'What kind of world have I come to?! If it weren't for these villagers speaking Mandarin with fairly standard pronunciation, I would have thought I had traveled back in time? Or maybe I've slept through to after humanity's destruction?' Wang Ping thought blankly, then shook his head hard. 'No matter what, I should follow the villagers and leave here first!'

Just awakened, Wang Ping's body was still stiff, and he moved slowly. However, the elderly and weaker villagers were also slow, so Wang Ping picked up a wooden stick, likely used for hanging things, as a crutch and limped along behind the villagers toward the rear mountain they mentioned.

Even though the terrain in the circular mountain pass was uneven, leaving the village and crossing a field of crops, the villagers said that after climbing over a hill, they would reach the rear mountain. Following a zigzag path along the foot of the mountain for about forty meters would lead to the top. There was a steep slope, although quite high, with several protruding rocks in the middle. After the villagers had tidied up the area and added a few ropes, it became a convenient mountain path. The slope was steep, but not vertical. As long as one held onto the ropes to slow down, one could quickly slide down the rear mountain. However, coming back up would be tiring, requiring one to climb step by step while holding onto the ropes.

Listening to the villagers' introduction as they walked, Wang Ping felt somewhat reassured. Otherwise, with his stiff body, if it were a real cliff, he would probably end up as a splattered mess.

As more than eighty elderly, women, and children climbed toward the top of the rear mountain, several figures appeared on the summit. One of the men shouted loudly, "Don't move if you don't want to die! Otherwise, grandpa will start killing!" He was not tall and not very muscular, dressed in black, with pants sewn from canvas, but the original color was unrecognizable. His face was covered with scars, more than a dozen, making him look extremely fierce and terrifying! In his hand was clearly a rusty double-barreled shotgun!

The villagers panicked almost simultaneously, not caring what he said, and turned to run back down the mountain. The mountain path was not wide, and pushing and shoving quickly led to some elderly people being pushed down. The villagers, though clever, were not soldiers, and after abandoning the ropes, no one was left to guard them, allowing these ruthless men to use the ropes as a passage into the village.

The scarred man showed signs of impatience and shouted loudly, "Damn peasants! Some have to die for the rest to listen!"

A strong man beside him laughed and said, "Brother Shi, stop wasting words, let's kill!"

"F**k! How many times have I told you not to call me 'Shi' Brother!"

"Alright, alright, calling you Dog Brother works, doesn't it?"

Turns out the scarred man was actually named Shi Dog! What a funny name, but his next actions were far from amusing. Without aiming, he lifted the shotgun and fired into the crowded crowd!

"Bang!" The gunshot was much louder than a musket, and the crowd immediately fell silent, no one daring to move. They looked at each other, trying to see who had been hit.

Wang Ping was originally in the center of the crowd. His body was already stiff, and the panicked crowd pushed him to the edge. Hearing the gunshot, he was terrified, and then he noticed everyone staring at him.

'What are they looking at?' Wang Ping wondered, then felt his body becoming heavier. His chest felt wet, and he trembled as he touched it, finding fresh red blood seeping out.

'Not possible, did I get shot?' Wang Ping thought unwillingly, 'Just woken up and I’m going to die?'

His vision turned dark again, and the last thought Wang Ping had was: 'So getting shot doesn’t hurt at all.'

/Life Threat Probability Greater Than 50%/

$: /Life Form Under Threat, Activating Autonomous Control System

$: /Reactor Adjusting Output Initiated

/Reactor Output Adjustment Failed —— 0%

$: /Backup Power Activated

/Backup Power Activation Successful

$: /Life Support System Activated

/Life Support System Activation —— 9%

$: /Bionic Electromagnetic Muscle Repair Initiated

/Repair Failed

$: /Camouflage Fluid Restoration Initiated

$: /Free Molecule Collector Activated

/Free Molecule Collector Activation —— Failed

/Restoration Failed

$: /Circulatory Biomagnetic Field Scan Initiated

/Humanoid Life Form Search —— Maximum Range 1000 Meters

/Result: 0

$: /Ecosystem Maintenance System Activated

/System Activation Successful

When Wang Ping opened his eyes again, the words "Activation Successful" were gradually fading from his vision. The black letters shimmered, changing from black to blue, and then from blue to green. To Wang Ping, these characters were like his hope, and also like his father's final instructions. He knew that although his family members had likely already left this world, they had still left him treasures, and his body was the most precious gift they had given him.

For Wang Ping, who had been bedridden for over ten years, he did not mind what changes his family had made to his body. After all, for someone who had always been on the brink of death, being able to live like a normal person was enough to make him feel fortunate.

Wang Ping looked around. It seemed that the recent brush with death had spared him. Next to him lay the bodies of two villagers, one with a head shattered by a shotgun blast, the brain and blood mixed like a rotten watermelon filled with tofu, the red and white mush splattered everywhere. The other villager had his abdomen sliced open by some sharp object, his internal organs scattered on the ground. Judging by the struggling movements before his death, he seemed to have tried to push the organs back into his body. The air was thick with the stench of entrails and the distinctive smell of brain tissue.

Although Wang Ping had seen death frequently in the hospital, being so close to such corpses made him feel very uncomfortable. What was strange was that he should have felt nauseous or even vomited, but his body showed no reaction. It seemed that to survive in this world, the first thing he needed to do was to understand what had happened to his body.

Wang Ping remembered that the villagers had said he woke up from a "coffin," which was likely a hibernation pod. Perhaps his father had left some message near the hibernation pod.

Wang Ping struggled to get up and limped toward the village. The sun had already set, and the path back to the village was gradually becoming indistinct. Fortunately, Wang Ping still vaguely remembered where the entrance to the tunnel was. As he walked, he also thought. He touched his shoulders, arm joints, and other areas, finding no strange sensations or lack of flexibility. He pinched his flesh, and the pain was real. The only thing that felt unfamiliar was the heaviness of his body, making his movements slow and sluggish. Running was definitely out of the question.

'Running?' Wang Ping's mind searched through the limited knowledge he had gained from his ten-year bedridden life. His nanny, to avoid affecting his mood, had never mentioned anything related to illness, so his knowledge had remained at the junior high and high school levels, let alone college.

Wang Ping tried to run a few steps and did a few pitiful exercise movements, but then he had to give up. He realized he had no knowledge or even common sense about physical fitness. He decided to quickly go and check his "coffin."

To go down the tunnel, he needed some light. Even if he didn't go down the tunnel, it was completely dark outside, and he needed some lighting for the night. This gave Wang Ping a headache, as someone who had never even cooked a meal, let alone used flint to start a fire.

By the time Wang Ping managed to light a torch after tremendous effort, several hours had passed, and it was probably already midnight when he reached the hibernation pod. With the light of the torch, Wang Ping saw several discarded body parts on the ground, presumably from the woman the villagers had mentioned as being "chopped up."

Wang Ping didn't know the origin of the strong woman, nor did he know that it was this woman who had pulled him out of the hibernation pod and prepared the "exit" for him beforehand. Without her, Wang Ping might have had to wait much longer, possibly until the entire hibernation area's energy was completely depleted and the hibernation pod stopped functioning before he could wake up.

The culture solution was spilled all over the floor, and the hibernation pod was shattered by a shotgun or something else. It seemed that those people had arrived here before him. Wang Ping searched the surroundings, which were not large. He estimated that this place was specifically built by his father for his son's hibernation. What touched Wang Ping was that his father had set up a few rooms exactly like the ones he lived in before being hospitalized, even the kitchen was identical, though the knives were missing, possibly taken by the villagers or the later arrivals.

After checking a few rooms, he found nothing special. It seemed he had really been asleep for many years, and most of the items in the rooms had rotted away. The books were also completely decayed. The villagers or the people with the shotguns who arrived before Wang Ping probably didn't find anything either.

Wang Ping even found the normal exit of the underground building, but the elevator had long ceased to function, and the emergency exit had collapsed and was buried. Wang Ping estimated that even if the passage was intact, the exit might have been buried under the soil, becoming part of the farmland.

Wang Ping stuck the torch in a random spot and sat down to think. He felt that his father's arrangements wouldn't be so simple. His father must have considered the possibility that if he slept for a very long time, he might wake up with no one to help him. However, upon further reflection, perhaps something unexpected had happened that his father hadn't anticipated. Wang Ping tried to recall what his father and brother had said before he went into hibernation, remembering that his brother had said that if everything went smoothly, he would be cured after ten to twenty years of sleep.

Judging by the state of the furniture, I might have been asleep for fifty, or even a hundred years.

'Right!' Wang Ping suddenly thought. The first level of this building looked like an abandoned subway station or an underground commercial street, and the second level was not large, with a few rooms he had already checked, including the hall where the hibernation pod was placed, but he found nothing unusual. He remembered that when he first regained consciousness, everything around him was enveloped in white mist, but when he came down just now, there was no mist except for the corpse. Additionally, the hibernation pod, though damaged, allowed him to examine its structure. It seemed to have no battery or reactor, which suggested that there must be another place or level where the reactor or other equipment to power the facility was stored. If he could find that place, there might be some discoveries.

'No, that’s not right,' the deeply thinking young man realized he was overthinking. Even if there was still an energy system or equipment he hadn't discovered, it didn't mean that his father would hide important things for him to find. That wouldn't make sense. Since his father had set up those rooms, it meant that he was the owner of this place, and being here was like being at home.

Like being at home? Wang Ping finally realized! He was truly stupid, having been hospitalized for so long that he had become dull. Being awakened and discovering that he had slept for many years, and knowing nothing about the outside world, had confused him. No matter what the outside world had become, this place was still the "home" his father had given him!

"Cough, cough," Wang Ping cleared his throat and softly said, "I'm back! Turn on the lights!"

"Voice recognition successful, welcome home."