Luo Feng drank until the late hours of the night.
Then he went to his room and went to sleep.
He had no dreams, unlike the usual ones where he would dream of eating takeout in his apartment.
But this time, it was a dark expanse from beginning to end.
Luo Feng woke up with a heavy sense of foreboding.
He wore some clothes and packed up a decoy bag.
After all, the entirety of his personal possessions were kept in the system space.
But he carried a decoy bag just to camouflage his uniqueness.
Because unlike in the books, it was very noticeable for objects to disappear in a person's hand.
And this world was not accommodating to those who stood out.
He walked to the school gate and found the mixed-race little girl with light brown skin and brown eyes waiting.
She clutched the bottom of her dress, holding back tears.
Her curly hair was tied up neatly, and her lonely figure looked exceptionally vulnerable under the sunlight.
Luo Feng walked up to the little girl.
"Dad says thank you for everything and that he hopes to meet you again, even in another life," Nia said with a hoarse voice.
Luo Feng was close enough to see the red and puffy eyes behind the curls.
He bent down to one knee and looked at the little girl eye to eye.
"It might be scary," Luo Feng said calmly.
"I can manage," the little girl said.
"You might have to face a lot of scary monsters," he said.
"I will learn how to fight and destroy them myself one day." Her little hands were clenched as she said this seriously.
"Have you said your farewell to your father?" Luo Feng didn't want to delve into her previous statement.
"We understood that we might not be able to beat it, so this is for the best," the little girl said with tears streaming down her face.
"Well then, call me Uncle Luo," Luo Feng said, wiping her tears with his sleeve.
"Uncle Luo, I'm ready to go," Nia said, wrapping a hand around his neck.
Luo Feng carried the little girl up with one arm.
Nia hugged his neck tightly and buried her head in it.
Luo Feng turned back to the door of the base, where a father stood.
Sekou looked at his daughter one last time and nodded at Luo Feng.
Then, with fierce resolve, he turned away from the departing backs of his friend, who was now in custody of his daughter.
Sekou knew that he would probably not be able to survive.
If you asked him how he knew, then even he would not be able to tell you.
But it was a father's instinct that drove him to that thought.
Immediately, he heard about the horde and the weapons from the principal.
His heart skipped a bit, and it was like he was plunged into a layer of ice.
He could feel that approaching sense of death coming for his family.
So he chose to send his daughter away first.
As for why he didn't follow behind her—
The reason was simple.
Luo Feng would not feel as obligated to protect two people as to protect a daughter.
Sekou was always someone with good intuition while growing up.
So he could sense that his mysterious friend was definitely someone special.
And more importantly, someone strong.
He watched him and realized that his friend was a good person in his own way.
At least, he was nice to children.
In recent times, where morality was thrown away in exchange for survival, a person who could still distinguish basic human courtesy, who could still be soft towards children, was rare.
He had seen some families starving their child just to have more to eat.
Some fathers would abandon those children if they proved to be a burden.
And some truly disgusting people would raise their children as a source of food if times got too hard.
Or those predators that would let their dark hearts take over and continuously molest these young kids.
He had seen young kids who were once innocent now even more scheming than adults who had lived up to thirty years in the world.
In summary, he had seen the decay of humanity.
And he saw it all just so that he could shield his daughter from it.
There's a saying that goes:
It's important to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
And to him, Luo Feng was a friend.
A friend he could trust to take care of his daughter.
He also trusted his daughter.
She was always more mature for her age.
Honestly, he didn't know what he did in his previous life to have such a beautiful and sensible daughter.
Now he felt that he was at peace.
Even if he ended up dying, then he would think it's okay.
His wife must be waiting for him up there.
Probably going to scold him for being such a weak father.
Sekou laughed at this while wiping the tears that had been flowing down for quite a while.
Then he heard it.
He he…
Want to be strong enough for your precious daughter?
Then why don't you kill everyone else and use the weapons freely?
The voice was like a whisper right into his heart.
It was impossible not to admit to hearing it.
And even more impossible not to pay attention.
It was captivating.
He couldn't hear much else except those persuasive whispers into his soul.
Sekou was stunned and a bit dazed.
His eyes were slowly becoming bloodshot, and his expression was morphing into that of a beast.
Just then, the wind blew across a piece of paper.
And he heard an illusion of his precious daughter laughing.
He snapped out of his state, and the red in his eyes receded.
But the voices didn't stop.
At least now he could ignore them.
But he was also afraid of them.
It was simply a surreal experience to hear voices in your head.
If not for instinctively knowing that the voices were real—
Well, he would have thought he was finally crazy.
And the only person he could have talked to had just left.
He was in his room, taking a day off to stabilize his emotions.
He had returned immediately after seeing them off.
Now he was pacing around the room, thinking.
Just then, he seemed to remember something.
The principal kept mentioning voices.
Was it the same one?
But if it was, then that made it even worse.
He didn't want to end up like the principal and become a fanatic.
That also doubled as a major psychopath.
With a dejected and reluctant sigh, he stepped out of the room.
People were no longer performing their duties and were now moving about.
Sekou paid them no mind and went to the principal's office.
But he saw a huge crowd waiting and the office tightly shut with the lights off, indicating that it was empty.
Sekou didn't want to stay with too many people, so he turned to leave once he saw the tightly closed office.
He walked back to his room.
Sekou felt that since there was nothing he could do about it, then he should stop thinking about it.
The principal had mentioned leaving, and he was no longer in the office.
The principal seemed to have disappeared after the announcement.
The voices, though annoying, didn't have any adverse effects.
It was just that his mental state felt a bit on edge.
But that was something that could be managed.
It wouldn't affect his fight anyway.
The fight that was close by.
So he had no choice but to focus on the life-threatening danger approaching his way.
What should he do, he thought.
Sekou lay on the bed with his arms behind his head, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.
His gaze unfocused due to his thoughts.
Should I fight to the death?
That's obvious.
But how to fight to ensure my survival?
First of all, a horde appears at every corner of the base.
The zombies show a rare state of intelligence and surround the base on all sides.
So no matter which exit I use, it's all guarded by zombies.
Then should I try to power my way through?
Alone, it is impossible.
But with a group of people, it just might work.
But the group of people have to have a sense of trust.
And by trust, I mean we have to have something at stake that can prevent us from betraying each other.
To find someone like that here is impossible.
The people who have made it up to this point must have gone through many things just to survive.
Even he had some things that he would never be proud of.
But as long as his daughter was okay, then he could bear the guilt and the nightmares.
It was worth it to see that little face wake up every day.
Sekou found that he had gotten distracted and wiped the tear that slid down.
He took a deep breath and continued on the topic.
So the team is out of the question.
Then should he try to leech off some strong people?
But who knows whether they wouldn't throw him down once the opportunity arose.
Or worse, they couldn't do anything at all and attracted the zombies.
I mean, he did think of standing at a distance, but then he wouldn't be able to leech off them.
Then is the only way to search for the weapons?
I guess so.
Sekou couldn't think of anything else, and he wasn't in the mood to step outside today.
So he turned over and began to watch videos of his daughter.
He had managed to keep his phone with him, plus it was a model that included the unlimited battery life developed from the ore.
He had bought the phone as a gift to his wife for their anniversary.
Now it was cracked and served as his only comfort.
So in his room, the sound of a little girl's laughter echoed around the walls all day.