Early the next morning, the sounds from outside woke Lin Qi.
After a night of deep sleep, the two sets of memories in his mind finally fused together. With Lin Qi's original consciousness as the core, the integration of the memories from this parallel space made his mind feel much more expansive than before.
Even his previous neurogenic tinnitus had completely disappeared.
"Awake so early?"
Opening the door and seeing a figure busy in the kitchen, Lin Qi lay on the sofa and stretched.
"Brother Lin, how can you have no Sense of Crisis at all? I've almost finished making breakfast, and you're only just waking up?"
Zhao Tuantuan's voice came through, carrying a tone of warning.
"It's rare to have a good place to rest, and besides, I have you here."
Lin Qi said nonchalantly. This was only his first day in this Doomsday World; it was normal for his subjective consciousness to dominate his thoughts and for him to lack a sense of crisis.
However, as he gradually adapted, that would eventually change.
Before long, Zhao Tuantuan brought out two bowls of rice porridge, a plate of pickles, and a few pancakes.
Even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice, and considering Zhao Tuantuan was only eighteen, it was already quite impressive that she could make this breakfast with such simple ingredients.
However, this was the most sumptuous breakfast they had had in a month.
Today, Zhao Tuantuan had simply tied her hair into a ponytail. Her washed face looked exceptionally fair and clean. She was wearing the clothes of the house's owner—a tracksuit with an apron over it, which was stretched tight.
It would be impossible not to be moved, so much so that Lin Qi ate an extra large piece of pancake.
She was truly a feast for the eyes.
After breakfast, neither of them deliberately mentioned the zombies outside, but Lin Qi still took out all his equipment and organized it in the living room.
A dagger wouldn't cause much damage to a zombie, but Lin Qi still carried it. The tip of his spear already showed signs of bending; after all, it was just an ordinary umbrella shaft used as a spear, and it couldn't hold up for long.
Lin Qi reinforced the steel bar joint, tried swinging it to adjust the center of gravity, and then put the tool away.
"Brother Lin, are you going out?"
Zhao Tuantuan had been watching from the side the whole time without interrupting until Lin Qi stood up.
"We don't have much water left. I'm going to check the neighbors for supplies, and while I'm at it, I'll clear out the zombies on the surrounding streets and bring back the supplies from the hotel."
Although the panic brought by the apocalypse would plunge ordinary people into desperate straits, as long as the Federal Government maintained control of the big picture, they would surely radiate out to small cities. With the Federation's strength, they would soon be able to clear out areas suitable for human survival.
Furthermore, the matter of awakening that Zhao Tuantuan mentioned seemed to hold a deeper secret.
He didn't know if his current state was the result of awakening the power of his Gene Level, but Lin Qi always felt that his perfunctory skill advancement was different from what Zhao Tuantuan had described.
He had to improve his strength as much as possible before the changes arrived, so that even if Awakeners appeared, he wouldn't seem too weak.
Thus, he looked at his spear skill and decided to complete the goal of Kill Ten Zombies first.
After putting on some simple armor, Lin Qi walked out of the room under Zhao Tuantuan's gaze.
The hallway door was locked, and the zombies outside couldn't get in. Lin Qi decided to start from the third floor and search slowly.
This type of old residential building had four households per floor. The doors on the third floor were all tightly shut, which indicated that the entire building had been quarantined at the time.
However, Lin Qi still upheld the principle of politeness first; he knocked on the doors, and after confirming there was no movement inside, he pried the locks open.
The field of vision was better during the day, and he could see the general state of the rooms at a glance. However, Lin Qi still smelled a rotting odor and had to be careful and stay alert.
Upon entering, he saw an iron cage in the corner of the living room. Inside, a withered puppy was stuck stiffly to the floor, its fur already rotted away, revealing white bones.
Lin Qi poked it with his spear, and after confirming the puppy was completely dried out, he went to check the other bedrooms.
It must have been that when the quarantine happened, the pets weren't taken away and were left to starve to death in their cages.
For the entire morning, Lin Qi searched the whole residential building, but he didn't move all the supplies back. Once he confirmed the building was safe, he could go get them whenever he needed them.
After a short rest following lunch, Lin Qi set off again to explore a nearby residential building.
Compared to moving the whole building to the Ark for quarantine, some cases were more special and adopted a home-quarantine model. At first, there were zombies wandering in this residential courtyard, which meant there were definitely survivors left nearby.
Opening another iron gate, Lin Qi subconsciously took a step back.
On the ground was a pool of black slime emitting a foul stench, along with several shattered bones and torn clothing; it looked like a dismemberment scene.
As the iron gate opened, a scent of decay spread out at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if an evil spirit were emitting wailing sounds.
The stairs were covered in bloodstains, which even reflected a crystalline red light under the sunlight.
Lin Qi hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should continue to investigate.
"Forget it, the spear doesn't have much of an advantage in the hallway!"
After thinking for a moment, Lin Qi decisively locked the door and turned to walk outside.
Not long after he left, a harsh scratching sound suddenly came from behind the iron gate, as if a sharp tool were cutting into the door!
The door to another building was open, so Lin Qi kindly closed and locked it before arriving at the courtyard's iron gate.
Compared to the unknown zombies inside the buildings, the slow-moving ones outside were the easiest to deal with.
There were still zombies wandering on the street, all of the slow-moving, rotting kind. Lin Qi opened the lock and walked toward the nearest zombie, holding his spear.
After obtaining Basic Spear Technique, Lin Qi could judge the attack distance with his naked eye, and when he thrust his hand, he wouldn't miss his target.
With one thrust, the spear broke through the air, leaving a steady Afterimage. With a squelch, a spray of filthy blood erupted from the back of the zombie's head. Lin Qi flicked his spear, tossing the rotting zombie aside.
【Kill Ten Zombies 1/10】
Seeing the progress increase, Lin Qi was full of motivation.
After killing a few zombies, he didn't wait for the slow ones to approach but actively searched for them on the street.
At this moment, in a nearby residential building, a curtain was lifted to reveal a gap, and a pair of eyes stared fixedly at Lin Qi's figure on the street.
Over a dozen people had escaped from the hotel. Although most had perished in the mouths of zombies, a few lucky ones had hidden in safe places.
Seeing Lin Qi daring to slaughter zombies on the street, they felt not a shred of regret, but rather were filled with resentment.
"Brother Liu, that kid has some nerve, daring to go out on the street alone!"
The few of them had hidden in this building yesterday and hadn't dared to go out. After discussing for half a day, they hadn't decided on the deployment of their Combat Squad, as no one was willing to stand at the front.
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