Community Traversal: I Have a Daily Rescue Kit

5: Home Guardian Beast

Someone pushed him, causing Su Chen to lose his footing and stumble off the path, falling into the endless gray fog.

In an instant, the world before his eyes shrank—he could only see a range of less than two meters around him, and beyond that, there was only swirling gray fog, trapping him in a cage.

Su Chen was both shocked and furious, unable to understand why the person who had always followed behind him and asked him to lead the way would suddenly be so ruthless, pushing him into this dangerous fog from behind.

"Hiss—whoosh—"

Su Chen took a few deep breaths.

Being angry, resentful, or afraid... is useless now. In this godforsaken place, only by staying calm can one possibly survive.

After taking three deep breaths, he finally managed to calm down the tangled mess of emotions in his heart.

He forced himself to calm down and began to think of a way back.

Su Chen didn't dare to wander off, but instead tried hard to recall the moment he was pushed. Then he squatted down and touched the ground with his hand, trying to see if there were any traces left behind.

After touching it for half a minute, his fingertips suddenly touched a small dent—it was from when his heel accidentally bumped into it while he was walking.

"There's hope!" Su Chen was overjoyed. "If we follow these little pits back, we might be able to get back to that crooked tree!"

He immediately crouched down and crawled forward little by little in the thick fog, following the direction of the pit marks.

The first pit, the second, the third...

But as you touch it, the pit suddenly breaks off.

"Have we arrived yet?"

Su Chen looked up expectantly, her heart pounding.

But the scene before him made his heart sink – the surrounding area was still shrouded in a gray fog, and his vision was still no more than two meters. He had not escaped this “cage” at all.

"Hiss—whoosh—"

He couldn't help but take another deep breath.

"Won't I... become the third 'resident count decreased by one' on the bulletin board?"

Completely lost, Su Chen felt a surge of intense anxiety. He kept turning his gaze, scanning the surrounding gray fog up, down, left, and right, fearing that a human-faced owl would suddenly appear and swoop down to devour him.

"We can't just wait to die like this!"

He gripped the Nepalese katana in his hand, which was already soaked with sweat—in this mist, the katana had become his only support.

"While we still have the energy, we must continue searching for a way!"

Thinking of this, Su Chen slowly stood up in the direction he had crawled from and tentatively walked forward.

He walked for a long time in the gray fog, so long that his calves felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

Just when he was about to collapse, a different kind of light suddenly appeared through the fog ahead.

"Light!"

Humans are naturally drawn to light. Su Chen's heart skipped a beat, filled with both surprise and joy.

"Could it be that I've stumbled upon... the village mentioned in the announcement?"

Without thinking twice, he stepped into the light.

wow——

He seemed to hear a soft sound, like mist dispersing. The thick fog that had trapped him for hours suddenly vanished, and he stepped into a cluster of buildings.

"This...this is..."

"Why is it a modern residential area? What happened to the mysterious village?"

Su Chen was stunned.

Before me stood the damaged gate to the residential compound—a large hole torn in it. Looking inside, I saw seven dilapidated-looking apartment buildings. In a corner of the central plaza, a metal notice board stood.

A terrible thought suddenly popped into his head.

He took off running, rushing to the metal notice board, eager to verify his guess.

[Tianheyuan Notice Board]

[Number of residents in the community: 0]

Electricity balance: 0 public survival points

Water balance: 0 public survival points

Gas balance: 0 public survival points

Su Chen stared wide-eyed at the Chinese characters on the sign, her heart skipping a beat.

Tianhe Garden—this is the name of an ordinary residential community that can be found all over the Great Xia Kingdom.

Clearly, sometime before he woke up, this neighborhood had already entered this world, and... all the residents were gone; not a single one survived.

"As expected... our neighborhood isn't the first to come."

"There were even earlier ones, and they were all wiped out long ago."

"Then... could there be other neighborhoods that arrived earlier and were wiped out even earlier than this one?"

Su Chen asked himself the question.

He quickly arrived at the answer.

"Definitely!"

"How could I be so lucky? If the gray fog world were just a wasteland, I would never have stumbled upon it even if I walked until I died."

"If this continues... the number of communities wiped out in this gray fog is probably countless, an astronomical figure!"

Su Chen gasped.

He suddenly became very scared, fearing that his neighborhood might become one of them.

Especially this neighborhood, which looks much better than theirs—the buildings are old, but they have obviously been renovated: the walls are covered with menacing iron spikes, and thick black steel bars are exposed under the peeling paint.

Besides these modern buildings, the community also features many exotic defensive structures: towers engraved with runes and flashing with lightning; spikes covering the roads and gleaming with a cold light; furnaces connected to the ground and constantly spewing out magma; and giant cannons mounted on rooftops with barrels as thick as bells...

Not only buildings, but also the carcasses of many giant animals are scattered throughout the community.

A house cat, bigger than a tiger even when dried; a wild boar, jet black, as strong as an elephant, with tusks half a meter long; a giant monkey, nearly five meters tall, leaning against a wall with a pierced chest, looking like a behemoth...

When Su Chen first saw these animals, he thought they were monsters that emerged from the fog, like the human-faced owl.

But he quickly dismissed the idea—because the animal carcasses all bore traces of human domestication.

The big cat had a copper bell hanging from its neck; a fur cushion was firmly fixed to the back of the elephant-like wild boar; the five-meter-tall monkey had neither bell nor cushion, but it was wearing a red cloak and holding a bent alloy rod in its hand.

"Just how strong are these people...?" Su Chen couldn't help but exclaim. "Raising cats into tigers and using elephant-sized wild boars as mounts is one thing, but they even raised a 'Great Sage'? That's incredible..."

"Even such a strong neighborhood was ultimately wiped out..."

Su Chen felt a chill run down his spine.

"Wow—!"

Just as he was lost in thought, a "house cat" the size of a tiger suddenly darted out from the shadows of the building next door. It limped towards Su Chen and let out a low, hoarse growl.

Seeing that the look in his eyes wasn't friendly, Su Chen quickly moved away.

Ta-da... He jogged all the way and slipped into the nearest residential building.

"Click!"

As soon as he entered the building, Su Chen immediately closed the iron door that had been reinforced by the original inhabitants, pulled the bolt, and locked it.

Almost simultaneously, the lame big cat pounced at the door.

It stretched out its claws and scratched the iron gate repeatedly, sending up a series of blinding sparks.

The big cat scratched at the door while growling at Su Chen. However, its growl was hoarse and weak, not as loud as the tinkling sound of the bell around its neck.

After scratching for a while, the cat seemed to run out of energy. It glared fiercely at Su Chen, then simply lay down by the iron gate, blocking the way.

"well……"

Su Chen sighed, feeling a little sorry for the lame cat that had lost its owner. But as much as he felt sorry for it, he didn't intend to do anything—the cat hadn't been very nice to him to begin with, and besides, he couldn't even find his way home himself, so he had no intention of helping it.

"Luckily, there are no animal protection organizations in this world..." Su Chen shook his head, ignoring the big cat outside the door, and turned to walk upstairs.

He climbed all the way to the sixth floor and found that the door to room 602 was only slightly ajar.

Without hesitation, Su Chen opened the door and went inside.

Upon entering, the room suddenly opened up before me—it was many times larger than it appeared from the outside, almost like another small world.

In the living room, there was not only a workbench for making guns and knives, but also an alchemy table covered with runes. On the alchemy table was a prismatic stone that had lost its luster and become completely transparent, which looked like a work left behind by the previous owner's failed alchemy attempt.

Su Chen casually lifted the carpet on the living room floor, revealing a downward passageway entrance underneath.

"Sixth floor...and there's a basement?"

"Fine, what else is unreasonable in this place?"

He muttered something to himself and started walking down the stairs.

He soon arrived at the basement entrance, where a keypad door blocked his way.

Upon seeing the mechanical combination lock, Su Chen originally intended to leave immediately.

Just then, he caught a glimpse of a wooden box next to the keypad door, with what looked like a note on it.

Su Chen walked over, picked it up, and saw a string of numbers written on it: 9527.

"Could this be... a password?"

He thought for a moment, then tried turning the combination lock and moved the numbers to the corresponding positions.

Click.

The door opened.

The light from a lamp that burns eternally shines out first. In the warm light, you can see a small cradle inside.

Inside the cradle, a white, round egg the size of a watermelon was gently trembling rhythmically, its shell gleaming softly under the light.

Su Chen quickly went over and carefully lifted the big white egg from the cradle.

At that very moment, a notification sound rang in his ear:

You have obtained the Guardian Beast of your Home.

"Home guardian beast... It seems that after the community's defenses are breached, one's own home is the last line of defense."

Su Chen thought to himself, then carefully tucked the big white egg into his arms.