Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Teacher Ning, I heard that in China, people had so many dishes they could eat a whole year without repeating. Is that true?"

"Teacher Ning, I heard people in the past used to fight over whether salty or sweet tofu pudding tasted better. What does douhua look like? Is it the brain of tofu? I’ve only seen human brains—all bloody and gross, something only zombies would like. Tofu’s brain probably isn’t like that, right?"

"Who cares? It’s all food! Adults are picky, but kids should just eat everything!"

"Teacher Ning, have you ever eaten meat? Does it feel like how zombies eat us now, the same way we used to eat meat before?"

...

Ning Chan was surrounded by kids of all ages and ethnicities, their eyes wide with anticipation as they licked their lips eagerly and stared at him. Memories flickered in his mind, and the ghost of food aromas teased his nose.

Some of the things they mentioned, he had tasted before. Others, he hadn’t.

Too much time had passed, too many things had happened. Remembering those flavors felt like recalling another lifetime—so distant that he could barely recall what they even tasted like.

Twenty-eight years ago, an unknown virus outbreak triggered a global zombie crisis. Two-thirds of humanity was infected and turned into zombies. Of the remaining third, seventy percent were "ordinary people," twenty percent were "warriors," and ten percent were "Superpower users."

In the early days of the apocalypse, despite the overwhelming number of zombies, humans still had a fighting chance with firearms. But as zombies evolved, their defenses and combat abilities grew stronger. Conventional weapons became useless, and large-scale weapons only accelerated zombie evolution, making them too dangerous to use. Then, water and soil were contaminated by zombie remains, carrying lethal contaminants that made farming impossible. Humanity was driven to extinction.

Though earth and water-element Superpower users could purify and extract resources for limited cultivation, the energy cost drained too much energy, and crop yields remained meager. Eventually, human food was reduced to a synthetic nutrient paste produced by wood-element Superpower users.

Just as plants drew nutrients from water and soil, wood-element Superpower users used their own bodies as mediums, synthesizing nutrient paste with the aid of water and earth-element users to sustain human survival.

The higher the level of the wood-element Superpower user, the more energy-dense the nutrient paste they could produce.

As for taste and texture? Imagine sawdust ground into mush—eating it required sheer willpower.

Of course, among high-level wood-element users, some who had studied the composition of pre-apocalypse plants could, to some extent, recreate certain flavors. But survival took all their energy—who had the energy to research such things?

So, for children born in the mid-apocalypse, their only concept of food was a daily bowl of bland, tasteless nutrient paste.

Compared to them, Ning Chan considered himself somewhat fortunate—at least his childhood had been spent in a normal, functioning society.

But having tasted real food only to be forced to swallow something akin to inedible slop was its own kind of torment—perhaps no better than never having known good food at all.

Come to think of it, even pre-war dogs ate better than they did now.

At that thought, Ning Chan licked his lips bitterly, wondering if he should secretly summon a tiny tomato to savor.

He’d just returned from the battlefront—surely he could spare a little effort to treat himself.

As for these children... well, he’d have to apologize. The *agony* of tasting something delicious only to lose it again was better left to adults like him.

He believed that when these kids grew up, they’d learn to do this themselves someday.

After all, the children who survived now held boundless potential—they were humanity’s last hope.

Before the apocalypse, there had been hundreds of countries across the globe. Now, only one city remained. The population had once numbered in billions; now, fewer than a hundred thousand survived. This nightmare had no end in sight.

Zombies never stopped evolving. The dream of safely hiding within their city walls was nothing but a fool’s hope.

Forget about them, even these children—who among them hasn't had to start combat training as soon as they could run and jump?

These children will one day be like Ning Chan, serving long-term on the front lines until the day the zombies are eradicated.

Ning Chan, one of Dawn City's Top Ten, a high-tier wood-fire dual-element superpower wielder, is also the most mysterious figure in the eyes of these kids.

Because sightings of him are rare.

Other high-tier superpower users might return to Dawn City for rest every month or so, but for him, it’s more like once a year.

Even when he does return, he rarely attends gatherings. At most, he might touch base with the other elites, replenish some combat supplies, stay for a few days, and then leave again.

Few know where he rushes off to each time.

This time, Ning Chan finally agreed to attend an exchange meeting. After finishing his lecture, he didn’t leave immediately, so of course, these kids swarmed around their idol with wide-eyed awe.

Listening to this top-tier expert’s lecture earlier, they realized he seemed omniscient and had a very easygoing personality. Now, they were asking whatever came to mind, broadening their horizons—and naturally, getting swept up in the excitement.

For a while, the room was lively and full of joy.

Ning Chan answered their questions with a smile, just as he had them hanging on his every word, when a shrill alarm suddenly cut through.

The kids, who had been gazing at Ning Chan, saw the "nice guy" expression on his face instantly turn steely. Goosebumps erupted on their skin, their hands gripping his clothes loosened involuntarily, and the smiles on their faces froze along with his expression.

The moment the fabric slipped from their fingers, Ning Chan disappeared before their eyes.

"What’s going on?" Ning Chan stood atop the city wall, staring grimly at the zombie horde in the distance.

Dawn City was humanity’s last stronghold. To ensure its safety, patrol teams had cleared the surrounding hundred miles. Stragglers might get through, but there should never be this many.

To prevent zombies from cultivating stronger threats through internal conflict, the assault teams constantly hunted down high-tier zombies to eliminate them.

As a member of the assault team, Ning Chan’s job was exactly that—infiltrating undead strongholds and taking out their leaders.

But now, this horde had appeared so close to them without warning. Did this mean a high-tier zombie they hadn’t detected had emerged? And just how powerful was it?

At present, only three of Dawn City’s Top Ten—including himself—remained in the city. The others were out, and it was unclear if they could return in time.

"Ning Chan, Yueyue just sent word—there are at least five zombies above ninth-tier in that horde, one of them a tenth-tier spatial manipulator." Gu Si, another of the Top Ten and a peak ninth-tier superpower user, scowled at the approaching sea of corpses with bloodshot eyes.

Hearing the anguish and fury in Gu Si’s voice, Ning Chan’s eyelids twitched, as if realizing something. "Bai Yue was in the city—how did she... Did she engage with those things?"

"Yeah. Twenty minutes ago, Yueyue said she felt uneasy and wanted to patrol the outskirts to see if anything was wrong.

She promised not to go far. I thought, with how close it was and her abilities being so unique...

Even if something happened, I could reach her in time. So I stayed home to take care of Mumu instead of going with her. But who could’ve guessed there’d be a tenth-tier among them?

That zombie king blocked her outgoing messages. If she hadn’t detonated herself, we might not have known they were here until they were right at our gates."

As he spoke, Gu Si’s grip unconsciously tightened. A foot-thick section of the wall cracked under his palm, turning to powder amid purple arcs of electricity before scattering in the wind.

Seeing Gu Si looking ready to charge down and take them all out in a suicidal strike, Ning Chan didn’t know what to say. Comforting people wasn’t his forte.

Fortunately, Gu Si knew his current state was dangerous. Clenching his jaw, he swallowed the agony, slapped his own face twice hard, and clung to rationality.

He still had two daughters. He hadn’t seen them grow up yet. Now wasn’t the time to follow Yueyue.

Seeing Gu Si pull himself together, Ning Chan patted his shoulder, then picked up the walkie-talkie at his waist and snapped commands to the guards on the wall. "Prepare the crystal-energy cannons. Fire a fan-shaped bombardment dead ahead in ten seconds. Once the zombies enter the thousand-meter range, switch to crystal-energy rifles for targeted fire."

During the ten-second countdown, Ning Chan flipped onto the highest point of the city tower, a long bow materialized in his hand with a flick of his wrist.

The dark green bow was carved with a chubby, slumbering teal bird, its string made of matching vines, adorned with a few fluttering fan-shaped leaves.

As Ning Chan raised the bow forward, fire erupted from his palm, instantly withering the leaves on the vines. The floating embers ignited into a tiny fireball midair.

The dark green bow was engulfed in orange flames, now emblazoned with a phoenix mid-flight, adding a blazing brilliance.

The once-chubby little bird was replaced by a slender, resplendent phoenix, its fiery red tail feathers rippling like living fire in the wind.

Ning Chan placed his other hand on the bowstring, and as he drew it taut, a sleek green arrow coalesced. When the bow was fully drawn, the arrow instantly turned crimson, blazing forward like a comet toward the horde of zombies.

Seeing some zombies leap up to block it, Ning Chan curled his lips slightly in a cold, derisive smile.

The arrow abruptly exploded, splintering into searing firebrands that clung to nearby zombies, reducing weaker zombies to cinders.

Without waiting for the zombies to react further, Ning Chan drew the bowstring again, sending a rapid volley of flaming arrows into the horde.

Some arrows split apart, scattering flames to wipe out low-level zombies in wide swaths, while others struck high-level zombies with pinpoint accuracy.

Alongside his arrows, the thunderous barrage of crystal energy cannons joined the fray.

After two or three volleys, thousands of zombies had fallen.

But compared to the endless tide of zombies surging forward, it was a drop in the ocean.

Ning Chan narrowed his eyes, scoping the swarm, then released the bowstring and leaped down from the tower, returning to Gu Si’s side.

"That spatial-type zombie keeps gate-dropping reinforcements here. If we don’t take it out, who knows how many more will appear."

"Wha—? No wonder the numbers never seem to drop! Since when do tenth-tiers pull this crap? What do we do now? Should I go down and find it, stop its actions?"

"Bai Cha and the others are already on their way back—they’ll be here in about twenty minutes. I’ll try to—" Gu Si’s grip on his gun faltered as his jaw clenched and he turned to Ning Chan.

"No, I’ll go. If shit hits the fan, my odds are better."

"You—just stay and fortify here. If... if I... just help hold off the high-tier zombies. The city can’t fall."

The unspoken meaning in Ning Chan’s words was clear to Gu Si.

As a dual-type superpower user, Ning Chan had twice the energy reserves of a single-type user. Moreover, one of his abilities was wood-based, granting him unparalleled regenerative power.

Though the top ten strongest had never competed to determine who was the most powerful, when it came to survival odds, Ning Chan was the undisputed king of survival.

Most members of the assault team ran "headhunter" ops in pairs or trios for mutual support.

Only Ning Chan operated alone, allergic to teamwork.

Despite his outwardly approachable demeanor, he seemed a die-hard lone wolf on this point, offering no room for compromise.

Whenever asked why, he always evaded the question. To this day, no one knew the reason.

Gu Si wanted to stop him but found no grounds to argue. He could only watch as Ning Chan leaped from the city wall.

"Zombie bullshit! Ning Chan, hold on—they’re already on their way back!" Gu Si swiped at his face angrily, cursing under his breath as he raised his gun again.

Having already stowed his bow, Ning Chan pulled up the hood of his dark robe, its woven leaves erasing his life signature as he melted into the sea of undead.

A dagger, its blade whispering death, slid from his sleeve, ready to spill undead guts at any moment.

Ning Chan gazed at the black hole located at the rear of the zombie tide, his eyes scanning until they landed on the well-dressed zombie gentleman in a full suit and tie standing beside the black hole.

"Really flaunting it."

Faced with such a conspicuous target, Ning Chan's breath caught. He held his dagger sideways, aiming for the fatal spot on the opponent's neck. Just as he thought he could at least leave a wound, everything changed in an instant.

Invisible ripples spread from one corner. Driven by combat instinct, Ning Chan instinctively glanced over and saw a similarly well-dressed zombie lady giving him a stiff, unnatural smile.

The moment he saw her, a chill shot up his spine.

When the mental waves of the opponent brushed against him, Ning Chan felt as if he had been thrown back over twenty years, turned back into that "helpless" version of himself.

Fortunately, after all these years of enduring the "torment" of his dual abilities, his mental strength had grown exceptionally powerful and resilient. After just a split-second of confusion, he snapped back to clarity.

But this also made him acutely aware of just how bad things were.

Not only was there the well-dressed space-manipulating zombie gentleman, but this lady in the red evening gown was also a tenth-tier mind-controlling zombie.

No wonder Bai Yue, even with his skills, had only managed to send a desperate message before dying—there had been a mind-controlling zombie interfering all along.

So now, were these tenth-tier zombies dolled up all fancy to attend the "feast" of humanity's destruction?

Usually, when Superpower users faced zombies of the same tier, their chances of victory were higher.

Ning Chan was just one step away from the tenth tier. If he pushed himself to burn his core crystal and mental energy, he could temporarily reach a near-tenth-tier strength. Against a single tenth-tier zombie, he might still have a shot at winning, a hope of holding out until reinforcements arrived. But now...

"Is this the end?" Ning Chan's peripheral vision swept over the "majestic and sturdy" walls of Dawn City, his expression calm, as if the one facing certain death wasn't him, but someone else.

Not that he was fearless—it was just that he had long since lost anything to cling to, any aspirations. While he wasn’t actively seeking death, he barely cared to live.

The apocalypse had been too harsh, too endless. Even eating a small tomato was a luxury. Where was there left to find comfort?

For those trapped in such despair, there was only surviving—not living.

And Ning Chan had walked this dark path more alone and in more pain than most.

So faced with this inevitable end, he felt no fear. Instead, there was a strange sense of relief.

"Since that’s the case, let’s go out together." As if finally making up his mind, the indifference in Ning Chan’s expression faded, replaced by a genuine smile.

If someone just burned their core crystal with mental energy, a Superpower user could still recover slowly through rest. But if they chose to shatter the core crystal, the outcome was certain death.

The former was like using a candle to slowly burn a piece of wood—comparatively gentler. The latter was more like turning the wood to dust, compressing it into a sealed space, and then tossing in a torch...

At this moment, Ning Chan chose the latter.

He knew he wouldn’t survive. He knew there were still many people in that city who wanted to live.

Since death was inevitable either way, what difference did it make if it came quickly or slowly? Better to leave a little more hope for others.

Ning Chan thought of the children who had once surrounded him, their hollow, lifeless eyes. For a moment, warmth flickered in his own deadened eyes. He hoped they would one day taste all kinds of delicious food.

In an instant, Ning Chan’s mental sea began to churn, red and green light intertwining as his aura surged rapidly.

Gu Si, watching from afar, sensed the shift in energy and his stomach dropped.

What was going on? Why had Ning Chan resorted to such an extreme method right from the start?

It wasn’t just him. The other Superpower users standing nearby, engaged in long-range attacks, were equally stunned by the scene.

Perhaps it was the long-suppressed emotions finally finding release, but Ning Chan actually broke through that final barrier while destroying his nuclear crystal, officially stepping into the tenth tier.

The even more immense psychic energy suppressed the violent crystal energy, preventing him from exploding immediately.

Caught off guard by this change, Ning Chan froze for a moment before chuckling, "Heh, guess I bought some time."

The smile on his face deepened. With a swift spin, he merged completely with wood—a colossal tree blocking out the sky appeared in his place, its countless vines lashing out faster than the eye could follow, ensnaring the surrounding zombies, including the two tenth-tier ones.

The difference being that ordinary zombies were bound by just one or two vines, while the two high-tier ones were nearly cocooned.

Waves of crimson fire erupted, turning the area into a sea of fire from a distance.

Low-tier zombies were instantly reduced to cinders, but the two tenth-tier ones, despite being the primary targets, still struggled fiercely.

They never expected that what should've been an easy win could be overturned.

Just how devastating the destructive power of a dual-type tenth-tier superpower user was—only those two tenth-tier zombies truly understood.

The black hole torn open by the spatial-type zombie Andariel was sealed off by the burning vines. Amid the scorching heat, smoke billowed and waves of fire twisted, causing the spatial passage to distort and collapse.

The psychic-type zombie Meishan was crushed under the weight, unable to comprehend why this human, who wasn’t even a psychic-type superpower wielder, possessed such crushing mental energy.

Even without refined techniques, just passive defense alone rendered its attacks nearly useless!

As for the fury and frustration of these two, Ning Chan couldn’t relate—his consciousness was already consumed by the excruciating pain of being torn apart and burned alive. Hanging on by sheer willpower, he only wanted to take them down.

Andariel and Meishan, covered in burns, barely managed to break free from Ning Chan’s restraints, thinking it was finally their turn to counterattack. But who could’ve expected this "man" to blow himself up without warning, leaving them no time to react?

Above the colossal tree, a dark mushroom cloud rose. Beneath the ink-black smoke, the endless tide of zombies was engulfed completely.

When the thick smoke finally dispersed, nothing remained but scorched earth.