The system was about to lose its mind.
According to the rules of this world, if an open wound came into contact with blood containing the virus, the person would become infected and turn into a zombie.
That meant the consequences of Sang Luo’s actions were irreversible.
She would soon become a mindless walking corpse.
From its perspective, the system could see all of Sang Luo’s physical data.
In the blink of an eye, the virus had already begun devouring her cells at a frantic rate.
At this speed, it would take no more than three minutes.
Then it would have to face a freshly transformed zombie host!
Once its host became incapable of communicating, how were they supposed to complete any missions?!
It had only just been assigned its first mission.
Sang Luo was its very first host, yet she had dealt it a critical blow the moment they met.
Once the system log was uploaded to the System Bureau, they would undoubtedly judge its working ability as inadequate.
And then, without question, the System Bureau would recycle it.
The panicking system decided to make one final attempt to save the situation and hurriedly sent out a stream of data.
“Senior! Help meeeeeee! {{{(>_<)}}}”
It contacted a diamond-ranked senior system that had already served more than a hundred hosts.
After packaging and sending over the entire situation, it anxiously asked what it should do.
The senior replied almost immediately.
It had probably never expected its junior to encounter such an unconventional host on its very first mission—a host whose only desire was to drop dead.
The senior replied, “Immediately awaken an ability within your host and forcibly interrupt the viral infection.”
The system asked, “How do I awaken one?”
It did not have that kind of ability!
Its experienced senior explained, “Use your points to open a back door. Connect to the rules of the current world, then guide the power of those rules into your host’s body to complete the awakening.”
Under its senior’s guidance, the system fumbled through a frantic series of operations.
At last, one second before the virus completely devoured Sang Luo, it successfully awakened her ability.
After the system’s screams disappeared, Sang Luo relaxed against the chair.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the silence while sensing the strange changes taking place within her body.
As the moment she had been waiting for drew near, Sang Luo’s lips involuntarily curved upwards.
At last, she could enjoy a nice, long sleep—
…Wait.
Why had she not transformed yet?!
Sang Luo’s expression froze.
Something was wrong.
The negative changes within her body quietly came to a halt, then uncontrollably shifted in an entirely different direction.
Strength gradually flowed back into her limbs, which had been left feeble by the fever.
The tightness in her chest disappeared, and her head no longer hurt.
Her entire body felt as though it had been reborn.
A terrible premonition suddenly rose within Sang Luo.
Could it be that after turning into a zombie, she would still retain her own consciousness?
Then did this count as dying or not?!
As though sensing her confusion, the exhausted system spoke weakly.
“Host, I awakened a water ability for you.”
Sang Luo fell silent.
“…”
So that was what had happened.
She should have realised that the system would not allow her to die so easily.
Seeing the expression on her face, the system felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
Suddenly, losing all of its points did not feel quite so painful.
It had already realised that its host was an enormous headache and far more difficult to handle than the average person.
Therefore, it deliberately avoided mentioning her earlier suicide attempt, pretending that nothing had happened.
Instead, the system tried to make her understand how significant this was.
“According to the original timeline, surviving humans only gradually begin awakening abilities on the tenth day after the virus outbreak.”
“Today is only the seventh day, which means you’re the first person in the entire world to awaken one.”
Sang Luo slowly exhaled, her expression unreadable.
“Oh. Do I get a reward?”
The system was silent.
“…”
It wanted to complain, but ultimately restrained itself.
The system’s silence made Sang Luo sneer.
“If there’s no reward, what are you acting so proud for?”
The system remained silent.
Its life as a system was so difficult.
But when it saw that Sang Luo still had enough energy to mock it, it strangely felt a little relieved.
Sang Luo spoke again, this time in a very friendly tone.
“What’s your dream?”
The system answered cautiously, “To become an outstanding diamond-ranked system and provide my hosts with the highest-quality service!”
“Not bad.” Sang Luo smiled sweetly. “Now guess what my dream is.”
The system answered with extraordinary cleverness, “To partner with me and complete the mission!”
Sang Luo acted as though she had not heard it and revealed the answer.
“To kill you.”
The system fell silent.
“…”
Making the system unhappy immediately improved Sang Luo’s mood.
She moved her stiff neck and considered what to do next.
She had finally been given the opportunity to sleep forever, only for the system to wake her up and drag her into an apocalyptic world.
Then she had tried to give up and become a zombie, only for that to fail too.
She was angry, but since she could not die, she could hardly go around cuddling zombies.
She opened the system panel.
Since her only thought earlier had been to die, she naturally had not bothered examining it.
The original novel was available on the panel, but it was far too long, and she could not be bothered reading it.
She also skipped the character biographies, important plot points and missions.
Finally, Sang Luo opened her personal information.
**Name:** Sang Luo
**Ability:** Water-type—Elemental
**Rank:** E-rank—20/100
**Potential:** Unknown
**Abilities:** Water Generation, Water Manipulation—other abilities awaiting development
**Companion Talent:** Not Awakened
**Explanation:** When a human awakens an ability, there is a chance that they will also awaken a companion talent. This grants the ability user a unique additional power.
Sang Luo stared at the words *Not Awakened* for a long moment before asking the system:
“Since you already awakened an ability for me, couldn’t you throw in a companion talent for free?”
The system was speechless.
Did she think it was selling cabbages at the market?!
Sang Luo raised an eyebrow.
“Also, why is it only a low-level E-rank ability? Isn’t the highest rank SSS? I’m not asking for much. You could have at least given me an S-rank.”
The system remained silent.
“…………”
It cried out indignantly, “Awakening an E-rank water ability for you already used every single one of my points!”
Sang Luo replied, “I never asked you to awaken it.”
The system fell utterly silent.
“………………”
Why had its very first mission paired it with such a shameless disaster of a host?
What shocked it next was that Sang Luo, who had acted so disdainful of her E-rank water ability, skilfully condensed a sphere of water with ease.
No matter the rank of their ability, people who had just awakened could not immediately control their suddenly acquired power.
There was always an adjustment period.
Sang Luo clearly did not need one.
Then the system watched as the ball of water gradually flattened beneath her control, forming a thin facial mask that perfectly covered her palm-sized face.
Next, she condensed another mass of water roughly the size of a basketball and wrapped it around her hair to wash it.
Oh, right.
The system suddenly realised something.
Its host might be difficult to handle, but she was still a girl.
Loving beauty was instinctive.
It could absolutely exploit that.
After washing her hair, Sang Luo controlled the moisture and separated it from the strands, tossing the dirty water into a corner.
Her damp hair immediately became dry, soft and voluminous.
Her face also appeared even smoother and more hydrated, resembling a freshly peeled egg.
Having seemingly experienced the wonders of a water ability, she was clearly rather satisfied.
The only flaw was its limited capacity.
“What a shame. The rank is too low. Just washing my face and hair used up all my power. It’ll take two hours to recover.”
The system felt that its opportunity had arrived and hurriedly said:
“Abilities can be upgraded by absorbing crystal cores. Yours might be weak now, but as long as you work hard, reaching a higher rank in the future won’t be a problem.”
“By then, forget merely applying a facial mask. You’ll be able to enjoy a full-body spa anytime and anywhere.”
It paused before naturally steering the conversation towards its true objective.
“The male and female protagonists are currently hiding inside the university supermarket. Once your ability recovers, you can go straight there.”
“You can kill any zombies you encounter along the way and collect their crystal cores. You’ll achieve two goals at once.”
Sang Luo quietly listened to its endless chatter.
After a while, she asked thoughtfully, “If I go there and kill the male and female protagonists, will this world collapse immediately?”
The system was horrified.
“……!”
It had never imagined that its words would inspire such a terrifying idea.
Cold sweat poured from it as it hurriedly tried to fix the situation.
“You don’t have to worry about that. The male and female protagonists are protected by protagonist halos, so they won’t die.”
Sang Luo gave a slightly disappointed “Oh.”
The system had barely relaxed when it heard her continue:
“Then since I can’t kill them to take revenge, why should I bother going to find them?”
Because it was part of the plot!
Because it was the mission!
The system decided to reason with her.
The next second, the silence inside the infirmary was shattered.
Violent pounding came from the glass window, which had been tightly covered by the curtains.
At the same time, desperate screams scraped across everyone’s eardrums like knives.
The noise was so loud that even Sang Luo could hear it from the medicine storeroom.
“Open the window!”
“Please!”
“I know someone’s inside!”
“Open the window! Hurry!”
“Ahhhhhhh—!”
Hu Lingling instinctively moved to open the window, but Wang Tianlei grabbed her and shoved her heavily to one side.
“You want to let them in and bring all the zombies with them?!”
Hu Lingling’s head struck the wall, leaving her dazed.
Wang Tianlei turned and saw Ning Ziqiu approaching the window.
He flew into a rage.
Liu Yizhou was standing closer to Ning Ziqiu and immediately rushed over to restrain him.
Xu Qi shrank uneasily into a corner, biting her lip without reacting, while Zhang Zhenhua simply crawled beneath one of the beds.
Ning Ziqiu’s glasses had been knocked crooked. He steadied himself against a table and spoke calmly.
“As long as we move quickly enough, the zombies won’t have time to get inside.”
Liu Yizhou and Wang Tianlei ignored him.
The two boys were similarly tall and strongly built. There was no way Ning Ziqiu could overpower them by himself.
They stood firmly in front of the window, their expressions cold, acting as though they could not hear their classmates’ cries and screams outside.
**Crash!**
**Shatter—!**
A brick stained with dark blood smashed through the window and flew inside.
Shards of glass exploded in every direction.
“If you won’t open the window, then we’ll all die together! Hahahahahaha—!”
The deranged voice abruptly stopped.
Wang Tianlei and Liu Yizhou, now covered in fragments of glass, screamed in terror.
“Quick! Push the cabinet over and block it!”
But it was already too late.
Drawn by the smell of living flesh, the zombies began squeezing through the broken window.
Everyone hurriedly fled into the bathroom.
Ning Ziqiu could have made it inside, but Hu Lingling tripped in the chaos, so he stopped to pull her up.
By the time they rose to their feet, the bathroom door had already slammed shut.
Two zombies had crawled into the infirmary.
It was obviously impossible to expect Wang Tianlei to reopen the door and let them inside.
Meanwhile, the medicine storeroom where Sang Luo had been locked was still secured, and Xu Qi had the key.
Hu Lingling’s slender body trembled, tears filling her eyes.
She believed that she had dragged Ning Ziqiu down with her.
Ning Ziqiu pressed his dry lips together.
At such a moment, the eyes behind his glasses were remarkably calm.
The two zombies roared and charged towards them.
Hu Lingling abruptly pushed Ning Ziqiu aside.
She closed her eyes, gathered her courage and voluntarily stepped towards the two zombies.
A loud clang rang out.
But the expected pain never came.
Hu Lingling cautiously opened her eyes.
A zombie was falling directly towards her.
She screamed and collapsed to the ground, catching it in her arms, only to discover that it was completely motionless.
Looking more closely, she saw a surgical scalpel embedded in its temple, with only a tiny portion of the handle visible.
“Hey, ugly. Over here.”
Her confused thoughts were pulled back by a familiar and pleasant voice.
She abruptly looked up.
At some point, the medicine storeroom door had opened.
Sang Luo leaned lazily against the doorframe, resting the toes of her injured foot lightly against the floor without placing any weight on it.
Her previously tied-up hair now cascaded smoothly over her shoulders, the ends curling gently.
It made her pale little face appear even more ethereally beautiful.
The remaining zombie must have been an admirer of beauty.
It abandoned Hu Lingling, the duck that had practically reached its mouth, and instead rushed towards Sang Luo with its teeth bared and claws outstretched.
“Get out of the way!” Hu Lingling shouted urgently.
The zombie was already almost upon her, yet Sang Luo still had not moved.
The system was still replaying the stunning throw she had made moments earlier.
She had pulled the door open with force, flicked the scalpel from between her fingers and sent it flying with ruthless speed and accuracy straight into the temple of the zombie that had been about to bite Hu Lingling.
Then it suddenly screamed.
Unable to think about anything else, it assumed Sang Luo was trying to use this zombie for another suicide attempt!
Under the anxious gazes of four eyes and one system, Sang Luo seemed to have calculated everything perfectly.
She avoided the lunging zombie from an impossible angle, balancing on one leg as she slipped to the side.
The zombie flew directly into the medicine storeroom.
Sang Luo immediately pulled the door shut behind it.
“Come here.”
She beckoned to Hu Lingling.
With Ning Ziqiu’s help, Hu Lingling rose to her feet and hurried over.
Sang Luo released the door handle.
“Hold this.”
Hu Lingling did as instructed.
Only after grabbing it did she understand why Sang Luo had told her to hold the door closed.
The lock was broken.
Sang Luo then ordered Ning Ziqiu to drag the zombie corpse towards the window.
She casually told him:
“If another zombie comes through, chop off its little dick as a warning. All men are afraid of that. Turning into a zombie shouldn’t make any difference.”
Ning Ziqiu fell silent.
“…”
Hu Lingling was also silent.
“…”
The system joined them.
“……”
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