2: Underneath A Thousand Skies

251 Reality (7)

Danshen was a desolate world.

Since a long time ago, the mutated inhabitants there had ran out of food. Because of their special physique, although they were constantly hungry, they continued to survive.

Some called them 'zombies,' while others took to the term 'undead immortals.' They were superior to ordinary humans in terms of speed, strength, and stamina. If there was only one thing humanity had an advantage over them, it was the fact that these mutated zombies could never cooperate with each other.

Danshen was part of the four planetary systems, but they were considered an invisible force.

They didn't participate in the meetings of the galactic confederation, and neither did they have an advanced government body that could rule their planetary system. Except for the extreme primitive hierarchy of 'the weak are prey to the strong,' Danshen didn't have any order at all.

One reason they were still considered to be a part of the galactic confederation was because Danshen became the dumping ground of the most dangerous criminals in the whole galactic confederation. In other terms, they were the high security prison of the galaxy.

It was because once you entered Danshen, you could never get out.

Many dangerous criminals have been put in there, and most of them were very powerful. Mad scientists that could erase thousands of people with a plague, renegade assassins so extremely good at killing that a whole planet's military force had to be activated to detain them...in other words, these criminals weren't ordinary people. If put in the other planets, they might cause a huge catastrophe.

But in Danshen, they couldn't even survive for five minutes before being ripped to shreds.

Liu Pang, a top criminal who had been dumped in the planet only a few seconds ago, crawled on his hands and feet as he tried to escape.

"This is beyond insane..."

As an infamous criminal, Liu Pang had been exposed to a lot of terrifying acts since he was young that could drive a normal man insane. But there were still no words to describe the hell he found himself in.

Although it was said that the monsters that lived in Danshen were once human, Liu Pang couldn't find any resemblance to their original form. Their skin had almost peeled away, revealing their skull and their eye sockets. They constantly drooled, and their mouths could open as wide as a lion's maw.

Liu Pang yelled out in fear as one of the dog-like monsters pounced on him. As it bit him, a sudden explosion engulfed both of their bodies in flames. Before exhaling his dying breath, Liu Pang suddenly heard a shout not far away from him.

'Is there somebody here aside from me?'

It wasn't only Liu Pang who was torched alive. About nearly everything in a one kilometer radius were reduced to ashes.

"Ye Minzhe, you just wait..."

Xu Jinhai gritted his teeth as he burned the surrounding monsters around him with fire. But even with the extreme heat, the mutated zombies continued to rush towards him. He could turn invisible, but they would smell him; he could levitate, and they could jump high enough to catch him. Even teleportation would only transfer him from the pot into the fire, because the whole planet was crawling with these monsters.

For the whole twenty-four hours, Xu Jinhai didn't have a single moment of respite. Even more infuriating than this was that...

"I haven't texted Jia all day!"

Using a psionic attack, Xu Jinhai repelled hundreds of zombies around him. It left a ten feet radius of empty area, and he used this moment to try and catch a signal on his phone.

To prevent criminals from contacting anyone outside, Danshen was devoid of any communication satellites. Xu Jinhai prayed with all of his soul that his message would send.

The screen showed a single notification.

"The message failed to send. Please try again."

Xu Jinhai collapsed to his knees.

"I only wanted to tell Jia good morning..."

Xu Jinhai clutched his shirt with a tight fist, pulling it away from his chest. He stared bleakly at the sky, feeling as if the whole world was falling down on top of him.

"Our relationship have barely begun and we've already encountered an obstacle. According to the love therapist I consulted, lack of communication is the primary reason why most couples break up. Statistics also say that 80% of men who don't reply to text messages get dumped by their partners. What if Jia thinks my lack of reply is a red flag...?"

A mutated zombie dashed straight towards Xu Jinhai. It was so fast that plumes of dust rose up behind him. Right before he opened his jaw to bite Xu Jinhai, the kneeling man on the ground plunged a hand straight through the zombie's chest.

Xu Jinhai sadly looked at the struggling zombie, while tightening his fingers around its heart.

"Your heart might feel painful, but my heart is also breaking, you know?"

Xu Jinhai crushed the zombie's heart. When he pulled his hand away, extremely sticky blood dripped through his fingers.

"If Jia asks me why I didn't reply, would she believe my excuse? No, a man shouldn't make excuses to his wife. A capable man wouldn't let a planet filled with undead immortals stop him from texting. At the end of the day, I'm just too weak..."

More zombies rushed to Xu Jinhai, and an explosion that rivalled that of an atomic bomb incinerated every monster around him. The explosion produced another shockwave that toppled the second zombie wave that tried to attack.

Xu Jinhai sighed as he stared at the useless cellphone in his hand.

"Jia, your husband is useless, so wait for me to come back..."

...

Song Jia didn't have a good vacation for a long time.

Opening her eyes the next morning, she didn't get out of the bed and ate her breakfast there. Bright sunlight streamed through the open windows, spreading a soft glow over the room.

Munching through a piece of garlic cheese toast, she flipped through her precious hard copy of a fiction book. After everything became digital, books made of paper disappeared. There were only a few that remained, and Song Jia managed to buy some of them.

"Ding!"

Hearing the notification, Song Jia reached for her phone. Seeing that the text came from one of her friends, she ignored the twinge of disappointment in her heart. Song Jia quickly replied to them, agreeing to meet them tomorrow.

Because of her busy job schedule for the past few months, she didn't have the time to see them. One of her closest friends had gotten pregnant, and Song Jia was appointed to be one of the godmothers.

"I'm at an age where my friends are already having children..."

Song Jia suddenly felt a bit old in her early twenties. She shook her head, chasing away wayward thoughts out of her mind.

Song Jia decided to clean the whole house for an entire afternoon to keep herself busy. By the end of the day, she was so tired that she fell asleep early.

When she woke up at around the early hours of the morning, there was a strong arm around her waist, cocooning her in the warmth and familiar scent of his body.

Listening to the soft sound of his breathing, it seemed that he was already deeply asleep.

A/N:

Little theater:

Xu Jinhai's angst: (;'༎ຶД༎ຶ')!ﾎｴｰ!! I ghosted Jia!! My heart hurts!

Dead zombie whose heart was pulled out: "..."