Sleeping next to the central urban area of Yuzhou, which has a permanent population of 20 million, even Lin Yuan and Jiang Ziqi felt their hearts pounding with trepidation.
They barely slept that night. Even with separate guard duties, it was futile. The dark city in the distance was overwhelmingly oppressive.
Facing the city directly, it was like a ferocious beast ready to devour people, capable of swallowing you whole at any moment. If you turned your back to the city, it was even more unsettling. Imagine the chilling sensation of always feeling someone following you late at night but being unable to find anyone.
Fear was at its peak.
Fortunately, the city looked much better during the day. It was now 5:26 AM, just after dawn. The Big Dipper combat system was still operational, but it couldn't connect to a higher authority. Destinations and departure points needed to be manually inputted.
"Navigation activated."
A mechanical program voice came through the earpiece. Lin Yuan and Jiang Ziqi performed a final check of their firearms and proceeded with light equipment.
They hadn't brought any rocket launchers. Their exoskeleton weighted armor had been removed, and they only carried ammunition for five magazines.
Their only heavy firepower consisted of the three incendiary grenades on their bodies.
"Brother Lin Yuan, where are we going?"
"To Wang Xiaoxin's home."
"???" This confused Jiang Ziqi, who didn't understand Lin Yuan's intention. "Sister Xiaoxin, she... she's already sacrificed, hasn't she? Is there any important intel at her home?"
"We'll talk about it when we get there. Let's hurry."
"Okay." Jiang Ziqi asked no further questions. Since Lin Yuan had said so, she would naturally be told when they arrived.
Wang Xiaoxin's residential complex was 16 kilometers away from their current location. That was not a short distance; it would take about three hours to walk.
Although their physical fitness was high and they wouldn't need that much time, this was the Yuzhou urban area.
Even in the peripheral areas, the danger wouldn't decrease.
Along the way, they detoured around scout zombies of zombie hordes. If avoidance was impossible, they would use diversionary tactics to lure the zombies to another direction before seizing the opportunity to move.
According to satellite imagery from the Shuzhou Tianfu Safety Zone, there were three zombie hordes in the Yuzhou central urban area, each with its own territory, much like lion prides on the African savanna.
They had strong territorial instincts.
The induced mutations from nuclear radiation were truly terrifying, considering the speed of evolution.
They took shortcuts along the way, and with only two of them, their target was small. They managed to reach Wang Xiaoxin's residential complex without incident.
The buildings here were covered in all sorts of vines. Lin Yuan could only rely on his memory to find the route.
"Brother Lin Yuan, is that building the one?" Jiang Ziqi pointed to a building not far away.
Two barricade-like obstacles stood at the entrance of this building, with mushrooms growing on them. It was clearly a man-made barrier.
After carefully identifying the surrounding terrain, he spotted a dried-up fountain nearby.
Wang Xiaoxin's words instantly flashed in his mind.
"See that fountain? The Pixiu statue at the edge facing directly towards it is our home. Go to the top floor, find 3-1, and you'll be there."
Indeed, there was a statue next to the fountain, its appearance almost indistinguishable, likely the Pixiu she mentioned.
"That's right, it's this way."
After moving the barricades blocking the way, Lin Yuan and Jiang Ziqi entered the building.
"Brother Lin Yuan, there's no activity on the first 16 floors."
Jiang Ziqi listened carefully, detecting no movement for the moment.
"Let's go up first. Old Wang must have cleared this building before, but we can't let our guard down."
"Understood."
The two of them went straight up to the 32nd floor without encountering any zombies. Instead, they saw many deactivated traps.
It seemed Old Wang had managed the place quite well before. It was just a mystery how he encountered Andrea.
However, the door to 3-1 was closed, which troubled Lin Yuan. What did Andrea mean? Did she expect him to break down the door?
That shouldn't be the case.
Just as Jiang Ziqi was about to forcefully break down the door, Lin Yuan suddenly remembered that Wang Xiaoxin had told him during their initial communication that she had later moved to a small room on the rooftop.
"Ziqi, let's go to the rooftop. The clue is likely there."
Time was critical. The spore concentration displayed on the combat system was fluctuating, and they had to evacuate as soon as possible.
Upon reaching the rooftop, the situation was even worse than on the ground. The garden was filled with withered flowers, and nothing remained in the vegetable patch except dry soil. Clothes and some tools were scattered everywhere. Mushrooms had grown and withered, accumulating a thick layer of humus.
It hadn't been maintained for a long time.
When Lin Yuan pushed open the only room on the rooftop that looked habitable, a cloud of dust billowed into the air. Illuminated by beams of light within the room, it created a Tyndall effect.
It looked strange.
However, the smell of mold and the peculiar scent of dust were filtered out by their gas masks. After brushing away the floating dust from his eyes, Lin Yuan began to rummage through drawers and cabinets.
After searching everywhere, they only found two suspicious items: a diary with a four-digit password lock hidden under the bed, and a "whitechocolate" tin box placed on top of the computer host.
The diary was likely Wang Xiaoxin's, and the box for white chocolate was undoubtedly Andrea's.
Why was this person so obsessed with white chocolate?
It was cloyingly sweet.
Wasn't she afraid of gaining weight?
Lin Yuan first opened the diary. It had a four-digit password lock.
Without thinking, Lin Yuan directly entered Old Wang's birthday: 1206.
It opened immediately.
Tsk, no problem, buddy. You still love using your birthday as a password.
The first half of the diary, judging by the dates, was written around the beginning of the apocalypse. There was a blank period in the middle, with only a sentence or two written each day. It was likely that after the signal was lost, she was busy killing zombies and growing vegetables.
The entries at the end were no longer descriptions of normal life after the zombie apocalypse.
"Today, my parents and younger brother suddenly appeared before me. To be honest, I was a little excited.
But behind them stood a red-haired girl carrying a stone coffin. She was beautiful, the same height as me. A red thread in her hand connected my parents and my brother's bodies. She said she wanted to make a deal with me..."
"..."
"Tomorrow, we are going to perform a soul exchange. Honestly, I still don't believe such technology exists, but this stone coffin seems truly magical. Is it some kind of peculiar alien meteorite? This girl named Hathor didn't answer my question.
And ever since I met her, I've noticed she seems to suffer from split personality disorder. Another personality would suddenly emerge, urging me to leave quickly, and would chat with me about things in human society. She's like a blank slate.
Their dream is to become human.
A strange dream."
The diary ended here.
Lin Yuan flipped through every subsequent page but found no other content.
Just as he was about to put it back, he suddenly felt the back cover of the diary was a bit rough. He turned it over.
On the brown cover, there was a scratch mark carved with a fingernail.
"Don't believe me!"