Chapter 321 - 263: The Apocalypse Descends: Each Shows Their Prowess

Chapter 321: Chapter 263: The Apocalypse Descends: Each Shows Their Prowess

Posters were laid out below.

[The Maze Challenge!]

[Requirements: Anyone who can run, jump, and climb is eligible to participate.]

[Find your way from the starting point to a correct gate within 10 minutes to successfully complete the challenge. Winners receive one stuffed toy + a mystery prize (to be revealed at 7 PM)!]

Down below, there were no red guide lines, and the area was bustling with excitement!

College students, office workers, little kids, young mothers, old men... everyone wanted to give it a try. After all, it cost nothing. Why not have a go?

Who knew? They might just succeed and win a stuffed toy and the grand mystery prize.

Inside the correct gates, stuffed toys of all sizes were hung up, creating a spectacular display.

People below challenged the maze one after another, but many would run and jump only to find themselves back where they started. Only a few managed to reach the finish line and claim a stuffed toy.

"Sir, I did it! What’s the mystery prize?" an excited young man who had completed the challenge asked.

Zhang Yihuai chuckled. "I’ll be announcing it soon... It’s a gift you could never imagine."

"How big of a gift?"

"Very big."

The first floor of the Olympic Sports Center was surrounded by a total of 10 large gates: five safe gates and five false gates. Outside, there were numerous passages leading into the maze.

Crowds of people were attempting the challenge.

This area was a commercial district, always bustling on the weekends. Now, it had drawn an even larger crowd, with many people recording videos to post online.

Even more people were eager to take on the challenge.

Just then, a colleague behind him brought over a phone.

"Brother Zhang! The director’s team from *Super Brain* called my phone again. They want you to take the call. They’re asking when you’d be willing to compete on the show, or even just be a behind-the-scenes designer."

"I’ve told them so many times, I’m just an ordinary person..."

"He said that this maze of yours, if you didn’t hold back and only left a single safe gate, would be difficult enough for their championship finals..."

"Just hang up. I’m busy."

Zhang Yihuai gazed at the vast sea of people, a smile touching the corners of his mouth.

He didn’t have many resources, but he could create them.

People were the greatest resource in the apocalypse.

He dared to take in the large numbers of people that others wouldn’t.

As the time neared 6:40 PM, Zhang Yihuai picked up a megaphone.

"Alright, the challenge is now paused! We’re changing the game! The rewards are getting an upgrade! Everyone, please move back behind the outer fences of the maze!"

The maze was cleared, and a huge crowd gathered outside. The first and second floors were packed with people.

Zhang Yihuai waved his hand, and a group of college students went out with red spray paint, marking out all the safe paths.

Once they were finished, Zhang Yihuai shouted, "Next up, we’ll be playing a game called... the Race for Your Life!"

"I want all of you to look at these red paths. In a moment... you’re going to use all your strength to follow them. Don’t look to the sides, don’t look behind you. Just push forward with everything you’ve got until you reach the end!"

"When you get there, you’ll see the ultimate grand prize I’ve prepared for you all!"

Many people were confused. The answers were right there in front of them. Where was the difficulty in that?

Zhang Yihuai signaled to the floor above.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The pre-treated tempered glass on both sides of the skywalk was shattered, exploding and scattering below. The skywalk no longer had any protective railings. One wrong step and you could fall right off!

「The time reached 7:00 PM sharp!」

"The zombie virus has broken out! The people around you are no longer human! For the sake of your own lives... run the course!"

For a moment, everyone on the first floor froze.

Then, from all around the Olympic Sports Center, masses of people shoved past the zombies beside them, scrambled over the outer fences, and immediately started to run, jump, duck, and climb along the red paths!

The zombies awakened and gave chase to the people ahead!

But they crashed into the railings and tumbled over. The zombies behind them did the same. Only after a pile of zombies had formed could the ones in the back manage to clamber over. They would then chase after the humans, but in their pursuit... they would inadvertently exit the maze.

Or they would get stuck, staring at the red path just a few feet away, unable to cross over to it.

On the second-floor skywalk, panicked survivors cried out as they fled the shopping center. They saw the red paths and instinctively followed them, navigating over obstacles until they reached the second-floor entrance, pulled open the door, and went inside.

Behind them, a horde of zombies chasing them out of the shopping center followed the path rigidly, but after just a few steps, they plunged straight off the second floor.

THUD! THUD!

As masses of zombies fell from the second floor, a steady stream of survivors from the shopping center entered the Olympic Sports Center.

All the red lines had become lifelines for the living.

Meanwhile, the mindless zombies could never navigate the maze. They would only get farther away or end up bunched together in a confused pile.

They could slowly pile up, but... by then, the people would have had more than enough time to escape.

Viewed from above, it was as if the Olympic Sports Center had sprouted countless winding, crooked red tentacles, continuously sucking the living into its body while expelling the zombies. The entire process required no human intervention.

All of them—humans and zombies alike—were funneled by Zhang Yihuai’s design to where they were supposed to go.

Any survivor who reached the maze had made it to safety.

"Keep going! The grand mystery prize I’m giving you is—your own life."

Outside, zombies surged as survivors ran for their lives.

Zhang Yihuai lowered the megaphone and returned to the Olympic Sports Center with his core team.

"It’s time for us to deal with any potentially infected individuals."

Inside the Olympic Sports Center, another screening process was in place to ensure only healthy survivors were let in.

Using the maze as its foundation, the Olympic Sports Center automatically funneled a massive population inside from the outside world.