Chapter 64 Floating Corpse

By the fourteenth day, the water level was still rising at a significant pace. The eighth floor had been submerged, the ninth floor was half-flooded, and those on the tenth floor had already packed their belongings, searching the world in advance for a place to settle.

Unfortunately, the building only had 18 floors in total. Half of the floors had already been forced to leave their homes, and the remaining half had to squeeze in the residents of the entire building. It was no longer a question of whether there were empty apartments to live in or how many families an empty apartment could hold, because many of those empty apartments were already underwater.

More and more homeless people crowded into the corridors and stairwells of every floor. As the population increased, the rate of garbage production grew exponentially. Furthermore, some people, driven by the spiteful thought that if they couldn't have a room, no one else should have it easy, intentionally neglected hygiene. Some corridors and stairways became foul-smelling.

The mask of a harmonious society was completely torn away. Everyone seemed transformed, revealing aggressive and ugly faces as they jostled for living space, refusing to give an inch.

Some even resorted to petty theft at night, forcing families to ensure someone was always awake. They took turns standing guard to watch over their remaining supplies.

Others specifically targeted households with fewer members, gathering a gang to vandalize their front doors. Those with Security Doors were relatively safe; after all, the mob lacked professional tools like Electric Cutters or Impact Drills. Armed with nothing more than kitchen knives and Crowbars, it was nearly impossible for them to break through Security Doors made of thickened cold-rolled steel.

However, residents with original doors suffered greatly. Under continuous assault, their doors would be breached in half an hour at most, forcing many families to share their space.

Bai Xiao had seen Zhao Fangzhe's door before; he had replaced it himself. While she couldn't tell if it was a high-end Security Door, it was certainly better than the original. Shi Jun lived across the Connecting Walkway from her; though she hadn't observed his door closely, there had been no sounds of anyone trying to break it down recently.

What she didn't know was that these vandals were somewhat intimidated by the combat power of the 12th floor. Secondly, they figured the 12th floor would also be flooded in a day or two anyway and didn't want to waste the effort. Their main targets were mostly concentrated from the 14th floor up.

By now, the entire building had clearly split into four factions. One was led by Xu Zhen; they possessed the most supplies, had well-trained personnel, and, crucially, owned water transportation.

Another faction consisted of able-bodied young men and their families drawn from the homeless victims. They were the most numerous but loosely organized, focusing only on immediate interests.

Another group comprised the bottom-tier people who belonged to neither side. They were elderly couples or the families of those who had unfortunately perished while out searching for supplies. Mostly composed of the elderly, women, and children, they had little combat power and were shunned by the other two main groups, forced to huddle together for warmth and survive in the cracks.

The final faction consisted of the three households on the 12th floor, who seemed to exist apart from the rest of the building. Others believed they were led by Bai Xiao because she had the highest combat prowess and a variety of weapon and supplies. The other two households relied on her for survival. They had no interest in fighting others and focused only on themselves, following the principle of 'I won't provoke others if they don't provoke me.'

Although they had the fewest people, their weaponry was several levels above the other groups. This was what everyone feared most; without a guarantee of victory, no one dared to provoke them lightly.

In the afternoon, Zhao Fangzhe and Shi Jun came to see Bai Xiao, expressing their willingness to leave with her the next day.

Bai Xiao nodded and told them the specific time for the next morning, instructing them to pack up in advance.

...

Early the next morning, a high-pitched scream pierced the air, followed by the sounds of intense fighting and cursing from one or two floors above. The intensity and volume exceeded any previous conflict.

Everyone inside and outside their rooms was woken up; the situation was clearly extraordinary.

When Bai Xiao stepped out, the other three households on the same floor also emerged. Even Xiang Mei's family, who had been hiding indoors for fear of retaliation, came out to investigate the noise.

"What's happening?"

No one knew. Nothing could be seen from the stairwell. Several people walked onto the Connecting Walkway, which was open-air, leaning out to catch a glimpse of the commotion above.

But when they looked up, they saw the people on the upper floors were all looking down, their faces filled with terror as if something horrific was in the water.

Bai Xiao and the others couldn't help but follow their gaze downward.

"Ah!"

Except for Bai Xiao and Shi Jun, everyone else was startled by the scene before them.

In the water about a dozen meters away, a grey-haired person was floating face down. It was clear the person had been dead for some time.

The commotion upstairs grew louder, and the people on the nearby floors began to piece together what had happened.

It turned out the floating corpse was the father of the man who was currently causing the scene. His father had been in poor health and had gradually run out of his regular medication since the disaster began. His condition worsened daily. After their home was flooded and they had lived outside for only two days, the father passed away quietly.

The man had no way to bury his father, so he wrapped him in a quilt and kept him by his side, pretending he was just unwell and sleeping frequently. However, as time passed and everyone lived in such close proximity, the anomaly was eventually discovered.

No one wanted to share a room with a corpse. Everyone demanded he move the body out of their shared living space, or his entire family would be kicked out.

The man's family of four or five naturally refused. As a son, the thought of his father not only being denied a burial but also being thrown out without dignity felt like a knife to his heart.

But he hadn't expected his roommates to wait until the family member on night watch dozed off to secretly carry the body out and throw it directly into the water. By the time it was discovered in the morning, the corpse had already drifted away.

Stricken with grief, the man's family attacked the roommates like madmen.

Shi Jun had participated in disaster relief during his time in the military. He had seen people who died in even more horrific and miserable ways, so the sorrow on his face quickly vanished.

Bai Xiao had also seen many dead people in the game, all of whom died in gruesome ways. She stared at the corpse drifting into the distance, her heart feeling a bit heavy—not for the deceased, nor for herself, but for reasons she couldn't quite name.

Even though they were all once living people, it seemed that death in the real world was more touching than death in the game world. Perhaps in the game, people died before there was time to get to know them, or perhaps the danger in the game left no mental energy for sentimental thoughts.

There were many possible reasons, but she didn't allow herself to dwell on them. The small storm hidden in the depths of her eyes subsided without a trace.

Zhao Fangzhe, Cheng Ru, and He Yuping were different. They hadn't seen true death before. The sight of a body exposed in the wild, stripped of even the last shred of dignity, filled them with a sense of shared mortality. They were both afraid of the corpse and pitied the dead, while simultaneously unable to stop imagining if they would be the next to die like that.

The sounds of the struggle upstairs seemed to fade away as their minds wandered; everyone in the building was lost in their own thoughts.

But regardless of what they were thinking, from this moment on, the curtain of the dark world had officially been drawn. It ruthlessly shattered the remaining hope in everyone's hearts. From now on, they would know that life and death would become the most common of occurrences.