**WARNING**
Depictions of blood, gory images and self-harm would be mentioned.
"Hiss... Ugh... My whole body hurts..."
The light was dimmed as his eyes shakily opened. The smell emanating around him was strong and rotten which made his face scrunched up in disgust. He had to dash his eyes around to assess the situation before slowly getting up. The smell was horrifying and he frantically searched while limping around for a wet wipe in this convenience store first before anything else.
Surrounding him were several corpses. Some of them were bloated with blood-containing foam leaking from their orifices, and some areas of their bodies were also missing. Looking at the disfigurement of their necks, legs, and arms, they were probably trampled to death. Other corpses were far worse, the odor was nauseating with slimy greyish skin, their eyes sockets were empty, and dried red clots of blood and meat were on their mouths.
The whole picture was simply terrifying that could make a grown adult scream in horror. The door flung open and the smell finally dissipated a little bit. He took a deep breath as he looked at the scenery around. There was hardly anyone in the street, only his breath was the loudest noise at the moment.
"It's strange... Is this world a zombie apocalypse?" He looked down and there were bite marks on his forearms and calf. They were already scabbed over. "I got bitten but it seems like I'm not infected yet? ...I should check the plot."
Yep, this world was a zombie apocalypse world. A meteor shower suddenly appeared in the North of D city and several crashed down the ground creating craters that destroyed the city. People in that proximity who were not dead by the crash suddenly turned into zombies. In just a few days, it had already spread across the country and slowly to the whole continent due to its sudden appearance. The whole world was in lockdown.
In the nearby city, a last-year university student named Zhong Guang led his party to escape the infested school ground. It was his good looks, charisma, and sense of dependability that made people follow him. However, he suddenly developed a high fever as he got out of the school gate. His body all ached and his nose bled, they were similar to the symptoms of turning into a zombie. Even though people were thankful to him, they worshipped their life much more. Zhong Guang sensed the disharmony and offered to stay back.
To his surprise, after wandering the school ground to hide in a safe place, he did not turn into one after a week. He thought it was fatigue and stress from the zombie apocalypse, but obviously not, he developed a nature ability, fire! The destination was the South base of E city that was broadcasted before the school radio was destroyed by the horde of zombies. He continued his journey.
Along the way, he met a group of other people traveling together, where he met the female lead, Yang Huifang. The North base became their common goal, but suddenly, a zombie siege happened. He activated his power for the first time, but it was out of control, so half of his face was burned. The female lead, who was saved by him, awakened her healing ability and healed his wound. However, the burn scars remained. There was a child in that group and he got scared looking at the scarred face. He had never cared about his appearance but to not scare the kids, he wore a mask ever since. Yang Huifang was determined to improve her ability to heal Zhong Guang's scars.
They continued to grow closer as they traveled. One day, a peculiar boy with small cuts and wounds appeared but no zombies seemed to be attracted by that smell of blood. Yang Huifang helped heal him and he joined the party. After that, it was a smooth journey as no more zombies approached.
Zhong Guang joined the assault team to salvage food and necessities outside. Yang Huifang became a valuable asset as she was a rare healer in the base. The boy was a regular civilian.
Female lead and male lead bonded over him getting exclusive treatment from her every time he return to the base. One time, the wall got breached and Zhong Guang tried his best to protect the people. The boy suddenly appeared and walked toward the zombies with a knife in his hand. He slit his palms and spurted blood at them. To Zhong Guang's surprise, the zombies ran away.
"This boy... I have a bad feeling..." He gulped as he looked at the plot and at the bites on his body.
The boy then got taken away by the researchers. Not long after, the base produced power-enhance pills at a sky-high price. And, bullets that no matter where they shot, as long as they touched the zombies, they would die. The lab claimed to be researching vaccines too.
Zhong Guang felt suspicious and discussed it with Yang Huifang. As they were righteous people, they tried to confront the researchers but got tossed out with the excuse of 'for humanity.' So instead, Zhong Guang broke in.
"Wow, this male lead is pretty reckless."
A pitiful appearance on a hospital bed was shown before the male lead. The boy seemed to know that his life was about to end so he dug out his nucleus and forced Zhong Guang to swallow it to help him power up and gave his last bag of blood for them to continue researching the vaccines. The boy said they owed him so they needed to look after his sister. Then, he died in Zhong Guang's arm.
"Such a pitiful cannon fodder, he was used as a stepping stone for the male lead."
The male lead became the most powerful man in the base. However, the vaccine research was unsuccessful as there was not enough sample to continue. At the very least, Yang Huifang became a lot more powerful and was capable of treating zombie's bite. They became official as the most powerful couple in the base. With the boy's sister, they looked like a family.
"...I'm scared of checking this body's memory."
Even if he said that, he still had to know his role in this world to determine his course of action. His hunch was correct, he had become that pitiful tragic cannon fodder. His name was Yan Changming, 19 years old, with the only relative in his life was his 10 years-old sister, Yan Meifeng.
The reason for no zombies approaching him was due to his blood. It was harmful to the zombies but good for humans. This ability awakened at the convenience store that he was in just now.
"That explains the marks, ugh..."
Changming loved his sister dearly so he tried to find her when he heard she was evacuated to a base in E city. He wandered around and met the male lead like the plot. The most tragic time was the time in the lab. He suffered from anemia badly with the guarantee that they would find his sister for him.
Changming knew that his life was ending and that he could not see his sister anymore. He needed a bigger assurance. He would not stop the research because he also wanted a peaceful world for his sister to grow without worries, but she needed protection. Right then, Zhong Guang broke in. It was his hope, he immediately bet on it and passed away.
The current Changming felt stuffy inside, it was like something swelling up within his body. Tears fell from the charcoal eyes.
"This body was so stupid, he could have gone out and found her himself... Even though I'm taking over now, his love for his sister is so great. Don't worry, I will take care of our sister." Changming wiped the tears away and looked at the information about where Xiao Feng was at. "West base... That's it? No address?! I really hate apocalypse worlds."