Chapter 881: Deception

Sixth day, night.

Whoosh—bang!!

The violent explosion shattered the night's tranquility.

After a day of anxious waiting, the man weakly clung to the door panel, his eyes blankly fantasizing about the outside world.

Suddenly, a jolt.

What happened?

Has the rescue team arrived!?

He glanced at his equally excited wife, listening intently to the approaching explosions, feeling his hands tremble.

Weak, thirsty, desperate.

If we keep dragging on, the three of us will surely starve to death here.

If not for the daily broadcast saying how many trapped survivors they've rescued, the man would even have suicidal impulses.

However, just as he faintly heard the soldiers' shouts, a piercing sizzling sound mixed with heart‑rending roars erupted:

Retreat!!

Monster! That monster isn't dead yet!

Boom!!

Boom!!

The explosion's roar was deafening, even the iron frame he had placed before the door trembled.

What's the situation.

The man hastily scrambled up from the ground, like a worm in a jar, anxiously pressing his head to the gap to look outside.

However, the window, long sealed shut, revealed nothing.

The night was pitch black; distant firelight flickered like sparks ignited in the darkness.

He could only hear the engine and artillery fire, gradually moving away from here.

They... fled!?

Is it the monster I saw earlier, still not leaving!?

Come back!!

Collapse, madness.

The man desperately clawed at the wooden board nailed to the window, unable to retain his sanity any longer.

You guys come back!!

Save us... we're inside!!

His voice sounded like weeping blood, but the only reply was the sizzling sound again from the broadcast.

Please, survivors near the military dependents' area, stay indoors in safety... do not go out!!

The next round of rescue operations will be...

Plop

He collapsed to his knees, his voice hoarse, despairingly staring at the sealed iron door.

He knew he had completely lost all hope.

As long as that monster remains, no one can save them.

Seventh day, morning.

Faint, silken sobs, the tremors outside the door sounded again.

Like a desiccated corpse, the man lying on his back struggled to rise from the ground.

Hunger and thirst in his belly spawned many hallucinations.

He seemed to hear someone calling, saw his deceased friends, waving at him.

But that was merely a hallucination.

After straining to distinguish reality from hallucination, the man returned to reality.

Looking back, he actually saw a hint of desire in his wife's eyes.

That was hunger.

When people are driven mad by starvation, they gradually lose their sanity.

What should I do...

Emotional collapse.

Deep despair permeated his heart.

Just then, Chu An, who had been observing from a third‑person perspective and unable to act, suddenly felt his will violently thrust into the man's mind.

A brief loss of consciousness, after a moment.

A strong intent to die and fear turned into low murmurs, drilling into the "two people's" ears.

"It's starting to intensify again..."

Silently muttering to oneself.

Chu An silently sensed the man's thoughts continuously transmitting waves of fear and despair, unmoved.

If it were anyone else, even with the strongest will, they would forget their identity and fall into the man's current emotions.

"Triple illusion, mind invasion.."

Silently analyzing the meme's effect, Chu An calmly looked at "his" hand, trembling as he reached for the gun on the broadcast console.

That was the man's hand, and also his hand.

That repeating broadcast seemed to forcibly knead the two minds into one, merging his thoughts with this desperate human, making it impossible to distinguish self from other.

No forced intervention.

Chu An silently watched himself raise his gun, slowly turning to face the desperate woman.

He knew what the man was thinking at that moment, and also knew what this unknown meme intended to do.

Hope, despair, hope and despair.

The outside broadcast was like a glimmer of hope in despair, continually giving hope to the survivors inside the station.

But not long ago, it was shattered again.

No food, no water, no hope.

At this moment, this couple was on the verge of collapse, especially the man.

He feared he could not restrain his beast-like instincts, and could not bear to watch his wife and children starve to death alive in this coffin-like broadcast station.

Suicide?

Putting the gun in his mouth to shoot himself, perhaps death wouldn't be so painful.

Outside there were zombies; he had seen people killed by zombies.

The horror of being torn apart alive—having one's nose ripped off, flesh bitten from the body, entrails pulled out—he would rather die than face it.

After a moment.

The man and Chu An shared the same view, staring fixedly at the woman's child in her arms, already so hungry it could not speak.

Shoot, end all this suffering.

Reason and despair wrestled back and forth in his mind; in the end, the man's arm trembled, but he could not lift the gun.

"Bang! Bang!"

"Is anyone in there?!"

Just then.

The blocked iron door suddenly transmitted a violent impact, as if the zombies outside had suddenly become agitated.

Listening to that noisy inquiry, the man remained unmoved.

Still a hallucination.

He remembered clearly that zombies surrounded the outside.

Those several rescue teams either died at the hands of monsters or detoured far away.

If anyone really came, they would first shoot the zombies outside.

But he heard neither gunshots nor vehicle sounds.

I've already... gone mad...

He glanced back at the trembling metal sheet, almost about to be burst open, and his whole body shuddered.

Those impacts were like a death talisman, like the final straw that broke him.

Ahhhhh!!

I'd rather die by my own hand than be eaten by zombies!

Without hesitation, after exchanging a glance with his equally dazed wife, the man fired with a manic expression.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Inside the sealed broadcast room, two flashes of fire appeared after a few minutes, briefly lighting up.

After personally killing his wife and children, the man's inner anguish almost tore him apart.

Even Chu An, undisturbed by emotion, suddenly felt his thoughts as if being gnawed by countless poisonous insects, dragging him toward Shen Yuan.

"Bang! Bang!"

Leaning against the iron door, the man felt the increasing impact force and gave a bitter laugh.

"Honey, kids..."

"I'm coming to join you..."

"Click-clack"

The gun fired, jammed.

The gun barrel shoved into his mouth did not fire that lethal bullet.

His expression froze; the man completely broke down, firing wildly, only to discover the bullet was firmly stuck in the barrel.

Even wanting to die, you won't let me die?!

The next second.

A huge force suddenly flung him away.

He instinctively looked back, enduring the pain.

Outside the blown-open iron door, a shaft of bright sunlight poured in, shining on the man's face.

The sunlight was warm.

But upon seeing the soldier outside, gun in hand, holding a breaching stance, the man's heart turned icy cold.

Someone, has come to save me?!

Is it real, or an illusion?

In a daze, unwilling to believe.

The soldier holding a gun took off his gas mask, slightly puzzled, and pulled him up from the ground:

"Why didn't you open the door?! Come out!!"

"We've been shouting with a loudspeaker outside for days!"

The sensation was real; the man hauled up by the hand trembled uncontrollably, his whole body shaking.

Through the blasted-open iron sheet door, he saw rows of armored vehicles and soldiers walking past in front of the broadcast station.

He suddenly turned his head, looking toward the broadcast platform that had been blaring nonstop these days.

On the twisted, mangled broadcast platform, there wasn't even a hint of power.

No zombies, no warnings, no broadcasts.

He had been tricked.