Chapter 3: Gu Chen

After leaving the convenience store, Lin Wan followed the body owner's memories toward the apartment she rented.

The backpack weighed heavily on her shoulder, and the two shopping bags kept bumping against her legs with each step.

What had been a fifteen-minute walk now felt unbearably long.

At every corner, she checked the opposite side first before moving on.

The man from the convenience store still wouldn't leave her thoughts.

Bloodshot eyes, the sudden lunge, the crash of shelves toppling over and over. Any small disturbance nearby made those scenes rise up again.

Then a siren wailed ahead.

A police car sped through the intersection, red and blue lights washing across the facades of the buildings on both sides.

Less than half a minute later, an ambulance went in the other direction, and before its siren had even faded completely, another sound rose faintly from farther away.

In just a few minutes, she'd heard sirens three times.

The sky was a little brighter than when she left the convenience store.

Morning light was slowly seeping in from the east, and the residential district was starting to stir.

Someone carried trash toward the alley mouth. Someone stood on a balcony looking out. Snatches of conversation drifted over from nearby.

"Why are there police cars everywhere today?"

"It sounds like something happened on Lianchuan Road again."

"Didn't it happen in Peace District too?"

Lin Wan didn't stop.

The man in the convenience store wasn't the first, and he wouldn't be the last.

As she passed a row of parking spaces, she caught a faint smell of blood.

A scooter lay on its side by the road, scattered groceries around it. A white helmet lay upside down not far away, its edge smeared with a few already-darkened drops of blood, and the trail on the pavement ran all the way to the mouth of the alley beside it.

There was no one visible inside.

Lin Wan skirted the blood and kept going.

Not far ahead, an old woman came by leading a Shiba Inu. The dog had been sniffing the roadside with its head down, but as it neared another alley it suddenly froze, every muscle tensing, a low growl rumbling in its throat.

The old woman tugged on the leash, but the Shiba only shrank back.

Deep in the alley, only overturned garbage bags and a dark smear along the wall could be seen, stretching to the corner and disappearing around it.

After a few seconds of hesitation, the old woman led the dog down another street.

Lin Wan didn't go closer either.

At that moment, her phone vibrated.

[Another assault incident has been reported in Peace District. Police have already rushed to the scene. The public is advised to keep away.]

The location of the incident was less than two kilometers from where she stood.

The news was brief, saying only that the injured had been taken to the hospital and police were handling the scene.

But several eyewitness comments below mentioned that after the attacker was subdued by multiple people, he still kept struggling, and that there was even another clash after the ambulance arrived.

Lin Wan closed the page.

Just one more block ahead was the apartment where the body had lived.

The iron gate stood half open. She pushed it aside, and the motion-sensor light immediately came on, filling the entrance with the damp smell of concrete.

Even though this was the first time she'd truly been here, she somehow knew she lived in the second unit on the left on the fourth floor, and she even knew the motion-sensor light at the second-floor landing always took half a beat longer to turn on.

When she reached the second floor, a door happened to open.

A woman in her fifties stepped out carrying a garbage bag. When she saw Lin Wan, she smiled.

"Got off work early today?"

Lin Wan knew her.

Mrs. Chen from the second floor.

"Mm, I came back early."

Mrs. Chen glanced at the things in her hands and didn't ask any more. She only said offhandedly, "No idea what's going on outside today. Police sirens have been going all night."

Lin Wan paused.

"If you're going out today, be careful. There have already been several assault incidents nearby."

"That serious?"

"Mm."

Mrs. Chen unconsciously took out her phone.

Lin Wan kept going up the stairs.

When she passed the third floor, a morning news broadcast was coming from a half-closed door.

"...Since last night, multiple sudden violent incidents have occurred one after another across different areas. Several cases are still under investigation. Police remind the public to keep their distance and call the police immediately if they encounter anyone behaving abnormally or showing signs of aggression..."

The anchor's tone remained steady.

Lin Wan went up to the fourth floor and stopped at her door.

After the key slid into the lock, her body almost naturally nudged the door inward once before turning the key.

The studio, barely 165 square feet, could be taken in at a glance.

A single bed sat against the wall. Several books and loose receipts were piled on the desk. Water and electricity bills were taped to the side of the mini-fridge.

Every item had its place in the body owner's memories, but to Lin Wan it was still the room of a stranger.

She carried the supplies inside, locked the door from the inside, and then fastened the chain.

The moment she took off the backpack, a wave of soreness shot through her shoulders. Lin Wan didn't rest right away. She checked the bathroom, closet, and under the bed first, then made sure the window was locked before drawing the curtains almost all the way shut.

When she returned to the bed, she noticed a faded plush rabbit at the headboard.

A memory surfaced with it.

It had been a gift from a child in the welfare home, one much younger than the body owner. On the day she left, that child had cried miserably, and in the end she had still stuffed the rabbit into her suitcase.

Lin Wan knew the child's name, and she remembered how cold that day had been.

But it wasn't a life she had truly lived.

She reached out, righted the crooked rabbit, and turned to sort through the supplies she'd brought back.

Bottled water, sports drinks, dry rations, canned food, first aid supplies, a flashlight, and tools were placed on the table one by one. Then she checked the food already in the room.

There were still eggs, tofu, milk, last night's leftover curry, and some frozen food in the fridge. The cupboards held rice, instant noodles, canned goods, and dry noodles.

Combined with what she'd just brought back, she didn't have to worry about food for the time being.

The only question was how long the situation outside would last.

Lin Wan pulled open the desk drawer, intending to find paper and a pen to record her supplies, but instead found a worn notebook first.

The first few pages recorded this month's expenses and shift schedule, while the later pages listed a few household items the owner had planned to buy during her upcoming time off.

That had been the life the body owner had originally planned to keep living.

Lin Wan turned to the blank pages at the back.

The tip of the pen had barely touched the paper when white text suddenly appeared in the center of her vision.

[Guidance information updated.]

The next line appeared right after it.

[Recommended arrival at designated area before 08:00.]

A simple directional marker appeared at the edge of her vision.

[Distance: 3.2 km]

Lin Wan stared at the marker.

"Why?"

[Based on the current data model, moving to that area can increase the host's short-term survival rate.]

This was the first time Eden had proactively designated a clear destination for her.

"What's there?"

[Insufficient data available.]

"You don't know what's there, and you still want me to go?"

[The recommendation is based on the calculated results of multiple survival variables.]

Lin Wan frowned.

"Why before eight?"

[Predictions indicate that after 08:00, traffic efficiency on Qinghe City's main roads will continue to decline.]

This time, the answer was much more specific.

[The number of traffic accidents has risen over the past six hours.]

[Police and emergency medical dispatch frequency continues to increase.]

[Some major roads are already showing abnormal congestion.]

The city outside was slowly waking up.

In just over an hour, a heavy wave of commuter traffic would be pouring onto the roads. If those assault incidents kept increasing, moving around the city later would only become harder.

Lin Wan lowered her head and looked at the supplies on the table.

The most sensible choice should have been to stay here, lock the door, and wait for the police to get the situation under control.

But Eden was telling her to go out now.

"What if I stay?"

After a few seconds, new numbers appeared.

[24-hour survival rate: 6.7%]

Still absurdly low.

"What if I go to the place you specified?"

[There are too many unpredictable variables to provide a fixed value.]

"Then why do you think going is better?"

[Predicted appearance of a key individual in that area who can improve the host's short-term survival rate.]

Lin Wan's gaze stilled.

"Who?"

[Gu Chen.]

Her fingers went rigid all at once.

She had seen that name before.

Not in the body owner's memories.

In her own.

The light of her phone screen on the night before she crossed over, the half-read novel page, and the name that kept appearing in the story all surfaced in an instant.

Doomsday Dawn.

The novel she had been rereading before she crossed over.

The male lead was named Gu Chen.

Lin Wan sat there in place, as if a missing piece in her mind had suddenly clicked into place.

The man losing control in the convenience store.

The rapidly increasing number of abnormal assault incidents in a short span of time.

Those people who could still keep moving even after suffering severe injuries.

And Gu Chen.

One name could be a coincidence.

But when all of these things appeared together, coincidence started to feel forced.

Lin Wan picked up her phone and searched for Doomsday Dawn.

Nothing.

There was no author name either.

She searched a few more character names she still remembered, but there was still nothing connected to the novel.

Slowly, Lin Wan set the phone down.

More memories began to surface.

The story of Doomsday Dawn didn't begin after the world completely collapsed.

At first, there were only scattered assault incidents of a similar kind in different places.

Then the numbers rose rapidly, and hospitals, police, and ambulance systems were the first to be overwhelmed.

Only when more and more of the injured lost control again did those scattered incidents truly become one disaster.

When she'd read it before, those were just a few opening paragraphs skimmed over in the background.

But now, she was standing inside that background.

Another term surfaced in her mind.

Eroders.

Lin Wan thought of the man in the convenience store.

If she remembered correctly, the one who'd been bitten and quickly lost his mind was an Eroder.

And that was only the beginning.

After that, order in the city would gradually collapse, survivors would gather, and various bases of different sizes would eventually form. A few people would awaken special abilities in the disaster.

She remembered all of that.

Unfortunately, the most useful part was the part she remembered least.

A novel was not a survival manual.

No one would bother telling you which road would start clogging at what time, and no one would write down when a certain apartment building would lose water and power.

The phrase "the city quickly falls into chaos" might, in reality, mean a few hours, or it might mean a few days.

She knew the broad shape of the future.

But she didn't know what would happen in the next hour.

More importantly, she had no idea whether there had even been a "Lin Wan" in the original novel.

That thought quieted her.

The convenience store.

The night-shift clerk.

An Eroder appearing just as the disaster began.

A vague stretch of plot seemed to flicker through her memory, but she still couldn't grasp it clearly.

Maybe she'd simply forgotten.

Maybe this body hadn't even lived long enough to reach the true beginning of the story.

Lin Wan looked back at the directional marker in her vision.

[Distance: 3.2 km]

She didn't decide immediately.

If she stayed here, at least for now she had food, water, and a door and windows she could lock.

But if this really was the world of Doomsday Dawn, she also knew that nowhere safe stayed safe forever.

As for Gu Chen, he didn't necessarily equal safety either.

She remembered that this man would survive for a very long time and later become one of the core figures among the survivors. But wherever the original novel's protagonist went, it often meant more dangerous events as well.

Getting close to him might improve her chances of survival.

It might also mean walking straight into trouble.

Lin Wan lowered her eyes to the convenience-store uniform she was still wearing.

Only then did exhaustion finally surge up.

She took a change of clothes into the bathroom, quickly washed off the sweat and grime on her body, and dealt with the scrape on her arm.

After changing into pants and a thin jacket that were easier to move in, she reheated the leftover curry in the fridge and sat at the table to finish it slowly.

During that time, several more breaking messages popped up on her phone in succession.

Another assault incident in Qinghe City.

A conflict at a hospital in Beicheng.

Police in Linjiang City were handling a multiple-attack incident.

Different cities.

Nearly the same abnormalities.

Lin Wan looked at those place names.

If her memory wasn't wrong, it really had started.

The sky outside grew brighter and brighter.

Traffic gradually increased, voices occasionally drifted up from downstairs, and police sirens could still be heard in the distance.

The whole city was waking up as usual.

Most people would still go to work, shops would open, and buses would keep arriving on schedule.

No one knew what made this morning different from yesterday.

Yet Lin Wan sat in a studio of less than 165 square feet, staring at the directional marker only she could see.

[Distance: 3.2 km]

[Recommended arrival before 08:00]

She set down her glass of water.

"If I find Gu Chen, will my survival rate really go up?"

[Based on the current model, yes.]

"Are you sure he'll be there?"

[Unable to confirm.]

Lin Wan frowned.

"Then why are you telling me to go?"

[Based on the current data projection, the target is highly likely to appear in that area within the specified time window.]

"And if he doesn't show up?"

[Rebuild the survival model.]

Very much like Eden.

It didn't promise results. It only laid the options with the higher current probability out in front of her.

Whether to step outside or not was still her own decision.

Lin Wan looked out the window again.

If she stayed, she could hide here for the time being.

If she went out, she might run into the same thing as in the convenience store again, or even get dragged into the dangers that were supposed to happen in the original story.

But she also knew that the man called Gu Chen would survive for a very long time in this disaster.

At least much longer than she would now.

Lin Wan sat for a while, then finally stood up.

She reorganized her backpack, putting in the water, dry rations, first aid supplies, and tools.

She still didn't fully trust Eden.

And she wasn't going to hand her life over to a stranger just because he was the original novel's male lead.

She only wanted to confirm.

Confirm whether Gu Chen really existed.

And confirm what kind of world she'd ended up in.

Lin Wan slung the backpack on again and picked up the crowbar.

At the edge of her vision, the directional marker still pointed toward the south of the city.

[Distance: 3.2 km]

She took one last look at the locked door, then turned and walked out.