The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

The second time was when I was crossing an intersection, a huge stitched monster emerged from the building opposite, dragging a long tail made of corpses, and slowly crossed the road.

Su Mu squatted in the corner and waited for a full five minutes until it had gone far away before daring to go over.

The main roads are teeming with monsters of high levels and diverse types. Once a battle breaks out, the noise will attract even more monsters. In this city, the worst thing you can do is engage in a prolonged battle.

So Su Mu chose to take the narrow streets... alleys, lanes, and gaps between buildings. These places have fewer monsters, narrower field of vision, and are less likely to be spotted by things in the distance.

But the cost is that the route is more circuitous and takes longer.

Twelve kilometers, three hours. At this pace, the remaining twenty-odd kilometers would take him at least five or six hours. Adding the return trip time... Su Mu glanced at the setting sun and mentally estimated the time.

Reaching the evacuation point before dark is a close call.

He opened the chat channel and scrolled through the messages. As he expected, most people were complaining about the same predicament.

"This city is so huge! I've been walking for three hours and I'm still not halfway there!"

"Me too, I kept taking detours, the main roads were full of monsters, I didn't dare to walk on them at all."

"Has anyone reached the evacuation point? Report the coordinates so we can check if our progress is correct."

"Don't even think about it. The fastest person I know has only gone a tenth of the way. It'll be good if they get there before dark."

"It's getting dark... Do you think those things will appear in the city like they did last night after dark?"

There was a brief silence in the channel after the question was raised.

"Probably not... those things last night were aimed at the city walls, there shouldn't be any inside the city."

"Who knows? I certainly wouldn't dare walk outside after dark."

"The problem is you can't get back to the cable car after dark. There's only one evacuation point, so it's better for everyone to squeeze in there than to be outside."

Su Mu looked at these messages and quickly made plans in his mind.

Given the current situation, most people are trapped in various parts of the city, and probably less than half will be able to reach the evacuation point before dark.

If strange creatures do appear in the city after dark, then a massacre awaits them.

But although this world is extremely dangerous, it never blocks the way.

If the danger level inside the city is the same as outside after dark, then the number of people who will survive tonight is probably less than one in ten thousand. That doesn't make sense.

Su Mu recalled the scene he saw outside the city last night... The overwhelming army of strange creatures was all blocked outside the barrier, and not a single one was able to get in.

Since the barrier can keep them out, the city is safe at least at night. Otherwise, there would be no way to survive.

Thinking of this, Su Mu's worries lessened somewhat.

He turned off the channel and continued walking.

As he walked, he kept an eye on what was happening behind him out of the corner of his eye.

Lin Xiaohe followed him, keeping a distance of about fifteen meters.

At first, Su Mu didn't have high expectations for her... A girl who couldn't even fly steadily was lucky to have survived today. But after these three hours, his opinion of this woman changed somewhat.

She was much more decisive than he had expected.

When those six people were being chased by the little monster, she fired a warning shot to keep them away without hesitation. Afterwards, as they were killed one by one, she didn't even turn her head. That kind of calmness isn't something a "naive" person could achieve.

She is growing up very fast.

Over the course of three hours, Su Mu intentionally or unintentionally let her slip in some low-level monsters... one or two zombies, one or two goblins, and occasionally a lone corrupted zombie.

At first, it took her ages to deal with even a single level 1 zombie; she couldn't aim her axe or hit her gun, and she was completely overwhelmed. But by the second hour, she was able to handle two level 1 monsters simultaneously without being at a disadvantage.

By the third hour, she had even managed to kill a level 2 zombie single-handedly, using a submachine gun.

Su Mu saw it all but said nothing.

But in his heart, he had raised his opinion of this girl several notches. She had combat talent, mental fortitude, and a rapid growth rate... These three qualities combined were the guarantee of survival in this apocalyptic world.

He even started to consider that if she could maintain this momentum in the next few days, he wouldn't mind helping her as much as he could.

For no other reason than that if the opponent's talent were to develop, it would be far more valuable than a good gun.

Of course, the words "trustworthy" still need time to prove themselves.

Su Mu snapped out of his thoughts and continued walking forward.

He walked through a narrow alley and came to a crossroads. He leaned against the wall and peered out... The streets on both sides were empty; he saw no sign of the monster.

Directly opposite is a row of low shops, with signs hanging crookedly above the doors and yellowed GG stickers pasted on the glass doors.

He was about to cross the intersection when he suddenly stopped.

The ground moved slightly.

It wasn't the violent shaking of an earthquake, but a very subtle sensation, like something burrowing underground. Su Mu could feel the faint tremors on the soles of his feet, as if a giant mole was crawling underground.

He quickly retreated, pressed himself against the wall, and summoned a spear from thin air with his right hand.

A section of the road ahead suddenly collapsed.

It wasn't the entire road surface, but a small pit about a meter square. Soil and gravel spilled out of the pit and piled up on the side of the road. Then, a hand reached out from the pit.

Su Mu's finger was on the trigger, but he didn't fire.

The hands were human hands. They were filthy, with black grime under the fingernails, and an old scar on the back of the hand. Then came the head, shoulders, upper body... A man crawled out of the hole, dusted himself off, and looked up, his eyes meeting Su Mu's.

The man was about thirty years old, with a round face, small eyes, and a naturally curved mouth that always seemed to be smiling. But in the apocalypse, this "always smiling" appearance often meant two things... either genuine honesty or genuine shrewdness.

After he crawled out of the hole, he didn't rush to stand up. Instead, he squatted by the edge of the pit and shouted into the hole, "Come out, there are people on the ground, but they're not monsters."

There were a few rustling sounds coming from inside the cave, and then four more people climbed out one after another.

Three men and one woman, all in their twenties to thirties, dressed in various clothes, some carrying bags, some holding weapons, looking like an organized squad.

The round-faced man at the head of the group stood up, dusted off his clothes, and gave Su Mu a smile. The smile was perfect... the curve of his lips, the number of teeth showing, the degree to which his eyes narrowed—everything was just right, as if he'd practiced it countless times.

"Brother, don't be nervous, we're human." He spread his arms to indicate that he meant no harm. "Salvation Guild, Squad Twelfth. I'm Captain Li Shichu."