A Seaside City
The sea breeze gently blows as the sunset paints a beautiful scene.
A loving couple sits on the beach, facing the ocean, lost in each other's embrace.
A slim and beautiful girl with a weight of only 200 pounds lifts her arm and delicately wraps it around the thin guy beside her, embracing him in her ample bosom.
"Darling, there will be a meteor shower at ten tonight. Will you accompany me to watch it?"
The slender guy struggles to pull his head out of the girl's embrace, his face blushing, seemingly a bit shy.
"Sweetheart, I'll be with you no matter what happens."
"Thank you, my love."
"Don't mention it, my darling."
Snap---
A couple in love, two meters behind them, Lucas feels a bit nauseous. His body trembles, and the chicken leg in his hand falls onto the beach.
"Young man, regretting it now?"
"Last year, you refused to marry my daughter. Look at them now, how loving they are."
"If you had married my daughter last year, there would have been no need for all this business."
"Look, all these food stalls along the beach for kilometers are owned by our family. There would be no problem supporting you and my daughter."
Under the beach umbrella, a middle-aged woman looks at Lucas with disdain.
"Uh..."
Lucas forces a smile, remaining silent. He raises his hand to check the time.
"Quarter past six."
"Three hours and forty-five minutes until doomsday arrives."
"This rebirth, how many more years can I live?"
Lucas mutters to himself, feeling surreal.
The feeling of being torn apart by insects is still fresh, as if it happened just moments ago.
He was reborn eleven years ago, just as doomsday was approaching, while he was enjoying fried chicken.
Doomsday was about to arrive in four hours.
Unless something unexpected happened, this would be Lucas's last time eating fried chicken and drinking beer in his lifetime.
After the sun sets today, it won't rise again for three months.
When the strange sun rises again after three months, there will be less than one hundred million humans left.
At ten o'clock tonight, the cataclysmic meteor shower will appear on time.
After the meteor shower, countless giant mushrooms will emerge on the ground, releasing frenzied spores.
Around eleven o'clock, the insects will appear and start slaughtering humans.
People in the seaside city will flee, but countless vehicles will be trapped at the highway exits, becoming the target of the insect swarm's concentrated killings.
Around midnight, infected individuals will start to emerge.
The infected include humans turned into zombies, as well as mutated beasts and plants.
Inhaling spores from giant mushrooms or being bitten by insects will turn humans into infected individuals.s scratched or bitten by infected individuals will turn into new infected individuals within ten seconds...
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
This time, Lucas doesn't plan to follow the crowd and escape to the outskirts of the city. He decides to hide in an underground warehouse to endure the three-month period of darkness.
The warehouse is an abandoned bank vault from decades ago, surrounded by metal. It has an old-fashioned ventilation system that doesn't require electricity. Lucas only needs to install a filter mesh at the air vent to filter out mushroom spores.
On this day in the previous life, the people fleeing the seaside city were massacred by the insect swarm at the highway exit, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
People biting people, humans infecting humans, and within a short period, nearly one million people were directly infected.
Lucas was also trapped at the highway exit, narrowly escaping death. He doesn't have the courage to go through that again in this rebirth.
After having a satisfying meal, he drives his own bus to the supermarket to buy supplies, and then plans to hide in the underground warehouse.
Three months later, humans will establish dozens of shelter cities.
And this seaside city will have its own shelter.
By that time, Lucas can come out of the underground warehouse and find relative safety within the sheltered city.
Lucas is well aware that he cannot become an evolved human.
Hiding is the only way for him to survive.
At least in the previous life, he managed to hide for eleven years before meeting his end.
In this rebirth, with the experience in his mind, he should be able to live a few more years at least.
With this in mind, Lucas makes a decision. He bends down, picks up the chicken leg from the sand, and wipes it off with his clothes. Then he looks up at the middle-aged woman.
"Boss, please pack ten more chicken legs for me to take away."
Hearing Lucas's words, the middle-aged woman smiles and says, "Oh, young man, did you get your paycheck? You can't spend it recklessly. Listen to me, save some money and build a house in the countryside. It'll be better for you to find a wife in the future. Not every woman is as understanding about money as my daughter."
Lucas forces another smile, still remaining silent.
The ten chicken legs are quickly handed to Lucas.
"Boss, doomsday is approaching. If you have a basement at home, it's best to prepare more food and drinks within the next three hours and then hide inside. Come out three months later."
Taking the chicken legs, Lucas says seriously to the middle-aged woman, pays the money, and turns to leave.
"This kid must be mentally disturbed!"
Watching Lucas's figure, the middle-aged woman says disdainfully, not paying attention to his words.
Walking away from the beach, Lucas looks back.
The sun has already set, and the city lights are just coming on. The lights of the fried chicken stalls have also turned on.
Bright incandescent lights illuminate the beach, everything appearing so unreal.
Naturally, no one would believe his words.
He can say it because the family that owns the fried chicken stall is actually not bad, although they have sharp tongues.
"Live on with all your might. Good luck to you all!"
Muttering to himself, Lucas turns around and opens the door of the bus in front of him, stepping inside.
Lucas is a long-distance bus driver in the seaside city. At this time in his previous life, his bus had just finished maintenance and was newly out of the repair shop, which is why he came to the seaside to eat fried chicken in his bus.
Growing up in an orphanage, he has always been introverted, and his favorite thing to do is eating fried chicken by the beach, drinking cold beer, and watching the sunset.
【Capsule system binding in progress...】
【Binding complete. Opening gift package in progress...】
【Automatic reception in progress...】
Just as Lucas placed the bag containing the chicken legs on the dashboard, a slightly cold and indifferent voice sounded in his mind.
At the moment his hair stood on end, an extremely futuristic panel appeared before his eyes.
Lines of text began to appear on the panel, with a floor plan of a bus at the bottom.
【Congratulations, host. Through the gift package provided by the system, you have obtained a set of bus upgrade packages!】
【Congratulations, host. Through the gift package provided by the system, you have obtained a red capsule!】
【Level 1 bus upgrade package, three optional plans.】
【Plan 1: Upgrade the entire bus to an alloy bus made of chromium (Cr), without soundproofing system, super engine equipment, and unlimited energy device. (Upgradable)】
【Plan 2: Enhance the strength of the entire bus shell threefold, increase engine efficiency threefold, reduce energy consumption by 300%, without soundproofing system. (Upgradable)】
【Plan 3: Increase the strength of the entire bus shell by twofold, increase engine efficiency by twofold, reduce energy consumption by 500%, and include a soundproofing system. (Upgradable)】
【Would you like to receive the gift package now: ✔✘】
Looking at the panel, Lucas feels a bit stunned...
Is this the system from novels?
The essential cheat for those who are reborn or travel through time?
At that moment, the cold voice speaks again.
【Host can exchange and obtain rainbow-colored capsules from the system.】
【By using the rainbow-colored capsules, the host can randomly obtain rewards, including but not limited to food, daily necessities, weapons, martial arts, and items for physical evolution.】
【The system will randomly assign tasks to help the host find meaning in surviving the apocalypse.】
Lucas stares at the content on the panel for at least ten minutes.
After ten minutes, Lucas becomes somewhat calmer. Instead of immediately choosing the bus upgrade plan, he starts analyzing the pros and cons frantically...
Should he roam around with a super-upgraded bus, as if using an external cheat, or should he stick to the plan and hide in the underground warehouse for three months...
Hmm...
Or perhaps, should he drive the bus into the underground warehouse and survive there?