Chapter 4: Where’s the Internet!?

Published Mar 13, 2026, 02:56 PM

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Where’s the Internet!? "Wake up, and the world is turned upside down... But, why is it so quiet?" Zhang Su furrowed his brows, his eyes scanning around. Compared to chaos, the quiet now was even more frightening. Such a serious event had occurred, yet there was no movement from emergency vehicles? Where have the police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks gone? Too abnormal! Ping pong. As Zhang Su gazed at the distant street, the glass of a floor-to-ceiling window in Building Four across the way shattered, and three figures fell from the air, accompanied by shrill screams! The fall happened quickly, and Zhang Su could roughly make out that one of the three was a child, and the others seemed to be an elderly couple. Due to the trees blocking the view, it was impossible to see the three hitting the ground, but the thud of their landing could be faintly heard, which made Zhang Su’s mouth involuntarily twitch. "Help, damn it, get away, lunatic..." Before Zhang Su could recover from the shock of the fall, a desperate plea came from afar, and he saw a zombie that had been slowly wandering move quickly, surprisingly fast for its seemingly stiff body, chasing a young man without shoes. "Run..." Zhang Su couldn’t help but worry for the young man. As if he heard Zhang Su’s encouragement, the young man sprinted wildly, quickly disappearing around a corner with a crowd of zombies, his fate uncertain! "Help me... Is there anyone to save me, husband, no, don’t!" With his face pressed against the glass, trying to see the young man’s situation, a near-frantic cry erupted close by, piercingly shrill. He could recognize the voice’s owner as the lovely lady from downstairs, whom he often saw walking her Samoyed in the neighborhood. She seemed unemployed and lived carefree. "Help... Ah, uh..." The plea turned into a scream, and soon, only the faint sound of chewing remained. From beginning to end, there was no barking heard; perhaps it had already met its demise. As he was about to withdraw his gaze, Zhang Su caught sight of two twisted figures crawling out from behind the tree that had blocked the fall site earlier, and upon closer inspection, they were the elderly couple who had fallen! "Hell... Are we in hell?" At some point, Zheng Xinyu had come to Zhang Su’s side, tears in her eyes as she looked out the window. She didn’t know what hell looked like, but the scenes before her were the most terrifying and gruesome she had ever seen. Yet, if she were to see hospitals, boarding schools, or factories now, she’d realize how shallow her definition of hell was! "What the hell is going on?!" After forcibly waking up to such a shock, Zhang Su hadn’t had time to think clearly, slumped on the floor, pulling at his hair and muttering, "Crazy, must be crazy, everything is freaking crazy!" Of course, the one that wasn’t crazy was himself, but rather the world. But if the entire world was crazy except for himself, then who was truly insane? "This script for life isn’t right!" Zhang Su’s heart roared. His life had been pretty good, with a house, properties, and a small car to commute with! No debts, and a monthly income of over ten thousand, swapping girlfriends twice a year, eating and drinking as he pleased, carefree and unrestrained. No plans to marry, nor any desire to have children, looking forward to starting a travel lifestyle at thirty, experiencing the different cultures at home and abroad. However, all this vanished in a puff after waking up. "The apocalypse script shouldn’t belong to me!" Zhang Su furrowed his brows tightly, feeling very frustrated and a sense of bleakness about the future. "Brother Su, don’t be like this, Brother Su..." Zheng Xinyu felt distressed seeing Zhang Su’s state. Even a tall and strong man has moments of helplessness. She squatted down and hugged Zhang Su’s shoulders, saying nothing, offering comfort in a gentle manner. After calming down for a while, Zhang Su took a deep breath and asked in a low voice, "How is it, any news?" "No, there’s no internet!" Zheng Xinyu pulled back her arm and squatted quietly beside him, not wanting to hit Zhang Su again with this fact at such a moment. "No internet?!" Zhang Su released his grip on his hair, questioning. The unbelievable news made his brows knit even tighter. Without waiting for Zheng Xinyu to answer, he quickly walked back to the bedroom to pick up his phone, where a full signal had dropped to just one bar, flickering like a candle in the wind, occasionally there, occasionally gone. Attempts to make calls were futile, let alone going online! "Cable network!" Thinking about this, Zhang Su hurriedly turned on the computer, but the red cross in the corner made his heart sink again. "I’ve checked, the computer can’t go online either..." Zheng Xinyu walked to Zhang Su’s bedroom, whispering, her tone full of helplessness. For modern people accustomed to using the internet to gather information, the loss of connectivity is a heavy blow, almost like being blindfolded and earplugged! Zhang Su didn’t know what situation could cripple a city’s communications and internet, but he knew this was bad, extremely bad! To say something not exaggerated, today’s internet could absolutely be considered one of the lifelines of a city, even a nation. If communications and networks were cut off, the consequences would be unimaginable! In fact, Zhang Su couldn’t fathom what circumstances could destroy a city’s communications network in such a brief period! Feeling impatient, he fiddled with his phone to no avail, tossed it on the bed, grabbed a piece of clothing, and slowing his speech said, "No point in worrying about news reports right now. Let’s sort things out first. Xinyu, when did you wake up?" "When I called you, I had just gotten up, didn’t even rinse my mouth..." Seeing Zhang Su slowly stabilizing his emotions, Zheng Xinyu also felt somewhat relieved. "Alright, from the current situation, Sheng Qin Home is definitely doomed!" Zhang Su paused momentarily before continuing, "Usually at this time, Ocean Street is bustling, but I only saw one car passing by, and more importantly, there’s no sound of sirens. With an event this big, without sirens and the internet down, I think..." Saying this, Zhang Su stood up, grabbed a cigarette from the table, and lit it, saying in a low voice, "I think the entire Qin City is in trouble!" He didn’t use the heavy word ’fallen,’ perhaps unwilling to accept that fact. "This... Don’t scare me." Zheng Xinyu listened to Zhang Su’s analysis and raised her hand to cover her mouth lightly, tears rolling in her eyes. Even a major epidemic would be enough to create unease for people within it, let alone when one’s peers inexplicably mutate into man-eating monsters, how could one not feel terrified? Zheng Xinyu dearly hoped that only Sheng Qin Home had met calamity, and soon there would be the army or special forces to quell everything, at worst, the police rescuing survivors. But after listening to Zhang Su’s analysis, her heart sank.

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