Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

“Tell me what you know about Lin Kexin’s life after university. What happened to her a year ago?” Ruo Manni said lightly, in a calm tone.

Liu Yang looked at the girl curiously. From her words, it seemed like she hadn’t heard from or seen Lin Kexin in a long time.

“Lin Kexin and Miaomiao were always very close. After graduation, they kept in touch. But a year ago, Lin Kexin suddenly got a terminal illness. It was said that she had less than a month to live. Miaomiao was really heartbroken at that time,” Liu Yang said.

Such an unfortunate event was not only tragic for close friends but also for anyone who knew Lin Kexin. She was still so young, having only graduated from university two years ago, in the prime of her life.

“Lin Kexin had been in the hospital for about a month. It was said that she was once in critical condition, almost lifeless. But fortunately, the doctors managed to resuscitate her after a few seconds of emergency treatment. The next day, Miaomiao went to see her, and when she came back, she said Lin Kexin was destined for good fortune after surviving the worst. According to the doctor, she had passed the most dangerous phase and shouldn’t face any immediate life-threatening risks. If things went well, she could at least live for another year.”

“After that, Lin Kexin’s condition continued to improve, almost miraculously. The doctors said she was recovering, and her life expectancy was extended. By the time she was discharged, the doctors believed she could live for at least another ten to eight years. But after leaving the hospital, for some reason, she refused to contact any of her old friends. Miaomiao even went to B City to find her, but Lin Kexin refused to meet her… Then, the world changed drastically, and we couldn’t contact her anymore.” Liu Yang smiled bitterly, “Now, even if we wanted to contact her, we can’t. I don’t even know if she’s still alive.”

According to Liu Yang, Lin Kexin was still alive, at least beyond the month the doctors had predicted.

As for her previous life, the moment she was diagnosed with a terminal illness, she was bedridden and passed away a month later.

“When was the last time you heard from her?” Ruo Manni asked, feeling deeply disappointed.

“About six months ago,” Liu Yang thought for a moment and said.

“How was her condition at that time?” Only Ruo Manni understood the feeling behind the question she asked.

“According to her parents, she had already recovered mostly, and during the follow-up appointment, the doctor estimated that in about six months, she would be completely cured,” Liu Yang said with certainty.

Ruo Manni fell silent.

Liu Yang noticed that the girl’s expression seemed off, like she was deeply upset, but he didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask a stranger about it.

However, he heard the blonde young man speaking to the girl in a strange language Liu Yang had never heard before. The worry in the young man’s eyes was obvious.

The girl shook her head at the blonde young man and responded in the same foreign language that Liu Yang didn’t understand.

As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Just as Ruo Manni was overjoyed to see Wang Miaomiao and Liu Yang, she was now deeply saddened.

It turned out that this was not the same time and space where she had originally lived; this was merely a parallel universe of Earth. In this world, Lin Kexin had not died from illness.

In the time and space she had lived in, however, she had died from illness long ago.

Although the Wang Miaomiao and Liu Yang she saw in front of her were similar to the ones in her memory, they knew the Lin Kexin from this parallel universe.

Hebrew Adam watched Ruo Manni and sensed the sadness enveloping her, similar to when she had been on the verge of tears earlier. Unable to resist, he took her hand.

Ruo Manni turned to look at Hebrew Adam, knowing she had made him worry again. But facing such a painful separation, she found it hard to control herself.

“Manni, what’s wrong?”

“Don’t worry, it might never be like this again,” Ruo Manni smiled at Hebrew Adam.

After confirming that this was not the time and space she had originally existed in, Ruo Manni felt a deep sense of disappointment. However, she estimated that she wouldn’t be greatly affected by it in the future.

Ruo Manni didn’t know that, in Hebrew Adam’s eyes, her smile was even harder to bear than her tears.

She didn’t give him the chance to ask any further questions, instead turning to Liu Yang and saying, “Tell me, what happened in the country over the past year? When did the zombies first appear?”

“Country?” That one word made Liu Yang absolutely certain that this girl had returned from abroad.

No wonder her companions were almost all foreigners, and it was clear they didn’t understand Mandarin. However, this girl spoke Mandarin very fluently, so she probably hadn’t grown up abroad. She was most likely a Chinese overseas.

Liu Yang sensed that the girl meant them no harm, and the questions she asked seemed normal enough, so he briefly explained.

“Over two months ago, everyone learned from the news about a large meteor shower. Miaomiao, that night, eagerly dragged me to the mountain to watch it,” Liu Yang said with a bitter smile.

“That meteor shower was really beautiful, but at the time, no one knew that it would mark the beginning of the apocalypse.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Ruo Manni asked thoughtfully.

“We’re not sure, but everyone guessed that the apocalypse was likely triggered by the meteor shower. Three days after it passed, a flu outbreak suddenly appeared.”

Ruo Manni furrowed her brows. The story sounded so familiar, as though she had read a similar plot in a novel in her past life. “And after some people recovered, they discovered they had special abilities, while others became zombies?”

“Yes, that’s right. What about the situation abroad?” Liu Yang asked.

“I’m not sure. We were training on a small island at the time, and it was only a month ago when we came back that we realized the world had already changed,” Ruo Manni answered, coming up with a backstory for her group.

Liu Yang was both surprised and unsurprised. These teenagers were definitely not ordinary people; they had clearly undergone special training. He wanted to ask them exactly who they were, but he was afraid it might be a secret he shouldn’t know, so he held back.

“Go on,” Ruo Manni urged.

“At first, no one realized it was a zombie outbreak, so many people died. The number of zombies in the city grew, while the number of humans decreased, and society descended into chaos. But the most frightening thing was the heavy rain that appeared on the tenth day of the outbreak. Most people who got caught in the rain turned into zombies, and the zombies that got soaked in the rain became even stronger.”

“Miaomiao and I barely escaped from the city, and during that time, I developed the ability of super speed, while Miaomiao gained strength-based abilities,” Liu Yang said with a bitter smile.

Liu Yang didn’t mention how difficult and dangerous the process was, but Ruo Manni could tell from his expression. Awakening abilities requires stimulation, and in such a chaotic time, both of them were likely pushed to the brink of life and death.

“After we escaped the city with some other survivors, we heard there was a survivor base nearby. We followed the directions we’d heard and eventually reached a military-established survivor base. At first, it was okay; the base provided a fixed amount of food every day. Although it wasn’t enough to fill us, it was enough to keep us from starving.”

“But the base, which only accepted survivors but didn’t allow anyone to leave, couldn’t hold on any longer half a month ago. The food ran out. So, we ability users organized a mercenary group to go out and search for supplies. Today was our fifth mission.”

With supplies running out, they had to venture deeper into the city. They never expected that even animals had mutated and become incredibly terrifying.

If Ruo Manni and her group hadn’t come to their rescue, Liu Yang and the others in the car would surely have met a tragic end, feeding the dogs.