Chapter 1: The End of an Era
Although the room was small, it still looked very tidy. The owner of the house was a lean young man sitting on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, firmly staring at a TV placed not far away.
The noon newscast of the state television was playing on the screen.
Barely a week ago, Jiang Liushi had never used this TV to watch anything other than matches, and he certainly didn't watch the noon newscast.
"An international scientific team has just held a press conference announcing that they found a prehistoric super virus, which is currently known to be one of the four super-viruses in the permafrost of the Siberian Far East region. Scientists had discovered another giant virus in the area a year ago, but it had not been announced until recently. At the same time, researchers say they are still in the initial stages of virus research and do not know whether such a prehistoric virus can infect a human or animal's body… Some experts also said that as long as the frozen layer is kept frozen, we do not have to consider the virus a threat... "
Jiang Liushi was staring at the TV screen, but his focus was not on the news. He already knew everything about this news-its content. He had not suddenly acquired the superpower to predict the future. However, something unexpected had indeed happened a few days ago.
He had discovered in his brain an entity called Starseed, that could potentially help him. It was the creation of an ancient alien race, part physical part energy, that ended on Earth a long time ago. It had been dormant until the release of the super-virus, and latched onto the closest compatible host.
After the bonding process, which gave him a good headache and fever for a few days, it communicated with him. It informed him about the ancient super-virus that had been released, and that would cause plants and animals worldwide to mutate and evolve. It had calculated that a large part of the human population wouldn't be able to handle the change and turn into monsters.
The live news broadcast had just confirmed what the Starseed had revealed: A virus outbreak would cause the end of the world as he knew it in a little over a week.
Previous news were about the absence of some heads of state from some important activities, as well as the cancellation of some important international meetings or trips. This kind of news did not attract too much attention, but Jiang Liushi now knew that many countries had already heard about the virus infection and were making the necessary preparations to retreat.
Virus infection outbreaks were very fast, and there were no effective means to contain them at all. Therefore, informing people would only cause huge panic and massive riots. As a result, the public was kept in the dark about everything, and people were living their lives normally without noticing that some public figures had not appeared for a long time.
This conference on the virus was the last act of kindness from high-level managers. They did not want to see ordinary people die without knowing why. There would be no sign of this imminent disaster until around ten days later, but then it would already be too late. Jiang Liushi didn't try to warn the public about it. Nobody would believe him. The only thing he could do was prepare himself.
The Starseed did not only provide information about the coming disaster, but its main function would give him the ability to survive the crisis. It was capable of engineering reconstruction and upgrade through some limited material and molecular manipulation.
However, Jiang Liushi needed to provide the main design and materials. The modification process also consummed energy, and it increased with the size and complexity of the upgrade. While the Starseed had a lot of energy accumulated, it still had its limits. In the future, Jiang Liushi would need a proper power to keep up with his needs.
As for what to use as base, Jiang Liushi chose a vehicle over a fixed place. A fixed place could be overrun, and he would need to travel to not only get food, but also materials. That would mean leaving his base unattended and travel long distances in a dangerous environment. He would have to face monstrous humans, hostile humans and mutated beasts.
With a vehicle, he would have his base everywhere he went, and if an area became too dangerous, he could just leave. To him, mobility would be more important for the first months of chaos. Before that, he focused on what kind of supplies and equipment he would need to survive: food, medecine, hygien products, weapons and protective gear...
For food, he though 2 cans of meat and vegetables, 1 can of fruits and a bottle of water daily would be the minimum acceptable to stay healthy. Sliced bread, peanut butter, honey, dry food and snacks would be fine too. For medecine and hygien, a firs aid kit, a home pharmacy and toiletry kit with some spare products, emergency body wipes, and some household goods to clean various items. For weapons and equipment, a machete, a fire axe, a medium sledgehammer, a biker's full body armor, and an emergency tool kit.
Finally, some books and manuals. Thing about martial arts, farming, ecology, wilderness survival, first aid, medecine, prospecting and construction. While not necessary for survival, entertainment would be good for moral: novels, music, movies, series, animes, games...
All these goods he could buy or download, so he could have them before the chaos of doomsday. He didn't need to spare money because it would become useless. He could even steal if he though he could get away with it for a few days. By the time the cops closed on him being the culprit, it would be too late.
The real difficult part was aquiring the proper vehicle to customize before D-Day.
He wanted a spacious vehicle so he could live in it, with good speed, maneuvrability, durability and capable of off-road travel. Those kind of vehicles would be expensive, so not easy to steal, and most likely already coveted by rich people with proper contacts, and the military. However, after thinking about it for a while, he wondered if he could design a unique vehicle inspired from existing ones. The Starseed confirmed that it could act as assistant to customize the design before any refitting.
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