[Parallel World: Country A, City A]
[Time: 2030]
"I like you!"
On the quiet street, after hesitating for a long time, Zhang Lei finally mustered up the courage to confess to the class beauty.
The class beauty, upon hearing this, was initially stunned. When she came to her senses, her pretty, oval face visibly flushed.
She shyly glanced at Zhang Lei, then lowered her head and whispered,
"You called me here... just... for this?"
"Y-Yes... Is... is that not okay?"
Zhang Lei, a bit nervous, had spent all his courage on this confession.
Zhang Lei was the class monitor of Grade 11, Class 1, consistently ranking first in his class. He was humble and easygoing, and quite handsome, with a scholarly air that made him seem like an ancient Confucian scholar.
However, his family was poor, and the only reason he was able to attend the prestigious A High School with its exorbitant tuition fees was because of his excellent grades.
In contrast, the class beauty, Xia He, had a very different background.
She was beautiful and the daughter of the owner of a large corporation in the city.
She had many suitors, including some rich heirs from large enterprises.
She could have had any man she wanted.
But what attracted her the most was the class monitor, who was privately referred to as the "poor guy" by others.
The reason was simple: Xia He found Zhang Lei to be pure and simple, unlike the arrogant, money-driven young masters.
Xia He had developed a strong liking for Zhang Lei.
So, when he asked her to go home with him after school, she agreed without a second thought.
She had expected a confession, and it turned out exactly as she had hoped.
Because they both liked each other, the shy girl nodded, then said with embarrassment,
"I... I like you too."
And just like that, a new couple was born.
They left hand in hand, both red-faced, unaware of a male classmate sitting by the roadside eating his lunch.
The male classmate, who had witnessed the entire scene, glanced at his lunch box, and for some reason, lost his appetite.
At that moment, a stray dog walked over to him.
The dog wagged its tail happily, hoping to beg for some food.
But the classmate just glared at the stray dog.
Then:
"Woof, woof, woof!!!"
He barked at the dog, scaring it away.
Next, he threw his lunch box on the ground, beside a trash can, open.
Afterward, he left, heading toward his destination.
After walking fifty meters, he suddenly turned around.
What he saw was the stray dog eating the leftover food from his lunch box.
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[Time: 2032]
Ding ding ding...
The sound of the alarm clock startled Huang Jin awake from his sleep.
Opening his eyes, he saw the flashing police light on the bedside table emitting an ear-piercing noise.
Every time the alarm went off, Huang Jin knew his business was coming.
Beside the police light was a red button, and Huang Jin pressed it, silencing the alarm instantly.
He turned on the bedside lamp.
The layout of the room was immediately visible.
The cluttered room looked chaotic, as if a post-apocalyptic filter had been added.
In fact, this was the apocalypse.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Looking back, it had been almost two years since the zombie outbreak.
This was a shelter in City C of Country A, the place Huang Jin had fled to.
The shelter was run by a group of violent criminals.
They had sectioned off an area and surrounded it with cement and various materials to form a wall that isolated them from the zombie world.
To stay in the shelter, one had to pay a "monthly rent."
Food, cigarettes, or alcohol.
Things of value.
— except money.
Huang Jin, with his excellent scavenging skills, had become one of the longest-serving residents of the shelter.
But staying outside and fighting was not sustainable.
Especially with resources in the city becoming more scarce.
So Huang Jin set up a side business.
He opened a private office within the shelter.
For a sufficient fee, he'd do anything.
Most of the people who came to him were rookies asking for help with scavenging.
Usually, they knew of a place in the city with supplies but didn't have the ability to retrieve them themselves.
Reluctantly, they sought help from Huang Jin, who had mastered the skill of scavenging.
With Huang Jin's guidance, they would retrieve the supplies.
Then, as agreed, they'd split the loot.
Normally, Huang Jin would take 60% of the supplies as his commission.
To make his business more successful and build a good reputation in a world where no one could be trusted, Huang Jin usually kept his word and didn't kill his clients to take all the loot for himself.
After all, only by letting the clients spread the word of his success would more business come his way.
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[Time: 3:00 AM]
The wall clock showed the time was 3 AM.
To find him at this hour, the client must have something urgent.
It was highly likely that it wasn’t a typical scavenging job, but something very important to the client.
Huang Jin had received this type of request over a dozen times last year.
It was usually someone who had lost something crucial to them.
Like a child who had lost their parents' heirlooms, or someone who had lost their only emotional support.
But this type of request only came in the early days of the apocalypse.
Now, it was the second year of the zombie outbreak.
People had begun to realize the value of supplies.
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He put on his thick, patched coat and quickly went downstairs.
There was a self-installed electric wire leading from the first-floor back door to the alarm next to his bed.
When a client pressed the button on the first floor, the alarm in Huang Jin's room would go off.
The windows on the first floor had iron bars but no glass, so the cold wind blew in, making it unbearably cold.
It was winter, and a snowstorm was raging.
Snow had blown into the house, covering the old floor near the window.
Huang Jin approached the back door, but instead of opening it, he peeked through the gap to look outside.
He vaguely saw a tall, thin figure.
"Who?" he asked.
"I... I was sent by someone. Please, I need your help..."
The person’s voice was weak and trembling, clearly from the cold.
From the voice, Huang Jin could tell it was someone his age, probably a newcomer to the shelter.
But the voice seemed oddly familiar.
"Step back," Huang Jin said.
The man obediently stepped back, standing in the snow.
But Huang Jin didn’t open the door. Instead, he turned on his flashlight and shone it through the crack to get a better look at him.
After confirming the man wasn’t carrying any weapons, he finally opened the door.
But the door didn’t push outward; it swung inward.