Chapter 3: The Evil of Human Nature

Lu Yuanming followed the white policeman and the black homeless man, running towards the base of the building.

The monstrous creatures with human faces and dog bodies, three to four meters tall, were climbing up the building's exterior. These creatures were beyond the means of human strength to combat, especially not by those unarmed, which is why the trio didn't think twice before dashing into the building.

Though the white policeman had a handgun, that was all it was. Not to mention the limited number of bullets, the gun's power might not even be enough to kill these monsters.

With a body length of three to four meters, these were comparable to massive animals such as tigers and lions. Moreover, these beings were monsters, this was the afterlife world, so it was entirely possible for them to be impervious to knives and guns. Nobody believed that a handgun could kill such a creature, especially when there were more than ten of them!

The three had no choice but to sprint headlong, entering the building from the rooftop.

This was a building in ruins, like a dilapidated wasteland. After running down from the rooftop, the interior presented to the trio was filled with broken walls and many holes in the floor. Exposed steel rebar jutted from the load-bearing walls, rooms were a mess with torn paper and broken furniture, doors stood ajar, and with all those protruding steel bars, they had to slow their steps. Otherwise, it was easy to accidentally fall through the floors or get impaled on the rebar, and the debris on the floor also slowed them down.

The black homeless man kept swearing non-stop as he ran while the white policeman, in a slightly better state, although panic-stricken, kept checking his handgun for bullets as he ran.

Lu Yuanming's condition wasn't any better as he followed closely behind the two, his mind a blank and his body trembling incessantly.

From becoming a vegetable, then suddenly soul-traveling to New York five years later, to becoming a drug addict in the slums of New York, then meeting a gruesome death due to incomprehensible curses or spectres, followed by arriving in the afterlife world, and subsequently witnessing other dead people jumping off buildings, the appearance of monsters, and the monsters' pursuit...

With this series of events bombarding him, he didn't even have time to thoroughly process the improbability of it all.

At this moment, as he struggled to run for his life, Lu Yuanming's mind was blank, but as he continued to run, his thoughts gradually began to take shape.

Can I still travel back?

That was Lu Yuanming's first reaction once he regained his senses.

He wasn't some unknown drug addict in the United States; he was a twenty-three-year-old from Chongqing in China!

Due to becoming a vegetable, he unexpectedly traveled to the body of a drug addict in the United States five years in the future.

So, the biggest question now was whether he could still travel back every seventy-two hours as he had tried before, back to that vegetable body?

Even though his original body was in a vegetative state, it was better than being torn apart and devoured by monsters in this world of the dead!

("After I traveled, a total of five days passed. The first seventy-two hours, I immediately sensed that I could travel back, and I did, I tried it. After traveling back to my original body, I didn't have to wait another seventy-two hours, I could travel back at any time. But to travel into this world five years in the future, I had to wait another seventy-two hours. The first seventy-two hours were three days, and because I was afraid of the situation outside, I stayed in the house for two more days... How many hours have passed now!?")

Lu Yuanming tried desperately to recall.

He had OCD, a character trait that had surfaced when he was very young. As he grew older, the OCD got worse. But Lu Yuanming had also seen therapists, undergone treatment and counseling, so his OCD was confined to small, meticulous aspects of daily life like drinking water and eating.

Without great exertion or heavy sweating, Lu Yuanming would drink water every eight hours, a habit he had maintained for more than ten years, nearly as regular as a biological clock.

In his memory, after traveling to the drug addict's body for the second time, he had drunk water eight times, which totaled sixty-four hours. That meant he was only eight hours away from being able to travel back. In those last eight hours, he had hesitated, comforted and hypnotized himself, then contemplated all the potential dangers he might face, and finally mustered the courage to leave his room. What followed were deaths, falls, arrivals in the afterlife, discovery by a horde of monsters, and the beginning of his flight... All of those actions must have taken at least five or six hours.

("...At the most conservative estimate, I have more than three hours left before I can travel back, if it is still possible.")

Lu Yuanming himself couldn't be sure if he could travel back to his original body since he was already dead. Having died after traveling to the body of the drug addict, he really didn't know if he could still travel back to his original body.

But at least that was a hope, wasn't it?

Once Lu Yuanming understood this point, he began to look around, trying to find a place to hide. If he could just survive for at most another three hours, then he could try whether he could travel back to his original body.

Just as Lu Yuanming was running and pondering, suddenly the black homeless man in front of him bent over at the doorway of a room, causing him to pause. The white policeman ran past him, and just as Lu Yuanming was about to do the same, the homeless man violently swung a long metal bar, striking Lu Yuanming in the knee joint of his left leg with a sharp crack. Lu Yuanming's left leg bent backward, and he tumbled to the ground.

The homeless man's eyes glinted with malice as he raised the metal bar to strike Lu Yuanming again. The white policeman ahead immediately shouted, "Drop the weapon, raise your hands, or I will shoot!!"

The black man spat at Lu Yuanming, who lay on the ground clutching his leg and moaning, but he obediently dropped the metal bar. Turning to the white policeman, he raised his hands and said, "Hey, buddy, relax. I was saving the two of us, man. Those monsters are going to catch up, we might not outrun the monsters, but we can outrun..."

The white police officer's face was a mix of emotions, but the handgun in his hand was slowly lowered. Still, he stared intently at the black vagrant and said, "Move in front of me, and keep your hands where I can see them, or I won't mind making you the one who can't run anymore."

The black vagrant shrugged his shoulders but quickly ran in front of the white officer. As he passed Lu Yuanming, he kicked him in the stomach again, causing Lu Yuanming to retch violently and curl up even more in the corner, clutching his belly.

"Damn yellow pig, if it weren't for you stealing jobs and American dollars, how could I end up a vagrant …"

As his voice trailed off, the black vagrant and the white police officer were already far away, continuing down the building's stairwell.

It took more than ten seconds before Lu Yuanming could barely suppress the severe pain in his stomach. He looked incredulously towards where the black vagrant and the white officer had gone, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

He was abandoned!?

No, it was more than just abandonment!

This was outright betrayal!

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! No wonder so many people say black people don't oppose racism, they just oppose discrimination against black people!"

Lu Yuanming cursed a few times, then stopped himself, forcing his mind into a state of calm.

He tried to move his twisted left leg, just lifting it slightly, and the intense pain made him howl in agony. It was a level of pain that Lu Yuanming had never experienced before in his life. He howled for a few seconds while holding his broken leg and then gritted his teeth to endure the pain.

The spectres were closing in. If he wasted time here howling, his fate would be to be torn to shreds and devoured by the monsters!

He had to find a way to survive, at least until he could cross back!

Bearing the severe pain, Lu Yuanming looked all around him, carefully observing his surroundings.

He now realized, why was he following those two fools... no, the black and white men running?

What he needed to do was to find a narrow and concealed space to hide and survive the final few hours required for the crossing.

Although the addict whose body he had possessed was already dead and his soul had fallen into the world of the dead, it was still uncertain whether he could return to his original body. But gambling on the possibility of returning was far better than the slim chance of surviving a chase by over a dozen monsters while on the run.

Of course, it would be better to run and look for a place to hide at the same time. However, now that his leg was broken, it was impossible to leave this top floor. Searching for a nearby hiding spot had become a desperate decision.

Soon, Lu Yuanming found several hiding spots, but most were piles of rubbish or the corners of broken walls. Such hiding places relied solely on luck for survival. If the monsters didn't notice him, well and good, but if he were discovered, the monsters could easily kill him.

Lu Yuanming had no other option but to drag his broken leg across the ground. Even crawling caused severe pain, but at this point, he could not care less. While occasionally letting out a groan of pain, he dragged his broken leg forward, trying to find a barely suitable hiding spot.

Just then, Lu Yuanming heard a rustling sound coming from a broken wall above his head, and it seemed like something was moving overhead, which made his hair stand on end. Without a doubt, the monsters had climbed from the ground to the rooftop and were now rapidly approaching.

"Hurry, hurry..."

Lu Yuanming growled softly, scrambling desperately on the ground. His fingernails were bent backward from the effort. Suddenly, his eyes brightened and he immediately crawled towards a room on the side.

In that room, amidst broken walls and protruding steel rebars, in one corner, several broken pieces of wall formed a small, doghole-like cavity. It was tiny, with a narrow entrance, and some steel rebars pointed upwards, but judging by sight, it was just wide enough for Lu Yuanming to squeeze into. As the sound of monsters running came closer from behind, Lu Yuanming could no longer care for anything else and forced his body into the cavity.

As Lu Yuanming's upper body squeezed in, steel rebars and broken edges caused many cuts on his arms and torso, but he ignored the pain and kept pushing himself in. The cavity was shallow, just enough to fit his upper and lower body if he curled his legs, leaving them about eighty to ninety centimeters from the entrance.

But his left leg was broken. He tried to curl it inward, but the pain was excruciating, and even with great endurance, he could not manage to bend it at all; his joint had been twisted by the black vagrant's strike.

In other words…

His left leg was stretched out right at the mouth of the cavity!!