She pulled off her outer jacket without even thinking about it and tossed it to the side. That thing was basically useless now. It had zombie blood on it, human blood on it, dirt ground into the seams, and all kinds of ugly marks that would never wash out properly anyway. Washing it would just waste time and water, and Bai Li was not interested in wasting either one. She had already bought a lot of clothes before exactly for situations like this. Ever since the world had gone crazy, she had understood one simple thing very clearly, that clothes were no longer something to treasure. They were something to use. When she went out to gather supplies, went out to fight, went out to run from danger, and every time she returned, her clothes came back stained in something that looked like a warning from the universe. So she had stocked up on cheap but solid things that she could wear, throw away, and replace without feeling guilty. That was just how life in apocalypse worked now. She put one elbow on her knee and sat there for a few seconds, still and thoughtful, before suddenly feeling a warm stream of energy begin to move through her body. It came so suddenly that her eyes widened a little. The tiredness that had been sitting in her bones all day started to melt away in a single rush, and the heavy ache in her limbs loosened as if someone had reached inside her and pulled out all the exhaustion at once. The feeling was so strong that Bai Li sat there in silence, not moving at first, just letting that warmth spread through her from head to toe until it slowly settled into a steady pulse.

A moment later, the system’s voice rang clearly in her ears. "Congratulations dear!! The serum has been completely absorbed by your body! You can now feel its effect!" Bai Li stayed quiet for a beat after that, her thoughts lagging behind the change happening in her body. The warmth still lingered, soft and strange, then gradually faded, leaving behind a sense of strength that felt almost unreal. She flexed her fingers once, then again, and noticed the difference right away. Her body did not feel merely rested. It felt upgraded. Like someone had quietly taken the limits of her physical strength, pushed them aside, and rebuilt everything from the inside out. She sat there for a moment longer, just feeling it, this new power humming under her skin. She felt lighter, faster, stronger, and sharper in a way that was impossible to ignore. Her stamina was clearly no longer what it used to be. Her agility had changed too. Even the pressure in her muscles felt different, more controlled and more ready. If she had been at the peak of a normal human body before, then now she had clearly crossed beyond that line. She could tell just from the way her body sat in the room. It was no longer the same body that had stumbled through yesterday’s danger. Right now, if a hundred zombies came rushing at her, she truly believed she could cut them down one by one and still have enough energy left to keep going after that. The thought was both calming and a little shocking. Bai Li exhaled slowly, the corner of her mouth lifting a little. "Finally," she murmured, her voice low and quiet in the room. The trip outside was done. More importantly, it had actually worked.

She looked at the clock next, and noticed that there were still about fifteen minutes before Yan Cijin would come. That meant she had a little more time to sit here, think, and sort out what had happened. She leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes for a bit, letting the quiet settle around her. For the first time since yesterday, her head was not full of immediate danger. No sounds of zombies, no shouts from the hospital, no strange tension hanging in the air. Just the silence of her apartment, the kind of silence that only existed because she had managed to bring herself back home alive. So she used that silence properly. She went over everything that had happened since she went out yesterday, one piece at a time. The hospital, the interdimensional market, the drawing, the fight, the escape, the people in the room, Yan Cijin. She reviewed each moment carefully, not because she liked obsessing, but because her brain worked like that. It always wanted to understand patterns. It always wanted to know where things had shifted and why. After a while, her eyes opened again, and this time there was something different in them. The light in her gaze had turned more serious, sharper and more focused. She sat quietly for a few seconds before speaking to the system, not really asking, more like making a statement she had already finished deciding on.

"So, she is the female protagonist."

The system did not answer immediately, which only made Bai Li more certain she was right. She was not asking casually. She was putting the pieces together out loud. Yan Cijin. At first, when Bai Li had heard the name, she had not thought too much about it. The world was full of similar names, and it would have been ridiculous to jump at every little coincidence. But the more time she spent around Yan Cijin, the more things lined up in her head. The more she looked at her, the more suspicious she became. It was not just the name. It was the setting, the role, the way things had begun unfolding around her. Yesterday, she had finally confirmed it for herself. Yan Cijin really was the female protagonist. That realization had not come all at once. It had grown slowly, piece by piece. She was a doctor. She had a mother. She had a daughter. And more importantly, the moment Bai Li first encountered her in the hospital, something in the atmosphere had clicked.

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED.