Chapter 1: Rebirth
"Buzz… Buzz…"
The crisp ringtone of a mobile phone jolted Su Ning awake from her slumber.
Her heart pounded violently as she lay quietly on the bed. In the stillness of the room, she could distinctly hear the strong, rhythmic thudding of her heart.
Glancing around, she found herself in a somewhat austere bedroom that felt nine parts unfamiliar and one part eerily familiar.
A trace of confusion flickered through Su Ning's eyes. Could it have been a dream?
If so, it was far too terrifying. She had dreamt of the apocalypse.
The ringtone persisted. Su Ning exhaled heavily, grabbed her phone, and frowned deeply as she saw the caller ID.
The atrocities her family had committed in her dream replayed vividly in her mind, and a wave of nausea washed over her.
In the end, though, she answered the call and turned on the speakerphone.
From the other end came the gut-wrenching sobs of her stepmother, Tang Meifeng. "Su Ning, your dad had a sudden heart attack! The doctor said we need to gather 400,000 yuan for a heart bypass surgery. If we don't, your father won't make it. But where are we supposed to find that kind of money? Ning Ning, please think of something!"
Lying on the bed, her eyes shut to rest, Su Ning's eyes suddenly snapped open, bloodshot.
"I'm just a college student. Where would I get that much money?" she replied coldly, frowning.
She seemed to recall saying the exact same words in her previous life.
"You have an apartment in your name, don't you? He's your father—you can't just watch him die! Sell the apartment to scrape together the money. We're a family; we must get through this together!" Tang Meifeng cried and wailed.
The moment Tang Meifeng finished her words, Su Ning's face turned ghostly pale, and she abruptly hung up the call.
The conversation just now had happened exactly the same way in her dream.
Su Ning glanced at her phone's clock, her expression tense.
Beishi Time, August 24, 2033, exactly noon.
Immediately, several news notifications popped up:
•"Sakura Nation Begins Nuclear Wastewater Discharge: At noon today, Beishi Time, the Sakura Nation's Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant started releasing nuclear-polluted water into the ocean."
•"Ministry of Foreign Affairs Issues Statement on Sakura Nation's Nuclear Wastewater Discharge."
•"Sakura Nation Passes Their Pain on to Future Generations of Humanity."
As she skimmed through the headlines, Su Ning felt her heart grow colder and colder.
This wasn't a dream.
She had been reborn.
She had returned to three years earlier.
The memories were crystal clear. This event marked the beginning of an upheaval that would change the world forever.
By September 14th next month, a species of yellow moth, about the size of an adult man's palm, would suddenly spread across multiple regions worldwide.
Being bitten by one of these moths would result in a person undergoing rapid mutations in just a few days—or even hours.
This virus attacked the brain, driving its victims into a state of uncontrollable frenzy, turning them into biting monsters.
In the future, those infected by this virus were collectively referred to as zombies.
Simultaneously, the world would be struck by a series of natural disasters: scorching heat, torrential rain, and freezing cold.
Three years later, her family, desperate to survive, had offered her as a sacrificial lamb to a local criminal gang, attempting to make a "bloody fortune" from her misery.
Thinking about this, a shadow of hatred flashed across Su Ning's eyes.
Just then, her phone rang again—it was Tang Meifeng.
Frowning, Su Ning rejected the call.
In her previous life, she had foolishly believed Tang Meifeng's story. Convinced that her father had suffered a heart attack and urgently needed 400,000 yuan for surgery, she had sold her apartment.
Afterward, she discovered the cruel truth: it was all a scam orchestrated by Tang Meifeng and her estranged father, Su Shengqiang.
The real reason? Their youngest son, Su Yu, had drugged a girl's drink at a bar and taken advantage of her. The girl's parents had threatened to sue for rape. To settle the matter, the couple had set their sights on Su Ning's apartment.
The apartment, located on the edge of the third ring road in Yucheng, was worth over four million yuan. Her mother had worked her entire life to buy it for her after the divorce.
After selling the apartment, Su Shengqiang had pocketed the remaining three million yuan and sent her to a mental hospital under the pretense of her being mentally unstable.
In the asylum, she had no way to prove her sanity.
Her savings were drained, and she had been left utterly helpless.
When the zombie outbreak began spreading, Su Shengqiang, swayed by Tang Meifeng, had taken her out of the asylum, not out of love but because of her martial arts skills.
They wanted her to protect them.
Later, the leader of a private base, Zuo Tianming, took a liking to her. When he demanded that she become his mistress in exchange for sheltering her family, Su Shengqiang didn't hesitate to knock her unconscious and deliver her to Zuo's bed.
Thankfully, she had awakened just in time to escape.
When the truth came to light, Su Ning had lost all hope. She chose the most extreme method—dragging the Su family down with her.
On a fateful night, she slashed herself to attract a horde of zombies, ensuring no one survived.
She could still vividly recall the searing pain of having her neck bitten by the undead.
That bone-deep despair and agony… She never wanted to experience it again.
Su Ning wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and inhaled deeply.
September 14th—Doomsday's prologue was approaching.
In the weeks ahead, she had to prepare meticulously. The tragedies of her past life would never repeat themselves.
Her first priority was to secure a safe doomsday bunker.
But as she calculated her current resources, a bitter smile spread across her face.
All she had was a meager 70,000 yuan, left by her late mother to cover her university expenses.
How could she possibly build a bunker with that?
Still, her apartment was a prime property in a school district, easily worth over four million yuan if sold urgently.
Instead of selling it through a real estate agency for market value, Su Ning decided to go all in.
She'd mortgage the apartment at underground banks or with loan sharks and get as much money as possible.
Not that she planned to buy another home.
Her mind flashed to a high-end residential area on the outskirts of Yucheng called Cloud Top International Garden City, built for the wealthy during a health craze.
Though occupancy rates were low, the area had miraculously withstood a massive earthquake in her past life, remaining untouched while the rest of the city was reduced to rubble.
That's where she would live after mortgaging her apartment.
Next, she needed to stockpile survival supplies—food, medicine, and everything essential for survival in a post-apocalyptic world.
In a future where a single pack of instant noodles could be worth more than a pound of gold, she had to hoard as much as possible.
But even with supplies, how could she ensure they stayed safe from prying eyes?
And how could she prevent them from spoiling over time?
She sighed deeply, her thoughts racing.
"If only I had a space to store everything…"
Staring at the notes app on her phone, Su Ning let out a helpless laugh.
Suddenly, she felt a strange sensation in her palm.
"What the…?"