Chapter 2

Yes, in this life, Lu Yang chose his first work to be a post-apocalyptic story.

The protagonist, Chen Feng, was originally a high school senior who consistently ranked at the bottom of his class. He had no interest in textbooks, and the most common thing he did in class was sleep.

His only specialty was the family's traditional sword technique, which he had learned from his grandfather since childhood. However, this specialty was practically useless in his daily life.

Until the apocalypse arrived.

For unknown reasons, an alternate dimension overlapped with Earth's three-dimensional space, and countless terrifying monsters appeared on the land and in the sky.

Within a week of the disaster, most cities around the world fell one after another.

Humans, who had once been the dominant species, plummeted into the abyss.

The monsters from the alternate dimension almost completely destroyed human civilization within a week.

The surviving humans were forced to struggle for survival.

Chen Feng's small town was no exception.

It was only at this point that the family's nameless sword technique finally came into play.

...

This was the initial framework of the story that Lu Yang had in mind.

Such stories were not common in 2003.

Before his rebirth, Lu Yang was most skilled at writing stories with a theme of slaughter.

Unfortunately, in the years leading up to his rebirth, the popularity of slaughter-themed web novels had declined. Political, urban, and medical genres had taken turns dominating the market, and readers who enjoyed slaughter-themed stories mostly chose works by platinum-level authors.

However, it was 2003, and the time was ripe for novels with a theme of slaughter.

Lu Yang, with a cigarette in his mouth, wrote swiftly on the manuscript paper with a pencil, occasionally pausing to deliberate on his words or to plan the plot.

Lu Yang did not write the outline immediately.

This was his habit. Before writing the outline, he preferred to write the first chapter of the work.

After writing the first chapter, the protagonist's personality, interests, and specialties would be more or less established, making it much easier to write the outline.

Since he had no money to buy a computer, Lu Yang had to write by hand on manuscript paper, just as he did when he first started writing novels before his rebirth.

Lu Yang's handwriting was not particularly outstanding, just average, like him.

However, his first novel, which had over a million words, was entirely handwritten for the first half, so he wrote very quickly.

Each character was written in one stroke, connecting the previous character to the next. Essentially, from the first character of a paragraph to the last, the pen tip would touch the paper and continue writing without any interruption.

Another characteristic was that many characters were simplified.

Many characters were only recognizable by him, and even if others tried to guess, they could not identify them.

However, Lu Yang did not care.

This was his manuscript, and he never intended for anyone else to see it. As long as he could recognize the characters when inputting them into the computer, that was enough.

While writing, Lu Yang was very focused.

He quickly entered a state of flow, with only the manuscript paper in front of him and the story's plot in his mind. After more than an hour, he finished the first chapter, which filled seven pages of manuscript paper. He then stopped writing, threw the pencil on the manuscript paper, spat out the cigarette butt that had long burned out, and picked up the teacup beside him, unscrewed the lid, and took a sip of the already cold tea.

The first draft of the first chapter was complete.

The protagonist's personality, specialties, and growth environment, as well as the first female lead, were all written out.

With this chapter as a foundation, Lu Yang had a clearer idea of the story's outline.

For the entire day, Lu Yang stayed alone in the empty classroom.

At noon and in the evening, he hurriedly went to the cafeteria to get some food and then returned to this place.

He would occasionally light a cigarette or take a sip of tea, and sometimes his gaze would drift out the window, seemingly looking at the scenery outside, but his mind was still thinking about the story's plot.

Lu Yang did not plan to write the entire book's outline in one go.

He only outlined the first volume, which was about the rampant beasts.

It wasn't until around one o'clock in the morning that Lu Yang finished the detailed outline of the entire first volume.

With the outline in place, the story of the first volume was now fully in his mind.

After writing all day, Lu Yang's body ached, especially his shoulders and fingers. However, when he put down the pen, he smiled slightly.

Although his body was tired, he was very satisfied with his work.

The outline he created today was the most detailed and the one he was most satisfied with in terms of plot design since he started writing web novels.

He rubbed his sore shoulders and fingers, lit another cigarette, and then smiled as he picked up his paper, pen, and teacup and left the classroom.

When he came out of the third teaching building, it was already late at night, and the large campus was almost deserted. Lu Yang, feeling a bit hungry, went to the back gate of the campus, a place he was very familiar with.

There were over a dozen internet cafes and restaurants here, and at night, there were many barbecue stalls and spicy hotpot stands.

In his previous life, when Lu Yang was a university student here, he often visited this place.

This time, feeling hungry, he habitually came here.

Sure enough, at this hour, besides the internet cafes, many late-night restaurants and stalls were still open.

Lu Yang felt in his pocket and found about a hundred yuan.

In 2003, a hundred yuan was enough for his food for half a month.

With money in his pocket, Lu Yang went to the spicy hotpot stand he used to frequent, familiarly selected over a dozen dishes, and had a large bowl of hotpot.

Lu Yang sat alone at a small table, eating heartily. Just as he was enjoying his meal, he suddenly heard a somewhat familiar voice from the entrance of a nearby internet cafe.

Lu Yang's gaze subconsciously turned in that direction.

He recognized a high school classmate surnamed Huang, but he couldn't remember his name. After all, Lu Yang had just been reborn from 2013, and he had forgotten most of his classmates' names.

Lu Yang's gaze returned after a quick glance, and he had no intention of greeting him.

It was late at night, and the classmate was on the phone at the entrance of the internet cafe, so there was no need to strike up a conversation.

When Lu Yang finished eating, the classmate surnamed Huang was still enthusiastically talking on the phone at the entrance of the internet cafe.

Lu Yang glanced at him, then picked up his things and returned to the campus.

While eating, although Lu Yang had not remembered the name of the classmate surnamed Huang, he had recalled the guy's future achievements.

This classmate, who had always been in the top five of the class in high school, went to college and wandered around for a few years. Later, Lu Yang heard that he returned to his hometown and opened a kindergarten, which closed within a year. After that, he was unknown, and it seemed he had a tough time.

When Lu Yang first heard about this, he had sighed: "He had such good grades in high school, how could he end up so poorly?"

At around one o'clock in the morning, seeing this guy at the university, who had found a 24-hour internet cafe, Lu Yang finally understood why he had ended up that way.