parentshiftbook Chapter 1 Rebirth: 3 Months Before the Catastrophe
Chapter 1 Rebirth: 3 Months Before the Catastrophe
Three o'clock in the morning, Cangnan City, an old residential building.
A severe headache, like a red-hot iron, slammed into Lin Chen's temples.
He suddenly opened his eyes, and what came into view was not the perpetually gray sky of the post-apocalyptic ruins, nor the stenchy, gaping maws of the mutated beasts, but the yellowish old chandelier on the ceiling and the familiar, damp smell of cooking oil in the air.
Lin Chen's heart clenched violently, almost leaping out of his chest.
He's not dead?
He remembered it clearly: just as he plunged his broken knife into the eye of the mutated giant wolf, another high-level zombie pounced from behind and bit through the back of his neck. The excruciating pain, the broken bones, the gushing blood… that was the memory of the last second of his life in the fifth year of the apocalypse.
But now, he lay on his bed, wearing a faded old T-shirt, the faint sounds of traffic from the city in the dead of night drifting in from outside the window, his phone screen lit up, the time clearly displayed—
2025年7月12日，凌晨3:05。
There are still three months until that global catastrophe.
Lin Chen's fingers trembled uncontrollably. He grabbed his phone, the screen's light reflecting off his pale face. His pupils churned with ecstasy, fear, and a deep-seated hatred.
He really came back.
We've returned to three months before the cataclysm began.
Memories of his past life flooded back like a tidal wave, carrying bloodshed and despair, instantly engulfing him.
He remembers clearly that everything changed starting three months from today.
First came a massive earthquake that struck without warning, tearing skyscrapers to shreds and instantly paralyzing power and communications. Then came a superstorm that swept across the coast, a Category 12 hurricane accompanied by a massive tsunami that engulfed half of the eastern coast. Temperatures plummeted, blizzards raged for a month, and the extreme cold froze rivers and countless people who couldn't escape.
Just when people thought that getting through the cold winter would bring a turning point, an extreme heat wave suddenly struck again, with temperatures soaring to fifty degrees Celsius. Plagues and viruses spread wildly under the high temperatures, and the zombie virus began to spread in the city.
Even more terrifying, as the unknown radiation spread, all living things began to mutate. Rats turned into bloodthirsty monsters half the height of a person, fish in the river grew fangs, and even the roadside weeds turned into man-eating vines that could entangle their prey.
Order collapses, civilization perishes.
And he, Lin Chen, went from an ordinary college student to a stray dog struggling to survive in the ruins.
He watched as his parents were robbed of their last bag of compressed biscuits and beaten to death by thugs; he watched as the neighbor's little girl was torn to pieces by a mutated stray cat; he watched as the city he once knew turned into a hell soaked in blood and excrement. He endured five years of hardship, surviving by scavenging garbage, eating mutated beast meat, and hiding in the sewers, but in the end, he still died at the hands of a mutated creature.
He died with endless regret and resentment in the city he couldn't protect no matter how hard he tried.
"Huff...huff..." Lin Chen gasped for breath, cold sweat instantly soaking through the back of his clothes.
But just seconds later, the vulnerability in his eyes was replaced by an almost frantic calm.
No, this time, he won't die.
He will no longer stand by and watch his loved ones die, no longer watch Cangnan City turn into ruins, and no longer be wantonly bullied by those villains in human skin.
He wants to live.
He wanted to protect this city, and everything he wanted to protect.
He wants to settle scores with all those who betrayed and hurt him in his past life.
He wants those greedy, selfish, and cruel scum to pay the price for their actions.
Lin Chen threw off the covers, walked barefoot to the window, and drew back the curtains.
Outside the window, the city was silent, the streetlights dim, and occasionally a car would drive by, leaving a faint trail of light. Everything was as peaceful as a false dream.
But he knew that beneath this calm lay the impending abyss of doom.
Three months.
He only has three months.
In three months, he will transform Cangnan City into an impregnable fortress.
Lin Chen walked to his desk, turned on his computer, and took out paper and pen, and began frantically listing items.
The first line lists supplies.
Food, water, medicine, fuel, weapons, building materials...
He remembered the location of every large supermarket's warehouse, the opening hours of every grain and oil wholesale market, the storage location of every hospital's spare medicines, and even which hardware stores sold high-strength alloy steel plates.
He wrote down all the resource points he remembered from the past five years.
The second line is about manpower.
He needs reliable people, people who can help him with his work and whom he can trust.
The first name is Zhao Lei.
In his past life, Zhao Lei was his only comrade-in-arms and his last companion. This man, a former special forces soldier, was one of the few in the apocalypse who still retained his courage and morality. They survived three years together, until Zhao Lei was torn apart by a horde of mutated beasts while covering his retreat.
Lin Chen gripped the pen tightly, his knuckles turning white.
In this life, he will not let Zhao Lei die again.
He needs to find him and bring him into his team.
The third name is Dr. Li.
The head of surgery at the First Municipal Hospital, in his previous life, after the hospital fell to the enemy, he and a few nurses hid in the underground pharmacy, saving countless lives. In the end, however, he was burned alive by the looters for refusing to hand over antibiotics.
There's also Old Wang from the machinery factory. He used to be a technician at a military machinery factory. He could modify firearms and repair generators. In his previous life, he had seen Old Wang turn a scrapped truck into an invincible doomsday vehicle.
There's also Old Chen, the bridge guard, a retired policeman with exceptional marksmanship. In the early days of the apocalypse, he protected the entire residential compound with just his police gun...
Lin Chen's pen flew across the paper, writing down names, identities, and contact information one by one.
These people were survivors he had met in his previous life, people who were capable and had principles.
He will find them all and bring them into the fortress before the catastrophe comes.
The third line: city defenses.
The city walls of Cangnan City are old and dilapidated, and cannot withstand the impact of earthquakes and mutated beasts at all. He needs to reinforce the outer walls, seal off all entrances and exits, and set up roadblocks, traps, and fortifications.
He needs steel, cement, rebar, barbed wire, riot shields, high-voltage electric fences...
He remembered the bankrupt building materials factory on the outskirts of the city, where a large amount of steel bars and plates were still left in the warehouse; he remembered the abandoned arsenal near the former site of the military region, where there were a lot of forgotten barbed wire and roadblocks.
He even needed to find a construction team to seal off all the main entrances and exits of Cangnan City with concrete and steel plates within three months.
Lin Chen's brain was working at lightning speed; his five years of survival experience from his previous life had all become his weapons.
He knows the time, location, and intensity of every natural disaster.
He knew the route of every zombie horde and the outbreak point of every beast horde.
He knew where the mutated beast nests were, where the hidden water sources were, and where he could hide in air-raid shelters.
He even knew that three months later, the earthquake would strike precisely at 3:07 a.m., the overpass in the city center would collapse during the third aftershock, and the water plant in the west of the city would be contaminated by seawater from the tsunami on the third day after the earthquake.
This information was earned through five years of blood and tears; it was his means of survival.
Now, he wants to turn all that capital into the confidence to survive.
Lin Chen put down his pen and glanced at his bank balance on the computer screen.
Thirty-two thousand seven hundred yuan.
This was all his savings, not even enough to buy a tenth of the supplies.
He needs to make money, and he needs to do it quickly.
He looked at the property certificate on the table.
This old house in the city center was left to him by his parents. It's in a good location and its market value is around 1.5 million.
Without hesitation, Lin Chen immediately opened his phone, downloaded a real estate agency app, listed the house for 1.4 million yuan, and demanded full payment within one month.
He needs to cash out as soon as possible.
After doing all that, he opened the stock trading software.
In his past life, he remembered that half a month before the Great Cataclysm, the stock market would experience a brief surge due to a false positive news. Although it was just a fleeting phenomenon, it was enough for him to multiply his money several times over.
He used all of his remaining 30,000 yuan to buy that stock that was destined to skyrocket.
By the time all this was done, it was already dawn.
Lin Chen leaned back in his chair, looking at the sky outside the window as it gradually brightened. There was no sign of sleepiness in his eyes, only a cold flame burning within them.
Three months.
His time is running out.
He wanted to turn Cangnan City into a true fortress before the catastrophe struck.
He will settle accounts with those who owed him or harmed him in his past life, one by one.
Lin Chen picked up his phone and dialed the first number.
The phone rang three times before being answered. A gruff voice, clearly grumpy from being woken up, came from the other end: "Hey? Who is it? So early in the morning..."
"Zhao Lei," Lin Chen's voice was calm and clear, carrying an undeniable power, "I am Lin Chen. I need your help with something."
Zhao Lei on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment, then cursed, "Lin Chen? Are you crazy? What time is it? Can't we wait until dawn to talk about something?"
"I can't wait," Lin Chen's gaze fell out the window, as if he could already see the hellish scene three months later. "This matter concerns your life."
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, then Zhao Lei's voice became serious: "Go ahead."
"Come to my house at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Bring your discharge certificate and everything that can prove your identity," Lin Chen said, enunciating each word clearly. "I'm giving you a chance, a chance to live."
After saying that, he hung up the phone.
Lin Chen put down his phone, stood up, and walked to the mirror.
The man in the mirror was pale, with deep-set eyes, but had a pair of frighteningly bright eyes.
He was no longer the cowardly, powerless Lin Chen of his past life, who could only watch helplessly as everything happened.
This time, he is Lin Chen, a Night Watchman who returned from the apocalypse, and the Lord of the Fortress City of Cangnan.
His battlefield was right before him.
His war begins now.
Outside the window, the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds and shone into the room.
Lin Chen knew that this was the first sunrise he had seen before the apocalypse.
And he was ready.