Jiang Qi, a twenty-two-year-old recent university graduate working in Yujiang City, is suddenly pulled into the Survival Apartment System after a mysterious phone notification on a public bus. The system informs her that an anomaly invasion will destroy humanity in thirty days and that she must survive by completing instances to earn points. Her beginner gift pack grants her the A-rank ability Lucky Blind Box Lottery Machine, which provides a one-time-use item each time she enters an instance. She also obtains a C-rank Spatial Ring with 100 cubic meters of storage capacity.
Jiang Qi chooses the City Instance, which turns out to be a zombie apocalypse set in Rong City. Upon entering, she finds herself on a subway train where an elderly woman collapses and transforms into a zombie. Realizing the danger, she escapes the station and rushes to a nearby shopping mall to stockpile supplies. In the mall's supermarket, she fills her spatial ring with food, water, and household items before hiding in a seventh-floor movie theater. There she meets Ye Ling, a twenty-seven-year-old player with the Weapons Manufacturer ability who carries a gun he created himself.
The two form a temporary alliance. Jiang Qi plans to survive thirty days in the instance, but Ye Ling argues that escaping within seven days is necessary to earn ten thousand points, since the daily protection fee costs one thousand points. They decide to flee Rong City together. Using distractions like musical toys and remote-controlled cars, they navigate through zombie-infested stairwells and parking garages. Jiang Qi retrieves car keys from a zombie manager, and they escape in a black minivan.
During their journey, they encounter severe traffic congestion caused by massive zombie hordes near three universities. To clear a path, they acquire drones from a store on Yunchun Road Pedestrian Street. Jiang Qi enters the store alone while Ye Ling lures zombies away with his vehicle. Inside, she fights off two zombies with a modified frying pan and collects eight drones, controllers, and various supplies. After reuniting, they use the drones with attached Molotov cocktails and Bluetooth speakers playing death rock music to draw away the zombie horde blocking the university road.
As they break through the congestion, they discover a girl named Qi Zhaozhao hiding in a car trunk. She activates her beginner ability, Time Stop, freezing all zombies within ten meters for ten seconds, allowing Jiang Qi to rescue her. Qi Zhaozhao reveals she is an eighteen-year-old college freshman who was betrayed by a teacher who locked the bus doors to prevent players from exiting. The three continue toward Rong Mountain Scenic Area, having cleared the most dangerous segment of their escape route.
