Avoiding the wandering zombies on the road, Lucian made his way toward a nearby commercial building.
Before he could even reach the front steps, he stopped in his tracks. A massive cluster of zombies was gathered right around the glass entrance.
’Let’s go to another building,’ he thought, quietly backing away.
Every single entrance was blocked by large swarms of zombies wandering in tight groups.
’This is frustrating.’
It was a small mercy that these ordinary zombies were slow and clumsy; otherwise, he would have been cornered within minutes.
Lucian narrowed his eyes. The deep darkness of the city provided great cover to hide in, but it also made it nearly impossible to see long distances while constantly watching his step.
Suddenly, movement caught his eye high above.
’A monstrous bird?’
Something was diving at blistering speed straight down the side of a massive skyscraper. Before Lucian could make out its shape, the silhouette turned its gaze directly in his direction.
– SCREEEEE!
A piercing screech ripped through the quiet night air.
In the next instant, the shadow changed its trajectory, diving straight toward him.
Lucian’s face was drained of color. He spun on his heel and began sprinting flat out toward the nearest building with the smallest group of zombies outside.
"HAAAA–!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, intentionally drawing the attention of the dead guarding the entrance.
Like moths flying toward a bright flame, the zombies turned and rushed at him from every corner of the plaza.
He drove his fist into the jaw of the first zombie that lunged, knocked aside four more that grabbed at his clothes, and sprinted ahead.
’The zombies suddenly became hyperactive!’
"Take this bastard!"
Lucian kicked another zombie hard in the chest, sending it tumbling down the stairs.
Slipping through the front doors, he slammed the heavy entrance shut and threw the deadbolt into place.
THUD! THUD! BANG!
Within seconds, dozens of rotting bodies piled from outside, banging against the frame violently.
’Shit! There are too many of them!’
Five zombies that were already inside the lobby turned toward the noise, shambling toward him with outstretched arms.
Lucian didn’t bother engaging them in a prolonged fight. He dodged around their clumsy swings, slipped past their reach, and sprinted for the central stairwell.
His heart hammered against his ribs in the greatest adrenaline rush of his life.
Bursting through the stairwell door, he looked around.
The zombies lingering on the landing turned their heads in unison to stare at him, sending a cold chill down his spine.
He cleared the first floor without much issue, but halfway up the flight toward the second floor, a massive figure blocked the landing.
It was a broad, heavily built zombie, and both of its eyes had been violently gouged out, leaving two sunken, black pits in its skull.
– GRAAA!
Hearing the heavy bootsteps, the blind brute leaped directly down the stairs.
Caught off-guard on the narrow steps, Lucian collided head-on with the monster. Both of them crashed violently.
The heavy zombie landed on top, pinning Lucian flat on his back.
Cold, dead fingers clamped tightly around his throat, squeezing with terrifying strength. Lucian’s hands shot up, gripping the creature’s neck in return to hold it back.
"GRAAA!"
The monster roared inches from his face, spraying thick yellow pus and foul saliva across Lucian’s cheeks.
"HAAA!"
Fueled by raw survival instinct, Lucian let out a savage yell. He dug his fingers deep into the soft, rotting flesh of the zombie’s throat, ripped its windpipe completely free, and tore it out.
Thick, black blood spurted over his hands and face.
Before the dying brute could collapse on him, Lucian planted his boot against its abdomen and shoved the heavy body aside.
He scrambled up immediately, coughing for air as he bolted up the rest of the stairs.
Reaching the second-floor hallway, Lucian saw several zombies at the far end of the corridor closing in on him, while heavy footsteps echoed from the staircase above.
Without hesitating, Lucian threw himself through the first door he reached, slammed it shut, and locked the handle.
He turned to scan the room.
Only a single zombie was inside, dressed in ripped office clothes. Hearing the commotion, the zombie growled and charged forward.
Lucian didn’t give him the chance. He grabbed a heavy desktop PC sitting on a nearby desk, hoisted it with both hands, and slammed it directly in the zombie’s face.
The screen shattered, and the zombie crashed onto the carpet.
THUD! THUD!
Outside the door, the rest of the hallway zombies were already beginning to pile up, pounding the door until the hinges rattled.
Lucian grabbed a heavy fabric sofa and shoved it against the doorframe, wedging it tight beneath the handle.
"Graa..."
The office zombie let out a weak growl, trying feebly to push itself back up.
Unable to stand being trapped in the same room with the creature, Lucian dragged it to the window, popped the latch, and shoved the thrashing body out into the open air.
He leaned out slightly, and what he saw made his breath catch in his throat.
"What the fuck..."
Down in the streets below, thousands of zombies had gathered like grains of sand, completely surrounding the entire building.
There was no way out.
’Am I lucky or what, to come out unscratched from this?’ Lucian thought.
"..."
His expression suddenly froze.
Gliding down through the misty night air, descending straight toward his window, was a silhouette.
It had the pale, decaying face of a human zombie, but its arms were covered in dark feathers, like the wings of a massive bird of prey.
And it was locked directly onto his window.
’I jinxed myself...’
CRACK! BOOM!
The entire window frame imploded as a massive gust of pressurized wind slammed into the office.
Glass shards exploded inward. The winged creature glided effortlessly through the breach, its feathered arms slicing forward with blinding speed.
Lucian didn’t even have time to raise his hands.
The last thing his fading consciousness registered was his headless body toppling to the ground, while the winged mutant zombie hovered above, clutching his severed head by the hair.
« You Have Died. »
« Please Select Your Harvest. »
***
Once again arriving in the boundless dark space, Lucian looked at the harvest floating before him.
Hovering in the void were three distinct items: a river rock, a rusted steel pipe, and an ominous, glowing purple energy ball.
’When did I even get this?’
He squinted at the floating purple sphere with deep suspicion.
"Did something unknown latch onto my body? Or was it because of the birdman’s attack?" he muttered aloud.
As far as he knew, his harvest consisted solely of items or things he had personally used, or acquired in the other world.
So when had he picked up something like this strange energy ball?
’It also gives me a bad premonition...’
Lucian shook his head. He had no desire to experiment with an unknown, ominous energy source inside his own body.
Closing his eyes, he willed himself to wake up.
When his eyelids fluttered open, he was staring up at the familiar acoustic ceiling of his academy dorm. He rolled over to check the digital clock on his nightstand.
The display read: 02:14 AM.
"..."
’So the time dilation theory is wrong. It is likely related to my sleep cycle.’
He had spent noticeably more time running and surviving in the apocalyptic city than he had on Mount Wudang, yet the time that had passed on Earth didn’t reflect a strict mathematical ratio.
Instead, it seemed clear that whenever he fell asleep, his ability activated and sustained the anchor until his physical body woke up or died within the projection.
His head was throbbing, and his mind felt cluttered with chaotic thoughts.
Needing a sensory reset, Lucian got out of bed and walked into the small bathroom, turning the shower knob.
CREAK.
He exhaled a long, trembling breath as the icy water hit his chest and shoulders.
"Shuu..."
As the cold water poured down, Lucian stood in silence, reflecting on everything that had happened since his ability first awakened.
In both worlds, he had been killed brutally.
He hadn’t even managed to survive for a single day in either of them—all because he lacked raw personal power.
On modern Earth, he was an unawakened probationer; in the other worlds, he was just an ordinary mortal surrounded by monsters and mutated abominations.
Just then, the words Luther had spoken in the cafeteria echoed clearly in his mind:
"You will become a god, because in cultivation terms, Earth is likely a lower world with little to no spiritual energy!"
Turning off the shower, Lucian dried himself off, tossed on a pair of clean shorts, and walked over to the dorm window. He cracked the glass open, letting the cool midnight breeze wash into the room as he stared silently up at the vast, night sky.
He couldn’t keep wandering into lethal worlds blindly without a foundation.
Unlocking his smartphone, he opened his map app and typed in the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
’Wrong entry, huh?’
The map’s search pin dropped directly into the middle of the <anno data-annotation-id="3b58e623-3770-7804-9485-cd28fa69d493" data-title="river. ">river. 1</anno>
Shaking his head, he closed the map, opened his browser, and searched for photos instead.
Within seconds, an image of the grand stone building loaded onto his screen.
"It’s exactly the same."
Aside from the collapsed pillars and shattered windows he had seen in person, the architecture was completely identical.
He swiped through several more images, checking the skyline across the river. The positions of the massive skyscrapers matched what he had seen through the dark.
’So this is Earth’s future?’ Lucian thought grimly.
The population had been wiped out, turned into living dead, and even Awakeners with high-tier powers had been mutated into abominations.
Just what on earth had happened to cause a disaster of that scale?
Sighing quietly, he locked his phone and closed the window.
He climbed back into bed, pulling the thin blanket over his shoulders, and closed his eyes.
He needed power.
No, power was an absolute necessity now—both to survive his runs and to protect his own life knowing an apocalypse was coming.
It was finally time to start his cultivation journey.