Once all the food was gone, the sea turtles rode the waves back into the ocean, calling out cheerfully all the way. A few even turned back to glance at poor, lonely old Zhang.
There was only one person left on the beach.
The surging waves washed every trace away.
Zhang Ming fell silent. He looked at the moon overhead and the distant firelight, unsure what to say. Suddenly, a strange emotion swept over him: he was trapped at the edge of the universe, somewhere vast and silent, without even a single star. Ink-black darkness surrounded him.
His future was a blur.
He might have to spend the rest of his life with these sea turtles for company.
Meanwhile, at the very center of the universe, brilliant stars shone amid warmth and bustle. That was where humanity lived, where his friends and family, his colleagues and companions were.
Even that detestable boss with his brutish face seemed warm and lovable from such a distance.
But no matter how hard Zhang Ming tried, he could only wander beyond the universe's edge.
Humanity's loves and hates played out before his eyes like a silent black-and-white film.
With his strength alone, he could never cross that astronomical distance and return to the fold. He kept crawling forward, kept running, but none of it made any difference.
Until... the final end.
Zhang Ming shook his head hard, briefly casting off the feeling. "Maybe a government rescue team will arrive tomorrow!"
But what if the rescue team never came?
What if the Mysterious Zone was even more terrifying than he imagined?
That question lingered in his mind, unanswered.
After solving his problems with food, water, fire, and shelter, he had encountered a new one: loneliness.
"Those chunks of crabmeat are huge! Each piece looks like beef. They must taste amazing, right?"
"He just got lucky and found a rich island. Put him in Mysterious Zone No. 7, and he'd have died without even a bone left."
"What did he write on the beach?"
"I just ran it through Google Translate. It says: premium crabmeat, 100,000 yuan per half-kilo."
"No way. Does he know there's a mirage out here? Can he communicate with human civilization? Or is it because... he's too lonely?"
The story of the lone survivor in Mysterious Zone 16 was a little too plain and uneventful.
The enthusiasm of foreign spectators was slowly fading, too. Most wanted to see rivers of blood, not happy meals. They wanted to know whether a survivor's death would bring consequences upon his homeland, not watch him scrape by and laze around near the beach every day.
Over time, apart from a few tireless haters, interest dropped sharply.
After all, the other fourteen Mysterious Zones had plenty of conflict and were far more eye-catching.
Of course, interest in Mysterious Zone 16 remained as strong as ever within Great Xia.
People across the country followed it like a television series. Missing even a single day left them itching for more.
Although the show's content was a little monotonous, it was... real and credible, and might even affect their homeland's fate!
"Chef Wang from Pinnuo thinks the crabmeat might taste a little fishy, and that soaking it in baijiu could make it tastier. Master chef Li has invented a seasoning that makes any meat delicious with just a pinch."
The topic "What does deserted-island crab actually taste like?" shot up the trending charts.
People chimed in one after another. "I'd like to live on that island for a few days, too."
"Oh, please. Staying on a deserted island every day would be terribly lonely."
"No phone, no computer, no internet, no social life. You'd go crazy within three days."
"And do you really think you could beat those crabs?"
Unlike netizens, who were simply enjoying the spectacle, researchers at home and abroad still devoted some of their attention to Mysterious Zone 16.
That was because this idle, bored young man often wrote things on the beach with a branch.
"The crabmeat tastes great and has a special effect on muscle development. I've gotten stronger."
"The sea turtles here have developed intelligence. They like eating crab shells. I'm guessing they want calcium."
"What other tasty things can you make with coconuts?"
A mirage was no 4K high-definition screen, after all. The writing on the beach was blurry, and even with AI reconstruction, much of it could only be guessed at.
But this phenomenon had already drawn considerable attention from researchers.
"Has he realized the mirage exists and started using writing on the beach to communicate with the human world?"
"Or is he just so lonely that he's scribbling whatever comes to mind to let off steam?"
Great Xia, Special Affairs Processing Department, routine meeting.
Li Xianfeng sat in the center of the round-table conference room, with more than thirty experts from various fields seated around the table.
Once everyone had arrived, Li Xianfeng cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, Zhang Ming's survival situation in Mysterious Zone 16 is stable for now. Once dried, all that crabmeat should keep him comfortably fed for a while."
"He isn't the adventurous sort, either. As long as no unexpected crisis arises, there shouldn't be any major problems."
"Even if an unexpected crisis does arise, we have no way to support him from here. We can only leave it to fate."
All the information gathered recently lay on the table, including Zhang Ming's personal file. It covered everything from kicking someone in the balls in kindergarten and his middle-school exam scores to making it through the fierce competition of the college entrance exam and becoming an ordinary university student. Every detail was there.
In short: a small-town exam grinder.
A small-town exam grinder was good. It meant he had undergone rigorous training in logical thinking and was unlikely to do anything inexplicably stupid. Having survived the college entrance exam, his ability to handle pressure should not be too poor, either.
After all, the survivors' performance in the Mysterious Zones might be linked to disasters in the outside world. If Zhang Ming suddenly went mad and dropped dead, causing a natural disaster in the country, this group might not have to commit ritual suicide in apology, but they would still bear grave responsibility, both personally and professionally.
Their computers also held files on the people in the other fifteen Mysterious Zones.
Since most were foreigners, gathering information was relatively difficult, and the files were far from complete.
Li Xianfeng continued, "Aside from Mysterious Zone 16, which is relatively stable, Mysterious Zones No. 1, No. 3, and No. 13 are also fairly safe."
"The others have all encountered various problems."
No. 1 was a luxury ocean liner carrying three thousand
passengers, with enough food to last one or two months. With careful rationing, even three months would be no problem.
There were as many as three hundred people with superpowers.
Having so many people actually created a balance. As long as no monsters invaded, they were unlikely to be wiped out.
No. 3 was a large oil tanker with mercenaries aboard.
The mercenaries had brought their own firearms, and there was roughly a month's worth of food.
Despite some internal conflict, their considerable firepower kept the situation relatively stable.
No. 13 was an Arctic Ocean expedition traveling to the North Pole aboard an icebreaker. Since the expedition members were highly capable, no major risks had emerged yet.
Li Xianfeng said calmly, "The situations in Mysterious Zone 6 and Mysterious Zone 15 are more critical. Our priority is to monitor whether the survivors in these two zones will be wiped out."
"Their nationalities are highlighted in the files. Keep a constant watch for disasters breaking out in those countries."
Before you continue