Chapter 45

<Shui Yu's Pov>

The side effect was turning me into a kid for a week. It was a pretty useful ability though, and it was only a little awkward getting used to this once tiny body of mine.

In 2 months, a lot of things happened.

With my space ability, I dismantled my house by different wings. Even the gardens were moved to the base. The people at the base all were envious of my house. The teenagers always came over to watch movies. And the elderly ladies who liked gardening came over to plant more flowers and plants, beautifying the whole place.

And of course, I couldn't construct the house all on my own. I needed my sibling's help. They were very shocked when they learned that the place I was disappearing off to was actually a secret organization. Xiao Lai was happy that there was this kind of safe place that he could bring Zhang Xing and his family into. But he was unsatisfied that he was a lot worse than the hackers on base.

We all reconciled, and I showed my apologies by letting them have the opportunity to show their skills.

Xiao Lai had gotten better at fighting, considerably, by using his newly gained abilities and applying them to practice.

Xiao Bing's cooking had also gotten better, somewhat at a toleratable level.

And Ge... well, he was always good, and his training for being an idol helped with tricky moves and he gained insight from his abilities as well. His ability to use charm was excellent and although it didn't affect me, as he grows stronger, he will be able to successfully distract me. This isn't becuase of his beauty or whatever, but after he reaches a certain level, he will be able to order anyone about whenever he concentrates his charm properly.

All in all, they had drastically improved. When they first came to the base, they were pretty amazed that I was able to do all this. I had plenty of luck on my side, and hopefully during the apocalypse too.

"Yu Ge, you really did make as many friends as I did!" Xiao Bing said, reminding me of the deal we made on the first day of the academy. Yes, I wouldn't break a promise. All the base members, especially the aunties and kids were friendly with me.

"Um, I have to go now, come pick me up later incognito."

Whenever I saw a little bit of the future, I would turn into a child for a week. But the child form would grow regularly, so it was like I had two bodies in one. It was confusing but somehow made sense.

Little Blue and I went to the Guoji Academy's pre-school since Little Blue wasn't a 1st grader yet. But Little Blue was very smart, so he skipped to 3rd grade. And I matched up with him by being a 3rd grader too. I once again had to experience the boredom of knowing everything.

Occasionally, I'd help with Little Blue's homework and we were always partners for group activities. Little Blue stuck to me like glue, and soon, I became fond of this sticky kid.

"Zuan, tell me a story," Little Blue requested.

"In the future, there will be a horrible zombie apocalypse. A boy who died during that apocalypse came back to the past to when he was just a baby. He fixed his regrets and earned lots of money to prepare for the horrible future. He made many mistakes along the way, but he had good luck on his side and made many friends. In the end, he saved all his friends from the horrible apocalypse and they lived secluded happily ever after. The End."

"Eh, that's not fun at all," he complained.

"What would you do if it was real?" I asked.

"I would save my family, maids, bodyguards, grandpa, cousin, and you! I'd make a strong building where no one can enter and store up lots of food enough to last until we died of old age." His bodyguards nearby sniffled.

"You have the same idea as the boy who went back in time, don't you? Simple things in life are the best. And tell your father the story I told you. Let's go to your grandfather's now. He wants to fight me again. You can learn from watching."

Our daily lives were peaceful.

I eventually told the acquaintances of my siblings and me about the impending future, and they "mysteriously" disappeared. Fans of Di Li Feng's idol group all wondered where the beloved boy band group had gone. Yun and Hua were also notified, but they were each in a complicated spot.

Yun's father didn't believe in him, and they were arguing.

Hua's uncle believed the evidence but said that he still had a job and wouldn't move until the school year ended. That was in late May while the apocalypse started exactly on June 4th, my birthday. It was only February, but it was making everyone anxious.

Meanwhile, on base, everyone was very happy because all their precious friends and family had been allowed in the base. Nobody was suspicious and they had all been thoroughly checked. At first, they were all arrogant, treating the base like a palace they owned, but after seeing the zombies who wanted to tear out their throats through just several sheets of glass, they calmed down and became thankful.

Lu Han's whole clan, about 700 people moved in. And the rest of the people who came in, the friends and family, amounted up to 300. The base was filled with about 2,200 people now.

Also, the base had perfected a harmless zombie trial reagent. Even regular people could use it with only a bit of pain at the start. Everyone who got a shot of the reagent was allowed to choose what kind of power they wanted. It was easy to get the element powers, and some wanted animal powers, so it was a little harder for them. Besides that, everyone got fairly good powers. As expected, they weren't as powerful as my siblings and I because we had trained our physical prowess to the fullest before taking the original zombie trial. The new zombie trial reduced the power of abilities, but it was harmless and successfully let you gain abilities.

For Lu Han, he and several of his clansmen wanted to take the original zombie trial. It was done without Ge noticing, and they all somehow successfully passed. Ge was really mad at Lu Han for several weeks.

Lu Han got the snake, falcon and long white-tailed weasel for his animal abilities. He touched numerous poisons & chemicals mixed together and got the air element.

At early April, I finally found Tse Bao and recruited him and several of his colleagues to become weaponsmiths. Some were reluctant but easily brought in because they were longtime friends with Tse Bao.

At about the same time, Little Blue's family and servants who served their family for generations moved in with their mansion. I helped move it and only a husk of the original mansion was left to not alert anyone. Little Blue's family had saved up quite a lot of supplies and they were smart enough to not tell anyone else about the apocalypse. Some of their bodyguards who were quite powerful undertook the original zombie trial. They also successfully passed. Their luck is really good.

Little Blue was glad to live close to me and came over for many sleepovers.

Yun's family finally believed but still fortified their own place and stayed at their home.

By late May, school finally ended and Principal Ying Xuan had alerted the families of the students about saving up supplies for several months now. I don't know if they believed it, but there was nothing else we could do about that.

Principal Ying Xuan, in the end, became Di Li Feng's boyfriend. They had gotten together after Di Li Feng pursued for a long time. They lived in the same apartment and Li Hua lived on a whole floor to herself. Her birds, of course, were brought over.

About Ryan, I sent him an e-mail, but he didn't reply. So I don't know where he is, and my hackers are way to busy to look for a specific person. And yes, I did take them to the virtual reality game competition. As they said, they "smashed" it. Apparently, they got the grand prize but was dissatisfied because it was less than their monthly salary of several thousand.

For now, I could only hope that the apocalypse didn't damage Yun's family too much. I didn't even get to give him the zombie trial reagent. Before the apocalypse starts and I finish giving orders around the base to prepare for it, I will definitely go and get him. But just in case I get too busy, there were no worries if I got there a few days late. After all, his house was fortified and he would be safe for a while.

Shane didn't have any family members so it was fine, but Andrei had his mother, so we gave her a call and sent her a video. She recognized some of the very famous researchers that had been "missing" for quite a while now, and she immediately packed up her things, money, and headed for the base.

Andrei and Little Blue's family really are rich. It's impressive how they earn as much as the base makes. It helped us a lot as they bought the whole mountain and claimed it as a project, making nobody suspicious. If only we had the same status as them, we could've bought a lot more like them.

We no longer needed to hire with so little trust, so we hired several hundred people to build barriers which were finished in less than 2 weeks and were very stable. Andrei and Little Blue's family really helped a lot, and for that, I'm thankful.

Oh, and Zhang Xing and his family were also brought in. His talent in hacking wasn't so bad either, so he was recruited. The excuse given to his parents was: "Your son is a genius in computer science, we need his help to keep the fort safe." They believed it and that's all that matters.

And just before a week the apocalypse started, the government notified everybody. And of course, the whole population freaked out. The families of the fellow students who had been notified had called Principal Ying Xuan to thank him.

Five days before the apocalypse started, I gathered everyone at the plaza.

"Everyone, as you know, we are the only ones that are fully prepared and know what's going to happen. I will explain what happens in the future. Every married couple here, this is very important. You will form a blood marriage pact. Just exchanging a drop of blood and swallowing will do. This is mandatory. The blood pact will increase affections, let the one who is in the bottom position be pregnant through intercourse. This means, man and man, or woman and woman, can get together as well. And don't worry about pregnancy. From what I know, our bodies are very strong from the zombie trial reagent and during pregnancy, your powers will instead heighten to protect yourself. I do not want any complicated relationships going on in the base, as it will be troublesome and can affect the community even with a small incident. Before you start the blood marriage pact, your intimacy must be good. If it's not good, both people will want to attack each other and only if one or both dies, will it be over. If you are not confident, line up and go ask my secretary for an appointment with me."

Helpers passed out needles and many confident couples conducted this immediately and all who did were successful. Little Blue's parents were one of them and I truly felt that he was lucky to be in such a caring family.

What I didn't expect was for Lu Han to bite his own lips and kiss my Ge. My surprised Ge's lips were bitten and blood was exchanged this way. They got an imprint that was bright red on both of their necks. Well, I officially approve of them now. I wonder if I'll see a little nephew or niece soon?

"Alright, five days later, exactly on my birthday, the apocalypse will officially start. Instead of lamenting for this world, we'll celebrate. The party will be held at my home and you only need to bring yourselves, no need for presents. As I've told before, the red phase will happen the day before the apocalypse, so don't get freaked out if somebody suddenly collapses. That's good news for them because they will be able to gain more abilities. If you have any last minute requests, go line up and schedule an appointment with my secretary. Ok, dismissed, go eat lunch."

There were only a few couples who were worried about their blood marriage ceremony. Some were old couples who only spent times peacefully and had no love relationship anymore. But companionship was also a type of love, the kind that grew with trust, so they completed the blood marriage ceremony and were satisfied. The others who were worried were middle-aged couples whose love had died out. Basically, if they were already married or had children, they were considered a couple already. Divorced people were divorced, so they didn't come into the office at all. People who were considering to divorce were told not to conduct the blood pact yet and seriously think about it for a long time first. There were no couples after that, so I had the whole afternoon filled with appointments of last minute requests.

I didn't get lunch but rather got out an instant noodle package. These were fairly useful and tasty if you didn't eat them so often.

There were many requests. Some strange, some making sense.

"Can you get some people who know how to operate machines? We might need them for the future."

"Can we bring in more teachers? The children still need to go to school after all."

"Can we bring in some famous authors and artists? If not, I'm going to be so bored!"

"We need some people who know how to make snacks. The cafeteria doesn't give good snacks..."

"Entertainment! We need something to entertain ourselves! I know the hackers are going to somehow keep the internet and wifi on, but come on! It's not like anything will be posted when somebody's in an apocalypse! So, can you bring in some celebrities?"

"I feel like we need music in our lives, especially at a dark time like this. Why not bring in some?"

"Why not bring in some martial artists who are legit and teach us how to fight? It's not like we can all learn from you at the same time. You're busy anyway."

"Please! I don't want to see my favorite director to die! Can we at least bring him and his crew here? They can film documentary movies for the future generation or something!"

Teachers, technicians, authors & artists, entertainers, musicians, martial artists, directors, and more...

And in 3 days, famous people from all over the world were gathered and brought into the base. I figured that since everyone was freaking out about the apocalypse, there wasn't really much need to conduct any more security researches and just bring in as many people as I could to make the base thrive.

That famous #1 supermodel, that famous Coolywood director, that famous American singer, that genius violinist, that famous mangaka, that famous xianxia novel author, etc...

The population once again increased, this time to 2,700 people, rising by 500 figures.

At first, everyone on base was flustered to meet such outstanding figures, but after getting used to the fact that these people were in fact just desperate for a safe place, they calmed down, realizing that they were all the same.

And the people who were brought in, they were confused and haughty at first, but they soon realized that even a 3-year-old child could easily throw a full grown man around.

I also finally got Ryan and his family to come. He was very cautious about his attitude towards me because he didn't know how to act towards me. But he realized that it didn't matter and talked normally afterward.

As for Jack, I invited him and his family as well and they came but were told to keep ahold of him. But I really didn't need to worry too much since all the girls on base were very strong.

We got everyone situated, but most of them had not gotten the zombie trial reagent yet. The base was busy with assigning living spaces and people moving in, so we could only get it done after dinner.

The people who had gotten here 2 days or a day earlier already knew what to do and had written down all the powers they wanted and handed them to us. There were still people who had arrived much earlier than that who hadn't gotten their shots yet.

From these celebrities, they had to pay money. We were out of money from buying all the food and supplies we could. We still needed supplies for the future, so using the money, several people were sent out to procure every last thing needed.

And finally, only a couple people needed to take their shots before the next day began and the red phase would start.

We worked tirelessly till midnight. I was pretty sure everyone had gotten a shot, so we all retired and went to sleep, setting our clock to 8 o'clock.

The next day, just I had anticipated, the sky was entirely red, just like the dusk, but much darker and colored in the exact shade of blood.