Everyone has awakened, but I am the only mortal!

Su Bai is going to die.

He had not eaten for ten days, and had only drunk rainwater once during that time.

This is the seventh month since the collapse of human civilization.

A meteorite fell to Earth, causing widespread fires and smoke that, aided by the wind, obscured the entire planet, leading to a drop in global temperatures.

To survive and escape the bitter cold, with the city's remaining food supplies dwindling, Su Bai became a scavenger, wandering aimlessly.

He stumbled and fell to the ground, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get up.

Fear surged into his mind in an instant.

There's an unwritten rule in the group: you can't eat people, but if someone falls...

He didn't want to be eaten.

But he had no strength at all!

He heard footsteps approaching him from the front, and he wondered if he was going to be eaten like this.

"elder brother."

Su Bai's vision slowly returned, and what came into view was the face of a little boy and the mineral water bottle in his hand. Before he could react, a dark shadow appeared behind the little boy.

He was a middle-aged man.

The man's face was half covered, with only his eyes showing. If you looked closely, you would see that his eyes were blue.

The man didn't speak, his gaze was cold and devoid of any emotion, but he didn't hesitate to hand a cookie to Su Bai.

"Brother, eat quickly."

This time, the man covered the little boy's mouth with his black gloved hand. The little boy did not struggle, as if he understood the man's intention. Then the man released his hand, and the little boy stopped speaking.

Su Bai drank some water and regained consciousness. He sat up and also sensed that the slowly moving group ahead was watching him.

That kind of unsettling gaze made you feel like you were... food.

That's not an illusion.

A child's flesh is more tender than that of a dead person.

Moreover, they have food and water.

It's like a sheep falling into a pack of wolves.

Su Bai carefully gripped the compressed biscuit in his hand. He looked up at the middle-aged man and asked, "Why did you save me?"

This was the first time Su Bai had spoken since before the apocalypse, his voice hoarse and dry, like a tree branch being crushed.

In this dog-eat-dog world, as a stranger, someone offered him food and water to save him, even at the cost of exposing themselves. A warm current surged through Su Bai's numb body and heart.

At the same time, we must also be wary of the other party's unusual behavior!

The man didn't say anything, but turned around and continued walking forward while still holding the boy in his arms.

Su Bai hesitated for a moment, then stuffed the cookie into his mouth, got up, and followed.

The group of more than twenty people stopped beside a ruin before it got dark, and cautiously went to find a place to rest in twos and threes.

Without a moon or any light, Su Bai, who had lived for 21 years, finally realized how dark the night could be, so dark that he couldn't even see his own fingers when he put them in front of his eyes.

As darkness fell, the wind picked up, so strong it seemed it would blow everything away. Faint voices could be heard carried on the wind through the darkness:

"How much longer until we reach the shelter?"

"Will they let us in?"

"I've been eyeing that pretty boy for days, thinking I could finally get my hands on him, but he didn't die after all..."

"The father and son have food."

Su Bai lowered his head, knowing that the "pretty boy" they were talking about was him.

Strangely enough, in such a cruel wasteland where there was no food to be found and he faced sandstorms every day, his skin was still white and tender.

Su Bai couldn't understand why, and even his memories were fragmented. A voice in his heart told him that he only remembered a meteorite falling to Earth, the collapse of human civilization, and that he was an orphan.

As for everything else, he doesn't remember.

Later, when Su Bai encountered this group, he learned some facts from the conversations among the people in the group. It was a group that had spontaneously gathered together. People said that there was a scientific research base in the west, where there was a sanctuary for human life.

And the person who brought this news to everyone was Ma Jun.

He became a minor leader in the team.

During the day, after being rescued by the father and son, Su Bai stayed by their side the whole time. He knew that the father and son had been targeted, and since he had no way to repay them, he could only do his best to protect them.

The father and son didn't speak to him again along the way, but they didn't chase him away either.

In the darkness, Su Bai sensed someone approaching. The person sat down beside him and whispered, "It won't be quiet tonight."

Su Bai didn't speak, but the other person started talking on their own.

"I noticed you when you joined the team. You never interacted with anyone or spoke to anyone; you're quite unique. I like making friends with people who have personality. My name is Zhou Yanshen; my friends used to call me Lao Zhou, but you can just call me Lao Zhou."

Su Bai didn't know who the other person was or why they were talking to him, so he didn't say anything.

Old Zhou loved to talk. Even if Su Bai didn't say anything, he could talk a lot on his own. From his narration, Su Bai learned that Old Zhou had joined the team more than two months ago.

"The team started with seventy or eighty people, but now there are only twenty-one left."

Old Zhou suddenly leaned close to Su Bai's ear and whispered, "Do you believe that tomorrow there will be twenty people?"

After saying that, he sat back down. While Su Bai was still looking bewildered in the darkness, Old Zhou continued, "I count them every day. One less each day, disappearing without a trace. Don't you think that's a pretty regular pattern?"

Su Bai: .....Can this be described using rules?

But in the next instant, Su Bai's body suddenly froze.

One person is missing every day. Does that mean the people in the team eat one person every night under the cover of darkness?

"By the way, you have a habit of getting up at night, so call me when you need to get up tonight."

Su Bai instantly became wary of Lao Zhou beside him. It was pitch black at night, and Su Bai was certain that he had always kept a certain distance from people when he rested. So how did Lao Zhou know that he had gotten up at night?

Since the apocalypse, Su Bai has had difficulty falling asleep, sometimes for days at a time. At first, he thought he would have a mental breakdown because of it, but in fact he was still fine and unaffected.

His legs would go numb from sitting for so long, so he would get up and move around at night while everyone else was asleep, but Lao Zhou misunderstood that he was getting up to use the restroom.

How did he know that he had gotten up?

Su Bai became wary; this person was dangerous!

In the darkness, Old Zhou's voice came again, "Go to sleep."

After that, the surroundings returned to silence.

In the apocalypse, time is imperceptible; people only know day and night.

The darkness also made people's hearing more sensitive. There seemed to be a faint crying sound in the wind, but it was not clear, or it seemed to be just the sound of the wind.

Su Bai straightened up and leaned against the crumbling wall beside him. On the other side of the wall were the father and son. As long as no one came near this side, it would be fine.

Daylight broke, but everything was still shrouded in a dim yellow light; the sun was nowhere to be seen.

Su Bai also saw Old Zhou's appearance when he was huddled in the corner ten steps away. Because he was too thin, his collarbone was very high, and his eyes were sunken and looked big. Su Bai had seen what other surviving humans looked like in the apocalypse when they were starving, but in their group, almost everyone looked like this.

The line was slowly gathering. The father and son stood up, and Su Bai followed suit. They had just reached the back of the line when they heard someone say, "How embarrassing!"

It was Ma Jun's girlfriend who was lost, which is why it attracted attention.

"I was right."

Su Bai glanced at Lao Zhou standing beside him, then turned to look ahead. His long, loose hair was scattered messily on both sides of his face, but he could still feel Lao Zhou's gaze on his face.

Su Bai realized that Lao Zhou had mentioned the word "rules" for the second time.

He knew that Lao Zhou was definitely not just saying it casually; he wondered what his intentions were.