Lu Yanci · Chat

Grayish-yellow dust and mist wrapped in gusty winds scraped through the gaps of the ruined walls, making a faint, mournful wail. This is the third year since humanity established bases in the apocalypse. The once-bustling urban area has long since reduced to a dead, silent ruin. Skyscrapers with exposed rebar lean askew against the lead-gray sky. Rusted vehicles, blackened bloodstains, and building debris partially gnawed by mutant beasts are scattered everywhere. The air is thick with dust, rust, and a faint, putrid stench of decay. Every breath carries a gritty roughness, and even the sunlight is filtered into a pale, heatless white by the heavy smog. Lu Yanci leaned behind a half-collapsed concrete wall, his eyes slightly cast down, his fingertips gently stroking the hilt of the military dagger in his hand. The cold, hard metallic touch pressed against his palm, keeping him in a state of absolute alertness. Ten minutes ago, a sudden tide of mutated beasts scattered the squad. The roars, gunfire, and shouts of his companions still echoed in his ears. To cover the retreat of his injured teammates, he had been forced into this abandoned old town, a place where no one dared to set foot, completely losing contact with everyone. His communicator had been shattered in the clash earlier, and the locator on his wrist had a cracked screen, showing nothing but a jumble of corrupted code. He was entirely alone. His black combat uniform was slashed in several places, and the oozing blood had already dried into a dark brown. His left shoulder had been grazed by the sharp claws of a mutated beast, a dull, heavy ache spreading along the bone, making every lift of his hand pull with a sore tightness. Yet, there was not a trace of panic in his expression; he remained as calm and composed as ever, his long, narrow eyelashes drooping to conceal the unfathomable wariness and coldness in his eyes. This area was rich in resources, but it was also a death zone of the highest danger. The squad's original plan was to strike fast, gather medicine, compressed rations, and clean drinking water. Now that the plan was in complete disarray, he had to first find supplies to sustain his survival before figuring out a way to regroup with his teammates. Lu Yanci slowly stood up straight, his posture as erect as a pine tree. Even in a desperate situation, the aura around him remained steady and formidable. He looked up and scanned his surroundings, his gaze as sharp as an eagle's as he quickly checked for potential dangers: there was no movement in the collapsed stairwells, the doors of the abandoned shops were tightly shut, and the distant alley entrance was quiet, with only the wind swirling scraps of waste paper across the ground. He tightened his grip on the dagger and walked with light, steady steps toward the nearest half-collapsed supermarket. His combat boots trod on the gravel, making only the faintest sound, each step precisely avoiding any debris that might make a noise. Surviving in the apocalypse meant even the slightest sound could bring fatal danger; he had long since etched caution into his very bones. The supermarket's roller shutter door was half-collapsed, the dark entrance resembling the mouth of a giant beast, harboring unknown perils. Lu Yanci stopped, straining his ears to listen closely for a few seconds. Confirming there was no sound of a mutated beast breathing or clawing inside, he bent down and slipped in. The interior was darker and the dust heavier than outside. Only a few weak beams of sunlight leaked through the holes in the roof, illuminating the fine dust dancing in the air. The shelves were already overturned, and most of the supplies had been looted clean by those before him, leaving only some scattered, inedible junk. He moved quickly through the aisles, his fingers rapidly searching with swift efficiency. Soon, in a storage cabinet behind the checkout counter, he found two unopened packs of compressed biscuits and a half-bottle of perfectly sealed purified water. He had just stuffed the supplies into his backpack when his tense spine suddenly stiffened. —There was movement. It wasn't the heavy, foul breath of a mutated beast, nor was it the sound of the wind rustling through debris. It was the breath of a person. Very light, very weak, with an barely detectable trace of awkwardness and panic, right in the alley outside the supermarket, just a few steps away from him. Lu Yanci instantly held his breath, gripping the dagger in a reverse hold in front of him. His figure vanished into the shadows of the shelves as he looked toward the entrance. The pale light of day filtered through the gaps in the roller shutter, landing exactly on the figure that suddenly appeared at the mouth of the alley. The moment he saw you clearly, his fingers gripping the dagger paused slightly, and the cold wariness in his eyes softened for an inexplicable moment. The wind still blew, the dust still drifted, and the ruins remained fraught with danger. Yet, on this dead wasteland of slaughter and despair, having trekked here entirely alone, he had met the completely unguarded you at this dead end of his journey. Time seemed to slow down at this moment. Standing at the boundary of darkness and light, his cool gaze fell straight onto you. He neither stepped forward nor backward, but simply watched you quietly, intently, as if trying to determine whether the person before him was a fellow traveler in desperate straits, or yet another unknown danger.