Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Having made up her mind, she began to move slowly and stealthily along the edge of the forest, with the university town as the center.

Find a high vantage point that offers a panoramic view of most of the university town while also being sufficiently secluded and safe, to serve as a temporary observation point.

Just as Xu Xiaoyan crouched down, preparing to continue moving along the edge of the forest to find a better vantage point.

The deathly silent university town below erupted in a cacophony of sounds, including clear, malicious shouts and chilling, piercing screams from women.

Xu Xiaoyan's heart skipped a beat, and almost without thinking, she raised the children's binoculars in her hand again.

Instantly focus on the source of the sound, which is in the open space between those relatively intact buildings.

The scene on the camera made her blood almost freeze instantly!

Four or five tall, muscular men, dressed in haphazard but clearly powerful clothes, were chasing after a thin, ragged young woman, just like hunting prey.

The woman's hair was disheveled, and her face was filled with extreme fear. She tried to run away, staggering and constantly letting out heart-wrenching cries for help.

"Help! Let me go! Please—!" The voice pierced through the distance, carrying a desperate tremor, and struck Xu Xiaoyan's eardrums hard.

What chilled her to the bone even more was that in the intact buildings around her, the windows that had previously held only blurry figures now revealed many clear heads.

No one spoke up to stop it, and no one tried to intervene.

Instead, clear cheers and whistles, tinged with encouragement, drifted from those windows.

Mixed with the woman's screams and the man's snarling laughter, it created a bizarre and nauseating "background music".

At this moment, all previous doubts received the most brutal and direct answer!

The mentally unstable girl she encountered on the path, screaming in terror…

Her tattered clothes, her emotional breakdown, her heart-wrenching cries of "Don't touch me!"...

All the clues came together at this moment, pointing to this "survivor's stronghold" that was like a living hell!

Xu Xiaoyan felt a churning in her stomach, a strong feeling of nausea and anger welling up inside her, making her almost vomit.

She dared not, nor did she want to, think about what the girl who escaped had gone through here.

I can't even imagine what fate awaits the woman below who is being chased.

"Survival of the fittest," "moral depravity"... these words have now become a bloody reality.

What potential supply points, what intelligence information, what survivor groups...

All considerations and weighing of options seem ridiculous and dangerous in the face of this scene! This place is rotten inside and out!

She would rather face the unknown wild beasts, harsh weather, and scarce resources in the wilderness alone, living a life of hardship and uncertainty.

I would never want to associate with those depraved, cruel people below who take pleasure in bullying the weak!

A resolute determination instantly replaced her previous hesitation; she couldn't stay here any longer, not even for a second!

Observation is pointless, and contact would be nothing short of walking into a trap!

She abruptly put away her binoculars, resolutely turned around, and moved quickly into the depths of the forest, using both hands and feet.

Thorns tore at her trouser legs, and drooping branches lashed at her face and arms, leaving a burning pain, but she was completely unaware.

She stopped abruptly when a burning pain shot through her lungs and her legs became so weak she could no longer take another step.

Leaning against a rough tree trunk, I slowly slid down to sit on the ground covered with fallen leaves, sweat dripping down my forehead, mixed with tears that had fallen without me even realizing it.

She was breathing heavily, her body trembling slightly from exhaustion and emotional distress.

This cathartic escape exhausted her physical strength and seemed to drain away her last bit of innocent fantasy about "their kind".

She lay on her back, looking through the gaps in the dense canopy at the fragmented sky, her gaze gradually shifting from initial anger and fear to weariness and indifference.

Now that things have come to this, what is there left to look forward to?

Looking for someone to travel with?

Surviving together?

This idea now seems so ridiculous and dangerous; the human heart, in this world, is perhaps more terrifying than any mutated beast or natural disaster.

"It's better to rely on yourself than on others," she muttered to herself. Besides, she wasn't without any support; her biggest trump card and golden touch was her space!

After resting for a long time, until her heartbeat and breathing had completely calmed down, Xu Xiaoyan finally sat up.

She wiped her face, rallied her spirits, took the watch out of her pocket, and carefully confirmed the northwest direction.

Then she stood up, dusted herself off, and walked deeper into the jungle.

For the next eight days, she traversed the silent mountains and forests, crossing one mountain after another.

When thirsty, they drink mineral water; when hungry, they eat fast food, fruit, instant noodles, or various canned goods.

Occasionally, when she encounters an unfamiliar wild fruit, she will carefully pick some and put them into her spatial storage, but she would never dare to try them easily.

These brightly colored or oddly shaped fruits may contain unknown toxins, and she plans to deal with them only after finding relevant information or confirming their safety if she has the opportunity in the future.

Most of the time, all I could hear were my own footsteps, my breathing, and the chirping of unknown insects.

She stopped listening to novels on her phone; it seemed that the artificial liveliness only highlighted the loneliness of reality.

She learned to talk to herself, silently rehearsing her itinerary, analyzing the environment, and even occasionally describing her day's experiences in a quiet voice to the empty mountains and forests.

On the afternoon of the ninth day, when she finally reached the top of another hill, the sight before her made her stop involuntarily and stand frozen in place.

There are no more mountains ahead.

The continuous mountain ranges come to an abrupt end here, and at the end of the mountains lies a vast, flat plain stretching as far as the eye can see.

The brownish-yellow land stretched endlessly towards the horizon, dotted with a few low shrubs and the skeletal remains of trees that seemed to have been drained of their life force.

The field of vision became extremely open, with no obstacles or obstructions, and everything was exposed to the light of day.

Xu Xiaoyan stood at the edge of the forest, looking at this unfamiliar, flat land, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

Although the mountains and forests were difficult to traverse, they at least provided a considerable degree of concealment and protection, while this plain... meant that she would be completely exposed to unknown dangers.

She took a deep breath and glanced at the hands of her watch, which were firmly pointing northwest.

It's time to go down the mountain.

She tidied her belongings, putting compressed biscuits, bottled water, and a watermelon knife into her backpack, and then she started walking down the last hill.

Xu Xiaoyan traveled northwest for about five hours along the bumpy, cracked road overgrown with weeds.

Apart from the unchanging desolate scenery and the sound of her own footsteps, she encountered no other living creatures.