That night, Li Yu had a rare dream.
He dreamt he was back in the apocalypse where he had been reborn, in that cold basement, trembling alone inside.
He had once thought, the Earth explodes, humanity gets a holiday, the end, confetti.
Everything would be over, and then nothing would matter.
But when he looked back, it seemed that from that moment, his inner strength grew immensely.
He no longer feared any enemy, even those stronger than him.
A person walking in the dark, unable to see their hand in front of their face, seeing nothing, might feel fear.
They might fear others walking in the dark, worry if those people are bad, if they will harm them.
However, when you are in the dark, and you yourself transform into darkness, imagining yourself as a bad person, then the one who is afraid is no longer you, but others.
Only by integrating into darkness, transforming into darkness, can one resist darkness and no longer fear it.
This was Li Yu's survival principle in the apocalypse: you don't necessarily have to be a bad person, but your heart must possess that feeling of fearlessness. Only then can you be invincible.
If you don't fear life and death, then you can stop being afraid of everything.
If you accept the worst outcome, then any problem you face can be solved.
This is a person's defense mechanism, just a way to protect oneself.
Li Yu wiped the sweat from his face, looked up at the window, and saw the horizon already showing the faint light of dawn.
Li Yu got out of bed, preparing for his usual exercise.
After being reborn, he acutely felt the preciousness of time.
He realized:
Life has no outcome; if it does, there is only one outcome, and that is death, and once you die, you die for Wan Nian.
The only cost is time; once a day is used, it cannot be recovered, nor can it be saved, and there is no interest on time.
There is only one truth in the human world: those who live each day well will have no regrets before they die.
Live each day in the present moment well.
He put on his shoes, dressed in sportswear, and ran towards the forest, greeting the morning light.
In this apocalypse, there would be many uncomfortable things, but even before the apocalypse, things that didn't go as planned still happened.
If one only fretted over these things, life would be very painful.
Living in this apocalypse, Li Yu was actually always conflicted, wanting to be simple and adaptable.
But the reality of these zombies and enemies forced him to constantly resist and grow.
After these days, from the initial establishment of this base to its current expansion of personnel, he slowly found his rhythm.
Alternating between tension and relaxation, with appropriate give and take.
Ruthless outside, casual within the base.
Following fate, embracing joy, adapting to circumstances, urinating and defecating anywhere, being happy casually no matter where or when.
Only by living like Yegou (Wild Dog) can one live like a human.
Crazy.
Gentle.
Two extreme attributes intertwined within Li Yu.
But they were not contradictory.
At the edge of Liberation City.
Zhong Ge arrived at the entrance with some people, looking at the dilapidated walls inside. There was garbage everywhere.
For a moment, they were stunned.
They had actually seen Liberation City from afar before, but what they saw then and what they saw now were worlds apart.
This Liberation City now resembled a garbage dump.
"Zhong Ge, should we go inside and take a look?" asked a man accompanying Zhong Ge, his expression somewhat hesitant.
This Liberation City looked a bit eerie.
Zhong Ge frowned, then finally said, "Then let's go in and take a look. After all, we've come all this way; if we don't go in, how will we explain it to Mr. Wang when we go back?"
"Let's go!" Zhong Ge said.
Gripping his long blade, he cautiously got out of the car and walked into Liberation City.
There were seven people in total in their party.
This seven-person team moved very slowly.
They carefully observed their surroundings, ready to evacuate at any moment.
As they walked deeper into Liberation City, in a corner they couldn't see, several men appeared.
They were gaunt, with sharp glints in their eyes.
"Lame, didn't you say you could drive a car without a key? Go on, since there's an opportunity, why not make a score?" said an old man beside him.
"Hey, try calling me Lame again, old man. You won't get in the car later," Lame said.
"Oh, Mr. Duan, Mr. Duan, take me with you later, okay?" said the slightly older, gray-haired but resentful old man.
"Hmph!" Lame ignored him.
He walked alone towards where Zhong Ge had just parked the car.
This also surprised them; they had originally thought that since they had driven four cars, someone would surely be on guard, but they never expected that Zhong Ge and his people would disregard them so much.
Actually, it wasn't Zhong Ge's fault, because from their perspective, Liberation City was already deserted.
Plus, Slanting Bangs had also said that everyone in Liberation City should have left.
Furthermore, they didn't have many people; if they really encountered someone and split up, their strength would decrease, making them vulnerable to being picked off one by one.
So, they didn't leave anyone to guard the car.
"Damn it," Lame cursed, seeing the old man behind him dawdling.
After being cursed at, the old man didn't talk back; instead, he continued to follow, a fawning expression on his face.
Lame walked to the front of a car, picked up a large stone from the ground, and with a bang, smashed the window glass.
Then he squeezed through the window into the car. The others followed suit, smashing the glass of another car.
After Lame got into the car, he didn't use a key; in less than two minutes, he started the car.
The moment it started, the men beside him were exceptionally excited.
"Go!" Lame immediately reversed and drove towards the end of the street.
The moment they saw Lame start the car, the other men had already climbed into the car and then left Liberation City with the car.
They had long wanted to leave this place, but among them, there was an old man, two disabled people, and two sick people.
They were all the most vulnerable, but being vulnerable didn't mean they were kind.
Just like Lame and his companions, given an opportunity, they would pry open a car and drive it away.
Inside Liberation City, Zhong Ge and his team hadn't noticed anything yet.
They continued to walk deeper into Liberation City. Along the way, there were some corpses, already reeking, with flies buzzing around them.
The buzzing sound was irritating.
After walking around, they found nothing useful.
The entire Liberation City seemed to have been dug three feet deep, with nothing useful left.
They walked around and returned to the entrance, all of them feeling somewhat unwilling and incredulous.
Such a large Liberation City, with so many people before, and now only this remains?
Suddenly.
Zhong Ge looked at the entrance and said, "How many cars did we drive here today?"
