'Ok, so... when I opened my eyes, I saw a hideous face. It was a rotten zombie. Its face was beyond hideous because it seemed like the zombie came out of the ground with attached pieces of rotten skin.'

'Wait! Maybe it was Grandpa....'

'But, what do I do now?'

The eighteen-year-old boy with pitch-black hair looked at his left shoulder and saw a bite mark. His zombie grandpa had bitten him.

'Grandpa, did you have any enmity with me? Sigh, never mind, maybe because this house was closer to the graveyard and the noise here attracted you, just like how it happens in the movies.'

A dead zombie lay two meters away from him, with its head squashed by a wooden club that the young man usually used when hunting wild boars in the forest.

The young man was indeed strong and lean-muscled, a result of his daily training in the forest and wood-cutting work.

"B-Brother Amok! *Sob*."

To the young man's right was his little sister, a six-year-old girl with ruby-red hair and light brown eyes.

She was loudly crying while hugging her brother's leg.

"Don't cry, Lily. Can you go and hide in that cupboard? Wait until someone comes here, okay?"

'Father and Mother said they would return late after we ate dinner, but the village seems to be in chaos from the sound,' Amok thought, his worry increasing as each second passed.

"D-Don't leave me alone, brother *Sob*… Where are Papa and Mama? *Sob*."

The little girl continued crying, terrified of what had just happened.

'It's cheating…I was bitten while I was sleeping.'

Amok felt sad and unfair. He was the strongest youngster in their village, but here he was, bitten by a zombie while he was fucking asleep after the tiring work he did all day yesterday.

'Sigh… Why did this calamity occur at fucking two in the dead of night?'

The boy picked up his sister and quickly brought her to the cupboard.

"Stay inside, okay? I-I can't stay with you. Big brother needs to go so you can stay safe."

"No, brother! Don't leave me alone!"

The little girl cried and pounced towards the boy from the cupboard, but the boy quickly grabbed her shoulder and put her inside.

"Lily! Look at me and listen carefully! Stop crying!"

Amok's shout, and maybe his desperate and despaired eyes, caused the little girl to turn silent.

However, tears still fell without stopping from her eyes.

"S-Stay here, Lily."

Amok felt a lump in his throat, making it difficult for him to speak. But he didn't have time because he was already feeling weird sensations in his mind.

"Don't come out and don't shout, okay? Be a good girl and stay there quietly. If ther-"

"Lily! Amok!"

A familiar shout attracted the brother-sister duo's attention as they saw their parents at the door.

'Ah shit…my vision is getting blurry,' Amok thought as he quickly stood up.

"Amok, you… No-" Amok's mother, Miasa, felt like the world came crashing down on her upon seeing her son's state.

After all, a zombie bit her son, and she already saw what happened to those who were scratched, let alone bitten.

Amok's father wanted to shout and cry out loud, but they had already shouted once, and It would be bad to attract zombies since other shouts from people in the village were pulling them away.

"Father, Mother. Y-You should know that I can't stay here."

"Brother!"

Lily hugged her brother's legs and loudly cried.

"Lily…" Amok removed his sister's hands and smiled at her with tears streaming down his face. "Be a good girl and don't trouble mother and father, okay?"

"Brother!"

Amok dashed away and moved towards the exit.

Turning around after arriving outside the door, Amok spoke with a tear-strained face after taking one last look at his family.

"Don't!"

"Amok!"

His parents stretched their arms and ran towards him, but Amok didn't give them that chance.

"T-Take care, okay?"

After saying that, Amok took off. He ran at full speed and went as far as possible from the village and entered the forest, a vital resource area of their village.

'I can't believe I am going to die…'

'I never got to visit a city… I wanted to go to that famous Old Fork city in the United Smash Country…And that Akihabara country where rumored cat girls and bunny girls live….'

'I wonder if Miss Leyla will miss my dick…. It's good that her husband didn't find out until the end.'

'What about Angie? We wanted to marry, but I guess that's impossible now...'

'Father, Mother, Lily….'

Amok cried while running as his short life flashed before his eyes while he ran at his full speed.

'Damn it! I don't want to die!'

The forest connected to a deep jungle further, and Amok continued running until his consciousness vanished.

*Crash…Thud*

Ultimately, he fell to the ground after crashing into a tree.

[The reward of killing your first zombie is generated.]

[Critital condition detected. Unable to be saved.]

[Exchanging the reward for a random reincarnation while the soul is intact. The chance of a successful reincarnation is 0.1% according to the exchanged reward]

[Commencing reincarnation attempt.]

[0.1% chance succe-]

[Error. Interrupted by a newly awakened primal native lifeform]

At that moment, the biggest tree in the forest shook slightly as all of its leave faintly shone in a natural green hue.

The semi-sentient evolved spirit tree detected Amok's soul.

*Shrrr…*

The entire tree glowed magically as its instincts sought Amok's soul and pulled it towards it.

Amok's physical body was also absorbed into Earth as several vines emerged from the ground and magically pulled it inside.

[1% Reincarnation chance increased to 100% chance due to external interference from a forest spirit.]

[Commencing Reincarnation as a forest lord of this unnamed forest.]

…

The apocalypse occurred because a mysterious orb suddenly entered Earth's core from the universe, causing the planet to undergo evolution as it started attracting mystical energy from the universe into the atmosphere of the planet.

It didn't seem like an accident because right after that, ten eye-shaped fissures appeared in the sky before they dropped giant pillars that stretched fifty kilometers high in the sky, reaching the limit of the stratosphere of the Earth.

The pillars also released strong waves of primal mana that started the evolution of all beings on the planet, giving them an opportunity to withstand, survive, and thrive in the new age.

And face the future that awaited them.