Night of the Apocalypse

Although the overall appearance was quite dilapidated, it still gave off a different impression.

Shen Qiu quickly locked onto the tall building, contemplated for a few seconds, and then made a decision to take the risk and head over.

He cautiously made his way toward it.

Whether it was luck smiling upon Shen Qiu or a stroke of good fortune, he managed to reach the back of the building without any significant incidents.

Looking at the building up close, Shen Qiu squinted his eyes; he sharply noticed that this building was noticeably different from the others. Although they were all steel structures, the walls of this building were clearly much thicker.

Moreover, the open back door was a specially designed protective door.

At that moment, the weak morning light began to illuminate the ruined city.

Shen Qiu was suddenly alarmed; dawn was approaching. He immediately hurried inside the building.

He was still unsure whether daytime would be relatively safer or even more dangerous.

Once inside the building, Shen Qiu abruptly stopped. He saw a human skeleton lying on the ground, clad in a black vest-style bulletproof jacket, riddled with bullet holes. The skull was adorned with a protective helmet, and the skeleton was holding a weapon that resembled a combination of a shotgun and a rifle.

Shen Qiu quickly squatted down and gently picked up the weapon. At that moment, the skeleton’s hand crumbled to pieces, indicating how long ago the death had occurred.

He glanced briefly at the skeleton before focusing on the weapon in his hands, carefully inspecting and disassembling it.

After some examination, he discovered that it was neither a shotgun nor a rifle but rather a large-caliber automatic weapon with a magazine capacity of seven rounds, currently containing three bullets.

Furthermore, the material of the bullets was quite special; the bullet heads had a very high hardness, somewhat resembling armor-piercing rounds.

Its power should not be underestimated, as it could deal sufficient damage to those Cleaners and monsters.

Feeling satisfied, Shen Qiu reassembled the disassembled magazine without hesitation and then took off the skeleton’s bulletproof vest and helmet.

He quickly donned the bulletproof vest and helmet, but after moving around a bit, he felt how heavy the vest was—it weighed at least 15 pounds, and the helmet was several pounds as well. Shen Qiu then decided to take off the helmet and toss it aside, feeling that wearing it was too uncomfortable and would hinder his movements.

Shen Qiu continued to search the pockets of the corpse’s clothing and soon pulled out a magnetic card and a set of mechanical keys. He quickly stashed them away and continued to feel his way forward.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the corpse he had just examined was likely a security personnel of this building, who had attempted to escape through the back door but was shot instead.

One puzzling point left Shen Qiu very confused: Was this city’s downfall caused by monsters or by mechanical weapons?

Before he could ponder this further, he arrived at the main hall.

A glance at the severely damaged hall made his left eyelid twitch.

From the remnants of the furnishings and decorations, he recognized that this was a bank building.

He suppressed his restless heart and carefully observed the surroundings. The walls of the hall were lined with surveillance cameras, but all of them had stopped functioning.

In the enclosed office area, two corpses lay inside, and there were three more in the outer hall, one of which was a security guard whose bulletproof vest was intact.

Shen Qiu immediately walked over and stripped the vest off, replacing the one he was wearing.

Unfortunately, the firearm in the corpse’s hand was out of ammunition.

As for the other four corpses, judging by the style of their moldy clothing, they didn’t seem to be high-ranking personnel.

Shen Qiu found a pile of magnetic cards, cash, electronic wristbands, and mechanical keys on each of them.

He discarded the cash and stuffed the rest into his backpack, planning to discard anything unnecessary later.

After completing this, Shen Qiu walked over to the elevator. He reached out and pressed several buttons, but there was no response at all.

If there were no surprises, this building should have been completely powered down, and all facilities should have ceased operation.

Shen Qiu pondered for a moment and then walked over to the nearby emergency staircase. He glanced at the stairs leading up and down, then chose to go down.

In a bank building of this scale, there should normally be a vault, and such facilities are generally located in underground areas.

Of course, Shen Qiu only approached with a mindset of trying his luck; he didn’t have high hopes, as the security level of such facilities is typically very high.

He descended the emergency staircase, encountering a steel security door at every corner. However, these doors were either wide open or had been violently breached.

Thus, Shen Qiu moved down without obstruction, but the further he went down, the darker it became, and visibility decreased significantly.

When necessary, Shen Qiu had to take out his phone, power it on, and use the flashlight for illumination.

Soon, he reached the deepest underground level, where a pitch-black metal corridor appeared in front of him.

As Shen Qiu walked along, he saw several corpses lying on the ground. He didn’t rush to continue exploring but instead searched each corpse.

As a result, he found another pile of magnetic cards and mechanical keys.

If Shen Qiu guessed correctly, these dead individuals were likely staff members of the bank.

They must not have had time to escape before being killed.

With this thought in mind, Shen Qiu continued moving forward.

Before long, he arrived at the end and stood in front of the vault. The entrance to the vault was a round, closed metal gate. From its appearance, it was evident that this gate was very thick and nearly impossible to breach violently.

Fortunately, the vault’s security gate was open, and there was a mechanical lock with a circular dial on the gate, which had a mechanical key inserted into it.

Shen Qiu took a slight breath and cautiously stepped inside.

As he entered the dark vault, Shen Qiu raised his phone’s flashlight and shone it around.

At a glance, the vault was filled with crooked shelves, and the ground was littered with fallen items.

Shen Qiu squatted down, looking at the scattered objects on the floor and was momentarily stunned. Aside from the dusty paper money,
he also saw several rectangular-shaped objects. He reached out, picked one up, and blew off the dust, revealing a golden sheen.

Shen Qiu’s heart skipped a beat as he weighed it in his hand and then bit into it.

A complex expression appeared on his face; this was real gold.

Shen Qiu glanced around the vault, and there was gold everywhere.

He estimated that there was at least five to six tons here, which would be an unimaginable fortune if he could take it out.

Normally, this would have made him ecstatic.

However, Shen Qiu quickly calmed down and tossed the gold he was holding onto the ground.

While the items were valuable, they were useless when his life was at stake.

Shen Qiu walked towards the inner safe, preparing to search for any other treasures.

When he reached the front of the safe, he was momentarily startled to see that it had been blasted apart by heavy weaponry and was now in ruins.

In front of the safe lay some scattered body parts and a large pile of chaotic items.

Shen Qiu crouched down and began to sort through the fallen items. He found exquisite jewelry, documents, and various strange trinkets, likely antiques.

Suddenly, something on the ground caught Shen Qiu’s eye, and he reached down to pick it up.

It was a very special mechanical blade, 120 cm long, with a black grip engraved with a dragon pattern. Shen Qiu blew a breath to clear away the dust, revealing a cool black metal sheath.

He drew the mechanical blade, and it instantly revealed a gleaming edge that looked extremely sharp, though he had no idea what material it was made from.

Shen Qiu inserted the blade back into its sheath and picked it up to play around with it.

He pondered for a moment; this weapon was likely an antique from their time. However, its sharpness and hardness were quite impressive, making it suitable for self-defense. At the very least, it was much more reliable than the fruit knife he had found earlier.