Chapter 1: He's Still Just a Child
[Serious notice: This story is set on Blue Star, at the other end of the universe. It has absolutely no connection to reality. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.]
[Brain storage area!!!]
“Ah! It hurts! It hurts so much!”
Lin Zheng screamed in agony. His face was deathly pale, his features twisted as though he were enduring inhuman torture.
His eyes flew open. The hideous faces were gone, and so were the demonic roars ringing in his ears.
“What’s going on?”
Only a moment ago, his neighbors had been dismembering him alive, dividing up his body and eating him.
He had watched with his own eyes as one of his neighbors, an old woman, sawed off one of his legs, slung it over her shoulder, and ran away grinning.
For fun, her grandson had even stabbed a fork into one of Lin Zheng’s eyes, bursting it...
Wave after wave of excruciating pain assaulted Lin Zheng’s nerves, making him roar until he coughed blood from the corner of his mouth and had no strength left anywhere in his body.
All he could do was watch helplessly as they carried away his body, piece by piece.
The despair. The terror. The helplessness...
Even now, remembering it made cold sweat break out all over Lin Zheng’s body.
Lin Zheng looked around. Everything was very familiar. This was his home, only as it had looked before the apocalypse.
The familiar warmth of the place brought tears to his eyes.
He glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall: July 15, 2222.
This was one month before the apocalypse.
“I’ve been reborn!”
Lin Zheng exclaimed, overwhelmed with joy.
Heaven had given him another life. This time, he would have his revenge. A murderous glint flashed in his eyes.
[Ding! Infinite Duplication System awakened. Any matter can be duplicated infinitely. Also includes unlimited system space.]
[Starter gift pack: SSS-grade physique, one bottle of mist.]
Hearing this voice, Lin Zheng was overjoyed. Not only had he been reborn, he had also obtained a system.
During the apocalypse, supplies were the most important thing. How many people had slaughtered each other for a bowl of rice or a piece of meat?
Lin Zheng was a living example. To save money, he had stockpiled dozens of boxes of instant noodles. After his neighbors found out, they used a trick to lure Lin Zheng into opening his door. They not only looted all his instant noodles, but finally divided him up and ate him too.
Now that he had the Infinite Duplication System, he could duplicate matter endlessly as long as he had a sample of a supply item. That meant he would never run short of supplies during the apocalypse again.
The system also provided unlimited storage space. He could store everything he duplicated there without worrying about being discovered or running out of room.
And in this life, no matter what methods they used, Lin Zheng would never open the door. He would also take ruthless revenge on them.
As for the SSS-grade physique and the mist, the system had also transmitted the course of the apocalypse from his previous life to Lin Zheng. He therefore knew in advance how the apocalypse would unfold. It was like knowing the entire plot in advance.
The apocalypse had begun when a mysterious gas invaded Blue Star. People called this gas “mist.”
The mist was a double-edged sword. After absorbing it, some people could break through their bodies’ limiters and gain extraordinary strength. These people were called new humans.
Others, unable to adapt to the mist, would turn into emotionless zombies. These zombies fed exclusively on living people.
Some special zombies could also grow stronger by absorbing the mist.
Another group had no reaction to the mist at all. They were called old humans.
In his previous life, Lin Zheng had been an old human.
But in this life, the system had directly granted him SSS-grade talent. This meant not only that he could absorb the mist, break through his body’s restraints, and become stronger, but also that even among new humans, he was an unparalleled prodigy, one in ten thousand.
New humans’ talent grades were divided into C grade, B grade, A grade, S grade, SS grade, and SSS grade.
Their strength was divided into tiers: first, second, third, fourth, and so on...
Not only that, the system had also rewarded him with a bottle of mist. That meant he had countless bottles of mist and could begin training in advance.
Lin Zheng took out the mist and duplicated it once. Sure enough, it became two bottles. He duplicated it again, and it became four bottles.
He continued in this way, duplicating it a total of 20 times.
The system space was now packed with bottles of mist. Lin Zheng calculated the exact number: 524,288 bottles.
He took out a dozen or so bottles and absorbed them completely, one after another.
Immediately, he felt every cell in his body evolving and growing stronger. Before long, white smoke rose from the top of his head. His cheeks turned red, and impurities visible to the naked eye quickly accumulated on the surface of his skin.
Lin Zheng knew that absorbing a dozen or so bottles of mist at once was already his body’s limit. Now he needed to properly consolidate his progress before he could absorb the next batch.
Haste made waste. Whatever he did, he had to build a solid foundation. Even a tower ten thousand zhang tall had to rise from solid ground. Without a stable foundation, advancing quickly would only take him so far.
Ding-dong!
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Lin Zheng froze for a moment, then abruptly stepped back.
But he immediately came to his senses. It was not the apocalypse yet. There was no need to be so nervous.
He walked to the door, gripped the handle, and gave it a sharp twist.
Crack.
He had snapped the door handle right off. Lin Zheng stared blankly at the deformed handle in his hand, utterly shocked.
He had only just absorbed a dozen or so bottles of mist, and his strength was already this outrageous. It truly was a physique with SSS-grade talent.
Lin Zheng could hardly wait to see just how terrifyingly powerful he would become after absorbing the hundreds of thousands of bottles of mist in the system space.
At the same time, the door opened too.
Someone had shoved it open. Fortunately, Lin Zheng reacted quickly and braced the edge of the door with his hand, preventing it from slamming into his face.
Standing before Lin Zheng was an angry old woman: his neighbor, Old Lady Ma, along with her grandson, Zhao Xiaoqiang.
The sight of his enemies made his blood boil.
Back then, it had been Old Lady Ma who tricked Lin Zheng by saying she and her grandson were being chased by zombies, begging him to open the door and let them in.
Lin Zheng had softened for a moment and opened the door. He had not expected a group of people to rush in and pin him straight to the floor. Then everything that followed had happened...
Sometimes, people were more terrifying than ghosts.
“What?” Lin Zheng said irritably. He could not kill them yet. If the police caught him and he was sentenced to death, wouldn’t everything be over?
Seeing Lin Zheng’s attitude, Old Lady Ma instantly flew into a rage. Planting both hands on her hips, she pointed at his nose and cursed, “Lin Zheng, what kind of attitude is that? Why are you pulling a face at an old woman like me?”
“If you’ve got something to say, spit it out!”
“Lin Zheng, didn’t your parents teach you to respect your elders? What kind of way is that to speak? You may have been born to a mother, but you clearly weren’t raised by one.
“I’m asking you: what were you screaming and shouting about in your room? You disturbed my grandson’s studying, do you know that? And why has your internet gone off? My grandson is taking online classes. If he can’t get into Huaqing University, are you going to take responsibility?” Old Lady Ma pointed at Lin Zheng’s nose and spoke furiously.
Lin Zheng looked back. The internet at home had indeed been unplugged. He must have accidentally knocked it loose while struggling earlier.
But what the hell did that have to do with them?
Old Lady Ma was always fond of taking petty advantages. When grabbing eggs at the supermarket, she could run like the wind; when riding a bus, she would make a huge fuss.
She also liked carrying potted plants from the roadside back to her own home.
While they were talking, Old Lady Ma’s grandson, Zhao Xiaoqiang, had already sneaked into the room. He picked up a piece of chocolate from the table and was about to open it and eat it.
That was a luxurious snack Lin Zheng only ate once every few months. How could he possibly let that brat have it?
Seeing this, Lin Zheng acted swiftly and snatched the chocolate away.
Zhao Xiaoqiang immediately refused to accept it. He dropped to the floor and wailed, “Grandma! Grandma! There’s a bad man stealing my chocolate! Hurry up and beat him to death!”
Seeing her grandson crying and making a scene, Old Lady Ma also entered the room and cursed at Lin Zheng.
“Lin Zheng, are you even human? He’s still just a child!”
