February 9, 2013. 

It had been more than nine days since the torment of the D-Virus left him in a state of near-death. After over a week of recovery, his body had almost fully healed, and he had regained enough strength to begin training. Despite going through a nightmare-like ordeal, his body hadn't changed much. He didn't become stronger, more agile, nor did he get rid of his nearsighted glasses. He couldn't help but think about those protagonists in web novels who, after being infected by a virus, either gained spatial powers and played around with storage space or became superhumans fighting top-tier zombies all over the world. Why didn't he have such good luck?

Not only did the D-Virus play him like a puppet, but for an entire week, he was weak all over and couldn't even hold a rice bowl.

"Sigh!" Zhang Xiaoqiang let out a long sigh. Different fates for different people!

"Heh! Hoo! Heh! Hoo!" Zhang Xiaoqiang gasped for breath as he thrust the iron spear forward and pulled it back repeatedly. Sweat kept pouring down from his forehead, stinging the scar on his head. He continued to exert himself, trying to exhaust his physical strength, giving himself a better chance of survival.

Putting down the iron spear and rubbing his sore wrist, he grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the coffee table and took a long gulp. "Ah!" He felt a refreshing sensation. Even in the apocalypse, Zhang Xiaoqiang felt that compared to before, he was living a more fulfilling life now. Every day, he would wake up, exercise, have breakfast, practice his stabbing technique 5,000 times, have lunch, take a nap, practice stabbing again, have dinner, play some single-player games, and then sleep! He didn't even have the interest to appreciate the adult videos he had collected before. His physical fitness was skyrocketing while his weight was plummeting.

"We humans, we're all forced to this point!" Zhang Xiaoqiang exclaimed.

As usual, he went to the window and raised his binoculars. It had become a habit. There was nothing outside except for zombies, and he couldn't find any scenery worth looking at. With the binoculars, it seemed as if the zombies were right under his nose, every move of theirs clearly visible.

Although it had rained heavily for over ten days, the sky remained gloomy and dark. The blackish-gray clouds stacked layer upon layer, blocking the winter sunlight. Only a few weak spots allowed some light to shine through, illuminating the entire city.

"Could they be evolving?"

Zhang Xiaoqiang mumbled to himself as he held the binoculars. The heavy rain from the past few days hadn't washed the streets clean. Broken bones, shattered glass, discarded beverage bottles were scattered everywhere.

Thinking about the heavy rain from a few days ago made his body ache faintly. The rain not only carried the virus but also had strong corrosive properties. The steel guardrails outside the window had become rusty due to the water vapor. If he hadn't been observing them every day, Zhang Xiaoqiang would have thought that the guardrails had been corroded for over ten years. Could those raindrops be the legendary acid rain?

The rain had corroded the clothes of the zombies, leaving them in tatters as they wandered around with scraps of fabric hanging on their bodies.

The zombies on the street were still wandering around like before, with a bit more agility in their steps. Their claws had grown longer, and some of them had become tall and strong, walking with no stumbling and little difference from normal people. Their naked and exposed skin was dark and shiny, and many ordinary zombies standing in their way were knocked down without any effect on them. On the other hand, some zombies became even thinner and shorter, but more agile, with more flexible joints. They were already able to climb over some small obstacles, and their nails had grown longer, more than twice as long as ordinary zombies.

Zhang Xiaoqiang's heart felt a little cold. The zombies were evolving, was there still hope for humanity? He held up his binoculars, slowly exerting force with his fingers until they turned from bloody to blue.

Putting down the 10x binoculars, his mouth was bitter, he lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, slowly exhaling, leaning against the window, full of despair in his mind.

Through these days of observation, Zhang Xiaoqiang estimated there were about 200 zombies downstairs, with nine evolved and mutated zombies, three agile types, and six strength types. The mutation rate was about 5%, and the population of Y city was 500,000. The base number of mutated zombies was around 25,000. With a Chinese population of 1.5 billion, the number of mutated zombies would be 75 million. The world population was 7 billion? He shuddered and dared not to calculate further.

Zhang Xiaoqiang leaned against the window sill, staring blankly at the zombies downstairs, with cigarette butts scattered on the ground. He remembered a blockbuster movie he had seen before, "Dances with Wolves". The protagonist, Lieutenant Dunbar, lost contact with the outside world. He lived a peaceful and monotonous life alone on the endless prairie, accompanied only by a wild wolf with white forelegs.

He was much stronger than Zhang Xiaoqiang, he had the whole prairie, while Zhang Xiaoqiang could only be trapped in the house, looking out the window at the countless zombies. The wild wolf, named "Two Socks", liked to play around him, while Zhang Xiaoqiang only had an unnamed cockroach that lay still at the bottom of a bottle.

Zhang Xiaoqiang picked up a mineral water bottle and held it up to his eyes. The cockroach was still playing dead at the bottom of the bottle. He shook the bottle and the cockroach crawled around the bottom, constantly trying to climb out of the bottle opening, falling down again and again. Zhang Xiaoqiang watched quietly, feeling sad for the cockroach, but mostly for himself. He was no different from the cockroach in the bottle, both bound by their own fate.

Feeling annoyed by the cockroach, he suddenly wanted to go to the rooftop and see this sky, this land, this city, and the Yangtze River on the edge of the city!

Thinking about it, he did it. He tied his military knife, hung his binoculars, grabbed his iron spear, and went out of the door, climbing the stairs. The zombies in each room smelled Zhang Xiaoqiang...