After Qi Mi left the kindergarten, he headed towards his rental apartment.
In her original world, she rented a small apartment near the kindergarten for the convenience of commuting, which was only about 15 minutes away.
She decided to make that place her destination and search carefully for useful items and food in the buildings and shops within a short distance.
The road was dark and silent. She controlled the force of her footsteps, so the sound of her steps was not loud. When the wind was stronger, the sound of her footsteps could be completely hidden. Unfortunately, her eyes were not yet adapted to the darkness, so she could only use her phone to illuminate the way.
The light was so bright in the darkness that moths spotted it and buzzed towards her. She had no choice but to hold the phone in her mouth to free her hands to deal with the other things.
After walking through a field of dead insects, she shook the liquid off her fruit knife and walked into a children's clothing store on the street. She checked every store along the way, looking around at any that were open, and trying to open any that were closed. Suddenly, she noticed a few pieces of children's clothing still hanging in this store, and she prepared to pack them all up.
She wiped her hands with a few tissues and found a plastic bag to stuff the things into, thinking she would leave them there for later and take them when she came back. As she looked up, a rat about the size of a corgi, its sharp, yellow teeth flashing, stared at her silently.
He seemed to be chewing something in his mouth.
The rat came running over. Qi Mi supported himself on the counter with his hands and jumped onto it with a swift movement. He threw a flying knife straight into the mutant rat's heart. The mutant rat squeaked and waved its four legs in the air.
Qi Mi was squatting on the counter watching the mouse's dying struggle, wondering whether to jump down and kick it again. The next second, a crisp sound suddenly exploded in her ears.
It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, let alone the crash of a stainless steel basin hitting the ground. Bang! It came so quickly, vanished just as quickly, and the sound was as loud as a bomb.
The struggling mutant rat was frightened, and it kicked its four legs straight and suddenly stopped moving.
There was a moment of silence.
Qi Mi thought something might have accidentally knocked over the basin, so he patted his frightened heart, put away his knife, and prepared to leave. But just as he pushed the door open, he heard a few voices: "Get out... you beast..."
The voice was hoarse, low and weak, as if it had been shouted out with great effort.
Even the screams were intermittent.
Qi Mi raised his phone and found a small restroom in the corner of the clothing store.
The mutant rat's fat butt appeared and disappeared in the light, and there was an upside-down stainless steel bowl next to it.
Perhaps sensing the light, the mutant rat suddenly turned its head, opening and closing its mouth as it chewed something, its face dyed red.
Because they were at a distance, as soon as the mutant rat made a move to attack, Qi Mi swung out her knife and stabbed the mutant rat through the heart from a distance. She walked over and stepped on its neck, giving the struggling little creature a quick death, and walked towards the bathroom.
The closer he got, the smellier it became, and Qi Mi covered his nose.
The bathroom was not big, had no windows, and was extremely dirty. A person was curled up not far away, with a black down jacket almost covering his entire body. He probably hadn't seen the sun for a long time, and the exposed skin on his calves was strangely pale. He was so thin that he was just skin and bones, about the thickness of Qi Mi's arm. The part that was bitten by the mutant rat was covered in blood.
Although it is difficult to identify, Qi fans can be sure that it is a human leg.
And from the whimpering sound, it can be heard that it is a man. He is so thin that it is really scary.
Qi Mi was scrutinizing the man when he suddenly and cautiously poked his head out from under his down jacket. His skin was translucently pale, a thin layer of white hair clinging to his scalp. Feeling the intense light, he quickly raised his arm to block it, his voice barely concealed with excitement, "Light...it's really light..."
"Are you human?" Qi Mi tilted her head. She didn't sense any aggressive aura from this person, and this person could speak human language, so he might be the original human in this world.
The man nodded, his voice choked with sobs. “It’s been 857 days… I finally… I finally see the light again.”
This sentence confirmed Qi Fan's guess: "The sun hasn't risen for a long time?"
"Well, it's been a long time..." The man tried to lower his arms and feel the precious light, but he had not seen the light for a long time and could not adapt to the dazzling light so quickly. Although he yearned for it, he still had to cover his eyes with his arms.
Qi Mi covered the phone with his hand, making the dazzling light soft.
The dazzling beam of light suddenly disappeared. The man was startled, slowly lowered his hand, and stared at Qi Mi: "Are you... from [Shadow]?"
"What shadow?"
The man was stunned for a moment, then explained, "The Shadow Organization established the last safe haven for humanity in this world... You're not from there?"
"No." Qi Mi replied. After a second thought, he asked, "Where is the last safe haven for mankind that you mentioned?"
The end of the world has always been like this. In order to resist this world, humans will always build various bases or safe houses in order to consolidate human strength and break the fate of death together.
If we can find a base in this doomsday, the ten cubs should be safe.
When the man heard this, he laughed hoarsely: "If I knew... why would I be here? It's been 857 days, and I have spent more than a hundred days in this toilet." He slowly pulled down the collar of his down jacket and beckoned Qi Mi to come closer to him so that he could feel the light more carefully.
Qi Mi glanced at him and didn't move.
"Are you afraid I'll hurt you?" The man laughed dryly a few times, his voice strange and unpleasant. Although he wasn't an octogenarian, he looked incredibly old. "Look at me now. I'm not even an Advanced. How could I possibly hurt you?"
Qi Fan caught a new piece of information and asked hurriedly, "What is an advanced one?"
The man shifted, adjusting to a more comfortable position, and slowly replied, "Some of the people in this world, like me, have become shattered porcelain figures. Others adapt to the environment, gradually becoming cold-resistant, able to see at night, and developing a variety of skills... These are the people I call advanced."
Qi Mi suddenly thought of the monster hiding in the kindergarten and the woman he had seen at the supermarket. He found a spot in the bathroom and squatted down, a little closer to the man. "I've seen a monster with bulging eyes and protruding mouthparts from its nose and mouth. It's cold-resistant and can see at night. Is that the Advanced One you mentioned?"
The man stared at the ball of light and snorted coldly, "Those... can be considered as monsters that failed to advance... Those things have no human thoughts and eat anyone they see. They are monsters."
As he spoke, he slowly raised his hand, wanting to touch the light that was blocked by Qi Mi.
Qi Mi dodged to the side and got out of the way.
"Just let me touch it, just once. I haven't seen the light for a long time." The man begged with sobs, his eyes filled with tears.
"Tell me what happened in this world first..."
The man paused, wanting to say something, but seeing Qi Mi's stern face, which refused to allow any discussion, he lowered his hand in frustration. He shrank back, recalling, "This world, 251 days ago, was still fine..."
At the beginning, a world without the sun did not have much impact on people's lives, because we had electricity, cities were brightly lit, and people worked and lived as usual every day. The rare long night view also made the tourism industry in various places celebrate for a while. After all, this polar night world is really too difficult to experience.
But it wasn't long before this feeling of being out of sight began to make people panic.
Experts and scholars all over the world are looking for the reason why the sun cannot rise. Some say that the earth's orbit has deviated too much, and some say that it is blocked by a rare giant planet. It will not be long before the sunlight can be felt again... However, hope always disappears bit by bit in this endless darkness.
The collapse of the power grid plunged the Earth into complete darkness. Humanity was gripped by an unprecedented fear, and instead of enjoying their special life, they launched one massacre after another, snatching food and warmth from everywhere, and even threatening experts with weapons to find a way to restore the sun to its usual state.
But the sun has not yet appeared, because of this special polar night mutant species have appeared.
When the polar night lasted for more than a hundred days, everything from the wild beasts in the zoo to the flies and insects that often appear in the home seemed to be inflated and quickly increased in size. Insects the size of a fingernail became as big as a hand, and mice the size of a hand became as big as an arm. Not to mention, the wild beasts, which were already very large, became as big as a car and could bite off half of a human body in one bite.
Of course, this is not the scariest thing... The scariest thing is to watch the eyeballs of the people around you bulge out, and their mouths become like mosquito-like protruding mouthparts. Once they insert into the human body, they suck out all the internal organs and bones, leaving nothing behind!
Those people failed to advance and became monsters, but we, the world's outcasts, lack the ability to evolve and are becoming increasingly degenerate. Our skin turns pale, our bones become brittle, and a sneeze can break ribs. Encountering a monster means death.
Those who succeeded in advancing created the Shadow organization, claiming it could protect those of us who were eliminated by the world. However, they are so secretive that few can find the Shadow. I heard it's somewhere near the sea, with a light that's always on, a "city that never sleeps." Unfortunately, we're inland, too far away. I'm afraid we'll be eaten by mutated monsters before we even find it.
So I didn't dare to walk around and kept hiding in this abandoned clothing store. But now, I was found by the mutant rats.
Cough cough!
Perhaps because he spoke too much in one breath, the man lowered his head and coughed violently several times, taking deep breaths, and felt that he was already struggling to breathe. After a long pause, he licked his dry and chapped lips and slowly looked at Qi Mi: "Now, can you let me touch that beam of light?"
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