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The New World: The Drowned Earth
Chapter 3: Floating Corpse

Chapter 3: Floating Corpse

The real sensation told him that he wasn't dreaming, nor was he hallucinating. Everything in front of him was real.

Looking at his blurry reflection on the water's surface, Harry's mind became somewhat dazed.

Being alone in this lifeless place, unable to see any signs of life or hope, Harry felt a sense of despair and loneliness as if the entire world had abandoned him.

Suddenly, a splash of water appeared in front of him, and he heard a faint sound.

Startled, Harry stood up suddenly. "Who's there?" he asked, instinctively taking a step back.

He stared at the water's surface for several tens of seconds, noticing only the plastic basin floating and swaying slightly. Apart from that, there was no other movement.

After one or two minutes, once he was sure that there was no other movement, Harry slowly approached the edge of the staircase again and looked into the water.

This time, he saw a black shadow immersed in the water at the corner of the staircase leading to the next floor. Because the staircase blocked his view, he couldn't see clearly what the shadow was.

The more Harry stared at the shadow, the more it looked like a human head from the angle he could see. He was sure that he hadn't seen this shadow before, and he didn't know if he hadn't noticed it before or if it had just floated there.

"That... looks like a human head... those floating, long hair, could it be a woman's head...?" Harry's scalp tingled as he thought more and more about it. He finally couldn't control his fear, causing him to stumble back to his home and slam the door shut.

Once he was back in the familiar environment, his fear and unease subsided slightly, and he became calmer, reflecting on what he had just seen.

"Yes, it's possible that it's really a woman's head, because it's likely the body of a drowned person. It's highly possible that it's a resident of the twenty-ninth floor. If that's true, it means that not everyone evacuated, and many people died in the sudden flood. I'm a survivor of the flood, and there may be others like me who are trapped. I'm not alone."

With this in mind, Harry felt somewhat relieved. He decided to go back to the stairwell and take a closer look to see if it was a corpse in the water.

He rummaged through his things and found a flashlight that he hadn't used in a long time. After testing it to make sure it still worked, he took the flashlight and a clothesline pole and opened the door to go out again.

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The corridor was still quiet, and Harry walked to the end of the corridor, pushed open the two doors beside the corridor, and walked in.

When he reached the edge of the stairs leading down, he turned on the flashlight and shone it into the water in front of him.

Although it was daytime, the light was not very bright because the windows in the stairwell were large. Earlier, he was too panicky to take a close look, but now he shone the flashlight carefully into the water.

Finally, Harry was almost certain that the black shadow in the water at the corner of the stairs was the head of a corpse, and because the body was submerged in water, the long hair on the body floated up, making it look eerie and frightening at first glance.

With mental preparation, Harry wasn't too panicked this time. He took a deep breath, put away the flashlight, took the clothesline pole in both hands, and reached into the water, trying to retrieve the corpse.

Facing a corpse alone, Harry's palms were sweating, and he felt his throat dry. He gritted his teeth and finally mustered the courage to reach into the water with the clothesline pole.

Soon, Harry realized that the pole was not long enough to reach the head. He frowned and stepped into the water, one foot on the next step down.

With his shoes wet, Harry didn't think much about it. His mind was focused on how to retrieve the corpse and take a closer look.

Holding the clothesline pole, he went down a few steps, and soon the water was up to his knees. Finally, the pole was long enough to reach the corpse.

Harry gently poked the floating head with the pole. The corpse was caught at the corner of the stairs because of the water level, and was blocked by the wall above, so it didn't float over.

Harry poked it a few more times with the pole. He didn't have to use too much force because of the buoyancy of the water. The corpse slowly floated over.

Seeing the corpse floating in the water, Harry took a deep breath and quickly retreated, climbing back up the stairs.

Although he knew it was just a corpse, he still felt a surge of uncontrollable coldness in his heart. At the same time, he felt curious about who the corpse was. Could it be someone he knew?

Of course, the most likely scenario was that it was a resident of the twenty-ninth floor. Even if residents of other floors died in the flood, the chance that their bodies would float to this floor was much lower.

With the clothesline pole in his left hand, Harry opened the flashlight again and tried to observe the corpse carefully.

The flashlight's beam shone on the corpse floating in the water, and Harry shuddered, his eyes showing a hint of fear.

Perhaps because it had been submerged in water for a long time, the bloated corpse looked obese, and Harry couldn't recognize who it was. He could only tell that it was a woman from the long hair floating on the water.

What scared Harry was that the corpse was not intact. The bloated body was covered in flesh and blood, and the thigh, chest, and abdomen had exposed white bones, indicating signs of being eaten. It was a creepy and dreadful sight.

Harry had lived for twenty-seven years and had never seen such a horrific and bloody scene. His heart trembled, and he suddenly retreated two steps, feeling the water, which looked somewhat murky, becoming eerie and sinister.

"What ate it? Could it be fish or other animals in the water...?" Harry couldn't think about it anymore. His scalp tingled, and he suddenly felt a strong sense of unease, which made him not want to stay here and look at the corpse that had been partially eaten. Instead, he quickly returned to the corridor, tightly closed the door leading to the stairwell, and felt his heart pounding.