Chapter 32: Ding Longyun

The struck Water Rat Beast shuddered all over, then silently died, its eyes rolling back.

Su Li watched from a distance, greatly puzzled.

The punch didn’t look particularly powerful, and there was no visible wound on the surface. Yet, the Water Rat Beast had died without a sound. This method of attack was truly bizarre.

The remaining Water Rat Beast seemed frightened by the man’s attack. It, too, couldn’t understand why its companion had suddenly rolled its eyes and died silently. Perhaps out of a great fear of the unknown, the surviving Water Rat Beast suddenly turned and bolted toward the deep water, quickly fleeing.

The man did not pursue. Instead, he began to ascend toward the surface.

Su Li also ascended toward the surface at the same moment. His physical fitness was now exceptionally strong. Based on his basic physique alone, he could hold his breath for two minutes underwater. If he activated his Enhanced Lung special ability, he could extend that by another two minutes, meaning he could actively function underwater for four minutes.

The recent struggle had only lasted about one or two minutes, so he could have remained underwater for another two minutes. However, danger lurked everywhere in the water, so Su Li dared not linger. He surfaced, immediately took a deep, large breath to refresh his lungs, and then looked up to see Xu Xuehui on the raft.

Xu Xuehui was alive. On the raft beside her were the corpses of two Water Rat Beasts. There were no visible wounds on their surfaces, but they were rigid and dead, their eyes rolled back. Su Li immediately understood what had happened.

Clearly, after he fell into the water, Xu Xuehui had been rescued. The two Water Rat Beasts lying stiffly on the raft had also been killed by the man who had plunged into the water. Only his punches resulted in this strange death: no external wounds, but a silent and inexplicable demise.

Xu Xuehui saw Su Li emerge from the water, and her eyes immediately lit up with joy. She hurried toward him.

“Someone saved me just now…” Xu Xuehui gestured with her small hand, trying to tell Su Li that another person had appeared on the raft and saved her when he fell into the water.

“I know,” Su Li said. He grabbed the edge of the raft and hoisted himself up onto it. Just then, a voice called out with a laugh: “Is she talking about me?”

Su Li looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man’s head emerge from the water about two meters away from the raft. He was a middle-aged man, around 37 or 38 years old, with short hair that was slightly thinning on top, showing early signs of baldness, though it wasn’t too obvious yet.

The person who had just consecutively killed the Water Rat Beasts and saved Xu Xuehui and Su Li was him.

Finally seeing another survivor, and such a powerful one at that, a flicker of excitement surged through Su Li. He quickly patted the raft and said, “Brother, thank you very much! Hurry up and get on; it’s dangerous in the water.”

As he spoke, he picked up the two Water Rat Beast corpses from the raft and tossed them away.

Having collected rice, flour, and noodles earlier, food was not currently scarce, and they didn’t need to keep the Water Rat Beast corpses for food.

The middle-aged man smiled, shook his head, and said, “I think staying in the water is quite nice. Come on, let me give you a hand.”

With that, he took a breath and plunged into the water again, disappearing from sight.

Su Li knew the man’s swimming ability was far superior to his own. Seeing him dive back in, Su Li quickly stood up on the raft. When the middle-aged man next surfaced, he had reappeared at the stern of the raft. He then pushed the raft with both hands, sending it toward the 32-story building that was now close by.

“Welcome. I’ve been bored to death staying here alone for the past few days. By the way, my name is Ding Longyun. What are your names?”

“I’m Su Li, and she’s Xu Xuehui. Have you been here alone all this time, Brother Ding?” Su Li asked, looking at the rapidly approaching building.

This building had 32 floors. Although 29 were submerged, there were still three floors above the water. In terms of floor area, it was much larger than the 30-story building Su Li had lived in.

Su Li’s previous building was small, with only three units per floor. This building was divided into several units, and the area of a single floor was at least two or three times larger than his former building.

“There were originally four of us, but now only I am left,” Ding Longyun said casually. His tone sounded relaxed, but Su Li felt a chill, realizing the casual remark carried a hidden sense of tragedy.

Xu Xuehui was curious and couldn’t help but whisper, “Where are the other three? Did they leave?”

Ding Longyun glanced at her and said, “Leave? You could say that, but not leave the building. They left this world. I was luckier than them; I barely survived.”

Su Li had experienced many attacks while staying in his own place, but he had survived. This Ding Longyun, who had started with four people, had lost three. The only possible explanation was that the dangers and situations they encountered were far worse than what Su Li had experienced.

It seemed that the building exposed above the water might be even more dangerous than the one he had previously inhabited. This made Su Li’s scalp tingle. He had originally planned to use this place as a temporary base, intending to stay here until he found a better destination.

Xu Xuehui also understood upon hearing Ding Longyun’s words. Her small face immediately turned pale, and she looked at the approaching building with a hint of fear in her eyes.

Ding Longyun seemed to know what they were thinking. He suddenly smiled and said, “But don’t be too afraid. I’ve figured out some patterns over the past few days. As long as you’re not too greedy, you’ll be fine. After all, I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

“By the way, where did you come from? When did you find out the city was flooded?”

Seeing Ding Longyun ask, Su Li gave a brief introduction, pointing toward his former residence in the distance. “I used to live in that building over there. I woke up on the morning of the 15th and it was like this. Her situation is similar. What about you?”

“Me too. I woke up early on the 15th and realized something was seriously wrong outside. I almost peed my pants. Then I started looking for people. Later, I found out that there were only four of us in the whole building, including me. The others either didn’t live here originally or mysteriously disappeared; in any case, I didn’t see anyone.”

“And the strangest thing is that many of the apartments have thick dust, looking like they haven’t been lived in for a while. It’s very strange. I remember the occupancy rate of this building was quite high. Yet, out of the 24 units on the three exposed floors, there were only four people.”