Chapter 129: Ten Days of Torment

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After an entire day, Huang Yu still had not received any message from above, as if he had been completely forgotten here. During this time, he had not been idle; he had pounded on the doors, shouted loudly, and meticulously inspected every corner of the fourth level. Even the walls—he had chosen three or four different spots to chip away at with a sharp object, hoping to create a passageway out. But the steel plates behind the brick walls left him utterly stunned.

Having tried all this, he reluctantly faced a harsh reality: there was no way out. He was trapped dead in this basement. If no one outside contacted him or delivered any food, he wouldn’t last long on the remaining supplies here.

The only good news was that water and electricity were still running.

Throughout the day, many possibilities raced through his mind. He was sure his parents wouldn’t do this to him. The only plausible explanation was that something must have happened outside, causing complete disconnection between him and the world beyond.

One other matter troubled him—the manner in which Peng Min had left was utterly inexplicable. Upon calming down and thinking it over, it was as if she had vanished into thin air.

“Vanished into thin air?” Huang Yu thought to himself.

Yet now, his greatest concern was not what had happened outside, but the issue of food.

Since water and electricity remained uninterrupted, water was not a problem. The biggest challenge was food. He gathered all the edible fruits, snacks, and biscuits together. Even if he rationed and ate less each day, the supplies wouldn’t last a week; three to four days was the absolute limit.

The next day, apart from several trips to the top floor to check for any messages, he remained still as much as possible, trying to minimize his own physical consumption, hoping to endure a little longer.

After ruling out all impossibilities, he arrived at one conclusion: the terrifying event—the divine decree—that shocked the entire world ten years ago had truly happened.

At that time, he had just entered high school and had personally experienced that global-shaking event. Their school discussed it extensively for over three months before the frenzy gradually subsided.

Now, as a graduate student, he occasionally overheard others mention it—this year marked the tenth anniversary.

But he hadn’t paid it much attention. For most people, it was just a joke, something not taken seriously.

After all, authoritative voices had offered reasonable explanations.

Moreover, the idea that the entire human race would vanish worldwide, leaving only ten thousand people behind—it seemed impossible.

Previously, at school, Huang Yu heard people discussing it again this year and felt amused by them.

He was an atheist and simply did not believe such a divine selection could exist.

Surely, the world held many strange phenomena inexplicable by science—but to him, that just meant current science couldn’t explain them yet.

Once Huang Yu accepted the possibility of the divine decree, he increasingly felt it was the only logical explanation.

That evening, he finally accepted this possibility.

If the divine decree from ten years ago truly came to pass, then Peng Min and the supervisors in the villa above had all disappeared. Only he remained, one of the fortunate ten thousand survivors.

Though ten thousand seemed like a large number, in the context of nearly eight billion people worldwide, surviving as one in a city of a million was entirely possible. And even if no one survived in a million-population city, that was also plausible.

If the divine decree was real, then the ten thousand survivors must have been left behind for some specific purpose. Surely there would be more to come.

Having thought this through, Huang Yu was even more determined not to die here miserably from starvation. As long as water remained, he believed he could endure even if food ran out for a while.

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However, once he truly experienced hunger, he deeply understood that nothing was more agonizing than the craving of a drug addict.

By the fifth day, all the food had been gone since the third day. Except for water, he had not eaten anything for two continuous days.

Huang Yu curled up in a corner of the fourth floor, unwilling to move. The intense hunger made him dizzy and utterly weak.

On the first day without food, the hunger was unbearable. He drank large amounts of water to ease the craving, but it had no effect. Instead, he became this way—his head not only dizzy but also throbbing painfully, with hallucinations blurring his vision.

“Why is it already the fifth day, and there’s still no sign from God?” Huang Yu sat up weakly, unsure if it was his imagination, but though his head still swam, the pain seemed much less than the day before.

His stomach growled incessantly, reminding him to replenish energy.

He slowly made his way to the study area, looking around at the room full of books. His thought was simple: these books were made of paper, and paper’s main ingredient was wood. Wood should be edible, right?

He tore out a page, bit into it, chewed slowly, then swallowed.

“Actually, it’s not hard to swallow. It tastes okay. Maybe it’s just because I’m starving for too long?”

After finishing the first page, he tore out another and ate it slowly. After four pages, he began to feel nauseous and wanted to vomit.

He quickly took a sip of water he had prepared long ago, washing down the pulp stuck in his throat.

Huang Yu glanced at the thick stack of books in his hand, then threw them aside and left the study.

“The sofa leather should be genuine leather. My parents definitely wouldn’t buy fake leather.” Not long after, he moved to the entertainment room, eyeing a genuine leather sofa and pondering.

Huang Yu hesitated, wondering if he should cut off a piece to try eating.

Three more days passed in the blink of an eye.

Huang Yu’s complexion changed drastically, as if he had fallen seriously ill but hadn’t recovered, or as if poisoned. He lay on the bed, spiritless, feeling as though his last breath was about to leave him.

In these three days, he didn’t know how many pages of paper he had eaten and forcibly consumed several pieces of sofa leather. He even tried everything edible in the four basement levels.

The good news was that he still retained some clarity of mind and hadn’t starved to death. The bad news was that, perhaps due to these substances or the prolonged starvation, his physical condition worsened daily. He didn’t know whether he was poisoned or genuinely sick.

Having grown up strong and healthy, he had never suffered such hardship before.

Thanks to a good upbringing and regular exercise, he had barely fallen ill in his life.

At this rate, he wouldn’t last much longer.

Huang Yu felt immense frustration. If his previous guess was right—that God had left ten thousand survivors and erased all others on Earth—then he must be the unluckiest one among them, destined to starve to death in this basement.

“To die painfully of starvation—that must be the cruelest fate among God’s chosen ten thousand. The other lucky survivors wouldn’t starve, since they have access to global supplies,” Huang Yu thought bitterly.

Two more days passed, bringing him to the tenth day.

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Once again, Huang Yu awoke from a half-conscious state, not knowing how many times he had done so already. He wondered if the next time he fell asleep, he might never wake up.

He felt incredibly weak, his mind growing hazy.

“Am I still alive? What day is it? The ninth? Or the eleventh?” he thought while lying on the bed.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his chest.

The stabbing sensation came suddenly and went just as quickly, like a phantom that never truly happened.

Yet this moment was enough to make Huang Yu, who was about to close his eyes, open them again, slightly revived.

“Foolish humans, the ten-year death hunt has begun!”

Suddenly, a voice thundered through the room, echoing three times like a clap of lightning.

Huang Yu’s previously dull eyes lit up with spirit once more.

But after the voice sounded, there was no further word.

Minutes passed, then hours.

Huang Yu closed and opened his eyes repeatedly. Just as he was about to close them again, a clear voice spoke from his left hand.

“Third-generation intelligent auxiliary sub-intelligence, unit 9568, activation successful. Beginning to read human data. Data reading successful. Confirming unit 9568 Huang Yu’s secondary permissions. Reminder: primary permissions belong to God.

This intelligence will automatically record all information on unit 9568 Huang Yu during the ten-year death hunt. Upon unit 9568 Huang Yu’s death, secondary permissions will be terminated.

Under the primary authority holder, the divine decree, partial functions are activated for unit 9568 Huang Yu, including: three-dimensional holographic projection, mapping, tracking, human data analysis, voice functions, and others. Additional functions will be automatically disabled.

Ding. Notification received from the great God. Please review promptly.

Ding. Rules for the ten-year death hunt game issued by the great God. Please review promptly.

Third-generation intelligent auxiliary sub-intelligence 9568 will serve unit 9568 Huang Yu until confirmed death.”

Huang Yu, whose spirit had been flagging, felt a surge of energy again.

He wanted to speak but found it difficult to produce sound.

“What’s going on? What intelligence system? How do I check the information?” he thought anxiously.