The silence around her was scary-quiet. Now and then, the wind tore past Seraphina Whitmore’s ears with a sharp whistle, mixed with low, beast-like roars from somewhere far off.

"System, what the hell is going on right now?"

Her voice shook a little. Not exactly because she was scared. It was just that places with no light always dragged up memories she really didn’t want to revisit.

She’d only just arrived in this world, and she still hadn’t adjusted. When she spoke, she kept her eyes lowered out of habit, hiding whatever emotion was flickering underneath.

She was curled up in a corner. In front of her was a layer of dead grass, and beneath it were rows of bamboo spikes, wickedly sharp.

That so-called warm, cozy campus world? Total scam. The moment she opened her eyes, she found herself lying in a huge pit. She was wearing a little white dress stained with blood, like some broken doll tossed into the dark. In the dead of night, the whole scene looked creepy as hell.

One of the bamboo spikes still had blood on it. If her guess was right, then the original owner of this body had probably fallen into the trap, gotten her stomach pierced clean through, and bled out on the spot.

Seraphina Whitmore lowered her head and glanced at her dress. Near the abdomen was a deep, ugly blood hole. She reached out and touched her stomach. The wound had already closed, but the spot still throbbed with a faint, lingering ache.

The original host had died miserably. Seriously, way too miserably.

"[Host, there was a small error during transmission. When the world was being selected, it automatically locked onto a high-difficulty post-apocalyptic zombie world. So…]"

"So now I have to deal with a huge pack of zombies that might rip me apart and eat me alive at any second?"

Expressionless, Seraphina Whitmore lifted her head and looked up at the sky. Maybe because of the zombie outbreak, this whole world had been badly contaminated. Even the sky out in the wilderness didn’t have a single star.

"[Yes!]"

System 250 nodded in tragic agreement. A bug in its program had sent the host to the wrong world. Not only had they missed the scheduled destination, they had landed in a zombie kingdom where the mission had a sky-high chance of crashing and burning.

"[But please don’t worry, Host. To make up for this mistake, the system will directly issue this event’s gift package. No side quest completion required.]"

A gift package?

Seraphina Whitmore narrowed her eyes, pushed herself up from the ground, and dusted off her clothes. Then she reached for the dry branches jutting out from the pit wall, trying to use them to climb out.

"[Ding! Congratulations, Host, you have obtained the ‘Blood Purification’ ability.]"

At the exact same moment, Seraphina Whitmore—who had just grabbed a dead branch and was about to pull herself up—froze.

Crack.

The branch snapped with a crisp sound, and she dropped right back down.

"...Why do I feel like this so-called gift package is not friendly at all?"

Flat on her back after that brutal fall, Seraphina Whitmore let out a long sigh and gave up struggling. She just lay there at the bottom of the pit and started arguing with the 250 System.

"Blood Purification?"

"So... you mean my blood can purify zombies?"

"[Host, you’re seriously sharp. Nailed it on the first try.]"

The 250 System clapped excitedly like it had done something amazing and gave its host a huge mental thumbs-up.

"So basically I’m just a walking tool? If people find out about this body of mine, won’t they drag me off to a lab and use me to make serum?"

Seraphina had only just arrived in this world, and honestly, she and 250 weren’t even that familiar yet. But judging from the fact that its very first job had been messing up the world transfer, this system was sketchy as hell.

For example, right now, it had quite literally dumped her into a pit.

"System, send me this world’s memories first."

Since she was already here, panicking was pointless.

"[Ding-dong, data is now being transmitted...]"

Seraphina closed her eyes. The next second, it felt like her head was being ripped open as a flood of memories that didn’t belong to her were jammed straight into her mind. A full minute passed before she finally let out a shaky breath.

This world had been wrecked by extreme environmental pollution. Then, after one bizarre blood-red rainstorm, countless normal people had inexplicably turned into zombies.

The male lead, Damien Ashford, was basically heaven’s favorite child. Even after becoming a zombie, he still kept his own mind and memories. Other than sharper teeth, he looked pretty much no different from a normal person.

Even his corruption rate had already hit 50%.

Damien Ashford had been among the earliest group to build a base with his uncle, Roland Ashford, so he knew secrets that most people had no clue about.

For example, some people had special blood. To zombies, that blood could slow down their degeneration. And if a zombie ate that person—or drained them dry—it could turn back into a normal human. A body like that was also the perfect material for developing an anti-zombie virus serum.

And there was more.

After the apocalypse began, a rumor spread from the headquarters of the Base Alliance.

Besides the crystal cores inside zombies, which could level up a person’s abilities, there were also four legendary cores that could push an ordinary person straight to the peak of supernatural power in one shot. If someone absorbed all four... their abilities would be unmatched, and they would become immortal.

That rumor came out of the headquarters of the Base Alliance. But Roland Ashford was scared it would trigger chaos, and even more scared someone would twist it for their own agenda, so he kept it under wraps. Damien Ashford only caught wind of it because he had deep ties with one of the base leaders.

So after becoming a zombie, Damien Ashford had been searching everywhere for people with unusual blood, along with those four crystal cores.

His goal was obvious: turn back into a normal human and push his ability to its absolute max.

The temptation of becoming truly undying was huge. Crazy huge.

The truth, though, was that Damien Ashford had become a zombie king with full awareness because there was already a special crystal core inside his body, one nobody knew about. That was what gave him that terrifying strength and that razor-sharp consciousness.

But no one knew that. Not even Damien Ashford himself.

People with special blood were almost impossible to find, one in ten thousand, maybe even rarer. And even if one did show up, they’d usually be taken away in secret and dragged into experiments to make serum.

Roland Ashford’s base had once found someone like that, someone whose blood could be used for serum. Too bad, on the way back to the base, they got hit by a zombie attack. In the end, that person with the special blood died miserably right outside the base gate.

Because of that, Damien Ashford still hadn’t found even one.

As for the special crystal cores, that was even more hopeless. Sure, he’d killed plenty of zombies while searching, but the cores he got were all too low-level. None of them were what he needed.

As for the original owner of the body Seraphina Whitmore had latched onto, she had come up the mountain for a picnic on the day the zombie outbreak started. Later, while being chased by zombies, she slipped and fell into a hunter’s trap. A sharpened bamboo stake pierced straight through her abdomen. With no one there to save her, she eventually bled out and died.

Seraphina Whitmore still hadn’t fully sorted through all the memories flooding her mind when her own 250 System started yelling in her head again.

"[Host, your companions are coming to look for you.]"

"Companions?" Seraphina Whitmore narrowed her eyes. With the information the system had given her, she more or less knew who was coming.

As a third-year college student, Seraphina Whitmore had come out for a picnic with a few close friends, only to run into the zombie outbreak and get trapped on the mountain.

They had held on for quite a few days, but by now their food and water were completely gone. The few survivors left decided to split up and look for supplies on their own.

Last night, the original host had gone with a companion to search for water, and that person had shoved her straight into the trap. The original host only stopped breathing not long ago.

After taking over this body, Seraphina Whitmore judged the original host’s memories a lot more clearly and fairly. That woman couldn’t be called a friend at all. She was textbook fake, a total manipulative snake.

Five hundred meters away from the trap—

"Shengsheng, where are you?"

Elliot Whitmore and Mirabel Bennette were combing through the woods, looking everywhere for Seraphina Whitmore. Neither of them dared call out too loudly, scared they’d draw a pack of zombies over.

"Elliot, last night zombies were chasing me and Seraphina. We got separated while we were running... I’m really worried about her."

Mirabel looked at the man in front of her, the affection in her eyes impossible to hide. But mixed in with it was jealousy, sharp and bitter, because the way he cared about Seraphina was obviously anything but ordinary.

"Seraphina will be fine. Let’s keep looking."

Elliot had awakened his power last night. There had originally been seven of them on that camping trip, but when the zombies hit the campsite, everyone except him and Mirabel had been bitten to death.

Now the only one left unaccounted for was Seraphina. Elliot had already liked her for a long time, so of course he wanted to do everything he could to find her and bring her back.

They searched for a full day and night. As long as he hadn’t seen Seraphina’s body with his own eyes, Elliot refused to leave.

But Mirabel didn’t think that way at all. Honestly, if that woman Seraphina was dead, even better. Then she could stay by Elliot’s side forever.

As they got closer and closer to the trap Seraphina had fallen into the night before, Mirabel started to worry that she might not be fully dead yet.

So she put on that gentle, considerate little act and said to Elliot, "If we split up, it’ll be faster. Then we can meet back at camp."

"It’s dangerous for you to go alone."

Elliot looked at Mirabel, who seemed soft and fragile, and naturally couldn’t agree to let her wander off by herself.

"Finding Seraphina is what matters most right now. If it helps us find her, I’m not scared of zombies."

Mirabel put on a righteous, fearless expression, and with those words, she seriously farmed a whole wave of goodwill from Elliot.

Watching her walk away, Elliot lifted a hand and touched the purple crystal necklace around his neck, silently praying, "Please let me find Seraphina soon."

From now on, he would protect her properly.

Once they split up to search for Seraphina, Mirabel made sure to stay out of Elliot’s line of sight, then headed straight for the trap Seraphina had fallen into last night.

"Well, hi there."

Sitting at the bottom of the pit, Seraphina hadn’t expected Mirabel to save her in the first place. So she simply sat there lazily, even raising a hand to wave at her.

"Seraphina Whitmore, wow, you still didn’t die after all that? Your luck is seriously insane."

The trap had been dug deep, ridiculously deep. For a girl to climb out on her own was basically nightmare-level hard, and she was injured on top of that, so Mirabel dropped the fake act and stopped hiding her true face.

"Aren’t you here to save me?" Seraphina pretended she knew nothing, looking up at Mirabel with wide, helpless eyes. Her beautiful gaze was clear and bright, so clean it almost felt like it could see straight through every filthy thought hidden in Mirabel’s heart.