Gu Rong’s chubby little hand slapped Lin Ji awake a few times.

Lin Ji groggily opened his eyes, still somewhat out of it: “What’s wrong? Have we reached the post station?”

Everyone: “…”

Too absurd.

[Hahaha, no way, Big Brother! What exactly are you here for?]

[Looked like a deadpan cool guy, didn’t expect him to actually be comic relief!]

[Dying laughing! The key is that his snores were so loud! In this environment, how can he still sleep so deeply? Do you think you’re Zaizai?!]

Gu Rong said in his tender voice, “Uncle, why did you fall asleep? Sleeping so soundly, huhu.”

Lin Ji became fully awake, resuming his deadpan face. He pushed the crooked glasses on his nose and coughed lightly: “…Sorry. Probably haven’t rested for a long time, got a bit drowsy. I’ll buy a coffee to wake myself up.”

Lin Ji bought a cup of hot coffee from the system store, bought one for each of the other three as well, and bought Gu Rong a cup of hot milk.

Gu Rong tilted his little head, looking at the coffee in the others’ hands, sniffing with his little nose: “Is coffee yummy?”

Li Xue said, “Kids can’t drink it, it’ll stunt your growth. Do you want to grow tall?”

Hearing this, Gu Rong immediately dismissed his curiosity, “Zaizai not drink! Zaizai grows tall!”

Li Xue smiled and pinched his chubby little cheek.

After Lin Ji’s interruption, everyone was no longer sleepy.

The journey was very smooth, without encountering any other incidents. They arrived smoothly at the next post station.

Having already seen the map, they didn’t need to stop at the post station. They just needed to follow the route indicated on the map towards Paradise.

They drove directly through the post station, heading towards the next one.

Yu Yue looked out the car window at the pitch-black sky. The “City in the Sky” was faintly visible. That horse was still pawing the air, over and over, as if it would never stop.

Yu Yue said, “You can see the horse even when the sky is so dark. What exactly is that horse?”

Gu Rong also poked his little head over to look, a curious baby, wanting to join in on everything.

Everyone couldn’t explain it. They hadn’t been in the instance long, but most of the time had been spent trapped at the gas station or running on the road. They hadn’t gathered any useful information at all. Besides zombies, they hadn’t even encountered any NPCs… excluding this NPC cub.

There were still two post stations ahead before reaching the Paradise. However, just then, a sudden change occurred.

A wall appeared on the road ahead, completely blocking the path. This wall rose straight from the ground, soaring into the clouds, abruptly standing in the middle of the road. Looking up, no one couldn’t even see the top.

The car braked just in time, nearly crashing into it. The four adults gasped, looking incredulously at the wall.

The roar of a helicopter came from above. A blinding light cut through the night sky. A voice amplified by a loudspeaker: “This is Dr. Bai from Oasis Laboratory. Please hand over our experimental subject.”

“—Rongrong.”

The clothes Gu Rong wore were indeed from Oasis Laboratory – the standard uniform for experimental subjects, embroidered with a four-leaf clover logo on the chest.

Gu Rong pointed his little finger at himself, his milky voice calm: “Is Rongrong?”

Ye Qiuwu: “Yes, it’s you! Who the hell are these people? What Oasis Laboratory?”

The wall in front, which had been standing vertically, now began to curl and deform, like a blanket, covering down towards them.

Everyone: “…”

Is this… hell… a wall?

The SUV, under Lin Ji’s control, rapidly reversed, trying to escape. However, another wall rose up behind them, similarly curling down towards them.

It turned out—part of this wall had been disguised as the road, spread out on the ground. The car had unknowingly driven onto the wall earlier. They were rolled up in the middle, completely trapped with no escape.

–

“Wo cao! Learned something new! What the hell was that thing just now?”

Inside the helicopter, the four adults and one cub sat on one side of the sofa. Opposite sat the elegant and dignified Dr. Bai. Behind Dr. Bai stood Xiao Lin.

The four-person sofa was extremely crowded, especially with a child squeezed in the middle. Gu Rong, one cub, was squeezed right in the center, with Lin Ji and Ye Qiuwu on his left, and Li Xue and Yu Yue on his right.

Dr. Bai smiled faintly: “Obviously, that was a wall.”

The four players: “…”

Yes, truly no doubt about that! But how could a normal wall look like that?

Dr. Bai saw the confusion on their faces, her smile unchanging: “Naturally, this isn’t an ordinary wall, but a Mutant.”

Mutant? The four looked at each other.

Gu Rong, squeezed in the middle, pushed aside Ye Qiuwu and Li Xue with his little arms, deng deng deng, ran to the other side, very smoothly climbed onto the sofa, and sat down next to Dr. Bai. Ge You lie.jpg^[1]T/N: a meme posture of slouching comfortably like actor Ge You.

Everyone: “…”

Li Xue and Ye Qiuwu almost bumped into each other, luckily steadying themselves in time. The four then sat properly.

Dr. Bai glanced at the cub beside her who was making himself completely at home, a flash of amusement in her eyes.

Dr. Bai didn’t offer an explanation, but Xiao Lin behind her spoke up to enlighten the group: “After the apocalypse, not only humans, animals, and plants can undergo mutation. Inanimate objects can too. A wall, a building, even a mountain or an ocean can potentially become a Mutant.”

“Wall and building Mutants are not difficult to contain. But large-scale Mutants like mountains, rivers, and lakes basically cannot be contained, only managed.”

Finally encountering an NPC who could communicate, who also seemed to hold a high position and know quite a bit. Yu Yue couldn’t resist asking: “Then, what is that horse in the sky? How can it stay hanging in the sky all the time?”

Xiao Lin said: “That is the Holy Horse, the Divine Steed, or you could call it the Ji Angel. It represents… hope.”

After the apocalypse, the Ji Angel appeared in the Paradise. The prophet called it a miracle. And predicted that the day the Holy Horse fell from the Paradise would be the day of humanity’s destruction.

In the collapsed civilization of the apocalypse, information was blocked. Everyone could see the Holy Horse, but not everyone knew what it signified.

“Moreover, the Holy Horse isn’t in the sky, but in…”

“Paradise.”

Hearing “Paradise,” the expressions of the four players tightened slightly, quickly forcing themselves to remain calm.

That “City in the Sky” was Paradise? It doesn’t look like somewhere you can reach by driving!

Gu Rong had been playing by himself off to the side, quiet and well-behaved. But he didn’t miss hearing the adults talk. Hearing this, he lifted his little head and turned to look at Xiao Lin. “Little Brother Lin, then how Rongrong go Paradise?”

Xiao Lin looked down, met Gu Rong’s little bun-face, his expression softening considerably. He smiled: “Rongrong wants to go to Paradise too?”

Gu Rong nodded his little head: “Yes!”

“Now,” Dr. Bai said, “we are on the way to Paradise.”

–

The helicopter flew over a stretch of sea. After flying for more than two hours, it finally reached the border of Paradise.

The sea area below was deep and deathly still, without waves. But every minute, a giant whale would leap out of the sea surface, then fall back into the deep sea. This whale, like the Holy Horse in the sky, repeated the same set of actions over and over.

Through the porthole, the group saw the whale. Xiao Lin held Gu Rong under the arms, lifting him to the window. Seeing the whale clearly, Gu Rong couldn’t help but exclaim: “Wow, such a big whale wow!”

“This is the Whale of Dawn, also called the Whale of Hope,” Xiao Lin said. “Like the Ji Angel, they are both revelations.”

The group couldn’t help but marvel.

Soon, they arrived at Paradise.

Paradise was a city that spiraled upwards. It wasn’t floating in mid-air. Like the wall earlier, it was straight up and down, forming a cylinder. From top to bottom, lights were lit, resembling a towering ancient tree emitting points of fluorescence. Viewed from afar, only the top of Paradise could be seen, which was why it felt like a “City in the Sky.”

Could a normal city look like this?

While shocked, everyone simultaneously thought of the wall earlier.

Could Paradise also be a Mutant?

Dr. Bai’s words confirmed their guess: “Paradise is, to date, the largest contained Mutant, and also the largest human base.”