Chapter 005 The Horrible Truth


    Zhang Su shook his head and said with certainty, "I''m not trying to scare you!"


    In a typical mid-tier city, such a horrifying event would have helicopters, the military, ambulances, and police swarming in layers. But now, it was eerily silent. If the entire city wasn’t in chaos, then what else could it be?


    Exhaling a puff of smoke, Zhang Su steadied his nerves and said in a low voice to Zheng Xinyu, who was beside him, "Rescue efforts are external forces. We mustn''t pin our hopes of survival on the unknown!" Sёar?h the ηovёlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Before his parents divorced, Zhang Su led a comfortable life. After the divorce, he drifted from place to place, enduring many hardships. One of the first lessons he learned when entering society was that relying on oneself is far better than depending on others—a lesson that came with a hefty price.


    Wiping away her tears, Zheng Xinyu was shaken by Zhang Su''s words, "We mustn''t pin our hopes of survival on the unknown!" She let out a slight sob, her reddened eyes lifting as she asked, "Then what should we do?"


    Zhang Su gave her an encouraging look and said, "I think the most important thing now is to figure out why those people turned into zombies—that is, the source of infection and how it spreads!"


    Zheng Xinyu nodded repeatedly in agreement, her oversized T-shirt twisted into a small mound by her anxious fingers. Her voice trembled as she stammered, "I... I saw in a TV show that getting bitten by a zombie causes infection."


    Feeling like she had just stated the obvious, Zheng Xinyu hurriedly added, "I mean, I think the virus probably isn’t airborne; otherwise, we wouldn’t have escaped infection. With such a widespread outbreak, it’s very likely related to water!"


    It was a reasonable and obvious conclusion, but Zhang Su didn’t immediately agree. Instead, he carefully asked, "If the water is contaminated, why wasn’t I infected when I showered last night?"


    "Well... maybe it only happens if you drink the water. You wouldn’t intentionally drink tap water while showering, would you?" Zheng Xinyu asked in confusion.


    Zhang Su nodded. "Of course not. Actually, come to think of it, we don’t usually drink tap water anyway."


    As the owner of a convenience store, Zhang Su often relied on bottled water for himself and the store''s sales. He even managed to convince Zheng Xinyu to drink bottled water and sodas every day.


    "Wait!" Zhang Su suddenly turned serious. "You cooked river snail noodles last night..."


    "I used purified water for that, too!" Zheng Xinyu said, patting her chest in relief.


    "I see..." Zhang Su frowned slightly and said, "Alright, let’s assume for now that water is the transmission route."


    It was a hard truth to accept. If water truly was the source, surviving would become significantly more challenging.


    "In this situation..."


    Beep-beep-beep-beep...


    Just as Zhang Su was about to speak, Zheng Xinyu’s tightly gripped phone suddenly chimed with a series of notifications!


    "There’s internet again!"


    Zhang Su reacted quickly, grabbing his phone from the bed. But when he turned on the screen, he found the signal was still weak and unreliable.


    "Haha..." Zheng Xinyu forced an awkward smile. "Su-ge, our service providers are different. Since mine’s back, yours should recover soon too!"


    Zhang Su ignored what he couldn’t change and urged Zheng Xinyu, "Check for any updates quickly!"


    Without needing his reminder, Zheng Xinyu had already unlocked her phone. She didn’t immediately check the news but opened WeChat to see if there was any word from her parents.


    Like Zhang Su, Zheng Xinyu wasn’t a native of Qin City. She came from a small southern town. She had dropped out of a third-rate university in Qin City, though her parents didn’t know this. They were also unaware that she had been supporting herself by working as a streamer.


    Scanning her WeChat feed, she found her parents’ chats pinned quietly with no new messages from the past couple of days. Uncertain whether this was good or bad, she quickly sent a "You there?" emoji and then opened her short-video app.


    Nowadays, people turned to short-video platforms for breaking news, as they spread information far faster than websites. It was a true testament to the power of 5G networks.


    But what used to load instantly now lagged terribly. Whether it was poor network quality or a server issue, the app crawled at a snail’s pace.


    After buffering for over ten seconds, the first video finally played!


    The screen displayed several bold words, with no sound accompanying them. The tension was palpable, like the calm before a storm.


    "An unknown virus outbreak has occurred in multiple regions of Tianchao. The infected lose their sanity and attack living beings indiscriminately. Citizens who see this message must immediately avoid them, avoid them, avoid them!"


    The repeated words "immediately avoid" were bright red, standing out prominently.


    The two of them glanced at the video’s uploader—official media. They remained silent.


    "Multiple regions..."


    Zhang Su exhaled a cloud of smoke, a chill creeping into his heart. It seemed the situation was worse than he had imagined.


    Zheng Xinyu didn’t say a word, attempting to open a comment section with 380,000 entries. But no matter what she tried, it kept loading endlessly, frustrating her to the point of moving to the next video.


    While the comments section was inaccessible, the second video played smoothly. It was an upload from a private user.


    The video, shot by a shaky hand, showed a group of zombies chasing people. Blood sprayed, limbs flew, and screams filled the air—a horrifying and chaotic scene reminiscent of a high-budget movie.


    Just as a zombie lunged toward the camera, the video cut off.


    The chaotic scene left an indelible mark. Judging from the fact that the video made it to the platform, the uploader likely survived—or perhaps captured the footage at the cost of their life.


    "This was uploaded after 8 a.m... Check if they have more videos!" Zhang Su said urgently.


    Following his instruction, Zheng Xinyu clicked on the uploader’s profile. After buffering for ten seconds, her heart sank. "Nothing... They’re from Anhui Province. Where’s that?"


    She glanced at the user’s listed IP location.


    "A thousand miles away," Zhang Su replied coolly.


    Qin City was in the north of Tianchao, near the northeast. Anhui Province was in the central region. The thousand-mile distance corroborated the official media’s claim of a "multi-regional" outbreak.


    "A thousand miles apart, yet the zombie virus broke out on the same day—even the same time? This is insane."


    Zhang Su felt his mouth dry and bitter.


    "This..."


    Zheng Xinyu suddenly froze, frantically opening her contacts to call her parents. But all she got was a busy signal. A glance at her phone revealed that the signal had completely dropped again.


    "Oh no, I don’t know what’s happened to my parents!" Zheng Xinyu’s tears, which she had held back, finally fell, staining her oversized T-shirt.


    Thinking about his parents, who had abandoned him and relinquished custody, Zhang Su smirked. "Xinyu, don’t dwell on it too much. Whether your parents are safe or not, you need to ensure your own safety first. Check what messages you received earlier."


    Zhang Su’s words calmed her slightly. She wiped her tears and opened WeChat again. Her swollen eyes scanned her phone, but her blurred vision made it hard to see clearly. After wiping her face once more, she clicked on the collapsed group chats.


    Since she rarely checked them, many had thousands of unread messages.


    "It’s nationwide..."


    One glance and Zheng Xinyu was on the verge of another breakdown. Her extensive online social circles—covering beauty, shopping, bulk orders, gaming, and more—were filled with groups discussing their local horrors. Not a single place was spared.


    "Wait, Su-ge, this isn’t just national—it’s global!"


    Zheng Xinyu opened a group chat, pointing at the messages. "This group has livestream hosts from different countries. Europe, America, Australia, Africa—they’re all experiencing zombie outbreaks. It’s chaos everywhere..."


    As she spoke, she tried to play a video, but the network was completely down. The frozen thumbnail showed a blonde woman with a bloodied mouth lunging at the camera in an exaggerated motion.