The good news was that her luck was pretty good this time—the original host’s memories were completely intact.
The bad news was that this Desperate World was set against the backdrop of a chaotic apocalypse.
The current year was 2345 CE, and the location was Blue Star.
Three years ago, humanity’s boundless greed finally enraged the Lord God. To punish and test mankind, the Lord God scattered malice across the planet alongside a red rain.
This malice nestled deep within the hearts of humans, squirming and biding its time to break out.
Once the malice sprouted, it constantly unleashed intense desires, beguiling the infected and warping their minds.
During this time, the infected suffered severe auditory hallucinations accompanied by symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, and nosebleeds.
The mutation period varied for each individual: the shortest was no less than three days, and the longest did not exceed fifteen days.
When an infected person was completely overwhelmed by their desires and obsessions, they lost their soul entirely, mutating and demonicizing into all sorts of monsters.
Not only were they grotesque, terrifying, and utterly devoid of humanity, but they also preyed on humans.
People referred to these man-eating monsters as Aberrations.
Yet not all infected individuals ultimately turned into Aberrations; an extremely small fraction resisted the temptation of the malice within and kept from losing control and becoming monsters.
These infected still retained human appearances and normal cognition, but through mutation, they evolved diverse special abilities.
People called these special infected Mutants.
Because the malice-bearing red rain had fallen globally, every living person in the world was a potential carrier.
Like ticking time bombs, no one knew when the malice buried within their hearts would detonate.
According to incomplete statistics, within the first year after the red rain fell, the number of people who mutated from infection accounted for roughly one-tenth of the global population, and fewer than one in a thousand among them became Mutants.
With man-eating Aberrations roaming everywhere, nations across the globe faced a colossal crisis of survival. They erected towering, fortified walls and established safe bases, keeping the terrifying Aberrations shut outside.
Meanwhile, those living inside the safe bases had to undergo rigorous daily testing. The moment any symptoms of infection manifested, they were immediately locked in quarantine.
The fate awaiting those locked in quarantine was never a good one.
They either mutated into man-eating Aberrations to be studied and destroyed;
Or they mutated into Mutants endowed with special abilities, turned into test subjects or reduced to weapons for hunting Aberrations.
Vaccines capable of suppressing the emergence of malice had already been developed, but they merely stalled the process rather than eliminating it entirely. Furthermore, the vaccines had a limited duration of effectiveness and required periodic booster injections.
Even so, these vaccines remained exorbitantly priced, completely unaffordable for ordinary citizens.
Consequently, upon discovering that they were infected and beginning to mutate, many people did everything they could to flee the safe bases rather than await death in quarantine, plunging into the Aberration-infested Exiled Lands to fend for themselves.
The original host, Jiang Wanzhou, was one such infected person who had fled a safe zone.
Having just entered the Exiled Lands with her companions, she ran into a formidable Aberration. In the end, her companions lost their lives, and she was pinned beneath collapsed rubble.
Fortunately, on the brink of death, she mutated into a Mutant, narrowly surviving.
Unfortunately, right after cheating death, she was captured by the base’s Hunting Guard and thrown into a research facility.
As for the original host’s ability, it was an extraordinarily powerful self-healing factor!
In other words, no matter how severe her injuries were, she could heal on her own and fully recover in an astonishingly short time.
Even if her neck were broken, simply snapping it back into place would let it knit right back together!
Having sorted out her current situation, even Ye Li couldn't help but offer some praise.
Color me impressed, system!
If she hadn't been hindered by having only one hand at the moment, she might have even applauded.
This dog of a system had truly committed to carrying its “no peaceful death” mandate out to the bitter end!
Jests and complaints aside, Ye Li was quite satisfied with this current body.
Although the original host had merely been an ordinary college student prior to the apocalypse, she had been an avid distance runner who had participated in marathons big and small, meaning she possessed exceptional physical fitness.
She was no longer the frail invalid from the previous world who couldn't carry a load on her shoulders or lift anything with her hands, gasping for breath after running just a couple of steps.
Coupled with her potent self-healing ability now, while such a power might seem negligible to others, for a ruthless person like her, it was undoubtedly like adding wings to a tiger.
As the saying went: the timid fear the tough, the tough fear the reckless, and the reckless fear those who don't care about their lives—and right now, she was the one who didn't give a damn about staying alive.
Since she couldn't die easily anyway, all she had to do was go wild and raise hell!
At that thought, Ye Li turned her head to look at her severed arm.
At the mangled, bloody stump, faint crimson granulation tissue could be seen squirming slowly, stirring up an unbearable itch as if countless ants were crawling over it.
Yet compared to the bone-splintering agony from earlier, this itch was nothing more than a minor annoyance.
Knowing it wouldn't be long before this arm grew back, Ye Li dwelled on it no further. She closed her eyes quietly, intending to conserve her energy first.
Barring any surprises, someone would be coming tonight to have a little “fun” with her!
She certainly couldn't be a poor host!
...
Time slipped by slowly. In the sunless subterranean cell, day and night were indistinguishable.
However, quite a while had already passed since dinner.
Just then, the patter of footsteps echoed down the quiet hallway as the silhouettes of two men, one tall and one short, walked toward the cell where Ye Li was held.
By the dim, yellow light filtering from the corridor, a figure could be seen lying quietly on the narrow concrete bed inside the cell. On the floor before the barred door sat a small bowl of watery rice porridge and a small piece of bean cake; evidently, the person inside hadn't gotten up to enjoy her dinner.
Could this chick be dead?
The tall man instantly frowned. He had zero interest in corpses!
He hurried to unlock the barred door and slipped inside to check her breathing.
Fortunately, she was still breathing!
She was probably still unconscious.
That was fine too; while messing around with her might be slightly less fun this way, at least she wouldn't make too much noise.
“Why don’t you go first?” the tall man offered politely, looking at his companion.
“No, no, you go first, bro,” the short man waved his hands hastily. When it came down to it, he was still a bit timid.
“All right then!” The tall man didn't press the matter further. Chuckling lecherously, he reached down to undo his belt. “Be a good brother and keep watch at the door for me. Once I’m done having my fun, you can take your turn.”
“Sure, sure, got it,” the short man agreed quickly and backed out of the cell to keep lookout in the corridor.
In a few swift motions, the tall man loosened his waistband and approached the woman lying stiffly on the bed.
The cell was dim, making it difficult to clearly see the woman's face, but that didn't hinder him from getting down to business.
Impatient, the man climbed onto the bed on hands and knees, leaning down to unfasten her clothes.
Yet right at that moment, the woman on the bed, whose eyes had been tightly shut, abruptly snapped them open.
Even in this dim light, those shimmering black eyes gleamed with startling intensity, their icy gaze almost tangible as it scraped against the man’s face like cold blades.
Rate on N.U.
