1: Betrayal in the Apocalypse, System Awakening

The heavy rain was like a wound in the sky that could not heal; for ninety days, it had never ceased.

"Rumble—!" Dull thunder rolled across the sky, illuminating the dim world in a pale, ghastly light.

Jiang Ran huddled in a corner, his once-expensive custom-made suit long since stripped of its original color.

The costly wool fabric was saturated with filth and moisture, clinging to him like a moldy rag.

It emitted a nauseating stench of damp mold and sour sweat.

He tightly wrapped a tattered trench coat around himself, trying to draw even a sliver of warmth from the freezing air.

This was the top floor of the Hongdu Financial Building.

It used to be the most expensive CBD core area in the city, a place where one could overlook the bustling lights of the entire metropolis.

But now, it was the final threshold of hell.

"The water level... is rising again."

A desperate murmur came from beside him.

Jiang Ran slightly lifted his heavy eyelids and looked out through a broken crack in the floor-to-ceiling window.

The once-prosperous forest of steel had disappeared, replaced by a boundless, murky ocean.

Countless cars, expensive rosewood furniture, and even bloated, pale corpses bobbed on the black surface of the water.

In the distance, only the spires of several shorter office buildings remained visible.

Like arms raised for help while drowning.

Then, under the battering of massive waves, they were completely submerged, stirring up a cloud of murky foam.

The black water surface was less than three vertical meters away from the floor-to-ceiling windows of this floor.

Jiang Ran withdrew his gaze, his expression eerily calm.

Three months ago, the Meteorological Bureau was still debunking rumors, calling it severe convective weather.

Two months ago, coastal cities lost contact.

One month ago, the inland fell.

Now, the entire world probably only had these island-like skyscraper ruins left.

In the top-floor lobby of this building, about thirty survivors were huddled together.

Investment elites, cleaning ladies, and delivery boys who used to be here were now no different from one another.

Everyone was emaciated with high cheekbones and hollow eyes, like a group of prisoners awaiting a death sentence.

The air was filled with a deathly silence, suppressed to the extreme.

Only the occasional sound of teeth grinding and the growling of empty stomachs could be heard.

Jiang Ran subconsciously pressed the inner pocket on his chest.

There was something hard inside—half a pack of crushed compressed biscuits.

He had scavenged this from a dead security guard; it was his last ration and the reason he had survived until today.

He didn't take it out to eat, and he didn't even dare to swallow too loudly.

Because he keenly felt it.

Several gazes in the darkness were roaming over him like starving wolves.

"There's no way out..."

Not far away, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses with greasy, matted hair suddenly broke down.

He smashed the empty mineral water bottle he had long since drunk dry onto the ground, his voice hoarse and sharp:

"The water is about to pour in!

Where is the rescue team? Where is the government?

Why hasn't anyone come to save us!"

No one responded to him.

Only the black waves outside slammed hard against the glass curtain wall, making a crisp "crack" sound.

A crack spread rapidly along the tempered glass, like a countdown from the Grim Reaper.

Everyone's body shuddered violently.

The building's power system had completely failed half a month ago.

At this moment, with that slight sound of glass cracking, the last sense of security in these people's hearts was also rapidly collapsing.

Jiang Ran slowly tightened his grip on a sharpened metal rod hidden in his sleeve—

It was a pneumatic rod salvaged from an office chair.

He knew that when survival space was compressed to the limit, the people around you were more terrifying than the flood.

This final floor was about to turn into a slaughterhouse.

"Crack—crash!"

The overburdened floor-to-ceiling window finally shattered.

The murky floodwater, like a giant black python carrying ice shards and debris, instantly surged into the top-floor lobby.

The freezing water rose past their ankles, and the bone-chilling cold made everyone scream; the previously deathly silent crowd instantly erupted into chaos.

"Climb up! Go to the ventilation ducts!"

"Don't push! Get lost!"

In the panic, the crowd squeezed toward the slightly higher ground of the reception desk and decorative sculptures in the center of the lobby.

Jiang Ran reacted quickly, immediately rushing toward the large solid wood reception desk.

However, a large hand suddenly reached out from the side and grabbed his trench coat collar firmly.

A powerful force pulled him, and Jiang Ran's feet slipped, causing him to fall heavily into the standing water.

"Cough, cough..."

Before he could get up, his path was blocked by two strong figures.

The leader was a burly man in a tattered security uniform with a face full of flesh, holding a solid metal table leg he had dismantled.

And hiding behind the burly man was the gold-rimmed glasses man who had just been crying in despair.

At this moment, the man in glasses was no longer crying.

Instead, with a greedy and malicious gaze, he stared fixedly at Jiang Ran's chest and shouted shrilly:

"Brother Hu! It's him!

I saw it just now, he has a pack of compressed biscuits in his arms!

There must be more!"

Jiang Ran's heart sank, and his eyes instantly grew cold.

At a time like this, half a compressed biscuit was a hundred times more precious than gold.

It was the life to live for two more days.

"Brother!"

The burly man called "Brother Hu" wiped the rain from his face and approached step by step.

His voice sounded particularly sinister amidst the thunder, revealing an undisguised air of banditry:

"Everyone is starving; it's not right for you to hide private goods, is it?

Hand it over, and I won't touch you."

"Get lost."

Jiang Ran didn't waste words; his right hand suddenly slid the sharpened metal rod out of his sleeve, gripping it tightly as his body tensed like a bow.

Brother Hu froze for a moment, then grinned hideously, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth:

"Oh, you even brought a weapon? Choosing the hard way, I see!"

"Go! Kill him!"

At Brother Hu's command, two lackeys who had already been following him immediately pounced.

Jiang Ran lunged with the metal rod, forcing back the person on the left.

But long-term hunger had severely depleted his physical strength.

His movements were a beat slower than usual, and the water at his feet made his balance unstable.

"Bang!"

The metal table leg in Brother Hu's hand swung through the air and slammed heavily onto Jiang Ran's back.

The intense pain made Jiang Ran's vision go dark, his spine felt as if it were breaking, and he collapsed into the freezing water.

That small bag of precious biscuit crumbs slipped from his chest and fell into the dirty water.

"It really is food!"

The man in glasses shrieked and dove recklessly into the water, scrambling like a dog to grab the pack of biscuits that hadn't yet been soaked through.

Brother Hu kicked the man in glasses aside and grabbed the biscuits, stuffing them into his own pocket.

Then he looked down at Jiang Ran struggling in the water, his eyes devoid of any pity.

"Only this much?"

Brother Hu seemed very dissatisfied.

His bloodshot eyes swept over Jiang Ran, then he glanced at the steadily rising water level.

The water had already reached their knees.

"Space is too limited here; one more person means one more mouth breathing the oxygen."

Just as Jiang Ran propped up half his body, he felt a cold murderous intent. "You... what do you want to do?"

"Help you find release."

Brother Hu grinned hideously and suddenly raised his foot, kicking Jiang Ran heavily in the chest.

This kick used all his strength.

Jiang Ran flew backward like a rag doll, straight out over the edge of the shattered floor-to-ceiling window.

The moment his body was airborne.

Jiang Ran saw the man in glasses' evasive gaze.

He saw Brother Hu's cruel smile and the indifferent, spectating eyes of the others in the lobby.

No one reached out. In this apocalypse, a human life was lighter than a piece of paper.

Gravity took over everything.

"Splash!"

Cold, darkness, suffocation.

Jiang Ran plunged into an endless abyss.

Immense water pressure instantly squeezed from all sides, like countless hands tearing at his body.

Murky silt poured into his nasal cavity, and the air in his lungs was forcibly squeezed out, turning into a string of desperate bubbles rising upward.

Am I going to die?

Die in this filthy flood, die at the hands of those scumbags?

I'm not willing... I'm not willing!!!

His consciousness gradually blurred; in the darkness, it seemed only his heart was still weakly beating.

Thump. Thump.

Just as the candle of life was about to be extinguished.

A cold, mechanical electronic voice abruptly exploded deep in his mind, drowning out the roar of the water.

[Detection of host's critical life signs...]

[Strong will to survive confirmed.]

[Awakening conditions met.]

[Doomsday Warship System, activating...]