Chapter 4: South of the City

Once she made up her mind, Lin Wan didn’t waste another second.

The area marked by Eden was in the south of the city, about 3.2 kilometers from where she was now.

Under normal circumstances, it was only a little over forty minutes on foot, but accidents had already been piling up near Lianchuan Road, and the live traffic app on her phone showed several abnormal congestion points.

She avoided the main roads and picked a new route through the residential district instead. It meant a few extra blocks, and she would have to pass a small park along the way, but at least she had time. She didn’t need to risk herself just to move faster.

As for how she was supposed to find Gu Chen once she got there, Eden hadn’t said.

Lin Wan put her ID, wallet, and keys into the inner pocket of her backpack. She placed her phone and power bank where she could reach them easily, then added a bottle of water, a small amount of food, and some first-aid supplies.

She slid the craft knife into her pants pocket, then finally picked up the iron crowbar she had brought back from the convenience store.

She left everything else in the room.

She was only going to confirm whether Gu Chen really existed; she didn’t intend to leave home for good. If conditions allowed, she would still come back. There was food and water here, and this was the only place that could still be called safe.

Lin Wan shouldered her backpack and stood in front of the entryway.

The room still looked much the same as when she had returned. The supplies on the table were neatly sorted, the curtains covered most of the windows, and the faded plush rabbit by the headboard leaned quietly against the wall.

Only when she closed her hand around the doorknob did she truly realize what she was about to do.

To leave a relatively safe room on a city street where eroders were already beginning to appear, and go looking for someone who existed only in the memory of a novel.

It wasn’t a wise decision.

But if this really was Dawn of the End, then treating the chaos in front of her as something temporary would only make her miss the last window in which she could still move freely.

Lin Wan opened the door.

The stairwell was quieter than when she had come back. The door on the third floor was already shut, and the sound of the morning news drifted through the panels.

"...The police have currently implemented traffic control on certain accident-prone roads, and are urging citizens to avoid the affected areas unless necessary. If you encounter anyone behaving abnormally or showing signs of aggression, please keep your distance and call the police immediately..."

When she passed the second floor, Mrs. Chen’s door was closed tight.

Lin Wan walked all the way down to the first floor, checked the situation outside through the iron gate, and only then pushed the door open and stepped out.

Morning light had already fully brightened the street.

Compared with when she had returned, there were clearly more vehicles on the road.

Several cars heading toward Lianchuan Road were turning around at the alley entrance, with horns sounding now and then behind them.

Two riders on motorcycles had stopped by the roadside to check their navigation, while a few people nearby were discussing the traffic ahead.

"It’s jammed over on Peace Road too."

"Wasn’t it only Lianchuan Road?"

"No idea, the whole map is red on navigation."

"I just went past there. The police told everyone to take a detour."

The traffic that should have been concentrated on the main roads was forced to spread out, and a large number of vehicles began cutting into the side streets they normally never used.

Lin Wan didn’t follow the route her map suggested. She turned into the residential area behind the street instead.

After leaving Yong’an Road, the surroundings quickly quieted down.

Most of this area consisted of older apartment buildings and houses, with the occasional shop tucked into the ground floor. Some places had already opened for business, while others were still behind their metal shutters.

Lin Wan walked along the sidewalk with the crowbar in hand, keeping it close against her leg as much as possible. Now and then someone glanced her way, but no one came over to ask anything.

Her phone vibrated.

[Temporary traffic restrictions have been imposed on some roads in Qinghe City due to a sudden accident. Police urge road users to reroute in advance.]

She scanned the headline and closed the alert.

Right now, the important thing wasn’t knowing exactly what had happened everywhere. It was avoiding the areas that were already confirmed to be problematic.

When she reached the next intersection, more than a dozen people were gathered ahead.

Two sedans had scraped into each other, and the two drivers were standing by their cars arguing while a short line of traffic backed up behind them. Lin Wan didn’t approach. She simply went around from the other side.

"That guy suddenly rushed out of the alley. If I hadn’t swerved, what was I supposed to do, just hit him?"

"Where is he?"

"How would I know? He ran off ages ago!"

The voices came from behind her.

Lin Wan didn’t stop.

At this point, any strange incident could be related to an eroder, or it could just be an ordinary accident. She couldn’t afford to stop and confirm every single thing she ran into.

The novel could tell her the broad shape of the future, but it couldn’t tell her whether this particular intersection was safe.

She could only judge for herself.

After walking through two blocks, Eden still hadn’t given her any new instructions.

Lin Wan had originally thought it would guide her like navigation, but later realized that the marker in her vision only pointed toward a fixed area in the south of the city. It wouldn’t recalculate just because she chose a different road.

When she reached a fork in the road, she stopped to check the map on her phone.

The left side would get her to the south of the city faster, but it connected to a larger road. The right side would take a few extra minutes, but most of it ran through the residential district.

Lin Wan chose the right.

There was still time. No need to take extra risks just to save a few minutes.

The farther south she went, the more vehicles there were.

Because the main roads were under traffic control, many drivers had started diverting onto the side streets, and the narrow roads quickly became stop-and-go chaos.

A bus was stopped beside a sign ahead, and more than a dozen passengers were getting off one by one.

"It’s not going any farther?"

"The driver said Lianchuan Road is blocked, so we have to detour."

"Then how am I supposed to get to work?"

A few passengers stood on the sidewalk complaining, some were checking new routes, and others had already pulled out their phones to call for rides.

Lin Wan passed by them.

If she had chosen to take a car just now, she might have ended up trapped on the road instead.

Eden had said that after eight o’clock, moving around would become much more difficult.

At the very least, that was already beginning to come true.

A siren suddenly sounded ahead.

A police car sped through the intersection, followed closely by an ambulance. The people nearby only stopped to look for a moment before lowering their heads and going back to their own business.

From midnight until now, she had heard sounds like that too many times.

So many that they had started to feel normal.

But Lin Wan knew that behind every siren there could be one more point of failure.

After walking for more than twenty minutes, the familiar streets of her original neighborhood gradually fell behind her.

The buildings around her began to feel unfamiliar.

Lin Wan kept pulling out her phone to confirm the direction, while most of her attention stayed fixed on her surroundings, especially alley mouths, the gaps between parked vehicles, and any place where someone might suddenly appear.

What had happened in the convenience store had already made her understand that when real danger came, people might only have a few seconds to react.

While she was passing through a narrower street, she suddenly heard the sound of glass shattering ahead.

Lin Wan stopped.

The sound had come from an apartment building on her right.

A few seconds later, a second-floor window was shoved open.

"Are you fucking crazy?"

A man’s furious shout came from upstairs.

"Try throwing that again and see what happens!"

Someone shouted back from below soon after.

Just an argument.

After confirming that there were no other abnormalities around her, Lin Wan kept going.

She didn’t walk especially fast. If she couldn’t see clearly ahead, she would stop and check first; if there was a crowd gathering, she would detour in advance. The original 3.2-kilometer route was stretched out quite a bit this way, but fortunately, she still had enough time.

What Eden had given her was a time window, not a countdown she had to beat.

More important than speed was reaching there safely.

A little farther on, the residential buildings gradually thinned out.

More shops appeared along the sides of the street, and traffic became dense again. Several intersections ahead already revealed the taller apartment towers in the south of the city, and Eden’s marker was still pointing toward that area.

Lin Wan stopped by the roadside and took a sip of water.

If she kept going from here, she would soon pass the small park marked on the map.

She checked the route again.

A short stretch of congestion had appeared ahead on her original path, but another walking route could cut directly through the park and was actually shorter.

Lin Wan put her phone away and headed toward the park.

The entrance gradually came into view at the end of the street.

Rows of trees stood on both sides, and morning light slipped through the leaves. Inside, she could make out walking paths and pavilions. Compared with the increasingly crowded roads outside, that area was much quieter.

She walked toward the entrance with the crowbar in hand.

The direction marker at the edge of her vision was still pointing to the far side of the park.

Gu Chen was somewhere in this area.

As for exactly where, she still didn’t know.

Lin Wan stepped into the park and continued along the path ahead.