On a summer afternoon, the air outside is hot and humid, making people feel lazy and weak.

Lu Cai sat on a revolving round stool with a big hole in the cushion, his chin supported by his hand, staring blankly at the yellowed transparent soft door curtain.

The air conditioner overhead was whirring, and the supermarket was empty.

Her upper eyelids were almost sticking to her lower eye sockets when someone lifted the curtain and came in.

"Hello, what time is it now?" The speaker was a woman.

Lu Cai looked up and saw that the other party was a man and a woman.

The man looked to be about 27 or 28 years old, tall and strong, and looked like a small mountain when he looked up. There was a black thorny rose tattooed on his left arm.

The woman was about twenty-four or twenty-five, with fair skin, a tall figure, a high ponytail, and was wearing a leather jacket and shorts. She had a cold face and looked difficult to get along with.

Cai Lu was stunned for a moment, swallowed nervously, and turned to look at the lower right corner of the cash register screen.

"Two forty-five—" she answered, forcing out a standard smile.

The woman in leather jacket nodded, and the two of them walked out of the door curtain.

"Fifteen minutes left—" the tattooed man said.

The woman in the leather jacket ignored him and just looked out at the scorching sun.

Lu Cai was still nervous, but it was broad daylight, so he probably wouldn't get robbed...

Fifteen minutes? What does that mean?

Watching the time tick by at the bottom of the screen, Cai Lu became inexplicably nervous.

The bright afternoon sun, the sweltering air, the hum of the air conditioner—something felt familiar.

15:00——

The air seemed to be still, and Lu Cai's heart seemed to skip a beat, followed by a moment of silence.

Haha, you’re scaring yourself.

As soon as she turned around, the man and woman walked in, and the tattooed man nimbly climbed over the cigarette counter.

"What are you doing!" Cai Lu stood up suddenly, stepped back in fear, and leaned his back against the cash register.

"Shut up!" He took out a submachine gun from somewhere and pointed it directly at Lu Cai's head.

Lu Cai rested his forehead against the cold muzzle of the gun, his mind blank.

"Kill the NPC right at the start, or you'll lose points." The woman in leather jacket reminded him.

The tattooed man smiled and said, "I know my limits—" Then he picked up the key to the door on the wine cabinet and pressed the close button.

The white smart rolling door slowly lowered.

This supermarket was renovated by knocking down the partition walls of several stores, leaving only one storefront door, and the rest of the doors were locked and blocked by shelves.

If the electronic door is down and the lights are off, it would be pitch black inside. Fortunately, it is business hours now and the lights are bright, so I can still feel a little relieved.

“What are you doing!”

The supermarket was small, and the noise from the cashier counter was heard by the saleswoman in the back. Several women in red short-sleeved shirts came to the cashier counter and flinched at the sight.

"Be quiet if you want to live!" the tattooed man shouted.

When Cai Lu saw an aunt taking out her cell phone, he felt nervous and worried that his head would explode, but the couple didn't seem to take the aunt's behavior seriously.

Are robbers so arrogant? They're not afraid of calling the police...

The woman in the leather jacket was also holding a pistol and loading it. "I'm going to lock the back door to the warehouse, then go to the second floor. I might trigger a zombie apocalypse. Contact the system if anything happens."

"What are you doing!" the aunt in the bulk food area asked loudly, her body trembling slightly.

The woman in leather jacket raised her hand and fired a shot at the ceiling light. Everyone screamed in surprise. Cai Lu also shrank his neck, but did not dare to move.

She looked up and met the tattooed man's gaze, and she looked away in fear. The tattooed man chuckled twice and finally moved the gun away from her forehead.

Bang--

There was a violent bang on the door.

"Damn it!" the tattooed man cursed, "Qin Yu, you go up first. If these people dare to mess around, I won't give you any points and I'll kill them with one shot—"

The sound of banging on the door followed one after another.

The leather-jacketed woman called "Qin Yu" nodded and said, "Be careful." Then she ran to the back as if she was very familiar with the path.

"Have you seen 'Resident Evil'? How about 'The Walking Dead'?" Seeing that Lu Cai was obedient, the tattooed man seemed to have improved his temper.

Cai Lu squatted in the corner of the cash register, huddled in a ball, listening with a confused look.

"There are zombies out there." The tattooed man said, in a way that was both threatening and joking. "We have a mission to escort NPCs. Be good and I'll take you to the refugee camp."

"My family has no money—" Lu Cai just felt that he was unlucky, as he was not only robbed but also kidnapped.

Bang bang——

The electronic rolling door was shaken by the impact.

Snap——

An almost undetectable explosion was heard.

Lu Cai covered her ears. The sounds of biting, roaring, and blood and flesh flying everywhere, these scenes flashed in her mind like a TV screen covered with snow, causing her to feel nauseous.

She looked up at the narrow space under the cash register and hid in it almost instinctively.

She didn't care when she heard the tattooed man say "Hey".

This cashier counter is modified from the vegetable area shelf, with one side being sealed and the other side having a flip-up baffle.

It was said that the cash register table was damaged by a loading truck. Since the cash register machine was not damaged, a container was pulled over to replace it. To prevent further accidents, it was even reinforced.

Cai Lu pushed all the plastic bags out from under the table and quickly pulled down the baffle. The baffle had a wire wrapped around its bottom, usually used to hang shopping bags, but now it was just a bunch of holes for plastic bags.

She cleaned the hanging hole and fumbled for the nail head that fixed the cash register to the floor. She remembered there was a protruding nail.

The door swung open with a rustle, and she heard the tattooed man yelling, "Fuck! Who the hell can open this door?"

Then there was a burst of gunfire. The tattooed man seemed to climb over the counter.

She groped around with her head down and finally found the nail. She wrapped the wire on the baffle tightly around the nail head.

Screams, the sound of flesh colliding, and strange roars—

Lu Cai's head split with pain, and she fell to the ground, her body twitching uncontrollably. Even as her mind was in disarray, she curled up tightly, trying her best to control her hands and feet, not daring to touch the walls for fear of making a noise and attracting attention from outside.

The sound of gunfire faded away, and grooves were knocked out of the iron plate.

She had no second chance; success or failure depended on this one move... Her memory was tangled, she was twitching constantly, and her head felt like it was about to explode. Suddenly, she saw a vast expanse of white, a boundless void...

......

She opened her eyes and saw darkness all around. The baffle was cracked into several pieces, and cold white light was coming in.

Lu Cai was stunned for a moment before he recalled what happened before.

Looking out through the gap, I saw that the wine cabinet behind the cash register had been knocked over. Amid the sound of dripping water, the rich aroma of wine wafted in the air. The snack shelf was also crooked, and several packets of instant noodles were stepped on and broken, with crumbs all over the floor.

The lights were dim, and dark blood stains were faintly visible on the floor tiles. If the tattooed man wasn't lying, was this a zombie siege?

She listened attentively for a while, and there was silence all around her.

I remember there was a bunch of car keys next to the cash register. It was the supermarket’s public car, a gray city SUV.

Cai Lu was hesitating whether to go out and find a usable car. After all, he couldn't just stay here and wait to die.

After waiting for a while and making sure there was no sound in the supermarket, she carefully untied the wire that was tightly wrapped around the nail head.

There was an inevitable noise when the baffle was pushed open. Lu Cai's heart was in her throat. She squatted behind the cashier's desk and listened quietly for a while until the baffle was fully opened. There was no other movement.

The cash register had been flipped over, its wiring a mess, and the socket stained with alcohol. Lu Cai carefully avoided the water stains on the floor. After searching the cash register for a while, he found the car key ring.

After taking the car keys, Cai Lu bent over, held onto the messy counter, stepped over the water stains on the ground, and moved towards the supermarket entrance.

She pressed herself against the doorframe, her clothes soaked with sweat. Lu Cai breathed slowly, and the sound of the wine dripping in the supermarket was particularly clear, as if her every heartbeat was in sync with that "tick-tock".

I crouched at the doorway, cautiously poking my head out. The sky outside was a thick black, a darkness that seemed indestructible. Sporadic streetlights flickered, their pale light casting a pale shadow on the bloodstained asphalt. The lampposts were also stained with bloody handprints.

Fortunately, there were no "people" wandering around on this street.

There was a parking space at the door. She remembered that the supermarket's dedicated parking space at the door was occupied by the boss's wife this morning, so the store manager parked the official car in a parking space farther away.

Lu Cai was already familiar with the place and found the city SUV with almost no effort.

She first carefully looked around the car body. After all, she had just seen several damaged cars, some of which had their doors blown off.

Aside from some bloodstains, the car wasn't damaged. Lu Cai hunched over and returned to the driver's seat, gripping the car key and pressing the unlock button.

The car lights came on, and a slight sound of unlocking was particularly obvious in the quiet street.

Lu Cai heard a faint sound of gnawing and swallowing. Her scalp tingled and she quickly opened the car door and got in.

Just as she inserted the car key into the keyhole, a "person" staggered out of a narrow alley not far away.

She was a short girl with a plump figure, wearing an army green T-shirt and loose black pants. The pink-framed glasses on her face had long since faded and were hanging crookedly on the bridge of her nose.

Lu Cai knew her. She was a clerk in the milk tea shop next door. She was always smiling but not talkative. She was polite but distant to others.

At this moment, the girl's eyes were completely white, her skin was black and blue, and her mouth was covered with a dark red mass of flesh. She was facing Lu Cai, and her black apron was also stained.

Lu Cai turned the key and started the car. The car body trembled with a "hum" and she quickly locked the door.

The zombie girl over there roared angrily and ran towards them with her legs broken and twisted.

For a moment, the quiet street seemed to wake up from a dream, and many twisted "human figures" suddenly appeared from all directions, and screams mixed with car alarms resounded throughout the street.

Chief Lu stepped on the clutch to shift gears, then slowly lifted the clutch.

The car body shook with a loud bang, just like the sound of the supermarket rolling door being hit before.

Bang—a bloody figure pounced on the car window, and the distorted figure and handprints covered with black flesh and blood were stuck to the window glass.

Lu Cai stepped on the accelerator, smashing through the twisted, crazed figures blocking the way in front of the car. The car rushed across the sidewalk and bumped onto the dark asphalt road.

"I want a life in full bloom--" A deafening song suddenly rang out from the car radio.

Lu Cai said "Oh shit" and quickly changed gears, cutting through the thorns and heading towards the wide road.