Skeptical, Yue Suran walked over to the window. But the moment she pulled back the curtain, the scene outside struck her mute with shock.
The normally bustling residential complex was dead silent.
Scattered belongings littered the ground in all directions. Through the glass, she could see a huge splash of blood dried onto the neighbor’s wall. She couldn’t tell if it belonged to an animal or… someone else.
At the sight, a dark, terrible premonition welled up in her chest.
Just as Yue Suran was about to pull her head back in, her heart pounding with unease, a slow-moving figure appeared in the opposite window.
Because the occupants across the way hadn’t drawn their curtains, Yue Suran clearly caught sight of the figure’s face.
It was utterly disfigured, with hardly a patch of intact skin left on it. More terrifyingly, the creature seemed to be holding a human arm, gnawing on it ravenously!
“Urgh—!”
Yue Suran didn’t know whether she was overwhelmed by sheer disgust or frozen in terror. Dropping the curtain, she bolted straight to the bathroom and began vomiting wildly into the toilet.
Because she fled so quickly, she failed to notice that the creature—the zombie—was staring right toward her window with a pair of dull, blood-red eyes.
It maintained its motionless gaze for five or six agonizing minutes before dropping its head back down to resume chewing.
Inside the apartment, Xiao-Ou felt a fresh wave of panic watching its host react this way.
“Host, how can you go on like this? You’ve barely laid eyes on a zombie and you’re already reacting like this—let alone actually fighting them!”
“You call that thing a zombie?!”
Yue Suran had barely managed to gather her senses when Xiao-Ou’s reminder brought the gruesome image flashing right back into her mind. Hugging the toilet bowl, she dry-heaved again until she was throwing up pure stomach acid.
“Yes! Host, you only have three days left. Are you really going to be able to smash ten zombie heads? Little Xiao-Ou is getting very, very worried.”
Xiao-Ou tried its absolute hardest to persuade Yue Suran to head outside and tackle the zombies, yet it couldn’t help feeling that if she went out in this state, she’d literally just be delivering a free meal to their doorstep.
It found itself thoroughly stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Don’t speak… let me catch my breath…”
Once Yue Suran managed to compose herself, she reached up and pressed the flush button. Noticing the bowl hadn’t cleared completely, she tried pressing it a second time—only to find the tank was out of water.
What’s going on? Has the water supply been cut off already?
Only then did she remember her smartphone. The second she unlocked the screen, an overwhelming flood of news and emergency posts about the apocalypse exploded across the internet.
People were posting frantic updates everywhere:
Someone please save me! I’ve locked myself in my room and I’m too terrified to go out!
I’m starving to death… There’s no food left at home!
When is rescue coming? I can’t hold out much longer!
Hahaha, I just discovered I have super powers!
Reading through the posts, Yue Suran remained half-believing and half-doubting. I literally just took a nap. How did the entire world change by the time I woke up?
Refusing to accept it, she trotted back over to the window and poked her head out to inspect the situation once more.
The moment her head cleared the frame, a guttural rasping noise—“Hoo… hoo…”—sounded right beside her ear.
Driven by pure instinct, she whipped her head toward the source of the sound.
That single glance nearly cost her life.
A zombie with only half a head left was hanging nearby, reaching out toward her with clawing fingers. If she had leaned out just another meter, she would have met her untimely end right then and there.
Yue Suran yanked her head back inside with such violent force that she lost her footing and tumbled onto the floor.
Clutching her chest, her heart hammered against her ribs in sheer terror. That was way too close! How on earth is there a zombie dangling up there?!
Seeing that the creature was on the verge of falling through, Yue Suran didn’t have time to process her fear. Summoning every ounce of her adrenaline, she scrambled to her feet, slammed the window shut, and pulled the curtains tight.
The entire sequence was executed in one smooth, breathless motion, without a single wasted movement—as if delaying for even a fraction of a second would be a fatal mistake.
“It’s useless. That zombie probably fell from upstairs, lured down by the living scent on you.”
After teasing Yue Suran for her self-deceptive ostrich behavior, Xiao-Ou dutifully offered a reminder.
“I don’t smell like anything!”
Yue Suran raised her arm and gave herself a sniff. There wasn’t any weird odor on her—where was this supposed “scent” coming from?
The mere thought of a zombie dangling outside her window, hungrily eyeing her, made her want to burst into tears.
“Wait, what am I supposed to do about that thing?! It’s just hanging right outside! I’m terrified it’s going to break in at any moment!”
“Isn’t this literally a free kill delivered straight to your door? Of course you smash its head in and complete your task!”
Xiao-Ou was almost dying of exasperation at Yue Suran’s cluelessness. Why is she still asking what to do? Isn’t it completely obvious?!
The mission was what mattered! At a time like this, any sensible person would grab a weapon and fight back.
“I… I don’t dare! How about you go instead?”
Yue Suran swallowed hard, her eyes glued to the shadow on the window curtain.
Forget it. She didn’t even have the heart to kill a live fish normally. Facing a zombie was a whole different level of nightmare; just looking at it made her knees weak.
“Little Xiao-Ou is just a system host. I have zero combat capabilities, so please find a way to resolve this yourself.”
Xiao-Ou wished it could pry open Yue Suran’s head to see what was stuffed inside—how could anyone be this cowardly?
Wait, no… It was literally inside her head right now, so prying it open was definitely out of the question. Opening it up meant game over, and it still wanted to go back to its home dimension.
“Then what should I do? I haven’t eaten in forever… How about I fill my stomach first?”
Yue Suran had only asked on a whim, but the truth was she genuinely lacked the courage.
Realizing the system was completely useless in a fight, she rubbed her loudly rumbling stomach and decided that eating took priority. If she failed to defeat the zombie and ended up turned, at least she’d become a zombie with a full belly.
Before sitting down to eat, she hauled her apartment’s only decorative display cabinet over to block the window. She needed an extra layer of insurance just in case the creature shattered the glass while her mouth was full.
Fortunately, as a hardcore shut-in, she had stocked up on a massive hoard of food and drinks just two days prior. For now, she didn’t have to worry about starving.
Yue Suran grabbed a bucket of instant noodles and went to heat up some water—only to discover that the electricity was out as well.
It seemed the situation outside was even more dire than she had imagined.
Recalling the frantic news posts and zombie video clips she had glimpsed on her phone earlier, the reality finally sank in. If I want to stay alive, I can only rely on myself.
Munching on the dry noodle block washed down with bottled water, she pondered how to deal with the unwanted guest dangling outside.
There weren’t many useful tools around the house. The longest object she owned was an extendable clothes-drying pole.
Was she really going to engage in a life-or-death battle with a zombie using a laundry pole?
No, no! That’s way too risky! One wrong move and I’ll be reporting directly to the Underworld.
But besides a drying pole, what else could keep her at a safe distance while still letting her finish off the monster?
By the time she finished eating the noodle block, she still hadn’t come up with anything that satisfied both criteria.
Setting her empty wrapper aside, Yue Suran laid out the drying pole and a heavy kitchen cleaver side by side on the floor, staring down at them in a bind.
What if I tie them together?
Will that actually work? What if the blade comes loose halfway through?
After weighing her options back and forth, she decided to give the makeshift spear a shot. She didn’t have much of a choice anyway—the zombie was already thumping against the window pane. If it shattered the glass and tumbled inside, she would be completely cornered.
At that thought, Yue Suran quickly dug out a bundle of heavy rope. Wrapping it around and around in crisscross loops, she bound the kitchen cleaver firmly to the tip of the pole.
Listening to the banging outside growing louder and more frantic by the second, Yue Suran took several deep, steadying breaths.
Summoning every ounce of her courage, she stepped up to the window, pushed the display cabinet aside, gripped her makeshift spear tightly with one hand, and reached out with a trembling hand to pull back the curtain.