124: Chapter 124 Abandoned City

Hearing Li Taiping agree to go out with her, a look of heartfelt joy appeared on Su Jie's face.

She nodded vigorously, then turned and began rummaging through the small house, preparing for their upcoming excursion.

"Hubby, wait a moment, I'll see if there's anything else we can use."

Li Taiping watched her busy back, his heart a whirlwind of mixed emotions.

A 'God' who had lost all power now had to venture into a world of unknown dangers just to fill his stomach.

This sense of disparity was simply too great.

He walked to a corner of the room, where a baseball bat leaned against the wall.

He reached out, picked up the bat, and weighed it in his hand.

It was very light, providing very little sense of security.

He remembered when he held a greatsword and could cleave the sea with a single strike.

Now, he could only take a broken wooden stick and risk his life against whatever monsters were out there.

"Found it!"

Su Jie gave an excited cry as she dragged a dusty hiking backpack from under the bed.

She patted off the dust, unzipped it, and took out a few items.

Two empty, large plastic water buckets, a roll of medical bandages, half a bottle of liquid that looked like povidone-iodine, and a small, dead high-intensity flashlight.

This was the sum of all their worldly possessions.

"These things should still be usable."

Su Jie carefully placed the bandages and iodine into the backpack and handed one of the empty buckets to Li Taiping.

"Our primary goal this time is to find water, and food is secondary. A person can go several days without eating, but definitely not without drinking water."

Li Taiping took the bucket and nodded.

Looking at Su Jie's serious profile, a question suddenly popped into his mind.

"Su Jie, how long... have we been in this place?"

Su Jie's movements paused, and she looked up, her eyes filled with a hint of confusion.

"I... I can't remember clearly; it seems like a very, very long time. Ever since that disaster broke out and the whole world became like this, we've been hiding in this room and have never gone out again."

"Disaster? What disaster?" Li Taiping pressed.

"I don't know either."

Su Jie shook her head, a look of pain appearing on her face.

"My memory is very blurry. I only remember that one day, the sky suddenly went dark, and then all sorts of miserable screams came from outside.

When the sky brightened again, the world had become what it is now. Monsters everywhere, ruins everywhere."

Li Taiping fell silent.

It seemed he wouldn't be able to get any useful information from her.

The background story of this dungeon seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist.

It appeared to have nothing to do with the black tide.

"Alright, let's get ready to head out."

Su Jie put on the backpack and pulled a sharp fruit knife from the kitchen knife rack, gripping it tightly in her hand.

She walked to the door and took a deep breath, her face full of tension and gravity.

Li Taiping also tightened his grip on the baseball bat and walked to her side.

"Stay close to me. No matter what happens, don't leave my side," Li Taiping said in a low voice.

Though he was just an ordinary person now, protecting his woman had become an instinct carved into his bones.

Su Jie looked up at him, a flicker of touched emotion flashing through her beautiful peach-blossom eyes.

She nodded vigorously.

"Mhm!"

Li Taiping turned and placed his hand on the doorknob.

This time, his body didn't feel that heart-palpitating sense of crisis.

It seemed that during the "Peaceful Period," the danger level outside was indeed greatly reduced.

He no longer hesitated and gave the knob a sudden twist.

*Creak—*

A harsh grinding sound rang out.

The door that had separated them from the outside world for who knows how long slowly opened.

A beam of grayish-white light shone through the crack, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air.

Outside the door was a brand-new, unknown world filled with danger.

The door was pushed fully open.

A scent mixed with dust, decay, and a faint metallic tang of blood wafted toward them.

Li Taiping subconsciously frowned.

Outside the door was a narrow, dim corridor.

The walls on both sides were covered in mottled stains and dried, dark-red bloodstains. The light tubes on the ceiling had long since gone out, with only a few wires hanging down lonely, swaying gently in the weak light.

The dark-red, unidentified gel on the floor seemed somewhat viscous, making a "squelch squelch" sound when stepped on.

A few doors nearby were wide open. Looking inside from the doorways, the interiors were a mess, with furniture overturned as if they had been ransacked by something.

The entire hallway was so quiet that there wasn't even a whisper of wind.

This silence was more heart-palpitating than any scream or roar.

"Which... which way do we go?"

Su Jie's voice carried a trace of imperceptible trembling. She gripped the corner of Li Taiping's clothes tightly, peeking half her head out to warily scan the surroundings.

"Go downstairs first and check the street."

Li Taiping gave Su Jie a puzzled look, then responded in a lowered voice.

His hand holding the baseball bat looked slightly strained from the force of his grip.

He was currently like a level 1 newbie who had just stepped out of the starting village, facing a map full of high-level monsters; every step had to be taken with extreme caution.

The two of them, one after the other, stepped through the slime covering the floor and walked slowly toward the stairwell.

With every step, Li Taiping would stop and listen carefully for any movement in the surroundings.

Fortunately, they didn't encounter any danger along the way.

Soon, they reached the stairwell.

The stairs were the old-fashioned spiral kind. The handrails were thick with dust and similarly covered in dark-red bloodstains.

Li Taiping leaned over and glanced down.

Below was also a scene of dead silence.

Without hesitation, he took the lead and headed down the stairs!

Su Jie followed closely behind him, the fruit knife in her hand held in a death-grip.

The building they lived in didn't seem very tall, probably only five or six stories.

Soon, they reached the first-floor lobby.

The glass doors of the lobby had long since shattered, leaving only twisted metal frames.

Outside the door was the true face of this dungeon world.

Li Taiping stood at the entrance and looked out, his breath hitching involuntarily.

What met his eyes was a true city of ruins.

Skyscrapers that once touched the clouds looked like building blocks snapped in half, their broken rebar and concrete exposed, pointing menacingly toward the murky gray sky.

The wide streets were filled with all sorts of rusted, scrapped cars, their bodies covered in claw marks and impact dents.

The shops lining the streets were, without exception, smashed to bits, with shattered glass and product debris scattered everywhere.

Gray scraps of paper and plastic bags drifted with the wind in the empty streets, adding a trace of eerie motion to this silent city.

The entire world seemed to be composed of only two tones: gray and dark red.

Oppressive, silent, and hopeless.

This was the Abandoned City.

"Oh my God..." Su Jie couldn't help but let out a low gasp as she looked at the scene before her, subconsciously grabbing Li Taiping's arm.

Ever since the cataclysm descended upon this world, the outside environment would refresh every time.

But the theme was always "City Ruins."

Li Taiping didn't speak. His gaze was rapidly scanning the surroundings, searching for any potential dangers.

...