"Night Owl, Panla, and Mordred—they betrayed us."
"Xia Yue, take the captain and break through! Head to the Dragon City Research Institute and find the cure!"
"The Evil God has already cut off the escape route!"
"Then we fight our way out! Even if we have to pile up corpses, we'll make a path to get the captain out!"
"Captain, live on—for us! You are the soul of the Demon hunters. As long as you're alive, the Demon hunters live!"
…
In Huan Tian's ears, explosions thundered, bullets screamed.
Anguished roars, terrifying shrieks, the sound of flesh being torn and devoured—
Countless noises twisted together like a nightmare from the depths of hell.
The virus from his wounds had already begun rampaging through his body.
He felt unbearably heavy, as if he were being dragged to the bottom of the ocean. The crushing pressure pressed against every inch of his muscles and bones, threatening to shatter him completely.
He wanted to open his eyes, to prove he was still alive—but even a finger wouldn't move.
Deep within, Huan Tian's will was roaring:
"My brothers still need me. I can't fall here!"
"Wake up! Wake up, Huan Tian, wake the hell up!"
"Ahhh!"
Huan Tian let out a hysterical roar, so forceful it felt like his vocal cords were tearing apart.
But when he forced open his bloodshot eyes—
He froze.
Outside the window, peaceful neon lights bathed the city.
Cars moved through the streets like blood flowing through the city's veins.
Before him sat a desk, a computer, and towering piles of paperwork...
Everything around him felt disorienting Ly foreign—yet strangely familiar.
A surreal sense of temporal dislocation washed over him.
It was all wrong—
And yet, somehow, it had all happened before.
Suddenly, something flickered at the corner of Huan Tian's eye—his pupils contracted sharply, like those of a beast sensing deadly danger.
He jerked his head up.
A meteor streaked across the night sky, trailing blue flames. It was breathtakingly beautiful, like a ghost gliding silently through the stars.
An icy chill surged through Huan Tian's limbs. He snapped his gaze to the bottom-right corner of his computer screen.
June 13th, 2078, 8:00 PM.
This was it—the final thirty minutes before the end of the world.
At that very moment, the meteor known as "Azure" was skimming past Earth. Countless blue crystalline fragments on its surface would soon rain down across the planet. Beautiful on the outside, but hiding a terrifying truth—
Highly concentrated Nightmare Virus crystals.
These crystals would fall with the storm, and any gene-based lifeform that came into contact with them—no matter how—would mutate.
Zombies. Mutant beasts. Twisted plants. Aberrant bacteria, viruses, parasites…
The entire world would be plunged into a nightmarish mutant hell.
The human population would plummet by 80%. From rulers of the food chain, humans would fall to the bottom, scurrying and hiding like rats, just to survive. And the throne of the world would be seized by grotesque mutant monsters and the undead.
In that apocalyptic warzone, Huan Tian fought for ten blood-soaked years.
He formed the Demon Hunter Squad with a group of brothers who lived and died by his side.
He became the only human in the world to break through to Gene Tier Eight before the age of forty.
He was honored with a title that shook the continent—
The God of Demon Hunters.
But just as he began his attempt to reach the Ninth Gene Tier, betrayal struck.
Three fellow Tier Eight gene warriors—Night Owl, Panla, and Mordred—launched a sudden ambush.
Worse, they lured in the only known Tier Nine mutant beast of that time: the Evil God.
In the end, to protect Huan Tian's escape, the entire Demon Hunter Squad perished beneath the claws of that monster.
And Huan Tian, unable to resist the Tier Nine Nightmare Virus infecting the Evil God, finally succumbed—
He fell, becoming a Tier Nine zombie.
The image of his brothers dying one after another in front of him burned into his soul.
Huan Tian's eyes turned blood-red with fury.
"Night Owl. Panla. Mordred…"
"If fate has granted me a second life, then I'll make you pay, in blood!"
"And my brothers… this time, I swear—I won't let any of you die to the Evil God!"
[Ding—Apocalypse Countdown: 30 Minutes. Demon Hunter System Initialized.]
Name: Huan Tian
Strength: 6
Agility: 7
Constitution: 7
Spirit: 9
[Current System Level: LV1 | Demon Points Needed for Next Level: 0/20]
[Current Mission: Recruit the First Ally of the Apocalypse]
[Mission Reward: Unlock Ammo Synthesis System and enable "Desert Eagle Ammo" Quick-Synthesis Function]
[Quick-Synthesis requires Demon Points, which can be earned by slaying zombies and mutant beasts.]
"Demon Hunter System...? Is this... my old Demon Hunter Squad?"
Huan Tian's eyes flickered, voice low and heavy.
"Could it be... that heaven took pity on us, and brought them back to me in another form?"
A rush of emotion surged in his chest—grief, hope, fury—all tangled into one.
But there was no time to dwell on the past.
As a skilled programmer, Huan Tian had formidable hacking abilities. He swiftly broke into the government's back-end system and hijacked an emergency broadcast channel, sending a message out to the entire world:
"The apocalypse is imminent."
"Everyone, stay inside. Seal all doors and windows."
"For the next twelve hours, do not go outside. Do not let the rain touch you."
"Do not consume any food or water that isn't factory-sealed."
"Avoid contact with anything-or—or anyone—that has been exposed to the rain."
**"Above all—**don't get injured. This is critical."
Once the message was sent, he yanked out the power cable and shut the computer down without hesitation.
In his mind, a massive plan was already taking shape—
And this broadcast would be the overture to everything that followed.
He stared into the darkening night, eyes filled with iron resolve.
"Night Owl, Panla, Mordred…"
"One day... we will meet again."
—Boom!
Suddenly, a rolled-up magazine flew past Huan Tian's forehead and slammed down hard on his desk. If he hadn't tilted his head at the last second, it would've struck him square in the face.
"You are a lazy, useless piece of trash!"
"I called you in tonight to work overtime, and you shut off your computer?!"
"I'm telling you—if that report isn't done by tonight, don't even think about leaving this office!"
Huan Tian looked up to see a pot-bellied man standing beside him, eyes glinting with spite. The fat on his face quivered with each mocking sneer.
In an instant, Huan Tian's eyes erupted with a killing intent so thick it was almost tangible.
This man was Jiang Hao, the head of the company's project department, and the nephew of President Jiang Qing. Back then, Jiang Hao constantly used his position to harass Huan Tian, forcing him to work late under the flimsiest excuses.
As a lowly employee, all Huan Tian could do was grit his teeth and endure. His girlfriend, Wang Susu, used to wait for him at the company during those long nights, and her presence had once filled him with warmth and hope. He promised himself he'd work harder, give them a better future.
But it was all a lie.
Wang Susu had long been Jiang Qing's mistress.
Every time Jiang Hao forced Huan Tian to stay late, it was just to give her a convenient excuse to sneak into Jiang Qing's office upstairs, for their filthy affair.
That blatant betrayal sat right above Huan Tian's head for three whole years.
He wore that humiliating green hat without ever knowing.
Until the day the apocalypse broke out, he caught the cheating couple red-handed as they fled.
Furious beyond reason, Huan Tian tried to confront them. Instead, Jiang Qing's security guards beat him bloody and locked him inside the president's office to die.
But fate had other plans.
Everyone who escaped ended up infected and turned into zombies. Huan Tian, left behind, survived those first twelve hours of hell by pure chance.
Now, the rage in his chest burned like wildfire. His killing intent surged so powerfully that it made the air heavy.
Jiang Hao felt it instantly. His body tensed with instinctive fear, and a shiver ran down his spine. But it lasted only a moment, replaced quickly by bluster and petty spite.
"You damn mutt—you dare glare at me?"
"Your bonus this month is gone! And if you so much as look at me again, I'll wipe your performance record clean. Don't even dream of getting a year-end bonus!"
Jiang Hao jabbed the rolled-up magazine at Huan Tian's nose, yelling so furiously that flecks of spit nearly splattered onto his face.
In the past, Huan Tian had pushed back a few times, but the moment Jiang Hao brought up bonuses or performance evaluations, he would immediately cave, shrinking into submission like every other disposable office grunt. It was a tactic that had never failed.
So, this time, Jiang Hao stood there with smug arrogance, waiting to see the same defeated expression.
But instead, what he saw was a gaze cold as steel.
A gaze like a blade drawn across the neck.
Huan Tian wasn't shrinking back. He was staring straight into Jiang Hao's soul—his eyes sharp enough to chill the air.
"Jiang Hao," Huan Tian said coldly, standing up slowly, "it's time we settled our scores."
The killing intent surging from his body wrapped around Jiang Hao like a noose.
In his previous life, Huan Tian had been an eighth-tier gene-evolver—he had slaughtered more mutant beasts and zombies than he could count. He had buried countless schemers who thought they could play him.
Jiang Hao instinctively staggered back, nearly collapsing onto the floor, retreating several steps in fear. But his pride burned hotter than his fear, and rage forced the terror down.
With a snarl, he swung the magazine at Huan Tian's face.
"You ungrateful mutt! You don't want to work here anymore? Fine! You're fired! Get the hell out—"
His threat was cut off by a scream of agony.
Huan Tian's hand moved like lightning, smacking the magazine aside before seizing Jiang Hao's wrist mid-air and twisting it violently.
Crack!
The sound of the bone snapping echoed through the office.
The truth is, most people simply never learn how to use force properly. But once you understand how to channel core strength from your waist and abdomen into your strikes, even the average person can hit with the force of a trained fighter.
"You bastard! You broke my wrist!" Jiang Hao howled in pain. "You dare bite the hand that feeds you?! I'll rip out every one of your damn teeth—I'll kill you! Somebody! Get in here!"
His arrogance made him even more furious in the face of injury. It never occurred to him to ask why the once-docile Huan Tian had struck back so decisively.
"Jiang Hao, we're here."
"Damn it, Huan Tian, what the hell are you doing!"
"Let go of Jiang Hao!"
Four security guards immediately rushed into the office, pulling out batons and swinging them at Huan Tian's face.
They were Jiang Hao's loyal lackeys and were well-practiced at roughing Huan Tian up. But before their batons could land, a thunderous roar crashed past their ears like an avalanche—
"Get lost!"
Huan Tian unleashed four consecutive kicks. The four guards were sent flying like cannonballs, crashing through the office desks, which shattered into pieces. They didn't even manage a scream before collapsing unconscious.
Huan Tian moved his once-trained body. Although he mostly sat in the office, he kept up a running routine, maintaining decent physical coordination.
This time, Jiang Hao's face drained of color, revealing a flicker of panic. His eyes were filled with pleading and fear.
"Huan Tian... I was just joking earlier. Don't take it seriously..."
"Then I'll just treat this as a joke, too."
Before Jiang Hao's smile could even form, Huan Tian's wrist shook violently as he forcefully twisted Jiang Hao's arm outward.
A sharp crack echoed—the shoulder joint shattered with a crushing fracture. Jiang Hao's right arm hung uselessly by his side like a broken limb, and he writhed on the ground, screaming in pain.
But Huan Tian wasn't done yet.