Silent detonation

Five days passed in a flash.

The rain was still falling, but it was visibly much lighter than on the first day. It even seemed as though it might stop at any moment.

Su Jin stood by the window, deathly pale, as if he had suffered a serious illness.

Five days of extreme pressure and fragmented sleep had left him mentally exhausted.

Nearly twenty zombies from who knew where had gathered downstairs.

The past three days had brought both good news and bad.

The gray substance in the jar of Gray Rain he had collected had dissipated over those five days.

Tests showed that the remaining water had lost its ability to infect.

And the obvious change in the rainfall did not match Fu Qingdai's dream.

This meant the company had not fully foreseen the future. It had predicted this disaster, but many of the details were far from accurate.

Fu Qingdai's dream was merely something the company had fabricated and "pushed" to her.

The situation now looked much better than what Fu Qingdai had seen in her dream.

The disaster covered a far wider area than expected, but surviving it was not as difficult as he had imagined.

Yet several bloody tragedies had already unfolded in the apartment building opposite. He had witnessed them himself.

Some people had zombies appear in their homes and were driven to leap to their deaths, only to be torn apart and eaten below.

Others fought back successfully... only to hang themselves afterward.

Tragedy followed tragedy. The crying upstairs and downstairs had not stopped for a single day...

Everything that happened battered the nerves of every ordinary person.

For Su Jin, already exhausted and tense beyond his limits, it only made matters worse.

His greatest hope now was to wait for the rain to stop and the military to come to the rescue.

Before long, there ought to be a turning point in this disaster.

But one thing continued to fill him with dread... since the last broadcast, there had not been another-as though the entire country had fallen silent.

There had been no attempt to reassure the public. That was deeply abnormal.

Weary and dispirited, Su Jin turned and walked back to the bedroom.

Whatever happened, all he could do now was wait.

I hope the rain stops soon and the military comes out. I never want to go through this again.

Before he knew it, it was five in the afternoon.

Under the influence of the Gray Rain, the sky was much darker than usual.

Occasionally, he could hear zombies roaring and pounding on doors outside.

Su Jin lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling without a trace of expression.

Suddenly, the Radio crackled to life.

At that moment, the static sounded like heavenly music!

Su Jin jolted upright, grabbed the Radio, and twisted the volume knob, though it was already turned all the way up.

Filled with immense hope, he listened intently.

A slightly garbled voice came through the Radio, grief-stricken and panicked.

"...warning... all... citizens... city services have ceased. You must fend for yourselves. Save yourselves and survive. Do not trust..."

A scream rang out, and the broadcast cut off.

The hopeful expression froze on Su Jin's face... his mind went blank, and every sound in the world vanished from his awareness.

"Woooo-!" The Air-Raid Siren suddenly sounded, a mournful howl that seemed to tear the heavens apart.

Su Jin shuddered and hurried into the living room.

At the sight before him, his pupils dilated, and even his legs began to tremble.

On the distant horizon, in the direction of the city's central district.

More than ten unidentified objects resembling missiles streaked in from outside the city, trailing white flames as they tore across the sky like meteors flying in reverse.

The "missiles" vanished, releasing a powerful, clearly visible shock wave.

Then dark clouds began expanding over a vast area around the explosions, surging like ocean waves.

"BOOM-!" A tremendous blast struck the sky like an iron hammer.

The entire building Su Jin was in seemed to hang in midair before being violently jerked.

The windows groaned and the glass rattled wildly. For a moment, the world seemed to freeze.

The apocalypse... at that moment, it was no longer Gray Rain, but a tangible natural catastrophe descending in all its fury!

The clouds continued their violent movement. As they churned, lightning began leaping through them.

Downbursts formed, columns of cloud descending like tornadoes to hammer the earth.

Wherever the downbursts struck... the ground froze.

Su Jin's pupils quivered. Bracing his hands against the edge of the windowsill, he stared into the distance, his teeth chattering.

The Cold-Sky Missile System... massive cloud movements and attacks generated through temperature and air currents were this weapon's defining features.

This country's ultimate weapon! Without any warning, they had fired it at their own city center!

Am I... going to die?!

What the hell happened?! The rain might have stopped tomorrow, and the military should have come out. Why was this happening?!

A wave of overwhelming terror and nausea surged through him.

Su Jin quickly covered his mouth and nose, doubled over, and ran toward the bathroom.

But he had barely reached the living room before he vomited a mouthful of sour fluid onto the floor.

An intensely sour, bitter taste filled his mouth. Su Jin coughed until tears spilled from the corners of his eyes, his heart feeling as though reality had crushed it in its fist!

Why was a modern industrial nation so fragile?

The fundamental purpose of the state apparatus was to maintain order. Announcing its collapse outright would only lead to total social breakdown, battles over resources, and military mutinies.

No matter how far the zombie infection had spread, they had no reason to announce the country's demise to the public.

Over a zombie outbreak alone, the highest command had sealed off the capital with a devastating strike... and over all these days, I hadn't even seen a trace of the military.

If an entire country was this vulnerable, then what did that make me?!

Under two simultaneous catastrophes, every personal plan was as flimsy as a sheet of paper.

Perhaps something had gone wrong at the highest levels of leadership, or perhaps they did not fully understand the infection... but Su Jin no longer had the presence of mind to analyze it. He had completely lost his bearings, his mind in chaos.

After standing rigid for a long time, he inexplicably ran into the bedroom, grabbed one of the Radios, and demanded furiously, "Don't trust what... don't trust what? Say something!"

A second later, he smashed the Radio to pieces.

The apocalypse... deep down, he had already known. An entity like the company had passed judgment on this world. There was no need for further doubt.

Yet he had kept clinging to the fantasy that the military would rescue him.

He had always harbored that hope, but now every part of his plan had collapsed. There was no way out before him. He would die far from home... all that remained was the bloody reality.

The city's central district was still enduring the downbursts, while freezing winds had already swept across the entire city beneath a blanket of dark clouds.

Piercing cries cut through the cold wind and reached Su Jin's ears.

Su Jin staggered to the living room window, only to find someone in the opposite building already standing on a windowsill. They cried out and jumped.

In the apartment building to the side, others were also sobbing as they leaped to their deaths.

The crying seemed like a summons from the reaper. One suicide after another unfolded before Su Jin's eyes.

Then a woman on the sixth floor opposite stepped onto her windowsill with a swaddled baby in her arms. Weeping, she kept shaking her head at Su Jin... then jumped with her child.

"No, no, no... don't! Don't jump! Please don't jump!!!!"

Su Jin stamped his feet in desperation, his eyes wide as he shouted.

Seeing the zombies about to devour the bodies of the mother and child, he forgot everything else.

He yanked the window open, raised his gun, and fired!

Bang, bang, bang... Nine shots later, all that remained was the empty clicking of the trigger.

Su Jin kept pulling the trigger mechanically, watching helplessly as the zombies tore the mother and child to pieces, until only blood rippled through the water.

When people watched someone else receive an injection, they often felt an instinctive twinge of pain, as though the needle had pierced their own skin.

Now, trapped in the same hopeless situation, with the threat of death and tragedy before him, Su Jin felt another person's suffering as his own for the first time, with an intensity he had never known.

Su Jin's finger pulling the trigger finally stopped. His stomach spasmed, and a heavy taste of rust rose in his throat.

He stumbled and bent over, retching several times, but nothing came out.

After standing silently for two seconds, he suddenly turned and slammed the pistol onto the floor, sending it bouncing into the wall.

"Where are you people from the company?!" Su Jin fell to his knees, searching everywhere as he sobbed and roared into empty space. "What can I do? I'm just an ordinary person! Why did you come to me?!"

"I can't even save myself! Who am I supposed to save? Why don't you save them yourselves?!"

"I came here to find a job! What the hell do you want?!"

Su Jin cursed and struck out, venting the fear and fury inside him. His hands were already covered in blood from pounding the floor.

But each blow grew weaker than the last.

In the end, Su Jin leaned against the wall, covered his face, and broke down sobbing.

At last, only sobs and murmurs remained.

Hope had been utterly shattered.

Within the residential complex, suicides continued one after another.

The cold wind howled, carrying cries through the air...

"Zhang Wan! Zhang Wan! Wake up..."

In the Fu Family's bedroom, Fu Hu was dizzy and faint. He forced himself to stay alert as he supported Zhang Wan and called to her again and again.

Ever since receiving the text message, both of them had been completely at a loss. Then the Cold Sky strike had erupted, and witnessing the mass suicides had frightened Zhang Wan so badly that she fainted.

Fu Qingdai stood in the doorway, her pretty face deathly pale, one hand gripping the frame... she dared not look outside, but even the sounds alone left her barely able to stand.

After calling out twice more, Fu Hu turned his head. "Qing Dai, hurry and get some water!"

Fu Qingdai hastily agreed, turned to scoop a bowl of water from the bucket, and brought it back to the bedroom.

Seeing her father still trying to revive her mother, Fu Qingdai felt panicked and heartbroken, and more terrified than ever.

After thinking for a moment, she quietly closed the bedroom door.

She turned and searched the living room, her gaze settling on a chair.

Gritting her teeth, she lifted it and smashed it hard against the door handle!

"Qing Dai, what are you doing?!" Fu Hu shouted from the bedroom.

Fu Qingdai ignored him, clenched her teeth, and kept battering the door.

One blow missed. Because she had swung too hard, her fingers struck the handle, scraping off a patch of flesh.

Blood welled from the wound.

After several more blows, the door handle finally loosened. Just then, Fu Hu emerged from the bedroom and stared at his daughter in shock and anger.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm going out."

"You're not going out now! Stay right here! Look at your mother-why are you still making trouble?!"

Fu Qingdai lowered her head and nodded.

As soon as Fu Hu turned and hurried back into the bedroom, she pulled the door handle open.

The lock rattled, and Fu Qingdai carefully opened the door.

The moment a crack appeared, a heavy, pungent smell of smoke reached her nose.

Screech... screech... screech... The grating sound continued.

The lights inside were flickering... the power grid was already unstable, on the verge of collapse.

Outside the window, the cold wind still howled.

Her heart in her throat, Fu Qingdai stepped around the entryway. She had meant to speak, but the sight before her stopped the words in her throat.

Shhhk... shhhk... shhhk...

Blood stained the floor everywhere. Su Jin sat on a stool, both fists wrapped in bandages, dark blood seeping through them.

His bare, muscular upper body was slick with sweat. Beneath the flickering light, the contours of his muscles were edged in gold.

Su Jin glanced sideways at her. Fu Qingdai flinched at once, clasping both hands in front of her chest.

She had never seen that look in his eyes before... nothing but hatred and fury, like a wild beast.

Shhhk... shhhk... shhhk...

Their eyes met. Her voice trembling and thick with tears, Fu Qingdai said, "Big brother... I'm scared..."

Click!

The lights went out, leaving only the red glow of a cigarette flickering in the room.

Shhhk-!

The red ember dimmed, and the grating sound of a blade being sharpened abruptly stopped.

"...Don't be scared. I'm here."