The apocalypse begins with a dungeon game.

"Good afternoon, humans. Today is the 3,985th day since the apocalypse. The current number of players remaining in the world is 1." A white cloud made of electronic gibberish spoke from mid-air.

Its vehicle-sized body was constantly covered with colorful codes and faulty square fragments.

The cloud was out of control, its shape extremely unstable, like it had drunk fake alcohol, constantly swirling erratically around a young man wearing a light blue pajama set.

Li Can stood on the concrete ground of the rooftop of the 24th floor, bent over, and carefully and cautiously tied a tight knot in the thick hemp rope around his waist. Then he raised his hand and pulled hard on the other end.

The hemp rope tightened rapidly on the iron railing at the edge of the rooftop, becoming tightly wrapped around it.

Slightly relieved, he didn't turn around, keeping his back to the garbled cloud.

"How much time do I have left?"

"24 hours, 3 minutes, and 17 seconds! After the countdown ends, the Blue Star server will be permanently shut down. You can spend one last beautiful day with the world and witness a grand and magnificent destruction. It's an unparalleled romance."

"Okay, I got it. Mute your microphone for a bit."

His gaze was fixed on the area below the rooftop, where hordes of zombies from all directions of the city were converging.

The stench of decay and putrefaction in the air constantly assaulted the nasal cavity; just one breath was enough to make one vomit instantly.

Dark clouds filled the sky above, and countless spatial rifts howled outwards with cold winds.

The surging turbulent currents crashed and collided in all directions. Not far away, the remaining broken arm of a tall building finally collapsed under the impact, and the whole world was shrouded in flying sand and stones.

"Romantic my foot!" he muttered.

A sudden clap of thunder boomed, and sparse raindrops began to fall.

Li Can stared at the small white vortex floating high in the sky outside the rooftop, his goal being to enter the teleportation array where it was located.

The vortex's location is fixed, and it can only be activated by someone physically touching it, which is why Li Can had to take the risk.

Charge up, run up, sprint, jump!

When the thunder roared again, he leaped high off the rooftop, just a hand's breadth away from touching it, narrowly missing it.

Li Can's body plummeted rapidly to the ground under the influence of inertia and gravity.

He fell to the height of the 18th floor, where he was pulled back by the ropes he had tied to his body beforehand. The rusty railings on the rooftop suddenly groaned under the strain.

His waist slammed hard against the window, and the dusty, cracked glass shattered. The remaining zombies inside rushed in and pounced on him through the window like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

The garbled cloud flew over at an angle, "Hey, human, you can have a perfect double suicide with Blue Star in 24 hours, why did you jump off the building? Don't rush."

Li Can: "..."

He was also desperate; just two hours earlier, he had been working as a doorman in his family's toy store.

As a result, he encountered a natural gas leak and explosion at the restaurant next door. After dying, he opened his eyes again and found himself in a post-apocalyptic world ten years in the future.

When it first arrived, this cloud exuded an ancient, solemn, and dignified aura, and solemnly instructed him on many matters:

"Upon entering this teleportation vortex, you must clear the level before the twelve-hour destruction deadline of Blue Star and obtain the sphere in order to extend the life of Blue Star. When the world is restored, you will be sent back."

"I am poisoned and may lose control. If you see anything unusual about my appearance, do not panic..."

At that moment, Li Can realized that he seemed to have come into contact with the truth of the world, and he seriously analyzed the situation with Yun.

However, before the whole story could be fully explained, Yun suddenly seemed to lose his mind, his body began to grow garbled characters, and he spoke in a strange and uncoordinated manner, making effective communication impossible.

He knew this might be what it called an uncontrolled poisoning reaction.

Under the immense pressure of the 24-hour countdown to Earth's destruction, he had no choice but to finally decide to try the method Yun had mentioned.

The rough hemp rope was tightly bound to her skin, and Li Can felt as if her flesh was about to burst.

When I first transmigrated, I was only wearing a thin nightgown, which was practically useless.

Li Can reached for the axe that had been tucked into his waistband beforehand, held the rope with one hand, and kept hacking at the zombies with the axe in the other, while also swinging himself up to avoid their attacks.

"Am I going to die...?" Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Time passed second by second. After dodging and killing hundreds of zombies, Li Can was severely exhausted.

"Click..."

At that moment, he heard the sound of mechanical gears turning.

In the pure white space of consciousness that suddenly appeared in Li Can's mind, he discovered three gashapon machines.

Two of them were in sleep mode and were shrouded in shadow, while only one was lit.

He was almost moved to tears.

"Is this some kind of perk or cheat code for transmigrators?"

As he struggled for his life, he turned on the only machine that was still lit.

Instantly, the gashapon capsules of various colors began to spin and tumble inside the transparent glass capsule.

Then, twelve empty gashapon capsules appeared out of thin air and surrounded Li Can. As if guided by a target, they directly and autonomously locked onto the nearby zombies.

"This is……"

This was his first time using the gashapon machine, and he wasn't yet able to control it with his mind.

【Puppet Egg No. 1】

[A highly decomposed male Type II zombie who enjoyed fishing in life. His zombie ability extends his arms by two meters, but it's not very useful since his arms are completely severed. He can only rely on his not-so-good teeth to gnaw at things.]

【Puppet Egg No. 2】

[A slightly decomposed female zombie of type 1. She has a positive attitude towards survival as a zombie; if she can't eat humans, she eats rats and her own kind. She possesses the ability to spray venom, but recently she's been too hungry and has no venom left.]

……

The empty eggshell automatically absorbed ten puppet eggs.

Seeing this, Li Can was so frightened that he quickly stopped them and took back the two empty gashapon capsules to keep them safe.

This stuff is very precious, so we can't use it all up at once.

"So the gashapon capsules I got were empty shells."

He now roughly understands the function of the machine.

It appears that this gashapon machine can extract empty gashapon capsules and then fill them with puppets, making it self-sufficient.

As for the other two that haven't been unlocked, it's hard to say yet; we'll have to wait and see.

He used his consciousness to directly control ten zombie puppets to block the window.

He finally had time to climb back up the rooftop little by little along the rope.

"Good afternoon, humans. Today is the 3,985th day since the apocalypse. There is currently one player remaining in the world. After the countdown of 23 hours, 44 minutes, and 12 seconds ends, the Blue Star server will be permanently shut down..."

"Mute."

"Okay."

Li Can lay on his back on the concrete ground of the rooftop, rainwater mixed with sweat pattering and merging together on his body.

Since transmigrating, he has encountered more bizarre events in these few short hours than in his entire life.

I used to only see "golden fingers" in novels, and now that I've actually encountered one myself, it feels a bit magical and unreal.

This thing looks so much like the gashapon machine in my toy store.

Li Can repeatedly studied the machine that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

The Puppet Gashapon Machine allows you to obtain 12 empty eggs without inserting coins, which can then be used to absorb and control puppets.

However, you'll need to insert coins to get more, and the current method for obtaining gashapon coins is unknown.

"They didn't even give us an instruction manual or anything."

Li Can then went to check the other two machines that were not powered on.

Below the egg dispenser on the machine were labels: [Supply Egg] and [Special Ability Egg].

"So, what are the activation conditions...?"

As he was pondering, a zombie vulture swooped down on him.

Visibility was blurred by the rain, and he was about to hide after he could see clearly.

But then, he took one of the two remaining empty capsule toys from his consciousness and aimed it precisely at the zombie vulture.

"Come on, fly this way."

【Puppet Egg No. 11】

[A slightly rotten but somewhat foolish zombie vulture, who considers himself a gourmet who enjoys his food, but actually scavenges for scraps every day. He possesses innate flying skills, and his talons are highly venomous. Tetanus warning.]

"Wow, this is great!"

Li Can excitedly manipulated the vulture puppet to fly himself directly above the vortex.

The moment his fingers touched the white light, his body was sucked into the teleportation array.

At the same time, on the shattered blue planet, ten zombie puppets and one vulture puppet disappeared simultaneously with Li Can.

Not long after he left, the garbled cloud drifted over, staring at the white vortex.

"Take care of yourself……"

These two words were extremely difficult to pronounce; the garbled text kept flashing, and the pronunciation of each syllable was interfered with.

the other side.

Li Can opened his eyes to the crackling sound of burning firewood.

In a forest clearing at night, a large, round iron pot hangs above a campfire, and seven people dressed in hospital gowns sit in a circle around it.

With him, there are exactly eight, filling the last gap.

The boiling broth churned in the pot, filling the air with the aroma of meat and scallions, constantly wafting into people's nostrils.

"Everyone's here for soup, we can start eating." The old woman, whose skin was translucent and who wore a navy blue linen dress and an apron, pushed up her slipping glasses.

She stirred the bottom of the pot with a spoon, her gaze sweeping around before settling on Li Can.