Chapter 5

Zhang Su shook his head and said very firmly: "I'm not scaring you!"

In a standard prefecture-level city, with such a terrifying event happening, not to mention helicopters and the army, ambulances and police cars would definitely be layered three deep. Now, it's terrifyingly silent. If the whole city doesn't have a problem, what else could it be?

Exhaling smoke, Zhang Su's heart settled slightly, and he said in a low voice to Zheng Xinyu beside him: "Rescue is an external force; we must never pin our hopes for survival on the unknown!"

Before his parents divorced, Zhang Su lived a prosperous life, but after they divorced, he drifted to a foreign land and experienced a lot. Relying on others is not as good as relying on oneself—that was the first lesson he learned upon entering society, and it cost him expensive tuition!

Zheng Xinyu wiped away her tears. She was awakened by Zhang Su's words: "We must never pin our hopes for survival on the unknown!" She sobbed slightly, and with red eyes, asked: "Then what should we do?"

Zhang Su gave Zheng Xinyu an encouraging look and said: "I think the most important thing now is to figure out why those people turned into zombies—that is, the source of infection and the route of transmission!"

Zheng Xinyu nodded repeatedly in agreement. Her oversized T-shirt was pinched into a pit by her nervous fingers, and her voice trembled slightly: "By... I've seen it in TV shows, being bitten by a zombie will infect you."

Seeming to feel she had said something redundant, Zheng Xinyu hurriedly added: "I, I feel that the air definitely won't transmit it, otherwise we couldn't have been spared. With such a large-scale outbreak, it's very likely a water problem!"

A very reasonable and obvious conclusion, but Zhang Su didn't agree immediately, asking carefully: "If the water source is the problem, I also showered last night. Why wasn't I infected?"

"This... maybe it needs to be drunk directly. You wouldn't deliberately drink tap water when showering, would you?"

Zheng Xinyu asked doubtfully.

Zhang Su nodded: "That's for sure... You know, actually, we don't really drink tap water usually!"

As a convenience store owner, Zhang Su usually had all kinds of bottled water. To increase revenue for the convenience store, he had coaxed and deceived Zheng Xinyu into drinking bottled water and beverages every day...

"No!" Zhang Su suddenly said very seriously: "You cooked snail rice noodles last night..."

"I also used purified water..."

Zheng Xinyu patted her chest, a lingering fear.

"Is that so..." Zhang Su's brows furrowed slightly, saying: "Good, regardless of whether it's true or not, let's tentatively set the water source as the route of transmission!"

This was a fact that was hard to accept. Once the water source became a route of transmission, the difficulty of survival would greatly increase.

"In the current situation..."

*Beep-beep-beep-beep... *

Just as Zhang Su was about to speak, the phone Zheng Xinyu was clutching tightly suddenly rang with a series of notification sounds!

"There's internet!"

Zhang Su reacted with lightning speed and hurriedly picked up his phone from the bed, but when he lit up the screen, he found the signal was still in that impotent state...

"Heh heh..." Zheng Xinyu squeezed out an ugly, awkward smile and said: "Brother Su, our service providers are different. Since mine has recovered, yours should be soon too!"

Zhang Su didn't bother with things he couldn't change, threw his phone down again, and urged Zheng Xinyu: "Hurry and see what news there is!"

Without needing Zhang Su's reminder, Zheng Xinyu had already opened her phone. She didn't pay attention to the news first, but opened WeChat, wanting to see if there was any news from her parents.

Zheng Xinyu, like Zhang Su, was not a local of Qincheng; she came from a small city in the south.

She had previously attended a third-rate university in Qincheng, but dropped out. However, her parents didn't know about this, and of course, she hadn't told her parents that she was supporting herself by being a streamer.

Scanning quickly, the pinned chat with her parents was quiet, the chat history stopping two days ago. Zheng Xinyu didn't know if this was good or bad. She quickly sent an "Are you there?" emoji and then opened a short-video app.

Nowadays, watching the news has shifted from the web era to the short-video era. The transmission speed is more than a level faster than websites, truly reflecting the advantages of 5G networks.

However, the short-video app that used to open quickly was now exceptionally laggy. She didn't know if it was because of the poor mobile network or if there was a problem with the platform's server, but in short, it was very slow.

After buffering for more than ten seconds, the first video finally played!

On the screen were several eye-catching large characters. There was no sound, giving people a sense of solemnity as if a storm were coming.

"Unknown virus outbreaks in many places in the Celestial Empire. The infected lose their reason and attack living bodies wantonly. Citizens who see this message must avoid them at the first opportunity, avoid them at the first opportunity, avoid them at the first opportunity!"

The words "avoid them at the first opportunity" were bright red, appearing particularly eye-catching!

The two looked at the user who posted the video simultaneously—it was official media, and they were speechless.

"Many places..."

Zhang Su exhaled a puff of smoke, a chill filling his heart. It seemed this event was even more serious than he had thought!

Zheng Xinyu didn't speak. She wanted to click on the comments, which showed 38W, but no matter what, it just kept circling and wouldn't buffer out at all, making her so anxious that she flipped directly to the second video.

The comment section was strangely unable to open, but the second video played smoothly. This was a video uploaded by an individual user.

The shooter couldn't be seen in the video; one could only see a group of zombies chasing a crowd from the shaky footage. Blood sprayed, severed limbs flew, and screams filled the sky—the scene was extremely tragic, with effects rivaling a blockbuster movie!

When the zombie rushed toward the camera, the video cut off.

The entire scene in the video was extremely chaotic, but being able to see this video on the platform, the shooter probably hadn't met with misfortune, or perhaps they had recorded this precious scene with their life.

"Posted after eight o'clock... see if this person has any follow-up videos!"

Zhang Su said anxiously.

Zheng Xinyu clicked on the author's avatar as instructed. After buffering for about ten seconds, her heart sank, and she said: "It's gone... This person is, is from Anhui Province. Where is Anhui Province?"

While paying attention to the video, she also took a look at the user's IP.

"A thousand miles away."

Zhang Su answered coldly.

Qincheng is in the north of the Celestial Empire, close to the Northeast, while Anhui Province is in the central region. The distance between the two places is a full thousand miles, basically confirming the official media's claim of "many places."

"Separated by a thousand miles, to be able to have a zombie virus outbreak on the same day, or even the same time period—this is just too outrageous."

Zhang Su only felt his mouth dry and his mouth bitter.

"This..."

Zheng Xinyu's expression suddenly stalled. She hurriedly opened her contacts, wanting to call her parents, but there was only a busy signal. Looking at her phone, she realized the signal was completely gone this time!

"Heavens, I don't know how my mom and dad are, *sob, sob, sob*."

Thinking of her parents back home, not knowing if they were dead or alive, the tears she had been holding back finally fell, hitting her big T-shirt and blooming into flowers.

Zhang Su thought of his parents who had given up custody because they found him a hindrance, curled his lips, and said: "Xinyu, don't think so much for now. Regardless of whether your parents are safe or not, you must at least ensure your own safety to know the result. First, see what messages you received on WeChat."

Zhang Su comforted Zheng Xinyu and reminded her.

Zheng Xinyu couldn't stop her tears, sobbing as she picked up her phone. Her tears blurred her vision, and she couldn't see the screen clearly. She wiped it hard, clicked on the WeChat folded groups. Because she hadn't looked at group messages for a long time, many groups had four-digit message counts.

"It's over, it really is a nationwide outbreak..."

It would have been better not to look. After looking, Zheng Xinyu collapsed even more. Her social circle on the internet was very broad—beauty, purchasing agents, group buying, games, etc. There were no fewer than a hundred groups, and netizens from all over the country were talking about the tragic situation in their local areas—none were spared!

"No, Brother Su, this, this disaster is global!"

Zheng Xinyu opened a group and pointed to the people speaking inside: "This group is for purchasing agents from various countries. Zombie virus outbreaks have occurred in Europe, America, Australia, and Africa. Everything is in chaos..."

While speaking, she wanted to click on a video, but the internet had been cut off, and it couldn't be played. Only a frozen frame could be seen, showing a blonde woman with a mouth full of blood, lunging at the shooter with exaggerated movements.

One update in the morning, one update in the evening. Thank you for the support of the dear readers.

(End of chapter)