Traces

After racing along for nearly half an hour, Lu Ren proceeded with extreme caution the entire way. At the slightest movement outside, he would find a concealed corner and hide.

The farther he went, the more alarmed he became. Along the way, he saw no fewer than ten mutant monsters. Two of them were even larger than that mutated giant bull. He could still make out their original forms: one was a wild boar covered in scales, and the other was a giant bear whose footsteps made the ground tremble.

The metallic sheen on their thick, heavy armor was especially despairing.

Lu Ren did not dare make a sound. He squeezed into every cramped, hidden corner he could find, which was how he made it through safely. A few times, monsters nearly came face-to-face with them. Whenever the girl was about to scream, he covered her mouth and slapped her a few times, and she obediently kept quiet afterward.

He did not stop until the fourth floor of a residential building. After prying open a security door with his longsword and scanning the interior, Lu Ren directly tossed the girl onto the sofa. She held her reddened cheeks, tears glimmering in her eyes, and looked at him pitifully and cautiously, afraid he might suddenly fly into a rage and tear her apart.

Honestly, if not for the girl telling him to run earlier, Lu Ren would not have cared about her in the slightest. But if she expected him to treat her with tender care, then she was out of luck.

"Stay here for now. I'm going to check the building."

Without waiting for the girl to finish speaking, Lu Ren carried his longsword and checked every unit in the residential building. Only after confirming there were no unusual dangers did he return to the fourth floor and meet the girl's delighted gaze.

Lu Ren said coldly, "This place isn't particularly dangerous. You can search nearby for anything edible. If you're lucky enough, you might survive the seven days."

Seeing Lu Ren turn to leave, the girl hurriedly struggled to her feet.

"W-where are you going?"

Without turning back, Lu Ren tossed out a reply.

"Being with you lowers my chances of survival. Besides, you're always hiding things. I don't like that."

Just like women liked scumbags and men liked scheming girls.

They were all calculating, smooth-talking types.

She was no good little sister.

The girl stared blankly as Lu Ren disappeared around the stairwell corner. She did not even have time to say a word.

After a long while, the weakness vanished completely from the girl's face, leaving only calm. Then a trace of regret appeared, along with lingering fear and deep disappointment. "What a pity. I thought I'd found one!"

She had assumed Lu Ren was the sort of man who could not walk away when he saw a pretty woman. She had not expected him to deny her even a chance to speak.

"Very cautious..."

The girl touched her swollen cheek where Lu Ren had slapped her, her face full of helpless gloom.

Lu Ren knew nothing of the unnamed girl's thoughts. Even if he had known, he probably would not have cared much. Her earlier behavior had been decent enough and had stirred something in him, but that weak, stereotypically scheming-girl act of hers repulsed him.

She was still too young. Her scheming was not sophisticated enough.

Perhaps in a peaceful world, Lu Ren would have spent more time around her to see what tricks she would play. But in this alternate world, he maintained sufficient vigilance toward everyone.

He would never travel with anyone!

Rather than constantly guard against every person around him, it was much easier to travel alone.

After heading another three kilometers or so toward the outskirts, the high-rises became much scarcer, replaced by more residential complexes.

When Lu Ren entered a large supermarket nearby and looked around, he carefully searched several canned food sections. Then, with a grave expression, he looked at the only three cans left in his hand.

One can of beef, one can of herring, and one can of peaches.

There was no other canned food with a long shelf life left. Or rather, nearly all food with a long shelf life had vanished.

There were still traces of surviving humans moving about.

Although he had expected it, seeing it for himself still shook him.

It had to be said that humanity possessed an unimaginably tenacious will to survive. Even in an environment overrun by monsters, people had still managed to live on.

Lu Ren stood at the entrance to the supermarket's back storage room. There was a chopped mark on the doorframe. Judging by the mark, it was quite recent, no more than fifteen days old.

Where were those survivors hiding?

Lu Ren immediately dismissed the thought of investigating. According to the system prompt, he only needed to quietly survive for seven days. There was no need to dig deeper into the truth of this dying world.

Whether anyone was still alive in this world had nothing to do with him.

After confirming there was nothing worth taking, Lu Ren quickly left the supermarket and headed briskly toward a residential complex in an alley behind it.

Just as Lu Ren passed a sewer, its manhole cover suddenly shifted.

Lu Ren immediately stopped and watched as the cover carefully opened a narrow gap.

He stepped forward, swiftly circled behind the gap, and watched quietly.

When the manhole cover opened without making the slightest sound, a head cautiously poked out.

Short hair, female, dressed in modern clothing. Clearly, she had no shortage of clothes. Since the entire city seemed to have fallen silent and the sewers had stopped functioning as they should, she did not carry the usual sewer stench.

Judging from her back, she seemed to be a young girl. The agility and caution in her movements were clearly different from people who had come here from the real world.

It seemed that humans in this world were still quietly surviving and reproducing.

"So, you're one of the people still alive in this city?"

Lu Ren's sudden voice made the girl shudder all over. Without even turning around, she pulled the dagger strapped to her thigh and hurled it backward at Lu Ren.

Lu Ren frowned, sidestepping the dagger while drawing his longsword and slashing at her.

"Wait, you're human?!"

The longsword stopped after carving a thin bloody line across the girl's shoulder and neck. Yet she showed no intention of dodging. Instead, she looked at him with a face full of delighted surprise, seemingly extremely excited.

Even so, she still did not raise her voice much.

Lu Ren did not withdraw his longsword. Frowning, he asked, "What are you doing?"

Ten minutes later, in a maintenance room within the spacious sewer, Lu Ren surveyed the surroundings. There was a sleeping bag, several cans arranged in a corner, and even some vegetables planted by the wall, though they looked sickly due to the lack of light.

He had followed the girl into the sewers because the underground was clearly safer than the surface.

Although she looked very excited, Lu Ren could keenly sense the deep, hidden something in the depths of her heart... More importantly, the system had begun giving him all sorts of messy prompts again.

He had already tested it. System prompts only appeared for people who bore him ill intent.

Should I kill her?

The thought flashed through Lu Ren's mind, but he ultimately did not act. After all, she had not done anything improper to him. If he killed her just like that, he would become a murderous lunatic.

Just as Li Ziqing had said, if one wished to delve deeply into martial arts and advance with courage and vigor, one had to follow one's own martial path and convictions all the way through. Only then could one achieve clarity of mind.

That was indeed the case. Maintaining a certain state of mind made his boxing proficiency increase much faster than usual.

As his thoughts raced, Lu Ren asked, "Is this where you live?"

The girl named Xiang Yang shook her head slightly. "No. This is only a safe house. I don't live here."

She walked to the door and pointed at the heavy iron door. "This door can block most attacks from Contaminated Creatures."

Lu Ren asked, "Are you alone?"

Xiang Yang's expression darkened slightly. Then she said, "Three years ago, my father was killed by Contaminated Creatures while saving me. I'm the only one left."

Lu Ren looked thoughtful. "Are there other people in this city?"