Chapter 54

The computer beeped, signaling that the movie had finished downloading. Without further ado, Zhang Hao focused his attention on the film "I Am Legend."

As he watched, his brows furrowed deeply. By the time the movie ended, his face was expressionless.

Just as he had imagined, it was almost impossible to harvest temporal energy from the "I Am Legend" world. He wasn't a biological expert, and even if he were, what could he do about a virus that countless biologists in that world couldn't solve? And even if he could develop an antibody, what then? The world was nearly destroyed, and the remaining humans were few.

Would having an antibody change the course of the world? Zhang Hao wasn't sure. In fact, he couldn't even determine the exact trajectory of the world's development. Would it lead to human extinction, or would the human race flourish again with an antibody?

What made it even more frustrating was that the movie had different endings: one where the antibody was developed, and another where it wasn't. Who knew which ending the world would follow? Different endings meant different developments for the world.

It seemed that temporal energy from this world wouldn't be available in the short term.

Although he felt a bit regretful, he wasn't overly concerned. The temporal energy from the Three Kingdoms world was quite substantial, and Zhang Hao didn't urgently need more.

Aside from temporal energy, the "I Am Legend" world still had its attractions. After the virus ravaged the world, the few survivors left behind a vast amount of resources, from luxury goods and artworks to military equipment that could only be seen in movies and on TV.

The thought of it was exhilarating, but it also brought a sense of frustration. The "I Am Legend" world was too dangerous for Zhang Hao to enter. The mutated creatures, the "Nightmares," were formidable, each one like a small superhuman. But they were biological beings, not zombies.

Even with their fatal weakness of being unable to withstand light, the "Nightmares" weren't a significant threat to Zhang Hao, who had the guidance technique and the temporal door as his backup. The real danger was the virus, which spread through the air and likely contaminated most of the world.

Entering the world would mean risking infection. Even with a specialized biohazard suit and a sealed breathing apparatus, there was no guarantee of complete safety. Zhang Hao didn't even know if the virus spread through the air or through skin contact. Even with the best protection, the risk of infection, though minimal, was still present, and he wouldn't take the chance.

After all, this was reality, not a game. In a game, players could ignore such risks, but in reality, one had to be fully prepared.

The resources in that world weren't worth the risk. Zhang Hao valued his life and was certain of his vast future. Even a world with slightly more advanced biotechnology than the modern world, or even a sci-fi future world, wasn't worth the risk. After all, through the temporal door, he could potentially access countless worlds with even more resources.

Zhang Hao had made his decision, but he still felt a bit regretful as he watched the scenes in the movie. An entire world's worth of resources, even F-22 nuclear submarines, were likely abandoned and ignored everywhere. The thought of it was heart-wrenching.

Regardless, he decided to check the situation in that world first. Zhang Hao closed the windows, doors, and curtains, then took out some supplies he had purchased from the electronics market, mainly a telescopic pole, several wired cameras, and a timer.

After connecting the cameras to the computer, he attached the cameras and the timer to the telescopic pole. Once he confirmed that the display was normal and set the time, he opened the temporal door. This time, the temporal door connected to the "I Am Legend" world.

Although he was concerned about being infected and didn't want to enter personally, he could still gather information about the world through other means, as he was doing now.

The cameras and other items entering the "I Am Legend" world didn't need to worry about contamination because any virus on them would be eliminated when they were retrieved through the temporal door. Without Zhang Hao's permission, no biological or material entity could pass through the temporal door, including viruses.

Biological entities had a special case. If they weren't infected, even if they had some viruses on them, the viruses would be eliminated when they passed through the temporal door, allowing them to travel back and forth without spreading the virus. However, if they were already infected and the virus had integrated with their body, the temporal door couldn't eliminate it.

Of course, if they were infected, the temporal door would automatically reject them based on Zhang Hao's settings.

Because he understood these principles, he could observe the situation in this way.

After pressing the timer, he extended the telescopic pole into the temporal door. The display on the computer became blurry for a moment, then cleared up.

The screen was divided into six sections, showing the six directions: up, down, east, south, west, and north. This allowed him to see the surroundings of the other world clearly.

Looking at the images on the screen, Zhang Hao raised an eyebrow. The temporal door was located on a road, and the road's condition was extremely chaotic and terrible. Various vehicles were scattered haphazardly, some overturned, and some showing signs of burning. There were also many corpses and bloodstains around, making the scene very grim.

It seemed that the world's timeline had already progressed to after the disaster, but not for long. This could be inferred from the condition of the corpses. Whether they were intact or seemed to have been bitten, they had already started to decompose, indicating that they had died not long ago.

Although some of the scenes were disgusting, Zhang Hao, who had experienced brutal cold weapon battles in the Three Kingdoms world, could handle it.

Moving the telescopic pole, he wanted to see further and look for any signs or markers to determine where the temporal door had appeared.

Unfortunately, he didn't find any. He could only deduce that the location was in a southern region based on the surrounding vegetation, and the victims' attire and ethnicity suggested it was in a European or American country. It was most likely in the United States, given that the movie primarily focused on the U.S. However, it wasn't in New York, the main setting of the movie, as the surrounding plants indicated.

Zhang Hao's eyes lit up when he saw firearms on the chaotic road, which many men found interesting.

The gun ownership rate in the U.S. was already high, and with such a disaster, many people carried guns for safety.

The gun Zhang Hao saw was a military rifle, next to a fully equipped soldier's corpse.

Turning the camera, he saw an infantry fighting vehicle not far away, likely brought by soldiers to maintain order. However, in the face of an airborne virus, even the best soldiers were helpless and couldn't protect themselves.

Without feeling melancholic, Zhang Hao fetched a clothes hanger.

He zoomed in on the rifle's position with the camera and extended the clothes hanger into the temporal door. After a few tries, he found the right spot and hooked the hanger onto the rifle's strap, lifting it up.

Knowing that the temporal door would automatically eliminate any viruses on the items, preventing them from spreading to this world, he directly retrieved the clothes hanger and the rifle through the temporal door.

Holding the metallic rifle, Zhang Hao smiled. This was likely the U.S. military's standard M16A4 rifle.

Over the past few months, he had practiced shooting at a shooting range, but most of the time, he only used small pistols.

Later, Zhou Xiaomin learned that Zhang Hao was training at that shooting range and joined in. Her police department trained at that range, and through her connections, Zhang Hao was able to access real rifles, not just the ones used for clay pigeon shooting.

Even with Zhou Xiaomin's connections, the coaches closely monitored him during training to prevent any accidents. Zhang Hao understood this but was still a bit annoyed. Now, with a real, cool rifle in his hands and no one to watch him, his excitement was understandable.

However, Zhang Hao had a strange feeling that his current actions were similar to looting bodies in online games.

After playing with the rifle for a while, he didn't think about testing it there. He checked the magazine, which was still full, but he was still unsatisfied because there were too few bullets.

He then turned his attention to the soldier, who had several magazines on his tactical vest.

Using just the clothes hanger clearly wouldn't work.

After some thought, he put the rifle in his storage space and went to a hardware supermarket to get a bunch of tools.

With these specialized tools, he not only retrieved the rifle magazines from the soldier but also his M9 pistol, two pistol magazines, and two grenades.

That was all he could do. With the various tools, he could reach about five to six meters around the temporal door, but only the soldier had weapons. Zhang Hao knew that there were likely many more weapons left on the road, such as the military supplies in the nearby infantry fighting vehicle.

Unfortunately, the temporal door wouldn't move unless he entered the world. So, for now, he could only drool over the potential guns and ammunition and other resources.

Looking at the few magazines, he knew that if he were to use them freely, the bullets wouldn't last long.

Moreover, with just two guns, it wouldn't significantly impact his growing influence.

So, he thought about finding a way to get some ammunition from the modern world. Zhang Hao pondered this.