September 3rd, 9 p.m., Yujiang City, at the bus stop near Lanhua Commercial Center.
“Did you hear? Li Xueli, the class monitor from Class 3 next door, went missing.”
A high school girl in a blue-and-white school uniform was quietly chatting with her classmate. The girl holding her arm nodded when she heard this and said, “Yeah, I know. Her mom even came to the school asking around. Don’t tell me they still haven’t found her?”
“They haven’t!”
“And I heard the friend who went out with her that day also disappeared!”
“How could that happen…”
Jiang Qi sat with earphones in, staring down at her phone. After overhearing the two girls’ conversation, she glanced at the video currently playing on her screen:
[Breakdown of the Strange Incidents Happening Over the Past Two Months:]
[① White fog that refuses to disperse has appeared in multiple cities across the country.]
[② Household pets have been making abnormal cries and convulsing without reason, while wild animals have suddenly begun migrating out of season or committing mass suicide.]
[③ Black-purple thunderclouds have appeared over cities, yet no rain has fallen.]
[④ A certain high school in Lanshan City has been sealed off due to an unknown incident.]
[⑤ Missing person cases across the country have increased significantly…]
Almost unconsciously, Jiang Qi opened the comments section:
[DidYouEatToday: I get it, I get it. The apocalypse is coming, right? There’s been tons of content like this on social media lately. Nothing surprising anymore.]
[Mo Dengxian: But there really have been a lot of abnormal things lately. Like the weather.]
[MeowGu: Hasn’t the weather always been weird? It’s snowing where I am.]
[NotHumble: Xizhou City gets snow every year around this time…]
[lunana: Everything else could just be someone intentionally stirring up public anxiety, but point ⑤ really is strange. Normally it’s impossible for so many missing cases to happen at the same time.]
[MulletRoe: Help! Someone disappeared in my neighborhood too! A whole family of four!]
[JasmineMilkTea: How did the whole family disappear? Did they go overseas on vacation?]
[MulletRoe: No, no. I heard they disappeared on the way back to their hometown. Don’t know the details, but apparently the case has been investigated for a month without any leads.]
[……]
Jiang Qi looked away from the comments because the No. 603 bus she had been waiting for had arrived. After lining up and scanning her code to board, she casually found a spot to stand and steadied herself before opening the TT Music app and turning on shuffle play.
A soothing, relaxed rhythm echoed in her ears as the bus slowly started moving, the city streets sliding past before her eyes.
Bzzzt… bzzzt…
???
Bzzzt… bzzzt…
Jiang Qi thought her earphones had come loose and was just about to adjust them when her phone suddenly started ringing.
And not just hers.
Everyone’s phones on the entire bus were ringing.
For a moment, all kinds of ringtones overlapped chaotically inside the bus. Every passenger who looked up wore a stunned expression.
“What the heck? Why is everyone’s ringtone going off at the same time?”
“Probably a coincidence…”
“But that’s way too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?!”
Amid the noisy chatter of the passengers, Jiang Qi’s gaze accidentally swept past the bus window and noticed that even the pedestrians outside had stopped walking to look at their phones.
“There’s no incoming number displayed…” A young man in business attire seated nearby stared at his continuously ringing phone with a strange expression.
“There’s no answer or decline button either…”
Hearing that, Jiang Qi hurriedly lowered her head to check her own phone, wanting to see whether hers also lacked a number display and buttons.
But at that exact moment, every ringtone in the bus stopped simultaneously.
A clear white house app appeared in the center of everyone’s phone screens, accompanied by an electronic voice sounding beside their ears—
[Software installation successful. Player registration successful. Transferring target now…]
[10]
[9]
[8]
…
[3]
[2]
[1]
The moment the countdown hit zero, Jiang Qi’s vision went black and she instantly lost consciousness.
***
No one knew how much time had passed.
When she woke up again, she found herself in an empty room with absolutely nothing inside. Judging by sight alone, the room was around fifty square meters.
“Where is this?”
Am I dead?
Jiang Qi made that somewhat ridiculous guess while looking around.
A true definition of bare walls and an empty home.
Aside from a small balcony, the room contained nothing at all. The flooring was wooden, and the walls were spotless white. After getting up and walking around, she discovered there was also a modestly sized bathroom.
There was no toilet in the bathroom. And definitely no mirror or washing machine.
Connected to the small balcony was a glass door. Beyond the glass, thick white fog swirled endlessly, making it impossible to see anything.
“What is going on…”
I clearly remember being on the bus a second ago.
Fortunately, Jiang Qi’s confusion didn’t last long because the electronic voice she had heard before rang out from her phone once again.
[Welcome to the Survival Apartment.]
[Every player will initially receive a fifty-square-meter single-person apartment. As an initial game resource, this apartment cannot be dropped or traded.]
[Please cherish and take good care of your apartment. It is your greatest guarantee for surviving the apocalypse.]
“The apocalypse?!” Jiang Qi’s pupils shrank sharply as she cried out in shock.
As if capable of hearing her reaction, the system immediately continued:
[This world has already been invaded by a higher-dimensional world of anomalies. It is currently in the early stages of invasion. The full-scale invasion will begin in 30 days.]
[According to the system’s assessment, humanity in this world possesses absolutely no ability to resist the anomalies. Without any outside assistance or rescue, all humans in this world will perish within thirty days after the invasion begins.]
“What?!!” Jiang Qi was even more horrified.
[Under the ***rescue regulations, the *** has decided to deploy the Survival Apartment System to help humanity in this world survive the crisis.]
[Please remember one rule: survival of the fittest.]
[We wish all players success on their road to survival.]
Jiang Qi stood frozen in place for a long time, unable to process it.
The apocalypse? Just like that? It had come so suddenly that she hadn’t prepared herself mentally at all!
But…
“This apartment… is it free?”
[Yes.]
“Holy shit?! You can hear me talking?!”
[This is Survival Apartment Building 757471, Block IV, District C. I am System Branch No. 650301666, your survival assistant.]
[User No. 650301666, you may ask me any questions you have.]
Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, hundred-thousands, millions…
Jiang Qi silently counted through the digits, and the moment she realized the number had surpassed one hundred million, everything clicked.
So the whole world really got dragged into this. Thank God, at least I’m not the only unlucky one.
Still unconvinced, Jiang Qi asked, “This apartment… really belongs to me?”
[Yes.]
“I don’t have to pay for it?”
[No payment required.]
Jiang Qi’s expression became strange.
Owning a home of her own for free was undeniably something worth being happy about, especially when she was only twenty-two years old and had graduated from university just a few months ago. Becoming a “homeowner” at such a young age was naturally exciting.
What wasn’t exciting was the apocalypse.
“What exactly is the Survival Apartment for?”
[The Survival Apartment is a residence provided to players by the Survival Apartment System.]
[Players may move freely within the apartment. The apartment provides thirty days of free protection. During this protection period, anomalies will be unable to harm players residing inside the apartment. After thirty days, the free protection will expire.]
[If players wish to survive more effectively, they must work hard to clear instances and earn points. Points can be exchanged in the shop for all necessary supplies, including renewing the apartment’s anti-anomaly protection.]
Renewing…
Got it. This was basically the apocalypse version of an electricity bill.
Jiang Qi asked again, “Electricity bills… no, how many points does the anti-anomaly protection fee cost per month?”
[1000 points per day.]
So around thirty thousand points a month.
“Is that expensive or not?”
If converted into rent, would that be like three thousand yuan a month? Or three hundred thousand? And she had no idea how difficult the survival instances were. She didn’t play games often, nor did she have much experience.
“How do I participate in instances?”
[There are currently three instances available for players to choose from:]
[① City]
[② Coastline]
[③ Island]
[PS: Additional information about instances can only be obtained after entering them.]
There was still one more important question.
Jiang Qi took a deep breath. “If I die inside an instance, is it real death?”
[Death inside an instance is not true death. Only points will be deducted. Death in the real world is true death.]
Death in the real world is true death…
Suddenly remembering something, Jiang Qi quickly unlocked her phone and opened the white house app that had abruptly appeared on her screen earlier, the app representing the Survival Apartment.
The first thing that came into view was the player ID selection screen.
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Qi decided to set her ID as: QiQiQi.
After choosing her name came the login and main interface.
The Survival Apartment interface was extremely simple, consisting of only four sections: Forum, Shop, Instance, and Profile.
The Forum was divided into the Regional Forum and the World Forum.
The Shop was divided into the ordinary shop and the special shop. Jiang Qi casually browsed through it and discovered that the ordinary shop sold all kinds of daily necessities. Small items like bottled water and tissue packs, large items like cars, yachts, and airplanes. Even all sorts of processed construction materials could be purchased there.
The items in the special shop were much more unusual. The cheapest ones were knives and firearms, while the expensive ones included special ability items, supernatural powers, bloodlines, cultivation techniques, and more.
Oh, and the anti-anomaly protection fee also had to be purchased in the special shop.
The Instance section contained the three instances the system had just announced.
The Profile section was for personal information, along with functions like adding friends, deleting friends, creating group chats, and…
“Personal mailbox?”
Jiang Qi opened the mailbox and found a message sent by the Survival Apartment System.
[Welcome, player, to the Survival Apartment. You have a “Beginner Gift Pack” awaiting collection.]
A beginner gift pack?!
Suppressing her excitement, Jiang Qi resisted claiming it immediately and instead opened the forum first.
The World Forum was filled with every language imaginable. Unable to understand most of it, she exited and switched to the Regional Forum.
[Regional Forum]
[It’s Over: AHHHHHHHHHHHH the apocalypse is really here!!!]
[Seaweed Egg Drop Soup: AHHHHHHHHHHHH if I’d known this would happen, why the hell did I study so hard and prepare for grad school?!]
[Blueberry: AHHHHHHHHHHHH I just bought a house and haven’t even lived in it for one day yet!!!]
[I’ll Fight Ten People: AHHHHHHHHHHHH when I said I hoped the world would end, I didn’t mean it literally!!!]
After scrolling past a huge amount of meaningless emotional venting, Jiang Qi finally found some useful information. It was a post made by a user with the ID “Black & White.”
[Black & White: The Beginner Gift Pack in the Profile section can unlock items or abilities.]
“It can unlock items and abilities? Isn’t that basically a cheat?”
If she could get a useful item or ability, wouldn’t clearing survival instances become much easier…?
Jiang Qi clenched her fists. “The time to test my luck has arrived!”
Whether she was cursed with bad luck or blessed by fortune would all depend on this moment!
[Would you like to use the Player Beginner Gift Pack?]
“Use it.”
Three seconds later.
[Congratulations, player. You have obtained the A-rank ability Lucky Blind Box Lottery Machine.]
“What kind of thing is that? A lottery machine?”
Jiang Qi hurriedly opened her profile interface to check the description of the Lucky Blind Box Lottery Machine ability.
[Lucky Blind Box Lottery Machine: Can be used once each time you enter an instance, but every item drawn can only be used within that instance.]
“So every time I enter an instance, I’ll get a new one-time-use item?”
Jiang Qi wasn’t sure whether this counted as good luck or bad luck, but at least she hadn’t drawn something completely useless.
“Do I have to enter an instance right now?”
Not entering wasn’t really an option either. The room had absolutely nothing in it, not even a toilet! If she didn’t enter an instance, she wouldn’t even be able to take care of her basic bodily needs!
“But which of the three instances should I choose?”
Making a simple guess, the City Instance probably had something to do with cities, the Coastline Instance with the ocean, and the Island Instance with islands.
Uh… that guess was practically useless.
“In a city, there are more buildings and more supplies. If it’s a survival-related instance, then surviving in the city should be the easiest…”
There was no point in hesitating. No matter how much she deliberated, she still had to enter an instance. Jiang Qi spent half an hour giving herself a thorough and intense mental pep talk before decisively opening the instance interface and selecting ① City Instance.
[City Instance Clearance Conditions:]
[① Survive for 30 days in the instance Rong City instance to earn 1000 points.]
[② Escape from the Rong City instance within 7 days to earn 10000 points.]
[Entering City Instance Countdown:]
[3]
[2]
[1]
Her vision went black once again. Before Jiang Qi could even react, she realized she was already sitting inside a moving subway train. Over the speakers, an announcement sounded beside her ears:
[Next stop: Guchun Street. Passengers getting off at this station, please prepare to disembark.]
The subway? I’m on a subway train.
Jiang Qi immediately calmed herself down and instantly activated her ability.
[Congratulations, you have obtained a Pink Blind Box.]
Jiang Qi opened the pink blind box that had appeared out of thin air in her hands and discovered a pink diamond ring inside. “Uh… what use could a ring possibly have?”
She picked it up for a closer look, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
[Spatial Ring (C-rank): 100 cubic meters.]
“!!!”
A spatial storage item! This was incredible! Clearing the instance was practically guaranteed now!
Just as Jiang Qi could barely suppress her excitement, the subway arrived at Guchun Street Station. After the doors opened, some passengers got off while many others boarded.
Clang.
An elderly woman who had just stepped inside suddenly collapsed into the aisle. Foam spilled from her mouth as her entire body convulsed uncontrollably. The surrounding passengers were all startled. Some rushed over to help, some took out their phones to call emergency services, while others ran to find subway staff.
Amid the chaos, only Jiang Qi’s expression changed drastically, because she had seen a scene like this before in a movie.
It was a… zombie movie!