Chapter 12 — News

As the smoke cleared, only a mangled zombie corpse remained on the ground.

But the soldiers who had successfully taken it down looked anything but relieved.

For a moment, silence hung heavy over the area.

Some people hurried off to gather the survivors who had scattered in panic earlier. Others silently carried back Squad Leader Jin’s ruined body.

The platoon leader—a man in his forties—red-eyed and grim-faced, personally reached out to close Jin’s eyes.

Mo Chu watched quietly, then let out a faint sigh and turned away.

Six years into the apocalypse, she had seen more death than she could count. And yet even now, moments like this still left a bitter ache in her chest.

Standing beside her, Li Chen suddenly asked, “Does it hurt?”

Mo Chu blinked and turned toward him in confusion. “What?”

She hadn’t even fought directly. Why would she hurt?

Li Chen lowered his gaze to her hand.

After firing that first shot, she had immediately switched the gun to her other hand, unconsciously rubbing the web between her thumb and index finger the entire time. Now the skin there was flushed red and already beginning to swell.

The recoil from firearms was no joke. Even a handgun could fracture someone’s hand if held incorrectly—let alone the oversized pistol she had casually picked up, one clearly not designed for women.

Mo Chu herself hadn’t paid attention to it.

Li Chen had noticed immediately.

She looked down at her hand, momentarily startled, then shook her head.

“It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt that much.”

Li Chen’s fingers twitched instinctively, as though he wanted to reach for her hand, but he stopped himself at the last second and forced them rigid at his side.

After a pause, he said quietly, “Don’t do that next time.”

Mo Chu only smiled without answering.

To her, whether she got hurt or not had never mattered much. Pain didn’t matter either. As long as it wasn’t life-threatening, it barely counted as an injury in her eyes.

Compared to death, pain was easy to endure.

In fact, she cared even less about her wounds than Li Chen did.

What puzzled her instead was something else entirely—

After seeing how skillfully she handled a gun, why hadn’t Li Chen shown even the slightest suspicion? He hadn’t questioned her once.

Just like before—when he agreed to go to Haishi with her without asking for any explanation.

It was as though he deliberately chose to ignore every suspicious thing about her.

Was this really the same future “Great Devil” she remembered?

But Li Chen choosing not to question her didn’t mean everyone else would do the same.

While they were talking, the platoon leader finished arranging Squad Leader Jin’s body and walked over to them.

He first thanked both Mo Chu and Li Chen.

Li Chen gave no response whatsoever, looking completely uninterested in conversation. Left with no choice, Mo Chu stepped up as the spokesperson between them.

“No need to thank us.”

The platoon leader glanced at Li Chen and asked, “Is this gentleman an ability user as well?”

Li Chen still had no intention of speaking, so Mo Chu answered for him.

“Yes. Fire-type ability.”

“An ability user…” the platoon leader murmured with a complicated expression.

If more of his soldiers had awakened abilities, they wouldn’t have lost so many people on the way here.

Grief flickered across his face again.

This time, Mo Chu wisely stayed silent and let him gather himself.

A moment later, he looked at her and praised, “Miss, your marksmanship is excellent.”

Mo Chu smoothly used the excuse she had already prepared.

“I used to belong to a shooting club.”

“That explains it.”

At least, that was what he said aloud.

But inwardly, he didn’t believe the “shooting club” explanation at all.

They were soldiers. Experts with guns. How could they fail to distinguish between amateur club training and genuine professional skill?

This young woman’s level might not qualify as elite sniper material, but she was unquestionably experienced.

If shooting clubs could produce people like this, then soldiers like them—who practically slept holding rifles—might as well retire.

Still, he said nothing about it.

Instead, he casually asked for their names.

Neither of them seemed ordinary, especially with one confirmed ability user among them. He had personally witnessed how that man immobilized the zombie in an instant and created an opening for the others.

Fortunately, the girl appeared easygoing enough and readily introduced both herself and Li Chen.

Easygoing was good.

The platoon leader was already figuring out how to recruit them into his squad, though outwardly he merely said:

“On behalf of myself and my brothers, thank you both. If you hadn’t stepped in earlier, Xiao Shen probably wouldn’t have survived today either. If there’s anything you need, just say the word. As long as it’s within our ability, we’ll do our best to help.”

After he finished speaking, the man named Li Chen still showed no reaction.

Instead, the girl tilted her head thoughtfully and said, “Actually… there is something I’d like to ask of you, Platoon Leader.”

Hearing that, the platoon leader secretly relaxed.

As long as they wanted something, there was a chance to pull them into the team.

So he smiled and nodded. “Go ahead.”

“I want to ask you for something.”

The moment she said that, his eyes instinctively dropped to the gun in her hand.

He immediately assumed she wanted a firearm.

And if that was the case, then convincing them to join would become even easier. The military had no shortage of weapons. If they agreed to enlist, he could get them practically any model they wanted.

Smiling, he asked, “What is it?”

But instead of asking for a gun, the girl stretched out her hand toward the man beside her.

Li Chen drew a dagger from his waist and handed it over without hesitation.

Holding the dagger, Mo Chu walked toward the grotesquely disfigured zombie corpse.

The platoon leader stared, bewildered.

Then he saw the blade spin deftly in her fingers before she plunged it into the back of the zombie’s skull.

A moment later, she pried out a translucent crystal.

The crystal landed in her palm, slick with dark green fluid. Yet she showed no disgust at all, casually wiping it clean on the zombie’s torn clothing.

Then she held it up before him.

“I want this. Even if it’s technically all of our shared spoils, I’d still like to ask for your permission.”

The platoon leader stared in shock.

“This is…?”

Mo Chu looked down at the crystal core in her hand, a faint smile curling at her lips.

A second-tier crystal core.

Less than ten days into the apocalypse, and she had already obtained a second-tier crystal core—something her past self wouldn’t have even dared dream of.

She was determined to get it.

And she was equally certain that once she explained its value, this platoon leader would willingly hand it over.

Because the information she was about to reveal was worth far more than the crystal core itself.

Holding the crystal up toward the sunlight, she narrowed her eyes slightly and said calmly:

“This is a crystal core.”

A source of power.

And also the root of countless evils in the apocalypse.

…

The platoon leader hurried away carrying a voice recorder, climbing into a nearby tank so quickly that he forgot to say goodbye.

Everything Mo Chu had just explained had been recorded inside.

For a battle-hardened platoon leader to lose composure like this was proof enough of how seriously he took the information she had revealed.

He understood exactly how important it was.

Watching the man leave, Li Chen narrowed his eyes slightly.

“You just told them something that important,” he said quietly. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Mo Chu leaned against the wall and sat down on the ground, resting her chin on one hand as she gazed into the distance.

She shook her head faintly.

“There’s nothing inappropriate about it.”

She knew better than anyone what would happen if people discovered she had been reborn.

That secret could never be exposed—not to anyone.

Not even to Li Chen.

But the crystal core was the one thing she had chosen to risk revealing.

In her previous life, only half a month after the apocalypse began, all the zombies living inside the cities collectively evolved into second-tier zombies.

Second-tier zombies were nothing like first-tier ones.

They were faster. More aggressive. Smarter.

They left the cities and began hunting inside human survivor zones.

At that point, humanity had barely begun to understand abilities. Most ability users were still stuck at first-tier strength.

Against evolved zombies, the casualties were catastrophic.

Mo Chu herself had survived that disaster.

She knew exactly how many people died that day.

Ability users.

Ordinary people.

Everyone.

Only afterward did humanity finally discover the use of the crystals inside zombie brains.

It wasn’t as though nobody had discovered them earlier. People simply didn’t know what they were, and no one dared recklessly absorb something dug out of a zombie’s skull.

By the time scientists finally finished researching crystal cores—

the zombies had already evolved ahead of humanity.

And this time, Mo Chu wanted to speed the process up.

So that when the zombies evolved, humanity wouldn’t be caught helpless and unprepared.

So that when disaster arrived, humans wouldn’t be reduced to livestock awaiting slaughter.

She drew in a slow breath and looked toward the horizon.

Truthfully, she wasn’t nearly as noble or kind as people imagined.

After dying once, she treasured her life more than anyone.

Everything she did was built upon one condition:

Her own survival.

But somehow, Li Chen seemed to misunderstand her silence.

He looked at her and said quietly,

“Whatever you want to do, do it.”

“As long as I’m alive, no one will be allowed to hurt you.”

Mo Chu’s head snapped up.

“You…”

But before she could say anything else, Xiao Jin—who had been lying beside her feet—suddenly stood and barked.

Both she and Li Chen turned at once.

The platoon leader, who had only just climbed into the tank moments ago, was already hurrying back toward them.

Mo Chu instantly forgot what she had been about to say.

Li Chen pressed his lips together and glanced at Xiao Jin without speaking.

The platoon leader strode over, sweat covering his forehead as he apologized breathlessly.

“Sorry, Miss Mo. The information you gave us was too important. I got carried away.”

Mo Chu smiled lightly.

“It’s alright. I understand. I’d probably react the same way.”

The platoon leader continued,

“I’ll submit the recording as soon as I get back and have scientists begin testing immediately. If everyone really can evolve through absorbing crystal cores…”

Mo Chu immediately interrupted him.

“I think your priority should be spreading this information among ability users first.”

The platoon leader froze. “But what if crystal cores aren’t suitable for every ability user to absorb?”

Mo Chu shook her head.

“Platoon Leader, have you considered this?”

“If human ability users can evolve through crystal cores… then what about zombies?”

She glanced toward the mangled corpse in the corner.

“This zombie was already completely different from the ones we know.”

The platoon leader went still.

After a long pause, he said gravely,

“I’ll report this immediately. Miss Mo, thank you for the warning.”

Mo Chu pressed her lips together silently.

She had already done everything she could.

She understood the military’s caution. They were trying to act responsibly for everyone’s sake.

But evolution would not wait for humanity.

It was happening far faster than anyone imagined.

Still, Mo Chu believed there were no secrets that could stay hidden forever.

Especially not after she had already told the same information to that group of students earlier.

Rumors spread terrifyingly fast between people.

As she was thinking this over, a soldier suddenly came running toward them.

His face was flushed with excitement as he shouted to the platoon leader,

“Platoon Leader! Professor Xie Jinyuan has been found!”

Xie… Jinyuan?

Mo Chu abruptly looked up.