Apocalypse Forecast

In the midst of a heavy sleep, Huai Shi felt himself falling.

Down, down, down in the darkness, as if accompanied by many people. Some screamed in terror, while others struggled numbly, but soon they all disappeared.

He fell into the water, sinking into a deep pool, yet also buoyed up weightlessly, drifting with the current in the darkness.

He seemed to have died.

But also seemed to be on the road to death.

It was almost there.

A voice told him so.

But death seemed endless, carrying him deeper and deeper into the darkness. Until the cold water washed him up on a muddy shore.

A stooped figure emerged from the gloom, looking down at him, bending to grab his leg and drag him to the grass hut by the swamp.

A knock at the door.

It opened.

The smell of decaying bodies filled the air.

Inside the hut, only the operating table on which the bloodstains shone was lit. A wrinkled, white-haired old man wearing a mask was dissecting a corpse with intense concentration, occasionally stepping back to sketch a few lines on the table beside him.

In the dim light of the oil lamp, the specimens hanging from hooks around the room dripped with preservative fluid. But the faces of the human specimens bore expressions of fear from the moment of their death.

The stooped figure pointed to Huai Shi and reached out to the old man behind the door, asking for something.

The old man looked down at the boy on the ground with cloudy eyes and shook his head slowly. "He's not dead yet. Why did you bring me a live one?"

"He's almost there... there's still source material left... source material left..." The stooped figure made a strange sound, like a mixture of a dog and a fox.

"I can only give you half. If you want him, keep him. If not, take him away." The old man stood by with folded arms, watching coldly.

The figure seemed to be angered, screaming loudly.

The old man remained unmoved, watching it indifferently until it reached out its hand dejectedly. "Half, half..."

An ancient copper coin was thrown into its hand.

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"If there's nothing else, get out of here and don't disturb my work."

The old man looked down at Huai Shi on the ground, furrowed his brow, and dragged him by one leg to the operating table, sweeping the already broken corpse aside.

As the figure left, the sound of the door closing made Huai Shi's pupils tremble. He tried to move, stuttering as he opened his mouth, but coughed up a large amount of blood.

"You're not dead yet?"

The old man opened his eyelids and looked at his eyeballs in surprise, pinching Huai Shi's bones with his withered hands. Finally, he nodded in satisfaction.

"A very standard structure, although the strength is insufficient, it should be able to serve as a temporary spare part... I wonder if dismembering him while he's still alive can maintain the best effect."

He sighed and began to cut the arteries in Huai Shi's hands and thighs without hesitation.Huai Shi's throat made a hoarse sound, but it was of no use. Warm blood quickly spread from under him, flowing into the dirty tube along the groove of the dissecting table.

"Do you have something to say?"

The old man looked at his trembling pupils with some helplessness. "You're almost dead. Can't you die quietly? I've seen many people like you. Anyway, you've fallen into hell after crossing the border. It's only natural for you to die. Now, the source material hasn't dissipated yet. What's there to complain about?"

He took out a bottle of potion and poured it into Huai Shi's mouth, which was coughing up blood foam. The intense pungent and strange sour taste stimulated Huai Shi's throat, leaving a burning sensation like copper juice, igniting his body like a flame, making him emit hoarse and painful groans.

"This is a potion bought from that goblin. It's used for mummies and can maintain the vitality of organs when a person is dying. But don't expect to survive. It's just converting your remaining lifespan into vitality and squeezing it out... This way, you can say a few more words before you die, and it's more convenient for me to work. Can you cooperate?"

The old man buried his head and cut open Huai Shi's shattered right hand. "Remember, don't scream. I hate noisy sounds."

Huai Shi struggled to suppress the painful sound, convulsing all over. As the old man said, he could actually make a faint sound at the last moment.

"Where... is this?"

"In your words, it's the twelfth level of hell, my corpse workshop, a place where I sell some small items to customers. In a moment, you will become one of the small items."

While speaking, the old man continued to dissect Huai Shi's right hand without any scruples. His knife was extremely precise, piercing through the muscles without injuring Huai Shi's bones. It was like peeling the skin off a fruit, skillful and natural.

"How about making a deal..." Huai Shi swallowed the taste of pain and gasped, "I actually want to continue living. Let me go."

"No, I've already bought your corpse. How can you not die? Besides, you can't live for more than a few minutes. If you die outside, I'll have to drag you back again."

In the dim light, the old man's two eyeballs twisted on their respective axes, one black eye looking at Huai Shi, and one red eye focusing on the place where the knife was cutting. "Look at your body, the source material is empty, and you're running out of time... Although your vitality is so strong, it's already burning like ashes. It's better to die honestly. You can still burn up the remaining value..."

His arm had been completely dissected, and the bones were carefully removed by the old man and soaked in the nearby preservative solution. Every time he took one out, the old man would wave it in front of Huai Shi with great interest.

Huai Shi stared blankly at the ceiling covered in dried bloodstains. The pain had been replaced by numbness, and even his voice had become dry and hoarse."I can't die here yet..."

"Why can't you die?" the old man said seriously. "Everyone can die."

As if being lured into a conversation, the old man meticulously cut Huai Shi's left hand, speaking incessantly amidst the bloody mess:

"I've seen many people who thought they were important, playing the most special role in this world. But when they came here, they died. After they died, the world continued to move forward, the sun still rose, and reality didn't stop because they were gone. So they were wrong, they were no different from anyone else."

He pointed to the corpses hanging in the air waiting to be sold, explaining to Huai Shi one by one: "This person was once a high-ranking figure; this person was once a righteous avenger who had killed countless villains; this person was once a teacher of a dictator, and the dictator became a wise leader under his tutelage. But they all died.

Since we are born, death is inevitable. Even gods, after a hundred years, two hundred years, watching the world change...when a thousand years have passed, even gods will find this world boring.

Compared to them, what are you?"

"But I still don't want to die."

Huai Shi blinked hard, trying not to let his tears blur his vision. "Okay, listen. Don't let my weak appearance fool you, I'm actually tough. A man's tears are worth a thousand pieces of gold, and I'm crying now. Can you spare me?"