Edge of the Apocalypse

Chapter 43: Chapter 39: Reborn Again

"Never had it before? It’s a specialty from my hometown. The real deal!"

Yu Dong took the mineral water, staring at the blue logo.

Quanyang Spring, Huang Zhiqiang.

A dream within a dream?

Yu Dong rubbed his head hard. The phantom pain of being torn apart by zombies still clung to his mind, making every inch of his flesh ache.

He clearly remembered where each zombie had bitten him. He knew his combat suit had bought him several dozen seconds, right until a zombie had violently ripped off his helmet...

GULP GULP GULP...

After chugging the entire bottle of water, Yu Dong slowly calmed down.

Huang Zhiqiang, who was beside him, was speechless.

"If you like it, I’ll bring you another bottle tomorrow."

"Yeah, it’s really good."

Just then, Yu Dong confirmed one thing. This wasn’t a dream. He had been reborn again!

His memories had become clearer. He remembered every single detail of the 22 days between his last rebirth and his death with perfect clarity.

Liu Ye’ye, Zhou Jian Country, Liang Mian, Jiang Xupeng, Lin Xiaojun, Shen Xinyi, Zhao Yun... He remembered every conversation, every response, every glance as clear as day.

It was as if it were all stored in his brain like a movie he could watch at any time.

This feeling... It was the same one he’d had when he was reborn the last time.

’My memory has improved... Is this a side effect of being reborn?’

However, beyond the issue of his periodically enhanced memory, Yu Dong had another, more baffling question.

’Why was I reborn? And why was I reborn *again*?’

Yu Dong couldn’t figure it out. There was nothing special about him. He was just an ordinary orphan trying to make a living. He’d never even believed in metaphysics or the supernatural.

His knowledge and logical reasoning couldn’t explain it. He could only watch as the world developed just as it had in his previous life.

"Next up, we have student Liu Ye’ye with a solo guzheng piece—’Samsara’!"

The host’s announcement came from the stage, and Yu Dong froze.

In that instant, the noisy surroundings fell silent. Everyone looked expectantly toward the stage at Liu Ye’ye, hailed as the top talent of Yanhai.

He saw Liu Ye’ye in the spotlight, dressed in a pale yellow, traditional-style long dress. The dim stage lights illuminated her soft, oval face... healthy and rosy-cheeked.

Not bloodshot, not crazed. Her gaze swept over the audience where Yu Dong sat before finally settling on her guzheng, gentle and serene.

"Ye Ye..."

Yu Dong’s gaze pierced through the crowd and through time, meeting the Liu Ye’ye of this timeline.

For some reason, he suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

’Everyone’s still alive...’

After three attempts, the student adjusting the equipment finally got the guzheng properly connected to the sound system. As Liu Ye’ye began to play, an ethereal sound filled the air.

Huang Zhiqiang was completely mesmerized.

"Dongzi, how do you think our ancestors came up with this stuff? The second it hits your ears, it just feels so good~"

"Huh? Dongzi? Where’d Dongzi go?"

When Liu Ye’ye’s piece ended, thunderous applause erupted from the audience. She gave a slight bow and walked off the stage.

She slung her little bunny backpack over her shoulder, ready to go home.

As she reached the exit, a staff member handed her a tub of Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

"Ye Ye, a guy just asked me to give this to you."

"Huh? Who was it?"

"I don’t know him, but he was pretty handsome. Had muscles, too!"

Liu Ye’ye took it and was surprised to see it was her favorite, Häagen-Dazs.

She wanted to refuse, but the person was already gone.

"The ice cream will melt if I don’t eat it..."

That night, on the road from Yanhai University to the Xiangti Bay Community, a girl could be seen skipping along, holding a tub of ice cream.

...

"Everything has started over. This is great."

On the way back to his dorm, Yu Dong recalled everything that had happened in his previous life, and in the end, this was his only thought.

Looking back, even though he had done everything in his power to survive in his last life, striving to make every decision the right one, they hadn’t all been optimal.

Although he had used the "inheritance" left by Zhou and Liu Ye’ye to pull off a 1v4 and wipe out Lin Xiaojun’s entire team, the end result was mutual annihilation.

There were too many things he hadn’t considered thoroughly enough.

Yu Dong wasn’t a master strategist. He was just an ordinary university student with a bit of logic, incapable of accounting for every possibility. He understood this and didn’t beat himself up over it.

’But in this life, I have to avoid the pitfalls I fell into before.’

A smart person prepares for a rainy day. A normal person learns from their mistakes. A fool keeps making the same mistakes over and over.

’But still, why did I die in the end?’

Yu Dong closed his eyes, his mind returning to the moment he had piloted a drone from the second floor to self-destruct and attack Lin Xiaojun’s group of three.

’The explosion... blood... the zombies in Building Two and Building Three rampaging, pounding on the glass... all that checked out.’

Fast-forwarding to when he stabbed Liangzi to death, Yu Dong recalled noticing out of the corner of his eye that the glass on the upper floors was starting to shatter from the zombies’ constant pounding and ramming. Then, crazed zombies began to fall from above.

’That makes sense. Zombies are stronger and faster than normal people, and the glass in this community isn’t the best quality. It’s normal for it to shatter and for them to fall.’

But those zombies weren’t the main reason for his death.

Because aside from a few zombies from the lower floors who were fine after falling, the ones from the higher floors were battered and broken, their mobility greatly reduced.

Yu Dong was relatively close to Building One; he should have had enough time to lock the door.

Yu Dong replayed the scene from his perspective at the time, looking toward Building Three... A flood of zombies poured out, quickly catching up to him as he stumbled over the "speed bump" of bodies in front of Building One. In the end, he couldn’t lock the door.

’Something’s wrong. Why were there so many zombies there? Wasn’t Building Three supposed to be the safest place besides Building One?’

To save Shen Xinyi, Yu Dong had used a slingshot to make noise and clear the zombies from the hallways of Building Three. Plus, Lin Xiaojun’s group had entered Building Three twice and even spent the night there. There shouldn’t have been any zombies out in the open.

But so many zombies had poured out!

It was completely illogical!

Building Two, on the other hand... was still. The main entrance was quiet, just like always.

In all the days since the apocalypse began, Building Two had always been quiet.

Yu Dong recalled the zombies that had swarmed him again. Most of them weren’t from their community. He then remembered the unusual things he had seen a few days prior.

"I’ve got it!"

"It’s the underground garage!"

"Only the underground garage would allow zombies from outside to get in. It must have been hiding a ton of outside zombies! Lin Xiaojun’s group must have blocked it off somehow before."

"No wonder I saw so many outside zombies in the community after the heavy rain. They must have all come out of the underground garage."

"But... why did so many zombies gather in the underground garage after the rain?"

Yu Dong didn’t know the answer, but thanks to his powerful memory, he had figured out the cause of his death and reached two conclusions.

"1. The underground garage is the most dangerous place in this community. To make the community safe, the doors leading to the garage from all three buildings must be completely sealed."

"2. Besides killing zombies, we also have to dispose of their bodies properly. We can’t let them pile up in our main activity areas."

After reviewing the cause of his death in his previous life, Yu Dong arrived at the door to his dorm room.

The sound of an IELTS course could be heard from inside.

The corners of Yu Dong’s mouth lifted into a slight smile.

"It’s been a while, Xufeng."

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