I Attacked Because I Was Afraid Of Death

Chapter 7: Desensitization

Chi Xin had a dream. The images in the dream were unstable and distorted and could only be recognized from general knowledge; this seemed to be a laboratory.
In the cold white, the shrill of an alarm sounded and a bloody red light shrouded the whole scene. Chi Xin didn’t know who she was; one moment she was a scientist wearing a white coat and rushing, the other she was a miserable and groaning experiment subject lying on a bed.
What was this place? Was it the laboratory where Jing Xiubai had been kept?
Her vision shifted suddenly; she was now standing in the middle and a cold male voice came from her mouth: “I warned you, the subject can control minds. I told you to be particularly careful but he escaped. Who was on duty yesterday?”
Someone wearing a white coat replied in a trembling voice: “It… It was me…”
“Bang.”
Chi Xin raised a man’s hand and shot the other person before saying: “We have no need for waste.”
Chi Xin shuddered as she witnessed death yet again. Even in her dreams, she was frightened. She looked at the hand she put down and a small snake ring flashed in the dazzling light on a slender little finger; the head of the snake was connected to its tail, as if it was eating itself.
The dream changed again and a pair of cold eyes emerged from the darkness, staring at her with a deadly gaze. Pale hands stretched out, about to grab her…

Chi Xin opened her eyes suddenly. She sat up on her bed, trying to grasp for air, and looked at the clock next to her: 1:30 in the morning. What was the place in her dream, who was talking, and who had escaped? Those were not scenes from the movie and Chi Xin’s mind was disturbed. She got up and went to the table before looking at a piece of paper she had written on. 
This was the third day since she had come to the world of this doomsday movie. She checked her trouble value and wasn’t surprised to see it had been deducted once more; she had now some pitiful 62 points and was on the verge of being controlled by the system again.
These past three days, she had ignored anyone who had come knocking on her door and forced herself to do two things, only relying on the food she had stocked in the room.
The first thing had been to carefully recall the plot of the movie and list the several major events where she might die, and think about countermeasures. After all, in the movie, the original Chi Xin had left Base L with the hero and his companions and participated in the rest of the adventures.
The second thing had been to force herself to remember all the details of her first battle. The endless tide of corpses, the exploding heads, the brain fluids, all the blood… For three days, Chi Xin suppressed her fear and conjured those images over and over again. How would she be able to survive in such a dangerous world in the future if she was afraid of zombies? So she had forced herself to face it.
The effect was obvious; she would turn pale and shiver under her blanket at first but now she just felt a little uncomfortable. Her desensitization mission was successful.

Three days had passed and the trouble value was about to fall below the pass line; it was time to go out to earn some points.
In the morning, Chi Xin rummaged through the bunch of fancy clothes in the space and finally picked some that could be worn. The weather at the end of the world no longer had any logic and right now, the temperatures were similar to the scorching heat of July. Chi Xin put on a sports bra and denim ultra-shorts, showing her long and toned legs, before looking around and finding a large white shirt to use as a cover.
She only had one bag of biscuits left in her food supplies; she didn’t really want to eat it and went out, straight to the canteen of the base.
Nowadays, the survival mechanism of the base was similar to one big shared pot. Every day, a small team would go out to collect food. They could keep for themselves part of their findings and the rest was arranged for common meals and daily necessities for the rest of the survivors.

Chi Xin strode past the people who stared at her as soon as she left her room with a calm face and naturally picked up a plate before lining up behind the line of food. As she had been away from sight for three days, she gained everybody’s attention right away.
Not to mention her battle a few days ago, the original Chi Xin had always looked down on the big pot of rice before; the men she had seduced would give her her favorite food and she had never appeared in the canteen. And as she stood at the end of the line, people kept looking back at her.
Chi Xin instinctively held her forehead, feeling she had become some kind of national treasure. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just order people to ignore her; while she was rather self-conscious, Chi Xin retained her apparent calm and ignored the gazes.

There was nothing delicious in the last days. Today, the canteen was serving barely visible egg soup and potatoes. Chi Xin picked up her food and turned around to find a seat just as Cao Qing and the protagonist group walked in.
Chi Xin didn’t want to confront them for the time being, not before she knew how to follow the plot. She just glanced at them and found an empty seat to sit down on a slightly soft, square, and high plastic stool.
The four new arrivals immediately noticed the very eye-catching Chi Xin. In the last days, whether people fought or not, everyone’s expression was habitually tense and apparently cowering. But Chi Xin wasn’t. She had a beautiful face, a clean body and when she was not fighting or killing, she had a calm aura around her, just like a young girl going to class after eating. Cao Qing’s face darkened immediately and Jiang Congyun’s eyes also became slightly strange.
Cao Qing couldn’t swallow his anger; the woman he once could have easily played with had become a God of War before he could get his hands on her and had embarrassed him in public. Seeing her back was against them, Cao Qing clenched a fist, put away Cao Yan’s advice, and walked over.
Chi Xin was about to pick up her bowl of soup when she felt a strong wind coming from behind her head, aiming straight at the soup in her hand. Before she could even prepare herself, her whole body of muscles had already responded to the aggression. She raised the bowl, avoided the kick, and pressed Cao Qing’s ankle hard on the table. His face turned pale and she dodged low as he swung a fist toward her face.
The system had taken care of this counterattack but this man had come to make trouble yet again. Chi Xin felt angry and after avoiding his punch, she lifted a long leg and kneed him in the stomach.
“Ah!!”
Chi Xin’s leg strength could kick the head of a high-level zombie off, it was a miracle Cao Qing’s body was still attached. He screamed and fell to the ground.
Chi Xin picked up her stool, stuck it around his neck, and sat on it casually. Her legs were crossed and she took back her barely spilled bowl of soup gracefully. Ignoring Cao Qing’s cries, she raised her calm eyes and seriously said: “It needs more salt.”
Except for Cao Qing’s broken voice, the canteen fell into silence for a while. Everyone looked at Chi Xin sitting above the man’s head, drinking her soup leisurely and deep awe carved in their hearts. Although she had shown great power during the last battle, the city wall had been far away and most of the survivors had only seen the shadow of her movements; they did not have a clear understanding of how powerful she really was.
But they knew about Cao Qing’s strength. He had been a boxer before the end of the world; he was full of muscles and two or three punches were enough to blast a zombie’s head. Yet right now, he was pinned down by Chi Xin and with the kick he had received, he was most likely unable to fight anymore. 

Chi Xin drank her soup in silence and took a bite of the potatoes. She was in a good mood; her trouble value had just increased by 1 with this small incident. It turned out that beating someone could also get her points and it gave her something to think about.
At this time, Xiao Li and his comrades also walked into the canteen. They noticed Chi Xin at a glance and Xiao Li’s face turned red instantly. With the push of his men behind him, he barely maintained his composure and headed toward the girl. Without one look for Cao Qing, he asked in a low voice: “I haven’t seen you in a few days. How are you?”
“Huh?” Chi Xin had just bitten a mouthful of potatoes and when she turned to look at Xiao Li, her cheeks were bulging. She chewed hard and swallowed.
“Quite good, just no food.”
Xiao Li watched her; she was obviously so powerful yet her eyes were innocent and her chewing appearance was just like a little squirrel and… cute. Xiao Li felt his heart was hit hard and suddenly stammered.
“That’s… that’s good.” Idiot! Couldn’t he say something interesting? He wanted to punch himself.

Everyone forgot about the poor Cao Qing. In the end, the kind-hearted heroine couldn’t stand it anymore; she glanced at Jing Xiubai, seemingly shocked by his indifferent face, and stepped forward.
“Chi Xin.” Jiang Congyun said in a gentle voice, “Cao Qing is Cao Yan’s brother, it’s not good to keep pressing him down like that for too long. Let him go.”
Chi Xin raised her head, it was the first time she was really looking at the heroine. Just like in the movie, Jiang Congyun had soft eyebrows and gentle eyes and despite her imperial figure, her character had taken the route of the healing angel. And even in front of Chi Xin, who had stolen her belongings, she was able to give kind advice.
“Oh.” Chi Xin had no intention to complicate the already glacial relationship. As soon as Jiang Congyun finished talking, she stood up obediently and removed her stool from Cao Qing’s head. Jiang Congyun was a little surprised by her compliant behavior and blinked as she realized she had achieved her goal so easily.
This scene fell in Xiao Li’s eyes and his heart was hit again. Really… so cute.
Even though the stool was removed, Cao Qing took a long time before getting up. He clutched his stomach and gasped, looking at everybody with a bitter expression on his face.
“Jiang Congyun, didn’t she take your things? Why are you so good to your bully?” Cao Qing kicked the stool away. He felt the sharp pain and tried to stand firm again.
“Chi Xin relied on the fact you were her classmate to take your supplies when she obviously has the ability to gather them herself!”
Chi Xin had forgotten there had been such a thing in the movie. She scratched her cheek as she watched Jiang Congyun’s unhappy expression.
“I can explain…” she said hesitantly.
“Save it for later.”
Jing Xiubai and Yu Xiang walked over. The hero had gotten a new pair of glasses from somewhere, almost identical to his original ones.
Yu Xiang gave her a reassuring look and Jing Xiubai said: “Chi Xin, can we talk?”
He didn’t look like he wanted to pick a fight and his tone was somewhat normal. After some hesitation, Chi Xin finally nodded: “Yes.”