"This is… the surface world now?"
When the countdown ended, Qi Lin's vision went dark, and he was directly transported to this place.
The sky was still shrouded in heavy radiation clouds. Compared to three years ago, though, they seemed to have thinned. Murky yellow sunlight leaked through the weaker patches, scattering randomly across the barren land.
Beneath his feet lay cracked, hardened soil. Beside him stretched a road, so worn and eroded it was hardly recognizable as one, running straight toward the horizon.
The nuclear winter had ended, and Earth's temperature was gradually warming again. Yet the lost vitality and civilization recovered far more slowly than the melting snow.
Qi Lin looked over his equipment. He wore coarse clothing made from synthetic hemp fibers, the standard outfit for civilians in the Shelter. As for other belongings, he only had a Swiss army knife in his pocket and a wrist-mounted smart brain strapped to his left arm.
"The initial attributes of each character are determined by the player's real-life physical condition."
Qi Lin recalled this line from the game manual, feeling somewhat relieved that, despite living in the underground Shelter for three years, he had maintained his exercise routine.
In truth, the civilian district of the Shelter offered little entertainment. Aside from video players that drained massive power quotas and old, tattered magazines or novels, life there could be summed up with four words: eat, wait, and die.
The micro smart brain could not only detect nearby radiation levels but also display Qi Lin's basic stats:
StrengthAgilityPerceptionPhysiqueRadiation LevelSatietyHydrationMost crucially, Health
Qi Lin's stats now read: Strength 6, Agility 7, Perception 7, Physique 8, Radiation 0, Satiety 100, Hydration 100, Health 100.
For an average human, base stat limits capped at 10. But with extreme training, or through certain extraordinary means, it was possible to break those limits.
Before the apocalypse, Olympic athletes had been known to reach 11, 12, even 13 in some stats.
Radiation Level, as its name implied, measured the radiation accumulated in the body. At around 40, it began to impair physical abilities. At 70, a person was considered heavily irradiated, nearly beyond recovery by medicine. At 100… instant death.
Inside the Shelter, every person carried some allotment of anti-radiation medicine. But in Wasteland Code Survival, every new player started empty-handed.
Qi Lin suddenly realized: in the early stages of the game, anti-radiation medicine would likely become a strategic resource.
Whether scavenging ruins or hunting in the wilderness, one inevitably had to enter highly irradiated zones. At that time, anti-radiation medicine would be indispensable.
"These medicines… hospitals and pharmacies should have plenty. Military camps and convenience stores too!"
After all, nuclear war hadn't erupted in an instant. In humanity's final days on the surface, anti-radiation medicine had become a standard household supply.
But beyond that, the immediate priority was clean food and water.
As Qi Lin studied his stats, the Hydration bar shifted from 100 to 99.
Once hydration fell below 50, the game simulated intense thirst. At 30, the body would become severely weakened. At 0… complete dehydration, and death would follow quickly.
Contaminated water would refill hydration, but raise radiation as well.
Thus, clean water was one of the most critical resources in the wasteland.
Clean water, food, anti-radiation medicine.
With his initial survival goals set, Qi Lin started along the highway. Rest areas and gas stations should be scattered along the route. Finding one meant supplies!
Radiation levels in this area were low, likely to accommodate new players. After walking for an hour and a half, Qi Lin's radiation level had only risen from 0 to 1.
However, his hydration was depleting faster than expected, already down to 70. His mouth felt faintly dry.
"There's a building!"
In the distance, blending almost seamlessly with the yellow-brown wasteland, a flat-roofed structure came into view. From his memory of the surface world, it had to be a gas station.
Ignoring his stamina drain, Qi Lin quickened his pace toward it. But within a hundred meters, he froze.
Zombies.
When the apocalypse struck, not everyone made it into the underground Shelters. Those left behind, if not instantly killed by nuclear blasts, were twisted by intense radiation into beings called the living dead.
Their skin rotted and peeled. Their bodily functions diverged drastically from humans. They felt no pain, feared no radiation, and had no reproductive ability…
Shelter scientists divided the living dead into two categories: zombies and ghouls.
Zombies retained intact brains, along with memories and awareness from life. They were intelligent beings capable of limited communication.Ghouls, however, were completely different. Their brains had been utterly destroyed by radiation. They became slaves to instinct, craving only fresh flesh, mindless, undead monsters.
Now, before Qi Lin, four figures in tattered gas station employee uniforms wandered nearby. Clearly, they were the latter.
"Damn it… four ghouls!"
The Shelter had released intel on ghouls but never explained how to fight them.
All Qi Lin knew was that their strength far surpassed normal humans. And unless their spine was severed or their brain destroyed, they could not be killed.
"Destroy the brain?"
Qi Lin glanced at his Swiss army knife, its blade barely ten centimeters long. Taking them head-on would be throwing away his first revival chance.
According to his smart brain's intel, these were the lowest-tier type: carrion ghouls. They had 10 Strength, poor vision, zero hearing, and a smell detection range limited to about 50 meters. If he circled behind the gas station…
Bang!
Bang!
Bang, bang!
Just as Qi Lin was racking his brain for a way inside, gunfire erupted from the three o'clock direction. The four ghouls collapsed instantly!
(End of Chapter)
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