Chapter 2 - Back To The Very Beginning
Qi Jingchen was awoken by shrill sounds, then he closely revelled in the continuous screams and other sorts of sounds— this kind of bustle hasn’t happened in a long time.
Except, shouldn’t he be dead? Why did he still hear sounds?
No—it should be said that even if he wasn’t dead, he also shouldn’t be able to hear any sounds— even though those zombies and mutated plants could still move and kill in close combat, they shouldn’t be able to make any sounds.
Experiencing the apocalypse had made Qi Jingchen extremely vigilant, but he currently did not want to move at all. Therefore, even though he fully knew that something was wrong, he still slowly and lazily opened his eyes.
And then he saw a spotlessly bright white ceiling, it was familiar yet foreign… it was the room he had rented before the apocalypse.
On the summer day of the arrival of the apocalypse, Qi Jingchen had just passed his twenty-second birthday and had also just graduated from college to receive his life’s very first official job.
He was in fact born in a metropolis, and also had parents who, while not considered very rich, could be regarded as successful. But his parents had divorced not long after his birth, and neither of them was willing to take him in… In the end, he was sent to his paternal grandparents in the countryside.
His grandparents didn’t only have his father as a son, and definitely didn’t have just him as a grandson, so obviously they wouldn’t set their hearts on him. Afterwards, they learnt that a neighbouring family wanted to adopt a son, and so they simply sent him to them.
His foster parents were surnamed Qi, while Qi Jingchen was also a name given by his foster parents. This pair of husband and wife didn’t have much future prospects, but the young and vigorous would always have jobs. Their days passed fairly well, and they had adopted Qi Jingchen because they wanted someone to look after them when they’ve aged and would arrange a proper burial for them. To Qi Jingchen, they naturally took care of him well, never limiting what he needed.
Even after this married couple had conceived a daughter when Qi Jingchen was eight, they still didn’t mistreat Qi Jingchen, even raising Qi Jingchen properly and sending him to college.
It was just that Qi Jingchen ultimately wasn’t their biological child, so they more or less had a sense of distance from each other. For example, they would hold their daughter Qi Yaoyao to their chests and call her darling, kissing her continuously, but would never treat Qi Jingchen so intimately.
But for Qi Jingchen, he was already very content. Qi Jingchen, who knew he was adopted since a young age, thought that his adoptive parent not abandoning him was already regarded as an enormous favour. He absolutely would and dare not make extravagant demands and instead strove to lessen the burdens of his foster parents. For instance, he had never wanted allowance, and another example was that after being accepted into a university, he only let his foster parents pay for the first year’s tuition fees even though he knew they had the ability to provide his school fees and living expenses.
During his first year in university, his living expenses for the first two months were the earnings he made when he worked in the factory after the college entrance exams. After that, all his expenses were paid with the money he earned when he moonlighted during his free time in university.
He had a grateful heart towards his adoptive parents, and he lived frugally without daring to waste the slightest bit of money during his university days. During the festivities like Chinese New Year, he would always give his foster parents a generous gift and was unconditionally pampering towards this foster parent’s daughter.
His foster parents had also treated him very well, often pleased with the fact that they had raised such a good son, saying that although he wasn’t their birth son he was more considerate than their birth child. They had even wanted to give him their savings, worried that the city life would be tough… This part, Qi Jingchen had taken it all in with his eyes and stored in his heart.
The only problem was that after he went to study at university, his sister had developed an unexplained animosity towards him.
Qi Jingchen always remembered that when he left for university, his little sister pulled his hand and sobbingly wouldn’t let him leave. He had thought his little sister was unhappy because he wouldn’t be able to accompany her anymore, so he treated her even better.
Therefore, when his sister wanted to visit the city he worked in over summer vacation, Qi Jingchen gritted his teeth and spent all his savings to rent a two-bedroom apartment in a nice neighbourhood, then spent all his pay to bring his sister and her friend all over the city to play. On the day before the arrival of the apocalypse, he had decided to borrow some money from a classmate because he was short on money.
The apartment he had rented to welcome his sister was where he’s at right now and the shrill noises from outside were from his sister and her good friend.
Qi Jingchen had a very deep impression of the current situation.
It was the first day of the apocalypse. His biological clock had always been very accurate, but for some reason, he hadn’t woken up on time on this day until he was awoken by his sister’s screaming.
He jumped in surprise when he heard his sister’s cry, and, without caring about his unwell body, went out to comfort her, only to discover that the world was ending.
Not long after the arrival of the apocalypse, all communication methods failed, but at that time it was still usable. His sister had been browsing the internet in the morning, which was where she had discovered the matter of the apocalypse, and after that, she had also seen two zombies attacking other people within the district, only then did she start screaming.
No one knew how the end of the world came to be. They only knew that the night before, one-third of the entire world population had suddenly lost their reason, and did nothing but attack and devour the flesh of people. This matter couldn’t be concealed at all, so the government also didn’t bother to try. On the television, the broadcast was just appealing for everyone to save themselves, don’t go near the zombies, because if you were bitten or scratched, there was a possibility that you could become the next zombie.
Actually, the district’s current situation was still considered pretty good. After all, the transformation had happened in the latter half of the night, so most of the zombies were still shut up in their houses. But after the survivors start to scatter and flee, the zombies outside would increase and also get stronger. Furthermore, all common forms of communication will fail to function after a few days.
Every scientist of the apocalypse had always been researching about the origin of zombies, and the final conclusion was that a fearsome energy had inexplicably appeared on Earth, and all the people contaminated by this energy would become zombies.
At the start, only humans were infected by this energy, but later on, there were also animals, and even later there were plants, and in the end… Earth became a piece of dead land.
He was the entire world’s only dark ability user; he wasn’t afraid of the dark energy and was still fine. But, like Nie Yi, if he couldn’t keep supporting his domain and breathed in the outside air that was brimming with dark energy, it was possible he would turn into a zombie without even knowing.
Among the people who had followed him, most had died like this.
Of course, those were things that happened in the later period of the apocalypse. Currently, everyone didn’t have to worry about this. The Earth of right now still had countless normal human beings, and the animals and plants were all normal too. Even if it was brimming with PM2.5 air, it was cleaner by a tremendous margin compared to the later period of the apocalypse.
Qi Jingchen greedily breathed in the air that he had always disdained to be of low quality before the apocalypse. There was a sort of happy feeling, but soon he felt that it was all very funny.
He didn’t know why he came back to the day of the apocalypse, but he felt that it was completely meaningless— since all of humanity would ultimately become extinct, what was the meaning of letting him be reborn?
Maybe he could be more prudent in this life, not letting his sister know about his body’s peculiarity, then not letting that cruel and unscrupulous sister’s friend know about his peculiarity so he also didn’t need to experience the pain and suffering that he had before, but does that have any meaning either? Wouldn’t everyone just die in the end as well?
Thinking of the scenery before he died, Qi Jingchen only felt waning interest. He was disinclined to care about his sister who was wailing outside, still lying on his bed, motionless.
The screams from outside had faded, then the door to Qi Jingchen’s room was knocked on, and his sister’s sobbing voice immediately rang out. “Qi Jingchen, Qi Jingchen! Get up, there’s something wrong outside!”
On the night of the apocalypse, a lot of people had slept indescribably well, and once they awoke from their sleep, the world had gone through huge changes. They promptly called around, searching for their loved ones, mutually comforting each other……
Qi Jingchen’s former incarnation was also among them, but now he was too lazy to even respond to his sister’s crying.
“Yaoyao, your brother probably hadn’t become that kind of monster ba?” The Guan Jiayu who had followed Qi Yaoyao to the city to play—or more precisely, had followed Qi Yaoyao to Qi Jingchen’s place to cadge a meal—lowly said.
Qi Yaoyao and Guan Jiayu were only fourteen this year. No matter their temperament, in the end they had never experienced such matters, so after reaching this sort of conjecture, they started to hug their heads and cry in front of Qi Jingchen’s door.
The two girls’ cries were really miserable. When Qi Jingchen ‘listened’ to this type of crying from behind the door, he even felt that it was rather pleasant to hear—At present, he particularly likes having some human presence by his side.
He wasn’t sure whether some of the spiritual strength he had from the apocalypse had been brought into this life, or if he already had spiritual strength at this time, but he could still hear sounds from outside particularly distinctly even though the soundproofing of these walls was pretty good.
While his sister was crying, he closed his eyes.
The so-called apocalypse was actually brought about by the invasion of the energy of ‘dark matter’, dubbed by scientists. No one knew where that dark energy had come from, merely that this energy harmed the Earth. However, when the apocalypse had just begun, there were actually other energies that had come on Earth.
Some people would absorb those energies that had all kinds of attributes and then become an ability user.
For an ability user’s initial period of awakening, their body would feel unwell, develop a fever, and they’d even sleep lethargically due to receiving the transformation energy. This situation generally persisted for a few hours or a few days, but if one survived, they would possess abilities could be considered as mystical from then on.
Qi Jingchen currently felt that his entire body was unwell, while his body temperature had also become high. He hated that he was unable to sleep until it was dark and get better.
In his previous incarnation, he hadn’t known about the symptoms of awakening to an ability and strained to go and comfort his little sister. After comforting her, he took advantage of the fact that not many zombies were out in the district yet and went out to inquire news, causing himself to become increasingly unwell. After he found out that this was symptoms of awakening to ability, because he hadn’t awakened yet, he thought that he wasn’t awakening to ability but was just feeling unwell.
The end of the world had come, and he was still ill, wasn’t this burdening others? At that time, he kept disdaining his lousy body, insisting on finding supplies with other men, and then he was bitten by a zombie…
He was extremely special, but during the beginning of the apocalypse, he was incomparably small and weak. In those days, taking care of two fourteen-year-old girls made his life extremely arduous. Afterwards, he was sold out by Qi Yaoyao’s friend and was in ‘captivity’ by those people, and was unable to put up any resistance due to his health.
It was unclear whether it was because his dark ability was both too strong and heaven-defying, but it was only during the second winter of the apocalypse when he suffered from all kinds of torment and thought he would undoubtedly die that he finally awaken. After he had awakened, he was already a level three ability user and possessed an incomparably powerful spiritual strength.
In the late stage of the apocalypse, level three ability users would have lost their lives after a few breaths of air, but at that time, even humanity’s strongest ability user hadn’t reached level three.
Qi Jingchen laid in his bedroom, but could clearly hear the sounds from outside his door. In his last life, his little sister was terrified and it was him who had phoned his foster parents. This time, it was his sister who had called, but just as his last life, no one picked up the phone.
Qi Jingchen was unsure what had happened to his foster parents, but he had returned to search in his last life after gaining his freedom. Back then, there hadn’t been any traces of living beings in the place where his family had been, and there weren’t any safe areas in the vicinity either.
Therefore, since his foster parents didn’t pick up the phone, it was quite likely that on the arrival of the apocalypse, they had already become zombies.
It was impossible for him to bring the two girls thousands of miles back to where his foster parents lived with this broken body, so Qi Jingchen thoroughly let go of this matter, instead of wholeheartedly wanting to go home like his previous incarnation.
Thinking about it carefully, even if his foster parents were alive, he couldn’t save anyone with this broken body, and even if he did save them… After everyone had gone through all kinds of suffering, wouldn’t they want to die anyways?
In any case, they were all going to die, so it would be better to die in the beginning, rather than experiencing the despair of the future.
The author has something to say
BOSS’s goal is clear-cut now, he doesn’t want to live →→
Baobao’s note
So this novel is a side project that I’m planning on updating weekly until my other project finishes, BUT I’ll be posting off schedule until we reach a certain chapter that makes me feel better from all this sadness.