Back to the Apocalypse

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

My name is Yang Jin, nickname, 'Family Treasure'. I am the most beloved baby of my entire family.

Although I haven't had parents since I was a child (I heard that they died in a car accident), I have my grandpa and grandma from my father's side, and my grandpa and grandma from my mother's side, and my very amazing older cousin.

I have always been very smart since childhood. I was always first when it came to academic achievements and was envied by all the students. I had a good background, an excellent mind, I loved to be clean, and was very good looking. If nothing unexpected had happened, my life would have been smooth and wonderful, and I would've started my life journey from a very high point with my family's protection.

However, the unexpected can always happen. I never thought that this world would encounter an apocalypse. It came so abruptly, and everyone was caught off guard.

In fact, I think that perhaps I was lucky, because when the apocalypse happened, I lost consciousness, sensation, and all the thoughts that made me human.

In my confusion, I became a zombie. I don’t know if I ate people. By the time I recovered my awareness, I was already a level three zombie. Although my mind was still ignorant, I had the ability to think and knew that I was in a safe place. I knew that there was an extremely powerful zombie close to me, and I knew that there was a kind of rock that I liked to be around. Being close to it made me feel very comfortable, and even my thoughts seemed to become a lot more flexible.

I took over an entire floor as my rest area. I really was a little tyrant.

Why would I think that?

What's a 'little tyrant'?

I’m confused.

But anyway, I’m still living a carefree life.

Living, what is that?

The longer I’ve been a zombie, the more I feel that I like to think about all sorts of questions. Why are there these kinds of questions? I thought and pondered and couldn't understand, but I felt more and more empty and lonely. I felt as though I had lost my most important thing, but I didn't know what exactly I'd lost.

I really want to see the outside world. I want to fly out from this cage.

I hate that terribly powerful zombie nearby. Although I’m very close with him, why does he have to manage me like that? He won't let me do this, won't let me do that. I feel that I dislike him more and more. Every time I want to go out, that fellow would attack me with his psychic strength, making it so that I can't move.

I am very upset about it, but I have to obediently stay here. In my muddled, ignorant state, I have a sense that he is doing this for my own good.

As my abilities improved, that fellow always appeared in my memory. I knew, vaguely, that that fellow was a very important person in my life before death, but what was life before death? Why would words that I don't understand pop up in my head? Although I can’t understand anything, I still take it seriously. I think, I'll know the answer one day.

I cleaned up my rest area and looked at the spotless floors, feeling an inexplicable sense of satisfaction inside. I felt that I was becoming more and more like a person.

But why do I feel like I'm a person?

Actually, I don’t like people at all. Those insects are disgusting, weak, and cunning.

Recently, more and more insects have snuck into our territory. We clearly didn't provoke them, but when they see us, those small and weak insects are always shouting and killing, greedy for things that do not belong to them. I secretly feel that we shouldn't kill people, but after killing, I don't feel any discomfort at all. On the contrary, seeing that bright red blood makes a kind of excitement rise up in my body. I feel very thirsty and really want to drink…

A kind of inexplicable feeling made me suppress my impulse. It was as though I would really lose something if I drank that blood. I had always believed in my intuition, and since there was nothing that could be eaten, I simply killed them all to make up for it.

Gradually, fewer and fewer insects came, and there was less and less fun. Perhaps this was why my thoughts became more and more flexible. The more I thought, the more lonely I felt.

Until one day…

Two clever insects came to our territory.

They snuck into the territory, snuck into the basement, stole our things, and seeing that they thought they had successfully hidden their moves from our eyes, I found them amusing and quietly paid attention to them.

Soon, they came to the fourth floor, which was my area. It had been thoroughly cleaned, and the ground was bright and shiny. The snow-white walls were uniform, and I felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction when I saw their looks of surprise. However, I soon grew angry and felt that my chest was full of rage. I regretted paying attention to them. They were just two small insects, how dare they…

They splashed ink over my rest area and dared to dirty up my place. I had to kill them! As soon as the idea surfaced, I flew out quickly and sent out sharp ice blades along with my attack. This was my best move, and I had killed many insects with these ice blades of mine.

However, I hadn't expected that I had miscalculated. I reluctantly had to admit that these were two very powerful insects, and they quickly dodged my attack. One of the men's energy made me feel scared, and my heart was full of agitation.

And right then…

“We mean no harm.” One of the men spoke.

Hearing his calm words, I fell into a daze. Were they talking to me? My movements stiffened, and my body, which had clearly become more flexible, seemed to be fixed in place. I couldn't seem to move, or perhaps it was that I didn't want to move.

I didn't know how I felt at that moment. It was the first time that I realized what hesitation meant, but even more than that, there was joy and pleasure. So while I had been hating human beings, could it be that I just wanted so badly to be recognized by them?

The thoughts in my head began to empty out, and my brain was full of emotions. Even I had no idea where these emotions had come from, but without a doubt, my heart was happy.

“Hey, can't you give us some response?" The other man grew impatient.

I hurriedly gathered my thoughts and covered my face. I felt a little shy. I was in a daze. I wanted to talk to them.

“Awuuu--"

“I don’t understand.” The man froze for a second, then spoke helplessly.

“Awuuu! Wuuu! Wuuuu!” I felt a little depressed. Why couldn't I communicate with them?

“We're leaving."

I was anxious as I watched him pull the other person with him and leave.

But then, I heard him speak again, "Hey, isn't your nose really good? In a while, some people will be launching an attack. Remember not to harm our people! If you want to eat someone, then eat those guys on the third floor of the basement. Right, remember to tell your fellow zombies too. There's a reward!"

I felt really happy. I felt that I understood his meaning. In fact, I didn't care about the so-called reward, but I really liked the tone of his voice. It was very casual, very natural, as though I was just like them, and was a human being just like they were.

I decided that I would help him fulfil his request.

So, I quickly went to find the leader. Although I didn't know why I would call him 'leader', I had a strong feeling based on the leader's indulgence towards me that he would certainly agree to my request.

Those two humans didn't leave me disappointed. Not long after, they came to this place.

Only…

The atmosphere didn't seem to be very good!

Why did they call the leader Yang Yan?

This name was so familiar, and it caused an inexplicable sense of kindness to spontaneously rise up!

I felt like my head was going to become mush soon. What was going on?

Seeing that they were going to fight, I was really anxious and couldn't help but call out.

I felt angry! One side was the leader, and the other side were friends that I had just acknowledged. I didn't want to see them clash.

"Awuuuu! Awuuu!"

The two humans finally recognized me and gave me a bottle of liquid. I felt some disdain and joy at the same time - this was the first time I'd ever received a gift, and I was very excited as I used my sharp nails to cut off the lid.

A rich, dense energy instantaneously spread through the air, only…

Hey, leader, how could you take away my things?

I was angry, I was enraged! But I only dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak out. Only, I hadn't expected that the leader would drink all the liquid in the bottle and then speak out to suggest an exchange.

I was happy again.

When they left, I was really reluctant to say goodbye.

A dozen days later, I made a big decision. I wanted to run way and leave home! I wanted to find my friends. (I would never admit that I left because of the liquid that could boost my energy.)

xiin: this is it, guys. the end of BTTA it’s pretty abrupt, i know. others have mentioned before that something came up in the author’s personal life and they had to cut it short – i haven’t found the original post (so i could be wrong?). in any case, BTTA was one of the first apocalypse novels i ever read, and it has a special place in my heart despite the rushed ending. i hope you guys enjoyed it too!

apricot: Excited to be able to see this to the end. Good luck to humanity’s future!

xiin: i’ll be focusing on two other BL projects for now: the warm and fluffy , and , which is action packed bad-assness~ see you guys there!

consider supporting the author by actually purchasing the chapters on jjwxc. there are , and .