“This is…”
Jiang Nian instinctively raised his hand to his mouth.
“Damn it!”
At the same time, memories came flooding back:
A long drought. His mother’s death. Toxic rain. Viruses. Zombies. The end of the world!
Jiang Nian pinched himself several times, wincing in pain.
“Hiss—”
Despite the air conditioner being set to the lowest temperature, a thin layer of sweat formed on his forehead, and his cheeks flushed from a surge of indescribable emotions.
Without bothering to put on shoes, he jumped out of bed and rushed to the window. He pulled back the curtains and opened the window.
Bright sunlight streamed in. The sky was clear and cloudless. The air was hot and fresh, carrying the faint scent of flowers.
There were no dark clouds, thick smog, wastelands filled with dismembered bodies, blackened, virus-scorched earth, or foul, terrifying zombies.
There was no apocalyptic scene in sight. Everything felt like a dream, but it was real—Jiang Nian was sure of it now.
He had been reborn!
According to the calendar, he had returned to the time half a month before the toxic rain that marked the beginning of the apocalypse—exactly ten days after his mother’s funeral.
She had passed away after a two-year battle with stomach cancer.
To pay for her treatment, the life he once considered comfortable had turned into heavy debt. His relationships with relatives and friends had gotten worse than with strangers.
While she was alive, she refused to let him sell the house to pay for her treatment. She wanted to leave it to him and couldn’t bear the thought of him having nothing.
But he wanted his mother to live. Knowing it wouldn’t change the outcome, he still wanted to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.
So, he begged for money from everyone he knew, promising to sell the house and repay the debt after her death. That’s how he managed to hold on for two years.
As soon as the funeral ended, his relatives came and urged him to sell the house. They were worried that he might change his mind.
He didn’t feel angry or resentful, though. After all, repaying debts was the right thing to do. He had to follow through on his promise. Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Lending money was a favor, but not lending was fair too. Since they had helped him when he needed it most, he was determined to repay them with gratitude.
Due to the rush, he sold the house below market value, but fortunately, it was enough to pay off the debts.
After settling everything, he had less than 10,000 yuan left in his bank account.
Exhausted, he searched for a place to rent and ended up getting sick. He self-medicated and slept for two days in a haze…
Jiang Nian vividly remembered that, according to the records of major historical events from his previous life, an unexpected global drought began in March 2036 and lasted more than five months. By the end of August, the Meteorological Observatory predicted a break in the drought with heavy rainfall.
The forecast was accurate, but the rain brought ruin to humanity.
On August 27, 2036, the drought ended with toxic rain. In the post-apocalyptic world, people would say that those who were caught in the rain were infected with an unknown virus and died.
On September 1, those who had died from the toxic rain virus were reanimated and turned into zombies.
Driven by an instinct to feed, the zombies attacked humans. Those who were scratched or bitten became infected and mutated as well. Thus began the apocalypse.
An unprecedented catastrophe swept across the world like a storm.
Under extreme pressure, humanity began developing individuals with supernatural powers in order to survive.
Besides zombies, however, the apocalypse brought other natural disasters:
Extreme cold, scorching heat, storms, earthquakes, plagues, and contaminated floods wreaked havoc on the shattered land one after another.
People struggled to survive while rebuilding their homes.
More than two years after the apocalypse, the S Base Research Institute finally made a breakthrough in its research on a zombie antidote serum.
Experts from various bases gathered at Base S for a conference and announced the following:
It would take one more year to mass-produce the serum, and it could save those infected as long as they hadn’t lost all their sanity.
Base S then extended an olive branch by recruiting talented individuals from all walks of life. They planned to purify the environment and reclaim contaminated land alongside the rollout of the serum.
The powerful and capable began migrating toward Base S, abandoning small bases like the one his family belonged to in his past life.
Jiang Nian had survived the apocalypse for more than two years, spending nearly two of those years imprisoned in Base Z’s underground lab.
He received good and bad news from the people there until he finally died.
“Wuwuwu…”
Tears welled up in his eyes. He buried his face in the blanket, his sobs turning into uncontrollable cries as he released all his grievances, unwillingness, fear, helplessness, and hatred in the most direct way possible.
At the same time, he recalled what had happened during this period of time in his previous life.
It was summer break. As a rising high school senior, he spent the entire vacation caring for his terminally ill mother.
After her death and his own recovery from illness, he went to the city’s southern district to find his father.
Even though they lived in the same city, his parents divorced when he was young, and his mother raised him.
According to their agreement, his father never paid child support. Occasionally, he would send gifts, but every meeting between them felt like an encounter between strangers.
He never blamed the adults for the past. If his mother could accept it, so could he. After all, emotions were complicated.
When his mother became gravely ill, his father lent him 20,000 yuan, telling him to repay it when he could. With nowhere else to go, Jiang Nian stayed temporarily at his father’s home while waiting for school to start—until the apocalypse arrived.
His father had remarried and was quite successful in his career. He now had a new family, including a pair of twins, Chen Yue and Chen Lin, just two years younger than Jiang Nian.
After the apocalypse began, that “home” became his personal hell.
In his previous life, he developed a high fever the day after the toxic rain. Three days later, zombies appeared, and his supernatural ability awakened.
Not long after, satellite radios began broadcasting news of people awakening powers around the world.
After his power emerged, he naturally told his family.
Unfortunately, compared to destructive-type abilities, his purification power seemed useless—just a small novelty with little value.
Later, during an escape mission with a rescue team, their convoy was attacked by zombies, and Chen Yue was accidentally scratched.
In a desperate attempt to save Chen Yue, he used his purification ability on the wound. Although it didn’t heal him, it significantly slowed the virus’s spread.
From then on, he became Chen Yue’s “lucky charm.”
With the help of Chen Yue’s girlfriend, Xia Weiwei, the family smuggled Chen Yue into the inner circle of Base Z, avoiding medical checks.
To ensure Chen Yue’s safety, they never reported his mutation to the base.
Xia Weiwei even pulled strings to assemble a private medical team, who secretly studied Jiang Nian’s ability while pretending to treat Chen Yue.
At first, he was willing—after all, Chen Yue was his half-brother. But by the time he realized something was wrong, it was too late.
With the silent approval of his father and stepmother, and under pressure from the Xia family, he became Chen Yue’s personal lab rat, locked in the basement:
blood draws, drug trials, injections, dissections…
Until eventually, the crystal core transplantation experiment succeeded—and the research on the detox serum at Base S made a breakthrough.
He silently gave up his supernatural core to Chen Yue.
Then, they discarded him like trash.
He never blamed adults for the past. If his mother could accept it, then so could he. After all, emotions are complicated.
When his mother fell seriously ill, his father lent him 20,000 yuan and told him to repay it when he could. With nowhere else to go, Jiang Nian temporarily stayed at his father’s home while waiting for school to start—until the apocalypse arrived.
His father had remarried and was quite successful in his career. He now had a new family, including twins, Chen Yue and Chen Lin, who were just two years younger than Jiang Nian.
After the apocalypse began, that “home” became his personal hell.
In his previous life, he developed a high fever the day after the toxic rain fell. Three days later, zombies appeared, and his supernatural ability awakened.
Soon after, satellite radios began broadcasting news of people awakening powers around the world.
After his power emerged, he naturally told his family.
Unfortunately, compared to destructive abilities, his power of purification seemed useless—just a small novelty with little value.
Later, during an escape mission with a rescue team, their convoy was attacked by zombies, and Chen Yue was scratched by accident.
In a desperate attempt to save him, he used his power to purify the wound. Although it didn’t heal him, it significantly slowed the spread of the virus.
From then on, he became Chen Yue’s “lucky charm.”
With the help of Chen Yue’s girlfriend, Xia Weiwei, the family smuggled him into the inner circle of Base Z, avoiding medical checks.
To ensure his safety, they never reported his mutation to the base.
Xia Weiwei even pulled strings to assemble a private medical team that secretly studied Jiang Nian’s ability while pretending to treat Chen Yue.
At first, Jiang Nian was willing to help—after all, Chen Yue was his half-brother. However, by the time he realized something was wrong, it was too late.
With his father’s and stepmother’s silent approval and under the Xia family’s pressure, he became Chen Yue’s personal lab rat, locked in the basement.
Blood draws, drug trials, injections, dissections…
Eventually, the crystal core transplantation experiment succeeded, and the research on the detox serum at Base S made a breakthrough.
He silently gave up his supernatural core to Chen Yue.
Then, they discarded him like trash.