Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 37: The End of the World
At half past eleven at night, four fully rested people, uniformly carrying the small backpacks they bought in the afternoon, took what they deemed useful and rule-abiding items and took a taxi to the Yellow River Estuary Scenic Area. Naturally, the scenic area had closed for the day, signifying no entry for visitors. The ticket booth area was deserted, with only dry leaves rustling in the night breeze.
The four found a concealed corner to wait for midnight.
Their target location was right at the scenic area’s ticket booth, meaning they were precisely on the mark.
However, as this was the designated coordinate, the absence of any “fellow competitors” even as 11:50 approached made them suspicious.
“Could we have gotten the wrong place?” Qian Ai wondered aloud, looking around. “Or are the other teams hiding somewhere out of sight?”
“Don’t bother. If they wanted to hide, you wouldn’t find them.” Xu Wang rubbed his sore eyes. He had been on alert, scanning the surroundings for the past twenty minutes; other than the faintly glowing flora under the moonlight, there was no one to be seen.
Kuang Jinxin pondered for a moment and speculated, “Could it be that when we were at the Endless Sea yesterday, the other eligible teams had already come and attempted this challenge, with the losers lagging behind and the successful ones moving forward, leaving us alone today?”
Qian Ai looked at his teammates. “I’ve noticed you always hope for the best in every situation…”
Wu Sheng looked towards the depths of the scenic area. “The checkpoint for this challenge is at a hospital. If the coordinate is indeed the hospital, then there’s no need for a hard escape…”
Hearing the implication in his words, Xu Wang said, “You mean, other teams might have gone to a place closer to the hospital to wait for midnight? Maybe inside the scenic area?”
“Or what ‘they think’ is closer to the hospital,” Wu Sheng added precisely.
Xu Wang understood. Mao Qiping had mentioned that the city maps in 3/23 are fixed, but the real-world coordinates corresponding to those maps are slightly adjusted daily, either shifting or rotating clockwise or counterclockwise. So, even teams that have cleared this challenge before can’t be completely accurate based on memory.
But having experience should be advantageous. Only greenhorns like them, without any 3/23 experience, would naively stick to the given coordinates by the [Cheat Sheet].
Wait.
If there really were no other teams around… could it be that tonight’s challenge is filled with veterans and they are the only newbies?!
“Hoot, hoot—”
At midnight, the Owl hooted eerily.
The four felt as if they were freefalling from a plane. After falling at such a speed, their hearts were about to leap out of their chests before they landed on the cold ceramic floor tiles with a “thud”.
Under the dim light, the floor reflected a cool light, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant, creating a somber and oppressive atmosphere.
The high alertness induced by the “speedy zombies” didn’t allow them to delay; as soon as they landed, they sprung up, surveying their surroundings tensely.
Fortunately, it was a small place.
A men’s restroom.
“This respawn point is really…” Qian Ai couldn’t find the words as he looked at the urinals.
“Don’t be picky.” Xu Wang comforted him. “At least there are no zombies here, and the environment is somewhat familiar.”
“We were told there would be weapons, right?” Wu Sheng didn’t mind the setting. There was no audience anyway. In contrast, he was more concerned about tangible benefits.
“Could it be…” Kuang Jinxin pointed towards the end stall. “Those?”
The others looked and immediately understood Kuang Jinxin’s hesitation.
At the deepest part of the restroom, right in front of the last stall, were four squarely arranged metallic boxes, each about seventy to eighty centimeters tall. The silver boxes, adorned with antique patterns, were so tall that the top one nearly reached the ceiling.
“Are these weapons or armors…” Xu Wang looked up, feeling the weight of responsibility.
As the captain, he was the first to approach the box. Crouching down, he knocked on the side of the box like one would tap a watermelon, producing a thumping sound. It didn’t really give any clue, but it was more for psychological comfort. Seeing that nothing strange happened after the knocking, he reached out and gently slid the metal strip that was vertically placed on the upper part of the box wall facing him to the side.
The “box wall” was actually the door of the box, with the hinge on the bottom edge. The other three sides weren’t connected to the box body. Therefore, when he slid the metal strip away, the door of the box fell towards him, revealing the true contents inside.
An electric shaver.
“……” Xu Wang braced himself with his hands on the ground to keep from losing his balance while crouching.
A half-meter-tall box, and all it contained was a shaver?!
Don’t they know about eco-friendly packaging?!
“Captain?” Blocked by Xu Wang’s figure at the mouth of the box, the three teammates couldn’t see inside. They only noticed him suddenly freeze, so Kuang Jinxin voiced his concern with some worry.
“It’s fine.” Captain Xu waved his hand to his teammates while facing away, then picked up the shaver and stood up to enter the open compartment next to him. “You guys continue opening the boxes. I need to calm down for a bit.”
The three teammates stopped talking. They all saw the shaver in the captain’s hand and understood that what he needed most at that moment was not to “chat” but to have some “quiet time”.
Exchanging a glance to confirm their thoughts, Qian Ai was the next to go.
He was tall with long arms, so he directly climbed to the door of the compartment and opened the top metal box.
Click.
The box wall fell with a sound, revealing the same scenario as Captain Xu’s—a screwdriver.
Qian Ai, already mentally prepared, calmly took the screwdriver and jumped down from the door of the compartment.
Perhaps reaching his limit of endurance, as he landed, the door of the compartment suddenly slanted down with a “crack”. Qian Ai stood still for two seconds, then grasped the essence of this “weapon”.
He turned back, straightened the door, and tightened the screws again.
The scene was too comical, and the remaining two teammates couldn’t bear to watch, turning their attention back to the boxes.
“Sheng Ge, you go first.” Kuang Jinxin disliked making choices; he preferred the others pick first, leaving one for him.
Wu Sheng shrugged, walked over, and picked the second box from the top. Reaching up on tiptoes, he just touched the top edge of the box and lightly pushed it open. The box wall fell down.
A… scythe?
Wu Sheng reached out and felt it, only to see clearly that it was not a curved sword but a sickle, albeit with an extremely exaggerated design for the blade. The wooden handle was only thirty to forty centimeters long, while the blade itself was almost eighty centimeters long. It had a significant curvature, tapering down from the wide part at the connection with the handle and gradually narrowing towards the end, culminating in a sharp and pointed tip.
This top-heavy sickle was awkward to handle, and even more bizarrely, the wooden handle had a series of protruding rings, resembling bamboo joints.
Wu Sheng frowned, stepped back to create space, and swung the sickle forward vigorously.
He meant only to test the feel, but as he swung, the tip firmly embedded itself in the bottom of the box he had just opened.
“Clang—” A metallic sound rang out.
His arms, halted by the box bottom and unable to swing further, were left numb from the vibration.
Wu Sheng maintained his pose of swinging the sickle, looking astonished.
He had made enough space, theoretically not hitting the box, but as he swung down, the handle lengthened.
At the critical moment, Qian Ai, who had ducked into the bathroom compartment, peeked out. His heart was pounding, and he dared not shout, only managing to grit his teeth. “Next time you do something dangerous, could you at least warn us first—”
His teammate’s complaint snapped Wu Sheng back to reality. He retracted the “extendable sickle”, trying to shorten the handle back to its original length, but couldn’t push it back in.
Now the blade and handle were balanced, and the series of protrusions on the handle smoothed out, but it was even more inconvenient to hold. It was too big to be held like a spear due to its top-heaviness and too cumbersome to be slung or carried on the back like a regular blade.
With no other option, Wu Sheng had to carry the handle on his shoulder, letting the blade hang behind.
It was carried, sure, but such a weapon was essentially synonymous with “extremely inconvenient to use,” right?!
“So handsome…” On the other side, Captain Xu peeked out with eyes twinkling.
Advisor Wu, carrying the sickle, paused. “Huh?”
“Like Death’s scythe, it’s quite imposing.” The last part, “that even Death would look good”, Captain Xu kept to himself, savoring the thought.
“Really?” Despite saying it with disdain, Advisor Wu, carrying the sickle, elegantly twirled a full 360° to showcase the look.
“That’s enough. Don’t scrape us.” Qian Ai felt uneasy, even standing a meter away from the sickle. “Xiao Kuang, take your weapon—”
With time being of the essence, Wu Sheng hastily stopped spinning and stepped aside to give space to his teammate.
Only one box was left. Kuang Jinxin stepped forward to open it.
Inside was a bulging white plastic bag, like a takeout order.
Kuang Jinxin untied the plastic bag tied with a slipknot.
A bag full of colorful, candy-like, semi-transparent balls about the size of ping pong balls with a smooth and clear surface. Squeezing one lightly with his hand, it felt moderately soft and hard, similar to the texture of rubber.
The three teammates gathered around to look, squeeze, and smell.
Qian Ai: “Rubber balls?”
Wu Sheng: “You’d better not think about throwing them on the ground.”
Xu Wang looked at his advisor. “Did you notice anything?”
Wu Sheng confidently said, “The scent of gunpowder.”
Qian Ai hurriedly put the balls back into the plastic bag, fearing they might explode any second.
Xu Wang sniffed the balls again. With Wu Sheng’s hint, he seemed to really smell a bit of the gunpowder scent. Usually, gunpowder smells strong when it’s about to explode; this scent was faint. How did Wu Sheng discern it?
Seeing his question, Wu Sheng took the initiative to explain. “When I was a kid, I dismantled fireworks. They smelled like this.”
“Fireworks are meant to be set off.” Xu Wang looked at him puzzledly. “Why did you dismantle them?”
Wu Sheng said, “To study their structure.”
Xu Wang: “…….”
“So, is this a bag of mini explosive balls?!” Qian Ai looked at his teammate’s bag of “heavy artillery” and then at his own “screwdriver”, feeling a sudden surge of despair. They were teammates, fighting together. Did they have to be treated so differently?!
“Shave off your worries.” Captain Xu handed the electric shaver to his teammate, gripping it firmly. “I just tried it. It’s quite useful.”
Facing life’s unfairness, one should maintain a Buddhist-like calm and not only focus on oneself but also lead the teammates to the same mindset. — [Captain Xu’s Team Building Handbook]
Exiting the restroom, the four finally understood why they hadn’t encountered any zombies.
This was a fully enclosed mall, with locked entrances and exits. Security guards were patrolling each floor orderly and nervously. Customers, or rather refugees, had gathered on the first floor of the mall. From the messy bedding on the ground, they had been hiding here for quite some time.
The four men crossed past the sitting and lying refugees to the revolving door.
The tall revolving door was blocked, unable to be pushed from either inside or outside, and the side doors on both sides were tightly closed. The locks should have been engaged, but there were double safety chain locks tied on the door handles.
The clock in the mall showed that it was the afternoon. Outside the mall, there was a pedestrian street. Through the glass, one could see the row of shops opposite the street, each with its own style—some fresh and elegant, others fashionable and trendy, or clear and pragmatic. There were flower shops, gourmet food, cafes, and clothing stores located one next to the other, house by house, making it not difficult to imagine the hustle and bustle of the past.
But now, everything was in disarray.
The doors of the shops had been smashed open, the glass shattered, benches askew, awnings collapsed, walls splattered with blood, and limbs lying on the ground. There were neither living people nor zombies to be seen. The entire street was emptily quiet.
It was a clear evening, with not a single cloud in the sky. The setting sun generously spreads its light, casting a warm filter over this apocalyptic streetscape.
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