Chapter 1: The Betrayal of Human Beings
Translator: Law Editor: Hitesh_
In Eastern China’s Sea City…
Sea City used to be one of the economically developed cities which had huge populations. But at present, it had degraded into a wasteland of dilapidation, without a trace of human habitation, and only a swarm of slow-moving zombies lumbering through the city.
At the moment, a scene was at play inside a closed room of a building in this deserted city…
The room had no windows and only a door, which was locked as well. There was no furniture save for a bed. It used to be a secret resting room in the CEO’s office of a large company.
From the ought-to-be empty room came some small sounds which could cause faces to blush and hearts to beat faster. On the bed inside the room, an act of forced s.e.x was happening. However, n.o.body could have imagined that the one suffering this unspeakable act was a man, lying on the bed and unable to move.
An hour later, a woman walked out of the room, her face filled with satisfaction. Although she wasn’t ugly, her makeup was too heavy. Her lips were red as blood, and her face was caked in a layer of white foundation. The thick eyeshadow had obscured the original shape of her eyes. Her thick, long eyelashes fluttered down, lightly covering her eyes.
She had a body that could make men obsessed and women jealous. She was tall, with curves in all the right places—fullness in the chest, a soft, wasp waist, with a gently rounded hip, underneath which was a pair of beautiful legs, which were straight, slim, and long.
There was an office s.p.a.ce outside the room. The three people who had been keeping watch there all turned to look at the woman as she came out, hints of contempt hidden in their eyes.
“Time to go,” said the woman while beaming with satisfaction.
While speaking, she drew out a gun and walked out of the office ahead of the others. She kept her back warily against the wall while moving toward the stairs. The three didn’t say anything, just pulled out their own guns and followed her out. But behind her, they silently exchanged glances loaded with an intent to murder.
Back in the room with no windows, a man lay flat on the bed, unable to move. He had a very handsome face, though it was heavily flushed at that moment. His nose was straight, and his thin lips were pressed together into a straight line. His long and narrow eyes contained a strong murderous intent, and were turning red while staring at the ceiling. His face was twisted with a mixture of wrath and homicidal intent, and his teeth were clenched tightly.
If he had found Ling Ling’s location, how could he ever have just meekly let that woman do such a thing to him?
…
But before long, the woman, whose face was a mask of heavy makeup, was knocked unconscious and thrown into a swarm of zombies. The zombies slowly slunk toward her before pouncing, biting, and tearing.
She woke up with an excruciating, tearing pain, her screams splitting the air around her, “Ah! Ling Yong! Liu Hongs.h.i.+! Liang Caiyan! You won’t get away! Ah… Ah… I’ll hunt you, and I’ll find you… even as a zombie! Ah… Hahaha… Do you think I wasn’t prepared for this? The little girl isn’t there… Ah…”
A twisted and savage smile appeared on her face while she was screaming. However, her heart-tearing screeches gradually faded, heard by n.o.body but the zombies.
However, just as she was about to be torn into pieces by the zombies, a strong wave of energy suddenly erupted from her brain, propelling the zombies away from her body.
After picking themselves up, all the zombies froze. They were confusedly rooted to their spots for a while before swaying away, and none of them noticed this ‘fresh food’ ever again.
…
A day later, a squad of soldiers showed up from the opposite direction and moved toward the other side of the city while firing their weapons at the zombies. This was the only path to be taken, with dense woods and parks on both sides. In this apocalyptic world, human beings would rather face zombies than the mutated creatures in those places.
For this reason, all wooded areas had slowly been designated as forbidden areas.
Lu Tianyu, who had been dead for a day, lay stiffly on the ground. She had this twisted expression in her face, as though she was still suffering the immense pain. Her body and limbs had become shreds of flesh and skin, barely recognizable as human.
Her body was besmeared with blood, though she fortunately hadn’t been completely torn into pieces. She lay silently on the ground with a ghastly pale face, her gray eyes staring at the sky.
Pale gray eyes… it was a characteristic of zombies.
Suddenly, these pale and lifeless eyes moved. A living person would be scared literally to death if they saw this, because this was the early sign of the transition from human to zombie.
Her eyes moved again… and again. All of a sudden, those pale gray eyes turned black. Not just the pupils, but even the whites of those eyes turned black in this instant. Slight changes had begun happening to her body in the meanwhile—her fingernails had started growing, turning sharp and hard, and she no longer smelled like something that had rotted.
She moved slightly, then stiffly sat up on the ground, looking around blankly. About ten seconds later, she tried to stand up, quickly realizing that her body seemed to be not so under control.
She tried for a few times, but couldn’t get up because her knees were stiff. She looked around for something to hold onto, but there was nothing nearby.
At last, Lin Qiao had no choice but to try bending her knees. She spent quite a while to finally struggle to her feet, but once upright, she discovered something even more terrifying.
She stared at her hands, stunned.
There were purple-black dried blood stains under her black and sharp nails. Her arms were filthy, and all the skin and flesh had been chewed up, with only the pale white bones remaining. The skin on the back of her hands was bluish pale, also stained with black dried blood.
Her entire body was stiff, and limbs were lacking coordination, so she felt off-balance.
She was dumbstruck as she stared at her hands and then her body. She closed her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing. She then reopened her eyes but found no change in this ravaged body of hers, which was barely in human shape.
She raised her head and howled at the sky, ‘What the h.e.l.l!’
However, all that came out of her mouth was “Roarrrrrrrrrr!”
Maybe her growl was too alien, that the zombies nearby who had been busily attacking the squad of human soldiers all halted simultaneously and then turned to look at her. The soldiers who had been defending against the zombies paused briefly as well, then like the zombies, turned to look at her.
Human beings— This zombie’s voice is so weird?
Zombies— What is this zombie shouting about?
But soon, these human beings and zombies had forgotten about this weird zombie and continued fighting.
Lin Qiao looked at her hollowed stomach, dumbfounded.
d.a.m.n it! What the h.e.l.l was this? Who could tell her what on earth had happened? Was she dreaming?
She raised her head and looked around, abruptly seeing two groups of people not far away. ‘Why does the outermost group look so much like the zombies from the movies?’ She wondered.
She looked around, and what came into her vision were the ruins of war. She saw dilapidated buildings and completely broken windows, with nothing left in the window frames. The scenes by the road were just as dismaying, and the traffic was paralyzed, and broken cars were abandoned either by the side of the road or right in the middle. Some of the streetlights had tilted, and some had fallen to the ground. Rubble and dust were scattered all around, and the looks of the trees had become fairly strange as well.