[Narcissism] The Me Who Buried Countless Versions of Myself

In 2655, a virus swept across the globe. Those infected became stiff as corpses, yet could walk and run, and had a taste for human flesh. Anyone bitten was highly likely to become infected and turn.

Xie Jun was rich beyond measure, in every sense of the word.

Like countless protagonists in novels, his father was a powerful figure in the military and government, his mother's family was in business, and he had a genius older brother.

And him?

Ha, he was a spoiled playboy.

Well, that wasn't quite right.

He simply didn't like studying.

When the apocalypse came, he'd left home after an argument with his father and gone to another province.

He watched as the peaceful streets instantly filled with people twisting their bodies and pouncing on the nearest passerby, biting them.

"Aaaaah!"

"H-help me!"

"Get away!"

It was a living hell!

Xie Jun took off running.

He wasn't an idiot. Who would stand around like a fool in a situation like this?

If not now, when?

Xie Jun ran as if he were competing in the two-thousand-meter race he'd once taken part in. He dashed across the street, pulled out his car keys, and went to start the car.

But!

Who could have guessed that the person lying beside the car wasn't dead, but was in the process of turning into a corpse?

Just as Xie Jun was climbing inside, something heavy grabbed his leg.

He turned around, trembling.

A zombie's face loomed close. It had bitten down hard on his left leg.

It was over!

When Xie Jun opened his eyes again, he found himself back on the street. Most people might have thought it was a hallucination or a dream, but not Xie Jun. He immediately ran for the car, afraid that even a second's delay would get him bitten.

Sure enough, the same scene played out again.

Xie Jun was relieved.

Over time, he realized he had an ability.

Every time he died, he was reborn a little while earlier.

But there was one drawback: his corpse didn't reset.

That meant that after he died, an identical corpse would be left where he had fallen.

So Xie Jun had taught himself how to burn corpses.

But one question had always puzzled him: Where had the corpse from his first rebirth gone?

Then one day, zombies surrounded the city.

And the zombie leading them looked exactly like him!

Oh, my dear corpse, so this is where you've been~

At the moment he was bitten, Zombie Xie Jun thought he was done for. But he survived, thanks to an astonishing stroke of luck.

He was just like an ordinary person, and managed to live as a human.

As a young master, he'd been naive and kind. But after being betrayed again and again by the very people he'd saved, he lost every last bit of that goodness.

Over time, he stopped wanting to be near them.

As he watched the mindless zombies, he thought perhaps they were his true home after all.

He grew stronger step by step, rising through blood and corpses until he stood at the very top.

He led the zombies in an assault on humanity.

As they reached the gates, he looked up and saw a version of himself both strange and familiar.

That was the him from before the betrayals.

Pure and fragile.

He smiled.

"Xie... Jun."

Like a red spider lily blooming in hell, or a breathtaking poppy.

Theme: Sunshine appears when you least expect it.