Chapter 2 Departure

In the earliest days of the apocalypse, the zombies moved slowly—but they were monstrously strong. And driven only by raw hunger, they behaved more like wild beasts than humans.

The moment Li Chen fell, it was like throwing a slab of meat into a pack of wolves. Nearly every zombie surrounding the vehicle surged toward him, tearing and biting in a frenzy.

Before the swarm completely swallowed him, Mo Chu saw him glance once in their direction.

That look was cold and lifeless. It was impossible to tell who he was looking at—or what he was thinking.

Then he closed his eyes.

He protected his vital points instinctively, and even as the zombies ripped into him, only a muffled groan escaped his throat.

Mo Chu’s mind went blank.

The same thing had happened twice now.

The first time, the moment it began, she had cowered in fear and covered her head, as though refusing to look or listen could somehow absolve her from witnessing the sin unfolding right in front of her. She never knew what expression Li Chen had worn back then.

And years later, when he saved someone who had once stood by and watched him suffer… what had he been thinking?

Sometimes she even wondered if the words she heard before her death had only been a hallucination. Or perhaps just a final scrap of kindness from Li Chen toward someone dying.

Otherwise, how could someone as proud as him ever fall for a person who had once coldly watched him be abandoned?

This time, she didn’t allow herself even a second to hesitate.

The instant Li Chen disappeared beneath the zombies, Mo Chu lunged forward almost on instinct and grabbed his hand.

In that instant, a terrifying force yanked downward on her arm.

Countless beast-like zombies were tearing at him, dragging him toward the abyss. A young girl’s untrained body simply couldn’t withstand that kind of weight. Mo Chu was immediately pulled halfway off the vehicle, most of her body dangling in midair.

Her body was still that of a fragile girl.

But inside it was a soul that had clawed its way through six years of apocalypse.

She reacted instantly, jamming her free hand against the roof of the vehicle to stop herself from sliding further.

Then, using the roof for leverage, she forced herself upward and violently hauled Li Chen’s blood-soaked body several inches out of the zombie swarm.

Li Chen was covered head to toe in blood.

The moment she grabbed him, his eyes snapped open.

Something flickered across his face for a split second before he fixed his gaze on her, his black eyes dark as an abyss.

Looking into those eyes, Mo Chu suddenly remembered the way he had looked at her before she died.

Heavy. Suppressed. Like an endless storm brewing beneath the surface—

until, little by little, it turned numb and still, like stagnant water.

It felt as though someone had sliced open her heart. An icy wind poured straight into the wound, freezing everything inside into a barren wasteland.

Painful. Bitterly cold. Unbearable.

She knew that in her previous life, even after falling into a horde of zombies and being torn apart by countless jaws—when everyone believed without question that he was doomed—Li Chen had still survived.

Not only survived, but become the most terrifying existence in the world.

No one knew how he had lived through it, or what he had experienced during that time.

But somehow, impossibly, he had crawled back alive.

He wouldn’t die.

But knowing that did not make it any easier for Mo Chu to look at the blood-drenched Li Chen in front of her.

She suddenly turned and shouted, “What are you all standing around for?! Help me!”

From the moment Li Chen was shoved down to the second Mo Chu grabbed him, everything had happened in less than a heartbeat.

The others finally snapped out of their shock.

But most of them only stared uncertainly at Chu Ming, who had pushed Li Chen off the vehicle, too afraid to move.

Only a few people stepped forward instinctively.

Then Chu Ming’s vicious voice rang out.

“I’d like to see who dares help him.”

Everyone froze.

Some hurried backward as though avoiding a plague. Others hesitated briefly before turning away and shutting their eyes.

But they could hesitate.

Mo Chu could not.

She didn’t even look at Chu Ming.

Gripping the roof tightly, she began exerting force using a technique an ability user had taught her in her previous life.

Behind her, Chu Ming stared at her with a dark expression twisted by jealousy and malice.

Mo Chu acted as though she noticed nothing, focusing only on pulling Li Chen upward.

Then suddenly, the hand she held tightened sharply around hers.

A hoarse voice rasped out:

“Hold on tight.”

Startled, Mo Chu instinctively gripped him harder.

The next second, she watched Li Chen force both legs free from the zombie horde beneath him through sheer brute strength. Mo Chu seized the opportunity and pulled with everything she had.

Together, they dragged him back onto the roof of the vehicle.

In less than ten seconds, Li Chen was already soaked in blood.

The moment he was hauled up, it seemed like all his strength had finally run out. He swayed, about to collapse sideways.

The people sitting nearby scrambled away in panic.

Mo Chu reacted quickly, catching him before he fell and pulling him against her shoulder.

At that moment, the blockade ahead finally broke open. Their vehicle shot forward like an arrow released from its bow, leaving the zombies behind.

But no one cheered.

The entire roof fell deathly silent.

Without even lifting her eyes, Mo Chu raised a hand. A faint blue glow gathered in her palm—gentle and warm—as she carefully healed the smaller wounds across Li Chen’s body one by one.

Li Chen’s eyes remained closed. She couldn’t tell whether he had fainted, but his breathing was steady.

Only then did Mo Chu finally let out a breath of relief.

And then she heard Chu Ming speak again, his voice venomous.

“Even if you saved him, so what? He was scratched by zombies. Either he dies… or he turns into one of them.”

His words slithered through the air like a snake flicking its tongue.

Mo Chu lifted her head calmly and asked, “Then why did you push him?”

The moment she asked that, Chu Ming’s expression twisted violently.

He sneered. “So what if I pushed him? He’s a cripple now anyway. What, are you all seriously planning to stand up for him?”

His gaze swept across the crowd.

No one dared meet his eyes.

Everywhere he looked, people lowered their heads in silence—whether from fear or guilt, no one could tell.

Finally, he looked at Mo Chu.

“So, A-Chu… you won’t disappoint me either, right?”

Mo Chu looked at him coldly without answering.

But inside, memories she had deliberately buried in her previous life came flooding back with startling clarity.

At the very beginning of the apocalypse, all of them had been trapped inside a climbing gym.

Most of the others were visitors or staff members. She and Qin Xue were just college students who had come for fun.

Li Chen and Chu Ming, meanwhile, had been close friends.

When they arrived, the two men had been in the middle of a friendly climbing competition.

Li Chen had been far ahead.

Then the apocalypse came.

Without warning, people around them began turning into monsters that bit and devoured others. Many died before they even understood what was happening.

Back then, the fastest to react had been Li Chen.

He led the remaining survivors out of the climbing gym.

In other words, everyone here had originally survived because of him.

So naturally, Li Chen became their leader. Under his command, everything remained orderly.

But starting two days ago, things had begun to shift subtly.

Two days earlier, both Mo Chu and Chu Ming developed fevers.

In the end, Mo Chu awakened a healing ability.

Chu Ming awakened an offensive ability called “Entanglement.”

Mo Chu’s healing powers were weak—so weak that she could barely heal small knife cuts. Anything deeper was beyond her abilities, let alone the miracle everyone fantasized about: curing the zombie virus.

People were deeply disappointed.

Some even thought she had awakened a completely useless power.

At the time, the only person who comforted her was Li Chen.

“All power starts out weak,” he had told her.

And he had been right.

In her previous life, healing abilities were considered trash abilities for a very long time. They couldn’t cure the zombie virus, and during the early stages, their healing power was pitifully weak. Back when medical supplies were still abundant, healing abilities seemed almost worthless.

Worse still, healers lacked offensive capabilities. Few ability-user teams wanted them, and when danger came, healers were often the first to die. They struggled to gain resources, and even more to level up.

It wasn’t until the third year of the apocalypse, when the first Rank Three healer gained the ability to suppress the zombie virus, that healing abilities finally began to receive serious attention.

By then, though, many healers had already died.

Very few remained.

Later, the once-mocked “useless ability user” Mo Chu came to be respectfully called Doctor Mo.

And only after that did she discover that her healing ability was even more special than most.

But right now, in everyone’s eyes, healing abilities were still garbage.

Which meant that Chu Ming—who had awakened an offensive ability alongside her—immediately became someone important.

Using that newfound status, he began openly and secretly competing with Li Chen for control of the group.

And every single time, Li Chen casually suppressed him without effort.

Everyone knew Chu Ming had been targeting Li Chen.

But no one understood why two brothers who had once been so close suddenly became bitter enemies after one of them awakened powers.

And no one expected Chu Ming to be cruel enough to go this far.

The apocalypse had only just begun. Most people still clung to the morals and thinking of the old world.

But some people became intoxicated by power frighteningly fast.

As the memories surged back, Mo Chu realized something.

Everything she had once tried desperately to forget had remained painfully clear.

And in front of her, Chu Ming was still smiling at her confidently, waiting for an answer.

After all, in everyone’s impression, the old Mo Chu had been gentle to the point of weakness. Soft-hearted. A people-pleaser.

How could someone like her possibly stand up for a person who had little to do with her?

Supporting Li Chen’s shoulder, Mo Chu slowly looked around.

Everyone she met lowered their heads in shame.

Qin Xue even hurriedly stepped backward the moment their eyes met, as though terrified of being associated with her.

These were all people Li Chen had once saved.

Once upon a time, Mo Chu had been one of them too.

But now—

she no longer wanted to walk the same road she had taken before.

And she refused to keep doing things she would regret.

At last, she looked directly at Chu Ming and said, word by word:

“If you can kill your own brother today for no reason, then someday you’ll kill the rest of us for another one.”

Chu Ming’s face instantly turned viciously ugly.

Unwillingness. Jealousy. Hatred.

His expression twisted like a demon’s.

And the others, hearing Mo Chu’s words, suddenly looked deeply unsettled.

Maybe they had never dared think about it before.

Or maybe they simply refused to.

But Mo Chu had ripped apart the illusion they were hiding behind.

And she wasn’t wrong.

Because in the near future, Chu Ming truly would push someone else out to die in his place.

Qin Xue—his lover at the time—would die beneath zombie claws.

He was the man Qin Xue depended on. The same man who, after Li Chen left, had constantly coveted Mo Chu.

But this time, Mo Chu had no intention of entangling herself with those two twisted people ever again.

She glanced at Qin Xue.

Qin Xue immediately shrank back.

Mo Chu looked away and swept her gaze over the others.

“I’m leaving with Li Chen,” she said. “Who’s coming with me?”

No one answered.

But she had expected that.

Gritting her teeth, she hoisted Li Chen onto her back and prepared to jump off the vehicle.

Behind her, Chu Ming let out a cold laugh.

“Mo Chu, you’ve got a useless healing ability, and you want to take a zombie-infected cripple with you? How long do you think you’ll survive?”

He laughed again, almost hysterically.

“Do you think you’ll die to the zombies out there… or to the mutated Li Chen?”

Then, in a coaxing voice thick with madness, he said:

“Throw Li Chen down right now and follow me from now on. I guarantee you’ll live well.”

Mo Chu gave a quiet laugh.

Her voice was calm, unwavering.

“I guarantee I’ll outlive you.”

She tightened her grip on Li Chen and said softly:

“Li Chen… let’s go.”