The end of the world is approaching, I'm handing myself over to the country.

Hearing the door open, the elderly couple looked up sharply and saw Lin Xiu's miserable appearance. Tears welled up in the mother's eyes instantly.

But she covered her mouth tightly, afraid to cry out, lest she upset the two burly men guarding her.

The father stood up, intending to help Lin Xiu, but was impatiently shoved by one of the burly men, and stumbled back onto the sofa.

Lin Xiu watched this scene, seeing the pain, worry, and helplessness on his parents' faces, and the two figures beside them who looked like prison guards.

A cold, resolute thought began to grow wildly in his mind.

He ignored his parents and the two burly men, and with a blank expression, dragged his heavy body back to his bedroom step by step.

"Bang."

The door was closed.

Lin Xiu leaned against the door panel and slowly slid to the ground.

He looked around the room where he had grown up, with posters from his childhood still hanging on the walls.

This place was once his safe haven.

Now, however, it has become a prison for him and his family.

He looked up and his gaze fell on the dusty, silver-white metal helmet on the desk.

Wasteland Era.

Lin Xiu struggled to his feet, walked to the desk, and with trembling hands picked up the heavy helmet and placed it in front of him.

"Now, I may only have one path left."

The cold metal helmet pressed against my forehead, and my vision went black for a moment before being illuminated by a familiar, eerie blue light.

......

Lin Xiu's memory ends here.

Everything around them began to gradually collapse.

The eerie blue light dissipated before my eyes, turning into countless fragments, and finally returning to complete darkness.

The suffocating despair in Lin Xiu's memory seemed to still linger in the air.

Until the surrounding scenery completely collapsed, the familiar scene reappeared in Lin Mo's sight.

He sat quietly in the chair of the grocery store, everything around him was the same as before, the familiar shelves, the familiar grocery store.

The incredibly realistic memory replay left Lin Mo momentarily dazed.

He wasn't Lin Xiu, but he experienced those hellish days that Lin Xiu went through.

The pain of being torn apart, the burning sensation of being melted by venom, and the endless despair that was more agonizing than death.

A burst of noise came from outside the window, pulling Lin Mo back to reality from his reverie.

Lin Mo got up, walked to the dusty window, and looked outside.

The large, dark crowd still stood in front of the grocery store.

Some of them craned their necks, pointing at the open space in front of the shop, while others chatted amongst themselves, their faces full of excitement at the spectacle.

In the center of the crowd, a figure was kneeling on the ground.

one more time.

He used all his strength to slam his forehead heavily against the cold, hard ground.

Each collision produced a dull "thud".

Blood flowed down his forehead, quickly staining a small patch of ground in front of him, but he didn't stop, as if he felt no pain, mechanically repeating the action.

It was Lin Xiu from my previous memories.

Among the crowd, Long Xiao, the guild leader of Tianyu Guild, silently watched this scene, his gaze wandering among the surrounding crowd, his brows furrowed in worry.

When he saw Lin Xiu kneeling there, his first thought was the same as many others around him.

This guy is trying to get on board with the grocery store.

After all, the store manager's strength is beyond doubt.

The entire guild will benefit immensely from even the slightest bit of his favor.

His original plan was also to follow Lin Xiu's example, kneel down and kowtow here to show his sincerity.

But looking at the crowd around him, Lin Xiu's bloodied forehead, and his posture of having completely abandoned his dignity, Long Xiao felt a strong sense of resistance.

He clenched his fists tightly, then let them relax weakly.

Long Xiao's gaze was fixed on Lin Xiu, and he had to admit that he simply couldn't do it.

He couldn't do what Lin Xiu did, disregarding life and death, and shame, and kowtow here.

What's the difference between this and defecating in the street?

Long Xiao was, after all, a powerful figure in his own right. Even though he was currently in a slump, he still had his pride and bottom line.

He would rather give up this opportunity than have Long Xiao kneel here like a dead dog, begging for the other party's mercy.

At this moment, Long Xiao's feelings towards Lin Xiu were extremely complex, including sympathy for his plight and a hint of contempt for his behavior.

Long Xiao's unfocused gaze gradually returned to him. He looked at Lin Xiu on the ground and sneered, "Bah! A man's knees are worth gold. No matter what, he can't kneel before others!"

Those around him chimed in, "Exactly! They're got arms and legs, what can't they solve? Why make a scene? They're just trying to take shortcuts, pshaw!"

Just then, a commotion broke out in the crowd, and the crowd automatically parted to both sides.

Lin Xiu abruptly stopped kowtowing. He seemed to sense something and quickly scanned the crowd.

When he saw that familiar figure, he trembled violently.

It's Brother Long!

Fear gripped his heart instantly.

He was afraid—afraid that he was too late, afraid that his only hope would be shattered.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Lin Xiu held nothing back, slamming his head against the ground almost frantically, more than twice as fast as before, as if only in this way could he grasp at that last straw.

He kowtowed and cried out, "Shopkeeper, please, please help me!"

"Please! Help me..."

Lin Xiu kowtowed while shouting out loud without reservation.

With his signature smile on his face, Brother Long leisurely walked through the crowd and stood in front of Lin Xiu.

He didn't even glance at Lin Xiu, he just waved his hand lightly.

Two burly men immediately stepped forward, one on each side, and roughly lifted Lin Xiu off the ground.

"You really are naughty."

Brother Long leaned close to Lin Xiu's ear and whispered in a volume only the two of them could hear, his gentle tone carrying a chilling undertone.

"I've only been away from you for a short while, and you've caused me all this trouble."

"Tell me, how should I punish you?"

He paused, then his smile deepened.

"Do you think your parents could come back to life after they died?"

These words, like an icicle, instantly pierced through all of Lin Xiu's struggles and resistance.

His struggling body froze instantly, then went completely limp.

His parents are not gamers.

When someone dies, they are truly dead.

All of Lin Xiu's resistance seemed so pale and powerless in the face of Brother Long's threat.

Despair engulfed him once again.

Two burly men, supporting Lin Xiu who was lying like a dead dog, turned to leave.

Although the surrounding players felt sorry for him, no one dared to step forward due to the intimidation of Brother Long and the forces behind him.

Long Xiao clenched his fist, but eventually let it relax silently.

Just as Lin Xiu was about to resign himself to his fate and was about to be dragged away...

"Squeak—!"

A soft sound broke the deathly silence of the scene.

The ordinary-looking door of the general store, which had always been tightly closed, slowly opened.

A figure walked out from inside.