Chapter one

The consciousness awakened before the body, sinking into a chaotic darkness, struggling to float up.

Then a smell brutally penetrated the nostrils - the smell of rust, the thick smell of dust, and the indescribable stench of rotting protein, mixed into a disgusting smell unique to destruction.

Chen Mengzhou suddenly opened his eyes.

What she saw was not the familiar, warm, feather-colored lamp on the off-white ceiling, but an unobstructed, dark, murky sky, the color of congealed, blackened blood, pressing down low. Several twisted sections of rebar pierced through the broken concrete slabs, pointing toward the sky, forming a symbol of despair.

She propped herself up on her arms and sat up, feeling the gravel poke painfully into her palms. She looked around, her heart sinking.

The bustling city of revelry and nightlife in my memory had vanished, replaced by a vast expanse of blood-red ruins. Skyscrapers that once towered into the sky were reduced to charred skeletons. Neon signs shattered and lay buried under a thick layer of ash, with only occasional fragments of vibrant color peeked through, like rouge peeling from a beauty's rotting cheeks. A cold wind whistled through the shattered walls, a low, sobbing sound.

Where is this...?

[Ding—Global Evolution Program has been initiated.]

An absolutely cold, emotionless mechanical voice suddenly rang out in the depths of her mind, cutting off all her chaotic thoughts.

The old era ends, and a new one begins. Only the fittest survive. The losers will become the nourishment that nurtures the new world.

[Struggle, survivor. Happy evolution.]

The sound disappeared, leaving behind a dead silence and a chill that quickly climbed up my spine and throughout my body.

Global evolution? Elimination? Nourishment?

The combination of ridiculous words makes people dizzy.

In the distance, a few shrill screams could be heard, mixed with some unhuman, beast-like roars, and scattered, chaotic gunfire, but soon it fell silent again, swallowed up by an even greater silence. The stench of decay carried on the wind grew stronger.

Chen Mengzhou took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She looked down at her hands. There was black ash embedded in the cracks between her nails. Her wrists were slender, but it seemed as if some unfamiliar power was quietly flowing.

At this moment, a creepy feeling of being watched suddenly gripped her!

She suddenly looked up and looked at the ruins of a half-collapsed store in front of her right.

A rustling sound was heard.

A "figure" stumbled out from behind the twisted metal shelves. It might once have been a person, but now its skin was a pale grey from blood loss, large areas of it rotting and falling apart, revealing dark red flesh and bleached bones. One eye socket was empty, while the other, a cloudy eye, turned stiffly towards her. Its mouth was unnaturally open, dripping with sticky saliva and emitting a "ho... ho..." sound like a broken bellows.

It found her.

The next second, the stiff body burst out with a speed that was against the laws of physics, roaring and rushing towards her, with a fishy wind blowing in her face!

Fear instantly coiled around my heart like an icy snake, nearly suffocating me. My mind went blank, but my body reacted before my consciousness could.

escape!

Must escape!

This thought was like a red-hot iron burning my nerves.

However, just as she was about to move, the undercurrent of power within her body suddenly boiled over without warning! Not just one, but two completely different energies, one as hot as surging magma, the other as deep and profound as the eternal starry sky. They simultaneously exploded through her meridians, surging and roaring!

The surrounding space instantly became sticky and distorted.

The zombie's movements suddenly slowed down countless times as it leaped into the air, as if it were trapped in invisible glue. Every hideous detail was frozen in time. Between it and Shen Mengzhou, the air strangely folded and shifted, revealing several tiny, shimmering black cracks that emitted a frightening aura.

Time and space... have stagnated? And... a spatial rift?

Chen Mengzhou was stunned for a moment, his pupils shrinking slightly. This is...

"roar!"

The stagnation of time and space lasted only a fleeting second. The zombie broke free, its sharp claws carrying a vicious wind as it continued to claw! But that one second of delay was enough.

The last trace of confusion in Chen Mengzhou's eyes faded, a cold light flashing. She followed the two surging instinctive forces within her body, advancing instead of retreating, sidestepping to narrowly avoid the rotting claw. Simultaneously, she brought her right hand together like a knife, the blazing spatial energy instantly condensing at her fingertips, forming a twisted blade that was difficult to grasp with the naked eye. She slashed fiercely with it!

Swish!

After a slight sound, the zombie's head shot up into the sky, and foul-smelling black blood splattered out. The headless body shook, fell heavily to the ground, twitched twice, and stopped moving.

The world became quiet again, only the wind was still howling.

Chen Mengzhou stood there, breathing lightly, looking at his slender white fingers. The invisible sharp blade on his fingertips slowly dissipated. The two forces also quietly returned to his body, gentle yet powerful.

Dual-system abilities of time and space...

She slowly clenched her palms, feeling an unprecedented sense of power. So that was what the cold notification tone meant.

In the distance, more roars began to rise, one after another, clearly startled by the brief battle. Faintly, the sounds of terrified humans crying and desperately fleeing could be heard, echoing among the ruins.

A scene of doomsday hell.

Chen Mengzhou slowly straightened up. The initial shock, fear, and bewilderment faded from her eyes like dust being wiped away, leaving only an almost cold calmness and a hint of... a burning interest in this power of control hidden beneath the calmness.

She casually shook off a drop of dirty blood on her fingertips, raised her eyes to look at the bloody wasteland, and looked in the direction where the voices came from. The corners of her lips curled up slightly, but there was no smile, only the sharpness of an icy edge.

"Nutrition?" she whispered to herself, her voice carried away by the wind. "It's still unclear who is nourishing whom."