Still hoarding supplies in the apocalypse? I'll just go on a killing spree and looting!

The flames died down, leaving behind a series of pale gold mechanical tattoos on her right forearm.

A red text prompt appeared in front of me.

[A beast carcass has been discovered. The target is a low-level beast with no other value. It will be decomposed in three seconds.]

The phantom mantis corpse pressing down on Lin You began to emit an eerie glow.

The first speck of light emerged from the gap in the mantis's forelegs.

It is only the size of a grain of rice, and its entire body is emerald green, like a miniature star.

It broke free from the crack in its shell, leaving a small, translucent trail, and slowly floated into the air.

Then came the second, the third—the specks of light emerged one after another from the mantis's corpse, dense as a swarm of bees, shimmering like fireflies, weaving a slowly rising expanse of emerald green light before her eyes.

The number of light spots increased.

Emerald green particles of light floated, swirled, and coalesced in mid-air, forming a slowly surging cloud of light.

The golden lines on her arm, illuminated by the green light, began to glow faintly.

Then she seemed to hear a sound.

[Decomposition complete]

[The materials you obtained are: Phantom Mantis Carapace x9, Beast Blood x3, ...]

The emerald green light suddenly expanded, forming a green pillar of light before the light dissipated, and a long, narrow, and strange-looking sword fell from mid-air.

Lin You gripped the long knife tightly.

A strangely shaped long knife. Its base is the forelimb of a praying mantis, but every inch of its structure has been redesigned.

The serrated tibiae are straightened and extended, retaining their natural curvature, giving them a more powerful cutting ability.

The ridges on the back of the blade are reinforced as structural ribs, and tendon fibers are woven into the inside of the blade, forming a dark pattern that is visible to the naked eye.

It doesn't resemble a forged cold weapon; rather, it's like the forelimbs of a phantom mantis, exuding an incomparably sharp aura.

The gunfire in the distance gradually subsided.

The Phantom Mantis's recent madness carried her away from the battlefield, and now is probably the best time to escape.

Lin You suddenly looked up at the female phantom mantis that was still moving and hunting.

Weighing the possibility of a successful escape in her mind, Lin You didn't think she could really leave this forest after the female Phantom Mantis killed everyone here.

Beasts have a strong sense of territory, especially since Lin You had just killed its mate.

Female phantom mantises will never let themselves off easily.

Now, is it better to run away and gamble on the slim chance of not being caught, or to take advantage of the female Phantom Mantis's attention being focused on hunting others and launch a sneak attack?

After a brief hesitation, Lin You charged toward the female Phantom Mantis.

A clearing in the woods.

The female phantom mantis raised her scythe high; in front of her stood a person without bullets, ready to strike at any moment.

That's a fresh meal.

The man stared in horror at the raised scythe, repeatedly pulling the trigger on his empty pistol.

It emitted a weak "click" sound as the gun was being pulled.

He didn't know what was wrong with this world. How could there be such terrifying creatures? This was a serious departure from the world he knew.

He was already somewhat delirious, and almost all of his companions who had come with him were dead or injured.

And he was dying soon.

This seems to be a nightmare from which I cannot wake up.

In the blurry vision, I suddenly saw a person leaping high into the air.

It appears to be a woman.

Long hair flew in the air, and the hand raised high seemed to be the forelimb of a monster.

He shook his head, thinking he must be going crazy and hallucinating.

"puff"

Warm liquid sprayed all over his head and face, and a strange, fishy smell made him cough.

It also helped him recover somewhat from his dazed state.

Then... he saw a woman standing on the green monster, who was their target.

The prime suspect in a major shooting and murder case.

Then they saw the monster's upper body split in two with a single slash, and the scythe that was originally aimed at him slammed heavily onto the side of his head.

The menacing scythe instantly sank into the ground.

I'm saved?!

Then an even stranger scene unfolded: the suspect placed his hand directly on the monster's corpse.

Her long hair danced wildly behind her, and a pale golden halo appeared on her arms.

All of this seemed so dreamlike and unreal.

Immediately afterwards, green specks of light began to drift out from the monster's corpse.

Then more points of light appeared, forming a patch of green fluorescence that slowly rose into the air, where it suddenly spread and formed a pillar of light.

The green beam of light vanished in an instant, and a strangely shaped knife, similar in appearance to the one in the suspect's hand, fell from the sky.

Then it was grasped by a hand.

Lin You looked at the police officer in front of her with a dazed expression. He was the only survivor among the officers who had been chasing her.

After a brief hesitation, Lin You still wanted to do something, even though she knew it would be futile, she still spoke with utmost seriousness.

"As you can see, the world has changed. The end of the world will come in two days..." Lin You didn't know what to say next.

The end of the world is inevitable, and the recently appeared Phantom Mantis is irrefutable proof.

Perhaps the end of the world has already arrived, and the real outbreak will only occur in two days.

Lin You didn't know these things in her previous life, and now it seems that the apocalypse is not as simple as she once thought.

Reminding the police officer in front of you is all you can do.

After all, the doomsday theory has been circulating online for so long, how many people would actually believe it? Even if Lin You jumps out again and says, "The end of the world is coming, everyone take refuge quickly!"

But what was the result?

What can we do?

No one believed her, not even the police officer who had just been through the ordeal.

For a moment, no one was speechless.

Silence fell over the woods again. Lin You sniffed and said, "I'm leaving. Good luck."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Finally, a fiery red orb appeared in the sky, and the sun rose from the horizon.

The killing spree in the darkness has faded into the past.

Those who were meant to die are mostly dead, and those who weren't meant to die have also died. This is probably what is meant by the fickleness of fate.

Lin You, who had just emerged from the woods, saw the sunrise.

A new day has begun, but... is there still hope for this world?

He squinted as he watched the rising sun.

The red imprint of the rising sun was deep within her eyes, and a little bit of scarlet spread from the depths of her eyes.

The moment Lin You was being chased in the woods last night, she knew that Mu Xue was no longer a hope.

She has a lot to do now, but her arrest warrant is probably plastered all over Z City.

Wandering around on the street in broad daylight is practically suicide.

He sighed.

My stomach started rumbling.

I never imagined that I would starve after the apocalypse, and that I would still starve after being reborn before the apocalypse.

A fragrant aroma wafted over, and Lin You subconsciously sniffed it... It was the aroma of instant noodles.

This wasn't her imagination; Lin You looked up and scanned her surroundings.

In the distant mountains and forests, a thin wisp of smoke lingered on the treetops for a long time.

Lin You's eyes lit up instantly; there was no doubt that someone was cooking and eating outdoors.

After only a brief hesitation, Lin You moved directly towards that spot.

She couldn't believe that the apocalypse hadn't completely arrived yet, and that she would be so unlucky as to encounter strange beasts one after another.

The mist had not yet dissipated, and the mountain colors were a damp, dark blue-green.

The sun had just crossed the opposite ridge, and its rays slanted through the tree canopy, casting white patches of light on the forest clearing.

The air was filled with the coolness of dew and the fragrance of trees and grass.

Take a deep breath, and your lungs feel refreshed.

A pot was set up on the open ground, flames licking the sides of the pot as it bubbled and steamed. Instant noodles were cooking in the pot, along with two packets of pickled vegetables and three sausages.

"Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you done yet?!"

A girl with a ponytail squatted by the pot, holding chopsticks in her hand, staring longingly at the noodles bubbling in the pot.

A bespectacled boy sat next to her, meticulously whittling a tree branch with a Swiss Army knife.

"What's the rush? The noodles need to be cooked until they're 80% soft to be springy." The person standing in front of the pot, holding the ladle, was a tall boy wearing an orange-red windbreaker.

With sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he stirred the noodles in the pot with long chopsticks.

The movements did look quite convincing.

He glanced down at the recipe he'd downloaded on his phone, his brows furrowing. "Next step: add the seasoning packet. Who took the seasoning packet?"

"You took it." The bespectacled man whittling the tree branch didn't even look up.

"……oh."

He pulled out three packets of powder from the side pocket of his backpack, tore them open, and poured them into the pot. A strong, industrial aroma immediately burst forth, overpowering the smell of pine resin and dew.

The girl with the ponytail took a deep breath and let out a satisfied sigh, "This is the taste. No delicacy can compare to the instant noodles on the first day of the hike."

"You said yesterday that the spicy hot pot in the school cafeteria was your lifelong love." The bespectacled man finally finished whittling the tree branch.

A crooked fork was handed to the girl with the ponytail.

The girl with the ponytail reached out and took the simple fork, her ponytail swaying behind her head. "A person can have many true loves."

The bespectacled man's eyes gleamed as he smiled and said, "You said the same thing to the basketball center from the next class last week."

The girl with the ponytail kicked him.

On the other side of the open space, a short-haired girl did not participate in the fight for instant noodles.

She sat cross-legged on a moisture-proof mat, an atlas spread out on her knees, her finger slowly moving along a mountain path marked with a dotted line.

She watched for a while, then looked up towards the mountain road, her brows slightly furrowed.

"What's wrong?" The tall boy handed the chopsticks to the girl with the ponytail and sat down next to the girl with short hair.

"Why is there no signal all of a sudden?" The short-haired girl held up her phone, and the top left corner of the screen displayed "No Service".

The short-haired girl scratched her head and frowned, saying, "I remember there were still two bars of signal at the foot of the mountain last night."

"It's in the mountains, that's normal. We should have it after we get over this hill."

"No." The short-haired girl flipped through a page of the map, pointed to a spot, and said, "I remember the telecom company built a new base station here last year. How could there be no signal here?"

The tall boy took the map and looked at it. His expression didn't change, but the relaxed smile on his lips faded.

He folded the map and handed it back to the short-haired girl, lowering his voice slightly: "We won't go any deeper today. After lunch, we'll head back the way we came, and we should be back on the highway before noon."

"What's wrong?" The girl with the ponytail turned around, biting her fork.

"It's nothing, just to be on the safe side."

It was indeed too quiet.

After he said that, everyone noticed that it wasn't a tranquil quiet, but rather an abnormally low number of bird calls.

Since I woke up, I haven't heard any birdsong.

All that remained was the whistling sound of the wind passing through the mountains and forests.

With such a large mountain and such a dense forest, it's impossible for there to be no birdsong at this time of day.

The girl with the ponytail slurped the noodles into her mouth and mumbled, "Maybe we were too noisy and scared the birds away."

No one responded.

The others all looked in the same direction, where the bushes were shaking continuously.

It seems some wild beast is approaching this way.

The bespectacled man had already gripped the entrenching tool, staring intently at the bushes.

The fire at the bottom of the pot was still burning, and the steam from the instant noodles rose in the morning light.

Only the girl with the ponytail was still slurping her noodles, mumbling, "What are you all doing? Why aren't you eating?"

When the wind blew across the back of her neck, she suddenly felt a chill.

She instinctively turned her head and met a pair of eyes in the tree canopy.

He stood there, completely stunned.