Chapter 163: Is It “Blind Spot Under the Lamp”?
The bookstore suddenly went dark; all the lights outside went out as well.
A power outage!
The panicked screams of people became even more frenzied.
“Help! My wife and kid are trapped in the elevator—!”
Mu Lantu broke into a cold sweat. Looking back, taking the staff elevator in the first round had actually been a very risky move. If they had been trapped, getting out would have wasted precious time.
“Forty-four minutes,” Xu Huazhang said as he glanced at his watch.
Mu Lantu blinked.
Xu Huazhang explained, “It’s been forty-four minutes from when we entered the instance to the blackout.”
Mu Lantu rubbed his chin in thought. The timing was indeed a little subtle.
Lu Haoran couldn’t sit still. Once the crowd inside the mall thinned out a little, he darted away to take a look.
“Come on, let’s find a car!” Zhao Yuanzhou shouted as he sprinted off.
Zhang Junyang, Xiong Ping, and the others immediately followed.
Some players rushed toward the escalators, others toward the fire escape.
Zhao Yuanzhou’s target was clear—the stairs were more reliable. With his speed, even if the elevators were still working, he could reach the underground parking garage ahead of the people using them.
Inside the garage, more than half the vehicles were already gone.
After checking all the unclaimed cars, the players’ frustration soared.
Unlocked cars existed, but without keys, they were useless.
“Damn it! What do we do now?” Lu Haoran kicked a car in fury. The piercing blare of its alarm echoed endlessly.
The noise triggered alarms in other vehicles, setting off a cacophony of wails.
Zhang Junyang turned away in disgust, not wanting to look.
Zhao Yuanzhou glanced toward the stairwell, doubt flickering in his eyes. “Mu Lantu and Xu Huazhang didn’t come down.”
Fang Menglei’s heart skipped. Right—why hadn’t they come? Could it be they had thought of another way out?
Zhang Junyang wasn’t interested in that. “Zhao Yuanzhou, want to team up? Let’s go find a dealership.”
Xiong Ping’s eyes lit up, and he immediately bolted.
Zhao Yuanzhou agreed after a pause. “Alright.” If one of them got hurt while driving recklessly, at least they’d have backup.
Fang Menglei hurriedly asked, “Can I come with you?” She would rather stick with Mu Lantu and Xu Huazhang, but going back for them now wasn’t realistic.
“Not really convenient,” Zhang Junyang frowned. “Fang Menglei, your stamina is far below ours. If you can’t keep up, should we stop and wait for you, or leave you behind? Which do you think?”
Call it cold-hearted or just avoiding hard choices—he simply didn’t want to face that dilemma later. Better to say no from the start. His words were also meant to explain himself to Zhao Yuanzhou.
But Zhao Yuanzhou, raised never to refuse a plea, especially when things weren’t yet at a life-or-death moment, said, “Junyang, let her come. If she keeps up, fine. If not, then she can’t.”
“…Fine.” Zhang Junyang relented. He wasn’t that ruthless.
Fang Menglei gazed at Zhao Yuanzhou for a few seconds before lowering her eyes. A spark of desperate will to live flashed in her clear, stubborn gaze.
Forcing herself to keep pace with Zhao Yuanzhou’s sprint, she asked softly, “Zhao Yuanzhou, can you drive?”
He nodded, not wanting to waste breath.
“How good are you at it?”
His eyes flickered, realizing her implication. “I learned when I was sixteen. I used to drive around the countryside all the time.”
“I see,” Fang Menglei said.
Zhao Yuanzhou puzzled over her meaning.
“Over there, a car with the door open! I’ll check!” Zhang Junyang shouted excitedly.
As he dashed off, Fang Menglei dropped her bombshell. “Next round—team up with me? I know how to get a car with the key. I can’t drive, so I’ll need a driver.”
Zhao Yuanzhou snapped his head around. “Are you serious?”
“Serious,” Fang Menglei said firmly, not a hint of guilt in her eyes. “But you have to promise—no third person can know. Otherwise, if word spreads, others will fight us for it.”
Zhao Yuanzhou’s expression hardened. “Of course! I promise.”
Fang Menglei smiled faintly, finally relieved.
*
Meanwhile, Mu Lantu and Xu Huazhang had returned to the mall’s sixth floor.
It was Xu Huazhang’s idea.
“You think there are clues here?” Mu Lantu looked around.
The floor held a western restaurant, hotpot place, barbecue joint, milk tea shop, ice cream parlor, cinema, and indoor kids’ playground.
Holding his hand, Xu Huazhang carefully led him forward, avoiding the trampled corpses. Their twin flashlight beams flickered through the darkness, adding an eerie weight to the atmosphere.
“Baby, have you heard the saying, ‘darkness lies under the lamp’?”
Mu Lantu’s eyes lit up. “You mean—the clue might be near our starting point? Like how the most dangerous place is also the safest?”
Xu Huazhang nodded approvingly. “Exactly.”
Invigorated, Mu Lantu stretched. “Let’s split up!”
“Alright. Watch out for those.” Xu Huazhang’s flashlight swept over the bodies.
“Got it.”
Xu Huazhang headed west; Mu Lantu east.
He first checked the ice cream shop—nothing. Then he entered the hotpot restaurant.
Tables were littered with half-eaten food, the heavy scent of broth lingering. A baby’s tiny shoe lay pitifully beneath a chair. A toppled teapot had spilled tea leaves across the floor. A waitress, drenched in hot soup, lay motionless, blisters bubbling across her scalded neck…
Clatter!
Mu Lantu spun around.
“Meowww—” A chubby orange cat stood in his flashlight beam, innocent eyes glowing green.
He exhaled and kept searching.
A huge plush brown bear sat in a chair, grinning foolishly.
A “hotpot buddy” for single diners?
As a married man, Mu Lantu had never experienced that. He ruffled the bear’s head casually.
[Item Discovered!]
[Stand-in Brown Bear: Defensive item. Can absorb three lethal attacks in place of the user.]
Eyes lighting up, Mu Lantu hugged the bear, rubbed its head again, then hefted it onto his shoulder.
“Let’s see if there are more.”
After circling the place, he found two more plush bears, but they weren’t items.
Outside, Xu Huazhang emerged from the barbecue shop.
“Huazhang, look what I found!” Mu Lantu strode over, proud.
Xu Huazhang chuckled, gently squeezing his cheeks. “From afar, it looks like you’re carrying an M249.”
Mu Lantu kept a straight face. He’d thought Xu Huazhang wanted to squish the bear’s face, so he’d leaned in closer. Wrong call.
Xu Huazhang gave the bear’s head a perfunctory pat. No plush, no matter how cute, could compare to his Lantu.
“Not heavy? Store it.”
Mu Lantu stuffed it into his system space—his in-game backpack was full.
“Shall we check the cinema together?”
Most theaters had multiple screening halls; splitting up would waste time.
Xu Huazhang agreed.
At the ticket counter, a ticket lay neatly on the desk.
[Item Discovered!]
[Movie Ticket – Where Does the Apocalypse End: One-time special-dungeon item. Clear mission to receive 138 credits and 10,000 gold coins.]
Xu Huazhang handed it over.
Mu Lantu skimmed the info and gave it back. “Later.”
They found nothing else.
Next was the children’s indoor playground.
Once lively with carousels, ball pits, trampolines, climbing frames, and rainbow nets, it now lay dead silent. Colorful balls rolled everywhere, balloons rustled and huddled in corners like frightened chicks.
One orange balloon floated toward Xu Huazhang’s face.
He reached to bat it away—
[Item Discovered!]
[Exploding Balloon: Offensive item. Causes grenade-level damage to a designated target.]
Calmly, Xu Huazhang handed it to Mu Lantu.
Thinking it was a joke, Mu Lantu took it—only to realize it was real.
He ran to the balloon pile, patting each eagerly.
Watching him bounce around, Xu Huazhang’s eyes softened, starlight twinkling within their depths.
But no more items turned up.
“Baby, what about the ball pit? Maybe some items are hidden there.” Mu Lantu’s grin made his intent obvious.
What could Xu Huazhang do but play along? Rolling up his sleeves, he started searching—random sampling, not one by one.
Mu Lantu wasn’t idle either: tapping light strings on the carousel, climbing into the kiddie train. The train was cramped for his long legs, but he managed.
Resting his hand on the cabin’s inside wall, he felt something embossed.
Lowering his head, he read: G814.
Xu Huazhang came over. “Found something?”
Mu Lantu pointed. “Doesn’t this look like a train number? G814. A high-speed train.”
Xu Huazhang’s heart stirred. “Is it hinting we need to take the G814 train at the station?”
It made sense. A train was far faster than a car. Taking it might let them leave Fear City within the two-hour window.
But Mu Lantu wasn’t sure. He scanned the playground. “Still too few clues. If only we had internet—we could check if G814 is a real train.”
“Then let’s keep looking.” Xu Huazhang’s deep, unhurried voice steadied him.
This time, Xu Huazhang paid special attention to every word and number.
Mu Lantu hopped off the kiddie train and kept digging, even checking the soles of abandoned shoes.
![After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar]](https://i1.wp.com/panda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/20220822190944_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar]")
