Chapter 1: Rebirth
It's five in the morning.
Inside this warmly decorated and neat room, various items were placed orderly.
In the midst of summer, the room's window remained half-open. Morning breezes gently teased the linen curtains, the soft morning light illuminated the large and comfortable bed where the room's owner was sleeping.
From time to time, a bird's chirping echoed from outside the window.
Despite the tranquil and serene atmosphere, the young girl on the bed had a worried frown on her face, beads of perspiration forming on her forehead as if she was stuck in some frightful nightmare.
"Ahh!"
Yun Shuhuai abruptly awoke, springing off the bed and taking a defensive stance while cautiously observing her surroundings.
What greeted her sight was not a gloomy lab filled with bizarre organ parts of zombies and mutated flora, but a familiar and cozy bedroom. There were no sadistic scientists, nor a snickering dog-paced couple!
Is this...my room?
Am I dreaming?
Yun Shuhuai didn't let her guard down. This could be another new torture method devised by Su Moxi.
After all, Su Moxi, who possesses psychic powers, could weave a beautiful dream for her, only to shatter it herself once Yun Shuhuai gets engrossed. Any time now, a horde of dreadful zombies might barge into the room to rip her apart, turning her dream into a horrifying nightmare. And when she would wake up, she would see Su Moxi's gloating face outside the glass chamber.
"Creak..." The door made a noise, causing Yun Shuhuai's nerves to tighten again.
The bedroom door remained shut, but the small door underneath meant for pets to pass in and out was the one making the noise.
A little cat head was struggling through the small door. As a Maine Coon, its large body was stuck outside the door while its hind legs were diligently scratching against the floor, trying to crawl into its owner's room.
Finally squeezing into the room, it saw its owner crouching funnily at the bed's head.
Was the owner pretending to be a monkey?
The cat didn't understand anything. After tilting its head, the cat meowed happily and pounced onto its owner as usual.
Yun Shuhuai, who was still confused about the situation saw her beloved cat whom she had not seen for three years. Even though she missed it, she did not let her guard down, her taut nerves still making her believe that this might be an illusion created by Su Moxi using her memories to deceive her.
When the cat pounced on her, she rolled over to dodge but was tripped by the clutter on the bed. With a scream, she fell onto the floor.
It hurts. Even with the carpet cushioning, it still hurt a lot.
Yun Shuhuai lay on the ground, tears streaming down her face.
She wasn't crying because of the pain, but out of relief and joy.
It wasn't a dream. She had really returned.
The Maine Coon missed its target and saw its owner crying on the ground. It jumped off the bed, walked over to its owner, and stretched out its tongue to lick away her tears.
The cat's tongue was wet and prickly. Yun Shuhuai would never have allowed it to touch her face in the past. But now, she was thrilled and excited, she picked up the cat, held it in her arms, and buried her head into the Maine Coon's soft and thick fur, rubbing fiercely.
"Pot Stickers, *sob* *sob*, I really missed you so much."
Potstickers
the name of the cat
seemed to feel its owner's intense longing. Even if being trapped like this was uncomfortable and its fur was tangled, it still quietly stayed in its owner's arms.
They stayed like that for a while.
"Drip, drip, drip!" The alarm clock that sounded gave Yun Shuhuai a start again.
Having survived in the apocalypse for so many years, she had developed the habit of being vigilant, never neglecting any sign of disturbance. After just coming back, she still hasn't fully adapted.
She got up and picked up the phone on her bedside table. Glancing at the time, it was July 23rd, 421 AD in the Earth's calendar.
There were just over two months left until the apocalypse.
This year was the most memorable year for survivors of the apocalypse, later known as the first year of the Post-Apocalyptic era.
Opening the window, Yun Shuhuai looked at the intact buildings outside, the neat streets, and the people rushing to work early in the morning. Everything is so tranquil and harmonious that she suddenly feels a sense of unreality.
It has been a long time since she has seen such a scene.
However, this scene won't last long. Once the apocalypse arrives, this place will turn into a hell on earth.
Having been reborn, Yun Shuhuai swore that in this life, she would never follow the same tragic path as before where she was led around by the nose and eventually sold to a deranged scientist in a secret underground laboratory by her boyfriend along with his new lover.
She is gripped by fast breathing and uncontrollable trembles at the thought of those nightmarish days in the laboratory.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! They might as well have killed her! Why did they torture her so exhaustively! Why didn't Lu Jingyu trust her? Why did he decide she would betray him? And why did he send her to hell himself!
Back then, she guessed that it was Su Moxi's influence. She tried to explain numerous times, but no matter what she said, she was only met with Lu Jingyu's cold huff.
At that moment, Yun Shuhuai felt as though she had fallen into an ice cave — he really wouldn't believe her anymore, he'd completely given up on her.
During those days in the laboratory, those two - the dog of a man and his woman - even came to "visit" from time to time.
Su Moxi, while snuggled in Lu Jingyu's arms, watched her miserable state and pretended to care. Lu Jingyu, however, just watched coldly, without saying a word.
Until she died.
......
"Guobaorou," the pet pig, tilted its head and looked at its owner standing still in front of the window. It wanted to rub against her because it was usually feeding time!
Before it could approach, a "clack" sound startled it, jolting it to its feet.
Looking at its owner again, it saw a piece of cement in her hands.
Yun Shu Huai was also taken aback. She was deeply immersed in her memories, thinking of the unfaithful couple ignited her rage, and the hand resting on the window sill exerted enough force to break off a piece of the wall.
Was this… a special ability?
But in her past life, her ability was not like this.
After the apocalypse, most people turned into zombies, and a few survivors evolved special abilities.
The most common was the power-type, which was quite popular in the early days of the apocalypse because there were primarily only first-level young zombies around and they were easy to deal with as long as one wasn't scared.
Next was the speed-type, which offered strong survival skills and excellent escape abilities.
The most powerful was the elemental-type, but the number of people possessing this type of abilities was very small. Gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, and ice - each element had its unique abilities, which became increasingly powerful as their abilities evolved. If elemental ability holders didn't die young from bad luck, they would often become prominent figures in bases, acting as the strongest force in gathering supplies and fighting zombies. They would receive the best distribution in a base.
There were also a very small number of ability holders whose abilities did not belong to any of the above categories, they were collectively referred to as special-type. But most special-types were significantly weaker compared to other abilities and weren't much use against zombies. Some could barely serve an auxiliary purpose, while some were completely unnecessary, utterly negligible.
The evolution of special-types was very slow, and the number of energy cores required for upgrading far exceeded other abilities. As a result, special type ability holders were often overlooked. No group saw the need to nurture such a waste, who couldn't even handle outings and guard duty and needed others' protection. Without access to resources, they were naturally extremely vulnerable.
Yun Shu Huai's ability to strengthen and Su Mo's psychic sense belonged to this category.
Ability Enhancement, as the name implies, is the ability to amplify the powers of other supernatural individuals, provided there is physical contact. She was like a superpower amplifier, but she could only assist one person at a time.
Compared to some other unique types of abilities, Yun Shuhuai's power held much more value. In her previous life, her ability had evolved to the third stage, which meant she could amplify a superpower up to three times its original strength.
An advancement in stages marked a qualitative change; the thought of amplifying a superpower threefold was simply too alluring. Once considered of less importance, she suddenly became coveted, with many forces extending their olive branches of alliance towards her. However, she accepted none.
As Lu Jingyu's partner, they worked together from the establishment of the base. They were always treated as a model couple within the base.
Their official relationship was not long established; initially, they were just friends looking out for each other in the post-apocalyptic world.
With Yun Shuhuai's ability enhancement and Lu Jingyu's powerful electrokinetic power, they quickly established their own influence within the base. Although they didn't surpass the top-ranked faction, "Night Blade", they could compete for second place.
The expansion of their influence naturally attracted many followers, among them was this Su Moxi!
Su Moxi hid her power well. To others, she appeared as a pitiful delicate beauty, drawing their protective instincts.
If Yun Shuhuai wasn't particularly sensitive to energy fluctuations, no one would have discovered Su Moxi's power.
No one, apart from Yun Shuhuai, knew that Su Moxi had supernatural abilities.
Initially, Yun Shuhuai pitied her. Being of the same gender and sharing special abilities, they naturally bonded, little did she know she adopted an ungrateful guest!
Due to lack of resources, Su Moxi's power wasn't highly advanced and only worked on herself, essentially making people unknowingly like her.
This was what Su Moxi revealed herself when she visited her in the lab alone in their previous life. She explained to Yun Shuhuai how she used her power to manipulate hearts and replace Yun Shuhuai in Lu Jingyu's life.
After ascending her position, Su Moxi used the nuclei she received from selling Yun Shuhuai to enhance her power by one stage. She even attempted short-term control over others.
At that time, Yun Shuhuai was immersed in multiple tubes and couldn't speak, powerless as she witnessed Su Moxi flex her newfound strength.
Lu Jingyu was completely charmed by Su Moxi. He was so smitten that he believed everything she said. So much so, he even readily believed the alleged affair between Yun Shuhuai and the leader of 'Night Blade', and ruthlessly sold her to the perverted scientist in a secret underground laboratory, subjecting her to unfathomable torment.
Having been tormented to such extent in her previous life, she vowed to make them pay a hundredfold in this lifetime.
Yun Shuhuai's gaze was icy cold, the chunk of cement she held in her hand was crushed into a fine powder that slipped through her fingers.
Watching the remaining powder in her hand, a smile curled up on the corner of her lips.
Yun Shuhuai realized that her current powers seemed not so simple. In addition to her original abilities from her past life, there seemed to be some new additions.
The damaged notch on the window sill, the cement powder on the ground, all seemed to be caused by brute force; but Yun Shuhuai knew very well that even if she had just had an outburst of anger, her strength alone was not enough to smash a wall.
As a person unusually sensitive to energy, she could clearly feel that her own energy had just been infused into that cement wall, causing it to shatter through the force of her energy blast!
Yun Shuhuai was elated. She never thought that by living another life, her powers would gain new offensive abilities! It looked like they were pretty powerful too.
