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The moment Song Jinhe opened her eyes, she knew she was in deep trouble.
Outside the window, a storm raged. Screams shattered the silence as an unsuspecting man was tackled from behind by a “person” with a mouth full of blood, who tore a chunk of flesh from his cheek.
“Aah!!!”
Shrill screams erupted continuously from the crowd. Splattered blood hit the walls and ceiling, while flashes of lightning illuminated a crimson world and those hideous, distorted faces.
The scene before her was a massive shock to her psyche.
That person in the hospital gown, with a chunk of flesh missing from an arm to expose the bone and bared, blackened teeth—was that a zombie?!
A bone-chilling cold crawled up her back. In all her twenty years, she had never encountered anything this intense or life-threatening.
As Song Jinhe tried to stand up, she realized there was a piercing pain in her right ankle.
“I’m sorry…”
The “companion” who had knocked her down was trembling. The guilt in their eyes vanished the moment they saw the charging zombies, replaced entirely by terror. The hand they had reached out to pull her up was instantly retracted.
Song Jinhe watched them bolt toward the stairs without looking back. Beside her, a zombie lunged, its blood-dripping maw wide open.
In a panic, Song Jinhe fumbled and found a stainless steel water cup. Steeling herself, she met the attack head-on and jammed the cup into the zombie’s mouth.
She quickly put some distance between them, standing up despite the agonizing pain in her ankle. She had absolutely no time to process what was happening!
Her vision was a blur of chaos. People were constantly being seized and mauled by zombies or trampled by others. She didn’t know what breed these zombies were, but they could run incredibly fast!
Song Jinhe fought for her life, limping through the frantic crowd in search of an escape. Ahead of her, a zombie suddenly leaped out and tackled one of the “companions” who had just crossed the skybridge.
The floor vibrated. The sounds of roaring and chewing echoed through the entire building.
Looking at the structures now overrun by zombies, Song Jinhe realized that with her current physical condition, she would never survive if she kept running with the crowd. The more noise they made, the more zombies they attracted—not to mention that new zombies could turn within the group at any moment.
Song Jinhe turned around and rushed into a nearby office. At top speed, she swept the contents out of a filing cabinet and scrambled inside, shivering, just before a zombie burst into the room.
The room had two doors, and she only had time to close one.
Hearing the footsteps of a zombie entering the room, Song Jinhe went rigid inside the pitch-black cabinet.
She remembered being on her deathbed, her consciousness fading. Suddenly, her perspective had shifted upward, watching the flatlines on the heart monitor like an outsider.
Through the buzzing in her ears, an electronic, synthesized voice had spoken clearly: “Congratulations, you have gained the opportunity to ‘Start Over.’ It’s time to go back.”
Back where?
Before she could ask, she had been dropped onto that corridor, nearly dying the moment she arrived.
It was disheartening—truly disheartening.
To “start over” only to end up in a place like this? She couldn’t understand what there was to be congratulated about.
The zombie walked up to the filing cabinet. Through the narrow slit in the door, she could see its blood-stained pant legs.
Song Jinhe clutched the hem of her clothes, not daring to breathe for fear of being discovered. Memories flooding her mind allowed her to quickly grasp the current situation.
This was a parallel world where zombie mutations and natural disasters were stacked to the limit. Ordinary zombies were just the first stage. Following them would be various catastrophes: extreme cold, scorching heat, toxic smog, acid rain… and biological mutations.
“She” and a few companions had come to the hospital to visit a sick friend, only to be trapped by an extraordinary storm. Then, the zombie outbreak had exploded.
They had watched people try to take the elevator to reach their cars, only for them to never come back out. All that remained were hysterical cries for help and the heavy scent of blood.
Under the shroud of dark clouds, the city was filled with wails for help and the wreckage of colliding vehicles. The apocalypse had begun.
The survivors in the hospital could only huddle together and wait for rescue, but it wasn’t long before the building was swarming with zombies. Then, something went wrong one night—specifically, the moment she arrived in this parallel world.
A bone-chilling “Heh… heh…” sound magnified near her ear.
Her nostrils were filled with the cloying, nauseating stench of human decay—an odor humans are naturally repelled by. It was far more intense than the smell of any rotting animal, as if it could seep through her pores and into her body.
The raw reality transmitted by her senses made Song Jinhe realize she could never return to the civilized world she knew. She had to steel herself and adapt. Her life wouldn’t get a second chance to “start over” again.
The torrential rain didn’t stop throughout the night. Screams rang out one after another—some from the building opposite, some from the floors above and below, and some… from the room next door.
Because of one frantic shout, the situation escalated from one person being spotted to everyone being discovered.
“No! Help me—”
“Daddy—”
Listening to the screams nearby, Song Jinhe’s heart felt colder than the metal cabinet she was in.
There were zombies across this entire floor, and their speed and agility at night were far greater than during the day. She could become the next victim at any moment.
Don’t panic, don’t panic… if you panic, it’s over. She could only mentally steady herself, calming her breathing as she waited for the zombies to leave.
From dusk till dawn, and then until dusk again—for an entire day, Song Jinhe remained curled in the cabinet. Her limbs grew numb, and she didn’t dare make even the slightest movement.
When dawn broke again, there were still two zombies left in the room. She didn’t even want to recall how she had endured the wait.
Song Jinhe massaged her ankle. It was fine if she didn’t apply pressure, but the slightest weight brought agonizing pain. Fortunately, the bone wasn’t broken. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to change anything.
In her inherited memories, she had also been trapped on the hospital’s third floor without food or water, eventually becoming so desperate she wanted to end her life. A team searching for supplies had rescued her then. At that time, she had looked so haggard she resembled a zombie herself; her greatest value to them was as a “consumable” to be thrown out to distract zombies when necessary.
Later, she had acted as an inside agent to take down that team and join a new one. Everyone had looked down on her, thinking she was weak and a traitor. Even though she had fought with everything she had to survive the apocalypse, her talent had awakened too late.
She had ultimately died in the third year of the end times. Her spatial bracelet had dropped and been claimed by the new team.
Song Jinhe instinctively reached for her wrist, seeking the ice-clear, pale purple jade bracelet. The physical bracelet was no longer there. In its place was a mental image of a small warehouse, roughly 15 square meters.
The storage space was still there.
She wouldn’t just wait for death this time, nor would she fall into the hands of those people again.
Song Jinhe observed for a long time. The two zombies were standing too close to each other. Unless she had a firearm, the moment she stepped out would be their dinner time.
However, the filing cabinet was close to the open back door, which gave her a clear view of a metal cart parked in the hallway. Song Jinhe carefully pushed the cabinet door open a hand’s width. Gritting her teeth, she used all the strength in her wrist to hurl her phone.
Clang!
The phone struck the cart, and a loose metal tray rattled to the floor. The crisp sound was terrifyingly loud in the silent building.
The zombies roared in succession. They followed the noise, swaying as they shuffled out. Seeing this, Song Jinhe immediately tried to push the cabinet door open.
However, at the critical moment, the door jammed halfway and wouldn’t budge.