Following Commercial Street while slowly searching, broken and messy cars were parked haphazardly everywhere. Many had collided with each other and were burned into wreckage;
The sky was growing darker, and mutated zombies began to emerge on the streets, making Song Jian feel uneasy. During the daytime, the zombies' attributes were halved and he could handle them. However, at night, their attributes would recover, increasing their attack, defense, and speed twofold from what they were previously. He didn't know if he could still defeat these monsters.
"I must speed up my leveling progress, or else I'm afraid I won't make it through the remaining few hours," Song Jian thought to himself.
Although zombies had poor vision, their sense of smell and hearing were incredibly sharp. If he couldn't find a safe place to hide, wandering around like this would easily attract large numbers of zombies.
Being cautious and hunting each individual zombie took more than an hour. Finally, before it was completely dark, Song Jian managed to reach level three.
At the same time, by using the Tiger Fang Dagger, Song Jian gained a passive skill called [Cold Weapon (Dagger) (Basic)], which increased the damage dealt with dagger-type weapons by 5%.
Upon leveling up to level three, he gained only one skill point and no attribute points, which left Song Jian feeling somewhat disappointed;
Without attribute points, he couldn't improve his intrinsic qualities, and the advantage of being at a higher level wasn't as significant.
Having no other choice, Song Jian spent the newly acquired skill point on [Cold Weapon (Club) (Basic)], increasing the damage by another 5%. After all, the highest-damage weapon Song Jian currently possessed was the baseball bat he was holding.
Furthermore, despite spending so much time searching, Song Jian hadn't found a single weapon or even bullets. He now had fewer than a hundred bullets, and once they were used up, the pistol would become a useless chunk of iron. It was better to take this opportunity to practice more with cold weapons.
Having only searched a few shops on Commercial Street, Song Jian found that all were filled with worthless miscellaneous items. Most were already ravaged by zombies. The valuable ones were probably taken away before the apocalypse occurred. Song Jian couldn't even find a piece of bread or a bottle of mineral water.
As night fell, all the monsters roared skyward simultaneously, and their auras increased sharply, alarming Song Jian. Seeing the growing number of monsters, Song Jian became more cautious and didn't dare to linger on the streets;
With no other option, Song Jian returned to the same residential building where he had first entered the game. He chose a room with an open door, closed it behind him, and then pushed some heavy furniture against the door, only then feeling somewhat safer.
The room was on the third floor, and through the window, he could barely see the zombies on the street. By now, there were more and more zombies on the street, with at least hundreds densely packed together. Their speed had also increased, and Song Jian wasn't confident he could outrun them.
"Bang, bang, bang~"
At that moment, a series of pounding noises resounded from the room's door, followed by the low growls of zombies. Song Jian's heart leaped into his throat as he realized that a zombie had detected his presence and was pounding on the door, trying to get inside.
The heavy objects behind the door made it impossible for the mutated zombie to barge in, and after a while, the zombie was probably attracted by something else and slowly turned away. Song Jian relaxed, letting out a long sigh of relief.
By now, more than three hours had passed since he had entered the game, and Song Jian's hunger and thirst levels had risen to over sixty points. If they reached a hundred without eating, his Vitality would begin to drop, and once his Vitality Points were gone, he would die;
Feeling hungry, Song Jian pulled out a compressed dry rations bar and a bottle of mineral water from his bag and began to eat slowly.
"It seems like this is how things will be today. If I can make it to daylight, I'll be able to leave this game," Song Jian thought to himself.
Originally, after entering the game, Song Jian had vowed that if he could safely leave, he would never return. However, now, seeing the glittering gold jewelry in his bag, he began to waver. These gold bracelets could all be brought out of the game, and if they were genuine, their value would be at least several hundred thousand, even if sold cheaply, bringing in more than a tens of thousands in profit—a far more lucrative prospect than his day job.
"Let me think about it. If I can really bring them into reality..." Song Jian didn't know what choice to make, so he decided not to think about it and find a place to sleep until daylight.
Looking down from the window, the number of zombies on the street seemed to have increased. They were densely packed, wandering aimlessly on the streets.
"At night, it's best to avoid conflicts with these zombies. Otherwise, once surrounded, I might not even be able to escape," Song Jian thought.
Scanning with his eyes, Song Jian suddenly saw a vague figure floating above a distant building. The figure defied gravity and floated about three or four meters above the rooftop, facing the direction of the moon.
In front of the figure, a faint silver glow drifted toward it, seemingly attracted by some force. The glow then slowly merged into the figure's body.
"Is it absorbing the essence of the moon? It's becoming a spirit!" Song Jian was dumbfounded, deeply shocked by the scene before him, which completely overturned his view of life.
"This is a game, this is a game..." Song Jian quickly recited to himself, and the shock in his heart slowly disappeared, replaced by the perspective of a player observing the figure.
"I can't even handle regular zombies at night, let alone this monster that has become a spirit. It could probably kill me in an instant. I'd better hide well. Safety first, safety first," Song Jian whispered to himself as he retreated into a corner of the room and lay down.
Closing his eyes, the scene of the figure floating in the air and absorbing the essence of the moon replayed in Song Jian's mind. His ambition also began to grow like a weed, slowly taking root and germinating.
As Song Jian lay in bed, he quickly fell asleep. The growls of zombies from outside the window and the sound of them dragging their bodies and hitting the walls and doors in the hallway made it difficult for him to sleep peacefully, tossing and turning with a frown.
In reality, it wouldn't be a problem not to sleep in the game. However, sleep could speed up the recovery of Vitality Points. In the early stages without potions, most people relied on sleep to recuperate from their injuries.
As time passed bit by bit, the bored and restless Song Jian suddenly saw a dazzling light appear before his eyes. Sitting up, he realized that the light came from Camel Square outside the window.
Song Jian rolled out of bed and looked out the window. Through the window, he saw a brightly-lit three-story building in the center of Camel Square.
"What the hell is that?!" Song Jian rubbed his eyes vigorously and stared at the building. This building didn't exist during the day, and now it seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
On the roof of the three-story building was a huge sign with the words "End of the World Supermarket." Surrounding the sign were neon lights of various colors that continuously flickered.
"That building wasn't there during the day! I remember clearly! But now…" A chill surged up Song Jian's back, and his sleepiness vanished in an instant.
A building that wasn't there during the day, a supermarket that didn't exist, suddenly appeared at night. It was too eerie. However, Song Jian soon revealed a bitter smile on his face.
"I forgot that I'm in the game right now. With zombies running everywhere, what's so surprising about a supermarket appearing out of nowhere? Even if a spaceship suddenly appears and aliens come out, I won't be surprised!" Song Jian muttered to himself.
At that moment, a rectangular LED screen under the "End of the World Supermarket" sign suddenly lit up, displaying a line of scrolling text:
"End of the World Supermarket grand opening promotion: get a membership card with 1,000 points, use points to buy any discounted items in the supermarket! Discounted items available include Attribute Fruits, various guns and ammunition, daily necessities, 80%-new Kevlar Bulletproof Vests, Martial Arts Secret Scrolls..."
...