent a chill down Bai Yi's spine. The warehouse door had been locked from the inside, and at least thirteen people had lived in this warehouse.

"No one left, and there are no bodies. Did they vanish into thin air?"

As Bai Yi pondered, he carefully observed his surroundings.

Then, he began kicking aside the bedding on the floor one by one. One, two...

After kicking aside the last quilt, a square board was revealed.

Bai Yi knocked on it with his hand. It was hollow. He grabbed a strap left there and pulled.

A hidden passage appeared before Bai Yi. After only a slight hesitation, he stepped inside.

"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."

Bai Yi's footsteps echoed continuously through the empty stairwell.

Bai Yi felt his way down the stairs in the dark. The space ahead was vast, but the black fog blocked his view, preventing him from seeing what lay within.

He first checked along the walls around him. After making a full circuit, Bai Yi found nothing. The only thing he learned was that the basement was entirely circular.

Bai Yi walked inward. The air around him was filled with a nauseating stench, like the rotten smell of animal entrails.

As Bai Yi advanced, the ground beneath his feet gradually changed. What had once felt hard slowly became soft. Stepping on it was like stepping on flesh.

"It feels a lot like the Flesh Fungus Mat."

Bai Yi crouched down and examined the ground by candlelight.

The floor was made of unidentified dark-red chunks of flesh. Bai Yi tried stabbing one with his blade. The knife slid in easily, but even when only the hilt remained, the Tang Dao encountered no resistance.

Bai Yi pulled out the blade. The chunk of flesh showed no sign of movement, nor did any blood flow out.

This bizarre flesh left even Bai Yi uncertain. After a brief moment of thought, he still decided to continue forward.

"The appearance of treasure chests means the system encourages players to explore outside. If I retreat now, I'll only end up dying in the shelter later."

Switching from the Tang Dao to his revolver, Bai Yi slowly moved forward. (A revolver was more flexible in close combat.)

Before long, Bai Yi stopped. Even now, he had not encountered a single attack.

But Bai Yi realized that, at some point, he had already fallen into a trap!