Brian Carter stretched his body and cleaned himself up in the bathroom. He found some biscuits and gulped them down with a few sips of water from the dispenser. The living room was filled with a putrid stench, so naturally, he couldn’t eat much.

He checked his phone: Thursday, May 5th, 11:20 a.m. That meant he had been unconscious for an entire night and the whole morning since last night.

Brian Carter glanced at the zombies on the floor, knowing he had to clear out all four apartments on these two floors. That was because the residents of the top and fifth floors had once pooled their money to install a heavy anti-theft iron door at the fifth-floor stairwell. That thick iron door effectively separated the fifth and sixth floors from the ones below. If he could ensure there were no zombies on the fifth and sixth floors, then the resources of these four households could be pooled together, greatly increasing their chances of survival. Of course, if he found any other survivors during the search, that would be even better. One person alone was just too risky.

Brian Carter touched the scabbed wound on the back of his head, still feeling lingering fear. If someone had helped him last night, he definitely wouldn’t have ended up in such a sorry state.

“I wonder when this wound will heal,” he muttered, feeling the dull pain spreading from the back of his head throughout his body.

“Hopefully it heals soon. Otherwise, without enough nutrition, my body will only get weaker.”

Suddenly, a string of strange characters flashed through Brian Carter’s mind. Unconsciously, he began to chant in a bizarre language.

A faint white light emanated from his right hand, quickly forming a cloud of white mist that gathered at the back of his head. A cool sensation spread from the wound. Brian Carter froze in place.

“Could it be that the dream was real? This is... this is a level-zero spell for healing minor wounds. It actually works?” In an instant, an unprecedented joy washed away Brian Carter’s fear of the future.

He reached back to touch his head again. Pressing a bit harder, he found it didn’t hurt at all.

“It’s healed. So it wasn’t a dream after all—must have been my past life.” A look of delight flashed across Brian Carter’s face. But the stench in the living room quickly brought him back to reality.

“Better clean up the corpses first.” He found a pair of rubber gloves, put them on, and dragged the corpse from the living room outside. As for cleaning the stairwell and ensuring the safety of the fifth and sixth floors, now was not the time.

Right now, he needed some time to sort out how much of his dream-world power he still possessed.

After locking the security door, Brian Carter finally noticed that the chandelier in the living room was no longer lit. He tried the switch, but there was nothing wrong with it.

“Looks like it’s a problem with the power company. But a blackout was to be expected.” After all, the whole world was infected—how could anyone expect the power company to keep running? The power plant had probably failed too. The fact that it lasted until last night was already impressive.

There was almost no noise outside the window. Occasionally, he could hear what sounded like gunshots, but they quickly faded away. There were probably still a few survivors, but Brian Carter knew they wouldn’t last long. No electricity, no water, and even tap water needed to be pumped. Without electricity, there was no tap water. No one could survive long without water or power.

He took off his coat, removed the bloodstained wooden stake, and threw all the dirty things into the foul-smelling living room. To let out the stench, Brian Carter had to quietly open the window through the aluminum panel for ventilation. Then he closed the living room door and entered the bedroom where supplies were stored.

Brian Carter sat in the corner against the wall and began to test out spells one by one, following the memories from his previous life.

Chapter Three

Brian Carter sat in the corner against the wall and began to test out spells one by one, following the memories from his previous life.

Using the meditation techniques from his past life, he sensed his own spiritual power, now much weaker than before, and slowly constructed spell models according to some mysterious rules. But he only built the models with his mind, without chanting incantations, so it consumed very little spiritual power.

Improved Arrow Spell: Launches an object at the standard speed of a crossbow. Level-zero spell.

Acid Missile: An acid missile that deals strong corrosive damage. Level-zero spell.

With his current spiritual power, he could only cast three level-zero spells. And based on the construction of the spiritual models, the laws of this world were very different from those of his previous world. Fortunately, in his past life as a legendary powerhouse, he had already mastered part of the rules and had a deep understanding of the essence of spells. So as long as he spent time, he could modify the spell models to adapt to the laws of this world. But that would take time and energy—both of which he now lacked. So after some attempts, he concluded that only three spells could be used directly.

Improved Arrow Spell, Minor Healing, and Acid Missile. And with Brian Carter’s current spiritual power, using three level-zero spells would drop his spiritual power to a dangerous 20%, close to a state of extreme weakness and near unconsciousness. So with his current abilities, even if he could modify higher-level spells, he wouldn’t be able to use them at all.

“But it’s enough.” At least, it was far stronger than his old self.