On a winding, twisting mountain road, dark clouds spread thick, foretelling a raging storm about to descend.
Dark masses of cloud swirled atop the mountain peaks.
The tour bus rattling along seemed like a tiny toy car swallowed up by the vast mountains and the heavy clouds.
"Everyone, there's no need to worry. This mountain road may look treacherous, but the safety measures are very good." The patient, reassuring voice of the tour guide came over the loudspeaker, waking Pho Noan Yi, who had been dozing against the window.
She groggily opened her eyes and glanced outside.
Raindrops the size of beans began to fall without warning, pelting the glass with a loud patter, blurring the view.
The rain poured down in sheets, the wind howled, and the bus slowed considerably. Inside, anxious voices chattered in alarm.
Pho Noan Yi, carefree by nature, wasn't worried in the least. She stretched, yawned.
The noise around her was too much, so she lowered her head, tapped her phone, and hit play.
The apocalyptic novel she had paused before sleeping came alive again in a deep male voice tinged with a mechanical quality:
[Trinh Huong Vu pressed a droplet-shaped imprint on Su Wei Lang's collarbone, smiling gently at her worried face.
"Wei Lang, I suspect that zombies are merely another form of human evolution.
I've tested it—spring water from my spatial dimension can help zombies gradually regain their memories and turn back into humans."
Su Wei Lang stepped forward and held her tightly. "But have you thought about this? If they truly regain their memories and become human again… are they still human?"]
Pho Noan Yi nodded in agreement.
Exactly.
Zombies had eaten people—maybe even their own family—and then they get turned back into humans with their memories intact? Who could stand that?
Becoming human again, only to remember you once ate your own kind… could you still be truly human?
As she was mulling this over, screams suddenly erupted around her.
It was as if a bucket of thick black ink had been poured over the sky; everything went dark in an instant.
A suffocating blackness closed in.
She instinctively turned toward the window—only to see a roaring torrent of mud and rocks hurtling down the mountain, unstoppable, straight at the bus.
Before she could react, the cold, crushing force of the flood swallowed her, stealing her breath and pulling her into darkness.
Somewhere in the pitch black, rough voices echoed.
"Young Master Xu, this isn't what we wanted—it was Xu Senior's order."
"Just because we call you Young Master Xu, you think you're a king? This is the apocalypse now!"
"What good is your ability anyway? Without Xu Senior, you wouldn't even be alive."
"Pfft, with that face of yours, Young Master Xu could survive just fine."
The arrogant laughter made Pho Noan Yi open her eyes.
In a haze, she heard a crisp, pleasant male voice grind out, "So in the end, you just want me dead!"
"Not dead," someone sneered. "We're just following Xu Senior's orders—making you wish you were dead."
"Ha." The pleasant voice let out a cold laugh.
Pho Noan Yi felt dazed.
Before her was still utter darkness, as if she had gone blind.
Her mind filled with the three eternal philosophical questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
While she was still confused, the voices turned into panicked screaming—again.
Why again?
In a fog, she stared into the darkness.
Her whole body felt stiff, heavy. Even her thoughts seemed sluggish.
The screams nearby faded away, leaving total silence.
It felt like she was locked inside a box—lying flat at the bottom, like a doll stuffed in for shipping.
Then… a scent.
An incredibly delicious scent.
Following the smell, she forgot who she was or where she was.
She only knew—she was hungry.
Starving. And it smelled so good.
Her stiff hands groped forward. She pushed open a cabinet door.
Light spilled in, revealing where she was—lying flat, head against a corner, so heavy it took her a long time to lift it.
She wobbled to her feet, clutching the cabinet for support. Her head swayed from side to side, and something on her chest swayed with it.
She tried to look down, but something blocked her. She tapped her head—thunk thunk.
Unimportant.
She was hungry.
Turning toward the scent, she found it came from the right.
Her gaze fell on… people lying all over the floor.
What were people?
She shuffled toward a deep red puddle.
Eight men lay sprawled, some face-up, some curled on their sides, all still.
Blood trickled from beneath them, flowing into a crimson sea that spread across the floor.
Standing in it felt like being in a bakery.
In front of her was a giant cake, the red beneath her like a layer of strawberry jam.
She wanted to swallow, but her throat felt blocked.
She wanted to taste it, but somehow knew—it wouldn't fill her.
Her heavy head lifted.
Beside a white fabric sofa slumped a man in an odd position.
He was beautiful—like a sugar figurine crafted for a cake.
For some reason, Pho Noan Yi thought this sugar figurine would taste amazing.
She stepped closer.
Xu Chi leaned against the sofa, body aching. He forced himself to breathe, to recover his ability.
He had killed eight ability users alone, exhausting both power and strength. His body was covered in wounds, his right leg likely broken.
He needed to recover quickly—when these men turned into zombies, he would try to control them.
He glanced at the sea of blood, red reflected in his deep eyes.
Suddenly—cute patterned canvas shoes stepped into view.
They pressed into the blood, slowly approaching.
Xu Chi looked up—to see a petite female zombie wearing a cat-ear helmet. The helmet seemed so heavy that each step made her head tilt to one side, then the other.
A name tag on her chest swung as she walked.
Normally, he might have found it amusing.
He had never feared zombies.
But now, with a broken leg, severe injuries, no strength, and no ability left—how could there still be a zombie here? The area had been cleared before he entered!
His hand trembled toward a fallen dagger. If he could grab it before she came closer, he could end it in one strike.
Pho Noan Yi stopped short when she saw the sugar figurine move. Oh?
A moving sugar figurine—could you eat that?
She stood still, head wobbling, staring at him.
"Food…"
The word came out muffled. The second word, "-stuff," wouldn't come.
Xu Chi almost laughed—people had called him handsome before, but no one had ever implied he looked scrawny (the homophone in her language) until now.
And from a zombie, no less.
Wait—why could a zombie…
She took another step but tripped over a twitching corpse.
With the helmet on her head, she shot forward like a cannonball, straight into Xu Chi.
The helmet slammed into his head.
Before he could even be shocked—
Thud. Pain exploded, his head tilted, and darkness took him.
Pho Noan Yi lay sprawled over him, surrounded by sweetness, wanting nothing more than to eat.
Outside, tires screeched, followed by a deafening crash.