Chapter 1.1: Dead City

Xu Zhi controlled the wheelchair to slide to the window, silently looking at the gloomy sky outside the window and the black fog spreading on the ground like a tide.

This was the seventh day since she was abandoned, and also the seventh day since the city fell into a blockade zone.

Except for those who cannot leave, all those who can leave have been evacuated one after another. To this day, the entire city has been blocked and no one can enter or leave the city.

Reason told her that the disaster happened suddenly, and her parents were right to choose to take only her healthy brother away. Otherwise, with her as a burden, their whole family might be trapped in this city. But she was only seventeen years old and was abandoned by her family in this "dead city". How could she stay rational?

This frail body did not bring her more care and love from her parents, but impatience and boredom day after day. They never even intended to treat her illness. Even though some caring people had donated money to her, the money was not used for her treatment.

If it weren't for legal constraints, her parents would have abandoned her long ago. After all, they already had a healthy enough child. Even if the law required them to raise her seriously, it would be useless. They just needed to keep her normal appearance and not be abused or abandoned when they came to visit her.

Now, the world is undergoing great changes, and this is simply a perfect opportunity, so she was left behind without hesitation.

Is it unbelievable how heartbroken I am?

That wasn't the case. After all, even if there hadn't been a disaster, she would probably have died soon after she became an adult. She could feel her body growing weaker and weaker. If she had missed the life-saving money for surgery, she wouldn't have more than two years to live. Federal supervision over adults would no longer be strict, so she would have died of illness.

So it is more of a feeling of "this day has finally come". There is no greater sorrow than a dead heart, and numbness and hatred are greater than heartache and sadness.

The food left at home that she couldn't take away was only enough for her to eat for about half a month. Once it was finished, she would probably starve to death at home.

After all, times have changed and this city is no longer safe. For an "old, weak and disabled" like her who suffers from a heart disease so severe that she needs to rely on a wheelchair and whose hearing is severely impaired, she would probably die within an hour if she goes out.

A year ago, extraordinary powers suddenly appeared in this world. People were immersed in the joy of gaining extraordinary powers, but they didn't know that this was just a warning before the disaster.

A month ago, something strange happened. The sun was eclipsed and a black fog covered the earth. Alien monsters were born from the fog. They had weird and crazy abilities. Ordinary thermal weapons had no effect on them at all. Only extraordinary people could kill them. However, humans who had only been in contact with extraordinary people for a year could not compete with them at all.

Just as humanity was on the brink of life and death, the fog suddenly began to recede in one direction like a tide.

That is Yuncheng where Xu Zhi is.

According to observations, for unknown reasons, most of the fog will flow into Cloud City within two days, and Cloud City will become an area of ​​high-concentration fog. In such an environment, even if there are no alien monsters, it will definitely not be suitable for human survival.

What's more, the alien species were born from the fog and will grow in the fog. If nothing unexpected happens, Yuncheng will become a monster's nest!

The federation then issued an emergency evacuation notice, requiring everyone to evacuate Yuncheng as quickly as possible within 15 hours, and then sealed off the city. From then on, Yuncheng became a restricted area for humans.

It was impossible to evacuate the entire city in just 15 hours, and it was estimated that there were still many "burdens" like her left in the city.

But Xu Zhi was unwilling to accept this. She was unwilling to be abandoned here and die in obscurity.

How could they give birth to her and then, because she was in poor health, not treat her, leaving her to die? Now that they have the chance, they throw her away without even bothering to pretend?

Xu Zhi felt that she might have some psychological problems due to long-term illness and being rejected by her parents, but she didn't care.

Xu Zhi's beautiful yet weak eyes stared straight at the black fog outside the window. There was a paranoia and gloom in her eyes that did not belong to her age. Her hands on the wheelchair were slightly clenched. Due to malnutrition and ischemia, her fingers were too thin and pale, and the joints and blue blood vessels were clearly visible, which was even a little scary.

He is a child who looks unhealthy at first glance.

Just when Xu Zhi's unwillingness reached a certain level, the black fog outside suddenly surged slightly for a moment, and then, a "pop" sound suddenly came from the empty living room, and it was the sound of something falling to the ground.

The girl, immersed in her thoughts, was startled by the sudden sound. Her pupils contracted slightly, and then she realized that something had fallen to the ground. She loosened her clenched fist and placed her hand on the remote control of the wheelchair, controlling it to turn around.

When she looked down and saw what had fallen to the ground, a look of surprise appeared on the girl's cold face.

It was a black and white game console.

"When did you get a handheld game console at home?"

No, that's not right. She doesn't have a handheld game console at home. Xu Zhi is very sure of this.

She has been staying at home alone for almost a week. She has spent most of her daytime sitting in the living room, doing nothing, and has never seen any handheld game consoles in the living room.

This is something that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

After realizing this, the girl pursed her lips, feeling a little confused and scared, but also curious and eager to try.

She knew that Cloud City was becoming very dangerous, and perhaps this game console that suddenly appeared was also one of the dangers, but

Anyway, she is already dying. If nothing unexpected happens, she will not survive this month. Why should she be so cautious and careful?

Thinking of this, Xu Zhi's expression became calm. She controlled the wheelchair to come to the game console, then bent down to pick up the handheld console that looked very valuable.

After getting it, Xu Zhi was a little confused. How should he use it?

She has never played any game consoles. Her only form of entertainment is the TV at home, which she can only watch when other people at home are using it. Other than that, she has textbooks. She cannot go to school like normal people, and can only learn some knowledge by reading some unwanted books at home. Her parents will not take the initiative to teach her knowledge or hire a tutor for her.

If she had not fallen ill in the fifth grade of elementary school and had already learned some knowledge, Xu Zhi even felt that her parents would make her illiterate.

Only her younger brother treated her a little better in the family. He would occasionally take time to explain the exercises to her. However, her parents did not like her younger brother to have any contact with her. They thought she was unlucky, so her relationship with her younger brother was not very close. She could only use the unused exercise books to do the exercises herself, but her grades were not ideal. She could only hover around 30 or 40, with a full score of 150.

But even so, learning is a very interesting thing for Xu Zhi.

A girl living in such poverty naturally doesn't know how to use a handheld game console.

Fortunately, before she could press any buttons, the screen of the handheld game console suddenly lit up on its own.

A pixel progress bar appeared in the center, and in about five seconds, the progress loading was completed.

The pixel game screen shows a gloomy sky. In the sky, the black sun is like a pollution source, continuously dripping black liquid into the world. This scene constitutes the initial background of the game. Then, a line of subtitles appears in the center of the screen.

[In the beginning, everything was born from the sun, and everything was annihilated in darkness.]

[Everything rotates, the old order and ancient gods are buried by time. Now, a new order has been born. Do you desire to become a god of the new order?

Do you have the courage to commit your life to this no-holds-barred conflict?

If you are ready, then please choose your clan. 】

Xu Zhi naturally couldn't be scared off by these few lines of words. For some reason, although it was just a pixel background image and a few short lines of words, it gave her a strong sense of "reality", as if if she clicked OK, she would really embark on this journey.

".It's quite interesting."

Xu Zhi murmured to himself, then decisively clicked OK and entered the clan selection interface.

[Since you haven't unlocked any level of clan, your initial choices are only random low-level creatures with weak vitality]

【Currently available options:】

1. Frog (Lv0)

2. Snake (Lv1)

【3.Sparrow (Lv0)】

Xu Zhi was silent for a moment. That’s it?

However, looking at the line of prompts that had not been unlocked, she guessed that maybe after she raised her level, higher-level options would appear?

You don't have to worry about what to choose now, the snake is at least Lv1.

After the selection, the pixelated black snake slightly enlarged, and a list of its attributes appeared in the center of the screen.

Spirit: 1

Physical: 3

Attributes: None

Traits: None

"Looks a bit weak."

As the girl finished speaking, the screen gradually dimmed, and then the game screen officially loaded.

When it lit up again, there was a small pixel snake in the center of the screen, and the game screen was also made up of pixels, but the perspective was very strange. It seemed to be a heat source formed by the perspective of a snake. Moreover, the perspective was very low and the distance was quite short, which made Xu Zhi unable to see the surrounding environment clearly.

In the lower left corner of the screen, there is a line of prompts.

[Please avoid danger, find food and evolve to survive in this dangerous land. ]

[Current Evolution Points: 0/10]

Then, a row of black options appeared in the center of the screen.

[This is a green belt in the park. There doesn't seem to be any danger nearby.]

【Please select the direction of travel: front, back, left, right】

Since there was no danger, Xu Zhi chose to move forward casually.

In the screen, a small black snake twisted and slid forward, and soon, the first living creature appeared on the game screen.

Because it was a heat source perspective, Xu Zhi could only see the general shape of the living creature. It was not difficult to guess from the shape that it was a frog.

[You found a frog. Do you want to hunt it? ]

There was no need to hesitate, Xu Zhi decisively chose yes.

So in the game screen, the little black snake quietly crawled behind it, then decisively launched an attack and swallowed the small frog in one bite.

【Hunting success.】

[Current Evolution Points: 1/10]

The black snake in the picture stuck out its tongue, seemingly dissatisfied with the little prey.

【Please choose a direction to continue. 】

Next, Xu Zhi controlled the little snake to wander in this safe green belt for a long time and only encountered five prey. After obtaining a total of 6 evolution points, a line of prompts appeared in the center of the screen.

[The family's physical strength has been exhausted. Hunting is temporarily prohibited. Please rest for two hours before continuing any further activities.]

The girl frowned slightly when she saw the prompt. She was enjoying the game, but suddenly the progress of the game was stuck due to physical reasons. Who could stand this?

"Forget it, it's only two hours. Let's eat first and then continue."

It is quite troublesome for her to cook some food for herself, and it takes a lot of time.

After putting down the game console, Xu Zhi looked at her watch, and then a puzzled expression appeared on her face. Unknowingly, she had been playing for almost two hours, and was concentrating on the game.

But her energy was not enough to support her playing games for such a long time. Normally, she had to take a break after reading for half an hour.

"Are you too obsessed?"

Moreover, even though it was past dinner time, she didn't feel hungry.

Because of her physical condition, if she didn't eat or take medicine on time, the feeling of weakness that seemed to seep through the bones of her body would be enough to make her restless and unable to concentrate.

But she hasn't felt any discomfort so far.

Xu Zhi keenly sensed that something was wrong.

(End of this chapter)