On a certain cone-shaped balcony in the city.
A pale-faced man wearing a hood looked at his phone, roaring in anger: "Just a little bit more, and this guy got there first."
A burly man holding a steel rod covered in black blood walked out from inside, laughing:
"Haha, I told you before to hurry up a bit, but you were always so careless. Now look, someone snatched the title, and we don't even know what use this title serves."
The hooded man said irritably, "Isn't it because you're competing with me for the Zombies."
The man with the steel rod said helplessly: "Who would have thought there'd be a first kill reward; otherwise, I'd have let you have it. After all, we shouldn't let good things go to outsiders."
His expression changed: "We still don't know the usefulness of Points, but it seems this ID called Lucky Child certainly knows. He's been collecting Points extensively and clearing Zombies at the same time."
The hooded man said impatiently, "Do you even need to say that? I know he knows, but what's the use, he won't tell us."
The man with the steel rod nodded: "True, what's urgent now is to gather the people from this nearby organization."
The hooded man frowned: "At this point, do we still have to listen to those old guys? This Doomsday Game is not a disaster but an opportunity for us."
"That's true, but we can observe the situation first, and we'll probably go back eventually."
As soon as he finished speaking, the man jumped down from the balcony on the second floor, kicked down a Zombie below, and finished it off with a blow from his stick.
······
Su Changxing saw a message from Heartless Beast in his private messages.
Heartless Beast: Hey, brother, you're amazing, getting the first twenty kills, congratulations. I'm thinking of going back to my old business; do you have any interest in joining?
Lucky Child: Old business?
Heartless Beast: It means coming together as a group to face dangers collectively.
Su Changxing understood right away, gathering that this person was previously a gang leader, and from his tone, it seemed he had washed his hands of it.
Su Changxing thought for a moment and replied: It seems like we're not all in the same place, so discussing this seems somewhat pointless.
Heartless Beast: I'd only mention it if it were meaningful. Based on my analysis, there should be many forums, with people in the same region assigned to the same forum. If ten billion people were on the same forum, it would've blown up long ago, so we're likely in the same area, or even the same city.
This matched Su Changxing's thoughts since not everyone is on the same forum, but whether they're in the same area is uncertain; it could be randomly assigned after all.
Lucky Child: That's true, but it doesn't fully prove we're in the same area.
Heartless Beast: Under the character attribute, there's a string of numbers, mine starts with 191, and ends with 0A, I bet yours is too.
Although I don't know what the numbers are for, this person is very cautious, only giving the starting and ending characters.
Su Changxing remembered that there was indeed a string of numbers, but he hadn't looked into it earlier, and it was indeed the same as his, starting with 191 and ending with 0A.
Lucky Child: Let's do this, I'll think about it first, and we'll talk later.
Heartless Beast: Sure, if you need any help, just ask me. Remember, I still owe you a favor.
"A very slick person."
Su Changxing made a rough judgment, put away his phone, picked up the Steel Saber, and walked out. He was eager to test the power of his Split Head Talent now.
But after reaching this floor, the number of Zombies was low, and after wandering around, he didn't find any Zombies.
"Just when you need them, they're nowhere to be found; some things you only cherish once they're lost."
"Hmm? What's this······"
In the last room, Su Changxing found two mummified bodies hanging from ropes, the lower half missing, skin blackened, and flesh completely dried out.
Clearly, these were two people who had lost hope in the world and committed suicide, possibly two lovers, brothers, or just colleagues.
"Suicide is the act of cowards······ From this perspective, humans don't turn into Zombies after death, so Zombies are likely a kind of biological organism, a peculiar one."
Su Changxing carefully examined the mummified bodies but didn't find much. However, on the dusty table nearby, he found an open notebook, the handwriting neat and delicate.
[To Future Generations:
I don't know if anyone will read this note, perhaps yes, perhaps no.
I hope someone will see it, at least that means humanity still exists.
I am Wang Laidong, an A-level researcher sent by Shield Company, originally coming here for supervision and reporting, but soon the apocalypse descended.
Initially, only a small part of the city turned into monsters, but then more and more did, and the situation spiraled out of control, with power and communication completely cut off, leaving us unable to contact the outside or headquarters.
This city has become an island, completely cut off from the outside world.
After the apocalypse broke out, we started researching the cause of monster birth, growing more desperate with each discovery.
We found the cause of the apocalypse is related to the Shield Company's Energy Net plan.
Moreover, as time goes on, this infectious radiation grows stronger, speeding up the transformation of humans into monsters, even as our research grows more efficient, until we all showed the symptoms of corpse transformation.
Once corpse transformation symptoms appear, one will quickly turn into the monsters, which we've temporarily named Zombies, within days.
So once symptoms appear, kill yourself to avoid burdening others.
If you wish to research Zombies, you can check out our research results on the top floor.
Of course, this is just a futile struggle; humanity ultimately met its end at its own hands.]
"The Energy Net plan? Information and power cut off? What's the principle here, is there something special in the air?"
Su Changxing could now confirm that the infection was airborne, meaning as long as one was in this environment, they would be infected.
He was currently being infected, merely not showing symptoms yet, but according to the note, once symptoms appeared, he would rapidly turn into a Zombie.
"Could it be that everyone in this world has already turned into Zombies? Yes, that's a big possibility."
Su Changxing took a deep breath, immediately heading to the next floor up, not far from the top. The truths of the apocalypse might be upstairs.