Chapter One: The Spark Initiative

Tick.
The second hand on the wristwatch moved a minuscule increment.
In the back row by the window of Class Three, Grade Eleven, Chen Yi suddenly opened his eyes and glanced at the time on his watch.
7:15.
He took a deep breath, forced himself to remain calm, and looked out the window.
Suddenly, a blazing sphere of light burst forth in the sky, its intense radiance instantly consuming everyone's vision.
Chen Yi closed his eyes and silently began to count.
From ten to one—when his mental countdown reached zero, the sudden light vanished, and the clamorous cries of his classmates filled the air.
Chen Yi drew a long breath.
He pushed aside his desk and chair, then strode out of the classroom.
Eighty-one steps forward, then he turned and went downstairs. At the corner of the staircase, he stopped, wrapped his hand in his school jacket, and smashed the glass of the emergency fire window.
Reaching in, Chen Yi gripped the sharp fire axe with his left hand.
He exhaled heavily, then swung the axe behind him with force—a sickening crack as the blade struck bone, and a snarling zombie was decapitated.
...
No one knew that Chen Yi was from the future.
No one but himself.
The sphere of light that had suddenly appeared in the sky seemed, in that instant, to rob Blue Star of all its heat and light for the next hundred years. Deprived of energy, Blue Star became the cradle of humanity’s worst nightmare.
That ball of light, which flared at seven in the morning, vanished as quickly as it appeared, swallowing everything around it like a black hole.
In an instant, crimson mist swept across the world.
More than eighty percent of humanity succumbed to the mist, turning into creatures devoid of consciousness, driven only by primal survival instincts. Even the native animals and plants of Blue Star, once domesticated by humans, underwent astonishing mutations in a matter of moments.
The remaining humans became fodder for these monsters overnight.
Morality collapsed, order crumbled.
The world was reshuffled.
In this reforged world, the law of the jungle prevailed; only the fittest survived.
Blue Star became a bloody realm of killing and conflict. Survivors fought viciously over scraps of food—a piece of bread, a bottle of clean water, even a bar of chocolate.

Former friends and confidantes turned against each other; a harmonious society was ripped apart in the blink of an eye. The teetering human race became game in a monstrous hunting ground.
Survivors built fortresses, struggling to preserve the last embers of humanity.
Chen Yi had not missed the wave of evolution that followed the catastrophe. Through grit and determination, he managed to reach the City of Hope.
He eked out a living in the end times, never expecting that despite all caution, he would still be mortally wounded during a siege defense.
He had no choice but to sign the contract, becoming a test subject in the fortress’s experimental lab.
Yet Chen Yi never imagined that when he next opened his eyes, he would find himself back on the day disaster struck.
“The Fireseed Project… it actually succeeded?”
Chen Yi took a deep breath, his heart surging with tumultuous waves.
The purpose of the Fireseed Project was to give gene warriors a second chance at growth. By activating the inner fireseed through a roulette lottery after exposure to the red mist, they could gain greater combat power.
The experiment was excruciatingly cruel. Before Chen Yi died, not a single subject had survived the process.
He exhaled, feeling the trembling of his blood within his veins.
Closing and reopening his eyes, his gaze grew sharp as he quickly surveyed his surroundings.
It was 7:23, during the school’s morning self-study session.
The disaster broke out so suddenly that no one had time to react. The red mist drifting through the air was inhaled instantly by the students at morning study.
At least seventy percent of students were immediately transformed into zombies acting only on biological instinct. Only a small number of students with natural antibodies survived by chance.
But Chen Yi knew this number would soon shrink further.
He lowered his voice and listened intently.
All around him was panic.
“Help! Help! They’ve gone mad—everyone’s gone mad!”
“Call the police! Hurry, call the police! They’re all crazy—don’t bite me, I want my mom!”
“Don’t come any closer—ahhh…”
Screams, curses, and terror spread through the school building.
The growls of beasts resounded in his ears, accompanied by the thud of bodies colliding. The metallic tang of blood hung in the air. By the glow of his phone, he could see that the once-spotless halls were now slick with sticky blood. On the calligraphy paintings in the corridor, the viscera and flesh of some unfortunate student were draped grotesquely.
Screams rose and fell relentlessly.
“Idiots!”
Chen Yi frowned, cursing under his breath.

On the first day of the apocalypse, Chen Yi knew that the zombies born from the red mist were actually easy to deal with.
The moment they became monsters, they were far from the terrifying evolved forms of the future. With stiff bodies and deprived of sight, these zombies could only hunt by sound and the scent of blood.
Even a single student could easily take one down in a fight—the only concern was their overwhelming numbers. As long as you avoided being surrounded, even an ordinary person could hack down a zombie.
But clearly, these students, none of whom had braved the real world, simply couldn’t cope.
Crushed by terror, they were inevitably reduced to fodder for the zombies’ claws—torn, devoured, and then transformed into monsters themselves.
Chen Yi shook his head, tightened his grip on the fire axe, and, alert to his surroundings, headed upstairs.
Clearly, the school building was no longer safe.
Since it was morning self-study, most students were gathered in their classrooms. The narrow corridors made it easy to maneuver around zombies, but if you got blocked in, escape was impossible.
Chen Yi did not hesitate; he headed directly upstairs.
His destination was clear.
The rooftop—spacious, connected to the emergency stairwell.
And at this time, there would be the fewest people, and thus the fewest zombies.
Most importantly, the object required to activate the fireseed within him would first appear at the school—on the rooftop, he’d have the best vantage point to observe it.
Just then—
A frantic rush of footsteps sounded.
Chen Yi turned to see a girl running toward him, desperately grabbing his arm.
“Please… help me…”
She looked as if she’d found her savior.
Chen Yi didn’t pay attention to her face; instead, his eyes swept past her to see several zombies, roused by the noise, charging toward them.
He cursed his luck.
With a swift swing of the fire axe, he cut down the attacking zombies.
“It’s Chen Yi—from our class, it’s Chen Yi!”
“Hey, Chen Yi, we’re here! Come save us! I was scared to death, Chen Yi, why are you just standing there? Hurry up and help us!”