Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!

Shen Feng's expression hardened. He sprang up from his chair, stared wide-eyed at his hand, then jabbed the back of it hard.

His skin sank in and sprang back up, but he did not know whether it was an illusion—it seemed... just a tiny bit slower than before...

The food and drink had been so satisfying that he had practically forgotten he was in the apocalypse.

But that series of strange cracking sounds from his joints brought him completely back to his senses.

This was an apocalypse that devoured people whole. He could not afford the slightest lapse in vigilance. The moment he let his guard down, death would be waiting for him!

At the same time, a disturbance came from the street outside. Through the grimy glass window, he could vaguely see several shadows darting past.

Wild beasts had arrived.

They had probably been drawn in by the smell of the barbecue.

Shen Feng immediately picked up several bottles of baijiu, uncapped them, and poured them all by the entrance before wiping some across his face.

The pungent smell of alcohol spread through the air. Its heavy scent would mask the aroma of the roasted meat and could also keep the beasts from advancing.

Shen Feng then found a backpack, wrapped the remaining cooked venison in foil and packed it away, then filled several mineral water bottles with boiled water and put them into the bag.

Then came all sorts of emergency and essential supplies:

Several boxes of matches, a bottle of baijiu, a roll of toilet paper, knives, a Swiss Army knife, and some other necessities.

The backpack was not packed too full. In an apocalypse of this relatively low intensity, supermarkets and convenience stores were everywhere in the city, and there were still plenty of usable supplies.

After finishing all that, Shen Feng gripped an axe and left through the back door of the supermarket.

He urgently needed stronger weapons to arm himself. With only the knives and axe in his hands, he simply could not fight powerful wild beasts, much less organized packs like wolves.

Guns!

He needed guns!

Shen Feng held his axe and moved swiftly along the street, his expression wary.

On the way here earlier, he had spotted a small guard post, but Shen Feng had ignored it.

Ordinary police pistols were not much use against wild beasts with such incredible speed and endurance. It was hard to say whether he could even hit them.

His target was a large regional police station. Only a place like that would have the powerful weapons he needed!

Following the city map he had found at the newspaper stand, Shen Feng walked through seven or eight blocks before a large building finally appeared before him.

The city police department building!

The entire building was in a terrible state of decay, its exterior covered in vines. Through the dark, hollow windows, he could vaguely make out the petrified figures inside.

There were also several stone statues in police uniforms in the courtyard. Some were still frozen in running poses, clearly preparing to act in the final moments of their lives.

Several police cars, charred black by explosions, sat nearby. The ground was also covered in cracks, as if a battle had once taken place here.

But all the truth had been buried within the stone statues.

The grass in the courtyard was especially lush, nearly as tall as a person, making the path ahead almost impossible to see.

Shen Feng took out a long knife meant for cutting watermelons and hacked through the weeds as he made his way toward the entrance.

Perhaps because this place still carried the scent of explosions, there seemed to be especially few wild animals nearby. He had not even seen a rat all the way here.

Shen Feng did not enter the main building directly. Instead, he first climbed onto the roof of an SUV and approached a stone statue holding an electric megaphone.

Though the statue's police uniform had decayed beyond recognition, its shoulder insignia remained. He could tell that its rank had been the highest.

It was probably some leader, like the chief, seemingly directing an operation.

Shen Feng looked at its waist and, sure enough, saw a holster containing a police pistol, with a ring of keys hanging from the belt.

Delighted, Shen Feng immediately took out the pistol and keys, then cut the retaining cord tied to the gun.

The gun was loaded with plenty of bullets and felt satisfyingly heavy in his hand.

Following what he had seen in movies, Shen Feng cautiously disengaged the safety, aimed at a distant glass window, and pulled the trigger hard.

"Click..."

It was jammed. The trigger would not move at all.

Shen Feng was speechless. This gun had clearly been left outdoors in the sun and rain for too long, and its insides had rusted.

Even if this thing could fire, he would not dare use it. If it blew up in his hand, his fingers could be blown clean off.

Just then, rustling came from the grass beside him. Shen Feng whipped around, and his hair stood on end as terror seized him. He could barely believe his eyes.

A tiger was crouching low in the grass, accelerating toward him!

The tiger's body was pressed extremely low to the ground and concealed by the weeds. If Shen Feng had not been standing on the roof of the car, he would never have noticed it moving!

Only then did he understand why there were practically no animals in or around the police station courtyard. This was the tiger's territory!

The moment Shen Feng entered the courtyard, the tiger had set its sights on him. It had been slowly closing in, and now it was finally ready to kill with a single strike!

"You bastard!" Shen Feng shouted. Putting all his strength into it, he hurled the pistol at the tiger, then turned and leaped off the car roof, sprinting desperately toward the police department building.

There was not even an obstacle around him. Even with an axe in hand, he was nothing more than a meal before a tiger. The police car doors had rusted shut and could not be opened. His only chance of survival was to get inside the building!

Shen Feng fled like mad. The tiger had already come within a dozen meters of him, but the thrown pistol startled it, slowing it down slightly.

Only slightly. Then it pounced toward the fleeing Shen Feng again.

Today's prey looked vaguely familiar. Its scent was a little strange, but it looked tender and juicy.

Shen Feng felt as though he had used every last ounce of strength in his body. He had never run so fast in his life. Thoughts like I should have gone jogging every morning and I should have gotten a job at a gym flashed through his mind, and he finally reached the entrance to the police station lobby.

The door was open!

Shen Feng charged through the doorway, spun around, and slammed the aluminum alloy doors shut, about to slide the bolt into place.

Boom!

With a dull crash, the tiger reached the entrance and slammed open the loosely closed doors, sending Shen Feng flying before he crashed heavily to the floor.

The tiger had pounced inside!

At that critical moment, Shen Feng, lying on the ground, suddenly turned his head and saw a large-caliber shotgun lying right beside him, with scattered shells next to it.

Without hesitation, he grabbed it, braced the stock against the floor, aimed the barrel at the tiger pouncing toward him, and pulled the trigger repeatedly!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deafening gunshots rang out. The tiger, still in midair, was struck by the shotgun's dense spray of pellets. Its body, weighing over two hundred kilograms, abruptly halted in the air as bursts of blood exploded from it, before it crashed heavily to the ground with a dull thud!

Several shotgun blasts struck the tiger's head and chest at close range, completely tearing through the beast's flesh and leaving it incapable of harming anyone!

Shen Feng's arms were numb from the shotgun's enormous recoil. He lay sprawled there, his heart pounding like a drum, his mouth dry, his breathing ragged, and he felt a little sick.

Luckily, the gun's safety had already been disengaged. Luckily, it had plenty of shells. And luckily, it had remained indoors and was still in good condition—it had not exploded in his hands!

Had he been one second later, Shen Feng's head might already have been bitten off!

After lying on the ground long enough to catch his breath and gather his strength, Shen Feng slowly climbed to his feet and walked over to the tiger.

The stench of the beast mixed with the smell of blood, constantly pouring forth. The tiger was not completely dead yet. It twitched and struggled, its eyes filled with madness, as though it recognized the upright creature before it as the vanished master of the world.

Let me end your suffering...

Shen Feng sighed and pressed the muzzle against the tiger's forehead.

A flock of crows and sparrows took flight.