Had he prepared enough for doomsday? Probably not. Why? He wasn't exactly sure either.

Was it because he thought he still had a week left? Or maybe he just wanted to delay his preparations as long as possible.

Long Yu had been suppressing the growing, suffocating pressure from the incoming disaster for the past weeks.

Somewhere inside, he thought maybe it was all just a dream. Maybe doomsday would not arrive and it was just a joke from the system.

[Host c]

"Shhh… system, can't you let a dying man think in peace?" Long Yu scolded the system in a weak voice.

'Xixi…' he thought back to the little girl in his car.

Did he regret risking his life to save her? Surprisingly not. Maybe it was because she bears the same name as his sister?

Long Yu's mind was growing hazy as many thoughts floated across his mind.

As if tired of him interrupting it, the system directly sent the information into his brain.

[Gene Suppressor Serum] (Consumable)

[Halts the corrosion in the user's infected genes and stabilises them for a certain amount of time. Provides a limited restorative effect to the genes and suppresses the side effects]

[Exchange Price: 1x stage 1 mutant gene core + 10 million yuan]

"Son of a goat! There's hope! System, you should have mentioned it earlier!" Long Yu sat up and said in an ecstatic, but slightly admonis.h.i.+ng tone.

[…..]

"But where can I even get a stage 1 core?" his ecstatic face immediately turned into a frown. He knew the system wouldn't offer him an unachievable solution this time around.

[System has scanned the zombie corpse and discovered a growing mutant gene core located in its brain. Albeit smaller, it is considered usable]

The system instantly answered him, as if afraid it would be interrupted again.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry and dig that thing out!" he said excitedly.

Long Yu wanted to get his hands on the core as soon as possible, so that he could complete the exchange.

"Wait... System, is it possible to trade in every part of the zombie's body except its core?" An idea flashed through Long Yu's mind.

*Tink*

The entire body of the zombie vanished, and a tiny transparent sphere with a reddish hue dropped onto the gravel floor.

'I'm a genius,' Long Yu thought to himself, as he reached out to grab the coin-sized mutant gene core on the ground near him.

"Huh?" Long Yu's vision suddenly turned black as he crashed onto the ground, his outstretched hand, laid centimetres away from the core.

[Time left until infection reaches host's brain: 19.3 seconds]

....

While Long Yu was still wallowing in self pity outside, Xixi who was banging on the car window suddenly stopped.

Her tearful face was replaced with an emotionless expression, as if she had never cried in the beginning.

"Big brother needs us.." she muttered.

Xixi climbed over to the driver's seat and pressed the unlock b.u.t.ton. There was no response.

Seeing that it was useless, she tried to roll down the window instead. Luckily, the car windows could still open.

With ease, Xixi fit her tiny frame out of the open car window. Once her entire body was out of the car, she nonchalantly let go of her grip.

Despite the height from where she fell, there was surprisingly no sound from her landing. She then went around the car to Long Yu's side.

A hint of worry appeared on her cold face when she witnessed Long Yu faint.

Looking at the small spherical object on the ground, Xixi had a feeling that it was something really important to Long Yu.

....

"….other… Big brother..." Long Yu who was lying on the ground and losing consciousness, suddenly heard a familiar voice calling out to him.

"Big brother," he heard the voice again, this time clearer.

"Xixi?" he mumbled as he tried to open his eyes.

Long Yu could feel parts of his body cramping up due to the side effects of the infection. His vision was slowly turning red, and he felt as if there was something trying to take over him.

"Xixi.. What.. are you doing here.. I told you... to stay in the car," he struggled to speak.

"Big brother. I picked this up for you. Hurry and take it," Xixi said as she put the mutant gene core into his hand.

Long Yu felt that Xixi's speech was different from previously. It was as if someone else with the same voice was speaking to him. However, he wasn't really sure since his mind was still hazy at the moment.

Looking down, he saw the small mutant gene core on his palm.

'Right! The core.. system I've got the core now! Hurry and help me exchange for the serum!' his muddled thoughts cleared up a little as he recalled what he was doing.

Instantly, the mutant gene core in his hand disappeared, and was replaced with a silver syringe containing dark green liquid inside.

Without hesitation, Long Yu used what little strength he had left, to inject the serum into his arm.

When the serum entered Long Yu's body, he could feel the growing aggression within him receding.

The cramps in his body also lessened and the stiffness in his limbs started to disappeared.

[Time left until infection reaches host's brain: 1.5 second]

'That was way too close!'

Cold sweat rolled down Long Yu's back when he saw the timer, which slowly flickered and disappeared.

If he was any slower, he would definitely have turned into one of those ugly zombies. Thankfully, Xixi had awoken him in time before it happened.

It took a few minutes for Long Yu to be able to move his limbs again. Although it was a short period of time, he felt like it took an eternity.

He wanted for them to get out of this place as soon as possible. Who knows how many of those things are lurking nearby. It would be bad if they decide to head towards this direction.

After a bit of difficulty, Long Yu finally managed to stand up with Xixi's help.

"Come, let's enter the car quickly, it's not safe out here," he urged her while taking her little hands into his.

"Deactivate lo-" before Long Yu managed to finish his sentence, his vision turned black.

'Son of a goat! Not again...' these were Long Yu's last thoughts, before he lost consciousness and fell to the ground once more.