Withered. Desolate.
In the city, lush weeds pushed through the hardened concrete, and bleached bones littered the ground.
Lin An dragged his heavy legs, running with immense effort.
A fiery pain burned in his lungs; each breath tugged agonizingly at his broken ribs.
Behind him, hordes of snarling zombies, their faces grotesque and twisted.
He dared not stop.
If he paused, these resurrected dead would tear him to shreds, devouring his flesh and blood.
Catching sight of the safe house he had built growing closer, a flicker of hope replaced the despair on his face.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Open the door! Open up, quick!"
Lin An frantically pounded on the heavy iron door. The zombies behind him were less than a hundred meters away.
The stench of rot assaulted his nostrils.
"I got the medicine! Open the door! Tang Wan!"
Inside the safe house were his fiancée and her family of three.
Shua.
A window slid open, but the iron door remained shut.
A single eye peered at him through the narrow iron grate, full of concern.
Lin An recognized it. It was Tang Wan.
"Tang Wan! It's me! Open the door!" Lin An's voice was raw and desperate, the movement aggravating the wound on his chest, causing it to widen.
The blood seeping out drove the zombies behind him into a frenzy, their speed suddenly increasing.
Hearing his voice, the eye behind the grate shifted to look at the medicine in his hand.
Medicine Lin An had nearly died retrieving to reduce the fever of Tang Wan's younger brother.
"Lin An, I'll open the door for you right now."
The urgent voice from inside soothed Lin An's panicked heart.
He would be safe once inside.
On the perilous edge of the city, this safe house, built with his own hands, was his only home.
"Pass the medicine in first, then I'll lower the bolt."
Hearing this, Lin An felt his strength drain away. He hurriedly, with great effort, shoved the medicine box through the grate.
Yet, a faint unease stirred within him.
Why... not just open the door directly?
The hand behind the grate swiftly snatched the medicine box away, but the door did not open.
"Tang Wan?!"
Lin An's disbelieving, desperate cry pierced the night.
His heart sank, his entire body turning cold.
Why... wasn't the door opening?!
He could already hear the zombies right behind him.
"Lin An, I saw the wound on your chest."
Tang Wan's voice paused, losing its previous concern, becoming utterly calm.
As if speaking to a stranger.
"You might be infected."
"I won't let you in."
Lin An felt as if he had been plunged into an icy abyss. The zombies behind him were already pouncing on him.
Flesh was being torn and bitten.
"Also, let me tell you something."
"The captain of the safe zone has already promised me. As long as I'm willing to sleep with him, I can enter the safe zone."
"Of course, you also have to die."
Inside the room, Tang Wan casually brushed her hair aside.
She spoke as calmly as if she were having an ordinary conversation with Lin An.
Lin An was stunned, her words striking him like a bolt from the blue.
The pain of his flesh being torn away alive behind him was eclipsed.
His voice bloody with anguish, he frantically questioned the person behind the window.
"Why? Why betray me?!"
His palm pressed against the door, leaving a crimson handprint.
Eyes wide with fury.
He could feel his intestines being pulled out; an extreme sense of weakness washed over him.
Behind the window, Tang Wan's gaze was calm, carrying a trace of mockery.
"Because you're trash."
"I'm tired of being hungry and scared every day."
"He's strong. An Awakened."
"And you? You're just an ordinary person."
The zombies behind him frantically tore at Lin An's head; the grating sound of his spine being easily snapped.
The zombies' foul, sharp, rotting fingers dug into his eye sockets.
"Daughter, why waste words on this trash."
"Let him die farther away. Not at our doorstep."
Inside, the lights were warm.
Tang's mother casually took the blood-stained medicine box, looking indifferently out the window.
The three of them stood side by side, not turning away until Lin An's body was completely devoured.
......
Linjiang City. A wedding room decorated with lanterns and streamers.
"Lin An, why are you just standing there? Call your army buddies and borrow money!"
The speaker was Lin An's fiancée, Tang Wan.
Like struggling from drowning.
Lin An jolted awake, gasping for air.
The images from before his death overlapped with the person before him.
Was that a dream?!
His head throbbed with pain; he could still faintly feel the agony of his flesh being bitten away.
The pain felt real, as if it had just happened a second ago.
He hurriedly looked at his phone.
"November 9, 2032"
Lin An's expression was one of shock; his mouth felt parched.
No... This wasn't a dream!
He had been reborn.
Returned to three days before the apocalypse began, the day he proposed to Tang Wan.
"Lin An, listen to me."
"If you want to marry my daughter, the bride price needs another 200,000."
"Your younger brother-in-law, Tang Tian, is getting married soon. You, as his elder sister's husband, can't contribute nothing, right?"
Tang Wan's mother shot a look at her younger son, signaling him to ask for money.
"Brother-in-law, didn't your army buddies just get discharged?"
Tang Tian sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, his face full of impatience.
"I heard the discharge payment is pretty good now. It's just borrowing some money. Why are you too embarrassed to ask?"
Seeing Lin An standing there dumbfounded, Tang Wan couldn't help but frown.
She had originally thought Lin An, being ex-military, was honest and had some money, making him a decent choice.
Who knew he'd be so hesitant and couldn't come up with the cash?
It really made her lose face.
"Aren't you close with your army buddies? What? Can't even borrow this little money?"
Seeing Lin An completely unresponsive, Tang's mother snorted lightly. She raised her voice arrogantly:
"Lin An, if you can't come up with this money, forget about this marriage."
"Not a shred of sincerity. And I thought you were decent before. Turns out you're just a stingy pauper."
Tang's mother's tone was sarcastic.
Younger brother Tang Tian, as if eager to stir trouble, hearing his mother mention calling off the wedding, hurriedly spoke up:
"Sis! Wasn't there some rich guy chasing you before?"
"I think you should just call it off with this poor loser."
"Go find that Manager Wang. He's loaded! Last time he even asked me what car I liked!"
Amid the trio's incessant chatter, no one noticed the murderous intent in Lin An's lowered eyes.
In his previous life, to fulfill his mother's dying wish, he had hastily married Tang Wan.
Though rushed, he had done everything expected—bought a car, an apartment, paid the full bride price.
He had even ultimately swallowed his pride and borrowed money from his comrades to make up the sum.
Yet, the day before the wedding, the apocalypse broke out.
Leveraging his military training, Lin An struggled to survive, dragging his fiancée's family along.
Until the very day he was eaten alive, he was still risking his life for this so-called family.
That door had severed his chance of survival, but it had also shattered his pedantic kindness, shattered the so-called righteousness.
The shrill mockery pulled him back to reality.
"Poor loser, if you don't have money, don't try to show off."
"My sister marrying you is doing you a favor! Plenty of guys are after her!"
Boom!
Lin An exploded into motion, a powerful kick landing squarely on Tang Tian's abdomen, sending him flying three meters back.
Tang Tian's face turned crimson; he vomited bile all over the floor, his body curled up like a shrimp in the corner.
Stunned disbelief.
Tang Wan stared, shocked, at Lin An retracting his foot. A chill shot up her spine.
It was the first time she had seen Lin An hit someone. She never expected the seemingly honest and proper Lin An to be so vicious.
"Murder! Murder!"
Tang's mother, snapping out of it, shrieked loudly, slapping her thighs repeatedly.
"You damned bastard! How dare you hit my son!"
"Pauper! No money and you hit people! I'll sue you into the ground!"
"I'm calling the police right now to arrest you! Forget about this marriage!"
"Shut up! You old hag!"
Lin An strode towards Tang's mother. The sight of her mean, sharp face filled him with extreme irritation.
He remembered those indifferent eyes.
Slap! Slap!
One slap after another landed in rapid succession.
It felt exhilarating.
Lin An held nothing back, landing over a dozen slaps in moments.
Within a few hits, Tang's mother passed out, collapsing to the floor like a broom falling from a wall.
"Lin An, are you insane?!"
Tang Wan was dumbfounded, letting out a disbelieving shriek!
"Insane?"
Lin An smiled cruelly; his killing intent instantly ignited.
He wanted these people to feel the pain of being torn apart.
To taste the agony and despair he felt before his death.
Without a second thought, Lin An crushed Tang's mother's brittle leg bones under his foot, then turned his knife-like gaze towards Tang Wan.
"Lin An!"
"What are you doing!?"
"What am I doing?"
Lin An bent slightly forward; the ice in his voice was terrifying.
Tang Wan seemed to sense something. She trembled all over, panickedly hiding in the room and locking the door.
"I've called the police!"
"The police are right outside!"
Shaking uncontrollably, Tang Wan put her phone on speaker; the sound of the call connecting and a police siren rang out.
On the eve of the apocalypse, incidents were frequent.
Outside the window, the sounds of police and ambulance sirens could faintly be heard.
Hearing the police call connect,
Lin An stopped his advance. His gaze icy, he stood still, seemingly pondering something.
He tilted his head, staring fixedly at the locked door.
Only three short days remained until the apocalypse.
Getting entangled with them would undoubtedly waste precious time.
Wasting time meant wasting this chance at rebirth.
It wasn't worth it.
These scum weren't worthy of squandering his valuable time.
Then...
Three days!
A cruel smile touched Lin An's lips as he slowly turned around.
Three days later, the apocalypse would begin.
He really wanted to see how the utterly useless Tang Wan and her family would survive in this post-apocalyptic world without him risking his life to protect them.
He hoped they could maintain these same expressions while in the jaws of the zombies.
Death and that door had completely changed Lin An in this life.
This time, he would only care about those he truly cherished.
He would never again cling stubbornly to his pedantic principles like in his previous life.
Letting himself be used!
Get stronger, then survive in this cruel apocalypse.
Since he had decided to kill them in three days, Lin An naturally wouldn't waste any more time now.
He kicked open the flimsy iron door and strode outside.
Faintly, Tang Wan heard the sound of him leaving.
As if coming to her senses, she began hurling curses from behind the door, calling several men she thought had power and influence.
It didn't matter.
If Tang Wan wanted to call for help to cause him trouble,
He wouldn't mind stopping by later to settle the score in passing.
Lin An suppressed his hatred.
Pointless emotions only clouded judgment.
In the time ahead,
He not only needed to stockpile enough supplies before the apocalypse,
But also prepare for Awakening his talent.
Three days later, the Apocalypse Game would descend.
The zombie virus would outbreak, monstrous beasts would emerge from dimensional rifts, countless bizarre supernatural events would sweep the globe.
And people would gain game-like, data-based panels.
A lucky few would gain supernatural powers at energy nodes, Awakening talents.
Reborn, he was determined to grasp fate in his own hands.
This lifetime, he would absolutely not allow himself to struggle abjectly as an ordinary person.
And the energy nodes would only appear briefly after the apocalypse began!
In his previous life, burdened by Tang Wan's family, he had missed the chance to become an Awakened.
Now, he would change all that!
The first step to changing his destiny.
"97 Fengming Road!"