Alleged Survivors

No one knew if there might be spirit-source beasts like the one-eyed frog suddenly rising up from the water.

Simon had meticulously fortified the raft with nailed wooden planks and wrapped it with ropes precisely to guard against any creatures that might emerge from the depths. His greatest fear was not that these creatures would attack him directly, but rather that they might strike the raft from below.

If the raft were to be shattered into pieces, all his supplies would be lost, and he would be left even more vulnerable in the water. This was his greatest fear.

Despite the relatively short distance of forty to fifty meters, Simon was on edge. His concentration was intense, compounded by his unfamiliarity with rowing, causing the raft to sway from side to side as it slowly approached the distant building visible above the water's surface.

In just a short while, Simon was so tense that cold sweat trickled down his forehead, feeling even more anxious than when he had faced the one-eyed frog in a life-and-death struggle. After all, this was his first time rowing a boat, and he was doing so under circumstances where anything unexpected could happen.

Fortunately, the journey was uneventful. As the building ahead drew nearer within five meters, Simon finally breathed a sigh of relief. He ceased rowing, allowing the raft to drift closer to the building with a bit of inertia, then pulled up the thick rope serving as an improvised anchor.

Simon grasped the rope in his hand and aimed at the window ahead, forcefully hurling it forward. 

Three tightly bound bricks whizzed through the air with a loud whoosh, dragging the thick rope behind them. 

With a crash, the window glass shattered as the bricks, tethered by the rope, flew inside, accelerating the raft towards the wall below the window. 

Simon lifted his oar and gently pressed against the wall to slow the raft, gradually bringing it closer to the window sill. 

He secured the handle of his oar into several tightly tied ropes, then retrieved his carried iron hammer and kitchen knife, approaching the newly shattered window. 

Instead of immediately entering, he first observed the interior. 

Through the window, he glimpsed a study adorned with a bookshelf filled to the brim, a desk adorned with a laptop, a leather pen holder housing several pens, and a Bluetooth speaker. 

The study's door was shut, revealing everything he could see within this small study. 

Assured of safety, Simon proceeded to climb inside through the window. 

As he stepped onto the wooden floor of the study, Simon's mind finally settled; for him, this was much safer than drifting on the raft.

Simon withdrew the kitchen knife from his left hand. This place was completely unfamiliar to him, so he proceeded cautiously. 

Approaching the desk, he noticed a thick layer of dust on its surface, indicating it had been a long time since anyone had cleaned here. 

The study held little of value to Simon. Without further inspection, he moved directly to the door, first listening for any sounds outside. Sensing quietness, he grasped the door handle and gently began to open it. 

Cracking the door slightly, he peered outside through the narrow gap. 

Now that daylight had fully illuminated the surroundings, Simon immediately discerned a brightly lit living room beyond the door. His eyes fell upon a set of sofas, a coffee table, a TV cabinet, and a curved-screen television, with an impressive TV wall behind the cabinet. 

Judging by the decor, the occupants seemed to be in good financial standing. As Simon pondered this, he slowly opened the study door fully and stepped into the living room. 

Heading straight towards the double-door refrigerator, Simon opened it to a musty odor that wrinkled his brow slightly. 

Inside the refrigerator were numerous fruits and vegetables, all of which had decayed and molded, suggesting they had been stored there for quite some time. 

Slightly disappointed, Simon closed the refrigerator door again.

"Apparently, this place has been uninhabited for a long time, yet the great flood occurred just the day before yesterday. In merely two days, it's impossible for these fruits and vegetables to have decayed to such an extent. It's truly peculiar," Simon mused.

Simon recalled finding a similar situation in the room of the young couple earlier. There was thick dust on the table, and spilled soup had turned moldy. Considering the timeline, it didn't add up. Now encountering a similar scenario again left Simon perplexed.

Subsequently, Simon checked the other rooms to ensure no living souls were present before heading towards the living room's security door.

His primary objective here was naturally to search for other survivors. The secondary goal was to gather useful supplies, especially food. He decided to systematically inspect every room on this floor to confirm the absence of any other survivors. Then, he would meticulously search each room for useful supplies.

Approaching the security door leading outside, Simon's nose twitched slightly as he caught a hint of a metallic scent. 

This immediately heightened his vigilance. 

"It seems there's something outside," Simon thought, deciding against opening the security door right away. Instead, he used the peephole to observe the situation outside.

Beyond the security door was a long corridor littered with bodies in disarray. These corpses, both male and female, had their heads brutally smashed, rendering their identities unrecognizable.

Simon immediately understood upon seeing this: these were all human corpses turned into revenants by drowning, their heads smashed in. 

"Who killed these revenants? Could there be another survivor like me hiding here?" Simon's spirits lifted as he pondered this.

If they had been killed by other creatures, there would be signs of feeding rather than just smashed heads. The most likely scenario was that someone like him, another survivor, had killed these revenants.

Simon took a deep breath to calm himself, then gripped the handle of the security door and slowly turned it open.

As he gently pushed open the security door, the scent of blood wafted in on a breeze. 

Having grown accustomed to the strong smell of blood these past few days, Simon felt no strong reaction, quietly activating his "Glyph of Insight" to examine the revenants lying in the corridor.

As expected, the messages in his mind confirmed that these were low-level revenants.

"To kill so many revenants, this survivor must at least be an Anima like me. I wonder if he's still here, or if, like me, he's already left?" Simon thought to himself.

Simon walked out slowly. The layout of this house was almost identical to the one he lived in. This floor also housed three families. Looking down the corridor ahead, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Deep in thought, Simon proceeded down the corridor towards the security door of the second household.