(All events in this story take place in a parallel world. It merely uses some real place names. If the place names change later on, that means this book has been sanctioned!)
This novel has no female lead, which mainly means there will be no romance plot. The protagonist is not a eunuch!
Although the protagonist is decisive by nature, as a public official, he will regard saving the world as his duty and will not slaughter innocents indiscriminately.
The equipment data in this book will adhere to reality as closely as possible. If you want to know what Cold War weapons the System has, you can skip ahead to Chapter 101, where they are explained in detail.
The virus has spread worldwide. No country can escape it!
(Brain-storage area. The cause of the apocalypse is hard to work out, so please do not scrutinize it too closely!)
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Map of Heping Town
Nathan Cole stood quietly before the gates of the Heping Town government compound. The N95 mask on his face was full of creases, marks left by wearing it for too long.
The jacket he wore was somewhat untidy, his hair was a little disheveled, and his eyes were thick with exhaustion.
He was twenty-eight years old, a native of Jinchang, Gansu. Four years ago, through his own efforts, he had stood out amid the fierce competition of the provincial civil-service examination and arrived in Heping Town, Yuzhong County, Lanzhou, beginning his career as a "civil servant."
A year earlier, thanks to the trend of appointing younger officials, the organization had entrusted him with an important post and promoted him to head of Heping Town's Armed Forces Department, officially placing him among the ranks of deputy section-level officials.
In the eyes of others, he might have been merely one of the many "structurally selected officials."
So-called "structural officials" were young officials precisely picked from personnel rosters by the Organization Department according to rigid criteria such as age, background, and educational qualifications.
But for Nathan, a young man adrift far from his hometown, this was undoubtedly a tremendous turning point in his life.
He treasured this hard-won opportunity deeply. Every day, he gave his all and worked diligently, hoping that one day he could rise even further.
But these were troubled times. Since March 2025, a mysterious virus had quietly begun spreading rapidly across the globe.
The virus was primarily airborne, and its infectiousness was far more ferocious than that of the previous XG virus.
Basic protective measures such as wearing masks, washing hands frequently, and disinfecting regularly were utterly useless against it.
In barely over a month, the virus swept across the world at an almost insane speed, infecting more than 80 percent of the population.
In the early stages of infection, symptoms included headaches, coughing, runny noses, and diarrhea.
Three or four days later came aching limbs, weakness throughout the body, and other symptoms.
Fortunately, since the outbreak began, there had not been a single death directly caused by the virus.
For that reason, the government had not imposed large-scale lockdown measures as it had last time. Instead, it strengthened public outreach and reassurance through various channels.
People who were infected were urged to avoid gatherings as much as possible, rest and recuperate, seek medical treatment scientifically, and stagger their hospital visits.
After all, with no specific medicine available, hospitals were packed to capacity, and those with relatively mild symptoms could not even get an appointment.
Although this virus was not fatal, many infected people were unable to work or live normally because of the pain throughout their bodies and the weakness in their muscles.
As officials at the Heping Town government were successively struck down by the virus, the government's various functions gradually came to a standstill.
As the only "lucky one" in the leadership team who had not been infected, Nathan had been entrusted by the town secretary with the heavy burden of epidemic prevention for the entire town.
Ever since the outbreak began, he had not had a single good night's sleep.
Every day, he not only had to deal with work directives pouring in from higher authorities like snowflakes, but also rack his brains coordinating the town's prevention and control efforts.
With human resources in desperately short supply, he could only keep spinning nonstop like a tireless top.
For the past few days, Nathan had been visiting elderly people living alone throughout the town with several officials who were uninfected or had relatively mild symptoms, as well as some community workers.
They were mainly afraid that these elderly people might become infected, lose their mobility, and starve to death at home.
Thus, Nathan and the others could only go door to door, solely to ensure the elderly residents' safety.
At this moment, following a list, Nathan was preparing to visit an elderly person living alone in the residential complex across from the town government.
Just as he crossed the road and was about to enter the complex gates, a heart-wrenching scream suddenly rang out beside him.
Nathan's heart clenched. He instinctively turned his head, and the sight before him instantly froze his blood, terrifying him out of his wits.
A burly middle-aged man had violently tackled someone nearby to the ground and was frantically tearing into and chewing on the person's neck.
Despite the considerable distance between them, Nathan could clearly see blood spurting from the victim's bitten neck.
The bitten person's limbs struggled weakly, while their throat could produce only hoarse, rasping sounds.
The scene sent the already sparse pedestrians on the street into a panic. Like startled birds and beasts, they scattered in all directions, screams and cries echoing everywhere.
As the crowd fled in a frenzy, more people howled and transformed into corpses, attacking those around them just as the middle-aged man had.
Nathan stood rooted to the spot, staring at the chaotic, horrifying scene before him. His hands and feet turned ice-cold in an instant, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
Scenes from zombie films he had watched in the past surfaced in his mind unbidden. Those horrific images that had once been fiction were now playing out before his very eyes.
Before he could recover, an old man seven or eight meters away suddenly rolled his eyes white. Drool streamed constantly from the corners of his mouth as he charged at Nathan in a twisted, bizarre posture.
At the critical moment, Nathan viciously bit the tip of his tongue. A sharp wave of pain shot through his body, instantly clearing his muddled mind.
Driven by the instinct to survive, he turned and sprinted with all his strength toward a hotel nearby.
As for charging forward to engage a zombie in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat like the protagonists in films and novels, that was never an option for him.
He knew perfectly well what he was capable of. Rushing in blindly before he understood the situation would only be throwing his life away.
He had only been promoted a little over a year ago. His good life had just begun, and he had no intention of becoming zombie food.
While running, Nathan hurriedly glanced back.
It seemed that the old zombie had only recently mutated. His body swayed unsteadily, his legs twisted like pretzels, and he was not moving very quickly.
Breathing a slight sigh of relief, Nathan dashed into the hotel by the roadside.
After entering, Nathan discovered that the lobby was completely empty. He quickly swept his gaze around and spotted an open door beside the first-floor corridor.
Through the glass, he saw the old zombie shambling crookedly and writhing toward the hotel. Without time to think, he slipped straight into that room.
Once inside, he realized it was the hotel's first-floor linen room, laid out as an outer room and an inner room.
The outer room contained neat rows of shelves piled with all kinds of guest-room supplies.
The inner room appeared to be specifically for storing sheets and duvet covers, and carried a faint scent of detergent.
Nathan gently closed the outer door, then crept toward the inner room on tiptoe.
However, before he could approach it, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from within.
Nathan's heartbeat abruptly accelerated. He swallowed nervously and fixed his eyes on the entrance to the inner room.
Before he could prepare himself, a chilling snarl came from inside.
Then, a middle-aged woman in a hotel cleaner's uniform staggered out.
Her complexion was deathly gray, her eyeballs bulged outward, and the veins and tendons on her face stood out grotesquely, making her look especially terrifying.
Nathan's mind went blank. Seeing that she was about to pounce, his desire to survive made his body react instinctively.
Linen Cart
In a panic, he grabbed the handle of a linen cart beside him, planted his feet, and rammed the cart into the woman.
With a bang, the linen cart slammed hard into her waist and abdomen.
Her body snapped backward from the impact. Nathan did not dare pause for even a second. Gritting his teeth, he summoned all his strength and continued driving the linen cart forward, shoving her directly against the window in the inner room.
Nathan held the cart in place with all his might. The joints of his hands turned white from the strain, and veins bulged across the backs of them.
Meanwhile, the woman shrieked madly from behind the cart, relentlessly clawing forward with both hands, making Nathan's heart leap into his throat.
Fortunately, the hotel's linen cart was large and sturdy. No matter how she flailed her hands, she could not reach Nathan.
Staring at the zombie woman so close before him, Nathan was terrified. While bracing the linen cart with all his strength, he rapidly scanned the inner room for something he could use as a weapon.
But the inner room contained only rows of shelves and stacks of sheets and duvet covers.
Then Nathan's eyes lit up. Beside the linen cart, he saw a folding metal chair.
After a moment's thought, he suddenly yanked the linen cart backward. The force the woman had been desperately pushing against vanished in an instant. Carried by her momentum, she lost her balance and pitched forward onto the floor.
Seeing that his plan had worked, Nathan steeled himself. Gripping the folding metal chair tightly with both hands, he brought it down on her head and body.
Once, twice... roaring, he struck her more than ten times in succession, stopping only when she had completely ceased moving.
By then, Nathan's clothes, the floor, and even the linen cart were covered in a red-and-white mixture. A pungent stench of blood filled the entire linen room, nearly suffocating him.
Nathan's hands would not stop shaking. The folding metal chair in his grip fell to the floor with a clang.
Before he could even catch his breath, a violent pounding erupted at the outer door.
He knew that the noise had drawn other zombies over. Most likely, it was the old zombie that had followed him.
Nathan did not dare let down his guard. Suppressing the fear in his heart, he quickly went to the outer room.
His hands shook so badly that they would barely obey him. It took enormous effort to engage the safety lock on the door.
Then Nathan drew a deep breath, trying to suppress the fear in his heart. Using every ounce of strength he had, he dragged a shelving unit over and laboriously wedged it against the door.
After finishing all this, his legs gave out, and he slowly slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
At that moment, Nathan felt his heart pounding so hard it seemed ready to burst from his throat. Fine beads of sweat seeped across his back, his limbs twitched faintly, his head buzzed, and his entire body felt drained of strength.
This was actually a normal physiological response after extreme fright or stress, though different people reacted differently under such extreme circumstances.
Nathan gasped for breath several times. When he looked up, he saw the ominous filth staining his pant leg, and the disgusting sight instantly churned his stomach.
"Urk... urk..." Unable to hold it back any longer, he bent over and dry-heaved onto the floor. His stomach churned violently, but nothing came out. Only sour gastric fluid kept rising into his throat, tormenting him.
Just then, a voice like an electronic synthesizer suddenly sounded beside his ear.
[Ding! System loading. Please wait, Commander.]
Nathan jumped at the abrupt voice, his body going rigid.
After a brief moment of shock, his face was instantly overtaken by uncontrollable excitement.
A System?
Could this be that magical System everyone had already written to death in novels?
In the coming apocalypse, if he had a System in his hands, then wouldn't that mean...
"Hiss..." He did not dare think about it. He truly did not dare.
Nathan began guessing what kind of System his might be.
Could it be a war system like Red Alert, capable of summoning powerful armies and constructing impregnable bases? Or an arsenal system possessing countless advanced weapons and pieces of equipment?
Countless possibilities flashed through his mind one after another, temporarily making him forget the fear and danger around him.
What he did not know was that beyond the hotel, chaos and despair were spreading.
More and more people in the streets, residential complexes, and schools were turning into zombies and pouncing on those nearby.
And those who had been bitten would soon drag their mangled bodies along as they, too, became zombies.
More and more zombies wandered aimlessly through the streets, letting out hair-raising snarls.
The apocalypse was quietly arriving.
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