When Building A of New Century Plaza was completed, it was the tallest building in Jiangsu Province. Now it stands as the tallest in Qinhuai District, ranking seventh among Nanjing’s skyscrapers. Nanjing has over twenty skyscrapers exceeding 200 meters in height. After humanity’s extinction, only birds could claim these towers, turning the skyscrapers into ultra-luxury bird nests. The windows were covered in thick layers of white and black dried bird droppings, like unmelted snow.

The big eye perched on the rooftop.

It crawled around the building’s exterior walls, choosing its footing carefully, never disturbing any of the bird nests on the windowsills and balconies. Despite its enormous bulk, it moved with delicate grace, like performing ballet on eggshells.

The massive pupil scanned outside each window—we still don’t know what means the big eye uses to actively gather information from its surroundings. It might be visible light, infrared, or perhaps sound, but without a doubt, its vision was acute. It could discover and lock onto a tiny human figure a kilometer away within seconds, even in the pitch-black night across the complex urban terrain spanning dozens of square kilometers. That enormous eyeball wasn’t wasted after all.

Ban Xia hid inside the building, curled up under the front desk in the lobby, knowing it was right above her head.

Now she was prey, and it was the hunter.

They were playing a deadly game of hunting in the vast concrete jungle built by humans.

The girl slowly held her breath as she heard it climbing down. Building A of New Century Plaza was over 230 meters tall, but for a spider with a seven to eight-meter span, getting from roof to ground was just twenty or so steps—a casual stroll. The thing circled the exterior wall, stopping at the first floor.

The movement outside suddenly went quiet.

Ban Xia thought it might speak again, but it didn’t. The thing just remained still outside for a long time.

The girl had noticed a pattern—whenever the big eye appeared, no sounds could be heard nearby. Whether coincidence or not, it seemed all creation fell silent in its presence.

The wait in darkness and silence was excruciatingly long. Ban Xia could see nothing, hear nothing, feel no passage of time. After what seemed like forever, she finally heard footsteps again as the big eye slowly crawled away.

The “click-clack, click-clack” gradually faded into the distance until it vanished completely.

Ban Xia let out a breath, her entire body drenched in sweat.

Only after the big eye had gone did Nanjing’s night return to normal. The girl could hear the wind again, the scurrying of rats, and hooting owls, as if the whole world had just been holding its breath.

“Old Dad… this is BG4MSR, can you hear me?”

Ban Xia turned on her radio, trying to contact Bai Zhen.

“BG… signal… poor…”

The radio crackled with static, nothing clear coming through. The nearby skyscrapers were blocking the radio signals. Ban Xia slowly got up, stepped over the scattered garbage, and moved closer to the entrance before the signal gradually improved.

“This is Old Dad… are you… alright? Report… position… Command is planning a route, we need to bring you back safely, OVER.”

“I’m… I’m at New Century Plaza, the tallest building here.”

“New Century Plaza Building A!”

“We’ve reached the position.”

Bai Yang and Lian Qiao stood at the entrance of New Century Plaza Building A. The place was crowded as hell, truly worthy of being called the bustling city center, with an endless stream of people and vehicles.

“Blade Runner behavioral simulation in progress, blind spot route filtering in progress. Based on current intelligence, the blade has a high probability of moving west, over.” Someone spoke on the channel.

“Moving west?” Bai Yang turned his head. “Then it’s returning to Xinjiekou.”

“Field of view calculations are complete and sent to your phones. Lian Qiao notes, that red zones are danger areas with high exposure probability, orange zones are risk areas with possible exposure, and green zones are safe areas. When choosing routes, try to pass through green zones as much as possible, over.”

“Command attention! 03, route filtering results sent to your end, please check, over!”

Massive data from the cloud flowed into command, with the world’s most powerful supercomputers simulating everything in the background, performing over nine quintillion floating-point calculations per second. Lian Qiao could see the real-time calculated safe zones. Her phone showed a 3D map with six red dots moving across it, representing the big eye’s possible positions. All areas within their line of sight were marked red, with the only safe zones being behind buildings. The vast concrete jungle left behind by extinct humanity provided the girl’s only path to survival.

The six red dots moved constantly, safe zones changing by the second.

Hide in the buildings’ shadows, Old Zhao had said.

Then run!

“You familiar with this area?” Lian Qiao asked Bai Yang.

“Very.” Bai Yang said. “Ke Xiang, come here often to eat.”

“Then your guide, I’ll run with you,” Lian Qiao said. “Can you do it?”

“Yes.” Bai Yang nodded.

Lian Qiao gripped Bai Yang’s wrist tightly.

“Everyone ready—”

Zhao Bowen stood before the large screen, eyes level with the map ahead. Qinhuai District’s complex, crowded buildings provided the best cover to get that girl safely away from here.

Ban Xia took a deep breath, securing the radio to her backpack strap. Though separated by twenty years, she and Bai Yang stood at the same starting line.

On the map they were blue dots, facing the wide Zhongshan East Road. Old Zhao watched that dot, that building, and that road, until the green shadow of the building slowly tilted, turning the plaza in front of New Century Plaza Building A into the big eye’s blind spot—

“Run!”

Lian Qiao pulled Bai Yang as they moved swiftly along the wall, Ban Xia following closely.

“Follow the wall, turn right at the corner! Qiao-Jie, you can see the white ‘New Century Plaza’ characters! Toward Building B!”

“Qiao-jie watch out for cars!”

“Straight ahead one hundred meters! Through there, quick! Faster faster faster faster!”

Bai Yang kept his head down, either checking the map or looking up to identify their surroundings. Lian Qiao pulled him as they sprinted past New Century Plaza’s huge blue billboard, the two of them cutting through crowds of people and moving into safe zones. Ban Xia moved in sync with them—when Bai Yang stepped forward, she stepped forward; when he stepped back, she stepped back.

“Ke Xiang Building No. 10 is right ahead, see that wonton shop?”

“Left turn! Don’t cross the road, turn left!”

“Stop!”

“Hug the wall!”

“Make way! Make way! Damn it, make way!” Lian Qiao shouted angrily.

“Where’s the fire, running to a funeral?” someone cursed after being pushed aside.

“Go to your mother’s funeral!” Lian Qiao kept her tight grip on Bai Yang as they darted past a string of brightly lit shops selling Chongqing noodles, mutton soup, and rice noodles. The winter night’s restaurant entrances were shrouded in rising steam and heat. Ke Xiang was the local dining hall of Nanjing, and they were charging through this dining hall at full speed.

“Turn in! Turn in!”

“Stop! Stop! Stop stop stop!”

Bai Yang shouted as he grabbed Lian Qiao’s hand hard, forcefully bringing her to a halt. On the map, a large red glow was slowly sweeping toward them from ahead. The two ducked into a residential complex to hide.

When the red glow passed, they emerged to continue running.

“Here’s CFC, turn in here!”

“Forward to Building B, then right!”

“Qiao-jie you’re holding too tight, it hurts…”

“What if you get lost if I don’t hold tight enough?” Lian Qiao not only didn’t loosen her grip but tightened it, firmly grasping his wrist. “We agreed you handle directions, I handle running!”

All those times Lian Qiao had dragged Bai Yang out for five-kilometer runs every morning were finally paying off—being pulled along, he could barely keep up with her pace.

“There’s a Pin Da San at the corner ahead, past that is Building B, with the Foreign Trade Port Building diagonally opposite… this area is the most dangerous, we’ll be much safer once we clear it.”

“Speed up more, we’ll be out of danger soon.”

Sure enough, there was a Pin Da San restaurant under Building C, with red characters on its sign. Only when they reached it did Lian Qiao realize it was a restaurant, with advertisements for stone pot tiger skin chicken feet, xiaolongbao, and roasted pork knuckle hanging at the entrance.

At 1.75 meters tall, Lian Qiao had a tall frame and long legs, taking large strides. She cleared Pin Da San’s entrance in a single step.

But Ban Xia slammed to a stop in front of Pin Da San.

For the first time, she failed to keep pace with Bai Yang.

The girl stood trembling on the sidewalk, her whole body cold. She heard someone speaking from around the restaurant’s corner.

“Where are you? I found you—”