Edge of the Apocalypse

Chapter 75: Chapter 71: Stay Away, or Die

When they returned at noon, Qiao Ping had already made lunch. The group ate and took a short rest to recover their strength.

At 2 PM, they set out again.

From the third floor, Yu Dong used a slingshot to fire steel balls at the main entrance of Building Three, luring out the zombies from the stairwell.

With assistance from Liu Ye’ye’s drone, he led all the zombies to the four people below.

After zombies stopped coming out of Building Three, Yu Dong prepared to lure out the ones in Building Two. He fired about ten steel balls with his slingshot, but there was no movement from the stairwell, and the main entrance remained tightly shut.

"Ye Ye, fly the drone over and see what’s going on."

"Okay."

The drone hovered at the main entrance of Building Two. Through the gap, it detected numerous small chains of the kind used for electric scooters and bicycles.

"Senior, the inside... it’s been locked by someone."

Liu Ye’ye raised the drone’s altitude to get a better look.

"And there are no zombies in the stairwell. It’s so quiet."

Yu Dong searched his memory for a moment.

’That’s strange. It wasn’t like this last time.’

Yu Dong closed his eyes and sank into his memories. A long scroll marked with a timeline unfolded before him, containing all his memories from the first 22 days of his past life.

Among them, the memory concerning Building Two appeared clearly before his eyes.

In his past life, on the 14th day of the apocalypse.

Shen Xinyi had jumped from the building. She didn’t die instantly, but four zombies rushed out from the main entrance of Building Two and devoured her brutally.

And before that, Yu Dong clearly remembered that the main entrance of Building Two had not been sealed. Zombies from the stairwell would occasionally wander out...

He continued to look forward in time, arriving at the 15th day of the apocalypse. This was when he had used explosives to draw out all the zombies around the complex and finish off Lin Xiaojun’s group of three... One by one, zombies had jumped down from the upper floors like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

In the end, a black torrent of zombies poured out of Building Three, engulfing him.

But at that moment... the main entrance of Building Two was tightly shut, without a single sound or movement.

’Something’s wrong! If the zombies that rushed out were from the underground garage, why did nothing happen at Building Two? Unless... unless between the fourteenth and fifteenth day, someone in Building Two locked the main entrance!’

’There must have been survivors in Building Two back then that I never saw!’

Yu Dong opened his eyes. From these tiny clues, he had deduced a fact that he had previously overlooked!

There were still people in Building Two!

By now, the rest of the group, having finished clearing out the zombies on the ground and the ones that had emerged from Building Three, had returned to the third-floor stairwell. They heard what Yu Dong said and were baffled.

"Dongzi... what does that mean?"

Yu Dong glanced at Yan Yikai, looked him straight in the eye, and asked, "Kai, can I trust you completely?"

"Partners, until the end of time!"

"Cut the otaku act... I’m a Reincarnator."

"Holy Re:Zero!"

"I’ll tell you the details later. Just remember not to tell Qiao Ping. It’s not that I don’t trust her, but... there are a lot of people behind her, and I’m not sure how they would react. For now, it’s best if only the seven of us know."

"Huh? Oh, oh, oh! Okay, Boss, I’ll keep it a secret!"

Over the past few days, Yan Yikai had proven to the team that he could be trusted, and Yu Dong had accepted him.

At that moment, he looked at the others around him and saw their calm expressions, only then realizing he was the last one to know.

But it also meant that Brother Dong now trusted him. Yan Yikai felt a warmth spread through his chest. This feeling of earning trust through sincerity... it was wonderful.

In the past, with many of his classmates, he had poured his heart out to them... only to be turned on and mocked like an idiot.

"In my past life, Building Two was always in an unmanaged, ’free-range’ state. It wasn’t until the 14th or 15th day of the apocalypse that someone locked the main entrance. But in this life, today is only the fifth day, and look at Building Two... the stairwell has been cleared, and the entrance is completely sealed."

Now that he mentioned it, the group looked at the drone feed from Liu Ye’ye and did indeed see the overly quiet stairwell over there.

"The butterfly effect! Have you guys seen that movie?"

Yan Yikai said excitedly.

"Yeah, we’ve all seen it... It’s definitely the butterfly effect, but which step caused it?"

This time around, Yu Dong had made many changes to the residential complex. Theoretically, any one of those steps could have caused an unimaginably huge change.

The others didn’t know the specific details of what Yu Dong had done in his past life, so they could only stare blankly.

Yu Dong himself slowly narrowed the focus to Building Two and finally locked onto the three most likely variables.

"First, in my past life, I didn’t seal off the underground garage for Building Two."

"Second, in this life, our residential complex... has an outsider."

"Third, in my past life, I didn’t save Kai, who lived in Building Two."

Yan Yikai asked excitedly, "Brother Dong, was I a total badass in my past life?"

"No, you jumped off the building and fell to your death right after the apocalypse started."

"...Never mind then." Then he added, "Then it has nothing to do with whether you saved me or not, hey!"

"Right. It just sounded better to have three points."

Yu Dong admitted it directly.

Zhao Youcai said, "Not closing the underground garage door... that would have a huge impact. The garage connects directly to the outside streets, which means zombies from the street could just wander in. It’s like an infinite monster-spawning point. If there were survivors in Building Two, it would have caused them extreme trouble. So, in the last life, they probably weren’t able to reclaim the stairwell... It was only after Sister Xinyi’s death lured the Building Two zombies out that they seized the opportunity to seal the building."

"That’s a very logical analysis."

The others all agreed that it made sense.

"That factor definitely has a huge impact. In a way, this isn’t a bad thing. But what I’m most afraid of is that the other person... isn’t dead yet."

"Who?" the group asked.

"A professional stalker."

Yu Dong told the group about the tall, thin man who had been constantly monitoring him in the residential complex before the apocalypse. Everyone was completely baffled.

No one recognized him, and no one knew why he was there.

"The last time I saw him was right before the virus outbreak. He was as agile as an athlete, vaulting over the wall from outside the complex... and then I went to find Zhou. It’s all your fault, Zhou! If you had linked up a little faster, I could have seen where he went."

"I’ve been framed! It’s not like I’m the one who brought him here..." Zhou said with an innocent look.

For now, no one recognized the man, nor did they know his purpose.

And since his rebirth, Yu Dong and his group had been so busy that they hadn’t carefully observed the activities in the other two buildings, possibly missing some key information.

"Ye Ye, it’s up to you. Do a full sweep of Building Two with the drone. Is the signal strong enough?"

"Mhm! As long as I stick to the exterior and don’t go inside, there’s no problem."

After swapping in a new battery, Liu Ye’ye sent the drone into the air.

It began its reconnaissance, circling Building Two starting from the first floor.

Everyone’s eyes were glued to the tablet, watching the clear, real-time feed.

"First floor... no one."

"Second floor... no one either."

"Third floor..."

BANG!

A loud crack echoed from the tablet. The signal cut out, and the screen went black!

Everyone simultaneously looked up and outside.

Their drone was plummeting from the sky... It hit the ground and shattered into pieces.

Yu Dong immediately raised his binoculars and looked toward Building Two.

Only the curtains on a fourth-floor window swayed slightly.

A piece of paper had been stuck to the window at some point. Four words were written on it:

"Stay away, or die!"

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