A Night

"Ah!"

Half-awake, Li Shu let out half a startled cry before quickly lowering her voice. She did not dare make the slightest sound, afraid of drawing monsters sensitive to noise.

She hurriedly got to her feet and looked at Lu Ren, who held a sharp weapon.

"Y-you're awake!"

Lu Ren neither confirmed nor denied it. "Why did you come to my door?"

As he spoke, his gaze swept around, confirming that the alarm devices he had set up had not been damaged. Only then did he secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Lu Ren had truly feared that he had slept like a dead pig, failing to react even if the alarms went off.

It seemed Li Shu was still fairly sensible.

Then he said rather unhappily, "Please stay farther away from me."

Hearing Lu Ren's blunt words, Li Shu's eyes reddened. Biting her lip, she did not dare say anything more and silently stepped aside. If she really went up and pestered him, Lu Ren might very well chop her down with a single slash.

From what she had seen since last night, Lu Ren had no tender regard for women. Or rather, he truly treated men and women equally...

Damn this equality between men and women!

Lu Ren said nothing at that and let Li Shu sink into her own speculation.

After checking his warning devices once more, Lu Ren turned and asked, "How did you get here?"

Li Shu understood what Lu Ren was asking and quickly replied, "I was extremely careful while walking and didn't dare make any noise. I even covered my phone's flashlight with my hand so the light wouldn't shine too brightly. That was why I noticed the things you set up."

There was one thing she did not say aloud. When she saw Lu Ren sleeping while clutching his blade from afar, she could only find a spot farther away and huddle there, afraid that Lu Ren might imitate Cao Cao and kill enemies in his dreams...

Lu Ren nodded slightly and said nothing more. He walked to a broken window and looked at the gray, hazy scene outside.

It was still the same as yesterday. Broken buildings stood everywhere, with huge holes punched through them by massive impacts. Faintly visible between the cracks of the ruins were scattered white bones.

He took a piece of high-calorie chocolate from his bag and ate it, then took a few sips of water to moisten his throat. Glancing at Li Shu beside him, he saw her staring wide-eyed at the chocolate in his hand, so Lu Ren stuffed it into his mouth in one go.

"Your things should still be downstairs. Go get them yourself. Daytime should be safe. If you delay any longer, the people who survived probably won't share with you."

Seeing that Lu Ren had no intention of sharing at all, Li Shu finally extinguished that last trace of hope. This cold-blooded man looked as though he had truly survived in such an apocalypse for a long time.

Selfish and self-serving, with no sense of solidarity whatsoever.

He watched Li Shu's cautious retreating figure disappear into the stairwell.

Lu Ren shook his head slightly. For people thrown into such an environment, perhaps they really could unite, help one another, and support each other during the first day or two. But once time passed, with water and food running out...

Within only a few days, the urge to drink the other person's blood and eat their flesh would fill their entire body. All reason and thought would revolve around the desire to survive.

Perhaps his thinking was too absolute, but for someone who had gone through such an experience, only by preparing for the worst from the start could he be mentally prepared enough.

Lu Ren did not want to travel with others. Rather than trying to figure out what was in someone else's heart, he would rather be a lone wolf.

Suddenly, his gaze fixed on the magazine rack beside the bar counter—or rather, on the cover of a magazine on the shelf.

"Professor Chen Guohua's newly discovered particle has been named the Hua Particle. Its function seems capable of opening a passage to another dimension."

Lu Ren picked up the magazine and flipped it open for a closer look.

"In 2046, Dr. Chen Guohua located and captured the Hua Particle through an ultra-long particle accelerator."

"In 2047, Dr. Chen Guohua led his team in using compressed high energy to bombard the Hua Particle, successfully opening a passage to another-dimensional space at the Haizhou City Underground Experiment Center. This was the most glorious moment in human history! Once exploration of the other-dimensional space is complete, we will greatly alleviate Earth's resource depletion crisis..."

"Ding! By reading an interesting magazine article about other-dimensional space, you seem to have discovered a clue to the truth behind the destruction of this Otherworld Wasteland. Your Spirit Proficiency +3."

Seeing this, Lu Ren could not help looking up at the broken world beyond the window. Had this world suffered an invasion of monsters from another dimension because of a scientific experiment?

There was a high probability that this was the case.

But how could he explain that Greasy Freak with an obviously humanoid appearance, or the Blade Bamboo monster covered from head to toe in bamboo-jointed shells?

Products of some ascension modification? And that fellow who had his eyes covered and looked like Blind Monk.

Although curious, Lu Ren still had no urge to investigate further. Honestly surviving for seven days was the proper path.

Everything else was just passing clouds. There was absolutely no need to go exploring.

Lu Ren opened his backpack and calculated his supplies. A piece of Tuli Jia High-Energy Chocolate was only about the size of two fingers, but it contained enough energy to meet a person's daily needs. It was a good choice for many fitness enthusiasts, or for replenishing energy after intense, prolonged exercise.

At one piece per day, Lu Ren had six pieces in his backpack, enough to last him seven days. As for the two 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water, as long as he did not engage in overly strenuous activity and moved slowly without sweating, they would barely suffice.

But it was still worrying. At the very least, if he encountered those bizarre monsters every day, with appearances even more grotesque than malformed creatures, then if he could not escape, he would need to expend a great deal of energy dealing with them.

He needed to find more supplies—not just water, but food and weapons as well.

If this world had undergone a world-ending catastrophe around 2047, then how many years had passed now? This apparent parallel world probably no longer had any humans left.

Lu Ren looked at the dust on the bar counter, which had accumulated to at least three centimeters thick, and could not help letting out a long sigh. It had to be at least ten years.

Humanity was like this. Before the unknown, people always possessed an exceedingly strong desire to explore. Though it came with fear and excitement, every step of human progress was an unavoidable path. It was just that the people of this world had stepped on a landmine.

He wondered what these monsters had relied on to survive. They probably killed one another too.

After determining his goal, Lu Ren used some simple tools in the office area and a leather bag he found to make an exceedingly crude belt. He hung the two Strange Swords at his waist, one on each side.

The Basic Swordsmanship skill was not limited to one-handed swords; it could also be used with dual swords. It was simply because of his lifelong habit of using his right hand that Lu Ren found a sword in his right hand more natural.

No longer paying attention to Li Shu and the others, Lu Ren even saw Zhao Hui in a second-floor storage room, peeking cautiously into the corridor like a thief.

Meeting her startled gaze, Lu Ren passed by her without expression and quickly left the building.