Chapter 1: Switch to Human Labor! The Apocalypse Arrives

At this moment, Cheng Zhiyu was standing on a square piece of land, one meter by one meter in size. The land was black in color, and based on his experience of growing up in the countryside, he judged that the land was very fertile.

It's the kind of fertile land that his parents would definitely be tempted to plant something in if they saw it.

However, his parents probably can't see it, because the land beneath his feet doesn't belong to any part of reality. To be precise, the place he's in right now isn't even in real space.

It all started a week ago, and he still finds what happened that day unreal.

It was an ordinary weekend, no different from any other weekend. As a newly employed office worker, Cheng Zhiyu rarely had a day off on weekends, so he naturally planned to sleep in and hopefully sleep until noon.

As a result, in his sleep, he suddenly heard a loud "bang," as if some heavy object had been knocked over.

The sound seemed to be coming from downstairs, so Cheng Zhiyu didn't pay attention and turned over to continue sleeping. But as soon as he covered himself with the blanket and closed his eyes, he heard a sharp roar. The sound was like a human's, but not quite.

Cheng Zhiyu instantly got goosebumps. He glanced at the time; it was seven in the morning, just after dawn. After hesitating for a moment, he got out of bed, put on his slippers, and quickly walked to the window to see what was going on.

The apartment he rented wasn't on a high floor, only on the fifth floor, which was enough for him to see the situation downstairs clearly.

There was a person standing on the street downstairs, next to an overturned trash can; this was probably the source of the loud noise.

The person was wearing a conspicuous orange sanitation worker uniform, confirming that he was a sanitation worker. He walked straight ahead with his head tilted to the side, his posture distorted and strange, like an old and rusty machine that had lost its command and was moving forward only by instinct.

Why did Cheng Zhiyu think that way? Because he saw the other person hit the pillar directly in front of him several times, but seemed not to feel any pain and continued to crash into it.

Cheng Zhiyu frowned and muttered, "What's going on?"

At this moment, he was more inclined to believe that the other person might be suffering from some kind of illness. After thinking for a moment, he opened the phone that he had just grabbed and prepared to call the police.

Just then, an unexpected turn of events occurred. Cheng Zhiyu witnessed someone walking towards the sanitation worker, who then bit the person, causing the person to let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Not long after, the two people who were fine just moments before began to move stiffly and contorted, just like the sanitation worker, and then they began to wander aimlessly.

Cheng Zhiyu felt a chill run down his spine and finally realized something was wrong. At this moment, he dialed 110 several times, but no one answered.

What's going on? Shouldn't 110 be staffed 24/7?

After dialing several more times, several more distorted figures appeared downstairs. Those people... seemed to have turned into zombies.

Although he knew his idea was absurd, Cheng Zhiyu had a strange feeling that his guess was probably right.

His fingers trembled slightly, and he immediately decided to stop repeatedly dialing the police and instead called his mother.

Fortunately, after a few beeps, someone answered the call. Although it was only a little past seven, Cheng's mother was already up and busy. She was a little surprised to receive Cheng Zhiyu's call: "Oh, Zhiyu, why are you up so early today?"

The familiar voice eased some of the chills Cheng Zhiyu felt, and he breathed a sigh of relief, quickly asking, "Where are my dad and Zhiyan?"

“Your dad is brushing his teeth and washing his face. He just got up. Zhiyan is sleeping. It’s the weekend, so let her sleep in a little longer.” Cheng Zhiyan is Cheng Zhiyu’s younger sister, and she is a sophomore in high school this year.

Hearing that his father and sister were safe and sound, Cheng Zhiyu breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to tell his mother about the strange things happening downstairs today and remind her to be careful when a loud noise came from the other end of his phone.

Cheng's mother muttered, "Who is this, knocking on the door so early in the morning?"

Then he turned to Cheng's father and said, "Old Cheng, hurry up and open the door."

Mr. Cheng agreed and went to open the door.

Unexpectedly, Cheng Zhiyu suddenly said urgently, "Don't open the door!"

The sound didn't sound like knocking, but more like... banging on the door. Cheng Zhiyu's last bit of hope vanished completely at that moment.

The banging on the door continued, and Cheng Zhiyan's voice came from the other end of the phone again, sounding like she had just woken up: "Mom and Dad~, who's knocking on the door? It's so noisy..."

"Zhiyan! Listen to me!" Cheng Zhiyu immediately called his sister over and then told her what he had seen that morning and his guesses.

"Brother, are you kidding me? Are you still asleep? Aren't zombies just in TV dramas?" Cheng Zhiyan laughed out loud, clearly not believing it.

Cheng's parents, who were listening nearby, were completely bewildered. They didn't watch much TV and had no idea what zombies were.

Cheng Zhiyu's tone was unusually serious: "I also hope that I am mistaken, but... Zhiyan, there are surveillance cameras installed at our door. Don't rush to open the door, check the surveillance footage first."

Cheng Zhiyan was no longer able to laugh, because... she felt that her brother might not be joking. The banging on the door had been going on for a moment since it started, and there was no other sound besides the banging.

How could that be? If someone were knocking on the door and no one answered for so long, they would have called out a few times, right?

Therefore, there is only one possibility... the person at the door is not human.

When Cheng Zhiyan turned on the security camera at the door and saw what it showed, all her guesses were confirmed. It was indeed a girl who was not yet an adult. The zombie with its fair skin, blank expression, and rotting wounds terrified her, and her face turned pale instantly.

"Good heavens, what kind of illness has she contracted?" Mother Cheng's voice trembled. The people at the door were clearly from their village. They had spoken to each other just yesterday, so how could things have turned out like this today?

"Mom, I'm not sick." Cheng Zhiyu was afraid that his family wouldn't know how to open the door, so he tried his best to calm down and explained clearly what a zombie was.

Cheng Zhiyu: "Whatever you do, don't open the door! The zombies will bite uncontrollably. Once they bite or scratch you, you'll be assimilated. They're no longer human..."

When Mr. and Mrs. Cheng heard this, they thought about how they had almost opened the door just now. If they had opened the door without any precautions... they shuddered. They really didn't want to think about it.

They immediately said, "We won't open the door."

At this moment, Cheng Zhiyan came to her senses. Being quick-witted, she immediately realized that Cheng Zhiyu, living in the city, was even more worrying. She anxiously said, "Brother, what about you? There are definitely more people in the city than in our village. There aren't many people there at all. And we're fine as long as we don't go out; we've saved enough food for a long time. What about you? You probably don't have much food left..."

As Cheng Zhiyan spoke, her eyes reddened, fearing that something might have happened to her brother in the city.

Upon hearing this, Mr. and Mrs. Cheng were also extremely anxious.

Cheng Zhiyu sighed inwardly and lied: "Don't worry, the situation here isn't that bad. The authorities reacted quickly and have already started organizing rescue efforts."

The family breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. What they didn't know was that the zombie virus had come too suddenly, and many people in important positions had also been infected, disrupting the tight system. Even the authorities were caught off guard this time.

The Cheng family was busy propping the door shut with heavy objects. Their house had a large iron gate, so there wasn't too much to worry about for the time being. Then they were storing water.

The zombie virus has just broken out, and the tap water is still clean, but they are unsure whether the tap water will be contaminated later, so they need to store more water.

Cheng Zhiyu did the same, filling all the containers with water.

However, there are very few containers in the rented room that can hold water, and even if all of them are filled, it probably won't last long.

Fortunately, in addition to the large basin, he also had a large water vat at home, so the water stored there should last a long time. At this moment, he was filled with worry for his family who were separated by thousands of miles, and he didn't think much about his own situation.

As it turned out, his decision to call home immediately was correct, because the call was automatically disconnected shortly afterward.

Cheng Zhiyu discovered that his cell phone had lost signal, though he didn't know where the facilities had been damaged.

Without the voices of his family, the surroundings suddenly fell silent. Cheng Zhiyu let out a breath, finally revealing his bewilderment and helplessness.

At that moment, it seemed as if the only thing in the world besides him was zombies.

He wasn't as calm as he had appeared earlier. Throughout the day, he kept checking his phone, from morning till night.

As night fell, his phone still had no signal, and Cheng Zhiyu had to accept reality.

—The end times have truly come.

He didn't know what to do, so he could only do what he had told his family: he dared not step out of the house, prioritizing his own safety and survival.

On the second day after the apocalypse, Cheng Zhiyu finally mustered his spirits and prepared to take stock of his supplies. Although he hadn't checked them carefully, he roughly knew that he hadn't bought many things and needed to organize them to facilitate his future planning.

Perhaps if he persists long enough, he might actually be able to wait for an official rescue? Cheng Zhiyu tried to be optimistic.

However, before he could even take stock of the supplies, a completely emotionless mechanical voice suddenly appeared in his head.

[Ding! The plant cultivation space system is connecting... Connection successful. A bindable host has been detected. Does the host agree to bind?]

Cheng Zhiyu almost thought he was hallucinating from the shock. He widened his eyes slightly and repeated, "System? Am I hallucinating because I got too excited?"

[Binding successful! Welcome to the Plant Cultivation Space System. Congratulations, host, on receiving the newbie gift pack. Please claim it as soon as possible.]

Cheng Zhiyu was utterly speechless. What kind of plant system was this? It was more like a tyrant system! When did he agree to the binding?

Cheng Zhiyu was speechless, and asked the probing question: "I haven't agreed yet, isn't this a form of forced buying and selling?"

[…Please claim your newbie gift pack as soon as possible.]

Cheng Zhiyu: "..."

Switch to human assistance!