I

  The door to the duty room was shaking.

  Once. Twice. Three times.

  Each impact from the Corrosion Rats was heavier than the last. Dust kept sifting down from the doorframe. The little girl was curled up in the corner, both hands clamped over her mouth, tears streaming all over her face, but she still forced herself not to make a sound.

  Alex Chen stood with his back against the door and looked outside through the small window.

  Two Corrosion Rats.

  One Normal-grade. One already close to evolving into an Elite Monster—its body was a full size larger than the other one, and tiny bone spurs were beginning to protrude from its back.

  Their yellow eyes were locked on the door.

  “Be good. Don’t make a sound,” Alex said to the little girl in a low voice. “No matter what happens, don’t open the door, and don’t make a sound. Wait for me to come back.”

  The girl’s eyes widened, and she shook her head desperately.

  Alex had no time to explain.

  He glanced at the window in the duty room—sealed with iron bars. No way out there.

  But there was an access panel in the ceiling leading into the ventilation duct.

  He lifted a chair and stepped onto it without making a sound, then pushed open the maintenance hatch. The duct was narrow and only allowed crawling, but it was enough for a little girl to squeeze through.

  He jumped down, picked her up, and lifted her to the opening.

  “Climb in and keep crawling. Go as far as you can. Don’t come out unless I call you.”

  The girl finally spoke, her voice as thin as a mosquito’s buzz. “W-What about you?”

  “I’ll draw them away.”

  Alex pushed her into the duct, shut the hatch, and jumped off the chair.

  The door was still shaking.

  Alex took a deep breath and walked to the door, one hand resting on the handle.

  He closed his eyes and focused.

  Temporal Perception.

  In that instant, the world around him changed.

  He could sense the movement patterns of the two Corrosion Rats outside. The Normal-grade one would lunge in first, straight for his throat. The near-Elite one would be 0.3 seconds slower, flanking from the right to cut off his retreat.

  0.3 seconds.

  That was enough.

  Alex yanked the door open.

  Just as expected, the Normal-grade Corrosion Rat shot inside like an arrow, its gaping maw going straight for his throat.

  Alex twisted sideways.

  0.1 seconds. The Monster’s claws scraped past his chest, tearing a long slit through his shirt.

  0.2 seconds. His right hand pulled the combat knife from his waist.

  0.3 seconds. The knife stabbed cleanly into the Monster’s left eye and pierced its brain.

  “Killed Corrosion Rat · Normal-grade · Level 1”

  “Experience Points (EXP) +20”

  “Drop: White Crystal Core x1”

  The first one was dead.

  But the second one was already there.

  The Elite Monster Corrosion Rat was even faster than Alex had predicted. It didn’t flank him from the right. Instead, it leaped straight up, pouncing over the corpse of the first Monster, its claws aimed directly at his face.

  Alex didn’t have time to pull the knife free. He could only lean back and roll with the motion, hitting the ground and tumbling away.

  The claws brushed past his scalp, slicing off a few strands of hair.

  Alex rolled to his feet and braced himself against the wall, facing the Monster.

  The Elite Monster Corrosion Rat landed where he had just been standing. Its back arched as a deep growl vibrated in its throat. It was larger than the Normal-grade by a full size. The bone spurs on its body were denser, and its eyes were no longer yellow, but faintly red.

  “Corrosion Rat · Elite Monster · Level 3”

  Alex tightened his grip on the knife and stared into its eyes.

  Temporal Perception was still working.

  He could sense this Monster’s attack pattern—it would feint first, pretending to lunge at his left shoulder, but the real killing move would come from the right side, a bite aimed at his neck.

  The feint came first.

  The killing move followed after.

  Alex waited.

  The Monster moved.

  It lunged hard at Alex’s left shoulder, its claws slashing out—

  Alex didn’t dodge.

  Instead, he stepped left, moving straight into those claws.

  The claws ripped open a bloody gash in his left arm, and sharp pain exploded through him. But his expression did not change at all. His right hand had already been waiting there—

  And the Monster’s neck came straight into the path of his knife.

  The combat knife punched in.

  Not a stab.

  A thrust.

  From below, upward, through the throat and straight into the brain.

  The Monster didn’t even have time to scream before its body went limp.

  “Killed Corrosion Rat · Elite Monster · Level 3”

  “Experience Points (EXP) +80”

  “Drop: White Crystal Core x3, Green Crystal Core x1”

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  “Cross-Level Kill Reward: Bonus Experience Points (EXP) +20”

  Alex pulled the knife free, then slid down the wall and sat there, breathing hard.

  The wound on his left arm was bleeding heavily, deep enough to expose bone. But he didn’t have time to deal with it properly—he pricked up his ears and listened to the sounds outside.

  Silence.

  At least this wave was over.

  He tore off the hem of his shirt and wrapped the wound with a quick rough bandage. The movements were practiced. Ten years in the apocalypse had taught him how to handle a fatal wound in thirty seconds flat. A flesh wound like this barely counted as a scratch in his eyes.

  After bandaging it, he looked up at the maintenance hatch in the ceiling.

  “You can come out now. It’s safe.”

  No response.

  Alex sighed, stood up, and walked beneath the hatch.

  “It’s okay now. The Monsters are dead. Come out. I’ll take you to find your mom.”

  Still no response.

  Alex picked up the chair again and got ready to climb up and fish her out. Just then, the hatch cover shifted open, and the little girl poked out half her head, staring at him timidly.

  “Are they... really dead?”

  “They’re dead.”

  The girl stared at him for three seconds, then climbed down from the duct. The moment she landed, she saw the two Monster corpses on the floor. Her tiny face turned deathly pale. She stumbled back two steps and hit the wall.

  Alex ignored her and crouched to inspect the corpses.

  Corrosion Rats. Common Monsters from Level 1 to Level 3. Fast, high attack, weak defense. As long as you grasped their attack patterns, even ordinary people could kill them.

  He reached into the Elite Monster corpse and pulled out a crystal the size of a thumb.

  White, but with a faint green tint on the surface.

  “Green Crystal Core (Poor Quality)”

  “Can be used for Level Up, equipment enhancement, or trade”

  “Contains a trace amount of remnant energy”

  Alex stared at the words “remnant energy” and remembered the starfield image he had seen from the rooftop the night before.

  Remnant energy...

  Whose remains?

  He shook his head and pocketed the Crystal Core. This wasn’t the time to think about that.

  He searched the Normal-grade corpse next and found two White Crystal Cores, which he also pocketed.

  Then he stood and looked back at the little girl.

  She was still huddled against the wall in the corner, face pale, body shaking.

  Alex walked over, crouched down, and met her at eye level.

  “What’s your name?”

  The little girl’s lips trembled, but no sound came out.

  “It’s okay. If you don’t want to say it, don’t.” Alex stood up. “Where’s your mom? Over by the fountain just now?”

  The little girl’s eyes instantly turned red, and tears started rolling down again in thick drops.

  Alex fell silent.

  He had seen it.

  The woman lying on the ground. The Corrosion Rat crouched over her.

  He didn’t ask a second question.

  He walked to the door and looked outside.

  On the platform, those dozen or so people were still huddled where they had been before. When some of them saw him come out of the duty room, there was wariness in their eyes, fear too, and a faint trace of... hope?

  Alex ignored them. He scanned the platform, looking for the woman.

  Near the fountain, she was still there.

  But the Monster that had been crouched on top of her was gone.

  Alex strode over quickly.

  Once he got close enough, he finally saw it clearly—the woman was still breathing.

  The Monster hadn’t killed her.

  It had only been feeding?

  Or was there some other reason?

  Alex crouched down and checked her wounds. A huge gash had been torn open across her back. She had lost a lot of blood, but her organs hadn’t been hit yet. If he stopped the bleeding in time, she could live.

  He looked back at the little girl.

  At some point, she had followed him out and was standing several meters away, staring this way without blinking, too scared to come closer.

  Alex crooked a finger at her. “Come here.”

  The little girl hesitated, then slowly shuffled over.

  Alex gently turned the woman’s body over and laid her flat. Then he pulled out another roll of bandages from his waist—he was carrying three first-aid kits on him—and started treating the wound.

  The little girl crouched beside him, watching without blinking.

  “Your mom is still alive,” Alex said while bandaging the wound. “But if no one takes care of her, she’ll die. Do you understand now?”

  The little girl nodded.

  “Next, I’m going somewhere. You and your mom can follow me, or you can stay here.” Alex finished bandaging and stood up. “Following me won’t necessarily be safe. But if you stay here, you’ll probably die.”

  The girl looked at her mother on the ground, then at Alex, biting hard on her lip.

  Alex didn’t wait for her answer. He walked to the edge of the platform and looked into the depths of the subway tunnel.

  Darkness.

  Endless darkness.

  He knew that deep inside this tunnel lay the entrance to the first Dungeon. He also knew that going in now would be suicide—his Level was too low, his equipment was too bad, and he had no teammates.

  He needed to Level Up first.

  He needed to find people first.

  He turned and walked back.

  The little girl was still crouched there, looking at her mother.

  When Alex passed by her, he paused for a moment.

  “Take care of her. I’ll come back for you after I’m done.”

  The little girl suddenly looked up. “Y-You... you’re coming back?”

  Alex looked down at her.

  This face looked a little like Iris.

  He nodded.

  “I will.”

  Then he started walking toward the station exit.

  Behind him came the little girl’s tiny voice.

  “My name is Duoduo...”

  Alex didn’t look back. He only raised a hand and waved.

  The moment Alex stepped out of the subway station, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

  The streets were full of people.

  Some were running. Some were shouting. Some were crying. A bus had crashed into a roadside shop, smoke billowing from the front. Several private cars were jammed crookedly across the street, their doors hanging open, their drivers nowhere to be seen.

  In the distance came screams and the roars of Monsters.

  Alex swept his gaze across the area and strode toward a motorcycle parked by the roadside.

  He had already marked this one as a target when scouting locations before—a black off-road bike, the key still in the ignition, the owner nowhere in sight.

  He swung himself onto it and started the engine.

  The motorcycle roared as it shot into the street.

  His destination was the fire station in the east side of the city.

  Lena Lin was there.

  In his previous life, she would lead a rescue team out this afternoon. Then she would be injured in a collapse, leaving behind chronic damage. That injury dragged her down for an entire year before she finally had a chance to heal it in the second year.

  This time, Alex was going to stop that rescue.

  Or at the very least, save her.

  The motorcycle sped through the emptied streets.

  Every now and then, bodies could be seen collapsed by the roadside. Some wore ordinary clothes. Some wore uniforms. Some were still struggling and crying out for help.

  Alex did not stop.

  He couldn’t save them.

  That was the first lesson of the apocalypse.

  Five minutes later, he saw the gates of the fire station.

  Several fire trucks were parked out front, engines still running. A group of firefighters were loading equipment into the vehicles, hurried but orderly. Someone was shouting, “Move! Move! We’ve got seven emergency call locations!”

  Alex parked the motorcycle by the roadside and strode over.

  A young firefighter stepped in front of him. “Citizen, please don’t come any closer. It’s dangerous here. Find somewhere safe and hide!”

  “I’m looking for Lena Lin.”

  The firefighter froze for a second. “Who are you?”

  “I’m a friend. Tell her to come out. I have something important to tell her.”

  The firefighter was about to say something else when a voice came from behind him.

  “Let him through.”

  Alex looked up.

  Lena Lin was standing beside a fire truck. She wore firefighting gear, her short hair neat, her features sharp and heroic. She was staring at Alex with caution in her eyes, but also scrutiny.

  Alex walked over and stopped in front of her.

  They looked at each other for two seconds.

  Lena spoke first. “Do we know each other?”

  “No.” Alex said, “But I know that in three minutes, you’ll receive an emergency call. You’ll lead a team to an old residential building in the south side of the city. There are people trapped on the fifth floor. You’ll rush in to save them, and then the building will collapse. You’ll be pinned under the rubble. Your left leg will be fractured, and your spine will be injured. You’ll need three months before you can even get out of bed.”

  Lena’s eyes narrowed.

  “How do you know that?”

  “I have a special ability,” Alex said. “I can see fragments of the future.”

  Lena stared at him without speaking.

  Behind her, the firefighters were still moving in a rush. Someone was shouting her name.

  “Mengyao! We’re heading out!”

  Lena didn’t move.

  She looked at Alex and asked, word by word,

  “Should I believe you?”

  Alex pointed at the bandage on his left arm, where blood was still seeping through.

  “I just fought my way out of the subway station. Two Corrosion Rats, one of them an Elite Monster. This wound came from that fight.” He met Lena’s eyes. “I don’t have time to lie to you.”

  Lena was silent for three seconds.

  Then she turned her head and shouted to the team behind her.

  “Cancel the deployment! Everyone back to the garage!”

  Someone said in confusion, “But the emergency calls—”

  “I said pull back!”

  The firefighters exchanged glances, but they still followed orders and began carrying the equipment back.

  Lena turned back to Alex.

  “If I had gone out just now, what would’ve happened?”

  “You would’ve been injured,” Alex said. “Three months in bed. A year before full recovery.”

  “And then?”

  Alex was silent for a moment.

  Then he spoke, his voice very quiet.

  “Then you’d survive. You’d live into the second year. Into the third year. Into the tenth year.”

  Lena froze.

  “And after ten years?”

  Alex didn’t answer.

  He just turned and walked toward the motorcycle.

  “Are you coming with me, or staying here?”

  Lena looked at his back, then suddenly spoke.

  “That move you used—dropping your left shoulder for 0.3 seconds before counterattacking—I think I’ve seen it before.”

  Alex’s steps stopped.

  “You’ve seen it?”

  “In a dream,” Lena said. “I have the same dream a lot. Someone uses that move to kill a Monster charging at me. Then that person turns back to look at me, but I can’t see his face.”

  She paused.

  “But now I can.”

  Alex slowly turned around.

  Sunlight streamed through a gap in the clouds and fell between them.

  Lena stared into his eyes.

  “It was you.”