On the outskirts of the city, in a dilapidated residential building, Jiang Lin lay on the floor, already half-conscious.
She struggled to open her eyes. Outside the window, yellow dust filled the sky. The afterglow of the setting sun filtered through the glass, casting light onto her face, and the scorching heat of it made her cheeks burn red.
Jiang Lin let out a faint, self-mocking smile. Ever since the apocalypse began, she had fought every single day just to survive. But now she could feel her life force rapidly draining away. Was she really going to die?
Unwilling to accept it, she struggled to sit up. Her throat, long deprived of water, felt as if it were lined with sandpaper, even the slightest movement caused sharp pain and the taste of blood. She no longer had the strength to go out and search for water and food.
She closed her eyes in resignation.
At that moment, the damaged intelligent brain in the room suddenly let out a burst of static. The dust-covered little sphere floated silently up off the ground, scanned the room, and fixed on Jiang Lin.
It circled her once, and a strand of icy-blue light flowed out of it, sliding into her mouth and spreading down her throat into every limb.
Jiang Lin felt a cold liquid pour into her, and her empty stomach slowly filled.
Sensing something, she opened her eyes. The intelligent brain, broken for the past six months, was now floating right in front of her.
“Did you save me?” she asked, reaching out to touch it. The little sphere nimbly dodged her hand.
【 I am System 110. You meet the binding criteria. Since you were already near death, the system has bound to you directly. If the binding is terminated, the host will return to that near-death state. 】
Fortunately, Jiang Lin had only just barely survived. She had no intention of dying now, so she sat up off the ground.
The intelligent brain in front of her still looked dull and dusty. Before the apocalypse, she had been so poor she could only afford the cheapest model. But now the plain little sphere was faintly glowing blue.
“My name is Jiang Lin,” she said calmly, introducing herself without the slightest surprise at how unnatural the whole situation was.
“What kind of system are you?” She reached out again and pulled the sphere close, examining it carefully. There was still no visible change, the same dull gray casing, scratched all over from years of neglect.
110 tried at first to wriggle out of her grip, but after struggling for a while it gave in to her overwhelming strength. Then it projected a familiar blue holographic screen, except this wasn’t the usual intelligent-brain interface. It was a grid of small square icons, each showing a different building material.
There were construction fragments, walls, fences, soil blocks, stone blocks, as well as ordinary furniture. Was this some kind of construction system?
【Detected: the current Blue Star contains a large quantity of discarded batteries. The host may use batteries to unlock and purchase all building materials in the system.】
Jiang Lin found this function fairly useless. Her most urgent goal right now was survival, and survival meant food. This was already the third summer of the apocalypse, and she had searched every corner nearby, there was nothing edible left.
110 didn’t miss the faint disappointment in her eyes, so it closed the holographic interface.
【Host, the construction system isn’t limited to building structures. It also includes farming modules. You can grow your own food.】
Jiang Lin raised an eyebrow, interest sparking.
Ever since global pollution had rendered the soil incapable of supporting crops, food had grown scarce. To solve the feeding problem, scientists had developed nutrient solutions meant to provide maximum sustenance. Unexpectedly, those very solutions ended up destroying the planet.
After drinking the nutrient solution, some lucky people awakened special abilities, while others turned into flesh-eating zombies. The whole planet descended into a true apocalypse.
“Can I start planting now?” Jiang Lin looked at the little sphere, her eyes full of longing. She had never actually grown a plant, only seen them in textbooks. Sometimes she even wondered whether the tender green sprouts described in those books had ever really existed.
【There are currently no seeds available.】
Jiang Lin: ?
This system really didn’t seem very reliable.
【Detected: plantable seeds available at the First Base free market.】
【Mission triggered: Enter the First Base and successfully purchase seeds. Reward: one 0.5m × 1m planting bed.】
Before Jiang Lin could properly examine this quest-issuing system—
“Tap, tap, tap…” Footsteps echoed in the corridor, like boots on stone tile.
Jiang Lin’s eyes darkened. She ignored the system and moved quietly toward the door. A faint blue glow flickered in her palm, ready to strike whoever was outside.
The footsteps stopped, and silence fell. Jiang Lin slowed her breathing to almost nothing. She could sense the person was standing right outside her door.
Beyond that thin barrier stood a man in a full black combat suit, his face wrapped in a sand mask that left only his eyes visible.
He crouched, slid an envelope under the door, and left without lingering.
The paper skidded across the dusty floor, stirring up a faint cloud that shimmered in the slanting evening light.
Only when his footsteps had faded completely did Jiang Lin relax. She stared at the envelope with a complicated expression.
The gold-embossed emblem on it made its origin unmistakable: the First Base.
She bent down, picked it up, and tore it open. Inside was a stiff invitation card:
【The First Base Patrol Team is recruiting. Report to the East Gate at 5:30 p.m.】
The handwriting looked hand-penned, the strokes strong and confident, sealed beneath the First Base emblem, unforgeable. Jiang Lin checked her mechanical watch: 4:30 p.m. Not much time left.
She waved the invitation and looked up at the sphere still hovering nearby. “Let’s go. To the First Base.”
The sphere spun once, shrank to the size of a thumb, and landed on her shoulder.
In the dusty mirror by the door, her reflection looked back at her, clothes stained yellow by years of blowing sand, wrapped tight against the harsh summer sun. Her exposed eyes, unprotected, glinted amber and cold.
She looked away, cracked the door open to check the hall, and, finding no danger, stepped out.
The moment she left the shelter of the building, a wave of heat rolled over her. Sky and ground alike were a murky yellow haze. With no filter mask, she could only cover her nose and mouth with gauze.
The area was nearly deserted of people, but not of zombies, slow, shambling figures dotted both sides of the road.
The First Base sat on the same outskirts, not far from where she lived. With no working vehicles left, she had no choice but to walk.
She wasn’t sure what kind of liquid 110 had poured into her, but her water-elemental ability now felt full and vital, nothing like its usual depleted state.
Water abilities were generally considered weak, but Jiang Lin had trained hers to an exceptional level, both offensive, and capable of shifting temperature at will.
After mutating, zombies could go a long time without eating, but the craving for flesh never left them. The moment Jiang Lin appeared, the starving things along the road turned toward her.
After three years of the apocalypse she had seen plenty of these grotesque creatures, but the sight still turned her stomach.
Two or three zombies reached her first, jaws hanging open, blood-streaked drool dripping from their lips. In the scorching heat, the stench was especially foul.
Jiang Lin struck at the right moment, water vapor condensed into ice spikes and shot toward the nearest cluster, each one punching straight through a skull. Instant kills.
She stepped aside, frowning in disgust. This was one of the few clean outfits she had left, she wasn’t about to let it get splattered with brain matter.
As she walked on, she noticed fewer zombies than usual along the road. She frowned slightly, for now, at least, that wasn’t necessarily a bad sign.
“Haa… haa… haa…”
The telltale rasp came again from behind her. She spun around, sure enough, another zombie was following.
Its body was rotted through, but unlike the others, its face showed no hunger for human flesh. Something else seemed to be pulling it forward.
Jiang Lin was about to finish it off, but the zombie surprised her, it seemed to have gained a flicker of intelligence, bypassing her entirely and pressing forward, its dead gray eyes now tinged faintly red. It looked almost like a person losing their mind.
Frowning, she followed its gaze.
It was heading toward the First Base. Just like her.
A chill crawled down her spine. Glancing back, she saw the scattered zombies from before gathering together, all drifting in the same direction.
As if answering some kind of summons. The sight was deeply unsettling. Jiang Lin swallowed her unease and quickened her pace, and, fortunately, the zombies were still slow enough that she gradually pulled ahead.
By the time she was within five meters of the base, there were almost no zombies left around her. The awakened ability users stationed on the wall immediately marked her as an anomaly.
Jiang Lin raised the letter, its gold seal catching the sunlight. The wall guards relaxed and turned back to watching the perimeter.
Her gaze drifted to the East Gate. The person sent to receive her wasn’t the lecherous middle-aged man she’d been dreading, but an older man she didn’t recognize.
She stepped forward and handed over the letter.
Lin Dehou glanced at the handwriting, a flicker of understanding crossing his face. Then he looked up at Jiang Lin, and his expression shifted, because she was far too thin and small.
Barely 165 cm, with a slight frame that looked like it might blow away in a strong wind.
Noticing the suspicion in his eyes, Jiang Lin said nothing. Instead, a flash of blue light gathered in her hand, and an ice spike shot out with a sharp gust of wind, piercing straight through a withered tree beside them.
A flicker of interest crossed Lin Dehou’s face. “Ice-type ability? That’s rare. No wonder they recruited you.”
Jiang Lin didn’t answer, just gave a slight nod.
Lin Dehou didn’t seem to mind her coldness, he had the easy, overly familiar manner of a friendly older man. Without hesitation he led her inside. “Name’s Lin Dehou. Newly appointed patrol team supervisor.”
Newly appointed? Jiang Lin, still unfamiliar with the base, didn’t press further. As long as he wasn’t that lecherous fat man from before, she had no complaints.
Once inside, something in her eyes finally eased. She had no protective goggles, and though it was already evening, summer nightfall came late, the light still stung. She endured the discomfort and studied the base carefully.