Community Traversal: I Have a Daily Rescue Kit

1: Fog, damage level of the residential area

Well!

Su Chen stretched and groaned comfortably in bed. He had slept for a full fourteen hours, feeling incredibly refreshed.

He fidgeted a few times in bed until his stomach growled. Half-closing his eyes, he turned on his phone screen and skillfully opened a food delivery app.

The familiar menu selection interface didn't appear; the splash screen firmly occupied the entire screen. Everything seemed frozen—the countdown timer in the upper right corner remained unchanged, displaying "5S" indefinitely.

"Huh? The WiFi is down?"

Su Chen was a little puzzled. He pulled down the status bar, turned off WiFi, and turned on mobile data.

However, after more than ten seconds, the food delivery app's interface remained unchanged. The splash screen was still frozen, as if encased in ice.

wrong!

There's absolutely no signal!

"Has World War III broken out?"

Su Chen's heart pounded wildly. Given the current national strength and infrastructure level of Great Xia, only the outbreak of war could possibly lead to such a bizarre event as a network outage in the capital region where he was located.

Thinking of this, he quickly looked out the window.

His gaze pierced through the glass and touched the sky—a hazy, dark, and incredibly detailed apocalyptic scene unfolded before Su Chen's eyes.

The world has changed!

The outside world seemed shrouded in endless dust and smoke, a hazy, oppressive scene. Su Chen felt his heart pounding rapidly and he felt as if he could hardly breathe.

"Could it be...?"

"Could those things outside... be radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion?"

Su Chen's heart tightened, and the guesses in his mind began to beat more intensely.

On short video platforms, countless bloggers have said that if the Great Xia Kingdom and the Americans go to war, major cities like Beijing and Shanghai will inevitably be the first to be hit. And Su Chen's location happens to be a suburban residential area with little industrial, economic, or political value.

If a nuclear war breaks out, this place will not be hit in the first wave of attacks, but radioactive fallout will definitely engulf it.

"Oh no!"

"No way!"

With a mix of trepidation and excitement, Su Chen hurriedly went to the window and looked into the residential area.

Unlike the hazy world he had seen before, the view inside the residential area was exceptionally clear. Su Chen had excellent eyesight; he could even see the steaming water cup on the small wooden table in the security booth at the entrance of the residential area.

However, outside the gate where the security booth was located, the world transformed into a hazy, gloomy scene. Like a vast, all-encompassing fog, it obscured everything, concealing terrifying secrets…

The two are clearly distinct.

"hiss!"

"This doesn't seem to be radioactive dust, does it? Why does it feel like this can't be explained by the laws of physics?"

Just when Su Chen thought he had found the answer, he became puzzled again after seeing the clear distinction between the inside and outside of the community.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a large group of neighbors gathered in the open space of the community.

All of these people noticed the anomaly and were now chattering amongst themselves.

"I need to go down and gather some information. This neighborhood is a mixed bag; maybe someone there knows what happened!"

Soon, Su Chen arrived at the open space where the neighbors had gathered.

As they drew closer, the chaotic sounds gradually became clearer.

"This hazy, gray stuff looks really scary. Could it be aliens causing this?"

"What aliens! I bet this is something the Americans made! That hazy thing is probably a radioactive cloud from an American nuclear bomb! American technology is terrifying; while other radioactive clouds float into the sky, theirs manages to cover the ground like a giant pot lid!"

"Hmph! My child is absolutely right! You, surnamed Ye, are nothing but a foreign-worshipping old scoundrel! All you do is brag about your American daddy! If your American daddy had that kind of ability, he would have been spreading it all over the world and showing off his power long ago. Would he have waited until today?"

A middle-aged man in a well-tailored Zhongshan suit stepped forward and pointed to a man in the crowd who looked to be about fifty years old and was wearing a casual suit.

"Hey Wang! Don't try to pin this on me! If you think I'm wrong, then tell me, what exactly is that hazy stuff outside?!"

"This isn't up to you or me; it has to be decided by the experts!" The man in the Zhongshan suit, with a leader's air, continued, "The situation is indeed unclear right now, but I firmly believe the country won't abandon us. Everyone stay calm, don't argue, and especially don't fight amongst yourselves. Believe that the country will come to our rescue!"

Upon hearing this, the man in the suit surnamed Ye smiled contemptuously, but remained silent, seemingly unwilling to confront the authority of the man in the Zhongshan suit in public.

However, just as the scene was gradually quieting down, soft snickers rang out from the crowd.

"Official? National?"

"Given the current situation, it's questionable whether there are any official sources at all!"

"Who knows!"

"Our entire group is no longer on Earth, or even in our original universe."

The speaker was a young man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and plain black trousers.

His face was shrouded in his hat, obscuring his features. But his size was unmistakable; he appeared to weigh around 200 pounds, enough to be ready for market.

"What an amazing imagination!"

"Read fewer novels, and while you're at it, delete those short video apps from your phone. Watching too much of that stuff will damage your brain!"

snort!

The man in black let out another contemptuous sneer, as if in his eyes everyone else had been deceived, and only he had foreseen the truth.

The man in black's interruption reignited the chatter among the crowd, which had quieted down. The scene, which the man in the Zhongshan suit had managed to control with his authority, had silently spiraled out of control once more.

"Oh dear! I just bought this house! If war breaks out, I'll lose everything!" Someone covered their face and cried, their voice hoarse.

"Who isn't? My house is still mortgaged! It's a whopping three million! If war breaks out and everyone lays off workers, that amount of money could crush me!"

Negative emotions are contagious, and one by one, the neighbors began to complain.

After listening for a while, Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief and said with inexplicable relief, "Luckily, my house is rented."

Upon hearing this, all those who had bought houses, whether with cash or loans, turned their attention to Su Chen, making him feel uneasy.

He immediately added, "But I'm in a pretty bad situation too. I just arrived in the capital, and before I've even settled into my job, I've already paid six months' rent and a deposit equivalent to two months' rent. If war breaks out and bombs hit here, I won't get a single penny back!"

After saying this, the gaze fixed on Su Chen immediately lost some of its intensity.

At the same time, Su Chen also thought that if the house he rented was really blown up by a bomb, he would lose the rent and deposit, but the landlord would also lose the house.

Thinking about it this way, Su Chen suddenly felt inexplicably at peace.

"Alright! Alright! Stop spouting nonsense!"

The man in the Zhongshan suit stepped forward again to take control of the situation, announcing loudly, "I just had my son check it out, and he brought back good news!"

"Our community hasn't lost water, electricity, or gas; our basic needs are still met!"

"The extent of the dense fog outside is still unknown!"

"To be rescued, and to survive longer in this unknown crisis, we need to manage resources centrally, especially food."

"I suggest!"

"Starting today, a food rationing system will be implemented. All residents must bring out their own food for collective use, which will then be distributed by the neighborhood committee."

As soon as he finished speaking, the scene fell silent.

But then, an even stronger backlash erupted.

"Why should the neighborhood committee distribute my things?! They're mine!"

"Hey Wang, you seem to be doing the job of neighborhood committee director on top of everything, huh? Ha! Ha! Getting through this together? That's all talk and no action!"

"You can hand over the stuff, but you, Old Wang, have to step down from your position as the neighborhood committee director!"

"Hand over my ass! If you want to hand it over, then hand it over! Don't fucking drag me into this!"

……

The crowd started arguing, and Su Chen shook his head and left.

These people won't be able to reach a conclusion anytime soon. Even if they do reach a so-called consensus, Su Chen doesn't intend to abide by it.

He firmly believed that he had to hold his own destiny firmly in his own hands. If a consensus had to be reached that everyone had to abide by, then Su Chen himself had to take the lead in establishing that consensus.

With that thought in mind, Su Chen headed home.

However, in a flash, Su Chen caught a glimpse of the notice board in the community.

[Notice Board of Xingfu Community]

[Number of residents in the community: 2489]

Electricity balance: 1137 public survival points

Water balance: 2181 public survival points

Gas balance: 2112 public survival points

"this!"

Su Chen was completely stunned.

He discovered that the text on the notice board wasn't written on at all; it "grew" out directly from within the board. All the text was twisted and shaped from a part of the metal notice board, distinguished from the base of the board by a scarlet color that emanated from the inside out.

This is definitely not my neighborhood! At least not entirely!

That fat man in black might be right—our neighborhood, along with everyone here, and even people in the outside world, have all left our original Earth, or even our original universe!

This thought just occurred to me!

Su Chen couldn't help but look towards the entrance of the residential area.

The streetlights inside and outside the gate were on. The lights inside were clearly visible, glowing like the moon; however, the thick fog swallowed up ninety-nine percent of the light from the lights outside, leaving only a few scattered points of light flickering in Su Chen's vision.

In the dim light, Su Chen also caught a glimpse of several eagle-bodied, human-faced monsters moving within the deep gray fog.

Just then, a figure appeared in Su Chen's line of sight.

The man was Su Chen's neighbor across the hall. He seemed unable to bear the incessant arguing in the crowd, so he simply moved closer to the gray fog to find out what was going on.

However, this man didn't dare to go out through the main gate. He rolled up his sleeves and nimbly climbed up the wall, perched on the gaps in the anti-theft spikes at the top, and peered into the gray fog.

The arguing crowd also noticed the man's actions. They tacitly paused their discussion and all looked at the man on the wall.

However, at that very moment, the man who had been sitting steadily on the wall suddenly let out a terrified scream.

"ah--!"

The scream seemed to have the power to pierce the sky, so loud that many people covered their ears, fearing their eardrums would be punctured.

Immediately afterwards, the man on the wall fell off the wall.

His fall was extremely bizarre—his buttocks were leaning back, while his upper body was tilting towards the gray mist outside the wall. It was as if he were being dragged and torn apart by something…

Whoosh!

The man was pulled down from the wall, leaving only half of his nylon quick-drying sweatpants hanging from the leg, which was hooked onto the anti-theft spikes on the wall.

A loud thud as it hit the ground!

It was like a heavy hammer blow, striking the hearts of all the residents who heard the noise. They were so frightened that they instinctively clutched their chests, their noses twitching, eyes squinting, mouths agape, only able to exhale but not inhale.

Click!Click!

The sound of sharp teeth gnawing at flesh came over, making the already extremely shocked and speechless residents of the community tremble like leaves!

"Xu Ermazi didn't fall down by himself! There's something dirty outside the wall!"

"Aaaaah! Those monsters are eating Xu Ermazi's flesh! I heard it! I heard it!"

Chaos erupted as everyone realized that man-eating monsters lurked in the gray fog outside the wall! At that moment, those monsters were devouring hot, bloody flesh, their mouths filled with crimson, and blood dripping from their lips and teeth.

Soon, Xu Ermazi, who was a full 1.87 meters tall, was completely devoured!

A rustling sound arose, and one eerie silhouette after another emerged from the gray mist.

They drifted in from the gray fog, and the closer they got, the clearer their shapes became.

These are a group of harpy-bodied, human-faced monsters.

One by one, they climbed onto the wall, then opened their mouths wide and began to gnaw at the wall, peeling away layers of cement and bricks as if using a spoon to scoop out tofu.

As these monsters gnawed at the wall, their blood-red eyes fixed intently on the crowd gathered in the open space of the residential area. Their gazes were unwavering, as if they were staring at a pile of corpses awaiting dissection.

As their mouths opened and closed rhythmically, their teeth, which resembled human canines but were exceptionally long and sharp, were exposed to everyone's view.

These sharp teeth all gleamed, like wide, finely honed spoons, seemingly capable of slicing through skin and digging into flesh with a mere touch, then separating flesh from limbs like jelly, melting in the mouth, and rolling down into the abdominal cavity beneath the human face and inside the eagle's body with the extension and retraction of the tongue.

Glug! Glug!

A swallowing sound came in.

Another harpy-bodied, human-faced monster climbed up the wall.

The moment it revealed its true form, a soft, red and white object was completely swallowed into the mouth of this exceptionally large harpy-faced monster.

It tilted its head back, its Adam's apple bobbing up and down like a human's, before returning to its normal position. Then it straightened its face, smiling, and quietly watched the trembling, huddled crowd in the open space of the community.

Those sinister eyes held a kind of malice that seemed uniquely human, extremely full and three-dimensional.

"Monster!"

"run!"

Immediately, the crowd scattered like birds and beasts, scrambling to find cover and hide.

Just then, a new message suddenly appeared on the bulletin board, whose material had changed at some point:

The neighborhood's defense has been damaged and reduced; it is currently at basic defense (98.71%).