Chapter 56

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.

The people at the Chengfeng Base were the first to discover the signal tower in the plaza, and some tried making phone calls to their family and friends.

Those whose calls went through wept for joy, while those who couldn't get through experienced a complex mix of emotions.

They also understood that after three years of the apocalypse, very few people were left alive.

This signal tower wasn't just for making phone calls. As Yisi was on her way to the Chengfeng Base, she hung up her call and decided to test out some of its other functions.

Most of the software had crashed and was unusable, but Yisi discovered that a social media app they frequently used in the past was still running smoothly.

She logged in and saw that the posts displayed were the old ones from before.

Then, in the very next second, a new post suddenly popped up.

[Can anyone see this?]

Yisi replied, "I can see it."

The user quickly replied, "Holy crap, it actually went through! Which base are you at?"

"I am currently at the Zhnognan Base," Yisi replied. "I'm from the Hope Base."

At that moment, Ling Qian, who was stationed at the Zhongnan Base, stared at the reply on his screen. He immediately grabbed his communication band and ran outside, sprinting all the way to the upper-level rooms before pounding on a door and shouting, "Brother Han, open up!"

"Open the door, Brother Han!"

After just a few moments of frantic knocking, a man wrapped in a jacket walked out, looking thoroughly impatient. "What are you yelling about in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"

Ling Qian shoved his communication band toward him. "Brother Han, the internet is back!"

Han Yueyuan frowned as he looked at the communication band in the boy's hand. Upon seeing the content displayed on it, he hurriedly spun around and rushed back into the room, tossing things aside in a frantic search. "Where is my band?!"

Ever since the apocalypse descended, most people had thrown away their communication bands, leaving only a tiny fraction who still carried them.

At the very beginning, everyone still clung to the hope that communication would be restored and the apocalypse would end.

However, three years had passed. During this time, people struggled just to stay alive; who could possibly care about a communication band?

Han Yueyuan rummaged through boxes and cabinets so aggressively that he ended up waking his wife. Mo Chun wrapped herself in a jacket, squinted her eyes, and asked, "What on earth are you doing in the middle of the night?"

"Communication has been restored!" Han Yueyuan pulled out the band he finally found. "We can contact people from other bases now!"

Upon hearing this, and seeing Ling Qian holding up his band to show her as well, Mo Chun immediately said, "Go tell the base leader about this right now."

Han Yueyuan nodded. "Got it! I'm going right now, go back to sleep!"

Watching his retreating figure, Mo Chun silently returned to the room, opened her bedside drawer, and took out a communication band that had been stored away for a very long time.

How could she possibly fall asleep now?

Chengfeng Base.

Lin Wu was busy typing messages on his communication band. Seeing Song Zhao approach, he chuckled, "So many people are posting!"

Song Zhao glanced over and saw a chaotic mess of posts covering every imaginable topic.

[Gesina, are you still alive?]

[Does any base have rice? Can you please lend us some? Our base is almost out of food.]

[It really is back, this is amazing!]

[Is the apocalypse coming to an end, sob sob sob.]

[Woken up in the middle of the night by people in the base, but it turns out to be such great news—I'm going to go kill a few zombies to celebrate!]

[Can anyone save me? I'm alone in Z City, and I still have food that I can give you.]

Lin Wu tapped on the last post to take a closer look. The author had written: "Ever since before the apocalypse started, I always wanted to build an underground bunker, and when the apocalypse finally arrived, I crawled right in. But all of my backup batteries have completely died, and I really can't take this pitch-black life anymore, help!"

"Is anyone coming to save me? I'm willing to give you all my food."

[Z City? Isn't that not too far from us?]

[Thread starter, you better be careful. If you run into people from the Silver Ring Base, you're done for.]

[What's the Silver Ring Base?]

[You've never heard of it? The people from the Silver Ring Base are completely lawless and commit all sorts of atrocities. If the thread starter runs into them, you'll probably just be killed outright and have all your belongings stolen.]

[Ah! Help! I don't want to run into them!]

"The Silver Ring Base?" Song Zhao frowned slightly. She had indeed heard of the people from that base.

However, the Silver Ring Base was quite a distance away from them, whereas Z City wasn't particularly far—roughly a three or four-day journey.

Just as she was pondering this matter, the thread starter unexpectedly posted a new update.

[Thanks everyone, I've already made it out!]

Lin Wu replied, "Someone went to save you?"

That was fast!

[No, no, I ran into a kind-hearted person, and she said she'd take me along to look for a base.]

Over in Z City, WW was driving a car forward with a somewhat chubby otaku sitting beside her.

She had originally just been wandering around. Since she was still currently ranked first in the event, she figured she would drive around to sightsee, and as a result, she happened to stumble upon this underground bunker.

[As expected of our WW, all underground bunkers are as good as nonexistent in front of her!]

[This guy actually went and did the thing I've always wanted to do. Building an underground safe house like that can't have been cheap, right?]

[It feels like he's almost forgotten how to talk.]

[Where is WW planning to take him?]

WW drove while listening to the man beside her rambling in an unpracticed, nervous stream of consciousness. "Thank you so much."

"If it weren't for you, I was genuinely terrified of being found by people from the Silver Ring Base. But I could tell the moment I saw you that you're a good person."

Gao Feipeng shrank back in the passenger seat, looking weak, chubby, and utterly helpless. "Where are we going?"

WW let out a yawn. "Dropping you off at a base, obviously."

"Which base?" Gao Feipeng spoke in intermittent, halting phrases. It was obvious that he hadn't taken a single step out of that underground bunker for the past several years.

"Well, you'll have to figure that out yourself!" WW said. "I'm not familiar with the roads around here."

"Just don't forget what you promised me."

Gao Feipeng nodded repeatedly. "I won't forget, I can give it to you right now."

He didn't really understand why this person was so keen on getting his holographic helmet, but he had plenty of them to spare. Since she wanted it, he would just hand it over.

As long as she could escort him to a safe base where he could stay, he would be satisfied; he truly couldn't endure another day of living without light.

It had been fine at first. During the first two years, his power supply was completely sufficient, and his daily routine consisted of nothing more than eating, playing games, and sleeping.

However, starting this year, not a single speck of electricity was left. He couldn't play games anymore, and every time he opened his eyes, it was pitch black; closing them brought the exact same absolute darkness.

That kind of existence was simply too agonizing.

He hadn't dared to venture outside out of fear of encountering zombies, forcing him to live in a perpetual cycle of dark waking hours and dark dreams.

Gao Feipeng opened his communication band to search for nearby bases. "Hey! Someone says we can head to the Chengfeng Base!"

WW was slightly startled. "Is the Chengfeng Base close by?"

She had no idea how she had even navigated her way along this route; she had just been driving around aimlessly every day.

She hadn't expected to accidentally wander into the vicinity of the Chengfeng Base.

"Do you have a map? Fire up the navigation and I'll follow the directions," WW instructed.

Gao Feipeng nodded enthusiastically, "I'll look it up right now."

While he was searching for the navigation route, WW felt immensely pleased.

She had originally felt a tiny bit conflicted, secretly wishing she could also secure the third-place prize—after all, it was a holographic gaming pod packed with so many games inside.

Playing those must have been an absolute blast.

Yet, she also really wanted the mutated pet.

Wasn't this working out too perfectly? She happened to stumble upon a total homebody whose underground bunker was basically a treasure trove stocked with years' worth of entertainment.

This score was a massive win!

Now, all she had to do was drop him off at the Chengfeng Base, and the mission would be complete!

WW drove happily, her mind already drifting into pleasant daydreams about her wonderful future life.

The next day.

Having spent the night resting on a rooftop, Yu Jingshan finally recovered from the realization that he had been scammed.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he stared up at the bright sky. "Family, I've figured it out."

"Yesterday was purely because I got startled at first and my brain wasn't working properly!"

[Hahaha, are you fully awake now?]

[It's fine, not that many people know you got tricked—at most, emmm, just a few million viewers.]

[Rest assured, our lips are sealed. I literally only posted it on my moments.]

[Don't worry, you are still our best high-tech product tester!]

[So, did the zombies fight and slaughter each other all night long? What on earth actually happened?]

Yu Jingshan was pondering this very question himself. He wondered if that snake venom somehow possessed the miraculous property of inducing further mutations in zombies.

He got up, crawled over to the balcony ledge, and peered down. The number of zombies roaming the ground below seemed to have decreased significantly, leaving behind numerous severed limbs and skeletal remains.

Still, he couldn't be entirely sure if the zombie population here was actually low or not, given that he had continued to hear their roars echoing throughout the entire previous night.

It had sounded thoroughly chaotic.

However, the most crucial problem remained.

"I am still at zero kills!" Yu Jingshan wept as he looked up at the sky. "Why?! Didn't I stab them multiple times?!"

After wallowing in self-pity for a moment, he spoke up, "Family, we can only rely on ourselves now!"

[No, you can only rely on yourself.]

[Yikes, things down there look terrifying.]

[It's fine, there are still several days left. You should be able to kill at least one zombie, right?]

[Poor Happy Flute, from now on it's doomed to wander around in someone else's hands.]

"Charge!" Yu Jingshan declared with a fierce expression as he gripped his dagger and headed downstairs.

Green Water Village.

Uncle Chen drove the car forward. "It will take us at least ten days to get all the way through this route. Will you be able to hold on?"

Ling Qianbai, sitting in the passenger seat, grew increasingly pale, her breathing growing extremely faint. "I can manage."

With her special abilities, she could hold on for quite a while longer no matter what. On the contrary, she wasn't even sure if Uncle Chen could hang on until then.

However, the Gu worm she cultivated inside her body was becoming increasingly active. If she could just give it a few more days, Uncle Chen might actually be saved.

The reason she was currently in such a weak state was entirely due to the Gu worms going into a violent frenzy last night.

It was likely that the Gu worm she had dispatched to tail Yu Jingshan had successfully parasitized the brain of a zombie.