ATDIWR Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Prologue – Past Life, Present Life

It was the seventh year of The Apocalypse. Outside the window, heavy rain poured down like a deluge. The drumming of the rain against the ground tightened already taut nerves, making them feel like they would snap at any second. The air was thick with anxiety. Pairs of numb and frightened eyes stared wide, bony arms wrapped tightly around emaciated bodies, interspersed with occasional low sobs.

Ji An stood in the Corridor, looking down at the rain curtain outside. For a moment, he couldn’t tell if it was the heavy rain falling from the sky or a water-type ability barrier constructed by Power Users to block out all harm.

“Ji An gege, I’m so scared. It’s raining so hard outside, but Chen gege and the others still haven’t returned from getting supplies.” Tang Tang’s large eyes were filled with unease. Her toes scuffed restlessly on the ground, each movement echoing the rain, making people even more annoyed.

“I remember the night before The Apocalypse arrived, it was also such an unsettling and terrifying heavy rain. The morning after the rain stopped, The Apocalypse began. The streets were full of Zombies that only knew how to bite people.

I don’t know if it’s related to that night, but ever since then, I’m always afraid of such heavy rain. Tonight’s rain reminds me of that rainy night before The Apocalypse. I feel flustered and uneasy, worried about Chen gege and the others. Will something happen to them?” Tang Tang said, seemingly feeling cold, rubbing her arms and hugging her shoulders.

“No!” Ji An said decisively.

His tone was so firm, as if he wouldn’t even entertain the possibility of a hypothesis. Anyone could hear the concern in it; it was a firmness that wouldn’t allow for questioning.

It was like this again, always like this. Every time she voiced her anxiety, worried about Chen gege, this man would use such a tone, forbidding her from asking. It was as if she was a jinx, and whatever she asked about would come true.

But isn’t it perfectly normal for someone who truly cares to be anxious and worried when their loved one is on a mission, and to ask a couple of questions?

How did it become, in Ji An’s eyes, that she was an ignorant person who only caused trouble, and he was the one who was calm and considered the bigger picture?

Tang Tang looked up, gazing at Ji An, her eyes filled with resentment. However, when she met Ji An’s brown eyes, she couldn’t help but be stunned.

The man’s eyes before her were distant and deep, not the numbness and unease in the eyes of ordinary people in The Base who hadn’t awakened abilities, nor the aimless and hopeless acceptance of fate in the eyes of Power Users. It was a look still full of infinite hope for the future, as if, as if the vast starry sky from the night before The Apocalypse had poured into his eyes, piercing through the darkness of night, startlingly bright.

For a moment, Tang Tang was stunned, immersed in this star river.

When she finally reacted, the man had already turned and left, leaving her only a cold back, just like every other time over the past seven years in The Apocalypse.

Tang Tang bit her lip, a flash of ruthlessness crossing her eyes. She stepped forward to follow.

Sure enough, hearing that Chen Chen might be in danger, that man still couldn’t resist going out to meet him.

Tang Tang followed behind the man, searching along the route Chen Chen and the others might have taken for their mission.

Suddenly, Tang Tang pointed at the pile of Zombies ahead and cried out in panic, “Ji An gege, look there! Is that Chen gege? Ah! That green shirt! I remember you gave it to Chen gege for his birthday last year. He’s worn it constantly ever since. Could that person surrounded by Zombies be Chen gege?”

Ji An, who was walking ahead, abruptly stopped. When he turned around, he saw that familiar green color, and his eyes instantly turned scarlet.

“A Chen!” Ji An roared, moving like lightning, swinging his arms, sprinting with all his might into the Zombie pile, completely disregarding the danger. It was as if they weren’t Zombies, weren’t the kind of Zombies that would assimilate you if they just bit you, but some completely harmless creatures.

Ji An had not awakened an ability in The Apocalypse, so he didn’t have the agility or powerful abilities of a Power User. All he had was the speed honed by day after day of inhumane, mechanical training.

He swung a machete, fearless and charging forward through the Zombie horde, thrusting and slashing left and right, his target clear: the man surrounded in the center of the Zombie swarm.

With his eyes stained red with blood, Ji An finally reached the tall figure in green. He was facing away from Ji An. Ji An reached out an arm, impatient to turn the figure around. However, what awaited him was not a familiar face, but a gaping maw, blood dripping from the unfamiliar mouth. A Zombie with yellowed teeth, smelling the scent of a living person, bit down towards Ji An’s arm.

Astonishment had no time to be processed. Muscle memory honed over years prompted Ji An to pull back his arm.

Before he could think further, he heard a girl’s panicked cry for help from behind him, “Ji An gege, save me, save me!”

The girl behind him was surrounded by seven or eight Zombies, struggling and at a disadvantage, visibly about to be overwhelmed. Ji An knew that although the girl was a Power User, the ability she had awakened was a non-combat Space-type ability, practically useless and completely unskilled in combat. Without a second thought, he turned back and rushed to rescue the girl.

The blade in his hand whirled fiercely. He finally reached the girl, only to find that although she was struggling, she wasn’t injured. He let out a sigh of relief, but before he could finish the sigh, a violent force struck his chest. Unprepared, Ji An was sent staggering backward, falling onto his back.

It was too late to regain his balance. Excruciating pain came from his back. In his ears, he could almost hear the sound of the Zombies’ long fingernails piercing flesh and blood, puncturing bone. He smelled thebloody smell of his own blood at the tip of his nose.

Ji An’s usually steady eyes were filled with disbelief. He had no time to question before he had to fight again.

During the fight, he turned back. In a daze, he met a pair of malicious eyes. The owner of the eyes had retreated from the Zombie horde at some point and was hiding in a safe corner, arms crossed, watching him coldly.

Only then did Ji An realize that the girl he had rescued from the Zombie pile, the girl he had personally raised, actually resented him!

It seemed it was even more than resentment; it was a hateful, poisonous kind of resentment!

He didn’t know how long he fought. His body was numb with pain. Finally, the battle ended. Around him were Zombies with severed heads. Only Ji An stood in the very center, covered in blood. The long machete stood upright on the ground. Ji An leaned on it with both hands, supporting his exhausted body.

He looked like a hero who had fought a bloody battle to the very end.

This made Tang Tang even more jealous. Jealousy was a poison, corroding her limbs and bones, and it was also like thousands of ants, gnawing densely at her heart. She was endlessly jealous, wondering why, no matter when or where, no matter how pathetic he was, this man could always be so unyielding, as if he could never be defeated.

Even though he was now covered in injuries and would turn into a Zombie in the next moment.

“Why?” Ji An had calmed down by now. All the disbelief in his eyes had faded, leaving only a simple question.

And Tang Tang, who had always been so restrained and seemingly innocent and harmless, finally revealed her true face. Her face was contorted, her expression terrifying. “Why? You still have the nerve to ask me why? Do you think I don’t know what you’re planning? Was saving me truly from the heart? It was just using me as a tool to show off your kindness!

You want to take advantage of the Base Commander, you want to win people’s hearts, and I’m just a gimmick. If it wasn’t me, it would be someone else. You are a complete and utter hypocrite, pretending to be good!”

Tang Tang finished yelling in one breath, pouring out everything she had suppressed in her heart for seven years. “You’re nothing! You haven’t even awakened the most ordinary ability. How do you still have the nerve to hog the best Chen gege in the world!

Chen gege is the Base’s Commander, the most powerful Thunder-type and Fire-type dual ability user. He should be with me, with me, a similarly rare and precious Space and Healing dual ability user.

But just because you met Chen gege a few years earlier, you shamelessly cling to him. You make me sick!”

“He is my boyfriend. He has been since before The Apocalypse.” Ji An didn’t argue for himself at all. Only when Tang Tang mentioned Chen Chen did he state this fact calmly.

But it was this very fact that made Tang Tang explode like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She suddenly pulled out the long knife she carried for self-defense and plunged it into Ji An’s chest, twisting it forcefully. A mouthful of fresh blood spurted from Ji An’s mouth, who was exhausted from fighting and powerless to resist.

Tang Tang grinned maliciously, looking like a devil. “Nonsense! Disgusting! You like men, and you shamelesslycling to/pester Chen gege. You truly sicken me!

Chen gege said he doesn’t like you at all. He was just forced to. Who told you to accompany him for seven years of The Apocalypse, depending on each other through life and death? So he couldn’t abandon you. Therefore, as long as you die, Chen gege will be mine.”

Tang Tang suddenly pulled out the long knife, blood gushing out. “Ji An gege, goodbye!”

Ji An collapsed weakly in a pool of blood, his eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.

His unfocused pupils reflected the image of the girl’s hand rising and falling with the knife. He watched as his head was separated from his body, and then the girl dug the Power User’s Zombie Crystal Core from his brain.

Ji An didn’t understand why Tang Tang knew he was a Power User. Because of the special nature of his ability, he had never revealed that he was a Power User to anyone.

Then he watched as the girl threw his body into the pile of Zombies that were quickly attracted by the blood.

The girl held the Zombie Crystal Core tightly and retreated unscathed.

After that, Ji An saw the girl return to The Base. Chen Chen was there then and had already changed into clean clothes, but not that green shirt he wore constantly.

He asked the girl where she had been and if she had seen Ji An.

The girl blinked her innocent eyes and shook her head innocently.

Chen Chen asked about the blood on her body. The girl harmlessly said she was worried about him, went out to look for him, encountered Zombies, and the blood was from escaping after fighting and killing them with difficulty.

The man hugged the girl with heartache.

After several days passed, Ji An still didn’t appear. Chen Chen became flustered. After searching for several days, he finally found remnants of Ji An’s bloodstained clothes. Only then did Chen Chen seem to realize that Ji An had been killed long ago.

He cried in agony for several days, and then, then he got together with the girl.

In just a few months, they held a grand wedding at The Base. As the Base Commander’s wedding, it received everyone’s blessings. And that was the wedding that Ji An and Chen Chen, after seven years of The Apocalypse hand in hand, through countless life-and-death moments, had hoped for night after night, but never received.

Amidst the blessings, at the most joyous moment of exchanging rings, the girl took out the Power User’s Zombie Crystal Core that belonged to Ji An and gave it to Chen Chen. Chen Chen was moved to tears, weeping with joy.

Later, Chen Chen absorbed the Zombie Crystal Core dug from his brain, his abilities leveling up several tiers. He leaped to become the strongest person in The Base, firmly seated in the position of Base Commander.

And the girl, who had contributed greatly, became Chen Chen’s treasure, cherished in his hands lest she be lost, held in his mouth lest she melt, enjoying favor for a lifetime.