In the private VIP ward of Fenghua Medical Center, everything was silent.
Machines beeped in rhythm. The nurses passed by quietly, hardly glancing into Room 1701 anymore. After all, the man inside hadn't opened his eyes in nearly a year.
Li Zhen. Thirty-one years old. CEO of Li Group. The youngest tech tycoon in the nation, and clinically, a vegetable.
No one expected a miracle. Not anymore. His fiancée had stopped visiting after three months. His board of directors was already scheming. His family? Waiting to declare him brain-dead.
But then, at exactly 03:33 a.m., the man in the bed opened his eyes.
—
Li Zhen's gaze was calm. Too calm.
His heart rate didn't spike. His muscles didn't twitch. He didn't call for help. Didn't scream or panic.
He just… stared at the ceiling. For a long, long time.
"Still this timeline…"
He exhaled quietly. The coldness in his pupils deepened.
He had died once before. No—burned alive, cornered like a dog by mutated beasts after the bunker was breached.
But before the flames consumed him, his soul had shattered into something else—sent backward, anchoring in the body of his past self.
He remembered it all. The red rain. The monsters. The betrayals. And her.
The woman with bloodied hands and a jade pendant that burned with golden light.
"…I never learned her name," he murmured.
He sat up slowly.
The nurse screamed and dropped her clipboard.
Doctors flooded in. Orders shouted. Monitors blinked.
"Mr. Li?! You—! You're awake?!"
He looked around at the chaos and said nothing.
Just picked up the IV from his arm and stood.
"Bring me a phone," he said calmly. "And fire the driver outside. He's been leaking boardroom info to Xu Wancheng for five months."
The doctor froze.
"How… could you know—?" Li Zhen looked at him.
"Because I've already lived through what comes next."
The hospital wing descended into chaos, but Li Zhen remained composed.
He stood barefoot on the cold tile floor, gown loose on his frame, gaze scanning the room like he was already somewhere else. In a way, he was. He had already lived through this world's death.
And he refused to die the same way twice.
A junior doctor stepped forward. "Mr. Li, we need to run a scan, you've been—"
"Eleven months and twenty-two days."
Li Zhen's voice was quiet. Controlled. "My body is fine. My memory sharper than ever. I won't repeat myself."
He turned to the nurse beside him. "Bring me my personal assistant. Now. Not the stand-in. The original. Feng Mo."
The nurse blinked. "Feng Mo… resigned six months ago."
Li Zhen's lips curled into a half-smile. "Then he'll return within twenty-four hours."
He walked out of the room, ignoring the sputtering staff behind him.
[Three Hours Later — Private Penthouse, Li Residence]
Feng Mo stood stiffly in front of the man who should've still been unconscious.
"CEO Li… I—"
"You've been loyal, Feng Mo. Even after you were forced out."
Li Zhen took a sip of water and looked over the data pad.
"I need a discreet logistics team. No public movements. Full cash purchases only. Secure properties in rural zones. Cold storage. Solar tech. Private wells. Private contractors. And a new bunker."
Feng Mo swallowed hard. "Sir… may I ask what this is for?"
Li Zhen looked at him, gaze like glass—calm but unreadable.
"This world has six months left. Prepare as if it's three."
[Later That Night — Study Room]
Alone, Li Zhen sat before an encrypted screen.
He tapped a finger slowly, watching CCTV footage from last year.
There.
A woman. Bloodied. Fighting alone. Dragging a wounded child through fire. A glimpse of her eyes—calm, burning.
And around her neck—a cracked jade pendant, faintly glowing.
"You weren't from this world either, were you?"
He leaned back, gaze thoughtful.
"I never got your name."
"But if you're still alive… I'll find you this time."
The world thought Li Zhen had just woken up.
But he'd been awake for months—just not in this time.
In his last life, it had taken him too long to adapt.
He hesitated, trusted the wrong people, and relied on the weight of money and power to survive.
None of it saved him.
Now, reborn, he would rely on no one, and he would not wait.
[01:45 A.M. — Li Zhen's Personal Study, Basement Level]
A hidden panel opened with a palm scan and retina match. Inside, steel shelves lined the walls—already stocked with backup equipment: prototype power cells, modified drones, cold fusion batteries, encrypted data nodes.
In his past life, he had built tech for others. This life? He would build it for himself.
Li Zhen sat down, fingers flying across a black terminal.
Private Server Access: ONLINE
Li Group R&D Lab Alpha: ACTIVE
He began transferring blueprints—detailed, intricate designs of hybrid systems that combined spiritual energy with modern tech.
Things that hadn't been possible yet—but would be soon.
"They'll call it impossible. Until the world forces them to believe."
—
[02:20 A.M. — Surveillance Archive]
He pulled up a classified visual feed: disaster footage, scrubbed by authorities from public eyes.
One clip in particular made him pause.
A woman. Thin frame. Hooded jacket.
Single-handedly slaughtering a group of rabid mutants with a glowing blade.
The footage was corrupted—likely due to spiritual interference—but one thing stood out.
The pendant around her neck. Li Zhen leaned closer. The same pendant he saw in his final moments.
The one that had burned golden as she protected others, even as the world fell.
"…You're ahead of the curve, too."
He didn't smile. But the chill in his eyes shifted—just slightly.
"You move in shadows, just like me."
"We'll meet again. I'll make sure of it."
He closed the file.
Outside, the city lights flickered in the early morning haze.
The world still believed in peace, in structure, in control. But it was rotting from the inside.
Li Zhen stood by the window, hands in his pockets, expression unreadable.
"The apocalypse isn't coming. It's already here."
"They just don't know it yet."