The sky outside had completely changed.
In the early hours of the last day of the month, dark crimson clouds hung overhead like a massive bruise blanketing the heavens. Then the rain began to fall.
It wasn’t ordinary rain.
Each drop carried a faint rusty tint. When it landed on the windowsill, it hissed softly instead of splashing, as though it were some kind of corrosive liquid rather than water.
The air filled with a strange odor, iron and sulfur mixed together. After breathing it for too long, even your throat started to itch.
“What kind of rain is this? Why’s it red?” Li An leaned against the windowsill and stretched out his hand to catch a few drops.
Before he could touch it, Rong Yuxuan grabbed his wrist and yanked him back.
“Don’t touch it. It’s acid rain.”
“Acid rain? How do you know…”
“I watched the weather forecast.”
Rong Yuxuan offered no further explanation.
He shut the window tightly, sealed every gap around the frame with layers of tape, then returned to his computer.
Three monitors glowed in front of him.
The left screen displayed live surveillance feeds.
The right showed route analysis on digital maps.
The center monitor ran a comparison program he had personally written.
“So… who exactly is this friend you’re looking for?” Li An asked as he pulled up the surveillance footage he was responsible for reviewing.
Rong Yuxuan’s fingers paused above the keyboard.
“Someone very important.”
“How important?”
He didn’t answer.
Another batch of comparison results finished processing.
No match.
He pressed Enter and started the next search.
On the first day of the acid rain, the entire dormitory building remained unusually peaceful.
The university had advised everyone to stay indoors if possible, and most students were perfectly happy spending the day gaming or binge-watching dramas.
From time to time, the hallway echoed with the shuffle of slippers or conversations from students calling about food deliveries.
Everything still felt… normal.
On the second day of the acid rain, the food deliveries stopped.
The university cafeteria announced that dine-in service was suspended because of the weather. Students were instructed to collect boxed meals from designated pickup locations instead.
Some students complained in the hallway that the rain smelled disgusting, like rotten eggs.
On the third day, someone posted a short video in the dormitory group chat.
It showed several people running wildly through the rain near the university gate.
They weren’t trying to escape the downpour.
They were chasing and attacking each other.
The footage was blurry, but something about their movements looked deeply unnatural.
Some people in the chat assumed they were drunk.
Others joked that they were filming a short video for social media.
Not long afterward, the clip disappeared.
The person who uploaded it never spoke in the group again.
By the fourth day, strange sounds began mixing with the endless rhythm of the rain outside.
“What was that?”
Li An instinctively looked toward the window.
“Don’t look outside.”
Rong Yuxuan never took his eyes off the screen.
“Keep searching. There’s a surveillance blind spot after the western fork in the road. Check every private security camera around it, stores, residential compounds, gas stations, anything that might have captured the street.”
“You seriously don’t care what’s happening outside…”
“Search.”
Li An glanced at him before silently returning to his keyboard.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Rong Yuxuan’s hand resting beside the keyboard.
His fingertips were trembling.
On the seventh day of the acid rain, late afternoon…
“I found her.”
Rong Yuxuan’s voice was so hoarse it barely came out.
His fingers froze over the keyboard as he stared at a blurry image on the monitor.
Li An leaned closer.
“I know this place. The second and third phases of that housing project were abandoned halfway through construction. Nobody lives there.”
“She’s there.”
Rong Yuxuan took a screenshot, enlarged the image, then saved it to his phone.
He stood up.
For the first time in seven days, his gaze finally left the computer screen.
“Where are you going?”
“To find her.”
The day after the rain finally stopped, the first bite victims began arriving at hospitals.
A horrifying roar echoed from below the dormitory building.
It wasn’t a human sound.
Li An jumped out of his chair in shock.
Rong Yuxuan opened a drawer, pulled out the telescopic steel baton he had prepared days earlier, and handed it over.
“Take it. Aim for the head.”
“What about you?”
Without answering, Rong Yuxuan picked up another baton from the desk, tested its weight in his hand, then clipped it to his waist.
He opened the dormitory door.
A nauseating smell drifted through the hallway.
Blood.
Disinfectant.
And beneath both, the unmistakable stench of decay.
He had barely taken a step toward the stairwell when something lurched around the corner.
A zombie.
It wore a security guard’s uniform. One shoulder epaulet hung crookedly. Its left leg dragged uselessly behind it while the right leg staggered forward.
Its skin was deathly gray.
Its cloudy eyes held no visible pupils.
Its mouth hung open as dark red saliva dripped from the corners of its lips.
Rong Yuxuan raised his right hand.
A blue-white arc of electricity burst from his palm and slammed into the zombie’s chest.
The impact hurled it backward into the wall.
Smoke curled from its twitching body.
But it didn’t die.
The creature slowly pushed itself upright again.
Its uniform had been burned open across the chest, revealing a charred wound leaking thick black blood.
Still, it kept advancing.
Its jaw snapped open and shut as guttural growls squeezed from its ruined throat.
Not strong enough.
Rong Yuxuan frowned.
In his previous life, a single lightning strike would have reduced an ordinary zombie to charcoal.
Now…
It could barely injure one.
After his rebirth, his lightning ability had only recently awakened.
Its energy reserve was small.
Its power was weak.
Its stamina drain was enormous.
One attack was enough to leave his entire right arm numb from fingertips to shoulder, while a dull pressure settled heavily in his chest.
The instant the zombie lunged again, Rong Yuxuan sidestepped.
His steel baton swung sideways with crushing force, smashing into its temple.
The two of them charged out of the dormitory building.
The campus had already descended into complete chaos.
Flames flickered in the distance.
People screamed as they ran across the athletic field.
A barefoot girl wearing pajamas came sprinting from the direction of the library.
She kept looking over her shoulder while she ran.
Her makeup had been washed into streaks by tears streaming down her face.
Two zombies staggered after her only a short distance behind.
Rong Yuxuan lifted his hand once more.
Another bolt of blue-white lightning shot forward.
It struck the leading zombie squarely in the chest.
The creature convulsed violently before collapsing to the ground.
Rong Yuxuan rushed forward and smashed its temple twice with his baton to finish it off.
The second zombie was already upon them.
Li An stepped in and swung his baton directly into its skull.
One strike.
Then another.
Then a third.
Only then did it finally collapse.
The young woman fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably.
Rong Yuxuan didn’t stop to help her up.
He simply said, “Run toward the gymnasium. It’s still relatively safe over there.”
Then he turned around and continued walking.
Li An hurried after him.
“We’re not taking her with us?”
“If we bring her, we’ll only slow ourselves down. If someone nearby needs help, I’ll save them when I can. But I can’t save everyone, and I can’t take them all with me.”
Rong Yuxuan spotted two unlocked shared bicycles.
He tossed one to Li An before mounting the other.
“Right now, nothing matters except finding her.”
The two of them pedaled through the university gates and headed into the city beyond.