“Sangsang, Sangsang…”
Qin Sang was changing her shoes when she heard the shouts from downstairs. She quickly sped up. Her mother ran to the balcony and called back, “Coming, coming! She’s coming down now, wait a moment…”
Then she turned and urged Qin Sang, “Hurry up, the whole village is already there.”
Her father added, “Be careful. Don’t be foolish and charge in if something happens.”
Qin Sang nodded. “Mm-hmm, Mom, Dad, you two be careful at home. The number of giant cockroaches in the village has gone down, but there are still a few here and there. If those two chickens on the balcony don’t have any cockroaches to eat later, give them some food…”
After changing her shoes, Qin Sang waved goodbye to her parents and headed downstairs. But as she reached the stairwell, she ran into Qu Meijing, who was also coming down.
“You took the mission too?”
Qu Meijing replied, “Yes. I’m going with you.”
Hearing this, Qin Sang raised an eyebrow. She thought to herself that after hiding at home for several days, Qu Meijing had finally accepted this different kind of apocalypse.
The two didn’t say anything more and quickly made their way downstairs.
Quite a few people had already gathered downstairs. The streetlights were very bright. Although the temperature was still approaching 50 degrees Celsius (122°F), everyone acted as if they weren’t afraid of the heat at all. They chatted with each other about their equipment.
“Sangsang, is that metal net of your family’s any good? I saw the little video your dad posted in the village group. It looked really effective.”
Someone immediately asked as soon as they saw Qin Sang coming down.
Qin Sang didn’t hold back. “My dad made it himself from wire mesh. I wouldn’t say it’s especially good. It’s a bit heavy, and when you throw the net out, it’s not easy to reel back in.”
“That’s true, that’s true. If you ask me, the grid gun is still the best to use. One net, one zap, and it’s done. Too bad the authorities won’t accept cockroaches killed by electricity.” Xu Yonghua, the high school student they hadn’t seen in a while, chimed in.
Then aunt nearby simply swung the frying pan she was holding.
“Um, Seventh Aunt, can you actually use that pan?” Qin Sang asked in surprise.
Because this time, the authorities were requiring the giant cockroaches to be either intact or alive. One hit with a frying pan, and the cockroach would burst open.
Seventh Aunt waved her frying pan casually. “I’m just tagging along to have a look. It’s been several days since the apocalypse started, and I haven’t had a chance to go into the city yet.”
Qin Sang thought: Yep, she’s just here to hitch a ride.
Besides frying pans and metal nets, other people brought all sorts of weapons. Not to mention electric fly swatters—there were also regular fly swatters, bamboo dustpans, a new type of weapon made by tying a grid-patterned trash can to a broomstick, iron shovels, and so on. If you could think of it, someone had brought it.
Qin Sang was amazed at the variety.
Surprisingly, the people who brought cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, and geese along with them seemed more normal in comparison.
Chatting and laughing, everyone made their way to the community center to catch the bus.
The people waiting there weren’t just from their village. Residents from several nearby urban villages had gathered there too. They were all going to take the same bus to the city center, where countless giant cockroaches were waiting to be dealt with.
—
The bus traveled for about twenty minutes. Along the way, apart from the withered yellow green belts, all they saw were swarms of cockroaches and fully armed people out killing cockroaches.
Seeing scenes like this finally gave them a sense of the desolation of the apocalypse.
The bus took them directly to a mid-range residential complex in the city center. An apartment here cost about thirty to forty thousand yuan per square meter. The buildings were quite dense, with many residents. It was said that when the cockroaches attacked, quite a few people died here. The survivors in the complex had already been rescued, but the cockroaches inside still needed to be cleared out.
“Please remember, your mission is to kill cockroaches. Collecting the corpses is secondary. If you can’t catch them alive or keep the corpses intact, that’s fine. Killing a large number of cockroaches will also earn you points.”
As soon as they got off the bus, the staff from the management bureau responsible for reception began speaking.
They introduced the situation in the complex, explained the specific redemption method for killing cockroaches, and then warned them, “In short, prioritize your own safety above all else. Also, if you find any supplies in this complex, they belong to you personally.”
This last rule was quite interesting.
Qin Sang heard someone nearby mutter, “Anyway, I have spatial storage. If I find supplies and stuff them into my space, no one will ever know.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Otherwise, the authorities wouldn’t have made such a rule.
Qin Sang looked around at the several hundred noisy people and suddenly felt that this mission was definitely going to be very lively.
—
“Sangsang, come on, let’s stick together so we can look out for each other.” Second Aunt was calling out to the villagers.
Qin Sang looked at the cats and dogs following her. These were the strays that Second Aunt had saved on the day the apocalypse broke out. After learning about the usefulness of cats and dogs, many villagers had come to Second Aunt asking to adopt them. But these furry kids weren’t willing to be adopted. So Second Aunt simply brought them along to earn points here, so she could exchange them for supplies to support them.
Before Qin Sang could answer Second Aunt, she saw Qu Meijing hurriedly rush over from not too far away.
“Count me in. I’ll join you guys too.”
“Qu Meijing, didn’t we agree to look out for each other once the apocalypse came?” A strange young woman’s voice rang out.
Qin Sang looked over. Well, well. It was someone she knew. It was that pair of siblings she had run into at the wholesale market in the provincial capital suburbs. Back then, they had been pestering Qu Meijing. She hadn’t seen them around since. She didn’t expect to run into them here.
The sister was the one now pulling at Qu Meijing, trying to talk to her. The brother stood nearby, staring at Qu Meijing.
“Ye Ping, Ye An, I’ve told you hundreds of times. I don’t know you like that. Stop following me.”
Qu Meijing yelled back at them, then turned and tried to hide behind Second Aunt.
Second Aunt asked directly, “If you have a grudge, settle it outside. You can’t start trouble here.”
The villagers had no intention of helping Qu Meijing. But with danger imminent, it was best to stay away from anyone looking to cause problems.
After shooing the siblings away, Second Aunt said directly to Qu Meijing, “As for you, team up with whoever wants you.”
Watching this, Qin Sang felt that Second Aunt truly had her head on straight.
“Second Aunt, I’ll go into the complex with you guys first. None of us know this place well. It’s best if we don’t split up at the beginning. We can separate later after we get familiar with it.”
The young people who had been ready to go off and slaughter on their own thought Qin Sang’s words made sense. So they gathered around the village elders, aunts, and uncles.
Their group was a rare sight. Apart from their group from the few urban villages, the others here were residents living near the complex.
Seeing this mix of people, everyone’s expressions varied.
Qin Sang noticed this and became even more curious about the situation inside the complex.
—
“They’re really easy to kill!”
As soon as they entered the complex, it wasn’t as dangerous or dark as everyone had imagined. The complex was brightly lit, with people everywhere. There weren’t that many cockroaches, relatively speaking.
The group found a less crowded path and moved forward. Occasionally, they would encounter a nest of giant cockroaches crawling over from the ground. The people nearest would attack directly, easily scooping up the whole nest in their nets.
Net scoop after net scoop. After walking for over ten minutes, several people had made catches. And they were live catches, which were worth the most points.
Qin Sang had been empty-handed the whole time. She kept observing the surrounding environment. The complex was just the kind of complex people saw every day.
Nothing special, really. Just a bit more crowded and with a few fewer cockroaches.
But she had an uneasy feeling.
The group walked together for about another half hour. During that time, they entered a building and cleared several floors. They found that the pickings inside the building were slim.
Then some of the young people started clamoring to split up and hunt on their own.
Qin Sang warned them, “It’s better to wait a bit longer. I have a feeling something’s not right.”
“What’s there to be afraid of, Qin Sang? Everyone says how tough you are back in the village. How come you’re getting cold feet out here?” The speaker was a young guy who had recently moved back to the village from outside. Qin Sang didn’t know him at all.
So she directly shot back, “Believe it or not, I don’t care.”
Whether they lived or died after that was none of her business.
Just then, someone upstairs shouted, “Awesome! Brother Huang got another net full!” Followed by a burst of cheers.
This made the few young people who wanted to split up even more restless. Ignoring the advice of the other villagers, they hoisted their weapons and quickly disappeared into the stairwell.
“Hey, hey, you guys…” Seventh Uncle yelled loudly for them to come back, but no one listened.
Seventh Aunt said directly, “Stop shouting. What’s there to shout about? We’ll walk around a couple more times and then leave. Perfect timing to check out the nearby trading market. I hear a lot of people are exchanging supplies there.”
Hearing this, the others immediately began asking Seventh Aunt what supplies were available at the trading market.
Seventh Aunt spread her hands. “I just heard about it from a relative. The nice thing is that this bus ride into the city to kill cockroaches is free.”
This remark made Qin Sang think of those people who used to take advantage of supermarket shuttle buses before the apocalypse.
Alright then. It seemed everyone was distracted and wanted to go exchange supplies instead of killing cockroaches. Especially since many of them had their supplies stored in Second Aunt’s spatial space. This quickly turned into them dragging Second Aunt off to the trading market.
Seeing this, Qin Sang simply said, “Second Aunt, you all go to the trading market. I’ll keep walking around here for a while.”
In a flurry, half the group left. The remaining half were indeed serious about earning points. Qu Meijing was among them.
“You’re not going?”
Qu Meijing shook her head. “I need points.”
Qin Sang nodded and didn’t press further. After greeting the remaining group, she hoisted her metal net and headed straight for the stairwell.
But she wasn’t going up. She was going down.
Ever since arriving at this complex, she had felt a sense of pressure on her chest.
It was very uncomfortable, but she couldn’t quite explain it. So she decided to go check it out.
The closer she got to the underground parking garage, the tighter her chest felt. So she found a corner on the first floor, took a drone out of her spatial space, connected it to her phone, and flew it straight down into the underground parking garage.
This was a mixed-use commercial and residential complex. The complex consisted of ten buildings arranged in a circle. The third floor and above were residential. The second floor and below were commercial areas. The underground parking garage had two levels.
The drone reached the first level. It was pitch black down there. A few scattered cockroaches began moving at the sound of the drone.
From the looks of it, she could confirm that this place had already been cleared once by the authorities. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so few cockroaches.
This level seemed normal. Qin Sang then maneuvered the drone down to the second underground level.
Just as she approached the connection between the first and second levels, she saw a few familiar young people noisily battling cockroaches.
The fight was one-sided. There weren’t many cockroaches, and the young people quickly dealt with them all.
“Brother Hao, there don’t seem to be many cockroaches here either.”
“There’s one more level. Let’s go further down. There should be more on the second underground level. I’m definitely going to kill a lot of cockroaches this time. Then I’ll use my points to exchange for one of those grid guns.”
“A woman like Qin Sang using that kind of gun is such a waste!”
Qin Sang, watching through the drone, was speechless. So this guy had been snapping at her earlier because he was jealous that she had a grid gun.
That’s right. These young people were the ones who had insisted on splitting off to hunt on their own.
She had thought they went upstairs, but they had actually come down here.
These young people were clearly excited. Carrying a bag of cockroaches, they ran straight down to the second level of the underground parking garage.
Qin Sang didn’t stop them. Instead, she maneuvered the drone to follow.
Like the first level, this second level was also empty. And there seemed to be even fewer cockroaches than on the first level.
The young man called Brother Hao cursed, “What terrible luck. There’s nothing here at all. The authorities had the nerve to issue a mission and ask us to come help.”
The other young people were also unhappy. They wanted points too. They wanted to exchange for various weapons.
The emptiness in front of them was a huge disappointment.
“Forget it. Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s check out another building.”
Brother Hao shouted loudly. His voice echoed greatly in the empty parking garage.
But just as they turned to head back to the first level, a rustling sound began.
“Brother Hao, do you hear something?”
“Nonsense. There’s no sound. Don’t scare yourself.”
“Yeah, exactly. If you’re that timid, don’t come out.”
The young people joked with each other, completely unaware of the things slowly descending from the ceiling behind them.
Qin Sang, watching this through the drone: Oh no!
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