The apocalypse begins with a dungeon game.

Everything returned to calm, and Li Can pondered her words in his heart, feeling a sudden headache.

He leaned back in his chair, finally able to relax for a moment, and just slumped there.

After a moment, without changing his posture, he asked the white-clothed figure beside him:

Why did you give up the game?

Admittedly, in the time Li Can was unaware of, he guessed that this mysterious player knew just as many clues as he did.

From the moment we first met, he seemed like an insignificant person, just wandering around here.

That passive-aggressive attitude was never hidden from the beginning; it was openly displayed.

Bai Zhuo seemed lost in thought for a long while before replying, "Because I have my own way of escaping the instance, and I'm not here to compete with other players for game rewards."

"Then what are you here for?" Li Can asked the question that had been bothering her for a long time.

"Keep it a secret."

"..."

Since he was unwilling to say more and had his own means of self-preservation, Li Can did not press him further.

He stood up and walked towards the stairwell.

"Where to?"

Now it was Bai Zhuo who became curious about him.

Li Can left without looking back, leaving him with only her back view.

Bai Zhuo followed like a ghost the whole way.

Li Can first went to the 23rd floor, found the ward, opened the door and went in, then summoned several puppets.

The zombies wrapped the two skeletons on the hospital bed with sheets and blankets.

Among them, one is large and the other small; the skeleton of the adult woman and the body shape of the young girl are very distinct.

This is precisely the case of Chen Qixiang and Xiao Mo, who also died.

The last thing Li Can wanted to do before leaving was to bury them one by one.

After all five corpses had been cleaned and packed up, Li Can and his puppets stopped in the back mountain of Wenxin Mental Hospital.

It was still that peach blossom grove. Under the moonlight, the petals were blown down by the wind and fell to the ground, randomly scattered like stars, forming a painting.

He gripped a shovel he'd taken from the storeroom and began digging a hole under the tree.

"You're really kind of you." Bai Zhuo didn't help, but instead leaned against the tree trunk with his arms crossed and watched silently.

"They've been dead for so long, whether they're buried or not makes no difference."

"Besides, once we leave the instance world, we can no longer enter this place. Even if you want to come and pay your respects during festivals, there's nowhere to go, so why bother?"

Li Can was not disturbed and continued with her work.

"Looks like you're a veteran player," he said confidently.

"Yes, is this the first instance you've experienced? No wonder you're so sentimental. You should know that after the apocalypse, you'll meet countless people."

"Many friends will die inside or outside. Just digging holes and filling them with soil will be more than you can bury."

As if recalling something, Bai Zhuo's tone gradually turned desolate, "I used to be like you, always unable to let go of those who left. Inner demons are still a terrible thing."

I advise you to take it easy on yourself.

Li Can bent over and laid the corpses one by one at the bottom of the pit, then jumped out of the pit and stood still, holding a shovel in his hand.

"I do what I want to do, with a clear conscience, and I won't regret it even if I become a cold-blooded guy like you in the future."

As he spoke, he began filling the soil again.

Handfuls of black, fertile soil, strewn with pebbles, were tossed down, and in the dim night, faint, restless sounds could be heard from the woods.

The skeletons were eventually covered by soil, and their original appearance could no longer be seen.

"What's the apocalypse like outside now?" Li Can asked again.

He tamped the soil down with a shovel, and then found a few peach branches that looked brightly blooming and stuck them on the mound of earth.

"Outside, things are in complete chaos now."

"After the zombie virus outbreak, many people were infected and mutated. Even after they died, they were still divided into different classes. Some zombies were more powerful, while others were still very weak and could be blown up with a single blow."

"The toughest zombies are the evolved ones, which have broken away from the category of ordinary walking corpses and are similar to superhumans. Ordinary people can only pray for good luck when they encounter them, as they are doomed to die."

Bai Zhuo played with the branch he had picked from the tree, removing the withered and yellow parts, and then walked to the grave and stuck one on it.

"What, you're surprised? It's like you're not on Earth. Isn't that common sense?"

Li Can knew, of course, that he was no longer on Blue Star ten years ago; he only had a small part of his knowledge of the place now.

He rubbed his aching temples, his mind tense at one point and then completely relaxed, his nerves twitching restlessly.

An indescribable sadness welled up in his heart.

I don't know how my family is doing now.

The original plan was to see if there was a way to keep everyone alive after the game ended, and then entrust Chen Qi and the others to help him in the apocalypse.

At least having the support of a superhuman from the base might make things a little easier for the family.

But now he knows it's completely impossible. They had already died in the instance, and his encounter with them was just an illusion.

He has little time left before he leaves the game, and he needs to go back as soon as possible to extend the life of the future Earth.

It's hard to say whether we'll ever encounter humans from the past again.

What is the probability of such a timeline overlap?

Right now, there's only one guy who seems completely out of touch, but who's surprisingly adept at playing dungeon games, worth a try.

I don't know if my parents and sister Li Lan have awakened any special abilities. If they are still ordinary people, they really can't survive.

"Yes," Li Can replied.

Upon hearing this, Bai Zhuo seemed greatly shocked, looked at Li Can strangely, and then suddenly burst out laughing.

"You're really joking. Even at a time like this, you still have the mood to tell jokes to make me happy. Well then, tell me, are you an alien or a god?"

Li Can was only testing the waters; he wouldn't rashly entrust his children to this person and put his family in danger until he could confirm the person's trustworthiness.

If they are still alive and well, it would be a great loss if their recklessness led to their death or threat.

"If you don't believe me, fine. By the way, Chen Qixiang mentioned the first base before. Have you ever been there? Judging from your many methods, you shouldn't be a rogue cultivator, right?"

He chose to continue trying to elicit information.

Bai Zhuo stroked the edge of his mask, finally regaining some semblance of normalcy.

"Oh, you mean that one? It's the base I run."

His tone didn't sound like he was talking nonsense; he spoke with conviction.

Now it was Li Can's turn to be surprised, and he looked the person in front of him up and down again.

Considering his past deeds, it's not entirely unbelievable.

Li Can had never seen Bai Zhuo in action and didn't know the extent of his abilities. If that was the case, it would be better to test him.

Whether it's a lie or the truth, superpowers don't lie.

After all, if he were just an ordinary superhuman, it would be difficult for him to build such a large base for an organization; he must have some extraordinary abilities.

Power, the ability to unite and inspire, and competence are all indispensable.

The next second, Li Can summoned ten puppets evolved from experimental subjects collected in the game, which surrounded Bai Zhuo.

"What are you doing? You don't believe me? You want to try it out?" Bai Zhuo's face instantly turned cold.

Li Can crossed his arms and chuckled, neither confirming nor denying, "Let's have a friendly spar."