Thinking of using his phone for light, Su Li picked it up and saw the battery was down to just three percent, about to die soon. "I wonder how you're doing now." Su Li sighed, looking at the phone screen where a pretty girl smiled sweetly, with long hair flowing over her shoulders and neat bangs, looking clean and pure. It was a photo of his girlfriend, Wang Lan, which he had set as his wallpaper.
The city had been suddenly struck by a devastating flood, and Su Li dared not dwell on what had happened to Wang Lan—whether she was alive or dead. Every time he thought about it, a pang of sadness hit him, leaving him feeling dejected. "Today is the sixteenth, already Friday. Tomorrow is the weekend. I was supposed to go hiking at Longqiu Mountain with them on Saturday."
It had been less than two days since he woke up yesterday morning to find the entire city submerged, but for Su Li, life had undergone a earth-shattering transformation, as if an entire century had passed. He truly understood what it meant to feel like each day dragged on forever.
With a somber expression, Su Li gently set the phone aside. Without a way to charge it, the phone would soon shut down automatically. Though it had a flashlight function, Su Li was reluctant to use it. In this dire situation with scarce supplies, the flashlight became a precious resource. He tucked it into his backpack, alongside the remaining meager food, unwilling to waste it carelessly. "Forget it, I'll leave it here for now. I'll deal with everything when it's light tomorrow."
Su Li left the corpse of the one-eyed frog in the living room. Since the floor was getting increasingly damp, with water stains appearing in many spots, he moved the sofa into the bedroom, planning to sleep on it tonight.
Now, in the bedroom, besides the cabinet blocking the window and the upright bed board, there was his makeshift raft, two basins of tap water, a storage box filled with cooled boiled water, and a travel backpack stocked with food and essential tools. Adding the sofa now nearly filled the entire room.
He had initially considered bringing the one-eyed frog's corpse inside as well, but its stench was too overpowering. If placed nearby with the doors and windows sealed tight, the smell would be unbearable, making sleep impossible. So he left it in the more ventilated living room and returned to the bedroom.
Beyond that, deep down, Su Li also harbored a faint hope that the one-eyed frog's corpse might attract the low-level corpse beasts he was after. He was desperately short on spirit sources.
After closing the door, Su Li thought for a moment, then opened it again, grabbed the kitchen knife, and began shaving the edge of the door. Soon, he carved off a small piece, and when he shut the door again, a gap about a centimeter wide appeared, through which he could see into the living room. This was a precaution: if something happened outside, he could hide inside and easily observe the situation through the gap.
Since the door lock was broken and couldn't be secured, Su Li moved the sofa over and wedged one end against the door.
Lying down on the sofa, Su Li's mind was too restless to sleep. Though his eyes were closed, sleep wouldn't come. His thoughts wandered wildly—first to his parents, then to Wang Lan, to being trapped here, wondering where to go next, how many survivors like him were left in the city, and how many had managed to evacuate before the flood.
The city was submerged. What about other cities? He had been trapped here for two days. At first, he held onto hope for rescue, but that hope was slowly fading. The disaster caused by this great flood might be even more terrifying than he had imagined.
Drowned humans could evolve into mindless corpse beasts that attacked people, and there were creatures like the one-eyed frog, never seen before. The spirit source he had obtained, his enhanced strength, the "Peeping Rune" he had mastered—all these signs pointed to unprecedented changes in the world. All the old rules and common sense were gone. He could no longer rely on past logic to understand what was happening now.
The future was a complete blank to him.
Lost in these chaotic thoughts, Su Li eventually drifted off to sleep, though he didn't know how much time had passed. But with so much weighing on his mind and immense mental pressure, his sleep was light. A strange noise jolted him awake.
The sound was faint, coming from the living room. Su Li sat up abruptly on the sofa, his first instinct to grab the kitchen knife and hammer beside him. Clutching them tightly, he felt a bit calmer. Holding his breath, he listened carefully to the noise from the living room. A rustling, chewing sound.
Su Li immediately thought of the one-eyed frog's corpse he had left in the living room. Silently, he crept to the door and peered through the gap into the living room. Through the crack, aided by the faint moonlight streaming in from the balcony window, he saw several dark shadows in the dim room, gathered around the one-eyed frog's corpse, feasting on it. By the time Su Li spotted them, the corpse had already been partially devoured.
With a thought, Su Li activated the "Peeping Rune." The vertical eye-shaped rune appeared on his forehead, and streams of information flooded his mind. "Corpse Beast: Infected lowest-level spirit beast. Through mutual devouring, has a certain chance of evolving into a higher-level corpse beast. Other: None." "Corpse Beast: Infected lowest-level spirit beast..."
Each time Su Li observed a shadow, the same information repeated in his mind, telling him that these dark shapes gnawing on the one-eyed frog's flesh were all low-level corpse beasts formed from drowned human corpses. To Su Li now, these low-level corpse beasts posed no threat; in fact, they were exactly what he wanted to see. He still needed two more spirit sources to gather ten. To him, these corpse beasts in the living room were like individual spirit sources.
Certain there was no danger, Su Li didn't hesitate. He moved the sofa aside, opened the door, and charged out with the knife and hammer in hand. His sudden appearance startled the feasting corpse beasts. They looked up, and two of them immediately rose and lunged at him.
Though it was night, the moonlight allowed Su Li to see their movements clearly. To his enhanced perception, their attacks were slow, easily dodged or blocked. He kicked out with lightning speed, far faster than the lunging corpse beast, sending the one on the left flying. At the same time, he swung the hammer with his right arm, smashing it accurately into the head of the one on the right.