1: Chapter 1 All People

"Where is this? Am I not dead?"

Mu Cheng suddenly woke up with a start from his bed; everything before his eyes was so familiar.

It was the rental room where he had lived for six years while working!

He hurriedly took out his phone to check the time: November 10, 2069, 11:00:23 PM.

Have I really been reborn? Is the Global Survival Game still going to arrive? Or was it all just a dream?

Unable to believe it, he gave his thigh a hard pinch.

It hurt! It really hurt! It was extremely painful!

Only then could he be certain that he had truly been reborn!

He would never forget this date.

At 11:11:11 PM on the night of November 11th, the Global Survival Game descended upon the entire world.

An army of zombies attacked, and the entire world underwent earth-shattering changes!

Suddenly, a notification page popped up in front of him, and he could clearly hear a mechanical voice.

[Countdown to the start of the Global Survival Game: 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds... Please make sufficient preparations.]

The countdown in front of him felt very real; even waving his hand through it wouldn't make it disappear.

"The Global Survival Game is coming, so I'd better go and prepare properly!"

Without any hesitation, Mu Cheng grabbed a few sets of clothes, took his phone, and headed straight out the door.

In Ning City during mid-November, even the winter midnight was still quite warm.

Under the dark, windy night, the city streets were still quite lively.

Upon reaching the main street, Mu Cheng casually used his phone to call a private car to his destination—the Xinhua Grand Hotel.

The three days leading up to the arrival of the Global Survival Game would be marked by continuous heavy rain for three days and nights, at which point the entire Ning City would be submerged.

Only high ground would be safe!

In his past life, Mu Cheng was a single man who happened to be working overtime at his company, which was located on the twenty-second floor.

That was how he had successfully survived the heavy rains.

Three days after the heavy rain, the eerie Skeleton Island appeared in every corner of the globe.

The zombie army crawled out from there, conducting a grand sweep of every corner of the world.

A minor sweep every three days, and a major sweep every seven days!

The arrival of danger was also accompanied by the arrival of hope, in the form of airdropped treasure chests falling from the sky and mysterious Traders.

Before he knew it, the private car slowly came to a stop, and the driver's voice drifted back.

"Sir, we have arrived at the Xinhua Grand Hotel."

As soon as Mu Cheng got out of the car, he entered the Xinhua Grand Hotel.

"Sir, is there anything I can help you with?" a service lady asked politely.

Mu Cheng replied simply, "Give me the presidential suite on the top floor. I'll book it for two days first."

"Please show your ID. The total is 59,999. Which payment method would you like to use?" the waitress asked upon hearing this.

She was indeed quite shocked... clearly not believing that Mu Cheng had the means to book a presidential suite.

59,999 for two days?

Without even considering it, Mu Cheng pulled his ID from his pocket and handed it to the waitress.

He took out his phone to scan the QR code for payment and said,

"WeChat Pay. I won't need any special services for these two days. Remember, I don't like being disturbed."

Over the past six years of working, Mu Cheng had saved up over 600,000 yuan.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that in two days, the world would change, and money wouldn't necessarily be able to buy food and water.

Seeing the payment was successful, the waitress immediately began operating the computer with the hand speed of a twenty-four-year-old single person.

After completing the check-in, she handed the ID back to Mu Cheng.

"Sir, here is your ID, please keep it safe. The presidential suite has a dedicated butler; feel free to contact him if you need anything."

Just as she finished speaking... a chubby man in a suit appeared out of nowhere beside them and suddenly said politely,

"Sir, I am your exclusive butler. Is there anything I can help you with?"

As expected of the only five-star hotel in Ning City, the service efficiency was truly high!

It was too late now; it seemed he would have to wait until tomorrow to prepare.

Mu Cheng thought for a moment and walked toward the elevator, saying, "At 8:30 AM—anyway, the sooner the better—come help me with some errands."

Mu Cheng had traveled for work before and was very familiar with presidential suites. They didn't just have fingerprint locks.

They spanned over six hundred square meters, and the door security was very high—the kind that would be difficult to blow open even with explosives.

Naturally, it was a pretty good shelter!

Soon, after the fat butler helped Mu Cheng record his fingerprints, he left...

"Three bedrooms and one living room, probably seven hundred square meters!" Mu Cheng remarked, looking at the luxurious decor.

Suddenly, he remembered there were still the 'Yellow-Robed Heroes' traveling through the city!

Only by getting things done quickly could his mind be at ease.

So he didn't waste any time. He pulled a half-pack of Chunghwa cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, took a deep drag, and then took out his phone to open the Yellow Kangaroo App.

He went on a shopping spree for daily necessities, mineral water, self-heating pots, cola, potato chips, shampoo... and of course, over a dozen cartons of Chunghwa cigarettes.

He kept about ten thousand yuan to have some fun at the mall tomorrow, and he'd have the fat guy get a gas stove and buy some groceries.

Mu Cheng first used his phone to withdraw twelve thousand yuan in cash.

He kept it as a backup to have one last blast tonight!

His credit card still had a limit of one million; of course, he had to max it out. He continued to place orders on the Yellow Kangaroo App.

When the apocalypse came, there would be no need to pay back the money—the kind where you don't pay back based on your own strength!

Bag after bag of items... were brought up by the fat butler.

Mu Cheng wasn't polite with him either, making him put the bags into one of the rooms one by one while he stood by smoking and continuously placing orders.

Three hours later.

[Is this guy out of his mind? Why buy all this useless stuff? Wouldn't it be better to spend the money on a campus belle and have some fun? Checking out in two days... I can move the stuff, but I must have a thousand yuan tip.]

???

Mu Cheng, who was watching from the side, was suddenly dumbfounded.

This... I can hear other people's inner thoughts?

He thought it might be fake, but then he suddenly heard it again.

[I'm exhausted. This guy must be brain-dead! All this stuff must cost at least two or three hundred thousand! I really don't understand people nowadays. Isn't it better to spend money and have fun? He has to do this boring stuff. I should consider whether I can ask for a two-thousand yuan tip after he checks out.]

[If there's no two-thousand yuan tip, I'm absolutely not helping. Let him figure it out himself!]

"I really can hear people's hearts. It seems I'm the protagonist after all." Mu Cheng had read many novels and was naturally very clear about this.

Don't protagonists start with cheats? And then head toward the peak of their lives!

The prompt that appeared earlier was still uncertain, but now he had inexplicably gained the ability to hear inner thoughts.

Now it was confirmed: he was the protagonist, and his cheat had already been activated.

After a total of nine hours.

Finally, Mu Cheng had spent all his savings and maxed out his credit card, and the supplies filled an entire room.

"I've finished. Is there anything else you need help with, sir?" the fat butler asked, panting heavily.

It was clear he had worked quite hard.

But for someone with such a black heart, Mu Cheng naturally didn't feel sorry for him at all, and he certainly wouldn't let him off the hook just like that.

"Ahem~ Here's five thousand yuan. Help me get twenty days' worth of groceries and a gas stove. Also, make sure to give me a clearly priced list."

In any case, he had booked the highest-tier service presidential suite; he could rely on his rights not to give a tip. Even if the butler was angry, he could only obey.

The presidential suite had a large refrigerator, one of those very, very large square ones. As long as ice was added, ten days' worth of food could still be hoarded even without electricity.

[Is this damned guy's head full of water? Doesn't he know how long he booked the room for? Preparing twenty days' worth of food and even a gas stove? Does he think the presidential suite is a shelter?]

Mu Cheng heard the fat man's inner thoughts again, but for professional reasons, the fat butler was very helpless and could only respond with a smile.

"No problem, leave it to me!"

After saying that, he politely brought up his phone's payment code. Mu Cheng scanned five thousand yuan over and said,

"I'm going to sleep for a while. Bring it over at four! Remember, don't knock; I don't like being disturbed."

"Alright, I'll have it done and delivered by four sharp." The fat butler didn't want to stay a second longer and quickly left to handle the business.

"I'll sleep until five!"

Mu Cheng set his phone alarm to five o'clock, went into the bathroom for a hot shower, and then...

Lying on the bed, he dizzily fell asleep.

But just at ten o'clock, the phone rang.

"The master is calling, it's that damn fat woman." This voice kept repeating.

Mu Cheng groggily answered the phone, and from the other side came the verbal abuse of a middle-aged woman.

"Ten minutes. If you're not here, don't bother coming tomorrow."

After saying that, she hung up. Mu Cheng didn't indulge her; he blocked her directly and went back to sleep.

He slept until five. Upon waking, he saw the prompt.

[Countdown to the start of the Global Survival Game: 6 hours, 11 minutes, 00 seconds... Please make sufficient preparations.]

After Mu Cheng did some simple grooming, he was just about to go out and have some fun.

Suddenly, he heard the fat butler's thoughts. [It's been an hour, why hasn't he come out? How much longer do I have to wait? This guy's head really is full of water! Or maybe he was kicked by a donkey.]

Even though Mu Cheng heard it, he still opened the door and let him move the things in.

"Not a penny more, not a penny less. You can go... Remember, absolutely do not come to disturb me." After confirming every cent spent, he directly let him leave.

The fat butler had no choice but to leave helplessly.

[This damned guy, after I helped him with everything, there isn't even a five-hundred yuan tip? If that's too much, even a hundred would do.]

Mu Cheng heard the thoughts again.

But none of this was important anymore. After all, whether one could survive was the real question, and then there was the issue of character.

Why should he give a tip?

After Mu Cheng left the Xinhua Grand Hotel, he took a private car to a nearby mall.

The first thing he did at the mall was go to Haidilao, ordering over a thousand yuan worth of food and eating until he could barely walk.

After resting for a full hour, he went to buy some more clothes in the mall...

Until 10:30 PM, Mu Cheng took another private car back to the Xinhua Grand Hotel.

After taking another hot shower, it was already eleven o'clock.

Lying on the large bed, Mu Cheng began binge-watching a show, waiting for the countdown on the prompt to end.

Suddenly, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, followed by a very, very heavy downpour!

At the same time, the prompt before Mu Cheng's eyes changed to another one.

[Zombie Grand Sweep begins in: 71 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds... Please make sufficient preparations.]

This was within Mu Cheng's expectations, so he didn't take it to heart at all. He excreted when he needed to and ate when he needed to!

On the second day, the electricity and phone signals were gone, but someone outside still came to ring the doorbell.

It was likely the waitress coming to ask Mu Cheng to check out.

However, Mu Cheng naturally stayed put and pretended not to hear, using the power banks he had prepared to continue watching his downloaded shows. As long as he held out until tomorrow, the Zombie Grand Sweep would begin.

None of it would matter then! Time flew by, and the countdown on the prompt ended and did not reappear.

Mu Cheng also began to feel quite uneasy and irritable.