The wind rustled by, rolling an old dusty paper away; the buildings were in disrepair with broken glasses and abandoned dusty cars.

It was a ghost city without any humans in sight.

In an abandoned building, a thin, almost skeletal female zombie sat with a book in her functioning hand.

"Hoo hoo!" She made weird sounds from her mouth as she turned the pages at a snail's pace.

Her white pupils flickered with intelligence, that a zombie shouldn't have, and her body was clean without patches of blood and brain matter all over her.

"Growl...."

The loud sounds coming from her stomach showed how hungry she was, but she was already used to it for the past ten years turning to a zombie.

Instead, she was more focused on the book in her hand, her white pupils burning with anger, 'what rubbish book is this? I can't believe the female lead who removes her saviour and ring giver's name from her achievements! Give me back my feelings!' which translated as.

"Hoo hoo! Hoo hoooo!" Her hair fell off from her reaction to the novel's ending; she threw the book to the ground. The weight caused a beam to loosen, sending trails of sand to the ground but she didn't notice all of this.

She was overwhelmed with emotions, and the mindless zombies around reacted to her emotions, heading in her direction, thinking humans were attacking their queen.

The zombie female's hand fell from her anger, and she came to a stop. Her eyes darted around hoping no one saw her ugly self.

Even if she was a zombie, she liked beauty too. She moved slowly to put it back when she felt the ground vibrate, which shook the beam loose, hitting her squarely in the brain before she could react.

The hoards of Zombie that came mindlessly looked around, not seeing their queen they scattered, not knowing that the queen's brain was knocked open under the beam.

********

Inside a dungeon, the crystal's light shone on the ancient weather walls, the air smelling with moisture and decay.

Five people were in an intense battle with an Ember golem, an A-rank monster. Different abilities were unleashed on the molten rock monster while dodging the flames and lava being thrown at them.

Their clothes were soaked in sweat from the heat

Eva, their energy manipulator, was already pale from absorbing energy to heal and strengthen them. The group was unlucky to meet an A-rank monster.

They were a group of dungeon explorers- novice level, unfortunately, stumbled through the passage of a high-ranked beast.

"Eva! I'm out!" A beautiful, innocent-looking woman fell against the wall, as a blast of rock blushed past her chin.

"Roar!!!"

Eva left the pale Selina and picked up her sword to join the fight, she compressed with the two men, improving their weapons and fighting.

"Clang!"

"Spark!"

Their sword clashed with the molten rocky body, sending sparks flying as they struggled to slash its hard body, sweat slid down their face, "I don't want to die..." One of the men choked on his words as he gripped his sword tightly, piercing it into the parting in between the monster's rock body.

Enraging the monster further, Eva saw it was about to make a big move, and her eyes became determined; the others noticed what she was about to do.

"Do it! We might die anyway, at least we go fighting!" A man shouted, distracting the monster and buying her time to absorb the energy.

The lava spilled out from the monster's mouth and melted the man; nothing was left of him.

Others held onto their grief, their eyes becoming firmer as they held down the beast. Tears slid down from the corner of Eva's eyes, her veins popping, blood dripping out of her ears and eyes as she absorbed the energy.

Selina, at the back, regained her senses. A trace of emotion flashed through her eyes, and she didn't get up to help; her mind was in shock, "Hasn't she closed the rift? What's she doing here? This....this place is where I get the ring."

Her last life flashed through her mind, and she became determined to change her future. She wouldn't live that way again, with so much regret and fading into the background after saving the world.

She selfishly watched as Eva absorbed all the energy from the golem and released

the energy twofold, directly blasting the beast's core.

"Boom!"

The blast from the beast paused against the wall, and a crack sounded from her body, showing she was in a bad situation.

In place of the dead monster, a chest appeared, different from the drop items from such A rank monster.

"S-Selin...cough...heal..." Eva's words trailed off as she died.

Selina wasn't bothered by her temporary team member's death; her eyes were focused solely on the chest.

She stood up slowly, with trembling hands she opened the chest and saw the ring that changed her life.

She had promised herself this time to find a backing she didn't want to fade in the background, living a normal life after her sacrifice.

The faces of those three men flashed in her mind, and she frowned in disgust; what could they offer her except their occasional words of love?

She held the ring tightly and left without a second look at Eva's body on the ground; her mind was on saving those two powerful men, her first step to a wealthy life.

The crystal dim lights shone on Eva's body, and then suddenly, her fingers trembled slightly ,and her eyes opened, her gaze darting around ,confused and dazed. Wasn't her zombie little life gone?

"Where....ahh!" She held her throat and looked around in shock. 'Was it someone that said that? But there's no one.' she opened her mouth tentatively.

"Who..." And her eyes widened when she heard those clear words. Ever since she turned into a zombie, she could never speak clear words.

Her eyes glowed with excitement but her face remained emotionless. Her eyes darted, taking in the structure and the crystal-lit ancient walls, and a premonition flashed through her heart.

She saw the melted remains, the opened chest; she knew she entered the book: Beautiful Rose in the Apocalyptic World. And a passerby that handed the female lead- Selina, the ring.

But from this body's last moments, only a day's memories remained- what really happened was the female lead left her for death.

She sat up slowly, used to her zombie-like pace; she looked down and frowned internally at her blood-stained body.

But she was curious to see the legendary chest the Author wasted three hundred words to describe. She wants to know what was special about it.

Touching the body, she accidentally pressed a hidden switch and the inner section opened up to her.