Just as Jiang Yuan was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of Xiao Pang's bed out of the corner of his eye. There was a framed photo, but no picture was inside. Instead, there was a note. "Was this for me?"

Jiang Yuan walked up to the photo frame. He was very familiar with it; the photo inside used to be of their school's most beautiful girl. Little Fatty had no other hobbies than liking pretty girls, so the school beauty became his target. He didn't know where he got a photo of her, and then…

"This guy even took the photo of the school beauty. It seems he really has no intention of coming back!" Jiang Yuan said with a smile, then took the note clipped to the side of the photo frame.

The note was opened, and the handwriting inside appeared very hasty. Jiang Yuan began to read it aloud.

"Xiao Yuan, if you can see these words, remember to run away immediately! The end of the world is coming. Everyone must move to the safe zone in Nancheng, 300 miles away. Otherwise, within ten days, the Holy Spirit will cleanse everyone in the Holy Spirit Temple!"

These few lines of text reveal the little fat man's state of mind when he wrote them; he must have been panicked.

"It seems that besides Xuan'er, there are others in this world who care about me!" Jiang Yuan smiled.

He was an orphan, sent to an orphanage at birth. When he was two years old, he was adopted by a wealthy couple. However, when he was six, his adoptive parents died in an accident. Instead of inheriting the huge fortune, he was sent back to the orphanage.

Those around him regarded him as a cursed lone star, having lost both his father and mother and then his adoptive parents, as if he were born with misfortune, so almost no elders dared to get too close to him.

"Sigh!" Jiang Yuan chuckled self-deprecatingly as he gazed out the window at the world that resembled a primeval forest. "It doesn't matter anymore. The world changes. Perhaps this is the only way for someone like me, with no ties to the world, to live carefree!"

Jiang Yuan casually tucked the note into his backpack, glancing with a hint of reluctance at the dormitory he had lived in for four years. "Time to go!"

He didn't want to be abandoned by the world anymore; he needed to know the truth, to understand everything!

This time he reached the ground floor safely. There were no wild animal attacks or rubble blocking the way; everything was normal.

"To the south of the city?"

Jiang Yuan felt a moment of confusion as soon as he stepped out of school, because the world was too quiet. It was as if he had woken up to find that he was all alone in the world, and that feeling was very unpleasant.

“Three hundred miles away, the traffic is paralyzed now, so I can’t take a car. Besides, I don’t have a driver’s license, so even if I had a car, I couldn’t drive it! Am I supposed to ride a bicycle?” Jiang Yuan dismissed the idea as soon as he finished speaking. This was not the usual time. In the apocalypse, leisurely riding three hundred miles would probably only be done by an idiot.

Standing at the school gate, Jiang Yuan, at a loss, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. His keen intuition told him that something was watching him.

His right hand was already gripping the hilt of the Tang sword, ready to strike at the slightest movement.

The incident with the mutated giant cat made him realize one thing: this is not the world of the past anymore. Hesitation means defeat, no, it means death, and he can't afford to gamble.

It was very quiet; the only sound at the large school gate was the wind blowing through the fallen leaves.

After waiting for a long time, Jiang Yuan's wariness gradually wore off. Finally, after a few minutes, Jiang Yuan sighed, "It was just a false alarm! Oh well, I'd better go check if there are any other lone travelers who have been forgotten like me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp killing intent rushed straight towards Jiang Yuan. As a modern person, Jiang Yuan was indeed momentarily stunned. However, the momentary lapse was only for a moment. In a certain instant, Jiang Yuan felt his blood flow accelerate and his adrenaline surge.

With a clang, the Tang sword was drawn, and Jiang Yuan instinctively held it horizontally in the path of the approaching killing intent.

bite

As the metal clashed, Jiang Yuan's pupils shrank dramatically, for a monster he had never seen before appeared before him.

The monster was half the height of a person and estimated to be two meters long. Its body was blue and hunched over. It had a huge scythe on its forelimb, which gave people the illusion that it could kill its opponent in an instant when it was swung.

"Mantis!" Jiang Yuan was so startled that he momentarily forgot to use his Heavenly Eye to detect the opponent.

Yes, this monster can be considered an enlarged version of a mantis, but that's not entirely accurate, because many parts of this mantis have mutated. For example, its forelimbs, which shimmer with a unique metallic sheen, are not abilities that a mantis should possess.

The giant mantis paused for a moment when Jiang Yuan raised his knife, seemingly not expecting that this ordinary human could react in time.

"Heavenly Eye!" Jiang Yuan saw the giant mantis's mouthparts moving, and at that moment he finally realized what was happening.

"Sky Eye Detection in Progress!"

"An Iron Blade Mantis that evolves from a regular Mantis after awakening its spirit, a Tier 1 elite monster! Talent: Iron Blade Slash! Weakness: Abdomen!"