I’ve Transmigrated.
The two of them hurried out of the supermarket. The area was more like a town, with buildings spaced farther apart than in a big city. The sun was still out. Bullet holes and shell casings littered the ground, while abandoned cars clogged the streets. Dust and sand hung in the gray air. All around them, the only sounds were the wind and distant, indistinct growls. Walkers.
Just as the tall man had predicted, the commotion had drawn in nearby walkers, and there were quite a few of them. The tall man immediately stripped off his bloodstained shirt, baring his back, then held the shirt out in front of him. The mutant’s stench was even worse than a walker’s, enough to churn their stomachs, but at least it masked some of their human scent.
That let them slip safely into an alley. A corpse lay there, its guts and head devoured. Only a few bones remained, barely enough to tell it had once been human. At the far end, the tall man moved aside a barricade, revealing a van parked behind it.
“Get in!”
The tall man kept watch as he quickly found a rag in the van and wiped the blood off himself, then changed into clean clothes. The lingering smell of the insect’s blood had kept his expression dark.
The back seat was piled with junk, leaving just enough room for Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi to squeeze in. The van smelled of old leather and what might have been a fuel leak. The tall man started the engine, making quite a racket.
A walker came straight toward them. The tall man floored the gas, and with a rumble, the van slammed into it. In a flash, all that remained was its head, smashed against the front of the vehicle.
By the time Jiang Ziyao came to, they had already driven a fair distance. The tall man seemed familiar with the area. He steered through narrow passages and took back roads, and after a few turns, they had shaken off the pack of walkers on their tail.
Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi exchanged a look. They were fully aware now that they were in a strange and dangerous world, with walkers and mutants. And in Jiang Ziyao’s hand was a gun with no bullets left.
Huo Chi looked at him. “Brother Jiang, when did you notice there was a monster up there?”
“I caught a glimpse of something. It seemed strange, so I kept an eye on it.”
“Oh…”
Huo Chi didn’t press him, and Jiang Ziyao said no more. He knew Huo Chi wouldn’t doubt what he said.
The text that had suddenly appeared was too bizarre to make sense of. For now, he had no intention of telling anyone else. The “I” in the text seemed to refer to him, like a first-person account that appeared at random. To him, it was like a prophecy.
Because of that text, the tall man had survived, and they had made it to a camp. For the moment, Jiang Ziyao supposed he could consider the text’s appearance a good thing.
The tall man remained silent until the van stopped.
“Stick close to me. Don’t say a word.”
Jiang Ziyao looked at the small buildings in front of them: three flat-roofed houses standing side by side, backed by a mountain with water nearby. Wooden logs had been stacked around the entrance, forming a barrier around the houses, with thick, sharpened stakes planted in it. The first thing he noticed was the person with a gun on the second-floor balcony.
The person on the balcony whistled, and two or three people came out of the house to move the wooden barricade aside.
The tall man got out of the van, and Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi followed right behind him.
A man inspected everything in the bag in the van, his expression sour. “I told you to go find supplies, not bring back two extra mouths without asking.”
“Something came up on the way. It won’t happen again,” the tall man replied. “These two are young and able to work.”
“Do they know how to work? They don’t look like they can do a damn thing. We barely have enough to go around as it is. There’s nothing to feed two more grown men. We’ve been more than patient with you. The boss won’t be happy about this either. Liu Dong, use your head, all right?”
Jiang Ziyao noticed that the man speaking seemed to have some standing here.
He was middle-aged, neither tall nor broad. His tone was hostile, but in a harsh environment where supplies were scarce, such a reaction was only natural.
Jiang Ziyao looked at the middle-aged man, and his head began to ache again.
[—The text: This is our fifteenth day in this city. We can’t go any farther in. Mutants and walkers are swarming back, growing denser and harder to deal with. With the little equipment we have, we plan to cross the highway toll station and head for the next city.
On the seventeenth day, we reached the toll station safely, but the bad news was… it was a nest of low-tier mutants. The place reeked of blood, human blood. A fierce battle had taken place there not long ago. I guessed some other survivors had passed through.
Huo Chi was a great help against the mutants. His ability was even stronger than before. A single blaze burned almost all of them. Wiping them out left both of us exhausted, but someone had beaten us to the gasoline we’d planned to get. Then a car appeared in front of us, and the two men inside invited us along…]
The man and the tall man were at an impasse. The man had his people blocking the entrance. He walked up to the tall man and straightened his hat for him. “Liu Dong, you should think about your son. I don’t mind giving you a couple more bullets. Go sort this out yourself, then come back.”
The tall man didn’t back down. “I’m thinking of the camp, too. We’ve searched the outskirts of the city. If we want to find supplies, we have to go farther in. But walkers aren’t the only things out there anymore, even in the daytime. I ran into a mutant today. It tried to hunt me.”
The word “mutant” seemed to have an effect. The middle-aged man’s expression darkened further.
The tall man continued, “If we want to keep surviving, we need some fresh blood.”
The middle-aged man seemed persuaded. After a moment, he finally relented. “Anyone who comes in here has to follow the rules.”
The tall man nodded. “I’ll teach them.”
“You’re responsible for the people you bring back. You’ll find your own food and supplies.” The middle-aged man’s gaze swept over Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi. He sneered. “Kids, better stick close to your dear old dad.”
At last, the tall man led the two of them inside.
The safe camp was small. Jiang Ziyao took in his surroundings. Each house seemed to have only seven or eight people, with a few simple firearms and some ammunition. Everyone’s eyes were wary and hostile, and even the tall man seemed like a stranger to them.
“I’m Liu Dong,” the tall man suddenly said. “Just call me Old Liu.”
The two introduced themselves in turn. “Jiang Ziyao.”
“Huo Chi.”
Liu Dong nodded. They walked to a quiet room and knocked. “I’m back. Open up.”
The door opened quickly.
“Dad!” The moment it opened, a boy rushed over. He looked about ten and clung to his father, but his smile vanished as soon as he noticed the strangers.
Liu Dong introduced him. “This is my son, Xiaobei.”
Liu Xiaobei glanced at Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi, then rummaged in his bag for a toy and started playing nearby.
The kid was wary of them.
Jiang Ziyao thought for a moment, then pulled out the chocolate he’d found, trying to make friends. “Here.”
Liu Xiaobei didn’t take it. He pretended not to see it and said nothing.
His reaction was a little amusing. Jiang Ziyao smiled. He never took back something he’d offered, so he simply tossed the chocolate by Liu Xiaobei’s feet, then turned away as if he hadn’t noticed.
Liu Xiaobei had already picked up the chocolate and tucked it into his pocket. He moved quickly, his face as calm as if nothing had happened.
Huo Chi saw and leaned close to Jiang Ziyao’s ear to whisper, “This kid’s pretty sharp.”
Liu Dong finished sorting through the things in his bag and asked them, “Where are you two from originally? You look pretty young.”
Jiang Ziyao answered at once. “We’re students at Hongzhong University. I’m a senior, and he’s a junior.”
“So you’re students. How did you end up here?” Liu Dong seemed surprised. His gaze turned appraising. “Guangqin City’s up north. That’s a long way from here.”
Jiang Ziyao paused. “You know Guangqin City?”
Liu Dong looked as if the question had caught him off guard. “I can read a map. And I’m not illiterate.”
“Then what city is this?”
“Hanzhong City.”
Hanzhong City… That was in the south.
Now that he knew, Jiang Ziyao could rule out the possibility that they had crossed into another world. The production date on the chocolate he had picked up earlier was 3906. It seemed that hadn’t been a coincidence.
If this wasn’t a parallel world, then they had somehow ended up in the future. Had the virus broken out one day in 3906? The text said the virus had been spreading for two years, so it should be 3908 now.
Where had the virus originated? They were in Hanzhong City in the south, which should be part of the disaster zone. If the virus had broken out, the CI military would naturally have established protected zones. With the country’s armed forces there, they would surely be safer.
Jiang Ziyao asked, “Are there any places that haven’t fallen? What’s the country doing about this? They’ll get the outbreak under control, right?”
Liu Dong fell silent, which was rare.
He stared at them, then asked, “You really don’t know?”
Jiang Ziyao shook his head. “We don’t.”
Liu Dong gave a dry laugh. “There’s no shortage of strange things in this world. You’re not the only ones like this. Some people get so badly shaken they end up as dazed as you two, though you seem a little better.”
“Wait here… I can’t be bothered to explain it all.”
He acted as if this were nothing unusual. After speaking, he rummaged through a cabinet in the corner, pulled out a newspaper, and handed it to Jiang Ziyao.
The newspaper began: Three years ago, the Institute of Biological Research warned that radiation caused by marine pollution was triggering genetic mutations starting in the ocean. As this worked its way up the food chain, the genetic virus would accumulate in the human body.
Then, on May 12, 3906, the world was turned upside down. A global virus outbreak erupted. Humans became walking corpses and began devouring the living. Order collapsed, along with all human production. The world stopped functioning, and survivors faced even more deadly threats. Changes to the gene chain were not limited to humans. All life was mutating, and once insignificant species were rising to the top of the food chain. The crisis was only getting worse…
Within 24 hours, every living thing began to mutate. Survivors called the mutated humans walkers and the mutated plants and animals mutants. The virus had not broken out in one region alone. It was a global catastrophe, striking everywhere at once. If survivors were infected again, their immune systems would collapse, turning them into their own kind.
This was a newspaper printed five months late. Five months was enough time for the world to change completely.
“Holy shit.” Huo Chi was just as stunned. He immediately looked at Jiang Ziyao. “I remember marine pollution was a pretty popular topic for a while. Was that a year ago, or two?”
“This isn’t the time to talk about that.” Jiang Ziyao turned back to Liu Dong. “I have a question. What about people who’ve just arrived in this world? Can they mutate too?”
Right now, all he wanted to know was whether people who had appeared out of nowhere, like him and Huo Chi, could mutate as well.
Liu Dong frowned. “You mean babies? I saw a woman who was eight months pregnant. Overnight, her baby ate through her organs. The umbilical cord hadn’t even been cut. The baby tore its way out of her belly, and she turned into a walker too.”
He went on, “The virus is everywhere. It’s in our bodies, too. Our immune systems are just keeping it out of our brains.”
Jiang Ziyao’s expression turned grave. That meant he and Huo Chi were still at risk of mutating.
Liu Dong knew the subject was a grim one. “Once you get used to the conditions here, there’s still hope of surviving. There’s a place called [Utopia]. It’s the first safe base maintained by an awakened organization. They say it’s pretty large and accepts ordinary people, too. We’re heading that way, hoping to find out more.”
The newspaper hadn’t mentioned the awakened. Liu Dong said they were an extremely rare group among the survivors. They’d first appeared a year after the outbreak, their genes mutating and granting them special abilities. This was called gene awakening.
An awakened person’s abilities were more useful than guns and ammunition, but Liu Dong knew little about them. The boss of this safe camp, Li Liang, was an awakened himself.
“You can stay here for now, on the condition that you come out with me to look for supplies. We go every other day. It’ll be dangerous out there, so conserve your strength.” Liu Dong gave them a small bag of crackers. “Make do with these for now. We’ll hand out some more food tomorrow after the work’s done.”
The bag on his back had been nearly empty. It seemed most of the food had been taken from it. That was the camp’s rule: people who went out had to hand over 60 percent of what they found. There wasn’t much generosity to it.
Jiang Ziyao and Huo Chi accepted without complaint.
Although food was scarce, the room wasn’t crowded. Once they tidied up the small room, there was just enough space for the two of them.
“Brother Jiang, doesn’t this remind you of ten years ago?” Huo Chi edged closer to Jiang Ziyao. “We were like this ten years ago, too.”
Jiang Ziyao asked, “You’re actually happy about it?”
Huo Chi had been about to offer a few words of comfort, but now he felt guilty. “…”
“No.”
Ten years ago had been the hardest time of their lives. Neither of them had anyone. Jiang Ziyao had been twelve. His parents had died in a car accident when he was eight. The only person who had cared for him, his grandmother, fell gravely ill. Wanting to make sure someone would look after her grandson, she signed the house over to relatives. But once she was gone, no one cared whether he lived or died. They even took the house in town, and he had no choice but to return to his hometown.
Huo Chi’s mother had died, and his father was an alcoholic who beat him. He’d remarried, and Huo Chi was beaten half-dead every day. When Jiang Ziyao met him, he was like a miserable, drenched stray dog.
They scraped by on a little help from their neighbors, working as child laborers while going to school. They’d finally managed to get into university. Who could have imagined the world would turn out like this?
Huo Chi sighed. “All those people cramming for graduate school and civil service exams, trying to land jobs and buy houses, did all that for nothing.”
Jiang Ziyao stared blankly at the ceiling. Huo Chi watched him for a while, then asked, “Brother Jiang, are you hungry? How about eating something?”
“No appetite.” Jiang Ziyao refused. “Bring up food now and all I want to do is throw up.”
“If you threw up now, you couldn’t bring up two ounces of anything.”
Huo Chi sighed. “All right. After everything that happened today, I guess neither of us has much of an appetite. Let’s get some rest. We’ll feel better after some sleep.”
Jiang Ziyao thought that if they could come here, there had to be a way back. But that wasn’t something he needed to worry about right now. He closed his eyes. The two of them lay on the narrow bed, and before long, their breathing had settled into an even rhythm.
In the middle of the night, pain woke Jiang Ziyao. He was so sleepy he didn’t even want to open his eyes, but it felt as if a gash had split him open. It wasn’t a flesh wound; he couldn’t feel one.
The pain had spread to his waist, and he couldn’t move.
Jiang Ziyao rarely got sick. More importantly, he had no idea what was wrong with him. Half-asleep, he heard Huo Chi’s voice. “Brother Jiang, where does it hurt?”
“You’re sweating so much.”
Jiang Ziyao couldn’t explain it. The pain wasn’t severe, but it was constant, leaving him no room to catch his breath. He had no strength in his body, and cold sweat streamed down his face. Something was wrong.
“I’m done for. I think I’m mutating…”
“Don’t say that!” Huo Chi was almost panicked by the words. “That can’t happen!”
He put a hand on Jiang Ziyao’s shoulder and pressed his palm to his forehead, speaking with certainty. “You might have a cold. Your temperature’s a little high, that’s all. It’s nothing serious. You’ll probably be fine by morning.”
“A change in temperature is one of the first signs of mutation, too.” Jiang Ziyao couldn’t help raining on his parade. “We’ve watched enough zombie movies. You should know that.”
“Brother Jiang! Stop scaring me!” Huo Chi panicked. “You’re in great shape. I’m not mutating, so why would you?”
“Keep your voice down.” Jiang Ziyao was almost too weak to speak. “Do you want someone to come in with a gun… and shoot me?”
“I…” Huo Chi choked. “Fine. I won’t say anything. You stop talking too. Will that help?”
When he was nervous, Huo Chi tended to sweat. Jiang Ziyao knew he wasn’t as calm as he seemed. Mutation was impossible to predict.
Jiang Ziyao gritted his teeth. “Move away from me.”
Huo Chi ignored him this time, pressing closer instead.
Jiang Ziyao was too weak to speak. Behind him, Huo Chi took a breath and gently stroked his back. “Brother Jiang, go to sleep.”
He really did fall asleep again, drifting in and out, drenched in sweat until his clothes clung to his back.
Jiang Ziyao didn’t want to wake, but the feeling of suffocation dragged him back to consciousness. It felt like an octopus had wrapped itself around him, squeezing hard. It was uncomfortable.
“Brother Jiang… Brother Jiang…” Huo Chi’s voice came from behind him.
“Why are you calling me like you’re summoning a ghost?” Jiang Ziyao’s head was spinning. Without thinking, he slapped the person behind him. “Don’t hold me so tight. You’re going to strangle me. Let go!”
“Brother Jiang…” Huo Chi said. “But you smell so good. I can’t wait any longer…”
Only then did Jiang Ziyao realize something was wrong. When Huo Chi got affectionate with him, he wasn’t this excited and impatient. And he would never bother him when he was feeling unwell.
The person behind him wasn’t Huo Chi!
He jerked his eyes open, kept his emotions in check, and spoke calmly. “You… let go first.”
There were no lights in the room. The only illumination came from the faint light filtering through the window.
Their intimate position had taken on a different meaning. Jiang Ziyao went stiff, trapped beneath a pair of arms so strong he couldn’t move. Huo Chi had strength to spare, but not this much.
Jiang Ziyao heard that low, buzzing growl again, the sound that came before someone was torn apart. Huo Chi’s head pressed against his shoulder. He laughed in a low voice. “Brother Jiang, do you know how long I’ve waited? How could I possibly let you go?”
“Brother Jiang, I want to eat you while you’re still awake.”
Jiang Ziyao had forgotten that he wasn’t the only one at risk of mutation. He stared blankly as he turned his head, coming face-to-face with a pair of rolled-back eyes, bloodshot and rolling in their sockets. They glared at him, rolling faster and faster, as if they were about to fall out.
Half of Huo Chi’s face had rotted away. His mouth hung open, drool running down his chin as he stared at Jiang Ziyao like a ravenous beast.