Tianhe Shopping Mall.

The monsters’ snarls rang out without end. The blood-red setting sun stained half the sky crimson, until night fell and the final roar cut off as if someone had strangled it, vanishing into the darkness.

Splurt! The girl pulled her long blade from the monster in front of her, scattering a spray of blood.

Blood stained half the girl’s face red.

She looked over today’s spoils and felt very satisfied: one A-rank Predator, three B-rank Blood Rats, fifteen C-rank Green-Faced Ghouls, and more than a hundred ordinary zombies lying on the ground.

The girl pried open the monsters’ skulls one by one. A foul stench rushed at her, and she wrinkled her delicate nose before waving a hand. Sparks of electricity surged around her, vaporizing the stench completely.

As she pried open the skull of a Green-Faced Ghoul, she noticed a purple glow coming from inside the damaged skull of the Predator nearby. The girl was overjoyed. Her blade flashed down, cleaving the Predator’s head in two. She plunged both hands into its brain matter and pulled out the purple crystal.

“Huh, I actually got an A-rank energy core. This is a huge score!” the girl said happily.

Half an hour later, after finishing her loot, the girl checked the area and made sure she hadn’t missed any prey. Then she suddenly transformed into a bolt of lightning, racing across the sky until she reached the gates of a military base.

The entrance to the military base was lined with fully armed soldiers, directing the scene in an orderly fashion. The surrounding walls bristled with countless 155 mm howitzers and mortars. Their dark muzzles pressed down on everyone with an immense sense of menace. Anyone who dared cause trouble would be met with devastating force at once.

The girl stopped as she neared the military base and looked at Jiangning Military Base with deep respect. After all, it ranked third among the thirteen fortresses still standing in Huaguo! Even as an Esper, she didn’t dare fly too close. If they mistook her for an intruder and shot her down, there’d be no point arguing about it afterward.

After several rounds of questioning and confirming there were no problems, the girl was allowed through.

The trading market was brightly lit. Night hadn’t brought people’s lives to a standstill.

The girl surveyed the shops bustling with people, chose one, and went in to sell today’s spoils.

“Well, look who it is! Haven’t seen you in ages, little sis. What good stuff have you brought this time?” the shopkeeper called out when he saw the girl. His round belly jiggled as he moved. Even in this post-apocalyptic world, he’d managed to keep himself so fat. Yan Zimo could only shake her head in disbelief.

Yan Zimo walked up to the shopkeeper, took the cloth pouch from her waist, and poured out everything she’d collected that day. Among the pile of pale gray crystals, one purple crystal stood out brilliantly.

“This is… an A-rank energy core? Good heavens, you even managed to get your hands on something this valuable. I’ll give you 20 Dragon-pattern coins for this energy core. I’ll count the rest as one coin. That makes 21 in total. How does that sound?” The shopkeeper held up two fingers, as if to say he wouldn’t offer a coin more.

Yan Zimo thought it over when she heard the price. Twenty-one Dragon-pattern coins wasn’t bad. She wouldn’t get a better price anywhere else, so she might as well do him a favor.

“All right, deal.” Yan Zimo took the pouch of money and gave it a shake. Feeling its satisfying weight, she smiled until her eyes narrowed.

“Come again!”

A gentle breeze passed by, its cool touch soothing Yan Zimo after her recent battle. Exhaustion soon made her drowsy. She wished she could hurry home and sleep for hours.

But she still had one thing to do first: buy some things for her little sister, who was lounging around at home and doing nothing.

Yan Zimo went to a food market and headed for a shop she often visited.

The shopkeeper was a little girl named Yuanyuan. Her mother had died in the apocalypse, leaving her with only a frail, frequently ill grandmother. Yuanyuan had shouldered the burden of supporting her grandmother all by herself. Thanks to her connections with people she knew, she’d opened a shop here. It wasn’t very big, and sold only food and a few snacks.

Yan Zimo often looked out for her, stopping by now and then to support her business. Over time, she and Yuanyuan had grown quite close.

“Yuanyuan, are you there? Give me a pound of pork and two bottles of beer.”

“Sis Zimo, I’ve told you drinking’s bad for you. Why won’t you listen?”

“It’s fine. I’m taking a few days off anyway. There’s nothing wrong with having a drink and relaxing.” Yan Zimo patted Yuanyuan on the head. Yuanyuan closed her eyes contentedly.

“That has nothing to do with whether you’re taking time off. Drinking is a sign that a woman’s going downhill!” Yuanyuan’s words pierced Yan Zimo right in the heart.

“You little know-it-all. Save that talk for when you’re older.” Yan Zimo tapped Yuanyuan on the head, waved, and left.

When Yan Zimo got home, fresh air greeted her, standing in sharp contrast to the smell of blood on her. She couldn’t stand it and immediately decided to take a shower.

She stripped off her combat suit, revealing the girl’s shapely, jade-white curves, a slim waist with an S-shaped figure, and a smooth, flat stomach so polished it could reflect an image. Her arms were soft and pale as lotus roots, her legs long and straight, and her rounded, full hips were like the full moon. She was the very picture of perfection!

Her glossy black hair was tied in a single ponytail, dark as ink jade. Her starry eyes shimmered with a clear, lustrous glow. With the spots of blood on her, she looked alluring and radiant, utterly irresistible!

Yan Zimo gazed at the stunning beauty in the mirror, but she wasn’t in the mood to admire her. What Yuanyuan had said today had struck a nerve. She used to be a man, after all!

Yan Zimo’s original name had been Yan Ziqing. Five years ago, before the apocalyptic crisis broke out, he’d been a listless office worker, earning the lowest wages and living the most miserable kind of life.

But on the morning it all happened, he’d gotten up late and eaten breakfast too quickly. He choked to death!

That’s right. He choked to death.

When he woke up again, he discovered that he’d become a breathtaking beauty!

Yan Ziqing hadn’t been upset to discover that he’d turned into a woman. If anything, he’d felt a little excited! He’d always been a hardcore otaku, and he’d been fascinated by yuri for ages. Now he had the chance to experience it firsthand—how could he not be excited?

He changed his name to Yan Zimo, put on a black dress (don’t ask where it came from), finished getting ready, and walked out the door to welcome his new life.

When she opened the door, she didn’t find a new life waiting for her. Instead, a huge set of yellow teeth came straight at her. Yan Zimo was so terrified she nearly lost her soul. Looking closer, she realized it was a zombie, the kind that often made guest appearances in movies! She was horrified. In her panic, sparks of electricity crackled around her, and the zombie in front of her turned to charcoal in an instant. It was well and truly dead.

Still shaken, she hurriedly shut the door and locked it tight. She turned on her computer and checked the news, only to discover that a biohazard crisis had broken out outside! The articles had already been published a month ago. The latest one had come out yesterday. It said there was a military base in Jiangning City, and advised evacuees to reach it with the transport convoys. The base was actively sending out rescue teams and offering generous terms to recruit Espers.

Yan Zimo was overjoyed when she saw the news. She immediately called the rescue hotline and said she was an Esper. Early the next morning, a helicopter circled above her home.

After arriving at Jiangning Military Base, Yan Zimo went through several rounds of disinfection and screening. Once they confirmed she was clear, they assigned her a clean, comfortable place to live, and she began her life there.

But Yan Zimo’s peaceful life didn’t last long before she ran into a problem: she was out of money.

With no other choice, she joined the ranks of those hunting zombies. She collected the energy cores from their brains and sold them for cash, so she could keep scraping by.

During one expedition, she happened upon a girl who’d passed out. The ground around her was littered with zombie corpses, so she must have collapsed from exhaustion after fighting them. Yan Zimo noticed that the girl’s face looked almost exactly like hers—there was an eighty-percent resemblance. Yan Zimo couldn’t remember having any siblings, but the girl before her gave her a strange sense of closeness.

Her instincts wouldn’t let her leave the girl behind, so she resolutely carried her back to her place. When the girl woke up, she was just as surprised: she’d never imagined there could be someone in the world who looked so much like her. The two were like sisters.

Yan Zimo learned that the girl’s name was Ye Qianxue, and that she was from Jiangning too. But how had Yan Zimo never heard of such a beautiful girl before she’d transformed? She couldn’t help wondering.

The two of them lived together for several years, and their relationship gradually grew from that of strangers to something like sisters. It even seemed to be edging beyond that. As things stood, they were more than sisters, but not quite lovers… right?