Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ding!!!
The crisp ringing of an alarm sounded. A young man, who was eighteen or nineteen years old, shot up from bed, his eyes flashing open like lightning, making the ordinary young man look as sharp as a sword out of its sheath.
‘A piercing sound like this is enough to attract large numbers of zombies!’ He didn’t have time to curse. He instinctively pressed himself against the wall, nervously and cautiously pushing open the window, then quickly reached for the machete behind him, but the spot he reached for was completely empty…
‘Where’s the knife?’ A hint of nervous confusion flashed in the young man’s eyes, but the next moment, he was completely astonished by the sight before him. Outside the window, there were no enveloping zombies. There was no rotting stench, and there was no dark, wild jungle… The winter sunlight hit his face. Colorful underwear from the neighboring girl’s dorm billowed in the wind. The ringing of bikes heading to different academic buildings lingered in the air.
Shen Chen narrowed his eyes. He was at a loss. After staring at the sight outside the window for a full minute, he finally turned back to the room. There were no zombies, no thick scent of blood. All he saw before him was a small room with melon seeds and ramen on the floor. The disorderly blankets on the four neighboring beds made the room look extremely messy.
‘Is this Room 603 of J University of several years ago…?’ Suddenly, an inconceivable thought rose in his mind, but Shen Chen quickly shook his head unconsciously. After pausing for another half minute, he turned around and returned to his desk, then opened his laptop with trembling hands. His nimble fingers paused noticeably in front of the laptop, then he clumsily pressed down on the keyboard.
With a pleasant melody, the date at the bottom of the laptop screen told him clearly, “Today is February 14, 2116!”
He stared at the date on the computer for a full three minutes, then began gasping for air. If his eyes weren’t lying to him… he had returned to the day… to the start of all the disasters!
Shen Chen took out his phone with trembling hands. He had to confirm his speculation. Looking down at the unfamiliar phone in his trembling hands, Shen Chen dialed a number engraved in his memory with a sense of unease. It was to his family, who he had once lost forever.
His dad’s strong voice came from the speakers. “Hello?” Shen Chen was instantly filled with indescribable mixed feelings. In his previous life, his parents had lost their lives in the beginning of the apocalypse. During the few years Shen Chen had struggled through Doomsday, there hadn’t been a single moment where he hadn’t missed them. And now, the parents he had thought of for years were alive. Even as strong as he was, Shen Chen couldn’t control his emotions.
“Dad…”
“What’s going on, brat? Are you getting bullied at school?” His Dad was always so keen. He immediately sensed something wrong in Shen Chen’s voice. Before he finished his sentence, the phone was quickly taken over, and Mom’s anxious voice came through. “Chen, is school too hard for you?”
Parents are always the ones who care about you most. Shen Chen was incredibly happy that, with his rebirth, he at least had the chance to save his dad and mom’s lives. He calmed himself down, then, after taking a deep breath, his voice took on an anxious tone. “Dad, Mom, I’m all right. I just wanted to tell you that I heard from my friend that a bunch of scoundrels carrying the Ebola virus have fled into our H City. There might be a curfew in the city soon. Don’t go out tonight carelessly. Also, before the city gets closed off, go buy some food and water to store at home. They’ll be hard to buy once they rise in price.”
His mother screamed on the other end of the phone, then she lowered her voice and said, “I’ve been feeling like something is wrong lately. Lots of people have been coughing. Do you think they’re infected?”
Shen Chen was alarmed. Coughing was indeed a preliminary symptom of people infected by the biochemical virus. He didn’t expect Mom to have already noticed.
Shen Chen quickly said, “That’s right, Mom. If you see those people, you must stay away! Also, don’t leave the house. Stay inside the house until I come back to find you guys!”
Shen Chen’s repeated warnings made his mother suddenly very serious. “I understand, I understand. And you, you must be careful on your own in S City!”
Shen Chen answered his mom with a smile, telling her not to worry. He repeatedly warned his parents to follow his instructions, and, after confirming that they would, he hung up the phone. Feeling that his parents believed him without a doubt, Shen Chen let out a sigh of relief.
In his past life, his dad wanted to be romantic with his mom like young people, so they went out for a candlelit dinner on Valentine’s Day. Ever since then, he and his parents had been separated by life and death. Now that he had warned them like this, they wouldn’t go out again and carelessly lose their lives. And H City had the largest human survivors base. As long as his parents could hold out in the beginning, once the military people took over the city, their safety would definitely be guaranteed.
“You are my… little apple…”
Suddenly, the strange yet familiar “Little Apple” interrupted Shen Chen’s thoughts. Shen Chen suddenly came to. He looked at the call. The woman’s name on the screen made him frown. Fang Yi!
Shen Chen slowly picked up the phone and heard a girl’s cold voice from it. “Shen Chen, I’m busy tonight. I won’t be spending Valentine’s Day with you!”
A figure that he had nearly forgotten appeared in his memory… Fang Yi was his girlfriend. She was a freshman in college like him. They had been dating since high school and had been accepted by the same college. On this day in his previous life, he had happily gone to her dorm building to wait for her to spend Valentine’s Day together, but her classmate told him with some regret that Fang Yi had gone to eat dinner with Senior Qian… That was when he found out that the girlfriend he treasured had hurled herself into the arms of a rich second generation senior in school.
The impatient female voice from the phone interrupted Shen Chen’s memories. “Shen Chen, did you hear me?”
A smile appeared on Shen Chen’s lips. Things from his past were like clouds of smoke, but they were still vivid in his mind. He smiled faintly and said, “That bastard Qian Fangxin is with you, isn’t he?”
The rich yet indifferent voice made Fang Yi freeze. The young man next to her was also shocked. “Shen Chen, what are you saying?! How can you be so rude to senior…”
Fang Yi was a little bewildered, but Shen Chen didn’t give her another chance to speak. “Out of the feelings I once had for you, I’ll give you a piece of advice: stay in your dorm alone tonight…”
The indifferent tone rang in their ears. It was especially jarring. Fang Yi and Qian Fangxin were both astonished.
Qian Fangxin grabbed the phone in a frenzy. “What the hell do you mean, Shen Chen?!” But the next moment, his face looked even greener; a busy signal came from the speaker, as if Shen Chen were mocking him.
Fang Yi had an expression of disbelief on her face. Shen Chen had always been soft-spoken and submissive around her. Not only was he cold today, but he even… hung up on her? Fang Yi bit her lower lip…
Shen Chen! He must have learned about her and Qian Fangxin from somewhere and was terrorizing them on purpose.
Shen Chen briskly hung up the phone. He had one day. He had to make every second count. He didn’t have time to babble with his ex-girlfriend. Right now, the three brothers in his dorm were still nowhere to be found. Shen Chen anxiously called all of them, but no one picked up.
He looked at his watch. There were still ten hours before the explosion of the biochemical virus. Shen Chen sighed, then slowly shut the door to the dorm. Almost an hour later, he arrived at the door of a five-star hotel. When the apocalypse arrived, a safe refuge would bring them a lot of convenience. This hotel met Shen Chen’s standards for a refuge. It was in a new district built next to the school. Since the district was recently built, there weren’t many inhabitants. Less than five hundred meters away was a commercial square. In the square was the five-star hotel, and next to it was a large supermarket. A hotel like this was enough for him to survive for as long as two months, and the humans who were still living by that time were the ones who would have survived the first crisis and had the right to continue living on.
When he walked out of the hotel, the balance of the credit card in Shen Chen’s hand had been depleted by a third. He put his room card into his pocket, then he went onto the online mall in his phone, looking for a familiar phone number in the plethora of pages that sold realistic toy knives. His gaze paused on a page with a lion logo. There was a knife drawn on the web page! Black-Bladed Jungle Machete! His old pal, who had been by his side in all his battles in the previous life!
‘In this life, you will follow me on the journey again!’
…
Shen Chen walked into a small, inconspicuous shop. He pointed at the picture of the knife on the website and said to the lazing shop assistant, “I want this knife!”
The girl took a knife out from the cabinets. “Here. One hundred yuan.”
Gazing at the Black-Bladed Jungle Machete toy made of plastic, Shen Chen couldn’t help but smile. “Tell Old Gui to come out. I want to buy this knife!”
The girl’s eyes lit up. She looked Shen Chen up and down, then spoke into her mic. Only loud noises came out of it, and the girl quickly made an apologetic expression. “Sir, our boss isn’t around…”
“Water-drop-shaped blade. Make the front end of the blade wider. This will shift its center of mass forward and make the power it exerts at the front more terrifying when it’s swung. Spring-temper the blade so it’s both hard and resilient, nearly unbreakable…” Shen Chen interrupted her and said with composure. Before he finished, he heard a shout from the handset say, “Please come in.”
Old Gui studied the incredibly calm young man, and for the first time felt a faint pressure. He didn’t expect someone who knew Black Blade so well to be such a young person. What surprised him even more was that this was a gentle and frail-looking young man, but he gave the impression of having climbed out of a mountain of corpses.
Old Gui cleared his throat. “What are you looking for?”
As he observed Shen Chen, Shen Chen observed him. In his past life, he had had encounters with Old Gui. Back then, Old Gui had been leading quite the valiant squad. When the apocalypse came and everyone fought for weapons, this squad had had hundreds of sharp knives.
Shen Chen had been a medium master back then. After the two fought once, they admired each other’s strength. After getting to know each other, Shen Chen had learned that Old Gui used to sell controlled weapons on the internet. Later on, he heard that Old Gui’s squad had been surrounded by zombies… then they had lost contact.
At this time, Old Gui looked much younger, but his strong aura was just like it was before. ‘Old friends who don’t recognize each other. What an interesting situation.’