Chapter 2: The First Battle

Watching the stars fall like rain outside, Rong Xianxian hurriedly grabbed the phone on her bedside table. The screen displayed April 21, Tuesday, clear skies, 11:59 p.m.

Rong Xianxian was momentarily stunned as a flood of memories from her desperate struggle for survival rushed back. Was it a dream or a recollection from a past life?

Gazing at the peacefully sleeping child beside her, her heart swelled with gratitude for this second chance. Whether dream or past life, since heaven had granted her another opportunity, she vowed to provide her child with a life of quality and dignity, far from the previous humiliations and hardship.

She quickly dressed, pulling on a loose trench coat over her clothes, donning a beret, and slipping on a black anti-smog mask—leftover supplies from the severe pollution years ago.

In her previous life, she had heard a fellow survivor recount a story: when the stars fell, he had been outside drinking and eating skewers. A glowing orb had landed not far from them.

There were seven or eight of them, all a little drunk, joking that the glowing object must be treasure.

They approached the spot where the light had fallen but found no treasure—only a creature resembling a bull, motionless.

That man wanted to run, but one drunken friend kicked the creature. The beast roared fiercely, its two horns striking with a thunderous crack, impaling the friend through.

The others fled. When they reached a small tavern, one suggested they stop since the monster hadn’t pursued them. Maybe it couldn’t move. Perhaps they should go back.

They shook their heads like rattles, but the man insisted, “What are you looking at? Call the police, dial 120, call Lei Zi’s wife—see if he can be saved.”

When they took out their phones, they were stunned—no signal. Not a single phone had a signal. They asked the shop owner if there was a landline.

Rong Xianxian recalled the man’s solemn words: they later learned that the newly landed creatures couldn’t leave their landing zones before dawn. And the very first ones to arrive always dropped rare items and top-tier foundational skills.

She packed the collapsible baton into her backpack, held a bone-cutting knife in hand, locked the door, and headed downstairs.

She had seen a glowing orb fall into the courtyard of a building along the street nearby. In her previous life, she had passively waited—partly because she trusted Ning Qingyun’s abilities and hadn’t anticipated how dire things would get, and partly because she couldn’t bear to leave her two young children alone.

Only those who had experienced it would understand that these glowing orbs held the key to survival.

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Rong Xianxian arrived at the spot where she had seen the orb land. She moved cautiously, knowing the creature was newly arrived and still dormant. She searched the entire courtyard but found no sign of the monster.

No doubt it had fallen here. She recalled the scene she had witnessed earlier and looked toward the rose bushes near the courtyard’s entrance. The monsters weren’t always large; sometimes, smaller, faster creatures were deadlier.

She saw the rose bush bent and crushed at one corner. Taking out the baton from her bag, she slowly parted the branches. Under the dim streetlamp, a pair of eerie vertical pupils glared fiercely at her.

Her legs trembled slightly, but she stifled the urge to flee, studying the creature. It was small, cat-like in shape, with erect long ears suggesting sharp hearing. Its strange vertical pupils were cold and ferocious. Though she had slain many monsters before, she had never seen one like this.

Had she lived longer, she would have been familiar with it.

This creature was called a Stoat—swift as the wind, a master of ambush, highly intelligent. It wasn’t until the fifth year of the apocalypse that anyone had ever caught one.

Having lived less than a year in her former life, Rong Xianxian had not realized how terrifying such a creature was. With her children still at home, she knew she must end this quickly.

Not knowing the creature’s territorial limits, she swung her over-a-meter-long baton hard at its head.

A sharp scream pierced the air. The creature instantly doubled in size as its fur stood up like steel needles. The baton struck the raised fur with a loud bang, sending a tingling numbness up her arm. The stoat’s blue vertical pupils gradually flooded with blood-red.

A piercing pain like needles stabbed her mind. She clutched her head and sank to her knees, instinctively channeling the spiritual energy absorption technique she had learned in her past life.

After a month of grueling practice previously, she had only just begun to feel spiritual energy entering her body. This time, however, the energy flowed the moment she activated the technique. It traveled along her meridians to her head, and the pain began to ease.

The creature saw her brow smooth and its blood-red eyes deepened. Each time its eyes grew redder, a fresh wave of agony crossed her face. She forced herself to continue the practice, frustrated beyond measure. She had expected killing a motionless monster to be quick and easy, but instead, she had encountered one with psychic attacks.

What she did not know was that the stoat felt even more trapped. It was a stealthy ambush expert, lightning-fast and lethal in one strike, with weak defense. It had never faced a frontal fight before and resorted to psychic attacks out of desperation. But every ounce of psychic energy it spent drained its life force.

The standoff dragged on. Gradually, the darkness of night faded, and the blood-red in the stoat’s eyes lightened. Its size shrank back, and its steel-like fur wilted like dead grass. Rong Xianxian’s breathing grew steady and deep.

She exhaled long and slow, opening her eyes. Looking toward the residential building along the street, she noticed a middle-aged man standing by a twelfth-floor window, watching. Despite the distance, his features were clear to her, and the faint breathing of the creature sharpened her hearing remarkably.

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