After using up nearly all of the information he had, aside from the fact that an Awakener could use the crystals inside a zombie's head to increase their strength and a few other key details, John finally managed to trade for the right to stockpile ammunition and food for himself.
That's right, for himself alone. As for his family...
To be honest, the Alexander family was relatively lucky. Not a single one of them had turned into a zombie. However, aside from Lucen becoming an Awakener, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander were nothing more than two useless people.
In his previous life, they still had to live a miserable existence. Following them around, John could only suffer alongside them. Lucen alone could not support all three of them. At times, he even wished Mr. and Mrs. Alexander would just die already and be done with it.
How could Mr. and Mrs. Alexander possibly imagine that the child they loved so dearly was harboring such terrifying thoughts?
After gathering enough food and ammunition, they finally had time to relax a little. Everyone was exhausted, but thinking about how, with the apocalypse descending, their situation was far better than countless others out there, they felt that everything they had done so far was worth it.
Only now did they finally have the chance to sit at the same table and talk.
Mr. Alexander suddenly said, "John, why did you have so much more information that day?"
They had only known from the beginning that the apocalypse was coming and that zombies would appear. They never expected John to know so much more than that, yet say nothing.
John could not help but clench his fist in secret. How troublesome. He naturally did not want to share such precious information with anyone, even his family. He only wanted to grow stronger by himself, to become the overlord on his own.
Outsiders often said they envied their family. John was obedient, the brothers were harmonious, and there would be no bloody struggle over inheritance.
But the truth was not like that at all. John wanted the position of heir. He had always wanted it. It was just that he knew he was not as intelligent as Lucen, nor as capable, so he had endured it all this time.
He knew Lucen had feelings for him, and he did not mind taking advantage of that.
If the apocalypse had not come, sooner or later he would have ruined Lucen completely and stepped into the position he desired.
Now that the apocalypse had arrived, and he had been reborn, with the opportunity to become strong right in front of him, how could John possibly share it.
But in this life, the Alexander family's status was different. They had even obtained Adonis's protection. They would live long and comfortably, and he still needed their support. So he lowered his gaze, wearing an expression of having been hurt by a misunderstanding, and said softly, "Actually, I only recalled those memories the night before that day. I didn't even have the chance to tell everyone yet. I wanted only our family to know that precious information. But Adonis..."
He did not need to say anything more.
Mr. Alexander slammed the table in anger. "Adonis is indeed cold-blooded and treacherous. John, you've suffered."
Mrs. Alexander looked full of pity, while Lucen directly pulled John into an embrace, patting him gently in comfort.
Mrs. Alexander looked out the window. Tonight, there was even a moon. The sky was clear, the stars visible despite being in a city filled with lights.
In a little while, a helicopter would come to pick up the whole family, yet everything still felt unreal.
"Will the apocalypse really come?" she murmured unconsciously.
John said nothing, sneering inwardly at his mother's emotions. Of course it would come. After tonight, the entire world would change. Change until no one could recognize what it once looked like.
...
Louis locked the door to his home tightly. During this time, he had commissioned a sturdy iron door to be installed in front of it, ensuring that no zombie could disturb his first step of cultivation.
Up to this moment, he could feel the energy in the air growing stronger and stronger, chaotic, like a vortex, and also like a massive energy sphere, ready to erupt at any moment.
Something that could bring death to countless people only made Louis feel that the air had become more pleasant.
He sat cross-legged on the floor of the room as the clock ticked on.
Outside, the city was still bustling. There were people who had just finished working overtime and were heading home after an exhausting day, and others who were still lingering in bars.
Yet the streets gradually grew emptier, the sound of car horns fewer and fewer. Even in a lively city, there were moments when everything fell into silence.
Only the streetlights continued to illuminate the roads, casting quiet silhouettes, along with the late-night eateries that never turned their lights off.
Dyan, a civil servant who worked overtime until late into the night, could only come to places like this to fill his stomach, making sure that tomorrow morning he would still be able to survive long enough to crawl out of bed.
He walked into the eatery he visited every day.
At this hour, the owner was already preparing to head home. Dyan was always his last customer.
"Tick tock, tick tock..."
The clock kept running. Time did not stop. Second by second, it slipped away.
By the time Dyan stepped through the door, the clock struck midnight.
In an instant, it was as if time had truly frozen, as if some shock had pierced straight into the soul, shaking the very earth. Everything before his eyes seemed to twist together in countless colors, explode, shatter across the ground, then transform into fresh blood that writhed endlessly, finally turning thick and viscous.
The sensation passed in a flash, yet all his senses became strangely blurred.
Dyan gasped for breath. The briefcase in his hand dropped to the floor. With one hand clutching the front of his chest, he looked around in terror. Yet everything was normal. There were no swirling colors, no blood. The ground had not shaken, the sky had not wailed. Only the moonlight still shone down, gentle and soft...
No, the moonlight...
Dyan instinctively looked down at the ground. The night eatery was covered with transparent tarpaulin, so the light from outside poured in unobstructed. It was a vivid, bloodlike red.
Dyan hurriedly looked outside, up at the sky, only to see that the moon no longer carried any gentle glow. It was a brilliant crimson, like a bloodthirsty eye gazing down upon the world, ready to drip fresh blood at any moment.
And just as Dyan had that thought, blood actually began to seep out...
No, it was not blood. It was rain. Raindrops red as blood.
In the air, waves of dark red smoke seemed to coil and spread without end, slipping into the breath of every living creature on this blue planet.
Dyan was so frightened that he covered his mouth and fell backward.
He hurriedly scrambled back into the eatery, rushing toward the counter. "A blood moon, and even the rain is blood. Am I going crazy, or has the world gone mad?!"
Dyan even suspected that he might have worked overtime for far too long, to the point that it had caused hallucinations like this.
But the moment he saw the figure behind the counter, he could not help but pause.
It was clearly the same outfit, but...
Why was the owner's skin such a sickly gray?
Before Dyan could say anything else, the owner suddenly turned around, and his appearance was fully revealed before Dyan's eyes.
Rotting chunks of flesh were continuously sliding off, fresh blood and viscous slime mixing together, the stench of decay so nauseating it was overwhelming.
The whites of his eyes had turned pitch-black, while the pupils were a brilliant red, the irises vertical like those of a wild beast.
Pieces of rotten flesh fell from his face one after another, exposing bone. With a ferocious expression, he stared straight at Dyan, then suddenly opened his mouth, revealing a maw full of sharp fangs. He stretched out both hands, long black claws sharp and gleaming.
A hoarse, guttural roar burst from his throat as he lunged over the counter, clearly charging straight toward Dyan.
At that moment, Dyan even wished that this truly was nothing more than a nightmare, just a hallucination brought on by too much overtime.
"Aaaaaaa!!!"
In the darkness, screams rang out, and not just one.
In a single night, the world bore witness to an irreversible transformation.
Some were buried by it. Some would blaze forth. And some would become the hope of a new world...