Apocalypse: The Stronghold System

Chapter 001: Nightmare

A messy black-haired young man was running with hurried footsteps, his breathing was heavy and his sweat kept dripping in every pore of his skin.

The black clothes he was wearing looked tattered with holes everywhere, as well as his skin that was filled with wounds. His eyes seemed to tremble in fear, and as he ran, it was as if he was fighting for his life.

What made him hurry was that a bunch of undead were chasing him. Bodies live with broken faces and bleed or maggots from their bodies.

Yep! A zombie!

"Well! Huh! Huh!"

He kept running without looking back, and I don't know how long he'd been running like this without certainty.

For a few minutes, his breathing was heavy and his footsteps weak. Until in the end, he tripped over a rock that made him fall over a cracked path.

Without looking back, he tried to get back up. But his mind and body were out of alignment, keeping him lying around without being able to move in the slightest.

Khaaah! The khaakk! Khaa!

"Ti-No!"

The living corpse behind him lunged at him and began to bite his body, making excruciating pain spread throughout the body. The flesh bitten by the zombie was unleashed, inflicting even greater pain.

In just a split second, all the zombies had swarmed over him and bit off the parts of his body. It was as if they were mukbang food vloggers, and ate his body greedily.

***

"Typeakkk!"

A young man woke up from his sleep and immediately sat down with breathless breath and sweat soaking his body and bed.

He lowered both of his legs from the bed, but did not move and just stayed there with his still heavy breathing. He looked extremely exhausted, as if he had just run a marathon non-stop.

"This is the tenth day. What the hell is going on? I was reborn on Earth-2 with the same name. From the beginning I came, I kept dreaming of a zombie apocalypse."

He was Fan Chen, a man in his early twenties. In his previous life, he lost his life due to work fatigue. It's strange enough to work endlessly when you don't have anyone, but that's all you can do. He worked in construction, and carried heavy goods, and he has done so since dropping out of school at the age of 15.

In his current life, he lives better in terms of economy and environment. He is a student at the Beijing Institute of Technology. But that was before everything changed...

Fan Chen earned a talented scholarship, he was quite quiet and did not have many friends at the university. The friends he had could be counted with fingers on one hand, and even they were all just dorm mates.

Fan Chen was the name of the man whose body was taken by him. The original owner of this body committed suicide in the room two days before taking over the body; they had the same name and a similar appearance.

Suicide of the original owner of this body not because of the case or anything, but because of the pressure he got from the dream, and until now the dream still continues even though he has taken over this body.

...

His place of transmigration was the same as the world in his previous life. Equally named Earth, including all the countries here, is different only the division of seasons.

If the previous March to May was Spring, then it is now Summer.

June to August, which was originally Summer, is now Autumn.

September to November, which was originally Autumn, is now Winter.

December to February, it is Spring.

Because of that resemblance, Fan Chen named this world the name 'Earth-2'.

Bang out!

Suddenly the door of his room opened wide with a loud noise produced, a beautiful girl in her 17s.

The girl with long black hair was draped, wearing earrings with a jade pendant. His eyes were black sparkling, his eyebrows slightly thin but matched his delicate face, coupled with his thin blushing lips.

Wearing a plain black sweatshirt with an arm mark on the neck that is wider to show the hemisphere, the shirt is also short showing a flat stomach, a slender waist and a clean navel. He also wears tight gray pants on his knees.

The woman looked at him with a worried look. Running, hugging Fan Chen who was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Sister!"

Fan Chen felt a warmness in his heart. In his previous life, he had no family, and had never felt this kind of feeling of worry.

Fan Xiaoyu released her embrace, holding onto Fan Chen's face, looking at him with tears in her eyes. She felt pity, sadness and despair when she saw her brother who looked like this.

"Is Brother still a nightmare?"

Fan Chen nodded his head in return, but he remained silent.

Fan Xiaoyu looked at him sadly and again asked a question that had been asked often, despite never getting an answer: "Sister dreamed what? It's been a month, even the best doctors in town can't finish it."

Fan Chen opened his mouth and hesitated, but after hesitating, he replied, "What if in a moment, the Wind Protection City is flattened? What do we do?"

Fan Xiaoyu was stunned with her eyes wide open, then she chuckled and replied, "It's impossible. Brother knows, right, many mutant beasts attacked, but during these two years, not a single one has managed to break through it ..." He wanted to pass it on, but upon seeing Fan Chen's serious expression, he fell silent and gulped.

Yep! This was the reason why Fan Chen was no longer a student at the Beijing Institute of Technology. The world has changed, it happened two more years, while he was on vacation in the city where the family company came from, suddenly there was an earthquake tremor, he said, and all the animals in the forest as well as the city evolved, and started attacking randomly.

The government moved quickly, deploying the military to kill mutated animals and establish makeshift shelters.

"I believe in the defense of the city." Fan Chen again said in a slow hoarse voice. "But, what if the one that attacked was a zombie wave? They are hard to kill, and when humans are bitten, humans will become just like them."

Fan Xiaoyu opened her mouth and closed it again. She usually believed in her brother, but this time not too, yet after she had her own quarrel in mind, she finally got up. "Sister, I'm down for a while to make soup."

Looking at Fan Xiaoyu who was descending in a hurry, he only gave a small nod. Usually he would believe if Fan Xiaoyu said he would make soup, but this time it was different, should Fan Xiaoyu report this to the mother who was still in the company.

His mother, Yun Mingyue, worked in the family company.

The family company is engaged in fishing in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province. Annual income of ¥50,000,000, looks big, but actually quite small because it has to spend maintenance costs on ships, fuel, food while at sea, and so forth.

Moreover, coupled with the death of his father, the Fan family which was a native Shenzhen family, requested most of the shares from Fan Hongwu to be given to the Fan family.

Inevitably, her mother gave away most of the shares, with her mother owning 30% of the company's shares. The worst thing is, the Fan family requested 50% shares in the net amount, which means ¥25,000,000, and his mother only got ¥15,000,000, that includes the company's procurement fee.

Which means, his mother only got about ¥2,300,000 in one year. But luckily, their family had a well-stored secret savings, totaling ¥30,000,000.

But not yet there, the Fan family asked her mother to buy back 20% of the shares that others had bought with private money, then return them to the Fan family. At the price of ¥500 per share, and if 20% share is 200,000 pieces, it will spend ¥100,000,000.

With a secret savings money of only ¥30,000,000, how is it possible to buy all the shares that have been sold? Giving away own shares? No way!

But that was before the world changed, and now the ocean is a dangerous place. So the company changed into a service company, sending goods from one shelter to another.

Instead of improving after this incident, the Fan Family grew wild and forced to return 10% of the shares. Yun Mingyue could not do much, and ended up giving the shares away, so now the burden was borne more heavily.

Having to hire a team to escort the goods, buy fuel whose price increased by many times, and if any employee was killed in the middle of the road, Yun Mingyue had to spend a private pocket to provide compensation.

Fan Chen sighed as he again laid his body on the bed. "This body is so weak, I can't do anything either. I don't have an appetite, every time I try to eat, I'll spit it out again."

The shadows of living in a place full of zombies kept coming. He could not get rid of it, and had gone to a psychologist, but he did not tell about his dream for fear of being considered insane. He had talked about this problem to his dorm friends and counselors, but they thought he was playing too many zombie games to get carried away with dreams and hallucinations.

Fan Chen turned around on the bed, making his position supine. He looked at the ceiling of the room, and let out a long sigh. "Can I still survive until tomorrow? Can I still go to university after a month of absence. In my previous life not even graduating high school, how should I get into university? The Earth here and there is different."

The university had reopened a year ago in the Wood Protection City, but he had already not entered because of this dream. Then Earth-2 is still in the year 2027, while Earth in the previous life is already in the year 2078.

Fan Chen raised his right hand, closing his eyes with his arm. He tries to rest in the hope of not having nightmares again. After all, if he continued to experience such a dream, perhaps he would end his life just like the original owner of this body.

Ding~

Just as he was about to fall asleep, a clanking sound came directly falling inside his head.

Fan Chen opened his eyes again, looking around to find the source of the sound. Surprisingly, nothing is suspicious.

[Hint: Congratulations to Fan Chen for making it through 30 days of nightmares]

[Reward: Getting a Stronghold System]

[System Reminder: Detects that the Host's body is weakened and on the verge of death]

[Hint: Restoring the Host's body]

...

***

*Connected...