Chapter 1

Fang Yuan had toiled in the apocalypse for over seven years. His death was not from being eaten by a zombie but from being trapped in a cave and dying of thirst.　　

In the spring, seven years ago, everything had yet to begin. The world was still at peace.　　

Fang Yuan flipped open his diary and saw that it was the 30th of March. There were another 30 days before the first zombie sighting, and another 60 days before society collapsed and cities invaded by zombies.

There was still time.

This time, he would live on. He would live longer and better than anyone else.

Before his rebirth, he was unprepared just like everyone else. He was frightened by the zombies to the point where his legs felt weak and relied solely on luck to survive to this point.

Many people awakened abilities but he did not.

Fang Yuan no longer had any expectations this time around. Compared to hoping for an ability to ensure his survival, it was more important to prepare supplies early and build a fort that could defend against zombies.

In the first few days, he did think of warning more people by becoming a prophet that prophesied the arrival of the apocalypse.

But before the apocalypse occurred, he was only an ordinary person. No matter what he said, most people took him as a delusional mental patient.

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Occasionally, there were a few who believed him; they were those who’d believed in the advent of the apocalypse since a long time ago and treated hoarding of supplies as a hobby. There was no difference whether or not he reminded them.　　

As for his relatives? He was an orphan; his parents died in an accident ten years ago, leaving him with only a sum of money. His blood-sucking relatives had long been cut off from him.

15th of April. Fang Yuan began to build his own fort in the wild. The house and inheritance his parents had left for him were cashed out into money. His goal was to spend it all before the apocalypse arrives.

He had taken a long time to select the location of his fort. It was far from civilization so that there wouldn’t be too many zombies and also far from the source of the early outbreaks. This was a place that wasn’t affected until much later and was between the mountain and river. He could dig his own well and the air was also clean.

The people who built his house took a look at this young and rich youth and treated it as a rich person’s strange taste. They didn’t say much.

In the remaining time, Fang Yuan took the opportunity to stock up on supplies. From military-grade canned food to purified water, air and water filtration systems, generators, solar panels, various seeds, towels, and daily necessities. In short, everything that was needed was prepared.

There would be no smelly tofu after the apocalypse and thus, to satisFang Yuan his craving in advance, he ate that for seven consecutive days until the smelly tofu chef from the neighbouring village remembered him.

Fang Yuan was moved. He nearly wanted to drag this chef back and protect him for the rest of his life. He needn’t do anything except cook smelly tofu.

At last, he endured since it was illegal to kidnap a person.

The fort was very big but most of the space was used as a storage space. After the fort was built, he installed rows and rows of bannisters as well as surveillance equipment. He constructed a motion-activated mechanism specially used to deal with the blind and brainless zombies.

To make it easier for him to go out and retrieve supplies in the future, he headed to the 4S shop (Automobile – Sale, Spare part, Service, Survey) to modiFang Yuan an armoured vehicle. It was an all-terrain and bullet-proof vehicle with a wide interior that was suitable to spend a night in.

It didn’t take long for the nearby villagers to begin gossiping about him. Rumours had it that a crazy rich person had moved into the wasteland beside their village.

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Fang Yuan didn’t agree. Tomorrow would be the first zombie sighting reported on the news. By then, more people would understand what he was doing.

The next day, it was the 30th of April. Fang Yuan stood in front of the television and awaited the familiar piece of news he had seen but disregarded in his past life. The headlines should be that a man had suddenly gone berserk and began to crazily attack passerbys and biting paramedics. The news also reported that many experts began to analyse and blamed it on the effects of rabies.

However, after waiting for a day, he didn’t see that piece of familiar news and only a report of a thief having broken into an official’s home and was subsequently arrested.

Did he remember wrongly?

Fang Yuan was suspicious but dared not cease his plan. He continued to prepare for the apocalypse as usual.

By now, his fort was more or less completed. He was only awaiting for the first outbreak in the city to pave the way for him to purchase a bulletproof vest.

He never expected that with this wait, an entire month passed.

In Fang Yuan’s memories, the morning of April 30 was the day zombies invaded a series of cities. People at every level were infected and all channels were completely blocked. The streets would be completely filled with blood and corpse with no one to clean them.

And before him, at noon on May 1, he sat in his armoured car. The celebrity on the radio was vocalizing his support of the anti-pet abuse law. The reporter on the next station was reporting the status of the typhoon in Linhai city in real-time. A couple of children gathered outside his car after seeing that it looked incredibly cool.

The world was peaceful as the number of casualties as a result of accidents did not increase.

Fang Yuan ignored the children and drove back to his fort. He checked all his supplies and then turned on the Internet to search for clues in the news.

Sure enough, he found it.

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Not long ago, there was an unremarkable news report about a leak in a biochemical laboratory. All infected people died, but their remains inexplicably disappeared and could not be recovered. Only a dark shadow was caught in the surveillance monitor and was initially suspected to be the person who stole the body.

In the footage, the figure and face of the black shadow were a little fuzzy. The only decipherable evidence was a blue T-shaped tattoo on the back of his hand.

This was very similar to what he remembered before his rebirth. These dead people were the original zombies which was why their bodies had disappeared. The reason was that they had become zombies after death and went out by themselves.

When he saw this in this previous life, he never noticed this black shadow.

Perhaps because there was a suspect, this piece of news did not cause extensive discussion among netizens, and no one particularly wracked their brains to guess where the body went. Its popularity was only average, submerged by other more interesting news. In the end, it had less than 10,000 clicks.　　

During the past few months, Fang Yuan has verified countless times that he wasn’t suffering from delusions and that he had truly remembered many upcoming events. Only the zombie outbreak and the apocalypse had yet to be confirmed.　

By the third month, Fang Yuan was completely dumbfounded. He tried to give up his previous preparations and return to a normal life.

But these supplies were sufficient to last him for an entire year and a half. It was easy to buy but difficult to sell.

He had to finish using them first.

Halfway through May, Fang Yuan was only one person and didn’t consume much. He became more familiar with the stinky tofu chef in the neighbouring village and got familiar with hot and sour noodle master. (insert pictures)

The weather was growing warmer. Realising that he’d forgotten to stock up on ice cubes, he nearly habitually went to hoard ice in bulk.

But since there wasn’t even a glimpse of a zombie, it was better to forget about it.

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After returning home, Fang Yuan saw a stranger standing in front of his car.

Although he was a stranger, he looked rather familiar as if he’d seen him before.

Beofre the apocalypse, Fang Yuan was a student with a small social circle. Since this person looked familiar but could not be remembered, there was a possibility that he was someone Fang Yuan had met after the apocalypse.

“Who are you looking for?”

“Hello.” That person turned around and gave him a warm smile. Looking at his appearance and actions, he seemed like a martial artist(soldier,etc). “Are you the owner of this vehicle and the fort?”

“I am.” Fang Yuan kept a distance between them but his right hand reached into his pocket to grasp the self-defence weapon he always carried on him. “What do you need?”

“I would like to rent your house.” When the young man spoke, his voice sounded very pleasant and elegant. Fang Yuan began to wonder if he was those celebrities who liked to engage in those novel variety shows. “Can I? I’m willing to pay any price as long as you allow me to stay for some time. I promise that I will not interfere with your life.”　

“Rent?” Fang Yan thought he’d heard wrong. Did his house look like a place for a normal person to stay?

“You may have misunderstood. This is not a hotel decorated as a themed guesthouse. It’s just a private house I live in. If you walk a little further, you will find a hotel in the village. Why did you come here?”

“I have some personal reasons.” The young man looked up and looked at the sky. “It’s about to rain. Is it okay if we continued the conversation inside? If you are truly sure you don’t want to rent it to me, I will leave after the rain stops.”

After speaking, he spread his hands and made a gesture in surrender. “You can search me if you like, I’m not carrying anything suspiciously dangerous.”

Would a normal person offer to let another person search them in order to build trust?

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This kind of thing was only normal after the apocalypse arrived. By then, in order to survive, people not only had to guard against zombies but also had to guard against others robbing their supplies as well as people who committed crimes after the order fell.

But now, apart from the gloomy weather, there wasn’t any indication of the apocalypse in the slightest.

Fang Yuan observed him. The longer he looked, the more he was sure that he’d known this person before and it was before his rebirth.

That pair of eyes carried a hint of a smile and his tone was extremely polite. But underneath that exterior, there was bloodlust that could only belong to a person who’d experience death.

Like a person who lived on their survival instinct, his mental state was very tense and his attention wasn’t dispersed in the slightest. He was constantly on guard against danger. Yet, in this state, he was doing his best to relax his muscles and forget his anxiety by reducing his sensitivity.

Just like Fang Yuan when he had first came back to this time. Returning to a peaceful modern society from that sort of apocalypse, it was inevitable to be extra vigilant.　

Who knows if this world had other reborn people.

“Come in.”

Fang Yuan finally sighed in relief. His eyes were extremely experienced; With a glance, he could tell that there was nowhere to hide anything on the youth. He took the lead and opened the heavy defensive door. It took more than ten minutes before they made it to the hallway on the first floor.

In order to prevent accidents, every wall in Fang Yuan’s fort was covered with a layer of reinforced metal which is extremely strong. It was then covered by another layer of wallpaper. Every door was strengthened and modified into an anti-theft door. There was even a door between the entrance and the living room.

“I really like your fort.” The youth removed his jacket and casually hung it up. “It gives me a sense of security.”

“Sense of security?” Fang Yuan turned to look at him to ensure that he wasn’t peeking at the security code. “Is this why you came?”

“Of course. To be frank, I can only sleep peacefully in an absolutely safe place.” The man pointed at his eyes and said, “I haven’t slept properly for a long time. My dark eye circles are already coming out.”

Fang Yuan looked at his eyes. His eye bags weren’t severe and if it wasn’t for him pointing it out, he wouldn’t have noticed. On the other hand, Fang Yuan noticed that his eyelashes were rather long and even those on his lower eyelids were curled. This pair of enchanting eyes belonged to a star.

Seeing that the owner of these eyes was brimming with expectation, Fang Yuan didn’t burst his bubble but nodded gently. “In that case, you can try looking for a doctor to prescribe you some medicine.”

“I’ve seen them before, but these doctors don’t believe me. I can’t eat the medicine they’ve prescribed.”

The two people walked towards the living room. The windows were secured with strong metal bars, not even an arm could pass through; the sunlight coming in was sparse.

As Fang Yuan took some drinks for his guest, torrential rain abruptly began to fall.

“It really rained…” Fang Yuan froze for a second before looking away. “The doctors don’t believe you?”

The man received the cup of iced cola and suddenly lowered his voice as if afraid of being heard. He said, “I told them… I couldn’t sleep because of PTSD, not paranoia. They didn’t believe me.”

“Do you mean post-traumatic stress disorder?” Fang Yuan hadn’t yet understood. “What caused it?”

“You might not believe it but its PTSD as a result of the apocalypse.” The youth laughed, not caring if others might treat him as a mental patient. “Right now, your fort is the only thing that gives me a sense of security.”

Fang Yuan caught a glimpse of something blue in his peripheral vision. Turning around, he saw the tattoo on the man’s hand.

T-shaped, like a strange symbol. Very beautiful.

“I believe you.”