2027, Sunday, Huai City, a key university dormitory
Lu Ye, having just finished delivering takeout, returned to the school. He pulled out his phone and checked his balance: 330 yuan. He nodded with satisfaction. These past two days, he'd been frantically delivering orders, his arms and legs now noticeably tanned, all to save a bit on living expenses.
Pushing open the door to Room 301, Lu Ye saw Qin Hao and Zhao Yang bickering as usual. He frowned and tossed his backpack, filled with tutoring materials, onto his bed.
"Lu Ye, you're finally back!" Qin Hao, sprawled on the top bunk with dark circles under his eyes, threw a pack of spicy strips down. "This jerk Zhao Yang ditched study hall again, leaving me to deal with the professor's endless questions."
From the bottom bunk came Zhao Yang's wail, "I didn't mean to! The esports club had a last-minute training session. The president said they're selecting…"
"Give me a break. With your silver-tier skills, you call that training?" Lu Ye chuckled as he tore open the spicy strips, but his eyes caught the neatly folded blanket on the bed by the window. "Chen Mo still hasn't come back?"
"He's on a date, obviously," Qin Hao said without looking up. "Said he was going with Zhao Xue from the literature department to watch some new movie."
"No, that's not right. He said he was going to the library to return a book this afternoon," Zhao Yang scratched his head. "But tonight, someone in the club group chat said they saw him smoking by the sports field."
Lu Ye's fingers froze. Chen Mo didn't smoke.
He pulled out his phone and dialed the familiar number for the seventh time. The cold automated message came through: "The number you have dialed is switched off…"
"Maybe his phone died," Qin Hao said, trying to lighten the mood, though his voice trailed off.
Lu Ye stared at the call log on his screen—the last entry was an unanswered call from 2:17 a.m. yesterday. He'd assumed Chen Mo was just being clingy and ignored it.
"I'm going out." Lu Ye grabbed his jacket.
"Hey! Lights-out is soon!"
Lu Ye was already sprinting out of the dorm. In the hallway, a few third-year students were leisurely carrying laundry basins, oblivious to his fleeting figure.
The iron door to the seventh-floor rooftop was, as expected, slightly ajar.
The moment he pushed it open, the damp night breeze, laced with the smell of cigarettes, hit his nose. Under the moonlight, Chen Mo's hunched figure sat by the railing, surrounded by seven or eight empty beer cans.
Chen Mo faced away from the door, his shadow stretched long by the moonlight. Hearing footsteps, he slowly turned his head—his left eye swollen shut, a gash on his lip, and his white shirt stained with dark blood.
"Damn it! Who did this?" Lu Ye rushed over, grabbing his friend's shoulders.
Chen Mo gave a bitter smile. "Lu Ye… I might've… killed someone…"
Lu Ye noticed the blood-stained fruit knife in Chen Mo's right hand, his left hanging limply.
"What the hell happened? Where's Zhao Xue?"
"She… she went crazy…" Chen Mo's voice trembled. "Halfway through the movie, I stepped out to use the bathroom. I saw the full moon—it was reddish, almost like I was seeing things. I thought it was romantic, wanted to call her out to see it. But when I got back, she started convulsing… then she bit me… Good thing I was wearing thick clothes, so she didn't break the skin. I ran out, but she chased me… her strength wasn't human…"
A sudden crash of shattering glass echoed in the distance. Both turned to see several figures leaping from the third-floor windows of the girls' dormitory in the west campus—with movements no normal person could manage.
"That's how it was…" Chen Mo's voice cracked with a sob. "Xiao Xue was like that… she lunged at me… and I just…"
Lu Ye's phone buzzed. It was a voice message from Qin Hao, filled with screams and crashing sounds in the background: "Lu Ye! Zhao Yang's gone nuts! Damn it… he's… he's turning into a zombie, his skin's changing color… Damn it! The hallway's full of…"
The message cut off. At the same time, the moon above shifted from a faint red to a deep, blood-soaked crimson.
Lu Ye, as if deaf to Qin Hao's words, stared at the moon. "The moon's so weird tonight. It's actually red."
"I noticed earlier," Chen Mo said. "It was a red full moon, so I wanted Xue'er to see it." He glanced up again.
"We need to move. This place will probably be overrun by zombies soon." Lu Ye pulled the drunk Chen Mo toward the stairs, noticing the hairs on his friend's wrist standing on end. Even more unsettling, he could suddenly see those details clearly—under the dim, red moonlight.
"You said her strength was beyond human, and she probably had no consciousness when she attacked you. That's got to be a zombie. Nothing else fits," Lu Ye said.
"Poor Xiao Xue. I didn't want her to end up like this," Chen Mo murmured.
Lu Ye didn't respond, only sighing. It was Chen Mo's first date, and it had turned into this nightmare. No wonder he was losing it.
Back at the dorm, they found Zhao Yang and Qin Hao sitting in silence. Lu Ye was about to celebrate their survival when he remembered the strange clarity in his vision. He glanced at them and, to his shock, saw attribute panels above their heads. Zhao Yang's read: [Zhao Yang: Vampire, Ability: None]. Stunned, Lu Ye didn't notice the ability field at first. "You… you're a vampire? How's that possible?"
He looked at Qin Hao: [Qin Hao: Human, Ability: Life Affinity]. This time, he saw the ability. "You… you can heal people."
Lu Ye was speechless, his mind reeling. After a long pause, he asked Qin Hao, "Didn't you say Zhao Yang turned into a zombie?"
Qin Hao sighed heavily. "It's a long story. Zhao Yang was asleep, and I went to the bathroom. On my way, I saw the moon turn red—felt weird. Then someone in the next stall bit me. I saw their face—terrifying, skin peeled off, bones showing, black blood inside. I was scared shitless and ran. My wound started changing color, and I thought I was done for. It felt like a nightmare. Just as I was losing it, barely able to speak, my wound healed on its own. A few minutes later, I was fine. I thought, 'Did I awaken some overpowered ability?' So I tried using it on a corpse by the road, but nothing happened. I was disappointed.
"Then I went back to check on Zhao Yang. He was convulsing, like he was turning into a zombie too. He still had some awareness, so I tried to heal him. His wounds closed up, and I thought he was back to normal. But then he bit me! I was losing it—why does everything keep biting me? I got bitten twice today by these freaks. But his bite didn't turn me into a zombie, so I relaxed a bit. I noticed his eyes were red, thought he was wearing colored contacts or something. Then they turned black with a red tint. I don't know what's going on. That's when you guys came back."
"But if he was bitten, why's he still human?" Lu Ye wondered, puzzled.
Suddenly, a small figure made of mental energy appeared before him. "Who are you?" Lu Ye whispered.
"As you can see, I'm your ability—World's Eye. One of the few abilities that can take human form. I can explain your friend's situation. Watch this—" The figure seemed to play a mental "VCR" in Lu Ye's mind. "In short, when a zombie consumes a lot of human blood—abnormal ones, that is—there's a small chance they'll turn into a vampire, but they lose their memories. However, if someone like Zhao Yang, who's still conscious, is healed by a Life Affinity user, they can become a vampire with their memories and abilities intact. But Zhao Yang has no ability."
"So why's Qin Hao still human if he was bitten?" Lu Ye asked.
"Life Affinity users can heal themselves back to human. But for others bitten by zombies, if they're still conscious, the ability can only heal their wounds, and the zombie virus mutates them into a vampire. That's what happened to Zhao Yang."
"Damn, that's some bad luck," Zhao Yang groaned.
"Be grateful," Lu Ye said with a laugh. "You might be sensitive to sunlight, but you're basically immortal now."
"I'll laugh when I'm as strong as DIO," Zhao Yang quipped.
The dorm's atmosphere lightened. Zhao Yang suddenly frowned. "Wait, does this mean I can't eat normal food anymore?"
"Don't worry, we'll get you blood bags. One'll last you two days," Qin Hao teased.
The group burst into laughter. After all the chaos, dawn was approaching.
Lu Ye didn't mention one lingering question: why did some people turn into zombies while others gained abilities? He decided to experiment with it that night.