The siren blared across the sky, and dark clouds loomed heavily overhead. Although it was only two o’clock in the afternoon, the sky was as dark as midnight. Rain and hail fell down together, wrecking the temporary rescue stations set up along the streets in less than two minutes.
People swarmed toward the entrance of the shelter, their cries, screams, and the wailing of sirens blending together with the faint roars of mutated monsters echoing from the distance. Paired with this scenery, calling it a living hell would not be an exaggeration at all.
A young man stood atop the military base, lowering his gaze to overlook the chaotic scene downstairs. Even as the hailstones pelted against him, he remained entirely unmoved. The roars of the mutated monsters grew closer and closer. The young man slowly raised his head, his striking blue eyes fixed on the dark shadows hidden within the clouds, filled with pure rage.
A massive crowd came rushing up from behind. The moment they caught sight of the young man, they immediately dropped to one knee, lowering their heads slightly to demonstrate their utmost respect.
“Commander, the border guards can no longer hold out! A massive wave of monsters has flooded into our territory. With battles breaking out constantly lately, our military has suffered heavy losses. If we weren’t at our absolute limit, we would never dare to disturb you. Therefore… we humbly request the Commander to lead the expedition!”
“We request the Commander to lead the expedition!”
The young man turned around, his thin lips parting slightly as he calmly uttered two words: “Let’s go.”
Those two words alone reignited their hope. They clustered around the young man, following him all the way back to the staging area.
Xia Zeyu’s exclusive launching platform lit up after a long hiatus. Standing right in the center, he simply closed his eyes, and a dazzling blue light instantly enveloped his entire body. When the glow faded, he was already clad in silver-gray armor, with black wings unfurling behind him, casting a massive shadow that swallowed half the light inside the room.
Before the skylight had even opened two-thirds of the way, Xia Zeyu raised his head. Less than a second later, he soared upward at an incredible speed, spreading his wings mid-air. The motion unleashed a powerful ring of wind that dispersed in all directions a force strong enough to sweep away the dark clouds, turning the sky clear blue within a radius of a hundred miles around him.
High in the sky, giant bloodthirsty winged worms opened their mouths, revealing rows of dense, razor-sharp teeth resembling meat-grinding torture devices. Their maws looked like bottomless black abysses, as if anything coming even slightly close would be completely devoured.
Counting roughly, there were over nine thousand of them, mere child’s play.
Xia Zeyu raised his hand, and a long sword materialized out of thin air in his grip. The blade was wreathed in a dense blue mist that, upon closer inspection, coiled around the sword like a living dragon.
Raising the sword, Xia Zeyu hurled a wave of sword qi across a distance of several hundred meters. The shockwave surged toward the monsters accompanied by a howling gale, colliding with them in under three seconds. Intense explosions intertwined with the shrieks of the monsters, staining the falling rain a dark, bloody red as chunks of monster flesh rained down from the sky.
How wonderful; he’d get to eat meat tonight again.
Though they were undeniably ugly, at least a third of their bodies were edible. In the apocalypse, getting to eat a proper piece of meat was no easy feat.
A faint smile touched the corner of Xia Zeyu’s lips before he dashed rapidly into the thick of the monster horde, raising his sword to begin a brutal slaughter.
Blue brilliance flashed across the heavens, illuminating the gloomy sky and scattering the layers of dark clouds.
Seeing that only a handful of monsters remained, Xia Zeyu decided to deliver a magnificent finale.
He lifted his sword, pouring massive amounts of energy into it. A colossal blue dragon materialized out of thin air, flying over to coil around him. Sensing the perfect timing, he unleashed this overwhelming torrent of energy directly toward the remaining monsters.
With a deafening “boom,” blinding white light instantly flooded the entire world, stinging Xia Zeyu’s eyes so sharply that he couldn’t keep them open, while a flatlining, electrocardiogram-like sound echoed inside his ears.
This wasn’t right.
Xia Zeyu endured the discomfort and forced his eyes open. After adapting to the eerie white light, he discovered that his surroundings had turned entirely white. Aside from him, there was nothing at all even the armor on his body was gradually disintegrating bit by bit.
“What is going on…”
In his twenty years of life, this was the first time he felt genuine panic.
No one answered him, save for a sudden fracture that tore open right before his eyes at terrifying speed.
He tried to attack, only to find that he could do nothing at all.
[A massive bug has occurred in this world. The cause cannot be temporarily verified. The system will immediately transport the main character to a safe zone.]
“Who’s there?!”
The electronic voice that materialized out of thin air offered no reply. Before he could ask any further, a powerful suction force erupted from the fissure, sucking him completely inside.
Followed immediately by a dizzying spin, Xia Zeyu felt his body drain of all strength as he passed out cold.
Pain…
His brain felt as though it were being ripped apart…
The utter exhaustion in his body made Xia Zeyu wonder if he had been starved for ten days straight.
Slowly opening his eyes, Xia Zeyu was met with persistent gloom.
The difference, however, was that the ground beneath him had a solid texture; he was no longer in a floating state.
He tried to prop himself up, but a sharp stinging sensation flared in his fingers. Looking down, he saw that all ten of his fingers were wrapped in gauze, which was already seeping with blood.
His fingernails had been forcefully ripped off.
Closing his eyes, a warm surge of energy flowed into his fingertips, and he could feel the wounds slowly healing.
Fortunately, his abilities were still intact.
Even so, he felt that something was horribly wrong with his body—it felt as foreign and uncomfortable as if it didn’t belong to him at all.
Xia Zeyu sat up, the sound of clinking metal ringing beside him. Following the noise, he discovered a metal chain tethered around his ankle.
The last person who had dared treat him this way had their ashes scattered to the winds. Just who was bold enough?
However… these pale, delicate feet didn’t look like his own no matter how he looked at them.
With a flick of Xia Zeyu’s hand, a mirror materialized before him. When he caught sight of his reflection, he froze.
Whose pretty-boy face is this?
Where are my mixed-race blue eyes? Where are my chiseled, sculptural facial features? Where is my sturdy physique?
He hurriedly stood up, gesturing against his body in disbelief. The shock deepened: how had his height shrunk, too? Where are my long legs and my 188-centimeter stature?!
No way with this puny, pretty-boy build, how is anyone supposed to survive in this world?
Xia Zeyu slowly sank back down to the ground, feeling somewhat dazed.
If the heavens were unhappy with him, they could have just killed him directly instead of turning his body into this state. If the people outside ever found out that the God of War had been reduced to this, he couldn’t even imagine what kind of ordeal he would face.
Feeling parched, he looked around for something to drink, only to discover a stainless steel bowl on the floor containing half a bowl of thin gruel.
Lifting it up to sniff, he found it spoiled, with several small, wriggling worms writhing inside the porridge.
If the rations in an apocalyptic prison were this wretched, those inmates would have staged a riot long ago.
Thus, Xia Zeyu tossed the bowl aside, slashed open a blue tear with his finger, and reached inside to rummage around. Thankfully, there were still some food supplies left.
After eating a bit of nutrient supplement and dried meat, his physical condition improved significantly.
Now that he wasn’t hungry and his mind was clearer, he could finally sort through his thoughts.
Xia Zeyu crossed his legs into a meditative posture and closed his eyes to gather his wits. Before he could figure things out, the door at the top of the stairs not far away was kicked open, and dust mixed with a stale, moldy stench rushed toward him.
He was forced to open his eyes. Two men were walking down, one tall in stature, and the other roughly comparable to his current build.
If not for his exceptional night vision, he wouldn’t even have been able to make out what these two looked like in this dump.
The taller man was reasonably handsome, while the shorter one possessed soft, gentle, pretty-boy features that bore a seven-to-eight-part resemblance to the face he currently wore.
The tall man spoke, his tone dripping with threat: “Xia Zeyu, do you know you were wrong? It’s still not too late to apologize to Tang Tang right now.”
He knows who I am?
Xia Zeyu narrowed his eyes and asked sharply in return, “What did I do wrong? It’s you, where did you get the gall to lock me up in this place!”
The man was slightly taken aback, feeling it utterly absurd once he processed the words: “You dare talk to me like this?”
“Do you know the consequences of doing this?” Xia Zeyu sneered. “Even if my body has been reduced to this state, crushing you to death is as easy as squashing an ant. I advise you to look out for your own skin.”
“Zeyu, have you lost your mind from hunger?” the man named Tang Tang asked with feigned concern. “If you really don’t want to apologize to me, I’ll forgive you anyway. After all, I can’t bear to watch you suffer.”
“Tang Tang, you are truly too kind,” the other man said irritably. “It’s precisely because you’re so forgiving that he dares to walk all over you.”
“Sigh… I used to just be his substitute, anyway. It’s normal for him to look down on me.”
“No, that’s not true! From beginning to end, the only person I’ve ever loved is you!”
What substitute? Do these two know shadow clone jutsus, too? Yet he didn’t sense any aura of specialized humans from them; no matter how he looked at it, they were just ordinary human beings.
“Shen-ge, I’m fine… He only pushed me down the stairs because he loved you too much and was too jealous of me, right?”
The man addressed as Shen-ge glared fiercely at Xia Zeyu and chided, “Right now, get down on your knees immediately and apologize to Tang Tang!”
Acting as though he hadn’t heard a word, Xia Zeyu looked him up and down, as if laying eyes on some bizarre new species.
For some reason, the man felt a chill run down his spine, but he kept his tone rigid: “What are you looking at?”
“You don’t recognize me?” Xia Zeyu asked. “No, wait… let me rephrase that. Do you not know my ability rank?”
“Do you think you can play dumb to get out of this? Are you going to kneel yourself, or do you want me to force you to your knees? Choose.”
Xia Zeyu rolled his eyes, too lazy to speak any further. He felt that his thought process and this man’s were entirely on different wavelengths one talking about east while the other talked about west, making zero sense. Rather than arguing with him here, it would be better to go outside and assess the situation.
However, the man misinterpreted his eye-roll. Enraged further, he strode forward, raised his foot, and lashed out to kick Xia Zeyu directly in the chest.
Xia Zeyu reacted with lightning speed. He raised his hand, cleaved through the iron chain beside his ankle with a single palm strike, and quickly sprang to his feet, retreating a short distance.
The man froze. Anyone would have frozen, because Xia Zeyu’s entire sequence of movements took less than two seconds.
By the time he recovered his senses, he realized the iron chains had been smashed apart by Xia Zeyu barehanded.
“You…” The man’s lips trembled slightly, as if looking at a monster.
Xia Zeyu remained calm and collected, lifting his chin slightly with a somewhat arrogant posture.
“I generally don’t attack ordinary humans. After all, you ordinary folks make up only 15% of the global population, and we specialized humans have a duty to protect you. However,” Xia Zeyu changed his tone, his gaze turning sharp, “that doesn’t mean you can run amok just because you’re under protection. Breaking the law will still incur punishment.”
“What?” The man was still somewhat dazed.
“Illegal detention and administering corporal punishment ten-year minimum sentence.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Xia Zeyu rushed forward, raised his hand, and delivered a direct punch straight to the man’s cheek.
He used only 30% of his strength for this punch, yet a sturdy, muscular adult male standing over 1.8 meters tall was sent flying by the force. The man didn’t stop until his back slammed heavily against the wall, after which he collapsed to the ground. His body convulsed slightly from the physiological shock before he passed out cold, foaming at the mouth.
Flying three meters away was the structural limit of this basement, not the limit of Xia Zeyu’s fists.