Chapter One: Rebirth

"Ding ling, ding ling."

Wenyu groggily opened his eyes, consciousness returning to his body along with the sound of the alarm clock by the bed.

"This, this is..."

Staring at the familiar rented room and feeling his intact body, Wenyu's thoughts involuntarily returned to just moments ago...

Just moments ago, Wenyu and his hunting squad were on a mission.

The so-called hunting squad was nothing more than a third-rate team in a third-rate gathering place, and the strongest member in the team, Wenyu himself, was just a recently promoted level two warrior.

For a squad of this level, in the midst of the apocalypse, everyone knew it was nothing more than a squad of cannon fodder.

And the so-called mission was naturally a cannon-fodder-level task—draw the attention of a level five mutant beast.

Then, lure it into the trap set by the main combat squad. The promise of significant rewards and sharp blades made Wenyu unable to say no to this suicide mission.

Unfortunately, cannon fodder could never change its nature.

When Wenyu's cannon-fodder squad encountered the target creature, they were simultaneously faced with as many as thirty level three mutant beings.

When Wenyu realized the situation and tried to escape, the entire cannon-fodder squad had already been torn apart by a third.

And Wenyu himself, at a distance of a hundred meters from the trap, had his head crushed by a slap from that level five mutant beast.

Then, when Wenyu opened his eyes again, what he witnessed was the small rented room where he had lived for three years.

"This, what's going on?"

Wenyu immediately sat up and stood in front of the mirror beside his bed.

Looking at himself in the mirror, his slender figure lacked the strength he had before.

You see, although Wenyu was just a cannon fodder, he at least had the strength of a level two warrior before. His physical strength was at least around a ton, with distinct muscles all over his body, making him robust.

And now, the body in front of his eyes was fragile, like an ordinary big brother next door.

The more Wenyu looked at his body, the more familiar it became. This feeling was like... like how he looked before he advanced.

"Could it be?" Wenyu seemed to think of something and rushed to the computer, carefully examining the date on the screen.

"May 25, 2017, this is... this is the beginning of the apocalypse, a year ago. Could it be that I've been reborn? I've been reborn! Haha, hahaha, hahahaha..."

Wenyu's laughter grew louder and more manic. Thinking of the fate of being cannon fodder in his past life, he laughed until tears slowly flowed.

If he could start over, would he still be a weak cannon fodder? Would he still endure the exploitation and contempt of the strong? Would he still live through those days of utter despair?

"No, absolutely not, absolutely not." Wenyu shouted wildly. This was heaven's favor, a gift to him.

Wenyu took a deep breath.

"Ah..."

Suddenly, a scream shattered the tranquility of the neighborhood.

"What's going on? Can't people have some rest?"

"This person is insane."

"Damn it, screaming so terrifyingly."

Countless curses echoed from the building, many expressing strong protests against the sudden scream.

However, instead of stopping, the screams intensified, not only in the building but also in the corridor and inside the homes, various horrifying screams echoed.

"Help, someone's killing!"

"Honey, what's wrong with you, honey, don't bite me, ah, ah..."

Wenyu suddenly had a bad premonition. He quickly locked his own door, found a table to barricade the doorway, and then walked to the window to look downstairs.

The source of the screams in the neighborhood was a newlywed couple who were suddenly displaying affection on the square.

The husband hugged his wife tightly, passionately kissing the "lover's" cheek. It would have been a beautiful sight if not for the bits of flesh and blood in the husband's mouth.

This scene, Wenyu had seen it before in his past life when the apocalypse began.

Back then, Wenyu, looking at the splattering blood and eyeballs, threw up. In this life, he could only silently mutter to himself: "Damn it."

Wenyu knew the apocalypse was coming and had mentally prepared himself for it.

However, limited to mental preparation, it had only been five minutes since he confirmed and accepted the fact of his rebirth.

Five minutes to confirm and accept his rebirth was already considered strong mental fortitude.

Then, as Wenyu thought about preparing some supplies and weapons, the apocalypse had already kissed his smooth forehead.

"Oh, heaven, are you playing with me? Where are the benefits of being reborn? Even a usable weapon would do." Regardless of Wenyu's complaints, this was the current situation.

Wenyu carefully assessed his small rented room, trying to find something that could be called a weapon.

Within three seconds, Wenyu was disappointed.

The rented room was not large to begin with and naturally did not have space for a kitchen. Therefore, Wenyu would not find a kitchen knife or a meat cleaver in the house.

Helplessly, he picked up the fruit knife on the table, lightly scraped it with his hand, "Something is better than nothing, right? Even if it's just a fruit knife that struggles to cut apples."

At this point, Wenyu could only find solace in the fruit knife.

Looking at his food reserves, as a perennial single dog, an orphan without parents, and a nerd who spent his days in front of the computer, there were still many instant noodles. In addition to that, there was a small can of fermented bean curd.

Remembering the previous life, he successfully lasted a month relying on the two boxes of instant noodles in his room. Before starving to death, when the survival squad came to search for supplies, he began his one-year cannon fodder journey.

Wenyu carefully packed his belongings, put a few packs of instant noodles in his backpack, a few bottles of mineral water, and a few ham sausages.

These were the basic supplies he was going to take with him. Then he found a mop, kicked off the head, tightly wrapped the handle with the fruit knife, and a freshly made makeshift spear was ready for use. Of course, the specific combat effectiveness remained to be verified.

He dug out his autumn clothes and pants, found some discarded books and magazines to wrap around his wrists—these were his armor.

Shouldering his backpack, carrying the spear, Wenyu slowly opened a crack in the door, making sure there was no danger in the corridor, and then slowly opened the door.

Wenyu lived on the third floor. After opening the door, he found the opposite door ajar, strange sounds emanating from inside.

"Nice old couple. Let me help you out." Wenyu already understood that a tragedy had befallen the kindly elderly couple across the hall.

Wenyu quietly opened the opposite door, only to see the originally kind old man with his back to Wenyu, fiercely biting into his wife's body with large, gruesome bites.

And the lady stared with wide eyes, lifeless, gazing at the ceiling.

Zombies, the sign of the apocalypse.

The generally accepted view in later years was that, with the opening of the demon realm portal and the release of demonic energy, people without antibodies in their genes mutated into these rotten, filthy monsters.

Although they looked terrifying and disgusting, in reality, these zombies were the most inferior creatures in the early days of the apocalypse. Corrupted by demonic energy, the softening and collapse of muscle tissue meant that these zombies were far inferior to humans in terms of both strength and speed.

As long as humans could overcome their fear and had a weapon capable of smashing zombie skulls, even a woman could kill several zombies back and forth.

For Wenyu, who had survived a year in the apocalypse, these low-level guys couldn't trigger any fear in him.

Perhaps the noise of opening the door disturbed the zombie that was having a meal. The zombie old man slowly turned his head, pale pupils fixed firmly on the fully armed Wenyu.

Wenyu naturally knew the principle of striking first. He forcefully kicked the zombie down and stamped on its body.

The zombie kept struggling, but it couldn't generate enough strength to throw Wenyu off. The blood-splattered mouth kept roaring.

Wenyu ignored the zombie's screams, adjusted his angle, and ruthlessly stabbed the makeshift spear into the zombie's eye socket. The zombie on the ground twitched twice and stopped moving.

"Ding, killed a level 0 zombie, gained 1 point."

Wenyu breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the zombie on the ground. Pulling out the spear, a burst of filthy blood flowed out of the wound.

Just mutated for less than ten minutes, the blood in the zombie's body had already visibly darkened. Wenyu silently mourned in his heart, walking towards the gruesome sight of the old lady, and stabbed her in the head with the spear.