There are various snacks and fast food restaurants on both sides of the corridor between the buildings, and there are tables, chairs and benches at the door. This makes the already narrow passage even narrower, making it difficult for motorcycles to drive in. Let alone cars.
The cement and brick floors laid decades ago are broken due to rain and have formed many pitfalls here and there.
Neighboring shops, which dump waste and trash directly at the door, had filled these gaps somehow. As the cloudy weather constantly ferments the smell and attracts germs and mosquitoes.
People were coming and going in the alley, and everyone was in a hurry, unwilling to stay for a while, for fear that the lingering poverty and stench would stick to their bodies or dirty their white washed clothes.
This is where Damian has been living, at least nowadays anyway.
He has changed his address a couple of times due to various reasons over the years. Sometimes to escape paying rent, or sometimes cause he had a fight. Sometimes he had to leave after getting caught stealing or scamming, or to avoid the cops who started getting close.
Life was one big journey and he, the rat trapped on the treadmill.
Looking at everything familiar, Damian couldn't help but sigh again about the benefits of the body.
The wind blowing on his face, the stench mixed in the air, and the shouting from the shops or the horns from vehicles that usually disgusted nearby residents - it all gave him a feeling of being truly alive.
A normal person would definitely want to enjoy it after finally living his life again, but he wasn't normal. Nor did he have that time.
The end of the world comes at 12 o'clock in noon, and it is already 9:20 in the morning, only two hours and 40 minutes before the shit show starts.
He wanted to prepare as much as possible before this.
Carrying a large backpack, he came to the canteen in a large shop, that could barely be called a supermarket for this poor district.
Damian still had nearly ten thousand rupees in his hand, and he plans to exchange all of it into supplies.
In the end of the world, although monsters such as zombies can explode in light and drop loot balls, which contain food and clean water, the probability is too small.
That's why before monsters can be spawned or hunted on a large scale, one still has to rely on normal food to survive.
In fact, if he really wanted to exchange money, even if it was too late to get a loan from the bank, Damian could still go to a small store in the city and sell all his clothes, phones and furniture. It was cheaper, and the advantage was that he could get money immediately.
But Damian wasn't prepared to do this.
What if the end of the world doesn't come?
What if all he 'dreamed' was in fact just a dream, and nothing like last life was real?
Then after selling all his belongings, if the apocalypse does not come, Damian's rent next month will be a problem. He might have to run or shift rooms and find other jobs yet again.
That's why he just wanted to spend all the money he had on hand.
This way he could rely on food to last until the salary is paid by month's end, which will not affect his normal life even if the end doesn't come.
Damian mainly bought high-calorie chocolate, canned noodles with a long shelf life, bread and biscuits with a large amount of preservatives added to give it a shelf life of half a year, mineral water boxes and a few lighters and metal torches.
All the food cost Damian 6000 in total.
Yeah he still had some cash left, but he wasn't being cheap now. He just didn't have a large backpack to stuff everything in.
Moreover, before he leveled up, his physical strength and stamina were still close to those of a normal person.
He could hardly carry these supplies everywhere.
He did use to exercise or get into fights often, so he considered himself healthy enough, but before the apocalypse and system came, this level of physical fitness was already his limit.
So he didn't waste the remaining money. He also still had to buy a lot of pills at the medical store. Cold medicine, fever medicine, diarrhea medicine, anti-inflammatory medicine, bandages, alcohol, cotton, balms, sprays etc...
All these things also cost more than 3500 rupees.
With the remaining money, he ate a few plates of fast food at the street stall. And finally, with some spare change in hand, he hailed a taxi and climbed in.
"Brother, Lakhi shopping mall."
When the apocalypse comes, the best start is to be in a place with relatively few people, where you're familiar with the terrain, with weapons and supplies in hand, slowly keep killing monsters, and raising the level as soon as possible.
But the place Damian was going to now is the largest luxury shopping mall in Yale City, with a very dense flow of people. This is also a place Damian has never been to before in his life.
The terrain is unfamiliar, the flow of people is dense, and the space is flat and vast.
This certainly violates every secure condition of the best start. But there's no point.
Damian wasn't a fool, or battle hungry, he just had a necessary reason for coming here.
The end of the world is called a game by some people.
In addition to the digitization of people's attributes and the ability of zombies to explode equipment, there are many other things, which are also common with RPG games.
Such as dungeons, treasure chests and lucky merchants.
Leaving aside the former and the later, treasure chests are divided into seven levels, just like equipment, from low to high -
Bronze level, silver level, gold level, dark gold level, sub-legendary level, legendary level, god level.
Above the seven levels, there are three major categories of treasure chests.
The first is the treasure chest that explodes in the dungeon.
The second one is spawned outside, but this kind of treasure chest is generally guarded by powerful zombies/monsters nearby.
The last one is a welfare system treasure chest, which does not require spawning monsters and has no zombies to guard.
As the name suggests, it's a gift package given in pity. Encountering these is entirely based on one's luck and fate.
The purpose for Damian's trip here is the last kind of treasure chest. After all, who says no to a free gift?
On the fourth floor of the Lakhi Shopping mall, there is a sub-legendary treasure chest.
Damian came here one month after the end of the world in his previous life, and opened a growable sub-legendary weapon with no equipment requirements, a gold ring, and a skill book.
If you can get a sub-legendary weapon at the beginning of the apocalypse. It's like traveling back to ancient times with a submachine gun.
"I remember I was feeling quite hero-like lucky after finding that treasure chest in my last life." Damian said and shook his head with a sneer, after remembering what the feeling of preparing a wedding dress is.
Even if the shopping mall here is densely populated, it is still worth the risk.
After all, even if he is reborn, he can't wait for a month, there may be some deviations along the way. If he comes here a few days later, and the treasure box is picked up by others, he will have no place to cry.
The taxi soon arrived at the shopping mall. Damian gave the last of his cash and walked out. At this point, all the money in his pocket was completely spent.
"Can't believe I'm poor again."
The people in the mall were all dressed up in fashionable luxuries or new clothes. And looking at the heavy brands Damian could not afford even one of them after selling all his belongings too.
That's why his clothes were incompatible with this bustling crowd, and mostly everyone who passed by him gave a second glance. Showing contempt, confusion or disgust.
There's no need to explain contempt and disgust as the answer, poverty is written all over his style.
But confusion was caused due to his confident demeanor. Due to his temperament being really outstanding.
He had struggled in the apocalypse, wandering between life and death all day long.
After being a strong predator and camp leader for several years, he honed the aura of a superior.
There was a natural sense of calm in his eyes, like the teasing eyes, pointing fingers or hushed whispers, nothing could cause a wave in his heart.
With such a temperament, coupled with his good looks and styled hair, let alone clean clothes that have been washed to white, even if he comes out wearing a garbage bag, others will think that he is an artist doing performance art. At most, I am surprised or doubtful..
Ignoring others, Damian followed the oncoming crowd into the building, took the elevator and directly went to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor is also full of luxury brand stores, with expensive prices and a dazzling array of products. The layout of each store is similar. If the treasure chest was in one of them, it would be really difficult to determine which one it was.
Fortunately it wasn't.
Damian had found the treasure chest in the bathroom. And there is only one restroom on this floor.
The good news is that the goal is clear.
The bad news is that the treasure chest spawns in the women's restroom.
Ahem, don't get the author wrong.
Damian is naturally not the kind of pervert who deliberately runs to the women's bathroom while no one is around to take advantage of the ladies in the last days.
In last life, in order to avoid the zombies, he came all the way to the fourth floor. Finally, he ran into the man's bathroom in desperation, trying to dismantle the large air conditioning exhaust inside and hide on the ceiling.
As a result, an unknown monster entered the bathroom and punched a big hole in the wall that separated the men's and women's bathrooms. Only then did he see the treasure chest in the women's bathroom. And later took it by chance.
But it's not the end of the world now. There are people coming and going all around. How can he, a grown man, run to the girls bathroom and be regarded as a pervert?
If you are caught by the security guards, brave passers-by, or the single dogs ever ready to lick, he'll be beaten black and blue.
And if by bad luck, the end of the world comes in when there is a dispute, it will be game over for his second chance.
So Damian could only wander back and forth nearby. Waiting for a chance to swoop in.
(So embarrassing. Did my readers ever tried something like this?)
Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, when he was running low on patience, Damian finally seized an opportunity and rushed into the unnoticed bathroom.