Chapter Summaries

Xu Duoduo received a warning that people would turn into zombies in three minutes, fled her office, and hurried home to stock up on supplies. Once inside her apartment, she saw a strange many-faced Rubik’s cube spinning in her mind.

• Xu Duoduo noticed her coworker Sister Liu’s ashen face, blue fingernails, and rotten smell, then quit and ran from the office.
• After hearing a scream as the three-minute warning expired, Xu Duoduo left the software park by bike and rode home.
• Xu Duoduo bought food and arranged for Aunt Wang to deliver ten cases of bottled water to her apartment.
• Xu Duoduo carried her supplies into her apartment, closed her eyes to rest, and saw a rapidly spinning Rubik’s cube with countless faces.

Xu Duoduo discovered that the Rubik’s Cube was a vast storage space and moved her supplies into it. As news reported a violent rabies attack at her workplace, she realized she had narrowly escaped being bitten and waited to see what would happen next.

• Xu Duoduo tested the Rubik’s Cube and confirmed she could store and retrieve items in its enormous compartments.
• Xu Duoduo transferred her stockpiled food, survival gear, medicine, and water into the space.
• Xu Duoduo made dinner and watched local news report that a colleague surnamed Liu had bitten a coworker at her company.
• Xu Duoduo checked social media and received messages from Colleague C confirming Sister Liu had attacked someone shortly after Xu Duoduo left.
• Xu Duoduo realized she would likely have been the one bitten if she had stayed at work.

After receiving an apocalypse survival guide, Xu Duoduo prepared food and water before a fast-spreading rabies-like outbreak triggered a lockdown and widespread disasters. Three days later, as the climate shifted wildly and people began falling ill, she remained sheltered and focused on surviving.

• Xu Duoduo downloaded and printed the survival guide, then cooked and stored food and water while preparing for power and signal failures.
• Xu Duoduo heard screams and roars during a nighttime power outage, secured her home, and fell asleep from exhaustion.
• The property management office told Xu Duoduo that a rapidly spreading new strain of rabies had appeared in K City and that residents could not leave without permission.
• Xu Duoduo watched broadcasts report typhoons, geomagnetic storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity as the United Nations warned of a possible mass extinction.
• Xu Duoduo continued preparing food as disasters and communication failures worsened, residents broke down under the strain, and temperatures fluctuated dramatically over three days.

Xu Duoduo endured the collapse of order in her residential complex by staying inside with her supplies, but on the tenth day she discovered she had become a zombie. By the twenty-sixth day, artillery signaled that a rescue operation had begun in K City.

• Xu Duoduo recorded the breakdown of authority as medical volunteers fell, the complex descended into chaos, and utilities were cut off.
• She kept her door shut against zombies and desperate survivors, relying on her sturdy security door and preparing to defend herself with a chainsaw if necessary.
• On the tenth day, Xu Duoduo realized she had become a zombie, with sluggish thoughts and speech limited to “Abba, abba.”
• She discovered she no longer needed food and could barely taste it, while more than half a month passed and zombies gathered around the abandoned complex.
• On the twenty-sixth day, artillery began sounding across K City, signaling that a rescue operation had started.

Xu Duoduo, now a zombie, hid from the rescue team sweeping her residential complex until Qin Luo, her former middle-school classmate, found her. After recognizing her and discovering she had no pulse, he tied her up and hid her in a wardrobe, promising to return.

• Xu Duoduo heard the rescue team clear the floors below and trembled as Qin Luo approached her apartment.
• Qin Luo kicked open Xu Duoduo’s bedroom door and asked whether she had been bitten or showed signs of mutation.
• Qin Luo recognized Xu Duoduo as his old class monitor, and she recognized him as her former troublesome deskmate.
• Qin Luo checked Xu Duoduo’s pulse, found none, and asked how she had failed to survive the initial outbreak.
• Qin Luo tied Xu Duoduo with a blanket, carried her into the wardrobe, and told her to stay there until he returned.

Qin Luo rescued Xu Duoduo, a zombie who still understood him, and carried her out of the building to join the survivors being evacuated. As she drifted to sleep, Xu Duoduo wondered about the disaster and dreamed of how Qin Luo had become her classmate in middle school.

• Xu Duoduo heard survivors being rescued and realized Qin Luo had spared her and left her bound in a wardrobe.
• Qin Luo returned, untied Xu Duoduo, and offered to take her to the survivor base, where Professor Ji might help her.
• Xu Duoduo nodded, and Qin Luo carried her out of the building, leaping from a third-floor window.
• Special Operations teams reported clearing the surrounding buildings, and Qin Luo announced that Building A had been cleared.
• Xu Duoduo fell asleep on Qin Luo's shoulder and dreamed about the unruly transfer student who had become her deskmate.

Xu Duoduo woke inside a vehicle with Qin Luo and his old friends, discovering that she had become an unusually alert zombie while the group traveled through a dangerous, mutated world. After they fought off a mutated elephant and sheltered in a cannery complex, Chen Xiaofei found uncontaminated canned food and asked Qin Luo whether they should notify headquarters.

• Xu Duoduo woke in Qin Luo’s arms as Wang Weihu, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei teased Qin Luo about his old feelings for her.
• Qin Luo showed Xu Duoduo his ability to see in the dark and spark electricity before a mutated elephant attacked their vehicles.
• Bai Shu shot the elephant dead while Wang Weihu kept the vehicle moving and Chen Xiaofei assessed the animal’s mutation.
• Qin Luo led the group to a factory complex ahead of a thunderstorm and told Xu Duoduo to stay in the vehicle while they cleared the zombies.
• Qin Luo picked up Xu Duoduo after the complex was cleared, and Chen Xiaofei reported finding uncontaminated canned food and asked whether to notify headquarters.

Qin Luo’s team debated how to keep a warehouse of canned food from headquarters and discovered that Xu Duoduo could store supplies in a way that resembled a Spatial Ability. The chapter ended with the team stunned as an entire row of cans vanished at her touch.

• Chen Xiaofei suggested asking Jiang An'an to store the supplies, while Bai Shu reported that three warehouses held canned meat and fruit.
• Qin Luo, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei inspected the canned-food warehouse and considered keeping the supplies rather than reporting them to headquarters.
• Xu Duoduo realized that proving her usefulness could help her survive and pointed Qin Luo toward the canned food.
• Xu Duoduo touched the cans, and an entire row disappeared, shocking Qin Luo, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei.

Xu Duoduo revealed that she could store an enormous amount of supplies in her space, and Qin Luo carried her as she cleared the cannery warehouses. As an intensifying thunderstorm approached, Bai Shu urged the squad to take shelter inside the factory buildings.

• Xu Duoduo demonstrated her storage ability to Qin Luo, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei, and they agreed to keep it secret.
• Xu Duoduo directed Qin Luo around the warehouse and stored its canned goods while Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei celebrated the squad’s new supply advantage.
• Qin Luo asked Xu Duoduo about her life after graduation as he carried her from pile to pile, and she silently continued filling her space.
• Chen Xiaofei went to inspect another warehouse while Bai Shu photographed the approaching thunderstorm and sent the images to headquarters.
• Xu Duoduo emptied three warehouses, and Bai Shu warned Qin Luo and Xu Duoduo to hurry inside as the storm neared.

The survivors took shelter from the thunderstorm in a canned-fruit factory, where Wang Weihu explained the apocalypse and organized them. As the squad shared rations, Xu Duoduo served congee to Chen Xiaofei and Bai Shu but left Qin Luo waiting for his portion.

• Qin Luo carried Xu Duoduo as the group ran through the lightning and rain into the factory, where Wang Weihu ordered the survivors to stay quiet and avoid conductive objects.
• After the storm passed, the survivors ate canned goods and instant noodles while Qin Luo and Xu Duoduo patrolled the factory and secured its doors.
• Wang Weihu explained that the authorities had prepared for the apocalypse and offered physical copies of the Doomsday Survival Manual to survivors who had missed the notification.
• Chen Xiaofei and Bai Shu praised Wang Weihu for managing the survivors while Bai Shu filed a report about the thunderstorm footage.
• Xu Duoduo conjured insulated flasks of century egg and lean pork congee for Chen Xiaofei and Bai Shu, then stopped before giving Qin Luo any.

Xu Duoduo shared a hot meal with Qin Luo, Chen Xiaofei, Bai Shu, and Wang Weihu while they searched for information about her unusual zombie condition. The group decided to bring her along and disguised her cloudy eyes with amber contacts.

• Xu Duoduo gave the hungry survivors hot congee and other food, and Qin Luo, Chen Xiaofei, and Bai Shu worried about what she could eat as a zombie.
• Qin Luo, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei searched their tablets for information about zombies like Xu Duoduo but found nothing reliable.
• Wang Weihu accepted Xu Duoduo's congee and suggested colored contacts to hide her unusual eyes from the other survivors.
• Xu Duoduo produced a box of colored contacts, and Qin Luo, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei worked together to put a pair in her eyes.
• Qin Luo, Bai Shu, and Chen Xiaofei admired Xu Duoduo's new amber eyes as Wang Weihu accepted that they would take her along.

Xu Duoduo and the survivors faced an outbreak among their group when hidden infections turned several people into zombies. Before the survivors could recover, a mutant monkey troop attacked the factory, and Wang Weihu, Bai Shu, Chen Xiaofei, and Qin Luo fought to protect them.

• During the night watch, an infected survivor turned and attacked, prompting Qin Luo and Chen Xiaofei to identify others with symptoms.
• Three survivors stepped forward with signs of infection, and Qin Luo separated them from the rest as Chen Xiaofei tried to calm a woman whose husband was infected.
• Several infected survivors transformed and were killed, while Xu Duoduo watched nervously from her hiding place.
• As the woman tried to reach her transforming husband, a mutant monkey troop attacked the factory and began breaking through its doors and windows.
• Wang Weihu ordered the survivors to gather and hide, Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei shepherded them to safety, and Qin Luo and Wang Weihu fought the monkeys.

Xu Duoduo fought off mutated monkeys while retaining her awareness as a zombie, and Qin Luo offered her the mutant core he had taken from the monkey king. She was left hesitating over whether to eat it despite her intense hunger.

• The old mutated monkey king went berserk and attacked Qin Luo as the monkeys overwhelmed the factory compound.
• Xu Duoduo dodged the monkeys, hurled cans at them, and then used her chainsaw to kill the ones that cornered her.
• Chen Xiaofei and Bai Shu found Xu Duoduo covered in blood and filth, but she nodded and murmured to show she still recognized them.
• The attack left ninety-two survivors, while Wang Weihu treated the injured and Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei documented the mutant core Qin Luo had obtained.
• Xu Duoduo craved the mutant core, and Qin Luo offered it to her despite his squadmates' concern and headquarters' order to recover it.

Qin Luo and his team brought Xu Duoduo to the H City Survivor Base, where she cooperated with quarantine and registration despite being unable to speak. Ji Yan arrived to examine her and explained that she could walk without being carried, though she would need to wear a collar to prevent panic.

• Qin Luo let Xu Duoduo keep the lowest-grade mutant core and accepted responsibility, while Chen Xiaofei explained her space ability to Wang Weihu.
• Qin Luo and the others drove through the ruined landscape toward H City, and Xu Duoduo saw the survivor base’s enormous fortified wall.
• At the base entrance, Qin Luo wrapped Xu Duoduo in a blanket and carried her through inspection as arriving survivors began twenty-four-hour quarantine.
• Xu Duoduo registered with Du Chunjiang, who reassured her, while Qin Luo called for help and learned he needed to take Xu Duoduo to Ji Yan.
• Ji Yan met Xu Duoduo, confirmed she could walk, and said she would need to wear a collar despite showing no aggression.

Xu Duoduo and Qin Luo entered H City’s survivor base, where Professor Ji and two researchers explained its rules and rapid changes during the apocalypse. As Xu Duoduo prepared for examinations at the Special Research Center, Qin Luo said she was a prospective member of his squad, though the researchers wanted her to stay at the center.

• Xu Duoduo put on an emotion-monitoring collar after Qin Luo nodded, then followed Professor Ji to undergo examinations with Qin Luo alongside her.
• Xu Duoduo heard the city broadcast honor fallen rescuers and learned that Rock Mutated Persons had built the base’s walls and that residents earned points through work.
• Professor Ji and the researchers explained the base’s isolation rules, point system, and rapid changes as they traveled through the city.
• Xu Duoduo and Qin Luo rode a high-speed subway to the H City Special Research Center, where she met Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao.
• Qin Luo said Xu Duoduo was a prospective member of his squad, while Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao argued that she should remain at the research center.

Xu Duoduo underwent examinations at the research center, where doctors found no ability and classified her as a unique zombified person with enhanced agility. She refused an offer to work at the institute, chose to stay with Qin Luo, and followed him after he finished his examination.

• Xu Duoduo completed medical tests, and Professor Ji concluded that her inability to speak was probably psychological while the equipment detected no ability.
• The researchers recorded Xu Duoduo as a zombified person with no detectable ability and agility one and a half times that of an ordinary person, then asked her to donate blood monthly.
• Xu Duoduo typed that she wanted to stay with Qin Luo, rejecting Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao's invitation to work at the research institute.
• Da Qiao gave Xu Duoduo a wristband and room key, and she waited at the institute for Qin Luo.
• Qin Luo emerged bandaged from an examination room, gave Xu Duoduo disposable slippers, and led her away.

Xu Duoduo settled into her new apartment in the residential complex and explored the wristband and forum provided by the base. She learned more about mutant cores and found Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei’s reports on recent events.

• Qin Luo led Xu Duoduo to her apartment in Building A and showed her the complex’s facilities and nearby teammates.
• Xu Duoduo explored her apartment, checked her Rubik’s Cube Space, and examined the wristband’s ID, barcode, and payment functions.
• Xu Duoduo saw that the rescue at Qingyuan Residential Complex had earned her a bonus of 100 points.
• Xu Duoduo read a forum post about a computer that had mutated and contained a mechanical mutant core, along with warnings and theories about eating cores.
• Xu Duoduo visited the resource library and found Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei’s reports on the thunderstorm and the Mutant Monkey Group.

Xu Duoduo welcomed Qin Luo, Chen Xiaofei, Bai Shu, and Wang Weihu to her home, where they brought her mutant cores and supplies while explaining new base rules and her unlucky ID number. The group discussed the worsening food shortage and the danger posed by mutant creatures.

• Xu Duoduo washed her bloodstained pajamas until Qin Luo stopped her and sealed them in a hazardous-waste bag.
• Chen Xiaofei showed Xu Duoduo three mutant cores that Qin Luo had bought to welcome her to the 3A Special Operations Team.
• Bai Shu and Wang Weihu arrived with combat uniforms and Xu Duoduo's ID, numbered 13444, prompting the others to complain about headquarters' favoritism.
• Xu Duoduo told the group she did not mind her ID number, but Qin Luo called headquarters to demand a change.
• Wang Weihu said eight steamed buns cost 200 Points because the base's food supply had fallen sharply and ordinary survivors needed priority.

Xu Duoduo shared a proper meal with Qin Luo's squad, and they cleared up their initial wariness as the group discussed the base, missions, and possible destinations. They ended the chapter considering City C's granary and City I's armory, while agreeing to keep Xu Duoduo's storage ability secret.

• Xu Duoduo gave Bai Shu, Chen Xiaofei, Wang Weihu, and Qin Luo a filling meal, and the squad ate everything she had prepared.
• Qin Luo set up Xu Duoduo's number, and the four teammates apologized for being cautious about her; Xu Duoduo accepted their concern.
• The group cleaned up, discussed the base's changing rules and the two types of missions, and Wang Weihu gave Xu Duoduo a short-range headset.
• Qin Luo and Bai Shu compared possible supply runs, identifying City C's granary and City I's armory as promising but dangerous destinations.
• The squad agreed that Xu Duoduo's storage ability had to remain secret to protect her freedom and keep the team out of trouble.

Qin Luo's team set out from the H City Survivor Base for City C, hoping to rescue survivors and salvage food from nearby granaries. As they left, they learned that a banyan tree had overrun City R, prompting its survivor base to request help.

• Qin Luo chose City C as the team's destination, with plans to collect supplies from City I if possible.
• Qin Luo and the others received a heavily upgraded combat vehicle, and Qin Luo lifted Xu Duoduo aboard when she struggled to climb in.
• Xu Duoduo handed out herbal tea and used a wooden whistle to signal agreement with the team's safety plan.
• Qin Luo's team passed through the base checkpoints and departed after registering their rescue mission.
• Xu Duoduo and the others noticed that trees along the road had withered, while Bai Shu reported that a banyan tree had engulfed City R and its survivor base had sent a distress signal.