“Hey, wake up! There’s something happening!” Si Xuanyang shouted toward the back seat.

Yu Sen had indeed seen a figure in red flash by the factory area earlier, but now it had suddenly gone quiet.

At the break of dawn, a time of restless minds and indecision, the rumbling sound of a motorcycle drew nearer from the side.

A dark figure was riding towards them.

“Holy crap, holy crap! Is that a person? It is, right!? Even a prop like a motorcycle is here?” Si Nan nervously clawed at the seat.

“It should be a person… unless zombies in this world know how to ride motorcycles…”

“Tch!”

Despite this, Si Xuanyang still tightened his grip on the axe in his hand, his body tensed.

As the motorcycle got closer, it slowed down and stopped about a meter away from them.

With the dawn gradually brightening, Yu Sen could see the person getting off the motorcycle. They looked young, like an eighteen or nineteen-year-old student, with a baby face that naturally made one feel less guarded. There was even a Pikachu printed on their T-shirt.

The person’s expression was a bit tense, their eyes wide like a startled fawn. They leaned forward, glancing around at the people in the car, and asked in a low voice, “Are you guys also people who got trapped here because of a pocket watch?”

“Pocket watch?” Yu Sen raised an eyebrow slightly. “No, we’re here because of a wall clock.”

As he was still in shock, someone suddenly emerged from the factory side, waving at them from afar.

“Does that mean they want us to go in?”

Yu Sen and Si Xuanyang exchanged a glance, then nodded towards the kid on the motorcycle. “Let’s go, let’s check it out together.”

The factory doors opened, and the car slowly drove inside. Through the rearview mirror, Yu Sen saw the motorcycle closely following behind them.

The abandoned factory was filled with a musty smell, the weathered white walls covered with a low layer of green moss. The space was vast, and there were several vehicles—cars and motorcycles that looked ‘weather-beaten’—parked here and there, even a skateboard.

Around them, some people were standing or sitting, men and women, young and old. All of them looked wary, their faces full of anxiety. A few were even sobbing quietly.

“Should we get out?” Si Xuanyang asked.

“Let’s get out. If what’s written on the note is true, then these people have no conflicting interest with us,” Yu Sen said, glancing at Si Xuanyang. He was slightly surprised that this irritable guy would actually ask for his opinion.

As soon as they got out of the car, someone came to greet them. It was the man in gray who had waved them in earlier.

He got straight to the point: “Did you also buy something at that retro market and got brought in here?”

Yu Sen glanced at Si Nan and replied, “Yes, we bought a wall clock.”

The student behind them quickly added, “I bought a pocket watch at that vintage market in Bangkok while traveling. I thought it was just a trinket, but when I woke up just now, I saw it floating in mid-air. Who knew this little thing could fly…”

His voice grew quieter as he realized the atmosphere was off, and nobody seemed interested in his rambling. He choked up and quickly fell silent, offering an awkward but polite smile.

Si Nan, however, was not good at reading the room and added, “Hey, even my super heavy wall clock can fly. What’s so special about yours?”

Si Xuanyang: “……”

Others had bought vanity tables, plates, dresses, gemstone rings, and other items…

Yu Sen ran his hand through his hair, looked around, and concluded, “So everyone here either bought something from that place or spent the night with that item in the same room and got brought in.”

“Indeed… It’s better to avoid unknown second-hand goods,” Si Xuanyang snorted.

Someone cried out in despair, “I only bought a small candlestick. How could this happen… When will we be able to go home? Will I die here…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Didn’t the note say that everything would be fine after completing the task? Then we can just go home and burn that thing!” someone reassured.

“It’s not that simple,” someone in the corner chuckled ominously, their voice hoarse.

Yu Sen frowned, “What do you mean?”

The person, thin and sullen, didn’t explain further, just left a cryptic remark: “It’s easy to invite the gods but hard to send them away. You’ll understand after you pass this stage.”

————————————————

Yu Sen took a nap and, when dawn broke, slowly opened his eyes, yawned, stretched, and looked at Si Xuanyang, who was sleeping restlessly in the passenger seat, suddenly feeling mischievous.

— He leaned in close to Si Xuanyang’s ear and suddenly yelled.

“Ah!”

Si Xuanyang jolted awake, his wide eyes still trembling. He clutched his pounding heart with shaking hands, and before he could recover from the shock, he saw Yu Sen’s smug grin, and his anger flared up, making him feel like he was about to explode.

“Are you out of your mind…”

So childish!

Yu Sen shook his head and winked at him, “Behave, little brother. Don’t curse at your in-law.”

Outside, Si Nan was leaning against the wall, chatting happily with the student who rode a motorcycle. Yu Sen got out of the car, took a closer look around, and asked, “Has that ominous person left?”

“You’re awake?” Si Nan turned and smiled, “Yes, he left. He said that finishing the task earlier would ensure safety. Also, another group of brave people followed him.”

“What about these people?” Yu Sen gestured discreetly with his chin.

“They think it’s dangerous in the city and don’t dare to go. They’d rather stay here,” Si Nan explained.

Si Xuanyang, who had followed them out, scoffed, “There’s no water or food here. How long can they stay?”

“Choosing between starving to death or possibly being killed doesn’t concern us,” Yu Sen said casually, rotating his head a few times. “We should leave now.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Si Nan said, waving his hand casually. He then turned to bid farewell to the person he had been talking to for two hours, “Luo Yu, hope to see you again if fate allows.”

Luo Yu smiled at him kindly.

This time, Si Nan was driving, and Yu Sen sat in the back seat. Noticing Si Nan’s reluctant expression, Yu Sen teased, “Can’t bear to leave, huh? Why didn’t you invite him to our car? There’s still room.”

“No, no,” Si Nan shook his head. “Everything requires a sense of fate. Meeting now is just chance. Meeting again when everyone is back in the normal world would be true fate.”

This sounded so strange to Si Xuanyang. His body tensed up.

He carefully glanced at Yu Sen’s expression, but Yu Sen looked completely normal.

Isn’t he jealous? Si Xuanyang looked at his often regarded as foolish older brother with mixed feelings.

Fools have their blessings. Even though his in-law was a bit mentally unstable, he was very broad-minded.

And also quite attractive.

Leaving the toll station, the road into the city was no longer the bumpy dirt road of the wilderness. Although the streetlights looked rusty and the city greenery seemed neglected, the road was at least paved with asphalt.

But the closer they got to the city, the heavier their hearts felt.

The place really could only be described as a ‘wasteland.’

The street was littered with cars, crashed and scattered. Some were smoking or burning, some were empty, while others contained remnants of limbs or heads. Blood stains and bits of flesh and bones were scattered everywhere on the ground, and broken overpasses and utility poles cut the streets into pieces.

From the tall buildings, one could faintly imagine the city’s former prosperity, but now it was dead silent, with the glass on office buildings seemingly covered in a layer of gray shadow, looking extremely oppressive.

This was a city shrouded in fear and death.

“Is it just us outsiders who are still alive in this city? Why haven’t we seen any zombies? Do they not come out during the day?” Si Xuanyang whispered.

“You’re thinking too much. Zombies aren’t vampires.”

Yu Sen strapped a crossbow to his arm, feeling a bit nostalgic. He hadn’t used one of these in a long time and wasn’t sure about its accuracy.

“Bang——!”

Suddenly, a loud crash shattered the silence, and a heavy object smashed onto their car roof, directly shattering the windshield and sending glass falling everywhere.

Si Nan was sitting in the driver’s seat, terrified, his soul nearly leaving his body. As the scream was stuck in his throat, he saw a humanoid object rolling down from the shattered windshield and landing under the front wheel.

“Sht, sht, sh*t… Did I just hit someone?!” Si Nan slammed on the brakes, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“You hit a zombie! Step on the gas!” Si Xuanyang shouted at him.

Perhaps due to the heavy impact from the fall, the ‘person’ in front of the car couldn’t get up. Instead, it slapped its skeletal, bloodied hand with a loud ‘smack’ on the car hood, leaving a bloody handprint that almost made Si Xuanyang curse out loud.

Yu Sen cursed inwardly and gave Si Nan’s shoulder a push: “Si Si, drive!”

Si Nan wasn’t the type to fall apart under fear. He gritted his teeth, floored the accelerator, and the car ‘thumped’ twice as it ran over the thing.

At this moment, perhaps because of the noise, several zombie-like creatures emerged from the surrounding buildings, swarming out in droves, twisting their bodies and screeching as they jogged toward them.

These zombies had some with bloodied holes in their heads, exposed, stained teeth, others with chunks of flesh missing, intestines and lungs visible, bones sticking out, and bloodied, mangled flesh, making for a gruesome sight.

The air was filled with a rotten stench.

“Hell on earth, a daytime nightmare…” Yu Sen whistled, drawing an angry glare from Si Xuanyang.

They had seen a few zombie movies and knew the dangers—being grabbed or bitten would spell big trouble.

Despite the zombies looking slow, they were emerging continuously from the surrounding buildings, so they couldn’t afford to slow down. They crashed into lighter obstacles without hesitation.

If the zombies managed to surround them, even the car’s metal would be chewed up, and hiding would be impossible.