Chapter 1: Crispy Salt and Pepper King Oyster Mushrooms

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It was a gray, overcast day, and the city was besieged by the undead.

Su Su fell into death with her eyes wide open, countless blue-purple arms surging toward her. The fastest of the zombies tore into her flesh with vicious greed. In the final moment of her life, she heard only a familiar, gentle sigh.

"The apocalypse has no place for the weak."

A pair of powerful sixth-tier lovers stood atop a nearby wall, gazing at the explosion of blood with a look of pity.

The handsome man shook his head. "This is what comes of overestimating oneself."

The couple, celebrated and fawned over by the base, tossed their insignificant sigh aside and turned to fight side by side.

At last, the zombie tide withdrew.

Cheers erupted across the base.

Standing on the wall, the beautiful man and woman were drenched in blood. Suddenly, they shared a smile.

Victory was their crown; death, a mere backdrop.

…

…

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a dimly lit convenience store.

Chaos reigned all around, and her pale, delicate palm clutched two small packs of dust-covered dried bean curd.

Su Su blinked painfully, just able to see—they were pickled pepper flavor, already expired by a month.

"Hand them over!"

A rough arm reached out and snatched the only two packs of pickled pepper bean curd from her hands.

Wu Zhi tossed the snacks in his hand, dissatisfied but accepting. "You’re so tiny, but pretty useful when it comes to searching for things."

His filthy gaze swept up and down Su Su, his tongue flicking across his lips as a fire surged inside him. But with everyone still gathering supplies, he simply cast a few lingering, lecherous glances.

"Letting you eat them would be a waste. Better to offer them to me."

Su Su didn’t react. She was still reeling from death, staring blankly as Wu Zhi strode off with her food.

She had died.

And now, she lived again.

This scene—she remembered it. It was four years ago, before she had reached the Southern Base, when she was still traveling south with the group.

"Nothing left! Get in the car, quick!"

At the shout, those scavenging supplies in the area rushed outside, afraid of being left behind in this godforsaken service area.

After surviving four years in the apocalypse, the instinct to escape drove Su Su to follow the others and scramble into a crowded minivan.

"Did you find anything?" someone whispered nearby. The person questioned clutched their pocket tightly and shook their head bitterly.

"Nothing. This place must have been scavenged hundreds of times."

The familiar scene and dialogue finally made it all real for Su Su.

Not only had she avoided being bitten to death by zombies, she was back four years in the past.

It should have been a stroke of great luck, yet Su Su clenched her teeth, her wide eyes brimming with tears that slipped out unconsciously.

"Su Su, what about you? Did you find anything?"

Someone bumped into her, peering over to find her weeping.

"Why are you crying? What happened?"

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That single question made everyone in the van turn to look at her. Those who had witnessed the scene in the convenience store explained quietly.

"She found some food, but Wu Zhi took it from her again."

A hush fell over the van. After a moment, someone muttered under their breath.

"Bastard."

It had only been half a year since the apocalypse began. People still had some sympathy left. By the fourth year, having your food stolen would simply be seen as what you deserved.

Su Su wiped her tears away and spoke her first words since returning to life.

"I'm fine."

Her voice was soft and gentle, just like her. One glance was enough to see—she was easy to bully.

She was beautiful, too. Even wrapped in filthy rags, her loveliness shone through.

No wonder Wu Zhi singled her out along the way.

"This can't go on. You might as well give in to Wu Zhi," the woman driving suddenly said. "He may be ugly, but at least he’s a second-tier strength user—the rarest in our group."

Su Su remained silent, and the others held their tongues as well.

The woman glanced at Su Su in the rearview mirror, her words pointed. "You’re refusing him now, but he’ll get his way eventually. Better to spare yourself the suffering."

There were eight women crammed in the van. Some agreed, some did not.

"We can't eat dignity."

"Maybe, but Wu Zhi is just…"

It all came down to Wu Zhi being an uneducated thug—ugly, foul-tempered, hardly the kind of man anyone wanted to rely on.

But he had set his sights on Su Su, and with so few second-tier users in the group, no one dared to compete with him.

Su Su listened numbly to their advice.

In her previous life, the driver’s words proved true all too soon.

That very night, when the group stopped to rest, Wu Zhi dragged her into the forest before everyone’s eyes.

Was this the purpose of being reborn? To endure it all again?

Su Su’s body began to tremble. She remembered that night in the woods—when she smashed a stone against the back of Wu Zhi’s head. He slapped her repeatedly until she couldn’t move.

It was the only time luck ever favored her. Wu Zhi, maddened by lust and off guard, was bitten in the thigh by a venomous snake.

After his screams died away, Wu Zhi was dead.

She was finally free, but life did not become any easier. The group, now missing a powerful fighter, showed her nothing but cold faces from then on…

Why hadn’t she just died in the tide of zombies and been done with it?

Su Su slowly hugged herself, her beautiful eyes filled with emptiness. There was no joy at being reborn—only layer upon layer of despair and fear.

As dusk fell, the lead SUV finally stopped. Several ability users climbed out and headed into the woods by the highway barrier to relieve themselves.

"Let’s rest here for the night."

"Those following behind, stay put. If you get into trouble or fall behind, we’re not going to waste energy looking for you."

The cold warning swept through the group, spoken by the only female ability user besides the driver—Lin Weiran.

"If I awakened a fire ability like her, would life be easier?" someone beside Su Su murmured.

It was once Su Su’s own thought.

But now, she felt nothing at all—like a walking corpse.

Lin Weiran leapt from the car roof, her teammates shaking their heads helplessly.

"Weiran, why do you even bother with them?"

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"A bunch of ordinary people without abilities will just die in a horde of zombies sooner or later. If they wander off, at least we won’t have such a big tail behind us."

"Exactly. We’re not their bodyguards. Are we supposed to escort them all the way to the Southern Base?"

Si Zhe, who had been silent, spoke up. "Enough. Weiran just has a kind heart. If they want to follow, let them. If there’s danger, they know to run. We don’t have to worry so much."

The leader had spoken, so the others quieted their complaints. Lin Weiran shot Si Zhe a coquettish glance, knowing he was defusing the situation for her.

That glance was full of allure.

Si Zhe’s Adam’s apple bobbed. "Let’s eat."

Dinner was plain rice porridge, with a few wild greens foraged from the woods. After half a year in the apocalypse and just escaping a fallen city, food was still scarce even for those with abilities.

Yet even so, they ate far better than the ordinary people trailing behind.

Su Su, lost in the crowd, felt her stomach rumble with hunger, burning with emptiness.

Some had found food at the service area and could fill their bellies, but for those like her, whose food had been stolen—there was nothing but hunger.

Hugging her knees, Su Su stared blankly ahead.

Directly in front of her, Wu Zhi gulped down rice porridge. Partway through, as if dissatisfied, he pulled out a packet of pickled pepper bean curd and dumped it into the porridge.

Even from a distance, Su Su could see the tender cubes of bean curd being bitten and swallowed, the glossy pickled pepper bursting with faintly salty juice, all mixed with the thick porridge and shoved into Wu Zhi’s mouth.

Her stomach ached with hunger.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, Wu Zhi took a long gulp of porridge, turned, and flashed her an obscene smile.

That look made it clear he already considered her his prey.

Su Su snapped her gaze away as if burned, her nails digging into her palms. In the chilly night, her body began to shake.

Elsewhere,

Wu Zhi wiped his mouth and looked at Lin Weiran. "Weiran, your cousin hasn’t awakened an ability. It’s tough for a girl to survive the apocalypse on her own."

Lin Weiran looked up. "What are you getting at?"

"Heh." Facing a second-tier fire user, Wu Zhi was less arrogant. "I’d like to date her. That way, I could look out for your cousin too. What do you think?"

Lin Weiran pondered for a moment. "Are you serious?"

"Of course!"

"Then go tell her yourself."

"Sure! After I take a leak, I’ll go!"

Lin Weiran watched Wu Zhi disappear into the woods and sighed.

Si Zhe, sitting beside her, turned to ask, "What’s wrong?"

"I’m worried my cousin won’t like Wu Zhi."

"It’s the apocalypse—liking someone doesn’t matter," Si Zhe consoled her. "We agreed at the start: we took her family’s SUV and brought her south. There’s too much danger on the road; we can’t always look after her. If Wu Zhi really cares, it would be good for her."

"You’re right," Lin Weiran was quickly persuaded. "I hope she’ll accept Wu Zhi’s offer."

Su Su knew nothing of their conversation.

She only saw Wu Zhi walk into the woods and return holding a nearly dead black snake.

"Hey! Wu Zhi, not bad! You caught a snake! Roasted or stewed, snake meat is delicious!"

Wu Zhi laughed boisterously. "Just what I needed! Let’s stew it! We’ll have soup tonight!"

Through the crowd, Su Su could clearly see the snake in Wu Zhi’s hand, her numb eyes suddenly widening.

She remembered very clearly—in her past life, this never happened.

That familiar patch of woods… The snake Wu Zhi was holding—could it be the very one that bit him to death in her previous life?