Chapter 1

 Volume 1: [The First Year], Episode 1: Bloodied Rain

The crisp “click” sound instantly activated the sound-activated lights in the corridor. An Sheng tried his best to avoid making any loud noises, but the unpleasant creaking of his old anti-theft door still made him grind his teeth.

“Seems like I need to oil it again,” An Sheng reminded himself as he gently locked the door.

He was finally home – it has one bedroom and one living room about 38 square metres large. Although the house is a little old, it is well-maintained. Anyone would think that the person who owns this house must be very responsible.

An Sheng – twenty-eight, single, divorcé. He used to be incredibly rich, but his family’s business went bankrupt due to the recent financial crisis. His father couldn’t bear the pressure and committed suicide by jumping off the balcony of his apartment, and his mother died in the hospital three months after his father’s suicide.

His wife was the one who initiated the divorce. An Sheng didn’t blame her. After all, when disaster strikes, a relationship like theirs was bound to fail. After completing his family affairs, An Sheng left his hometown and came to this strange city.

An Sheng was pampered since he was young, so it’s no surprise that he has no idea how to live independently. In order to provide for himself, he became a taxi driver, renting a sports car and driving passengers day and night. Although it was tiring, he could finally support himself.

An Sheng’s home was in the western suburbs – it was a rather old building with six floors. On each floor lived twenty-two residents. The rooms were very small and the living environment was less-than-satisfactory, but the rent was cheap.

An Sheng is satisfied with his current life, however. With his job, he earns more than 10,000 yuan a month depending on his performance. After paying rent, water, electricity, food, and water, he still has a lot of money left to spend on himself.

Soon, he will be able to own a car of his own. Of course, he wasn’t just buying a car to improve the quality of life – he wanted to register his car on a mobile platform called Didi, and he heard that the benefits were very good.

After all, the monthly rent of his car was more than 4,000 yuan. If he can save this money, he’ll surely earn more money per month.

He washed himself up and tumbled into his bed, fumbling for the charger to charge his phone so he could finally go to sleep.

A sudden gust of wind blew into his bedroom, followed by a flash of lightning that illuminated the dark sky, which was followed by a loud rumbling noise.

An Sheng absentmindedly got out from bed to retrieve his clothes that were still hanging outside.

Opening the window, An Sheng swiftly tossed his clothes inside, but the strong wind and the rain had already started to pour onto him. Fortunately, he was able to toss his clothes swiftly indoors and shut the window before getting soaked.

An Sheng carried his clothes into the bathroom, but he was stunned as he saw his reflection – his white T-shirt was stained with blood.

‘W-What? Was this the rain?’ 

An Sheng took off his shirt and opened the window, allowing his shirt to get soaked by the rain. Sure enough, his formerly white shirt had turned completely red.

A strange, pungent smell had also begun to flood the room.

He wasn’t sure if the rain was poisonous, but he threw his shirt out the window in the event that it was. He darted into the bathroom to wash the blood off of him. Once his body was clean, he headed back to bed.

His suspicions came true – his body started to exhibit symptoms of an unknown virus. He felt cold, and soon, his limbs were weak. He tried to leave his bed to get some medicine from his cupboard, but found that he was unable to move. Fortunately for him, his suffering was cut short as he passed out in an instant.

An Sheng was in a limbo, fading in and out of reality. He felt tiny bugs crawling all over him, melting his skin and sinking into his muscles, puncturing through his internal organs and wading through his blood vessels before plunging through the brain.

He was plagued by a strange dream as he tossed and turned in bed – he was floating in a blood-coloured world that had no sky and no land. He was floating on vast redness, and he couldn’t move a single inch. Just as he started thrashing on the spot, an unknown, black creature pounced on him and invaded his body before he could even react, and…

“Beep, beep!”

An Sheng sprung up from his bed, cold sweat dripping down his head. He looked around and laid back down again. He vaguely remembered that he had a fever, but he felt fine, save for his slight drowsiness.

It was already a quarter past seven, and his job starts at a quarter past night. He got into a habit of making himself breakfast, while his lunch and dinner are simply, given his occupation.

An Sheng trudged into the bathroom and stared at his own reflection. Just as he bent down to wash his face, a dull, yet violent explosion shook the entire building – he could hear glass exploding in his living room, followed by consecutive explosions going off one after another.

An Sheng thought it was an earthquake, and scurried to look for a small and solid location to hide himself. He had read it online before, and this was too increase his chance of survival in the event of an earthquake.

To be honest, the loud noises made his heart jump out of his throat. However, he soon realised that it wasn’t an earthquake, but an explosion somewhere nearby.

Since he could hear glass shattering in his own living room, he deduced that the explosion shouldn’t be that far from his house. Curiosity overtook him, and he sneaked out of the bathroom into the living room. When he peered out of the window, his eyes widened in shock.

‘W-what? W-where am I?’

TOC - Next>