Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Terrifying Truth Zhang Su shook his head and said with certainty, "I am not trying to scare you!" In a standard prefecture-level city, for such a terrifying event to occur, if not helicopters and the army, then certainly layers upon layers of ambulances and police cars would be present, yet now it’s eerily silent. If the entire city isn’t in trouble, then what else could it be? Blowing out smoke, Zhang Su’s thoughts slightly calmed, and he quietly said to Zheng Xinyu beside him, "Rescue is external force; we can never pin our hopes of survival on the unknown!" Before his parents divorced, Zhang Su led a prosperous life, but after the divorce, he drifted through foreign lands, experiencing much. Relying on others is not as good as relying on oneself; this was his first lesson upon entering society, costing him a steep tuition fee! Zheng Xinyu wiped away her tears, awakened by Zhang Su’s words, "We can never pin our hopes of survival on the unknown!" She sniffled slightly, her eyes reddened as she asked, "Then what should we do?" Zhang Su gave Zheng Xinyu an encouraging look, saying, "I think what’s most important now is to figure out why these people became zombies, identifying the source of infection and the transmission route!" Zheng Xinyu nodded repeatedly in agreement, her nervous fingers clutching a large T-shirt and creating a dent, her voice trembling, "I... saw in a TV series that a zombie bite can lead to infection." As if realizing she had stated the obvious, Zheng Xinyu quickly added, "I, I feel the air certainly cannot transmit it, otherwise we wouldn’t have been spared. With such a large outbreak, it’s likely a water problem!" Although it was a very reasonable and obvious conclusion, Zhang Su didn’t immediately agree. He carefully asked back, "If the water source is problematic, I took a shower last night, so why wasn’t I infected?" "Well, maybe it requires direct ingestion; you’re not deliberately drinking tap water while showering, right?" Zheng Xinyu asked puzzledly. Zhang Su nodded, "Definitely not... you know, we usually don’t even drink tap water!" As a convenience store owner, Zhang Su typically drinks various bottled waters. To increase the store’s revenue, he coaxed and tricked Zheng Xinyu into drinking bottled water and soft drinks every day... "No, wait!" Zhang Su suddenly said very seriously, "You cooked snail rice noodles last night..." "I also used purified water for that..." Zheng Xinyu patted her chest, feeling a wave of lingering fear. "I see..." Zhang Su furrowed his brows slightly, saying, "Alright, true or not, let’s tentatively assume the water source as the transmission route!" This is a hard-to-accept reality. Once the water source becomes a transmission route, survival becomes significantly harder. "Given the current situation..." Brr brr brr brr... Just as Zhang Su was about to speak, Zheng Xinyu’s tightly held phone suddenly chimed with a series of notifications! "There’s internet!" Zhang Su reacted quickly, immediately picking up his phone from the bed, but when he lit up the screen, he still found the signal to be weak as usual... "Heh..." Zheng Xinyu squeezed out an awkward smile, saying, "Brother Su, our service providers differ. Since I’m back online, yours should be back soon too!" Zhang Su didn’t bother with things he couldn’t change. He tossed the phone aside again and urged Zheng Xinyu, "Quick, see if there’s any news!" Zheng Xinyu, without needing Zhang Su’s reminder, had already opened her phone, but she didn’t check the news immediately. Instead, she opened WeChat to see if there were any messages from her parents. Like Zhang Su, Zheng Xinyu isn’t from Qin City. She hails from a small southern town. Previously, she attended a third-rate university in Qin City but dropped out. This, however, her parents didn’t know, nor did they know she was supporting herself as a streamer. With a quick glance, her parents were quietly pinned at the top of her list, their last chat record from a couple of days ago. She didn’t know if this was good or bad, so she quickly sent a "Are you there?" emoticon and then opened the short video app. Nowadays, getting news has transitioned from the web era to the short video era, with transmission speeds more than a grade faster than websites, truly showcasing the advantage of the 5G network. However, the short video apps that used to open swiftly were now unusually laggy, though it was unclear if it was due to bad phone connectivity or platform server issues. Anyway, it was very slow. After buffering for over ten seconds, the first video finally played! The screen displayed several rows of bold characters, without even a sound. It gave a solemn feeling, like the calm before a storm. "Unknown virus outbreak in multiple areas in the Celestial Dynasty, infected individuals lose reason and attack living beings at will. Citizens seeing this message must avoid contact immediately, avoid contact immediately, avoid contact immediately!" The words urging immediate avoidance were highlighted in bright red, making them especially striking! Both looked simultaneously at the user who posted the video; it was an official media, leaving them speechless. "Multiple areas..." Zhang Su exhaled a puff of smoke, his heart filled with a chill, realizing the event was far more severe than he thought! Zheng Xinyu didn’t speak, trying to open the comment section with 380k interactions, but no matter what, it kept spinning, unable to buffer, leaving her anxious as she moved to the next video. The comment section oddly wouldn’t open, yet the second video played smoothly; it was a personal user-uploaded video. The video didn’t show the shooter, only through the shaky footage could one see a group of zombies chasing people, blood splattering, limbs flying, cries echoing, an extremely tragic scene, rivaling special effects movies! The video cut off when zombies rushed towards the lens. The whole video showed utter chaos, but seeing it on the platform suggested that the shooter wasn’t harmed. Alternatively, they may have captured a precious moment at great personal risk. "Posted after eight... Let’s check if this user has more follow-up videos!" Zhang Su said anxiously. Zheng Xinyu clicked the author’s profile as instructed, buffered for about a dozen seconds, her heart sinking, saying, "None... this person is from Anhui Province, where is Anhui Province?" While focusing on the video, she also glanced at the user’s IP. "A thousand miles away." Zhang Su replied coldly. Qin City is in the northern part of the Celestial Dynasty, near the northeast, while Anhui Province is in the central region, with a distance of a thousand miles between the two, substantiating the official media’s claim of "multiple areas." "To have the zombie virus outbreak a thousand miles apart on the same day, even at the same time frame, is utterly absurd." Zhang Su felt his mouth dry and bitter. "This..." Suddenly, Zheng Xinyu paused, hastily opened her contacts to call her parents, but was only met with a busy tone. Upon checking her phone, she found the signal was completely gone! "Oh my god, I don’t know how my mom and dad are doing, boohoo." Thinking of her parents back home and uncertain of their safety, Zheng Xinyu’s tears couldn’t help but fall, soaking into her large T-shirt, forming dark blossoms. Zhang Su thought of his parents, who abandoned him feeling he was a burden, and sneered, saying, "Xinyu, don’t think too much for now—whether your parents are safe or not, you at least have to ensure your own safety to find out; first, see what messages you received on WeChat just now." Zhang Su consoled Zheng Xinyu, reminding her. Zheng Xinyu couldn’t stop crying, picked up her phone while sobbing, her tears blurring the screen. She wiped hard, opened WeChat’s folded groups. Having not looked at group messages for ages, most group chats had thousands of unread messages. "It’s over, it’s really a national outbreak..." Seeing them only made it worse, leaving Zheng Xinyu more devastated. Her social network was extensive—makeup, purchasing agents, group buying, gaming, etc., with various groups numbering over hundreds, people across the country all talking about local tragedies, none spared! "No, Brother Su, this... this disaster is global!" Zheng Xinyu opened a group, pointing out to those inside and said, "This group has agents from around the world—Europe, America, Australia, Africa have all had zombie virus outbreaks, it’s total chaos..." While speaking, she tried to open a video, but the network had already disconnected, and couldn’t play it. Only a still frame remained showing a blonde woman with a bloody mouth, aggressively lunging at the camera.