Chapter 2

This time, my parents believed her completely. Other than the house we were living in, they sold the storefront and the car in a rush, converted everything into cash, and started stockpiling supplies.

They ordered tens of tons of flour, bought several large freezers to store chicken, beef, fish, and pork, and hauled truckloads of daily necessities, clothes, underwear, and bathroom supplies into the house.

"In the late stages of the apocalypse, anti-inflammatory medicine will be the hardest to find. We should stock up now. Later, a single pill could be worth a cow."

Mom bought a large supply of medicine from dealers—anti-inflammatories, cold and flu remedies, painkillers, antibiotics, bandages, disinfectants, thermometers, and more.

I silently reviewed my chemistry formulas for the exam, paying no mind to the ridiculous stockpiling.

Giselle reinforced the doors and windows and even installed solar panels on the balcony. Zombies later would chew through power lines, and the city would experience massive blackouts. Still, idiots would remain as idiots no matter how many times they were reborn.

She never considered how conspicuous such a large solar panel would be in an apocalypse. Its reflective surface would immediately give away her location to other survivors looking for food. Even though my parents had money, they lived in a townhouse, not a mansion.

The townhouse had two units per floor, and the heavy construction added its own problems. In an apocalypse, clean water was the most scarce resource, and it was especially hard to store because it couldn't be compressed.

Giselle hadn't stored much water, likely assuming that rainwater would be enough. She also failed to plan for trash disposal. Leaving garbage in the courtyard would alert other survivors on the first day.

In a world overrun by zombies, the greatest danger came from people's greed and jealousy. I didn't warn her. Instead, I stayed home, quietly going over my worksheets.

In my past life, I went back home a month before the college entrance exam to meet my parents. They claimed Giselle's exam was too important and had me stay elsewhere, overlooking that I was in the same grade and needed to take it too.

After Giselle predicted several extreme weather events, my parents were fully convinced the apocalypse was real. Dad sold the company, Mom quit her job, and Giselle took an extended leave from school. If she hadn't needed to be there in person to withdraw, Giselle might have dropped out completely.

As I worked on the last math problem, Giselle mocked, "Choice matters more than effort. Even if you ace this problem or have the top score nationwide, it won't matter. I wouldn't be surprised if the exam doesn't happen at all."

I feigned surprise, covering my mouth. "Giselle, what are you talking about? The exam is less than a month away. How could it not happen?"

She scoffed coldly, looking at me with a mixture of pity and disdain.

Before her rebirth, Giselle had been an ordinary survivor, and even after being reborn, she hadn't accomplished anything remarkable. Her apocalypse was never going to come.

That weekend, I staked out the entrance of the military academy and successfully found Shawn Decker—the leader of the survivor base in my past life.

Although he had been an ordinary college junior before the apocalypse, he came from a military family. Both his parents were district commanders, and his grandfather was the legendary second-in-command. As a natural leader, he awakened three types of abilities after the apocalypse and built the survivor base with an iron hand.

Before I died, his base had grown to be the largest in the country, sheltering a hundred thousand people and even developing a zombie vaccine. Sadly, I never lived to witness it.

He glared at me and asked, "What do you want from me?"