Before everything, Ren Xiyang had just been a normal person. He had been among those concerned when the temperature became more and more wild around the globe. Many people had fallen ill, but the cause wasn’t clear. Hospitals became overburdened quickly.

Then the sky turned red. That was the start of the zombie apocalypse.

Most of the ill people died and turned into zombies and started indiscriminately hunting for human flesh. The hospitals were the hardest hit as many doctors and nurses were turned into zombies.

At first, society kept trying to run. But the zombie virus spread too quickly, massively reducing the work force and making it unsafe to keep up key infrastructure. More and more people were being turned into zombies.  Resources became a free-for-all.

However, as the days passed, some people found out that they had powers, like super strength, or the ability to control water. Humans died under the claws of zombies, humans died in the hands of other humans fighting over resources, but humans also banded together.

As a fire-ability user, Ren Xiyang had been treated well…provided that he followed orders. Which meant going out frequently to cull down zombie numbers and acting as security detail.

Dying was expected. The important thing was that he wouldn’t turn into a zombie afterwards.

Eternal rest, the void of nothingness—

—Was not the sparkly fantasy world around him, where the colours were literally brighter and more vivid.

Ren Xiyang mentally flipped through the contents of the het romantic fantasy novel, feeling increasingly disinterested in following the novel’s script, and feeling increasingly disgruntled about his future lack of an infinite holiday.

He didn’t know what force, sentient or otherwise, transmigrated him into the body of a young girl. But he didn’t sign any contract, and there was no annoying ‘system’ bugging him, so he wasn’t legally obliged to anything. However, assuming that the information in the novel was correct (which Ren Xiyang wasn’t entirely convinced of), there were a lot of important things to do.

Such as dealing with the current situation.

He turned to the burning pyre of human bodies that was starting to smell too much like burnt zombie. He tried to end the flames, but they didn’t register as fire according to his ability—the flames only burned the bodies and clothes, but not the floor underneath. There was nothing Ren Xiyang could do for them right now, they were already dead anyway.

But through his fire ability, he could sense others still in the manor by the heat they emitted.

Ren Xiyang strode out of the study. Coils of fire burst from his hands, snaking outwards. He immediately encountered another assassin.

“You!” The assassin recognised the bright red hair of a Rosewood, eyes widening at the controlled flames. All Rosewoods must be killed! He immediately alerted his companions to come help via a communication spell before darting forward to attack.

Ren Xiyang’s mood raised a little. The enemy were delivering themselves straight to him, making his job a little bit easier. How considerate of them.

He dealt smoothly with the second assassin, and with the third, fourth, fifth, and the final sixth. The assassins were efficient in running towards him, so he promptly had them all fire-caged and unconscious.

He didn’t feel tired at all. In his previous world, the emergence of abilities was new and the method of upgrading abilities by absorbing crystal nuclei in zombies’ heads was difficult. But in this world, magic saturated the air, making obtaining more magical energy a far safer procedure.

The sky had brightened a fraction by the time Ren Xiyang was done. The other human-heat sources he could detect shouldn’t be assassins. At the very least, they weren’t attacking other human-heat sources.

Ren Xiyang didn’t lower his guard though. He constantly kept his ability spread out around him, tracking all nearby heat sources.

The memories of the original owner guided him to the bedroom of the original owner’s older brother. The suite was relatively neat, aside from the blood on the messed up bed sheets. Ren Xiyang headed into the walk-in-wardrobe.

All the pieces were either red, white, or black. They were all well made with delicate embroidery and the Rosewood emblem, a fire rose. While he would have preferred more subdued clothing, the original Alyssa Rosewood hadn’t known where the servants’ bedrooms were located, so neither did Ren Xiyang. Beggars couldn’t be choosers in the apocalypse.

Ren Xiyang stripped off the burnt dress and other clothes from his new body. The body was still young, so he didn’t need a binder yet. Hunting for the smallest and oldest pieces of clothing, he was able to put together an all-black ensemble of shirt, long coat, trousers, and boots. It was all a little too big, but that was nothing new for Ren Xiyang.

For now, he pulled the long red hair back into a low ponytail. He burnt off the bottom portion of it to reduce the length and dispersed the smoke.

Then, he walked out and over to Alyssa Rosewood’s suite. In her bedroom, he found her coin and jewellery box. It unlocked upon recognising ‘Alyssa’/him.

At that moment, a new group of people passed into his heat-detection range.

“Come quickly, I don’t know what happened to all the Rosewood guards…”

“Who could do this to the Rosewood family?!”

“The assassins suddenly ran off after killing Peter…”

“Guards, hurry up and look for Lord Rosewood and his family! I fear the worst…”

Ren Xiyang quickly pocketed some gold coins and closed the box. Carrying Alyssa’s old clothes, he strode back past his prisoners and into the study room. He threw Alyssa’s jewellery and old clothing he had taken off earlier into the pile of burning bodies. While he waited for others to arrive, he dragged the assassin in the study room out into the corridor to join the others.

Soon, heavy footsteps echoed through the house.

“Dead, dead…”

“Bring the bodies out to the main hall!”

Footsteps thudded up the stairs.

The newly arrived guards and some servants stepped onto Ren Xiyang’s floor.  They couldn’t find anyone in the Rosewoods’ private bedrooms, only very suspicious traces of blood and struggle.

A glow of fire at the end of the corridor made the servants fearful. Fire? Was the manor burning down?! They dashed forward, with the armoured guards following behind them.

They turned the corner and came to a lurching stop. The light from the flames revealed their shock and confusion.

A large domed cage made of fire sat in the middle of the hallway. The rug under the flames was charred, yet not burning. Inside the cage were six masked men, all unconscious. Standing just beside the cage was a young boy.

The young boy had a cold expression. His straight posture, dark clothing, and the deep shadows across his face made him look villainous.

His voice was high and young, but the tone was deeply serious. “These are the assassins that murdered my family. In the study room, they cut up the bodies. I can’t control the fire they used to burn the bodies.”

‘My family’…did he mean the Rosewoods?!

The boy was dressed in ill-fitting clothing, as though he was poor. Yet, there was a Rosewood emblem on his coat, and he had very distinctive red Rosewood hair and red Rosewood eyes.

But the servants had never seen this Rosewood child before!

There were two children in the Rosewood family: the teenage son Silas Rosewood, and the young daughter, Alyssa Rosewood. Although the Rosewood family had relatives, none of them had the same bright red hair.

An improper thought crossed many of the servants’ and guards’ minds. Was this boy a bastard child? It was not uncommon for noble houses to have their dirty secrets. But the servants couldn’t understand how this particular child had been hidden so well.

“Are any of you mages? Hurry up and go see the bodies before they burn to ash.” The boy’s sharp and disgruntled voice broke their reveries. He took one step towards the open study room door.

“Y-yes!” The highest ranking guard recovered and turned to another guard. “Go down and call up the Captain!”

“Yes sir!” The second guard dashed downstairs.

The other guards headed into the study room, followed by the anxious servants.

Widening eyes, the hiss of sharp breaths.

“Lord Rosewood, Lady Rosewood, Young Master Silas, Young Miss Alyssa…” one of the servants said in disbelief. She couldn’t even recognise whose limb belonged to who, but the glint of the Rosewood signet ring on a burnt-black hand was proof enough.

It didn’t take long for the Captain of the guards to come. But no one could stifle the flames. They could only helplessly watch as the bodies burned to black ash.

Alternate universe where a System exists:

Ren Xiyang: It’s a ‘shame’ that I don’t have a system—

System: I EXIST! I’M HERE!

Ren Xiyang: Sometimes I can imagine its stupid whiny voice. Thankfully, it’s not real ┐( ˘ ､ ˘ )┌

System: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻