Chapter 1

It's 1:27 a.m. If we just hold on until dawn , the mercenary squad will lead us to break through.

"Kane, don't move." Captain Grant lowered his voice, his gun barrel glancing at me almost imperceptibly. "An ordinary person like you will attract everything in the building if you make a sound."

My girlfriend, Erin, stood beside me wrapped in my old jacket .

“We’ll just go with them tomorrow,” I told her quietly . “Keep quiet and don’t cause any trouble.”

Eileen scoffed lightly: "Easy for you to say. If it weren't for you holding us back, we would have been in the safe zone long ago. "

I did not argue.

She now trusts Grant's well-trained team more than a man who can only fix cars.

A rustling sound came from the other end of the building, and everyone immediately tensed up.

Grant raised his hand with a swift gesture, and the four mercenaries immediately dispersed and took their positions.

At that moment, it felt like a crack had been pried open in my mind, and something icy cold crawled up my spine to the back of my neck.

Everything in sight became strange—cracks in the wall, spent cartridges on the ground, broken iron pipes in the corners—as if they were being dismantled into more primitive forms by an invisible hand: powder, iron filings, and fibers.

My breath hitched.

I know what this is.

After the apocalypse, the news reported that a very small number of people would awaken superpowers. Some could ignite the air, some could bend steel. And some... only gained laughable abilities.

My throat tightened, but I still lowered my voice and said, "Grant... I may have awakened."

Grant's eyes snapped back like knives: "What?"

I reached out and pointed to the broken steel bar on the ground. It was rusted black, and dried blood was still stuck to the tip.

"Watch."

I focused my mind, with only one thought in my head—to go back, to return to the beginning.

The next second, the steel bar seemed to have been bitten by time. Its surface quickly peeled off, the rust layer crumbled into powder, the metal structure collapsed, and finally, with a snap, it turned into a small pile of iron sand and debris.

The room was silent for two seconds.

Then came a low laugh.

"That's it?" A mercenary raised an eyebrow. "Turning steel bars into garbage?"

There was no surprise in Eileen's eyes, only deeper disappointment: "Kane, what can you do with your abilities? Help us clean up the junk?"

I clenched my fist until my knuckles turned white.

Grant took two steps closer, squatted down, and picked up a bit of iron filings, as if inspecting goods. When he stood up, his expression was even colder: "Reset? Return the item to its raw material state?"

"Yes." I nodded.

“Useless ability,” Grant uttered . “It can’t do anything except destroy resources.”

I stared into his eyes: "I can use it to destroy the lock, destroy the gun—"

"You dare ! " Grant raised his gun instantly, pressing it against my chest .

My Adam's apple bobbed as I suppressed my anger.

Eileen, as if she had finally found a reason to come to shore, added a silent blow: "Did you hear that? Don't make things worse. Stay close to me tomorrow... don't make me clean up your messes again."

I didn't answer.

I simply pushed that icy power back into my body, like putting a knife back in its sheath.

As dawn approached, Grant ordered a breakout.

I grabbed Eileen's wrist: "Come with me, don't leave—"

Eileen shook me off and said coldly, "You'll have to survive first."

As we descended the stairs to the first floor, the moment the door was lifted, a damp, fishy wind rushed in.

The next second, the first roar exploded.

"A horde of zombies!" someone cursed, raising their gun and firing.

The moment the gunshot rang out, the world was fully awakened.

Swarms of zombies rushed out like ants attracted by the scent of blood.

The movements were frighteningly fast.

Grant cursed, "Withdraw! Change to Route B!"

The mercenaries fought their way back, but there were just too many zombies.

I was pushed to the back of the line.

Eileen was a few meters ahead of me. She turned around and glanced at me, her eyes not filled with worry, but with calculation.

Grant saw me too.

In that instant, I understood their unspoken understanding.

My lips were dry, and I was just about to speak—

Grant suddenly turned around and kicked me in the chest.

I was sent flying backward and crashed into a gap in the horde of zombies , my vision filled with open mouths and outstretched claws.

Grant's voice rang out clearly and shrilly amidst the gunfire: "Block them! Move!"

Eileen stood beside him, her face showing no hesitation, even a hint of contempt in her smile.

She said something to me across the crowd—

"Don't blame me, Kane. It's your own fault for being useless."

They turned and ran.

I tried to get up, but the zombie pounced on me, its rotten teeth biting into my shoulder .

My clothes were torn, my skin ripped, and warm blood gushed out, only to be quickly pressed down by cold hands. Their fingernails were like saws, slicing open my chest.

I heard inhuman sounds coming from my own throat.

I wanted to call Eileen's name, but my mouth was full of blood.

I want to hate, but even hatred can't stop death.

My vision began to darken, my consciousness felt like it was being dragged into deep water, and my lungs were filled with icy coldness.

So this is the ending.

They were kicked out, treated like trash.

In the moment of my impending death, the power within me that I had suppressed suddenly stirred on its own.

It was no longer cold, but like a runaway machine, gears meshing, starting up with a roar.

I can "see" my own body.

I saw ruptured muscle fibers, torn blood vessels, and shattered periosteum. They were collapsing, dissipating, and irreversibly heading towards their end.

That force gave me a choice.

—Reset.

I didn't even have time to think; I just instinctively screamed in my heart: Go back! Go back to when I wasn't hurt!

The next second, something strange happened.

The mangled flesh on his shoulder, like a film playing in reverse, stopped bleeding, the skin closed, and the muscle wrapped around the bone again. The gash in his chest quickly shut, the pain forcibly erased.

The zombies were still tearing and biting, but the wounds they made healed almost in the same second.

I took a deep breath .

It turns out my "reset" wasn't just for items.

It can also pull me—myself—back from death.

I raised my hand, my fingertips touching the zombie's rotting wrist, with only one thought in my mind: retreat.

Its wrist collapsed instantly, bones turned to powder, and muscles crumbled like mud. The zombie lost its support and fell flat on its face.

I stood up, the horde of corpses still surrounding me, but for the first time I felt no fear.

I looked in the direction they fled, my eyes as calm as ice.

"Eileen, Grant."

"You guys run."

"I will find you all one by one."

In the distance, the gunshots faded into the distance. A pale dawn broke on the horizon.

And I, stepping over the blood and flesh scattered on the ground, took a step deeper into the horde of corpses.