—The year 2022, 1 year after Z-20 Virus outbreak—
The Z-20 Virus that spread through the air had infected all of humanity.
At least 70% of the humans had turned into brainless zombies that eat human flesh to satiate their hunger. The virus shrunk their brain and turned it into a red crystal nucleus inside their skull. People called this a Brain Bead.
25% of humans developed a blue crystal nucleus inside their brain called the Mana Bead.
The Mana Bead allowed them to gain a random ability depending on their DNA. Some were powerful, while others weren't so lucky.
And the rest of the 5%… they remained ordinary humans, their only ability was immunity to the virus and infection from the zombie bites.
The surviving humans that hadn't turned into zombies started gathering to protect each other. Thus, after one year of chaos, many settlements, from the size of small towns to big cities, started popping out here and there, trying to survive in this harsh world.
One such person was Yang Zhang, an average human living in Dufan town, a medium-sized settlement in the outskirts of the previously big city.
Well, he wasn't anymore because he just got kicked out today.
—
"Hey! You can't just kick me out like this! I am a normal human! My immunity to the virus is important for research!" Yang Zhang protested as he and his luggage were thrown out of the base.
The guards looked at each other and then laughed at Yang Zhang, "HAHAHA! Oh, dude, do you really think that you're so important? We have plenty of humans still inside the base. If the government needs them for research, then we can just hand them out!"
"Do you actually think you're one of a kind? Hahahahah!"
Their rambunctious laughter was pricking Yang Zhang's ears, but what they said was true, albeit valuable, Yang Zhang wasn't the only surviving human in this world.
"You should leave now, dude. We have a food shortage, and we cannot keep too many humans because you're all dead weight!"
Yang Zhang gritted his teeth and picked up his luggage. He couldn't argue with them anymore no matter how many times he clammored… or begged.
But food shortage wasn't the real reason behind his eviction. In fact he was being kicked out because he had accidentally offended the young master inside the city.
"It's not my fault that your ability sucks ass!" Yang Zhang grumbled.
That Young Master, Deng Fan, tried to woo everyone with his ability to turn his teeth into gold.
Everyone was ridiculing Deng Fang in their hearts. However, the blunt Yang Zhang accidentally commented that it sucked so bad, not realizing that in this post-apocalyptic world, he was just a no ability human, a dead weight.
Yang Zhang didn't know where to go next. He was powerless because powerless humans could not defend themselves against even one attack from a zombie. After all, the feral zombies were a lot stronger than them.
Thus, his survival instinct kicked in, and he tried to find a hiding spot first in the forest, where there weren't many zombies, and although Yang Zhang could see some mutated animals here and there, he just had to bear with their grotesque appearance.
The sun was scorching hot today, so he got tired easier.
"I can.. use a little bit of rest here… huff…." Yang Zhang sat under a random tree as he was catching his breath. He fanned himself with his red cap to alleviate the heat.
He didn't know how far he had walked, and by now, he had lost himself in the woods.
"Alright, I hope there won't be any mutated animals around here," Yang Zhang wished.
He took a water bottle from inside his luggage and started drinking.
Yang Zhang looked at his own shadow under the lush tree until he realized something was moving above his head.
Yang Zhang looked up reactively, and he saw the giant vine of the tree move and attack him!
"RARRGHH!"
"WHA!"
Yang Zhang rolled to the front to avoid the attack from the giant vine, and it pierced his luggage instead, instantly creating a big hole in his luggage.
The tree had a face, and it looked angrily at Yang Zhang, "A MUTATED TREE?!"
The mutated tree glared at him and then attacked with its vine whip once more. Yang Zhang had to leave his luggage and ran away to save his life. He kept running and running until he accidentally bumped into something on the ground.
"Urk! Ouch!" Yang Zhang grimaced in pain. He checked what bumped into him, and his face paled immediately.
"Oh no…"
He saw the body of a middle-aged man lying dead in front of him with his head blown off. His brain was grotesquely scattered on the ground. He had probably died not long ago.
Yang Zhang distanced himself immediately, and he got even more scared when he could sense something was coming.
"Squeak, squeak…"
Yang Zhang sighed in relief when he saw an ordinary, non-mutated squirrel jump and land near the dead body. The squirrel looked around in curiosity and then jumped into the exploded head of the man.
It started digging through the mushy brain, much to Yang Zhang's disgust.
But the squirrel seemed to find the thing that it was searching for, a blue crystal nucleus called a Mana Bead that had been inside the brain of this corpse, and signified that this dead man had been an ability user.
The squirrel took the Mana Bead and then ate it.
"What a stupid squirrel. Do you think that Mana Bead is a chestnut or what? You're going to die if you eat that Mana Bead!" Yang Zhang commented.
The squirrel had consumed the Mana Bead completely, but nothing happened with it.
Until the squirrel's ear suddenly pointed up and the tail straightened. All the squirrel fur shuddered, and the squirrel suddenly discharged electricity from inside its body, zapping everything around, including Yang Zhang.
Bzzzzt!
Yang Zhang was shocked, literally. But the electric zap wasn't painful, it was just somewhat ticklish.
"W—What is that?!" Yang Zhang stared at the mutated squirrel that still acted as tame as before. The squirrel looked around curiously and then ran away while constantly discharging electricity from inside its body, zapping everything around.
Yang Zhang's gaze followed the electric squirrel and then moved back to the dead man.
"Uncle, that squirrel just turned into a Pokemon."