Final Ending

(PS: I almost updated this chapter to "The History of Honghuang"... By the way, I continue to ask for your favorites, clicks, recommendations, and rewards. Come on, everyone, please support me~~~~)

Finding the handgun ineffective plunged Lu Yuanming into a deep dejection.

However, he didn't discard the handgun; whether for psychological comfort or some other reason, Lu Yuanming carefully placed the handgun into the inner pocket of his clothing.

His exploration continued. After seeing two sets of remains, Lu Yuanming's pace slowed even further.

Gradually, Lu Yuanming began to feel unbearable hunger and thirst.

At sixteen hours after his return, which coincided with his body's instinctive desire to drink water twice, he had already felt hunger and thirst. At that time, he could still bear it, but by the time he reached the bottom floor of this building, he had wanted to drink water four times, signifying that he had been in this world for thirty-two hours.

Although Lu Yuanming found it strange that in this post-death world, where he had become a soul, he could still feel hunger and thirst, it didn't alleviate his current misery.

As a normal human, going over twenty-four hours without water would already lead to a state of semi-dehydration.

A person can survive for nearly thirty days on water alone without food before dying.

But if a person doesn't drink water, they could die of thirst within four to seven days.

Lu Yuanming was in an extreme state of thirst, but after a long search in the building, he found absolutely no source of water—no tap water, no other kind of water, not even a drop in the toilets he checked.

Aside from fresh water, there was also no food.

Unless Lu Yuanming resorted to gnawing on the carcasses, whether human or monster, but that was out of the question, not only because he would never touch human remains, but also because the lower half of the monster's body, though dog-like, was decayed. Was he expected to eat rotten flesh?

Lu Yuanming confirmed he could not find food or fresh water in this abandoned building, but now he was afraid to leave it.

He knew he had to leave the building eventually; he couldn't be trapped here forever, but he had to make adequate preparations before attempting to leave.

Since the handgun was useless, he needed to find other weapons and armor.

During these thirty-plus hours of exploration, Lu Yuanming had also been selecting weapons and armor, though there wasn't much to choose from. For weapons, he found a few broken rebar rods; the longest one was almost a meter and about as thick as three fingers put together. The broken end was very sharp, suitable as a form of spear, with the only downside being a bit heavy. This was the most suitable weapon he found in the building.

As for armor, he had no real options. He cobbled together some pieces from discarded, broken furniture and hung them on his front and back. It was a makeshift setup at best; the planks were more of a psychological comfort than actual protection. Forget monsters; even an ordinary person could punch right through them.

These were all the weapons and armor Lu Yuanming had. By his own assessment, such armory was slightly better than a weak chicken, at best reaching the level of a weak duck but certainly not the strength of a weak goose.

That's precisely why Lu Yuanming dared not leave the building; the outside world was far too terrifying. Although he was determined to strengthen his soul in this afterlife world, determination was one thing, and courting death was another.

As Lu Yuanming agonized over whether to leave the building and his overwhelming hunger and thirst, back in his original timeline, his parents and sister were burning paper money.

This was a common practice in many parts of Z Country, burning some paper money before the Spring Festival reunion dinner, as an offering to ancestors and as a prayer for less misfortune and more luck in the new year.

Lu Yuanming's body lay on the living room sofa, while his parents and sister burned paper money on the balcony in a small brazier, saying prayers for the ancestors to take the money and bless them, hoping for Lu Yuanming's swift recovery.

Meanwhile, Lu Yuanming, who was on the second floor of the building, was once again tempted to leave because of his hunger and thirst. Yet such a direct exit was full of danger, and his reason told him he needed a more long-term plan, which left him caught in a dilemma and growing increasingly anxious.

Just then, he was astonished to discover some light particles materializing out of thin air. At first, there was just one, but then more and more appeared until there were a total of eleven Colorless Light Particles floating around him.

Lu Yuanming was overjoyed and reached out to grab the light particles, but he forcefully suppressed this instinct because this was the afterlife; what if some Spectres or Curses manifested as light particles?

Upon careful observation, Lu Yuanming noticed the light particles were colorless, displaying a kind of luminosity and about the size of a little fingernail, colorless and semi-transparent—completely different from the White Light Particles he had seen when killing monsters. The difference was apparent at a glance.

"So... what exactly are these?"

Lu Yuanming dared not touch them carelessly. He cautiously moved away from the light particles, yet as he moved, they followed, maintaining a distance of about half a meter around him, neither drifting away nor coming closer.