“I… was reborn?”
In the cramped rental apartment, Chi You lay on a hard bed, staring at his surroundings in disbelief.
The grayish-white walls. The cheap furniture. The ceiling light with a crack running through the middle. And on top of the wardrobe sat an old air conditioner with a yellowed casing, humming loudly while stubbornly continuing to work.
Everything was both familiar and unfamiliar.
There had once been a time when he wanted to escape this place every second of every day.
Yet at this moment, the sight before him made his hands tremble with excitement and his eyes burn with tears.
A tragic and pathetic life.
Looking back on his entire life, that was the only conclusion Chi You could reach.
If his life had ended before the age of six, he would have been considered one of life’s winners.
He had loving parents, an adorable younger sister one year younger than him, and a family that was fairly well-off.
Back then, Chi You could never have imagined that his beautiful life was already standing at the edge of a cliff.
One step forward, and it would plunge into a bottomless abyss.
During the winter when he was six years old, his father’s business failed and left the family buried under enormous debt. From that moment on, their living conditions deteriorated rapidly.
Fortunately, his parents were still young and had a chance to recover.
The entire family lived frugally and worked hard. Just as they were about to pay off all the debt, his father, exhausted from years of staying up late, suddenly died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
After receiving the news, his mother drove out into the rain that night. Distracted and overwhelmed with grief, she collided with a large truck and died at the scene.
In a single day, Chi You lost both of his parents.
Only he and his younger sister remained, relying on each other to survive.
But fate still refused to let him go.
During his first year of high school, his sister suddenly fell seriously ill.
At the time, Chi You’s grades were quite good. Yet without hesitation, he abandoned his education and did everything he could to earn money.
Even so, his sister’s condition continued to worsen without the slightest improvement.
Three years after he dropped out of school, unwilling to become a burden to him any longer, his sister chose to take her own life.
From that day forward, Chi You became depressed and drifted through life like a walking corpse.
Then, on his 24th birthday, a disaster that swept across the entire world changed everything.
At exactly midday, the apocalypse descended without warning.
All firearms and modern weapons became unusable.
All communication devices completely failed.
More than ninety percent of humanity became infected and transformed into zombies driven only by the desire to kill.
Those who survived received a system known as the [Apocalypse Game].
People’s physical conditions were digitized into numerical values. Killing zombies granted experience points, allowing them to level up just like characters in a game.
Society collapsed.
The law lost all meaning.
Relationships between people became tense and ruthless.
The law of the strong devouring the weak became a truth accepted by everyone.
Humanity became like poisonous insects sealed inside a gu vessel, slaughtering, plundering, and evolving through endless conflict until only the final Gu King remained.
Alone, Chi You struggled to survive in that merciless apocalypse.
He adapted to the new world like a fish returning to water. Opportunities appeared one after another. Step by step, he built his own stronghold and established a new order.
Maybe I’m the protagonist.
More than once, Chi You had entertained such thoughts.
A tragic family.
A miserable life.
A world-ending disaster.
Regained confidence.
Gradual growth through hardship.
No matter how one looked at it, he seemed to possess all the qualities of a protagonist.
Unfortunately, that was merely another cruel joke from fate.
Or perhaps it was inevitable.
Someone like him, who despised the weak, plundered lives, lacked humanity, and relied on cunning schemes, could never be the protagonist.
The true protagonist was someone else.
A hot-blooded and kind-hearted young fool named Li Shouyun, who shouted about love and peace all day long.
As for Chi You…
He was merely a villain standing in the protagonist’s path.
Facing the real protagonist, Chi You suffered defeat after defeat.
In the end, he died because of betrayal from his own subordinate.
Strangely enough, after death, his soul did not disappear.
Instead, he followed the protagonist’s group and personally witnessed Li Shouyun build the largest stronghold in the world, creating a peaceful life for everyone.
The villains were wiped out.
The protagonist’s group achieved a perfect happy ending.
Ordinary people lived safe and content lives.
Wasn’t this the standard ending of every story?
But…
Why?
Why did he have to be the villain who was defeated by the protagonist, the villain whose life’s work became nourishment for someone else’s success?
Every time he thought of it, his soul would let out a furious roar.
He refused to accept it.
If he had truly been outmatched, he would have had nothing to complain about.
He could have accepted defeat.
But what gave that brat the right?
Naive.
Idiotic.
Brainless.
Without protagonist plot armor, how could he repeatedly escape death right in front of him?
Yet no matter how unwilling he was to accept it, what could a wandering soul possibly do?
Chi You could only growl hoarse curses like a toothless tiger.
Then, on the day the protagonist’s first child was born, at the very moment when the protagonist’s family was enjoying complete happiness, Chi You’s soul finally began to dissipate.
He thought he could finally rest in peace.
Unexpectedly, when he opened his eyes again, he had returned ten years into the past.
At this moment, the Apocalypse Game had not yet descended.
Chi You had not yet been branded as a villain.
The protagonist was still an ordinary kid.
Three paths now lay before him.
Continue fighting the protagonist and use the advantage of his second life to find a way to kill him.
Stop opposing the protagonist, live honestly as an ordinary person, and seek a peaceful life.
Join the protagonist’s group, become the protagonist’s follower, and rise alongside him.
The second and third options both seemed attractive.
After all, that was the protagonist.
In front of a protagonist’s plot armor, what did a second life even matter?
Maybe I should join the protagonist’s group.
A little voice inside his mind began endlessly listing all the advantages of doing so.
The faster it spoke, the tighter Chi You clenched his fists.
“Bullshit!”
His fist slammed heavily into the bed.
He gritted his teeth so hard that veins bulged from his forehead. Countless blood vessels spread through his reddened eyes, where hatred so intense it seemed almost tangible gathered within.
If he couldn’t kill that damned protagonist, then what was the point of being reborn?
His fate had already been miserable enough.
Why should he accept all of it?
Why should he obediently endure it?
As an enemy, he acknowledged the protagonist’s strength.
In fact, strength alone was no longer enough to describe it.
That heaven-defying fortune had long surpassed the limits of mere power.
Ordinary methods would never be enough to kill the protagonist.
Chi You was absolutely certain of this.
During the years he spent as a wandering soul, he had witnessed countless people die at the protagonist’s hands because of absurd luck.
But there had to be a way.
There had to be a method to kill him.
“Bzzz… Bzzz…”
A vibration from beneath his pillow suddenly pulled Chi You back to reality.
He lifted the pillow and found a phone set to silent vibration.
An unfamiliar number was calling.
The smart caller ID identified it as a delivery driver.
Chi You answered the call.
Almost simultaneously, voices came from both the phone and outside the door.
“Delivery! Is anyone home? I’ve been knocking for ages and nobody answered.”
Did I order delivery?
Chi You froze for a moment.
His life before the apocalypse felt far too distant. He could no longer remember details like this.
“Just leave it outside the door.”
“Alright! Please give me a good review.”
Opening the delivery app, Chi You checked the order.
Sure enough, he had ordered something.
A birthday cake.
He was stunned.
He normally never bought things like this.
Then a possibility crossed his mind.
He glanced at the date.
As expected, today was his birthday.
The same day the Apocalypse Game would descend.
The time was 9:00 in the morning.
He still had part-time jobs scheduled for the afternoon and evening, so he could only celebrate in the morning.
He had originally thought he could use the advantage of being reborn to make preparations before the apocalypse arrived, perhaps taking out loans to stockpile supplies and cold weapons.
Now it seemed he had been overthinking things.
Chi You swung his legs off the bed.
The moment he stood up, he nearly lost his balance and fell.
“Is it because I’ve gone too long without using a physical body?”
Supporting himself against the table, Chi You slowly regained his footing.
After floating around as a soul for so many years, suddenly having a body again felt surprisingly unfamiliar.
Step by step, he made his way to the door and brought the cake inside.
He placed it on an object that could barely be called a table and slowly removed the cheap packaging.
The overly sweet smell of low-quality cream immediately filled his nose.
It was the sort of smell wealthy people would find disgusting.
Yet in the apocalypse, where the world was filled only with the stench of rot and decay, it would become a luxury that no amount of money could buy.
The cake came with several disposable plates, plastic utensils, and a cardboard birthday hat that was obviously the wrong size.
With unusual solemnity, Chi You put on the hat.
He inserted several candles and lit them with a lighter.
Then he clasped his hands together and slowly closed his eyes.
“Happy birthday.”