Everyone has their own troubles, but Lu Feng had never imagined misfortune would dog his every step. At the age of sixteen, just after getting into the best high school in the county, his father, who had been mixed up in shady dealings, suddenly passed away, leaving behind a mountain of debt.
He was forced to drop out of high school during what should have been his prime, shouldering a massive debt of over 300,000 yuan owed to relatives.
In the five years that followed, he lost count of how many jobs he'd worked. He and his mother scrimped and saved to repay the money, and they had only just recently cleared the last of their debt to their relatives.
He had thought he was finally free, that at twenty-two he could start thinking about his own aspirations and dreams. He dreamed of making something of himself, of saving up for a down payment on a house and marrying his girlfriend. But who could have known that his mother, worn down by years of hard work, would collapse from illness? The doctor said it was a vascular disease.
Although they were still running tests, he could tell from the doctor's brief words that the situation was very serious.
All the hardships of life had left a pressure building inside him with no release.
'This isn't how things were supposed to be.'
At the entrance of Youcheng County Hospital, Lu Feng parked a shared bike and got off, carrying a bag of toiletries.
Gazing at the hospital, he sighed with a sense of helplessness.
[Connection to the game world "After the Apocalypse" is being established...]
The voice that suddenly appeared in his mind made Lu Feng frown sharply.
'Is this a side effect of the electric shock?'
A colleague had recently roped him into playing a game called *After the Apocalypse*. He wasn't sure if it was because the game had high system requirements, but not long after he started playing, his phone had malfunctioned and given him an electric shock. For the past few days, he'd been experiencing auditory hallucinations.
'Maybe I should see a psychiatrist.'
He entered the hospital and walked up to a ward, where he saw a young man standing guard.
The young man had tattoos and didn't exactly look like an upstanding citizen, but he greeted Lu Feng warmly the moment he saw him. "You're here?"
"Brother Lin," Lu Feng replied, forcing a smile.
Lu Lin patted Lu Feng on the shoulder and said, "Brother Ming is inside. He and the guys scraped together some money for you."
Lu Feng entered the hospital room and saw his mother lying unconscious in bed, along with a burly young man.
The young man also had a python tattoo on his arm. This was Brother Ming, who was also his cousin. His father had been the one to take him under his wing.
Although his cousin hadn't made much money, he didn't have any bad habits like gambling. And even though he was a hustler, he had his principles and was fiercely loyal, which was why guys like Brother Lin followed him.
"Xiaofeng, you're here?" Yang Ming greeted him with a smile when he saw him.
"Cousin," Lu Feng replied with a hint of gratitude. This cousin really had helped his family a lot.
Yang Ming took out a card and handed it to Lu Feng. "There's 200,000 in here. Ah Lin and the other brothers who used to follow your dad all pitched in. Use it to treat your aunt's illness for now."
"Thank you, Cousin!" Lu Feng's eyes unexpectedly welled up as he looked at the bank card pressed into his hand.
Honestly, his mom's sudden illness had left him completely helpless, feeling as if the sky was falling. He was just a regular worker, and his mom only ran a small fruit stand. After paying off their debts, they had no savings at all.
The initial hospital fees had already wiped out everything they had. He didn't have a single cent for the subsequent surgery and treatment costs.
The money his cousin and Brother Lin's group had scraped together was truly a lifeline.
His father might not have done many good or right things in his life, but the young guys he'd taken under his wing back in the day were incredibly loyal.
'It's just... I just finished paying off one debt, and now I'm about to be 200,000 in the hole again.'
Given his mother's condition, he would have to be the one to slowly pay back this 200,000. For someone who had only graduated from middle school, with no capital, no special skills, and only knew how to do manual labor, it was another mountain of pressure.
Besides, a vascular disease was a major illness and very difficult to treat. Some conditions required surgeries that cost over a million. He had no idea if this 200,000 would even be enough.
The more Lu Feng thought about it, the more agitated he felt.
"Don't stress out too much. Go have a smoke and calm your nerves." Yang Ming took out a cigarette and a lighter and handed them to Lu Feng. He knew that a cigarette was a good way to decompress when the pressure was too high.
Lu Feng nodded and took the cigarette.
"No smoking in the patient rooms," a nurse warned as she entered.
Lu Feng gave an embarrassed smile.
Yang Ming patted his head. "Go to the public restroom. I'll keep watch here."
Lu Feng nodded, left the room with a sigh, and headed for the hospital's public restroom. He found a stall, lit the cigarette, and took a deep drag.
As he exhaled a cloud of smoke, he felt his mind clear and the pressure ease significantly. But at the same time, the voice in his head returned.
[Connection to the game world "After the Apocalypse" complete. Ready for entry. Enter?]
What was different this time was that a phantom image also appeared in his mind.
It was a dilapidated Gold shop. Overturned chairs littered the floor, and the entire store was covered in a thick layer of dust.
"It's not just auditory hallucinations anymore, now I'm having visual ones too?" Lu Feng slapped his head, a look of bewilderment on his face. "And there's an option to enter... Don't tell me I can actually go inside?"
In that very instant, he felt a pulling force surround him, and his vision went black. When light returned, his eyes shot wide open, and he stared in disbelief at the scene before him.
'This looks like one of the starting scenarios from *After the Apocalypse*.'
*After the Apocalypse* was an open-world game. At the start, players could choose from dozens of different characters, each with a unique opening scenario. The scene before him was one of them.
When he had played the game before, the character he'd chosen had started in this very scene.
This…
Then, a set of data appeared before Lu Feng's eyes:
Character: Lu Feng
Gender: Male
Level: 1
Strength: 6 (Average Human: 5)
Agility: 6 (Average Human: 5)
Stamina: 6 (Average Human: 5)
Spiritual Power: 0 (Non-Spiritual)
EXP: 0/100
'These look like the character stats from the game.'
'Did I enter the game and inherit the character's stat panel?'
His stats were clearly a bit better than the average person's. After all, he had worked in a factory for several years, so he was quite strong. Most normal people couldn't beat him in a fight.
Then, his gaze was completely captivated by the scene inside the shop. It was coated in a thick layer of dust, with cobwebs everywhere. Clearly, no one had been here for a very long time.
He walked up to a display case and looked inside. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of exquisitely crafted Gold jewelry.
In the world of *After the Apocalypse*, anything that couldn't fill your stomach had become worthless. Even Gold, which was incredibly valuable in the real world, was no different from trash.
When had Lu Feng ever seen so much Gold?
He glanced around, and in his excitement, he grabbed a chair and, with a loud CRASH, smashed the glass of a display case.
He then picked up a piece of Gold jewelry to examine it, only to see a message float before his eyes: [This is a piece of jewelry crafted from 24-karat gold!]
'Is this the game's exploration feature?'
In the game *After the Apocalypse*, whenever a character examined an item, information about it would appear.
He had apparently inherited this function as well.
Lu Feng quickly took off his shirt to use as a bag and began stuffing the Gold jewelry from the counter inside.
But just then, he heard footsteps outside the shop door, followed by a putrid stench. He saw one decaying figure after another—many with missing body parts—shambling into the Gold shop.
"Holy shit..." Lu Feng's face paled. He knew what these things were.
Zombies.
In the game *After the Apocalypse*, the standard monsters were zombies.
He knew the sound of him smashing the counter must have attracted them.
Upon entering the Gold shop, the zombies spotted Lu Feng. Drawn to this delicious-looking meal, they swarmed madly toward him.
Terrified, Lu Feng stumbled backward, tripped over a chair, and fell. In that instant, two zombies lunged at him.
He had nowhere to run.
'I'm done for!'
"Fuck, let me go back!" Lu Feng yelled in desperation. In that same instant, the tearing force appeared again, and a prompt sounded:
[Harmful substances successfully purged!]
Instantly, Lu Feng's vision went black again. When he could see, he was back in the hospital restroom.
He took a deep breath.
The experience felt like a dream.
But the heavy weight of the Gold in his hands felt just as unreal.