Chapter 1: “Death”

Survival of the fittest. Even viruses that had once been unable to infect mutated people's bodies had evolved.

"Whew..."

I let out a long breath and passed out, dazed and disoriented.

In a haze, I seemed to wake once and saw Gao Song and Pang De.

What were they doing here?

"She's still sick. We can't just leave her like this."

"But the mission from our superiors comes first..."

Their voices faded away, and I fell unconscious again.

I didn't know how long had passed. My body had recovered quite a bit, but I truly didn't have a shred of strength left.

"Ugh..."

I tried to open my mouth, but it felt as if it had gone stiff. I struggled to lift my eyelids. It was still the same tent I'd been in before passing out. Overhead,

there were still those wooden boards... But where had all those spiderwebs come from? They hadn't been there before, had they?

Spiderwebs?

How long had I... been asleep?

I struggled to move a finger. My senses began to return little by little. I could feel my finger twitch once. It was strange...

My body felt like an ancient, rusted machine starting up again. Even moving a finger was this difficult.

Outside, the sun was shining brightly. Sunlight streamed through the window, lighting up the tent. Only then did I realize that my body felt so cold it barely seemed like my own.

How strange. Why did it feel as if I'd slept for a lifetime?

I didn't know how long had passed. As my body slowly began to warm up, I found I could move my arms a little, too.

"Ugh... ah... ugh..."

I couldn't speak. Even my tongue felt stiff. What in the world was going on?

My arms were so stiff