When the Female Lead Becomes Obsessive – Chapter 118

Volume Six: The Years I Wasn’t Human

Sacrifice

“Where’s my right hand?” Wen Nuan looked all around, but the one thing she couldn’t find was her own right hand.

The system scanned the area. 【It’s in that zombie’s mouth. Go get it back.】

“…” Wen Nuan sighed and walked over to the zombie that was gnawing on her right hand.

She patted the zombie’s shoulder. The zombie turned its head, its hollow, pale eyes seeming to ask her, what do you want?

“Buddy, the thing you’re chewing on right now is my arm. How about you give it back to me?” Wen Nuan tried to reason with it.

The zombie was dazed and confused, not understanding Wen Nuan’s meaning. The thing before it held no attraction, like an inanimate object.

Seeing that it was ignoring her, Wen Nuan raised her left hand and pulled her right hand out of its mouth.

“Forget it. You can’t understand human speech anyway. I’ll just do it myself.”

Its food snatched away, the zombie roared in fury, its anger soaring to the heavens.

Wen Nuan reattached her right hand and gave the zombie a huge slap. She didn’t control her strength well and sent both the zombie’s head and her newly attached right hand flying.

The zombie fell to the ground with a thud.

Watching her right hand fly into the distance, Wen Nuan heaved a long sigh. “Can’t you just get me a new body?”

【I don’t have that permission.】 The system watched as Wen Nuan reinstalled her right hand. 【When returning to the source world, a task-taker can only return to their own world-carrier.】

“Then how am I supposed to complete the mission with this shattered body?”

Although her right hand had been snatched back from the zombie’s mouth, it was missing three fingers, and the arm had been chewed on so much that the white bone within was visible. Her body was also bitten to pieces.

Moreover, her legs were now different lengths, making her walk with a limp. Looking at her from a distance, her body looked exactly like a human skeletal model used by a medical student.

【Take it slow,】 the system comforted. 【Your recovery ability has always been very good. As long as you rest well for a period of time, all this missing flesh and organs will slowly heal on their own.】

Wen Nuan lay exhausted on the main road. Passing zombies didn’t even give her a second glance, as if she didn’t exist. One zombie even pushed its luck and stepped on her chest as it walked past, angering Wen Nuan so much that she directly crushed its head.

It had to be said, the technique Yan Hui¹ had taught her was quite useful—clean and efficient.

Wen Nuan looked at the first-tier² white crystal core³ in her hand, full of impurities. It appeared very murky and dirty under the sunlight.

That was the lowest level of zombie, with no human consciousness to speak of. It would only wander around aimlessly and wouldn’t actively hunt. In the end, it would die of starvation.

Wen Nuan glanced at the wandering zombies nearby, thinking that if she kept lying on the main road like this, she would probably be stepped on by every passing zombie.

She looked at the experimental zone in the distance. There were more zombies there, but to them, she was like a pebble on the roadside, something to be casually stepped on.

Wen Nuan got up with difficulty, then limped toward the experimental residential area. She found a relatively clean house and crushed the low-level zombie wandering inside.

She looked at the brown crystal core in her hand. Judging by its size and purity, it was actually from a second-tier earth-type⁴ zombie. It had probably been starving for too long, as it didn’t even have a chance to use its skills before Wen Nuan crushed its skull with one hand.

Wen Nuan had no interest in the crystal core. Just as she was about to throw it away, she saw that this second-tier earth-type crystal core was being silently absorbed by her, and her missing middle finger was actually slowly growing back halfway?!

How miraculous!

Wen Nuan’s eyes lit up. She immediately picked up the crystal cores from the other zombies and found that first-tier crystal cores were useless to her; they didn’t change at all when placed in her palm.

Wen Nuan could only run out and crush another second-tier zombie, obtaining a second-tier white crystal core, but there was still no change.

【Based on calculations, you should only be able to absorb the crystal cores of high-tier zombies that possess a special ability.】 The system concluded.

Wen Nuan tossed the useless crystal core aside and collapsed weakly onto the sofa, saying listlessly, “Oh.”

【Aren’t you going to kill zombies and use their crystal cores to mend your body?】 the system asked, surprised to see Wen Nuan making no move.

Wen Nuan played with the white crystal core in her hand, her voice faint. “Do you know the reason for the female lead’s blackening in this world?”

The system shook its head. 【I do not.】

“But I do.”

【You know?】 the system said in surprise. 【Then what is the reason for the female lead’s blackening?】

Wen Nuan tilted her head back and let out a long sigh. “Because I died to save the male lead.”

This mission world was a post-apocalyptic world fraught with danger.

In the year 4444, a group of crazed scientists, fantasizing about eternal life and immortality, developed an H-agent that could achieve this effect. As soon as the agent appeared, it was madly sought after by the world.

The price of a single milliliter of the agent reached as high as one hundred million US dollars. The rich, seeking eternal life, flocked to it like moths to a flame; the poor, also wanting immortality, organized themselves under the banner of overthrowing authoritarianism and classism, attempting to gain the right to use the agent.

The entire world fell into a state of frenzied violence because of this H-agent. The obsessions and evils deep within everyone’s hearts were completely exposed. Riots and resistance broke out everywhere, and the world order began to destabilize.

But just as everyone was frantically chasing after the H-agent, its side effects suddenly appeared. All humans who had used the H-agent suddenly developed fevers and began to transform.

Some people developed a fever that wouldn’t subside and were eventually burned to death; a minority developed a fever and awakened powerful special abilities; but the majority, after the fever, turned into walking corpses that only knew how to eat human flesh and blood. People collectively called these mutated beings “zombies.”

Later, humans discovered that when they were bitten by zombies, they would also begin to suffer from a continuous high fever. The human immune system and the H-agent would fight against each other, leading to three possible outcomes.

First: The human develops a fever, which continues unabated until the human is directly burned to death. This outcome accounted for 10% of cases.

Second: The human develops a fever, and the H-agent is ultimately absorbed and converted by the body, thereby awakening a special ability. This outcome accounted for 5% of cases.

Third: The human develops a fever, and the H-agent rapidly destroys all human bodily functions, turning the human into a zombie in a short period of time. They begin to attack and bite humans. This outcome accounted for 85% of cases.

For a time, the entire globe was plunged into an epic nightmare.

In the year following the outbreak of the H-agent’s side effects, the human population dropped drastically. The ratio of humans to zombies worldwide had reached a terrifying 1:1000, and the ratio of human ability users to zombie ability users was an equally shocking 1:500.

To save the world, humanity demanded that all experts in the medical field gather at the Jingdu S-Class Base⁵ to jointly develop a method to solve the terrifying effects brought by the H-agent.

Unfortunately, the scientists who had originally created the H-agent had almost all turned into zombies. The formula for the H-agent was left in a storage chip in the central controller of the Southwest Qian’an⁶ Biological Research Experimental Zone.

In order to better understand the H-agent, the Jingdu S-Class Base dispatched thirty human ability users to form a suicide squad and head to Southwest Qian’an to bring back the H-agent data for research.

The suicide squad endured hardships and obstacles along the way, suffering heavy casualties. By the time they finally reached Southwest Qian’an, the original thirty-person suicide squad had already lost 15 ability users on the journey from Jingdu.

The final fifteen ability users relied on a B-grade⁷ mental-type ability user to successfully crack the experimental zone’s controller password and extract the H-agent data. With the zone’s important data leaked, its defense system immediately activated, initiating a self-destruct mode. A continuous series of explosions attracted tens of thousands of zombies.

In an instant, the experimental zone became an ocean of zombies.

In order to get the H-agent data out, everyone worked together to open a path of life.

And Wen Nuan was one of the remaining 15 ability users at that time. She and the B-grade mental-type ability user were both the types to be protected.

One was the brains of the operation, and she was the healer, an A-grade healing-type ability user.

An A-grade healing-type ability user as powerful as her, there were only two in the whole world. One was her, and the other was already dead. You just say, is that awesome or not!?

She and the mental-type ability user were protected in the center of the group. The mental-type ability user interfered with the consciousness of high-tier zombies, while she provided energy and healing to the other ability users.

Unfortunately, the number of zombies was simply too vast. No matter how relentlessly they fought, they still suffered heavy losses. By the time they escaped the Southwest Qian’an experimental zone, only three of the fifteen people were left alive.

Wen Nuan, the male lead, and the female lead.

At that moment, a zombie king rushed over from the distance, attempting to slaughter them. The male and female leads were already heavily injured, and Wen Nuan, having constantly consumed her own energy to save them, had long since been depleted. The crystal cores she carried had also all been absorbed.

Seeing that the zombie king was about to kill the male lead, Wen Nuan, in order to protect him and prevent the world from collapsing, forcefully hugged the zombie king and initiated self-destruction, perishing together with the zombie king so that the male and female leads could escape successfully.

So, naturally, Wen Nuan knew why this world’s female lead had turned black.

The system pondered. 【If you reappear before the female lead, wouldn’t her blackening value be quickly eliminated?】

Wen Nuan stretched, but a rib broke. She sighed. “…Perhaps.”

This broken body.

“But I can’t go see her looking like this, or I’ll be treated like a monster.” Wen Nuan set her broken rib, then popped her arm, which had been dislocated from the stretch, back into place.

Now that she had become this thing that was neither human nor ghost, humans were afraid of her, zombies ignored her, and she herself was filled with sorrow at the sight.

Utterly exhausted, Wen Nuan curled up on the sofa, sighing in despair.

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Jingdu S-Base

“Unfortunately, the data you brought back on the H-agent is incomplete.” Dr. An Min⁸ looked at the data Chu Han⁹ and Sang Er¹⁰ had brought back, his expression indifferent, his tone tinged with regret.

“Incomplete?” Sang Er grabbed An Min by the neck, her eyes bloodshot and looking as if they would split. “Twenty-eight people died for this data, and now you’re telling me what we brought back is incomplete!?”

“Sang Er, let go of Dr. An Min!” someone in the conference room shouted to stop her.

An Min said faintly, “I express my regret for your sacrifice, but this data is indeed incomplete. And the part that’s missing just so happens to be the core part of the H-agent’s manufacturing process.”

Sang Er tightened her five fingers. “Incomplete? I think your brain is what’s missing a screw.”

“Sang Er, let go!” Chu Han grabbed Sang Er’s wrist, forcefully restraining her. “Let go of Dr. An Min. If you kill him, there will be no one left in this world who can crack the side effects of the H-agent.”

Dr. An Min was the only ability user in the world whose special ability was brain domain development¹¹. The higher his ability level, the higher his brain’s development index.

Most importantly, before the H-agent’s side effects broke out, he was the only surviving research scientist who had participated in the creation of the H-agent, because he was the only one who had never used it.

As for why An Min had a special ability?

He was purely bitten by a mutated colleague, which caused him to awaken his ability.

Although he had participated in the research and development of the H-agent, the data regarding its creation was too vast and complex. Each research scientist only studied their own area of expertise. For example, An Min only researched his main focus, genetics. In the end, everyone would hold a seminar to discuss feasibility.

Later, An Min awakened his brain domain ability, developing his brain to its current 50% capacity. He collected all the world’s knowledge, storing and converting it in his brain to fight against the H-agent’s side effects, attempting to find a way to undo them.

Therefore, Dr. An Min was the only person in the world who could combat the H-agent’s side effects.

“Get lost!” Sang Er slapped Chu Han’s hand away, glaring at him viciously. “Chu Han, don’t fucking pretend to be some nice guy in front of me. If it weren’t for… I would have killed you long ago.”

A trace of sorrow flashed in Chu Han’s eyes. He lowered his hand and gritted his teeth. “Dr. An Min is the only one who can solve the H-agent’s side effects. If you kill him, the world will be destroyed. Would you be willing to let… Wen Nuan be sad?”

Lin Wen Nuan. The moment this name appeared, everyone in the conference room felt an extremely terrifying and powerful pressure.

Sang Er threw An Min aside, gathered fire in her palm, and struck at Chu Han. “Who the fuck are you to say her name!?”

Chu Han immediately dodged.

Watching the conference room get torn to shreds by Sang Er’s flames, the others thought to themselves¹²: Here we go again.

Whenever Chu Han and Sang Er met, they would inevitably fight, mainly with Sang Er attacking and Chu Han defending.

And the reason they fought was because of that rare healing-type ability user: Lin Wen Nuan.

It was heard that back in Southwest Qian’an, Lin Wen Nuan had died by self-destruction in order to save Chu Han.

From then on, Sang Er hated Chu Han to death. The two S-grade ability users normally would not have contact until old age and death¹³. Aside from necessary meetings, many people were unwilling to summon both at the same time, because as soon as they met, they would fight, each wishing they could kill the other.

Of course, it was one-sided. It was mainly Sang Er who wanted to kill Chu Han.

Watching the monstrous fire surge through the conference room, the others helplessly called for a water-type ability user to clean up.

“Dr. An Min, now that the H-agent data is incomplete, do we have to make another trip to Southwest Qian’an?” someone asked.

An Min looked at the two fighting fiercely and said faintly, “We have to go.”

Everyone’s expression changed. Of the team that went to Southwest Qian’an three months ago, only two S-grade ability users returned. If they went again, there was no telling how many people would be able to return safely.

“This time,” An Min loosened the collar that Sang Er had grabbed, “I will go with them.”

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