HSB Chapter 1

Earlier updates available on Kofi.

“We’re in luck! There’s still a ton of food left in the supermarket that no one’s taken yet.”

“Be careful. Check if any zombies are lurking around.”

“The coast is clear.”

“Perfect.”

In a small supermarket, two power users were beside themselves with joy from finding supplies.

Five years ago, the apocalypse broke out, and an unknown virus swept the world. Countless human beings were infected and turned into mindless monsters who only knew their thirst for blood and human flesh. After close observations by experts, they finally gave these mindless, rotting creatures a name—zombie.

Over time, some humans evolved supernatural powers as one last fight from their survival instincts, giving them a chance to survive in this brutal apocalyptic world.

Janet Campbell and Jared Johnson were one of these so-called power users.

Janet was a D-class water-type power user, while Jared was a C-class earth-type power user. The two met not long ago and decided to team up.

Five years had passed since the end of the world, and powerful people with superpowers had established their own military bases. This trip Janet and Jared were making was to the largest secure base in North City. The leader of the base was a big shot with S-class lightning powers and was very powerful.

Jared didn’t want to go, because he’d been to other bases and knew what it was like. Low-level power users like them were not valued at the base. Instead, they would be excluded and discriminated against. Hence, they were better off surviving outside alone.

With a bit of caution, survival wasn’t much of a problem.

But Janet insisted on going to the base, saying that there were many powerful people at the base and sufficient resources, so there was no need for them to struggle outside.

Jared had been single for a long time, and although Janet’s powers weren’t strong, she perfectly matched his wants for his dream girl, so naturally, he fell in love with Janet, and at the end of the day, he listened to Janet’s wishes.

Of course, Janet didn’t like Jared. The reason why she wanted to go to the base was because she knew the future.

A few days ago, Janet woke up and found that she had transmigrated into a book she read before—a post-apocalyptic novel that narrated a male lead’s level-up journey. She had no time to lament her terrible luck; to survive, she had to use the plot she knew to find the biggest coattail to ride.

The strongest thunder-type power user in North City base was not the male lead. The male lead was an ordinary person in the base, and his life wasn’t going all that great, but the male lead possessed an incredible spacial expansion. After obtaining it by accident, he practically turned into a walking cheat, who would eventually end this apocalyptic era.

Therefore, she must head to the base, find the male lead, and get to know him before the heroine, so that she can replace the heroine’s role and survive through the apocalypse safely.

On the way there, she met Jared.

Though Jared was only a C-class earth-type power user now, he would later become a member of the protagonist’s team, relying on the stuff in the male lead’s spacial expansion to cleanse the impurities in his body and evolve into an A-class and join the ranks among the strong.

Janet felt that luck must be smiling on her for her to meet Jared while he was still weak. Building a good relationship with him would only be beneficial to her.

There were no zombies, and there was food in the supermarket, so Janet hummed a tune. Seeing a box containing toilet paper on the bottom shelf, she thought of getting some. She bent down to open the box.

“Ah!” Janet let out a scream, and Jared ran over with a gun in hand and was about to shoot at the cardboard box.

“Wait!” Janet exclaimed in horror, “It looks like a child!”

Under the vigilant eyes of the two, the cardboard box moved, and immediately a small head popped out.

The little girl’s soft hair was tied into a pair of lopsided pigtails. Her clothes were disheveled but not dirty, and she was holding a teddy bear with cotton bursting from its broken arm as she stared unblinkingly at them with a pair of doe-like eyes.

Ignoring her somewhat unbefitting hairstyle and messy clothes, she looked like a delicate and beautiful doll as she sat in the cardboard box.

There wasn’t any mutation on her, so she wasn’t a zombie; she was just a little human girl.

Jared lowered his gun and breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn’t let his guard down. In the apocalypse, no one should be underestimated, especially a little girl who appeared to be alone.

Was this area someone else’s territory?

“Hey sweetie, are you all alone here?”

The little girl nodded.

“Where are your parents?”

The little girl’s thick lashes drooped like the bristles on a brush as she hugged the teddy without uttering a word.

Janet observed the little girl, and then asked, “Sweetie, what’s your name?”

“My name is Bambi,” the little girl answered in a soft voice.

Disappointment flashed in Janet’s eyes. She remembered that there was a little girl in the book who was an S-class space-type power user. She was very powerful and later she became the male lead’s goddaughter—but the little girl wasn’t called Bambi.

Judging by the child’s appearance, she was just an ordinary little girl—maybe her parents encountered trouble and hid her here in advance before they died.

Janet told Jared her speculation, and the latter thought it made sense, so he turned to face the little girl and asked gently, “Bambi, do you have any other relatives?”

Bambi didn’t speak and tears started to stream down her face. Jared thought Janet was right with her guess.

“Then—.”

“Jared!” Janet knew what Jared was going to say. He wanted to take this girl with them. Let’s not mention their powers were only at C-class and D-class and their combined strength barely made a difference, it would take several days to reach the base—taking a little girl with them was too dangerous and made them an easy target. Once a pretty, little girl like this was seen by some sicko power user, it would bring disaster unto them.

Many power users chose to survive outside, and there were countless powerful ones. In the five years of the apocalypse, the weak were practically eliminated. Those who survived to this day weren’t people to be trifled with.

The most important thing was that Janet knew how cutthroat this book was. Excessive kindness would only speed up their own death. Bringing a useless little girl with them would only drag them down.

“She’s been fine staying here all this time. I think she’s safe here, much safer than staying with us.” Janet cut off Jared’s attempt to protest.

Jared frowned involuntarily and looked at the despondent and crying little girl, his heart aching. “But if we don’t take her with us—”

“Jared, think about it,” Janet interrupted him again. “We just offended the people from the Dragons Gang, and they are still looking for us. If we take her with us, once we encounter them, do you think it’s for her own good?”

Janet tried a different approach to reason with Jared. Jared was a great person, but his heart was too soft. In the apocalypse, people with a soft heart died the fastest.

“Let’s just take our things and leave.” Janet quickly stuffed the supplies into their pockets and dragged Jared out of the supermarket.

Bambi walked over to the entrance of the supermarket and quietly watched them get into a car and leave.

As Jared watched the little girl’s figure getting farther and farther away in the rearview mirror, guilt tugged his conscience. “Janet, I think—”

Janet saw the little girl as well and comforted Jared, “Jared, it’s not that we don’t want to take her with us. It’s for her own good. Stronger power users will find her and take her to the base.”

Under Janet’s soft voice of comfort, Jared hardened his heart. The car drove off this street, and the streets became quiet once again.

Bambi raised her little hand to wipe away the teardrops drooping on her lashes. She gently tugged at the teddy bear’s arm. “It’s fine.”

Bambi vaguely knew why others didn’t want to take her with them—because she was dead weight.

It was just like how Grandpa never kept it a secret that he found her in a trash can on the side of the road. Grandpa kept her and named her Bambi.

She and Grandpa had been to other places, and they would meet other misters and misses on the road. Once, she heard one of the misters say that she was dead weight. Later, she asked Grandpa what a deadweight was. Grandpa was very upset, and they parted ways with those misters and misses.

“Winnie, I miss Grandpa,” Bambi said to the little bear. No one spoke to her except Winnie.

“Let’s go bring food to Grandpa, okay?” Suddenly remembering something, Bambi’s eyes lit up.

Bambi immediately returned to the cardboard box and grabbed the bag that was inside. Bambi was already inside the supermarket long before Jared and Janet came. She only hid inside the cardboard box when she heard noises.

Grandpa said that when she didn’t know if the people who showed up were good or not, she must hide—but they found her anyway.

“We can hide better next time.” Bambi happily shared her plans with Winnie.

The bag contained food like bread, water, and instant noodles. Bambi carried the bag with much difficulty.

In the apocalypse, because of a lack of supplies, malnutrition was a standard for many people. Bambi was very thin, and at the age of five, she didn’t even reach an adult’s waist. The bag was heavy, and Bambi could only move it by dragging it on the floor.

Bambi knew where Grandpa was.

Today, Bambi ran out of food at home, so she mustered up the courage to go out to find something to eat. After finding so much, Grandpa must be hungry too.

Bambi dragged the bag into a five-story apartment complex.

This was an old apartment complex, and no one had lived in it for a long time. Grandpa found this place and didn’t think the place was too bad, so he settled down on the fifth floor with Bambi.

The entrance of the apartment complex was blocked by a metal door that Grandpa installed. Bambi took off the key dangling from her neck to open the gate and darted inside and then carefully locked the door.

Grandpa said that once the door was locked, the monsters couldn’t come inside.

First, Bambi made a stop on the third floor to store the food in one of the rooms.

Originally, she and Grandpa lived on the fifth floor, but suddenly one day, Grandpa cleared out the room on the third floor and had Bambi live on the third floor alone. Then, he sealed off everything above the third floor, leaving only a small hole that she couldn’t crawl into, nor could Grandpa get out of.

At first, Grandpa would still talk to her through the hole, but later Grandpa forbade her to go.

Bambi was an obedient child, so she did exactly what Grandpa told her, but Grandpa must be hungry since he hadn’t eaten for so long.

Bambi took out the food and put it away, then she started counting how much she had. She had a total of ten water bottles, five packs of instant noodles, five bags of bread, and a handful of hard candy.

Into the bag, Bambi stuffed five bottles of water, three packs of instant noodles, and three bags of bread. She didn’t put in any candy because Grandpa had bad teeth and couldn’t eat candy.

The bag that was now half its weight was much lighter, and Bambi was able to lift it with two hands.

The staircase that turned up to the third floor was completely blocked by a thick metal wall without a single gap. In the center of the metal wall and slightly off to the bottom, there was a hole about ten centimeters wide.

The stairs were very dark, and Bambi hesitated in front of the metal wall. Grandpa said that no matter what happened or what sound she heard, she wasn’t allowed to go up—but then Bambi glanced at the food in the bag. The heavy bag already left deep purple marks on Bambi’s tiny hands.

She wouldn’t say a word and would just stuff the food in from the hole quietly. Grandpa wouldn’t blame her.

Bambi walked up the stairs, step by step.

With her height, her head just reached the hole in the wall when she stood straight—the perfect height for her to take a peek through the hole. Bambi didn’t see anything, but she heard heavy footsteps, and a strange grinding sound, like the sounds of the monsters she had heard so many times before.

Tears rolled down from Bambi’s eyes in an instant, but she didn’t cry out loud. Instead, she silently stuffed one water bottle after another into the hole, then crushed the instant noodles to squeeze them in, followed by the bread.

Bambi heard a crash.

Bambi’s tiny body trembled. She wiped away her tears, picked up the teddy bear that fell beside her, and tried her best to suppress her crying. “I’m not afraid. Grandpa will eat the food.”

When going down the stairs, her feet slipped, and her entire body started tumbling down the stairs. But it was at that moment her body suddenly froze in mid-air, and then she was moved to the doors of the third floor by a strange force.

Standing at the door with a dazed expression on her face, she raised her small face to watch her teddy bear roll down the stairs and then looked down at herself.

Why didn’t she fall down the stairs?

~*~

“Your Highness, you look tense. What’s wrong?” In the resplendent bathroom, the AI butler kindly asked the young man lying in the bathtub.

Julius Xander waved him off. “My daughter almost fell just now, but luckily I caught her with my hand.”

The AI butler: “?”

Julius said, “You wouldn’t understand. Go away.”

The AI butler dutifully asked, “Your Highness, when did you have a daughter?”

Julius couldn’t tear his eyes away from the game screen. “Just now.”

The AI butler replied, “Please enter information about your bloodline inheritor, and I will include it into my system RAM as soon as possible.”

Julius was speechless for a moment and then bit through gritted teeth, “Get! Out!”

The AI butler answered, “Okay,” and turned into an egg and rolled out of the bathroom.