Matthew Long

The struck aquatic rat beast convulsed, then its eyes rolled back, and it died without a sound. From a distance, Simon observed this with great curiosity. The punch appeared to lack force, leaving no visible damage, yet the creature perished silently—this method of attack was indeed strange. 

The remaining aquatic rat beast seemed terrified by the man's attack. It too couldn't comprehend why its companion had suddenly died with eyes rolling back. Possibly driven by an immense fear of the unknown, the surviving beast abruptly turned and dove into the depths, swiftly fleeing.

The man did not pursue but instead began to ascend. Simultaneously, Simon also rose to the surface. His physical conditioning allowed him to hold his breath underwater for two minutes naturally. By activating his special lung-enhancing ability, he could extend this to four minutes. The recent skirmish had only lasted a minute or two, so he could still stay submerged for another two minutes. However, the water was fraught with dangers, and Simon dared not linger. He surfaced, took a deep breath to refill his lungs, and then looked up to see Lily Grace on the raft.

Lily Grace was not dead. Beside her on the raft lay the bodies of two aquatic rat beasts, their eyes rolled back, dead and stiff, without any visible wounds. Simon immediately understood the situation.

Clearly, after he had fallen into the water, someone had rescued Lily Grace when she was in danger. The two beasts on the raft had been killed by the man who had plunged into the water. Only the creatures struck by his fists died in such a peculiar manner, without external injuries but utterly lifeless—a bizarre and mysterious demise.

Seeing Simon emerge from the water, Lily Grace's eyes sparkled with joy, and she hurried towards him. 

"Someone just saved me..." Lily Grace gestured with her small hands, attempting to convey to Simon that someone had appeared on the raft to rescue her when he had fallen into the water.

"I know," Simon said, grabbing the edge of the raft and pulling himself up. Just then, a voice laughed heartily, "Is she talking about me?"

Simon turned towards the voice and saw, about two meters away, a head bobbing in the water. It was a middle-aged man, around thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old, with short hair. The hair on the top of his head was beginning to thin, a sign of early balding, though not yet too noticeable.

It was he who had just killed the water rats, rescuing both Lily Grace and Simon. Finally encountering another survivor, and such a formidable one at that, Simon felt a surge of excitement and relief. He quickly patted the raft and said, "Brother, thank you for earlier. Hurry up and come aboard, the water is dangerous."

As he spoke, he tossed the bodies of the two water rats from the raft. Having already collected rice, flour, and noodles, they weren't in immediate need of food and didn't need to keep the bodies as a food source.

The middle-aged man smiled and shook his head. "I actually find it quite nice in the water. Here, let me give you a hand." 

With that, he took a deep breath and dived back into the water, disappearing from view. Simon knew this man was far more adept in the water than he could ever be. Seeing him dive again, Simon quickly stood up on the raft. Moments later, the man resurfaced behind the raft and began to push it toward a thirty-two-story building that wasn't far off.

"Welcome. It's been quite lonely here these past few days. By the way, my name is Matthew Long. What are your names?"

"I'm Simon, and this is Lily Grace. Have you been here alone all this time, Brother Ding?" Simon asked, glancing at the rapidly approaching building.

This building has 32 floors, with 29 submerged underwater; only three levels remain above the surface. Its area is significantly larger than the thirty-story building where Simon and Lily Grace reside. While their building has just three apartments per floor, this one is divided into several units, with each floor covering at least two or three times the area of Simon's building.

"There were originally four of us, but now only I remain," Matthew Long said lightly. His tone was nonchalant, but Simon detected a subtle, tragic undertone in his words. 

Lily Grace, curious, couldn't help but ask softly, "What happened to the other three? Did they leave?"

Matthew Long glanced at her before replying, "Leave? You could say that. But they didn't leave this building; they left this world. I was just a bit luckier and managed to survive."

Simon had faced numerous attacks while staying at his place but had managed to survive. The fact that Matthew Long's group of four had been reduced to just one survivor suggested that the dangers they encountered were far greater than what Simon had faced. It seemed this building, now emerging from the water, was even more perilous than his previous residence. This realization made Simon's scalp tingle. Initially, he had considered this place a temporary refuge, a place to stay until something better came along.

Lily Grace turned pale upon hearing Matthew Long's words, her small face reflecting a sudden fear as they approached the building. Matthew Long seemed to sense their thoughts and suddenly grinned, saying, "But there's no need to be too frightened. I've figured out some patterns over the past few days. As long as we're not too greedy, we'll be fine. After all, I've survived until now, haven't I?"

"By the way, where did you come from? When did you first notice the city was flooded?" 

Simon briefly explained, pointing to the distant building where he had previously lived. "I used to live in that building. On the morning of the fifteenth, I woke up to find everything like this. It was the same for her. What about you?"

"I was the same," Matthew Long replied. "Woke up on the fifteenth to a strange situation outside. I was almost scared out of my wits. Then I went around looking for people and realized there were only four of us in the whole building. I don't know if the others never lived here or just vanished mysteriously, but I didn't see anyone else."

"The strangest thing is, many of the apartments were covered in thick dust, as if they hadn't been occupied for a while, which is odd. I remember this building being quite full. But out of the twenty-four units on the three floors above water, only four people were here."