Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Xie Ning fiddled with the bullets clinking inside the small box, a wide smile on her face as she glanced at the electronic Little Spider.

”Aren’t there 100 rounds? The access level is decent enough, right?”

Electronic Spider: WHIMPER WHIMPER WHIMPER, Devil, Devil!

”Let me ask you something. While you’re by my side, can your so-called master... that great system, use you to conduct full surveillance on me?”

”Of course.”

”Then disconnect yourself from that great system right now. From now on, don’t let anyone monitor me, or I’ll crush you on the spot.”

Xie Ning now had a small advantage to rely on, and she felt that dreaming with the Spiritual System was pretty good.

The moment she closed her eyes, even though it wasn’t a deep sleep, she could at least see impending dangers around her in her dreams.

If someone were monitoring her secretly, her Spiritual Sensing would probably alert her to it.

”How is that possible? 00008531 will not betray the great system. I belong to the great system, in life and in...”

Xie Ning set the bottle cap aside and reached out to pick up the bottle.

”System initiating BUG scan.”

”Estimated time: five minutes.”

”Hurry it up. I want to sleep.”

”System scan complete. Preparing to disconnect from the great system. Countdown: ten, nine...”

”System disconnection complete. Preparing to reboot.”

”Querying subject: willing to interface?”

”I guess, but if you dare crawl into my brain, I’ll dismember you into eighteen pieces.”

’What a disgusting piece of work. There must be a more advanced method for a human brain to interface with an AI.’

”The subject need not worry. Previously, it was because Wang Qingyao’s cerebral neuron clusters were extremely slow and weak, so the only option was to crawl into the brain to interface.”

”But you, Subject, are different. Your brainwaves are abnormally strong and your spiritual power is extremely resilient. We can use virtual sensors to interface with the subject.”

’Resilient spiritual power?’ Xie Ning blinked and saw the electronic Little Spider emit a faint blue light that enveloped her.

”Interface countdown: ten, nine...”

”You’re just a little AI, don’t try any tricks, you hear?” Xie Ning was still a little uneasy.

At this very moment, she was completely focused, concentrating her entire consciousness inward.

Faintly, she could see thin, thread-like, light blue dotted lines slowly entering through her scalp.

At this moment, she discovered a nebula appearing before her eyes. Her world of spiritual power was as vast as a dense sea of stars.

Countless small points of light roamed the sea of stars, swarming together toward a single point.

It was as if a barrier deep inside her skull had been shattered by something. Xie Ning took a deep breath and plunged into it.

From the energy source below her chest, from the depths of a vortex, a Crystal-like Object half the size of an egg suddenly leaped up.

Inside the colorless Crystal-like Object, a dense nebula swirled slowly.

’Is this my world of spiritual power?’ Xie Ning stared and stared, and a hint of joy slowly blossomed in her heart.

Just then, the mechanical electronic voice returned. ”Interface complete. 00008531 at your service.”

”How do I get to Fan Family Bridge?”

”00008531 is now searching.”

”Search complete. Preparing for departure. Total distance: 25 kilometers. Estimated time: 29 minutes. Proceed straight for 100 meters.”

”Run in the background,” Xie Ning said as she rolled over in bed.

”00008531 has switched to background mode. Will provide real-time navigation for the entire route.”

Xie Ning pounded the bed and giggled foolishly.

Unexpectedly, her mother’s knock came from outside the door. ”Ningning, Ningning? You’re still not asleep? It’s so late!”

Xie Ning clapped a hand over her mouth, pulled her head under the covers, and went quiet.

After a long moment, she heard her mother mutter from outside, ”This child. Hurry up and sleep, okay.”

Xie Ning waited a good while before speaking up. ”00008531, I’m going to give you a name.”

”Go ahead.”

”From now on, I’ll call you Future.” Xie Ning yawned, flopped onto her pillow, and drifted off to sleep.

’It would have been so great if I had met you in my past life.’

was so interesting; it could at least inject a spark of life into her dreadful, stagnant existence.

”System rebooting. Renaming in progress. Countdown: three seconds.”

”System rename complete. 00008531 has been officially renamed Future.”

”Scanning subject. Subject’s body temperature is normal, emotional state is normal, all systems normal. Lifting 3S extreme danger warning.”

The electronic Little Spider seemed to let out a long sigh of relief, emitting a trembling electronic sound.

Then it went SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER and crawled onto the back of Xie Ning’s hand, where it settled down.

...

「The next morning」

Xie Ning shot up in bed, frowning as she wondered if last night had just been a crazy dream.

She dreamed it was raining, and that Boss Pi and two burly men had reanimated as corpses.

Then there was also an electronic Little Spider that crawled out of Wang Qingyao’s head and made its way from the fruit and vegetable supermarket all the way to her house.

’That rain was so wrong!’

Xie Ning leaped up and suddenly felt an itch on her hand.

Looking down, she saw a small, silver metallic spider resting on the back of her hand.

Xie Ning hurriedly gave a command, ”Shut down!”

”Future is now shutting down the system. Countdown...”

”Skip the countdown! Shut down immediately! I need to change and brush my teeth!”

”As an AI, Future can responsibly inform the subject that even without shutting down, Future cannot see.”

”As long as the subject does not issue a command, Future will not proactively look, search, or investigate anything at all.”

”Whenever Future is not speaking, it is in a standby state, Subject...”

It wanted to say that Xie Ning didn’t need to make it shut down, but the command had already been completed, so it went offline before it could finish its sentence...

Xie Ning blinked. ”Power on!”

Three seconds later, the electronic Little Spider’s cold, detached mechanical voice returned. ”What are the subject’s orders?”

”Shut down!”

”Power on!”

After this was repeated three or four times, the electronic Little Spider flew into a rage.

”You think this is fun, don’t you?!”

”Play a recording of the story ’Sun Wukong Fights the White Bone Demon’ for me.” Xie Ning fetched her usual small Bluetooth speaker from the villa’s living room. ”Can you connect to an external speaker? Don’t just drone on in my head. You can connect wirelessly, Bluetooth and all that, right?”

Soon, a segment of ’Wukong Fights the White Bone Demon’ began playing from the small speaker in the bathroom.

”Tang Seng was hungry, so Wukong leaped onto a cloud to take a look. ’The southern mountain is a patch of brilliant red,’ he thought. ’Those must be ripe mountain peaches. I’ll go pick some to sate Master’s hunger!’”

Arriving at Ningning’s door, her aunt-in-law paused with her hand raised to knock.

The Bluetooth speaker was turned up very loud, and vivid, CLANGING battle sounds could be heard coming from it.

Her aunt-in-law, He Shuping, was speechless. She raised her hand and knocked. ”Ningning, it’s still raining outside, isn’t it? Are we still going out for a run?”

Xie Ning was so startled she spat out a mouthful of purified water. Without even wiping off the toothpaste, she yanked the door open and rushed out. ”Tell everyone not to go outside!”

At the same time, Lu Wei hurried into the main hall of the villa serving as their temporary base. ”Five more people have developed high fevers. They’ve been isolated in separate rooms for one to three hours of observation.”

”Today’s external mission is canceled. Everyone is to stay put and not leave the house,” Gu Chen said, his expression grave.