One year later, C City.
“Hey, Old Zhang, you’ve got a lot of guests at your inn today, huh?” asked the restaurant owner from across the street.
The innkeeper took a drag on his cigarette. “Yeah, most of them came from S City. They’re looking to settle here.”
“What, there’re still that many survivors in S City?”
“Yep. They managed to make it through. Now that they’ve gotten used to the environment, a lot of them are moving their families here.” The innkeeper sighed.
“Shouldn’t you be happy about that?”
“I am happy… I just can’t help missing those people.”
The “people” he referred to—there wasn’t a soul left on Earth who didn’t know their names.
They were the evolved humans who had appeared like saviors one year ago, when the apocalypse first began and plant mutations were at their worst.
With strange and powerful abilities, they adapted to the new world like fish in water.
But exactly one month into the apocalypse, they all vanished—without warning, without a trace.
That was when the rest of humanity realized the awful truth:
Aside from those mysterious individuals with evolution abilities, no one else had them.
The rest were just ordinary people, left behind in a world that no longer belonged to them.
Those few people had just been… special.
The innkeeper had been lucky enough to host a group of them—over a dozen evolved players.
They’d seemed no different from ordinary folks. Some had brought along elderly people and children. But in the end, even those old people and kids had vanished without a trace.
Only then did the survivors realize: no one had evolution powers anymore. No one could fight the mutated plants. No one could protect them.
Chaos reigned for a while after that.
Some people gave in to despair and tried to kill themselves. Others refused to believe it and kept searching for the missing evolved ones…
Fortunately, C City had those nearly indestructible walls the evolved players had built. The mutated plants couldn’t break in. Gradually, life returned to a shaky kind of normal.
Some were scared out of their minds, hiding in the city and only barely scraping by with odd jobs.
But more people chose to risk everything—rushing out to snatch food back from the claws of mutated plants.
They fought, again and again, nearly dying each time. But in doing so, they adapted to the apocalypse, learning how to survive.
Word spread that C City had defensive walls.
More and more survivors struggled their way here from faraway cities. The population surged, and C City was finally reborn—not just as a city, but as a beacon of hope in the apocalypse.
As for the evolved ones who had started it all, people began to forget their faces.
Only the innkeeper still remembered the leader—the pretty young man who’d left the deepest impression.
He spoke gently, stayed close to a tall man, and had a little girl with him.
Beyond that… besides that overly beautiful face, the innkeeper couldn’t recall much else.
Maybe they’d come back one day.
Maybe they never would.
“Stop dwelling on it, Old Zhang. Focus on living.” The restaurant owner finished washing dishes and wiped down a table as he spoke. “Whether those evolved ones you’re hung up on ever come back or not—we’ve still got to live. That’s what matters.”
Maybe the wall wouldn’t hold forever. Maybe someday they’d all die under the roots and vines of mutated plants. But what mattered was now.
Only by living well could they face the future—even if it was a future that ended in death.
The innkeeper didn’t have time to think any more. A shout from the street pulled him back to the present.
“Boss! Got a room?”
The innkeeper snapped out of it. “Yeah!” he called, tossing all thoughts aside and turning back to the front desk.
