Jiang Shengyue pulled up her hood, dashed into the rain, opened the car door, and slid into the driver’s seat.
She turned on her phone’s navigation, set it on the mount, and headed for the gas station four kilometers away!
The high-powered generator she’d bought ran on fuel, and the vehicles she’d prepared needed gas too.
Before the apocalypse, buying fuel privately required special channels.
Unfortunately—she really didn’t have one. She’d have to steal it.
Not only steal, but steal fast!
The chaos had just begun and no one had reacted yet.
If she didn’t grab it now and waited even one more day, the authorities or someone else might take every last drop.
By then, many of her plans would be stranded.
Jiang Shengyue drove steadily along the road, encountering accident scenes every so often, each requiring a detour.
People on the roadside waved, trying to flag down any car still running to give them a ride.
Jiang Shengyue didn’t slow down at all, speeding past and leaving only a spray of splashed water.
Road conditions were still relatively good at this point.
At least there were still a few traffic police and officers on the roads trying to maintain order, but every phone line had already gone dead.
Before long, everyone would realize this disaster was unprecedented, and everyone would be left to f for themselves.
In the few stretches where zombies hadn’t yet appeared, pedestrians stood bewildered in the rain, unable to understand why so many accidents had suddenly occurred.
Many people were fleeing in panic, while some who didn’t know the truth were even standing around watching the spectacle and filming videos.
By the time a zombie with a gaping, bloodthirsty maw lunged out from the side, it was already too late.
People ran wildly through the rain, faces full of terror and despair, with stiff, bloodthirsty monsters shambling behind them.
Umbrellas were snatched by the fierce wind and blown into the distance; a lost shoe lay in the water pooled on the road. Thunder mingled with people’s agonized screams and cries for help—
The apocalypse had begun to reveal itself.
In just 20 minutes, thanks to her excellent driving skills, Jiang Shengyue navigated the terrible road conditions and detours to reach a spot 300 meters from the gas station.
She drove the car up onto the sidewalk at the roadside.
She checked her clothes and the two daggers on her body.
Tied her shoulder-length, layered hair into a half-up high ponytail, put on a large black mask and the raincoat hood, completely covering her face.
Her entire body was hidden in the loose black raincoat.
Once ready, she opened the car door and, seeing no one around, stored the car into her Space.
Good—no people and no cars outside the gas station. Lucky.
Jiang Shengyue approached the several surveillance cameras.
A slender, tough vine extended from her palm, climbing along the wall and winding up to the cameras.
In an instant it swelled! And tightened!
Amid the pattering rain came a few faint cracking sounds—all 5 cameras were destroyed.
Jiang Shengyue continuously ran her Ability, absorbing energy from her surroundings to replenish herself.
She was far more adept at controlling plants than in her previous life.
Every vine she extended felt like a part of her, as sharp and sensitive as antennae exploring the world!
It was a world of difference from the difficult, obstructed feeling of using her Ability before!
Jiang Shengyue sighed inwardly—this felt amazing!
She carefully checked for any cameras she might have missed, destroying every one she found.
The apocalypse had begun, but she still had to be careful. This wasn’t some small supermarket—this was a gas station!
What if, in the future, officials came to collect fuel, found it completely drained, and wanted to check the surveillance footage?
Neither her Space nor her prematurely Awakened Ability could be discovered by anyone.
Her ability to protect herself wasn’t enough—an innocent man is guilty merely for carrying a treasure.
Before she had grown strong, she needed to protect herself to the greatest extent possible.
Her thoughts didn’t slow her movements, and by the time she finished thinking, she had already arrived outside the station house.
The lights inside were still brightly lit. She held her breath and cautiously peeked into the room—
A zombie was buried in a corpse’s belly, gulping it down!
Jiang Shengyue carefully surveyed the interior and confirmed that aside from this zombie, there was no other living, mobile creature.
This zombie had to die!
She was alone, with no one to watch her back.
If she ran into other people or zombies while stealing the oil, plus this one inside, she would very likely be caught between enemies on all sides!
Although her body had recovered a great deal, if not for her Ability, she couldn’t even beat a normal person in a fair fight.
But her Ability could also be depleted and needed time to recover. She had to be cautious, and cautious again!
Jiang Shengyue bent low and crept silently toward the main door. The zombie inside hadn’t noticed her yet.
In the early days of the Apocalypse, they were all Low-Order Zombies like this.
They located humans by smell and sound, moving slowly and stiffly—at their fastest, no quicker than a human jogging.
They were the easiest zombies to deal with.
It was raining heavily with thunder rolling, which nicely interfered with the zombie’s senses.
Jiang Shengyue planned her attack route through the glass door—go!
The moment she moved, she was like a beast suddenly awakened, pouncing on its prey!
As she charged through the door, she threw a seed toward the zombie and channeled energy to make it sprout and grow instantly!
In just two seconds, the seed became a cactus covered in sharp spikes!
Under Jiang Shengyue’s control, it changed from its original upright growth direction into a twisted, winding form, like a monstrous thorned snake coiling around and trapping the zombie’s entire body!
“Roar!”
The zombie sensed the attack and tried to fight back, only to find itself unable to move.
Its brain, devoid of any capacity for thought, couldn’t process the situation. It could only struggle with all its instinct to break free.
Jiang Shengyue looked at the plant she had grown and felt wild joy in her heart—this was her power!
Throwing out that seed had been a spur-of-the-moment idea. She never expected she could grow a plant straight to its full form—she’d thought growing it halfway would be good enough!
Her Ability was drained, leaving her face deathly pale, but the emptiness in her body couldn’t suppress the joy in her heart.
She had only just Awakened, barely qualifying as a Level 1 Awakened. In her past life, she hadn’t reached this level until Tier 3.
Just at the entry-level Tier 1, and the difference was already this obvious—who knew what it would feel like to become a high-tier Awakener?
Only one phrase filled Jiang Shengyue’s mind—limitless potential!
This was the power she had dreamed of in her past life!
She rarely experienced such intense emotional swings.
In her past life, all twenty-five short years of it, she had lived under others’ control—because of her sickly body that never got better, and because of her Ability that was limited at every turn.
In the Apocalypse, without strength there was no voice, no rights.
At this moment, Jiang Shengyue could truly feel it—things really were different!
In this life, she really could walk a completely different path!
Jiang Shengyue’s amber eyes refracted the light, dazzling and brilliant, yet the pupils at their centers had turned an eerie deep crimson.
She was completely unaware of it, the corners of her mouth lifting in a pleased smile.
As her two hands came together, a small chainsaw appeared between them.
The chainsaws of all sizes in her Space had been fully charged over the past few days, just waiting to be used.
Jiang Shengyue started the chainsaw, its buzzing filling the gas station, the sound completely drowned out by the heavy rain.
The blade, glinting coldly, approached the zombie head still writhing in the cactus, bristling with spikes. Within three seconds, the zombie’s head rolled off and tumbled to the wall.
Jiang Shengyue withdrew the energy from the cactus, and the man-high, twisted cactus visibly shrank and withered, until only a palm-sized, wilted remnant lay limply on the zombie’s body.
Jiang Shengyue walked over to the human corpses the zombie had been gnawing on.
The two of them had presumably both been gas station employees.
One had mutated into a zombie, attacked his companion, and treated him as food.
In the end, she also used the chainsaw to cut off the head of the one lying on the ground before shutting it off and putting it away.
It wasn’t that she had a thing for mutilating corpses.
The body was already infected—it was just too badly damaged to tell. What if it still had the capacity to convert into a zombie? Sawing it up too was the safer bet.
Jiang Shengyue took out a towel to protect her hand, wrapped up the small cactus, and stored it in her Space—leaving no trace behind.
She collected all the water, snacks, and other goods for sale inside into her Space.
Just as she was about to rest and recover her Ability, a dim yellow light flickered at the corner of her eye.
Someone was there!