Chapter 1: World, You’re So Miserable
X year, early autumn.
An unknown virus suddenly broke out and raged, turning the infected into zombies.
In just one week, the bustling city was paralyzed, turning into a ruined city. The global infection rate exceeded 80%.
Deep night.
An eleven-story building, the window on the eleventh floor was open, and the bleak moonlight poured in.
A young man in tight-fitting clothes skillfully secured his climbing rope around his waist. He glanced down at the ground, stepped onto the windowsill with a confident stride, and gracefully descended.
His shoes trod on the wall, each step descending two meters, his movements efficient.
Water and electricity had been cut off for seven days. For survival, he had to go to other rooms to find food.
He turned on the electric lamp on his chest, using the beam to probe which rooms contained zombies.
“Ho…”
“Ho ho…”
This entire floor was full of them—families, several in each. Sensing the light, they clawed and writhed in their stiff, distorted forms, rushing towards the glass window, only to be stopped by it.
Their ghastly faces, a horrifying sight of rotting flesh, pressed against the window.
Ji Nian no longer felt the initial heart-pounding fear, only glancing at them indifferently before continuing his descent.
A room on the fifth floor was empty, with no sign of moving creatures.
He strode over, took out a demolition hammer from his waist, calculated the weakest point, and struck with force.
“Bang!”
“Ho ho… roar!”
“Ho… roar roar!”
With a single blow, the zombies downstairs roared in fury and surged towards him.
Fortunately, they couldn’t climb walls.
Those infected and turned into zombies had poor eyesight, slow and stiff movements, and a stench about them, but their attack and cruelty were 100%.
If bitten by a zombie, the virus would invade the bloodstream within a minute, and the bitten would join the zombie army, biting anyone they saw.
There were also zombies in the adjacent rooms, howling with hunger and thirst.
Ji Nian, wielding the demolition hammer, steadily and accurately smashed the glass and leaped into the room.
He first listened cautiously for any sounds in the room, then removed his rope, checked each room to ensure no one was inside, and began searching for food.
The residents of this house must have left before the virus outbreak and never returned.
The room was quite tidy. Ji Nian found some food and supplies, and just as he was packing them into his backpack, another beam of light appeared, followed by a “bang!”
More sounds came from the other side of the glass window.
Three men broke through the window, using the same method as Ji Nian. They removed their ropes and shouted arrogantly, “Kid, hand over your stuff if you know what’s good for you!”
The apocalypse had made the living cold and cruel; only the strong could survive. People would fight to the death over things they wouldn’t even look at on a normal day.
Ji Nian acted as if he hadn’t heard them, zipping up his backpack and putting it on his shoulder.
Only then did he raise his eyes and look at the three men.
His strikingly handsome face showed no expression; his entire aura was low and chilling.
“Then let’s see if you have the guts to take things from Dad.”
He was only seventeen or eighteen years old, but incredibly arrogant.
The men standing there were stunned. “Damn! You’re asking for death!”
Another roared, “What are we talking to him for? Just kill him. The more people alive, the more people there are to share the damn supplies in this building!”
As he spoke, a man with a crew cut stepped forward, pulled out a knife from his waist, narrowed his eyes, and lunged at Ji Nian.
But before he could get close, Ji Nian suddenly raised his leg, delivering a powerful spinning kick that sent the knife flying. With a large stride, he fiercely grabbed the crew cut’s wrist, giving him no chance to react, and performed a flawlessly executed over-the-shoulder throw, neatly throwing the man to the ground.
Then, he leaped into the air and kicked another man, knocking him down with one blow.
After landing, he narrowed his eyes, looking at the remaining man and coldly asked, “Want to keep going?”
The entire process took only a moment, and the situation changed drastically.
The remaining man was stunned. Attacking him would be asking for a beating, so he immediately waved his hands. “No, no, I’m done.”
He went to the window, quickly secured his rope, and ignoring his fallen companions, hurriedly left.
In the apocalypse, there were no permanent homes for the living. Any house without people or zombies became theirs.
Once the supplies in the house were used up, they would move, to find the next home.
Of course, this was only possible for someone like Ji Nian, who was skilled, brave, and daring.
The two beaten men eventually got up and left as well. Ji Nian sat down on the sofa in the living room, turned off the electric lamp, took a small bun out of his backpack, tore it open, put it in his mouth, leaned back on the sofa, and closed his eyes.
The broken glass window let in a cool breeze that stirred the curtains.
“Roar roar!”
“Ah——”
“Help!”
“Bang! Bang! Someone save me! I don’t… ah——”
Downstairs and in the corridors, such tragic cries could be heard every day.
Survivors trapped at home, without food, unable to climb, were forced to go out to find supplies, but could never return.
The virus had been raging for seven days. Rescue teams had come six times on the second day, but all had been wiped out.
Perhaps, maybe, they would never come again.
Life was a little hopeless. Even if they could survive now, who knew how long they could last?
Ji Nian didn’t know.
He only remembered that a week ago, when he came home from school, his parents were arguing fiercely.
His provincial martial arts competition first-place trophy was in his schoolbag; he hadn’t even had a chance to take it out.
When the virus broke out, his father stormed out the door, only to immediately return, with a bite wound on his arm.
He collapsed as soon as he entered, his veins bulging and contorting like tree roots across his body.
At first, his mother didn’t know what was happening. She even scolded him for having food poisoning, saying he caused unnecessary trouble.
Until his father lunged at her and bit her, she realized something was wrong.
His mother was a tough woman. She grabbed a nearby baseball bat and hit his father hard, cursing, “Are you even human? Are you even human? You can’t win an argument so you bite people? What the hell are you?!”
The newly turned zombie father was weak, suffering several blows from his mother’s bat.
The news was playing on TV, an emergency broadcast interrupting the program. The presenter, pale-faced, stammered nervously as they read the news, “An unknown virus is infecting humans. The symptoms of the infected are: extremely aggressive, unconscious, and those bitten by the infected will quickly become the next…”
Ji Nian was playing a game in his room when he heard his mother shout from outside, “Ji Nian!”
He went out and saw his mother holding his father, his father biting his mother’s shoulder, his mouth full of blood.
They stood by the window. As his mother remained conscious, she smashed the window with two blows of her bat, saying to Ji Nian, “Mom loves you!” before jumping from the building with her lifelong adversary, his father.
Mom loves you…
In Ji Nian’s memory, this was the first time his mother said such a thing, and it turned out to be a farewell.
The sky gradually brightened.
Ji Nian opened his eyes. There was half a bottle of mineral water in his bag, which he took out, opened, and took a small sip. He stood up and went to the window.
A scene of devastation lay before him.
World, you’re truly miserable.