Sunlight streamed through the window into the room, illuminating it brightly. A young man lay asleep on a large double bed, apparently having a nightmare.
His brows were tightly furrowed, and his handsome face was covered in sweat. Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide, sat bolt upright, and began gasping for breath.
“This place... Why does it look so much like the apartment I used to rent?” Yun Qing murmured as he stared blankly at the furnishings.
“No, wait. Sunlight? How can there be sunlight?” Yun Qing flipped out of bed and looked outside through the window.
People came and went throughout the residential complex. The uncles and aunties returning from grocery shopping were still cheerfully greeting one another. In the exercise area not far away, adults were playing with their children. Everything was so peaceful and beautiful.
Yun Qing hurried to the bedside table, where his phone was lying. When he turned it on and checked the date, he discovered that it was one month before the Apocalypse.
“So I’ve been reborn? Do I have to experience the Apocalypse all over again? Why?” Yun Qing said bitterly. He would rather die than experience that man-eating Apocalypse again.
Suddenly, a wave of pain struck his head, and the agony caused him to faint.
After an unknown amount of time, Yun Qing finally opened his eyes. The confusion had vanished from them, replaced by determination and fury.
A plot suddenly appeared in his mind. This was a post-apocalyptic world. The overdevelopment of resources had caused frequent natural disasters and rampant epidemics. Finally, one day, the planet exceeded its limits and the Apocalypse arrived.
After a thunderstorm, humanity split into three types: Zombies, ordinary humans, and ability users.
Ability users accounted for less than ten percent of the population, while ordinary humans made up a little over twenty percent. The remaining seventy percent became Zombies that knew only how to eat people. They had no senses, never tired, and knew only how to devour humans.
Humans bitten by Zombies would likewise become Zombies. As the Zombie army continued to expand, the world descended into panic.
The system collapsed, morality was lost, and people struggled to survive in this Apocalypse.
It was not only humanity that underwent tremendous changes, but also the animals, plants, water sources, and land.
Mutated Animals grew larger and their ancestral bloodlines reemerged. They would kill Zombies, but they would kill humans as well.
Mutated Plants, meanwhile, took many forms. Those that had originally been harmless became violently poisonous, while edible plants became killing weapons.
The water sources were polluted, and the land could no longer be farmed. Even the sun grew dim, leaving the sky a hazy gray.
The official ability users who were among the first to undergo Awakening established Bases one after another, sheltering survivors. A few ability users became petty emperors, exploiting ordinary people, surrounding themselves with lovers, and enjoying every pleasure.
Where there was a plot, there were male and female protagonists, male and female supporting characters, and Cannon Fodder.
The male protagonist Shen Lian was a second-generation rich heir from H City and one of the earliest people to awaken a supernatural ability. He awakened a powerful Lightning-Element Ability. At the beginning of the Apocalypse, he led his brothers in establishing a survivor Base, killing Zombies, Mutated Beasts, and Mutated Plants, and creating a Safe Zone for the survivors.
He was also fortunate enough to meet his partner, Zhou Yao, a woman with both a healing ability and a Spatial Ability. They supported each other and worked together. After killing the Zombie Emperor, they brought the Apocalypse to an end, restored the system and production, and became universally revered heroes.
Anyone would consider this a positive and uplifting plot. If Yun Qing had not been Cannon Fodder, he would have been unable to stop himself from applauding them. Unfortunately, he was Cannon Fodder—and the kind of Cannon Fodder who supplied resources to others.
“So I’ve actually been living in a world derived from a novel, and I’m Cannon Fodder—a resource provider for the female protagonist’s growth? Why? Isn’t a Cannon Fodder’s life still a life? Why should I be destined to serve as the protagonists’ stepping stone? Why should I be destined to die young?
“Even if this is a novel world, so what? The people I’ve encountered are all living, breathing human beings with flesh, blood, and emotions. Who decided who the protagonists are?”
Yun Qing thought angrily about this, then suddenly remembered the resource he had provided to the female protagonist: a dark-green Jade Token he had worn since childhood. At that moment, it was still hanging around his neck.
His grandmother had put this Jade Token on him when he was young, and it had never left him for more than twenty years. The female protagonist was his blind-date partner. When they were about to discuss marriage, she said that exchanging a token of affection would show sincerity. Thus, the Jade Token ended up in her hands. Then the Apocalypse arrived, and the marriage was abandoned.
Later, the female protagonist inadvertently opened the Space inside the Jade Token, allowing her to stockpile vast quantities of supplies at the beginning of the Apocalypse. Afterward, she relied on those supplies to thrive.
Although Yun Qing himself also awakened a mental ability, its growth was too slow. He lived for only one year before perishing in the zombie horde.
Yun Qing rubbed the Jade Token against his chest, recalling the memories of his previous life. At this point, he and the female protagonist Zhou Yao already knew each other, and they would soon reach the stage of discussing marriage. He did not want to assume the worst about people, but the more he thought about this matter, the stranger it seemed.
The plot said that the female protagonist Zhou Yao had accidentally dripped blood onto the Jade Token, thereby unlocking the seal on the Space. Yun Qing found this rather unreliable. If her blood could open it, then could someone else’s blood open it as well?
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed his mental power. Of course, he preferred to call it divine sense. After being reborn, his supernatural ability operated on the Soul. In theory, it should have returned with him as well.
Sure enough, he could “see” the uncle next door drinking tea and the auntie selecting vegetables. He could even “hear” her scolding the uncle for doing nothing all day and making her handle everything by herself.
Yun Qing withdrew his divine sense. His Esper Level was only Level One, with a detection range of twenty meters. Apart from investigating his surroundings, he could do nothing else.
He extended his divine sense into the Jade Token and carefully sensed the world of Space within it.
Suddenly, a shimmer flashed across the Jade Token. A luminous white speck entered his brow, while the Jade Token in his hand lost its radiance.
Yun Qing hurriedly got up and drew the curtains. He “looked” at the luminous speck that had appeared in his mind, and then his entire body vanished from the room.
The sudden change of scenery left Yun Qing stunned. What entered his view looked like a beautiful landscape painting.
The mountains were dark as ink, encircling the land on all sides. The distant peaks held a touch of emerald, while the nearer ridges overlapped in deep green. Their undulating contours appeared and disappeared amid the mist, like an unfinished ink wash painting.
At the foot of the mountains stretched fertile fields, their black soil rich and soft as cotton.
A clear stream wound down from the mountaintop. Its water shimmered with a crisp, cool clarity. At a gentle slope, it suddenly turned, carving a bright, gleaming fissure through the land, before ultimately forming a river that flowed into the lake at the center.
At the source of the clear stream was a spirit spring. The spring pool was no more than ten feet across, yet a layer of white mist floated over its surface, as though veiled by a thin gauze.
Beside the spirit spring stood a small siheyuan courtyard. It had three rooms in the main room and two side rooms on either side, with three rooms in each of the East and West Wing Rooms. At present, it was completely empty.
Yun Qing stared blankly at the sight and thought: The plot never mentioned any of this. It only said that the Jade Token contained a Space capable of holding countless things, with time frozen inside so that nothing would ever expire. It never said anything about mountains, land, or a spirit spring.
Forget it. No matter what else had appeared, it was ultimately a good thing—especially that spirit spring. He could already sense how extraordinary it was.