On both sides of the narrow passage between the buildings, all kinds of snack shops and fast-food restaurants stood in a row. Tables and chairs had been set up in front of the shops, making the already narrow walkway even narrower. Forget cars—even motorcycles had trouble getting through.
The cement and brick pavement, laid down decades ago, had cracked and broken for all sorts of reasons. The shops along the way dumped their kitchen wastewater out front, while food scraps clogged the cracks. The hot, stuffy air caused everything to ferment and fester, attracting all kinds of insects.
People passed through the alleys in a constant stream, all of them hurrying and unwilling to stop for even a moment, as if they were afraid poverty and the stench of rot would follow them home.
This was where Shi You had always lived.
Looking around at the familiar surroundings, Shi You couldn't help appreciating the benefits of having a body again.
The breeze brushing against his face, the foul odors carried on it, and the blaring shop speakers that normally annoyed the locals—all of it made Shi You feel that he was truly alive!
He finally had a new life again. An ordinary person would have wanted to live it to the fullest, but Shi You knew he didn't have much time left.
The Doomsday Game would arrive at noon. It was already 9:20 a.m., leaving him two hours and forty minutes.
Shi You had to make the best possible preparations before then.
Carrying a large backpack, he walked to a small grocery store in the urban village that could barely be called a supermarket.
Shi You had nearly two thousand yuan on hand, and he intended to turn all of it into supplies.
During the apocalypse, monsters like zombies could drop items, including food and clean water, but the chance was extremely low. Before he could kill monsters in large numbers, he would still have to rely on ordinary food to survive.
Actually, if he wanted to turn his possessions into cash, even if he couldn't get a loan in time, Shi You could go to a small shop in the village and sell his cellphone, computer, and things like that. The advantage was getting money quickly, even if he had to accept a lower price.
But Shi You had no intention of doing that.
What if the apocalypse didn't happen?
After selling all his valuables, if the Doomsday Game failed to appear, next month's rent would become a problem for Shi You.
However, if he simply spent all the money he had on food to last him until payday, it wouldn't affect his normal life.
Shi You mainly bought high-calorie chocolate, canned meat with a long shelf life, bread packed with preservatives that would last six months, bottled water, and a few lighters.
All those supplies cost him a thousand yuan. It wasn't that he was reluctant to spend more, but a single backpack genuinely couldn't carry any more. Before his level increased, his Strength was still close to that of an ordinary person. Carrying supplies while running all over the place would be a severe test of his physical fitness. This amount was already his limit.
As for the money he had left, Shi You didn't spend it frivolously either.
He bought a large quantity of medicine at a pharmacy.
Cold medicine, fever reducers, antidiarrheals, anti-inflammatory drugs, bandages, alcohol wipes...
All of that cost him more than nine hundred yuan.
With the money that remained, Shi You ate fast food at a roadside restaurant. He had sixteen yuan left, so he hailed a taxi.
“Yanjiang Mall.”
When the apocalypse arrived, the best starting point was somewhere with few people—somewhere whose terrain you knew, with weapons and supplies in hand—where you could gradually eliminate monsters and reach level 2 as quickly as possible.
But Shi You was heading to the largest shopping mall in Yanjiang City, a place packed with people. It was somewhere he had never been before.
Unfamiliar terrain. Crowded with people. Flat and spacious.
It violated every condition for the best possible start.
Shi You wasn't an idiot. He had a reason for doing this.
The reason some people called the apocalypse a game was that...
Apart from people's stats being represented numerically and zombies being able to drop equipment, there were many other ways it resembled an RPG.
For example, dungeons. Treasure chests.
As for treasure chests, like equipment, they were divided into seven tiers, from lowest to highest:
Bronze-tier, silver-tier, gold-tier, black-gold tier, semi-legendary, legendary, and divine-tier.
Beyond those seven tiers, treasure chests were also divided into three types.
The first type was treasure chests dropped in dungeons.
The second type was treasure chests that spawned outside, guarded by powerful zombies.
The final type was welfare treasure chests. They required no monsters to be killed and had no zombies guarding them.
Shi You's goal this time was the final type.
On the fourth floor of Yanjiang Mall was a semi-legendary treasure chest!
In his past life, Shi You had come here one month after the apocalypse and obtained an evolvable semi-legendary weapon with no usage restrictions, a gold ring, and a skill book.
Starting the Doomsday Game with a semi-legendary weapon...
It was no different from going back to ancient times with a machine gun.
Although Yanjiang Mall was packed with people, it was still worth the risk for Shi You to give it a try.
Because even though he had been reborn, something could still go wrong. If he came a few days later and someone else had already taken the treasure chest, he would have no choice but to cry without tears.
The taxi reached the mall quickly. Shi You paid fourteen yuan and bought a bottle of mineral water at the bus stop. Now he was completely out of money.
The people in the plaza were dressed in the latest fashions, wearing luxurious designer brands. Even if Shi You sold everything he owned, he couldn't afford a single item. His clothes didn't fit in with this prosperous world, yet not one person who passed him showed the slightest hint of contempt or disgust.
Shi You's protagonist aura was simply too striking!
He had struggled to survive through the apocalypse, faced life-and-death situations every day, and led others for years. All of that had forged him an air of authority. And because he had existed as a soul for so many years, his eyes held a weariness born of a lifetime of upheaval that was completely at odds with his age.
With that bearing, combined with Shi You's handsome appearance, even if he wore clothes washed pale but kept clean—or even if he walked out wearing a garbage bag—people would assume he was an artist putting on a performance. They would be surprised, but who would look down on him? Right?
Shi You followed the others into the towering building in the center of the plaza and took the escalator straight to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor was also packed with expensive luxury-brand stores, glittering brightly. There were countless products, and the layout of each store was similar. If the treasure chest was inside one of them, it would be difficult to tell which store it was in.
Fortunately, Shi You had found the treasure chest in the restroom last time.
There was only one restroom on this floor.
The good news was that his target was clear.
The bad news was that the treasure chest had spawned in the women's restroom!
Ahem... Don't get the wrong idea.
Shi You definitely wasn't some pervert deliberately running into the women's restroom while no one was in charge during the apocalypse.
Back then, he had been cornered by zombies and run to the fourth floor to escape. In the end, he had dashed into the men's restroom. He had initially planned to tear out the large exhaust fan inside and hide above the ceiling.
But somehow, a monster had entered the restroom and smashed through the wall separating the men's and women's rooms. That's how he had spotted the treasure chest in the women's restroom.
But this wasn't the apocalypse yet. People were passing by constantly. If a huge man like him ran into the women's restroom, he would be taken for a pervert, right?
If security guards and concerned citizens detained him, and an argument broke out right when the apocalypse arrived, everything would be over for sure.
Shi You could only pace around nearby. Finally, after nearly forty minutes, he seized an opportunity and ran into the restroom when no one was paying attention.