[Game Start!]

As the window screen disappeared, Alan opened his eyes once more and found that he was lying in a living room inside a luxurious modern condominium. He heaved a sigh of relief, as he recognized the place as the exact same one where he spawned last time.

It meant that the knowledge he had of the game prior to his regression would not become obsolete.

To make sure that he was still in the same game, Alan quickly scrambled to his feet and dashed towards the nearest window, only to see the familiar sight of busy streets of New York. Heavy, endless rain fell from the gray-tinted skies, while cars tried to honk at each other in vain during the traffic jam.

Right after, a notification appeared in his mind.

[Warning: Disaster will arrive in 10 minutes]

[You received F level quest: Survive first disaster]

[You received F level quest: Save a survivor]

As the participants of the Apocalypse Game had just arrived, to receive such an ominous notification naturally would turn most of them to panic. Alan, however, looked completely unperturbed. He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling a deep breath, before quickly following the plan he made before.

Turning his gaze away from the window, Alan rushed into the kitchen and quickly searched the cabinets.

He quickly opened the cabinet doors and wasn't bothered when he found nothing of use. He just kept on searching the drawers. Then within a few seconds, he finally found one he was looking for.

[Name: Lighter]

[Type: Utility]

[Rarity: Common]

[Attributes: None]

[Effect: To create a fire]

[Able To Bring Outside The Game: Yes]

[Remark: light it up, watch out!]

Even though the Apocalypse Game seemed so realistic that it could rival the real world, there were still limitations to it. One of them was the fact that only marked items could really be useful in the game.

For example, he could grab the knife in the kitchen and cut some fruits from the fridge, but without the game effect, he could not do any real damage to anyone and the fruit he eats will not increase his health.

As for the lighter, players could do multiple ways to light a fire, but this item is the sure way to guarantee fire would light.

Taking the lighter from the small drawer, Alan quickly shoved it into his pocket. After that, he ran out of the door to see a hallway with a dozen doors, an elevator, and stairs. He remembered that last time, he checked all of those rooms in sight, only to find a stack of canned food and a knife in the room right below. In any other situation, those items might have helped him.

This time, however, Alan was not going to waste his time dealing with all that.

[09:05]

As he spawned inside the 10th floor of a luxury apartment, taking the stairs would waste at least 3 or 4 minutes of his time while taking the elevator was going to get him killed as the electricity would shut down soon.

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Of course, with his knowledge, Alan had prepared a plan for this. Thus he chose the third option. He quickly dashed across the hallway and stopped right in front of a fire hose reel panel.

A good punch and a kick were enough to shatter the glass covering the hose into pieces. Alan then yanked out the hose, tightened it around his arm, and ran towards the window at the end of the hall.

Alan peeked his head out the window, staring at the 10-floor drop before glancing at the 36-meter hose in his hand. He took a deep breath, and then closed his eyes. Without further ado, he took the chance and jumped down.

"Here goes nothing!" He yelled, his voice almost drowned in by the falling rain.

Swiissshhh!

Alan fell around two-thirds of the way before the hose finally caught up and stopped his velocity for a second. Unfortunately, the force of his fall was enough to make it snap, dropping him around 10 meters down.

"Arrgghhh!" Alan shouted in a mix of pain and irritation.

[Impact: Fall Received 25 Damage]

It was quite a pretty painful fall, but fortunately for Alan, he has a rank D- in endurance which allowed him to take the brunt. Otherwise, he would have gotten far more fatal fall damage, or even worse, a broken bone.

Alan's body landed with a thud, bringing his predicament to the attention of people around him. Some laughed or shook their heads as if he was crazy, while others clapped hands as they found his antics entertaining.

Sadly, he had no time to humor them. A quick glance at the timer showed that the first disaster will strike at exactly [07:45]. Alan needed to hurry, because there wasn't much time left.

He quickly rushed down the streets of the jammed city and observed the environment through the heavy rains to find his intended target. In the end, after crossing a street, he found what he was looking for.

It was a bus that stopped in the middle of all the cars that were jammed in traffic.

He bolted as fast as he could, only to find the bus was locked. When he looked inside, there was no one.

Luckily, he had anticipated the situation. Alan tried to force open the door with all his strength until a notification appeared in front of his eyes.

[Your E+ strength allows you to force open the door]

CLANK! BAM!

With that, the bus door was finally opened.

Alan quickly jumped into the driver's seat and quickly broke out the bottom panel of the steering wheel, and started hot wiring the bus.

[Your (Science) allows you to successfully turn on the vehicle]

The way the game worked was that the player needed to have related knowledge if they wanted to perform a complex activity, but without the proper skill, it would take longer for the action to work, or worse, it would never work at all.

Now that the bus was on, Alan quickly pushed the siren as loudly as he could, attracting the attention of everyone on the street. They all looked at the bus in surprise.

Then, Alan jumped on the top of the bus to make sure everyone saw him and pointed towards the back of the streets.

From the end of the street, a massive wall of water, as high as 20 meters, was rushing forward, inching closer and closer by the moment. All the cars and people in its wake were swallowed without mercy, lost within its body.

The sight quickly brought the people to their senses, and they started to panic before running away with all their might.

Once again, Alan screamed.

"GET INSIDE THE BUS!!"

[5:29]

Without further ado, the dozens of people quickly rushed in fear into the bus. He returned to the driver's seat while his mind filled with counting the number of people entering the bus and comparing it to the time he had left.

[2:10]

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of crashing water, and Alan looked behind from the back seat mirror, only to see the water was currently just about 100 meters behind him.

"50 passengers!"

Alan slammed his feet on the gas pedal, crashed the car in front of him, and let the bus run onto the pedestrian streets. He was in such a hurry, to the extent that an NPCs ended up getting hit by the bus.

People were screaming both outside and inside the bus, but Alan kept on pushing the pedal, letting the massive bus rush forward as the wave got closer. It was now just a few meters behind him. His target was clear, it was the New York library that stood much taller than the other buildings around him.

The bus trembled violently as it rode up the stairs and crashed inside the library lobby. At the same time, the waves finally caught up to him and forced the bus to crash into the wall.

[Impact: Crash Received 25 Damage]

Alan was staggered for a second, and a few people inside the bus got hurt, but a notification came into his mind, and he smiled.

[You have completed F level quest: survived the first disaster]

[You received 100 survival points, 100 XP]

[You have completed F level quest: saved a civilian]

[Your received 200 survival points, 100XP, rank F reward]

[Special: You have saved 50 civilians]

[Your received 500 survival points, 300 XP, rank E reward]

[You level up to level 3]