The First Survivor

When Tom pressed the Y key, suddenly the whole room was filled with light, making it impossible for him to open his eyes. After a few seconds, the light faded, and he found himself in a 3D world constructed of lines.

This 3D world composed of lines looked both unfamiliar and familiar to him. Immediately, he realized that it was a three-dimensional map of the entire neighborhood, and he was standing in the center of the fountain.

"Is this a 3D holographic image from a sci-fi movie?" Tom reached out and grabbed a nearby street lamp, causing the 3D lines that made up the lamp to shake for a moment before returning to their original state.

Soon, the 3D image of the neighborhood shrank rapidly, as if the entire neighborhood was beneath his feet. Then, red and green dots began to appear on the map.

Tom clicked on a nearby green dot, and a label popped up: "Survivor." He then clicked on a red dot, and the label indicated: "Threat Level 1." Clicking on a larger red dot, the label indicated: "Threat Level 2."

He noticed that there were four or five large red dots blinking and moving slowly inside and outside the neighborhood gate.

"There are many red dots at Threat Level 1, but fewer at Threat Level 2. This means that these Threat Level 2 entities are more powerful, likely mutated creatures. I just don't know how much advantage I can gain with my Old Street Zero Armor."

Realizing this, he immediately looked for the nearest Threat Level 2 point from the shelter and found that it was close to several survivors. However, looking at the height, it wasn't on the same floor. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a green dot on the same floor as the Threat Level 2 point.

Tom was delighted and quickly surveyed the entire map, roughly memorizing the positions of each green dot in the neighborhood. Soon, the entire space dimmed, and then the lights came on, and the room returned to its original white walls.

The large screen displayed: "Survivor information has been synchronized to your smartwatch. You can use the radar map in the watch to search for survivors at any time. As long as you bring back a survivor registered by the smartwatch, you can earn 1 shelter point without needing to express gratitude."

"Note: Limited to this shelter only, but not limited to this deployment time."

Then Tom discovered that his smartwatch had a radar map function, displaying a flashing green dot indicator, reminding him of his position. It was similar to a radar, refreshing the position of the green dot every few seconds.

He had come out this time to acquire new technology. If he could rescue most of the survivors in this neighborhood, it would mean that he could immediately earn exchange points without having to run back to the camp with the elders from the camp.

"Why does it feel more and more like playing a game?"

Tom felt like he was being played, but having experienced the benefits of technology exchange firsthand, he knew that it would help enhance his strength. For now, he had to follow the other party's game rules.

In the holographic map he just saw, the Threat Level 2 red dot was next to the nearest survivor, meaning he had to hurry to reach the survivor before they were eaten by mutated creatures.

So Tom immediately left the shelter room, came to the hall, hastily grabbed a pack of instant biscuits, inputted a command to Wood to stay here, then wrote "It's called Wood, it's my friend, don't be afraid" on a piece of paper and left it by the door. Then he put on his Old Street Zero Armor, equipped his weapons and backpack, and left.

He carried a long knife and a steel needle spear, had an electric iron fist on his right hand, carried a biscuit shield, and had a parasitic worm Type-0 cannon mounted.

As soon as he left the shelter gate, Tom activated speed mode and headed west as indicated by the watch, noticing that the watch also had a convenient vibration mode. As long as he walked in the direction of the green dot, the watch would vibrate, allowing him to follow the direction of the survivor even if he was wearing full body armor and couldn't easily check the watch.

The pedestrian paths in the neighborhood were not straight, winding through the grass, but Tom couldn't take the long route, so he found the direction and went straight through.

Cobblestone roads, grass as tall as a person, cement paths, and half-human-high curbs, along the way, whether encountering ants or mosquitoes, he completely ignored them and focused on moving towards the second building in the west.

During this time, a mutated cockroach appeared, but he resisted its bite, aimed with a long needle, stabbed it into its mouth, and smashed it on the cement floor, replenishing a red crystal.

After more than a month of combat experience, Tom had become very skilled at dealing with these past threats. Even without wearing his Old Street Armor, he was confident he could kill it.

Just now, he saw that the three tallest 8-story buildings closest to the fountain had no survivors, meaning there was one survivor on the second floor of the second building to the west, and five on the fourth floor.

This puzzled Tom. In theory, these newly built neighborhoods should have good environments, and the sealing of the windows in the rooms should be very good. Even if people became smaller, they would still be safe in their own homes. Occasionally, there might be mice in the house, but not many. There was no reason for the entire building to be empty; how could the entire neighborhood have only twenty or thirty survivors?

Every person Tom encountered had fallen asleep on the night of April 5th and woke up the next day to find themselves shrunk. Several individuals who worked late also mentioned that they unknowingly fell asleep after 1:00 AM, without exception. Therefore, the situation where no one was at home in the middle of the night did not exist in this neighborhood. So, what caused these people to vanish without a trace?

Tom thought of a possibility: failed shrinking, resulting in death.

But did the majority of the people in the entire neighborhood fail to shrink? Was the success rate of shrinking that low?

Apart from being eaten, the only other outcome for the deceased encountered by Tom was death due to failed shrinking. Since the holographic display he saw earlier didn't show too many red dots in these buildings, it meant that there weren't so many creatures devouring people. Therefore, Tom was more inclined to believe that failed shrinking resulted in their deaths.

With this rough inference in mind, Tom became more determined to head to the second floor of that building.

After spending more than fifty minutes, Tom finally arrived at the building's entrance. Seeing the tightly closed door, he became more convinced that others had died due to failed shrinking.

This sturdy door, even without power, remained steadfast in its duty. It was virtually impossible for creatures outside to enter, and similarly, it was challenging for the little people inside to come out.

Tom searched around but couldn't find an entrance he could use. The neighboring residents' windows were too high, and even with the Old Street Armor, he couldn't reach them. Eventually, he circled back to the main gate, where he had to focus his efforts on the iron gate.

The lower half of the sealed iron gate had a rhomboid window with tempered glass, adding aesthetics while also allowing people on both sides to see if anyone was in front of the gate.

Tom knocked with his long knife a few times, confirming that even with six times the strength, he couldn't break the tempered glass. However, he wasn't discouraged; he still had the Parasitic Worm Type-0 Cannon. Its power had been adjusted to be stronger, making it perfect for testing.

With the barrel pressed down and resting on his shoulder, Tom aimed through the side sight of the cannon. Then, he inputted the strengthening energy of the red crystal into the cannonball with his right hand while resonating with the yellow gemstone behind the cannon with his left hand. The cannonball, now infused with reinforced energy, was immediately repelled by the powerful force of the yellow crystal energy and ejected out.

With a dull thud, the tempered glass was smashed open to the size of a fist.

Tom knocked on his helmet, opened his mouth to alleviate the ringing in his ears, then pushed the cannon barrel back onto his back and took out his large knife to pry open the hole made by the cannonball in the glass. After a few tries, he managed to create a big enough gap for the Old Street Armor to pass through before squeezing inside.

The air inside the stairwell felt stuffy, which was normal. Tom's first order of business upon entering was to remove the Parasitic Worm Type-0 Cannon from his back and insert a fist-sized cannonball from his waist ammo pouch. Unfortunately, due to sealing and shooting efficiency considerations, the loading port could only be opened at the bottom rear. Since one person couldn't reach it, he had to remove the cannon to load it.

The ammo pouch could only hold two cannonballs at a time to avoid excessive weight affecting his mobility. As for the cannonballs, as long as he could find metal, he could shape them into cannonballs.

After reloading the Type-0 Cannon, Tom began to ascend the stairs in speed mode.

The survivor's position indicated by the watch was only in the plane. If he hadn't noticed the green dot on the second floor in the shelter room earlier, he would have to search floor by floor to find it. It would have taken him the whole day, considering his reduced size.

The closer he got, the stronger the vibration became, and finally, Tom stopped in front of a door labeled "208".

"This is it."

But looking at the tightly closed door, Tom hesitated. He couldn't get in.

Give up? Tom didn't want to give up; every person he could save counted. Besides, there was a Level 2 threat on this second floor. Ignoring it could endanger the survivor.

A Level 2 threat should be on the level of mutated rats. With his previous experience, killing a mutated rat wasn't difficult, especially with the Zero Distance Type-0 Cannon. He could even get a large crystal, which was very cost-effective.

Since his room was so safe, Tom decided to find the Level 2 threat creature. But just as he was about to turn around, he heard a click from the door... opening?

Tom looked up at the door handle. It was a high-end fingerprint recognition lock that didn't require a key. As long as you placed your hand on it, the fingerprint match would open it, and it should have remote control capabilities too.

Could it open even without power? No, this kind of lock had an independent battery power supply, so even if the mains power was out, it wouldn't affect its use. But did the battery still have power after more than two months? Tom thought for a moment, then held the big knife in his hand, gently pushed open the door, and walked in cautiously.

As soon as he squeezed through the gap in the door, it automatically locked behind him with a "bang," making Tom's heart skip a beat. But he didn't turn back; instead, he cautiously surveyed the surroundings, unfastened his face mask, and shouted, "Hello, is anyone there? I'm here to see if you need help!"

The dim room suddenly lit up, startling him. Was there electricity?

"Geelooloo" The sound approached, and an electric tank rolled in, with a cannon pointed at him.

What was this scenario? Tom almost thought he had stepped into a sci-fi world. A room with both electricity and a tank? Could it be people from the Haiwei Group?

Beep beep, the tank fired, and a plastic bullet hit his armor, then rolled on the ground a few times.