Apocalypse: I Can See Health Bars
Chapter 2: I Can See Health Bars

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: I Can See Health Bars

Lin Fan’s old classmates and friends were scattered to the ends of the earth, and they didn’t really keep in touch.

He opened WeChat. A few group chats with 999+ unread messages were at the top, all of them group-buy or gaming groups.

One message, in particular, stood out to Lin Fan. It was from his neighbor, Su Qing.

Friday, 9:10 AM

"Lin Fan, are you at your shop?"

"I saw your shop wasn’t open. Are you home?"

Friday, 5:33 PM

"Lin Fan, I’m too scared to go out. You’re a doctor, do you know what’s happening outside?"

Yesterday, 7:34 PM

"Lin Fan, I think I hear strange noises from upstairs. It couldn’t be Brother Li and the others..."

"Have you gotten sick too?"

"[Collapse][Collapse][Collapse]"

Looking at the message list on WeChat, Lin Fan’s heart sank.

Still, he tried to reply:

"I just saw this. Sister Su, are you home?"

The "sending" icon spun for a moment, then a red exclamation mark appeared. Still no network connection at all.

Lin Fan sighed, tapped the back button, and started scrolling through his group chat histories one by one.

The gaming group was full of online friends from all over the country, and their recent chat history was mostly complaints:

"Why haven’t rescuers arrived yet! What are the officials doing!"

"What are we going to eat if this keeps up!"

"Find your own way to a nearby safe zone! There are no rescuers coming!"

"The power at my place has been out for ages... My phone is almost dead too. Goodbye forever, bros."

"How can there be no rescue! Zombies are just flesh and blood; how could they possibly stop the army!"

"The tide of steel!"

The last message was from a little after 2 AM last night. The network must have gone down around then.

Although he couldn’t open any pictures or videos, he was able to piece together quite a bit from their conversations and the news headlines.

The disaster must have broken out suddenly.

While the first wave of chaos came from hospitals, Lin Fan suspected that was simply because hospitals were full of patients who were already physically weak.

Those with better physical constitutions didn’t show symptoms until the next day, or even that evening.

This meant that even if most police officers and soldiers were mobilized on the night of the 24th, they would still face continuous attacks from within their own ranks just a few hours later.

If a scratch or a bite could turn someone into a zombie, then aside from a few lucky ones, the prognosis for the number of surviving police and soldiers was grim.

He then checked a few community group-buy chats. The last few messages were all complaints, emotional outbursts, or questions about when rescue would arrive and how their food supplies wouldn’t last more than a few days.

Seeing them mention food, Lin Fan hurried to the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets and refrigerator...

...and his expression soured.

He had never been in the habit of stockpiling food, especially in the summer. All he had was some rice, dried noodles, and eggs. There were also a few pieces of frozen meat in the freezer.

It was enough for three or four days at most. He did have a whole jug of cooking oil, but it wasn’t like he could drink that...

Just as he was thinking this, his phone suddenly started vibrating violently. A flash SMS lit up the screen!

[Linjiang Provisional Military and Political Command HQ Announcement: All survivors, please make your way to Linjiang University, ensuring your own safety first! Our forces have established a quarantine zone at Linjiang University! If you are in the city center or too far away, please lock your doors and windows, conserve food and water, and await rescue! The government guarantees that no one will be abandoned!]

Linjiang University!

Lin Fan opened his offline map and frowned.

The straight-line distance was over thirty kilometers. Normally, it would take an hour to drive there.

Let alone now!

Faint curses could be heard from the surrounding buildings, and the zombies on the street, drawn by the sound, restlessly searched for prey in the standing water.

"How the hell am I supposed to get close to that?!"

’How am I supposed to get there?’

’In my dreams?’

But a faraway quarantine zone wasn’t the most pressing matter right now!

Lin Fan tossed his phone aside, went to the kitchen, and started filling every container he could find with tap water.

He lit both stove burners and started boiling water for the eggs and frozen meat. At least he could get them cooked first.

The cell network was already down. The electricity, tap water, or gas could be cut off at any moment. He had to be prepared!

’Looks like there are still some people who survived...’

For some reason, as soon as he had that thought, he recalled the cool, fresh scent of the last person he saw before he passed out.

...

THUD—

THUD—

THUD—

Lin Fan had just taken a few bites of a boiled egg when a series of low thuds came from the front door.

’Speak of the devil? Who would be knocking at a time like this?’

He tiptoed barefoot to the door and peered through the peephole.

One look made his scalp go numb!

Outside the door, a gory, mangled zombie was mindlessly banging its forehead against Lin Fan’s door.

The right side of the zombie’s face was torn completely open, exposing bluish-black blood vessels and a grayish-white eyeball. Scraps of flesh hung from its chin, swaying back and forth with the zombie’s movements.

Even though Lin Fan had practiced medicine for years and seen plenty of corpses, this was the first time he had ever seen something so disgusting!

Lin Fan recognized the man. It was Brother Li from upstairs, the one mentioned in the messages. He really had turned into a zombie!

Lin Fan quickly went to the kitchen and grabbed his heaviest bone cleaver. He stood behind the door, holding the blade. Although the zombie probably couldn’t break down his security door, having a weapon in hand was reassuring.

When Lin Fan looked through the peephole again to check on the zombie’s movements, he suddenly froze...

A blood-red bar had appeared above the zombie’s head, with the numbers [296/300] on it.

’What is this? Did I eat a bad egg and start hallucinating?’

Lin Fan rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He stared out again, and the red bar was still there, looking even clearer than before.

The zombie must have just been wandering the hallway aimlessly. Seeing no reaction from this door, it turned and went to the door of apartment 302 across the hall, and began banging its head against it.

The red bar moved a little further away along with the zombie, but it didn’t stop Lin Fan from clearly seeing the numbers on it.

’This feeling of déjà vu... Why does it look so much like a health bar from a video game?’ he wondered, hazarding a wild guess.

"Aah—"

Suddenly, a woman’s terrified scream came from behind the opposite door.

Although the latter half of the scream was choked back, the short, sharp sound still made the completely focused Lin Fan jump—to say nothing of the zombie!

Like a hyena that had smelled carrion, the zombie instantly became agitated and began violently rattling the iron security gate of 302!

It made continuous BANG! BANG! BANG! sounds.

Unlike Lin Fan’s modern security door, the door to 302 was the kind from the 80s or 90s, with an outer iron gate and an inner wooden door.

The iron gate was already starting to twist and deform from the zombie’s constant pulling and slamming. Although it still looked fairly sturdy, there was no telling how long it would hold...

If it broke off, Lin Fan highly doubted the wooden door inside could withstand the zombie’s assault!

...