Zhao Jiayi couldn't describe the grief he felt and he could barely understand why he felt it. Just minutes prior he was ready to celebrate, he had finally ended this whole Zombie apocalypse. He defeated the Zombie king so now the world will get back on its feet. This time the world will be ready for another apocalypse. With the new powers that people like him have acquired the future will be safe. Without people like the Zombie King out there, the world will be safe...

So why did he feel like this as he stared at the mangled body on the ground in front of him? It wasn't because he killed someone, he'd done that plenty of times and for the past two years he hadn't considered this man 'a person'. He'd only thought of him as a monster who woke up one day and decided to throw the world into chaos for the fun of it.

Now he couldn't help but look at the bloody face and blood-stained white hair of the young man in front of him and he couldn't help but feel disgusted in himself.

"Finally...Finally that fucker is dead!" A man exclaimed as he entered the building and saw Zhao Jiayi standing over the Zombie king's body.

"Great Job Boss! We can go back to normal now!"

Jiayi wanted to yell at him but he bit it back, he had been the only one to hear the Zombie King's last words, it made sense for no one else to understand.

"Are you feeling sentimental? Are you relieved that we can finally live our lives like we always wanted?" A woman's voice said as she entered the building as well, unlike the man that came in, she was perfectly clean. She avoided the blood outside and on the floor of the building. She didn't mind the blood on Zhao Jiayi's body though, she hugged him from behind without a second thought.

Zhao Jiayi thought that at this moment he'd only be able to think about his future with this woman, Xu Meihua. But all he could think about was how the world had failed Yan Xing.

Yan Xing, the Zombie king who lay dead at his feet, could've been saved if just one person saved him from the abuse he endured. If one person stopped turning a blind eye. If one person stopped suffocating him with the weight of their expectations, their demands, their greed.

Zhao Jiayi had met Yan Xing more times than he'd initially realized. Before he became a Zombie Yan Xing was a student at the university where Zhao Jiayi taught Biochemistry. They were in different departments but Zhao Jiayi definitely recognized his hair, his face not so much but his hair was pure white even before the apocalypse so it was quite noticeable. They had met multiple times since then but more than half of those times he didn't know it was Yan Xing, he only knew him as 'Yan'.

Yan was a weird young man who appeared in the survivor bases a few times. They talked often and somehow they confided in one another. Yan described how he didn't mind the apocalypse or even the threat of death because of zombies. He said it didn't matter what happened as long as he was operating by his own free will. He said he had been controlled and isolated from the world by his parents for so long that he'd be happy to die if it was his own choice.

Jiayi didn't know if it was true. Perhaps it was all a manipulation tactic that Yan Xing had used to make him pity him so he could get information from him. Yet somehow as he remembered Yan Xing's pleased expression as his core was ripped from his body, he felt like it was the truth.

"H-Have you swallowed the Zombie king's core yet?" Someone who walked in asked, walking up to Jiayi, purposely stepping on Yan Xing's body as he did.

Jiayi glanced at him, looking down at the foot that was stepping on Yan Xing and then at his own hand.

A violet sphere glowed in his hand, reminding him that he had killed Yan Xing himself.

“Y-You’re already the strongest person out there in the world so…”

Zhao Jiayi separated Xu Meihua from himself and absorbed the core, not even thinking about it. The man who had asked him about the core was clearly vexed but he couldn’t say anything.

Jiayi felt like his power had tripled. It was almost beyond what he thought was possible even for himself. He had only absorbed for the sake of not letting anyone else have it but he felt worse and more disgusted with himself after doing so.

"Do you regret it so much you'd turn back time?"

"Yeah...I would."

"Honey?" Xu Meihua asked, confused by Jiayi's words.

The world quickly turned to black for Zhao Jiayi at that moment and when he opened his eyes he was suddenly staring at the ceiling, not the ceiling of the room he had been in though.

buzz buzz

He sat up and looked around, this was his bedroom from before the apocalypse. He only became more confused as he turned to his phone on his nightstand and he saw the label on the alarm.

'Check if Dad came home' was typed out on the screen instead of 'Get Ready for Work'.

"This is...A week before the apocalypse..." Zhao Jiayi murmured to himself.

"...That was a serious question...?" Jiayi thought back to the question he had heard before he arrived in the past.

"..." He sat on his bed, unsure of what to do or think.

He hadn't actually intended to go back into the past so he had no plans for what he was going to do. He thought of the feeling he had as he said that he’d turn back time and came to his conclusion.

Yan Xing.

‘I will save him. I will save him no matter what.’

Zhao Jiayi started his day as he did the first time he went through it. He didn’t feel the same emotions as he did back then though. He didn’t feel distraught as he had back then.

Today was the 10th day since his father left for work and hadn’t come back. His father was a Biochemist just like he was but he was heavily involved with the government. He had instructed Jiayi ever since he was young that unless he specifically told him that he would be gone for more than 10 days, he should begin preparing for the worst after 10 days of his absence.

Jiayi didn’t understand what he meant as well and as he went through high school he assumed that meant “prepare for a funeral”. But as a 28-year-old Biochemistry instructor, he now knew what it really meant. Either his father had made a mistake and he would have to pay for it too… or the world would face a crisis soon. After the apocalypse it all made sense.

His father had discovered the zombie virus. And he and the rest of the government was scrambling to analyze and find a cure before it got out. Zhao Yusheng was a genius unlike any other, if he couldn't find the cure, no one could. That's what all of the researchers must've thought. And they would be right. Zhao Yusheng found something but it was too late, too late for himself, and likely too late for anyone else in that laboratory. What Zhao Yusheng found wasn't a cure but rather a vaccine.

Zhao Yusheng gave it to Zhao Jiayi while he was sleeping and then he disappeared off into the lab, not even saying goodbye. Zhao Jiayi came to the conclusion that his father was dead around this time but he didn't know that he was immune to the virus until far later on. He heard it from Yan Xing actually.

--

The white-haired young man in front of Zhao Jiayi whistled at him and smirked.

"That's crazy...You're actually immune? Isn't that unfair?" Yan Xing said and jumped backward as Zhao Jiayi pointed his sword at him.

"Immune...?" Zhao Jiayi spat, he was angry, no, furious. Yan had been the Zombie king this whole time. The one person who seemed to understand him was the man controlling all the Zombies.

"I injured you the last time we talked. But here you are, all sane and heroic like usual. How boring." Yan Xing sighed.

--

Zhao Jiayi was calm this time around as he went through everything. He knew exactly what to do and what he would need. He prepared food, water, clothes, weapons, and all kinds of other things that would prove useful. He also prepared them for all of his close friends, as well as some extras. He had lost a lot of people he was close to because he was unprepared the first time but he didn't want that to happen this time.

Not just Yan Xing. Everyone, I'll save everyone this time.

--

"Huh? This is so unlike you Professor Zhao. You're usually in the lab until we kick you out." The secretary in the main office of B University said as she processed Zhao Jiayi's leave of absence.

"Just need a bit of a break, got something important to do," Zhao Jiayi murmured.

"You sure it's not a girlfriend~?" The secretary teased, "The young ladies in the department will be so jealous."

"...I mean...I guess you're not wrong..." Zhao Jiayi murmured after thinking about it for a second after she handed him the final paper he needed.

The secretary almost dropped the coffee she had been about to take a sip from as she heard that. She was about to ask who it was, feeling super nosy but Zhao Jiayi's long legs had already carried him off.

Xu Meihua also went to this university. She was a student in the English department. If she was on campus today she would probably be at the senior seminar that was taking place in the room that Zhao Jiayi just walked past. It wasn't like he was unaware of this though, he simply wasn't interested.

He walked through the English department and over to the Business department building. Just as he started walking through the halls a class ended and students came out of a classroom quickly. There hadn't been many girls in the class and boys only admired Zhao Jiayi silently so it was like he wasn't even there. Even their little interest in him didn't make him completely invisible. When this happened in the past, a certain white-haired boy was perfectly capable of avoiding him but this time was different. In a half step, Zhao Jiayi stepped in front of Yan Xing and caused them to bump into each other in a way that looked so accidental that it almost seemed like Yan Xing's fault.

"Woah there." Zhao Jiayi said and smiled, catching the white-haired boy gallantly.

"...Sorry..." Yan Xing murmured, only lifting his head a little as he saw Jiayi.