His stomach growled.A sharp ache twisted through his core like a warning—you're starving.
Three days in a coma.No food. No water.Only silence, the mechanical hum in his ears, and now—the world, changed beyond recognition.
Lu Zhen wiped sweat from his brow and scanned the desolate street. Cars overturned. Doors smashed. Blackened scorch marks told stories no one survived to finish.
The pistol at his hip felt heavier now. Not just in weight, but meaning.
"I need food," he muttered to himself.
His eyes landed on a convenience store half-collapsed, but not entirely destroyed. Bent shutters. Busted windows. The kind of place scavengers pass when they're in a hurry… or afraid.
He stepped inside slowly, careful not to kick broken glass.
Shelves were overturned. Walls riddled with bullet holes. Blood, long dried, stained the tiled floor.
He moved toward a broken snack rack. Something caught his eye beneath a fallen shelf—A half-crushed energy bar. Dusty, but unopened.
Just as he reached for it—
A sound.
Not static. Not wind.A footstep.
Lu Zhen froze. His pistol was in his hand in seconds, safety already off. The movement came from behind the checkout counter.
Then—A figure appeared.
A woman. Mid-twenties maybe.Messy hair tied back under a hood. Urban gear patched with makeshift armor. One hand held a short blade. Her eyes, sharp and cautious, locked onto his.
They both paused.Measured.Watching.
She raised her knife.He raised his gun.
Neither moved.
Then Lu Zhen slowly lowered his pistol.
"I'm not infected," he said. His voice was dry. "I'm just… starving."
The woman studied him a moment longer. Then, slowly, she lowered her blade.
"You look too clean to be out here long," she said.
"I just woke up. Three days. Coma."
She blinked. "Sh*t… You serious?"
He nodded. "I missed the apocalypse."
A faint smile tugged at her lip. "Lucky you."
He motioned to the bar on the floor. "Can I…?"
"Take it. Not worth fighting over."
Lu Zhen snatched the bar, unwrapped it with trembling fingers, and devoured it. It was dry and stale.But it tasted like life.
He slumped beside a half-burned fridge. "Thanks."
She sat across from him, never quite letting her eyes leave his gun.
"Name's Lu Zhen," he said.
"…Yue Fei."
[New Contact Registered: Yue Fei]Status: Unknown AffiliationVital Signs: StableThreat Level: LowTrust Parameters: Undefined
"You from a survivor base?" Lu Zhen asked.
"Was. Mine got overrun last week. I've been solo since.""You?"
"Heard a radio. Something about… Base Tianlei?"
She nodded. "That's the big one. Federation-run. Food, power, clean water. Everyone's trying to get there. Few make it."
Lu Zhen let out a slow breath. "How far?"
"Far."
He looked around the store. Shelves stripped. Refrigerators empty.
"Maybe there's something in back."
"Try your luck. Quietly. Infected don't sleep."
Suddenly—
A groan.Then another.
Wet, dragging footsteps.Shadows moving outside.
[ALERT – Hostiles Detected]Type: Infected (Tier F)Count: 3Distance: 26 metersWarning: Biological entities cannot be decomposed.Vault Capacity: 0.62m³ / 1.00m³
Yue Fei's expression darkened. "Time to go."
They slipped out through a back door into a narrow alleyway. The city was silent, save for the moans and slow footsteps echoing behind them.
They crouched behind a toppled dumpster. Lu Zhen took deep, controlled breaths.
"What… are those things?" he whispered.
"The ones who didn't adapt. Didn't survive the dimensional shift.""We call them 'Infected'. Tier F's are slow, dumb. But the stronger ones—""—come out at night."
Lu Zhen clenched his jaw.
His system didn't react much. No weapons ready. No auto-targeting. Just HUD warnings and stat readouts.
"No help with enemies?" he muttered to himself.
"What?"
"Nothing."
They moved again, cutting through empty streets. Finally, they reached a half-buried shed behind a collapsed apartment. Yue Fei checked inside, then motioned him in.
Two sealed water bottles. A moldy emergency blanket. Not much, but enough for now.
She sat with her back to the wall, finally letting her guard down.
"Why didn't you shoot me?" Lu Zhen asked.
She eyed him, then shrugged. "You don't have the look."
"What look?"
"The look of someone who's killed to stay alive."
Lu Zhen didn't answer.He wasn't sure how long that would stay true.
The corner of his HUD blinked.
[Signal Lock Achieved: Base Tianlei]Route Tracking Enabled...Distance to Target: 143.2 km NE
He stared at the distance.
"That far, huh?"
Yue Fei had already dozed off.The silence of the ruins wrapped around them like a blanket.
He glanced at the pistol beside him.His empty stomach still twisted.
But inside, something had shifted.
"I won't make it there alone," he whispered.
Then, more firmly:
"I'll build my own team. Carefully. People I can trust."
No voice answered.Just the hum of the HUD and the howl of wind outside.
But for the first time in three days…Lu Zhen didn't feel entirely lost.