Chapter 1: The Jiang Family Is A Bunch Of Bastards

Jiang Xun looked at the room before her with a splitting headache. There was a wooden table and chair, and she was lying on a hard bed. She could glimpse the blue sky outside the plastic windows, accompanied with the chirping of insects and birds.

Where was this?

Jiang Xun held her head and found that it was wrapped up in a bandage.

Wasn’t she dead?

She’d died in a crowd of zombies.

She was the leader of the zombie-clearing team during the apocalypse and had been on a mission when she’d run into a horde of zombies. To protect her team members and to secure their escape route, she’d lit up some explosives and died together with the zombies.

However, before the explosives had been detonated, she’d been bitten.

Jiang Xun reached up to touch her neck, but there was no wound at all.

What was going on?

“Hello, Host. I’m the Merit System, Number S00356.”

Jiang Xun jumped up from the bed in shock. “What the hell? Who’s talking?”

“It’s me, the Merit System! You can talk to me in your mind. There’s no need to use your voice.”

After processing the situation for a bit, Jiang Xun asked in her mind, “…What is this…Merit System?”

“You killed countless zombies during the apocalypse and saved many people. You even sacrificed yourself to save your team members. You have accumulated enough Merit Points, or MP, so you were able to be reborn in this normal world without any zombies.”

Jiang Xun was excited. “A normal world without zombies? Is it a world in which humans destroyed the zombies and rebuilt after the apocalypse?”

The system said, “No, this world is not in the same space and time as your original one. It is in its own timeline. It is still unknown as to whether or not it will enter the apocalypse in the future.”

Holding her head, Jiang Xun got off the bed and walked to the window, opening it. The air outside was fresh and clean, so unlike that of the apocalypse, which was almost always permeated with the smell of rotten flesh.

She took a deep breath.

It smelled so good!

Right at that moment, however, the door was pushed open. She turned to see a middle-aged woman glaring at her coldly. “Since you’re awake, then come down and eat.”

When she turned around and left, Jiang Xun heard her mumble, “Imagine rolling down the stairs and having no problem afterwards. How unfortunate.”

Jiang Xun asked the system, “Who is she?”

The system’s calm and emotionless voice rang in Jiang Xun’s mind, “She is the Host’s aunt, Lu Huixian. The host was pushed down the stairs and died just a second before you came here, which was why the system allowed your soul to enter her body.”

After that explanation, the system transferred the original Host’s memory to Jiang Xun.

The Host also happened to be named Jiang Xun. However, according to the system, there were many people who were also named Jiang Xun across at least 3,000 worlds, so it would always prioritize transferring souls to bodies, also known as Hosts, of the same name.

The original Host was 18 years old and was a high school student. Her father was named Jiang Chenya, the president of the famous Chengye Group.

The original Host’s birth mother passed away when she was one year old. A month later, Jiang Chengye remarried, and the new wife, Feng Nianzhen, brought a daughter into the family. It turned out that Jiang Chengye had cheated on his wife while she was pregnant, and so the woman he’d cheated with, Feng Nianzhen, gave birth to a daughter, Jiang Yuexi, who was only two months younger than Jiang Xun.

It was precisely because Jiang Xun’s mother found out about his actions that she fell sick from heartbreak and passed away.

After Feng Nianzhen entered the house, two years later, she gave birth to a son, Jiang Jixuan.

When Jiang Xun was seven years old, Jiang Chengye’s business was not doing well. After Feng Nianzhen poked at him a little, he’d gotten someone to read his fortune, which ended with him sending Jiang Xun to the countryside to “stop his business from falling into disaster.”

In the end, not long after Jiang Xun was sent away, Jiang Chengye’s business started booming, which made Jiang Chengye believe in fortune-telling. After that, he only allowed Jiang Xun to stay at her uncle’s house. He would give her uncle enough living expenses so that he could take care care of her.

Jiang Xun’s uncle and aunt also had a son, who was one year younger than her. They spent all the living expenses Jiang Chengye sent them on their son. In their eyes, as long as Jiang Xun did not starve to death, it would be fine.

Due to the circumstances of her upbringing, the host’s personality was rather awkward. She had low self-esteem and was sensitive and narrow-minded. She would always misinterpret someone else’s words, so she was very unpopular at school and would often be bullied.

It came to a head when she was finally pushed down the stairs and lost her life, and this was where the current Jiang Xun came in.

Jiang Xun sneered at this newfound knowledge. “The Jiang family is a bunch of bastards. The father cheated on the pregnant mother with someone else and then named that daughter Jiang Yuexi, which means ‘delight’…It’s no wonder that the Host’s mother was heartbroken when she found out. Not only that, the Host grew up in such an awful environment and only ended up with an awkward personality? It’s already a miracle that she didn’t end up with a crooked one!”

It was then did Jiang Xun remember to look at the original Host’s appearance. When she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she realized that the Host looked exactly like her. However, she lookedmalnourished; her face was yellowish and her cheeks were sunken.

Not that Jiang Xun was any better off in the apocalypse⁠. But in her case, they simply couldn’t afford to eat a lot most of the time. Simply being able to scavenge for food was already considered a blessing, so she hadn’t paid too much attention to nutrition.

This Host, however, was living in a peaceful and prosperous era, and yet she still looked half-starved and pitiful!

Without saying anything, Jiang Xun turned and left the bedroom. When she arrived at the dining room, she saw that her uncle’s family had already started eating.

The meat was placed right in front of their son, Luo Zhenhao, while there were a bunch of vegetable dishes in front of where Jiang Xun was supposed to sit.

In the post-apocalyptic world, Jiang Xun didn’t even get to eat fresh vegetables, let alone meat.

But since there was meat available, who would want to eat any vegetables?!

Jiang Xun picked up his chopsticks and picked up the braised pork ribs in front of Luo Zhenhao.

Lu Huixian reached out her chopsticks to smack Jiang Xun’s hand, but Jiang Xun quickly evaded them. Was this a joke? To her, killing zombies back in her world was akin to a seasoned chef chopping up vegetables⁠—there was no way she would lost to Lu Huixian!

“This is for your brother. You’re not allowed to eat it!” Lu Huixian said angrily, about to throw away the spare ribs that Jiang Xun had picked up.

She would rather waste the food than allow Jiang Xun to eat!

However, Jiang Xun threw the spare ribs into her mouth and spat the bones right into the bowl of chicken soup in the middle of the table. A few drops of soup splashed onto the table.

Jiang Xun snorted coldly. The chicken soup now had her saliva in it. Would this family eat it, she wondered?

“Jiang Xun, you’re courting death!” Luo Zhenhao might be younger than Jiang Xun by one year, but he still was a big guy. He stood up and raised his hand, moving to smack her, but Jiang Xun moved quickly and kicked him to the ground.

She frowned. This body wasn’t as physically strong as her old one. She’d forgotten that this wasn’t her own body.

Back in her world, humans had also evolved in response to the zombies. Their brains were fully developed, and their physical fitness and mental strength were much higher than the current level of humans.

In addition to the rigorous training that she had participated in after enlisting in the army, her physical strength was much higher than that of current humans, so it was only natural that the Host’s body wouldn’t be as efficient.

If she were at her original level, Luo Zhenhao would have been kicked through the wall and sent flying.

Even so, Jiang Xun’s sudden change of attitude gave the Luo family a shock.

“Haohao!” Lu Huixianhurried to Luo Zhenhao’s side to help him up. “How are you? Are you injured?”

Her uncle, Luo Zhongren, went to grab Jiang Xun with a red face. “You blasted girl! I’ll beat you to death today!”

Jiang Xun kicked him to the ground in response.

“What you are eating now comes from the living expenses that Jiang Chengye gave me!” she spat. “This meat was bought with myliving expenses, so why shouldn’t I eat it?”