As soon as the car drove out of the underground parking garage, blinding sunlight flooded into the vehicle.
Huo Mian instinctively narrowed her eyes, trying to adjust to the stark contrast between light and darkness.
After a moment, she looked up and was stunned by the scene before her.
Plastic garbage was scattered everywhere. Broken branches and leaves lay strewn across the ground, while muddy water had collected in low-lying areas, with all kinds of debris floating on the surface. Some scraps of paper had been soaked until they were soggy and limp.
Every now and then, Huo Mian could even see clothes scattered across the ground, and there were even bedsheets.
One look at the scene was enough to tell that the area had just been battered by a violent storm.
Huo Mian frowned slightly as she remembered how strange last night had been.
A little after ten last night, a sudden wave of drowsiness had come over her. Her eyelids had grown heavier and heavier until she could no longer hold out and went to bed.
In her dreams, fragments of memories had continuously played through her mind like images projected by a film projector.
When she woke up this morning, Huo Mian had initially thought it had all been a dream. Only after she fully came to her senses did she realize that she had transmigrated into the apocalypse novel her archrival had once mentioned.
Looking at the pools of water, a thought suddenly popped into her head.
Could the apocalypse have been caused by this rain?
But after thinking about it, Huo Mian felt it was probably just a coincidence. After all, it wasn’t as though there had never been heavy rainstorms before.
She turned to Xu Mingfan, curiosity in her eyes.
“Brother Mingfan, did you know it rained last night?”
Xu Mingfan was concentrating on driving. Hearing Huo Mian’s question, he sighed.
“I didn’t know. I went to bed pretty early last night.”
Thinking back to the previous night, an unprecedented wave of intense drowsiness had suddenly engulfed him.
He had forced himself to keep playing games for a while, but eventually collapsed face-first onto his computer desk and fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up this morning, both of his arms had nearly felt like they were broken.
Normally, however, he was a night owl. He could play games until one or two in the morning and still remain completely energized and alert.
The obvious contrast made him feel that something about last night had indeed been very strange.
Remembering that danger was now lurking everywhere, Xu Mingfan forcibly pulled his thoughts back to reality and focused on driving.
Huo Mian sighed inwardly. The sunlight outside was blazing, yet her heart felt icy cold.
The thought of having to survive in this world where common sense and science had been turned upside down, while facing foul-smelling zombies every day and constantly living on the edge of life and death, filled her with dread.
As the car passed the security booth, Huo Mian casually glanced inside and noticed a row of riot-control equipment hanging on the wall.
The door to the security booth was wide open, and there were no zombies inside.
The moment Huo Mian saw the equipment, it was as if they were waving at her.
In the apocalypse, those riot-control tools were undoubtedly lifesaving weapons.
“Stop the car!”
Her urgent voice shattered the silence inside the vehicle.
Xu Mingfan immediately hit the brakes and turned toward her in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
Huo Mian pointed toward the security booth.
“There’s some riot-control equipment we can use inside. I’ll go get it. Wait for me in the car.”
Xu Mingfan looked over and indeed saw the equipment hanging on the wall.
He nodded and reminded her, “Be careful.”
Huo Mian hummed in acknowledgment. She looked around through the car window and, seeing no sign of zombies nearby, opened the door and hurried toward the security booth.
The moment she stepped inside, Huo Mian’s eyes lit up.
There was a wide variety of riot-control equipment, including riot shields, riot forks, batons, and more.
Huo Mian grabbed the equipment with both hands and hurried out of the security booth.
After two trips, she had moved all the equipment into the car in less than a minute.
It wasn’t until she got back inside and the car door slammed shut that Huo Mian’s tense heart finally relaxed a little.
Xu Mingfan restarted the car. The engine rumbled deeply before he quickly drove toward the exit of the residential complex.
As soon as they left the complex, Xu Mingfan gradually pressed harder on the accelerator. The car picked up speed, and the scenery outside the windows rapidly swept backward.
Huo Mian vigilantly scanned their surroundings and saw several vehicles scattered haphazardly across the road.
Some had their doors tightly shut, while others stood open, their interiors completely empty.
There were even zombies sitting inside some of the vehicles. Because the doors were locked, the zombies had smashed the windows to pieces.
They were frantically trying to crawl out through the broken windows, but just as they managed to get half their bodies out, their seat belts would yank them back into their seats.
Then they would try crawling out again, only to be dragged back once more…
They repeated this futile struggle over and over.
Seeing the scene, the corner of Huo Mian’s mouth twitched.
Her fear of zombies instantly diminished somewhat, and she couldn’t help feeling that the whole scene was strangely comical.
As the car sped along, Huo Mian’s thoughts began to wander. She couldn’t help recalling the information her archrival, Zheng Wanyue, had told her about the novel.
The apocalypse novel mainly revolved around the female protagonist, Bai Ningrong, and her childhood sweetheart, Huo Shaochen, struggling to survive in the apocalypse.
After enduring countless hardships, they ultimately killed the Zombie King and found a way to destroy the zombie virus, wiping out the zombie species altogether.
In the novel, the male protagonist, Huo Shaochen, was a member of the Huo family in the capital. The Huo family was famous and influential across the military, political, and business worlds, with extensive connections and tremendous power.
After the apocalypse arrived, Huo Shaochen’s grandfather, Huo Qingshan, relied on his prestige in the military and the deterrent power of the Huo family’s powerful abilities to establish a firm foothold in the Central Base.
Bai Ningrong and Huo Shaochen had grown up together. Her family was also far from ordinary, with a business background and parents who doted on her.
After the apocalypse, Bai Ningrong joined the male protagonist’s team. More importantly, their team possessed a space.
In the apocalypse, having a storage space meant having a guarantee of survival.
That was the most important reason Huo Mian planned to seek refuge with the female protagonist.
Although going on missions with Bai Ningrong would often be dangerous, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about going hungry.
If she followed the female protagonist, there would be meat to eat.
Besides, both the male and female protagonists were kindhearted and fiercely protective of their own people.
That was another reason Huo Mian wanted to join them.
Huo Mian was still lost in her thoughts when the car suddenly accelerated without warning.
Her body was thrown backward, and her head was jolted hard by the force.
At the same time, Xu Mingfan’s slightly tense voice sounded beside her.
“Xiao Mian, hold on tight. I’m speeding up!”
Huo Mian instantly snapped back to reality. She instinctively looked ahead, and the moment she did, her pupils contracted sharply.
Her heart seemed to skip a beat.
More than twenty meters ahead, in the middle of the road, more than a dozen zombies were staggering toward their car with their claws raised.
As the distance between them rapidly closed, the zombies’ horrifying appearances became increasingly clear.
Their bodies were stiff, their clothes covered in dried blood, and their skin uniformly bluish-gray.
Their completely white eyes glowed eerily, while dark-red blood and scraps of flesh clung to the corners of their mouths.
Huo Mian instinctively gripped the seat with both hands, her knuckles turning white from the force.
She stared fixedly ahead as Xu Mingfan accelerated without hesitation and drove straight toward the zombies.
“Bang!”
The car slammed into the zombie at the very front.
Its head smashed heavily against the hood.
A moment later, zombie brain matter and blood burst outward, splattering across the hood and windshield.
The zombie’s body then slid down the side of the car before being crushed beneath the tires, accompanied by a dull crunch.
In just a few seconds, a series of repeated impacts rang out.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
One zombie after another was knocked down. The windshield became smeared with filth, making it increasingly difficult to see.
The gruesome sight made Huo Mian’s stomach churn, and the food she had just eaten began roiling violently in her stomach.
She covered her mouth with one hand, desperately suppressing her nausea and forcing herself not to vomit.
Xu Mingfan’s expression was equally grim. The moment they broke through the horde, he immediately pressed the windshield washer button and turned on the wipers.
The thick zombie brain matter and blood were smeared back and forth across the windshield by the wipers. Instead of cleaning it, they only spread the disgusting mess even further.
Xu Mingfan pressed the washer button again.
After repeating the process more than a dozen times, the situation finally improved somewhat.
The car continued speeding down the road, and in less than ten minutes, they arrived near the east gate of F University.