Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess
Chapter 216

Chapter 216: 216

A few hours passed before the floodwaters finally began to go down.

The building they were in had held firm. No leaks. No broken windows. It was built exactly for this a flood-safe structure with reinforced seals and a rooftop exit. It kept them safe when nothing else could.

Lingquan’s voice sounded in Qingran’s mind.

[The water level is lowering. Estimated time until partial clearance: one hour and twenty-nine minutes.]

She nodded silently and glanced at the others.

Most people were huddled in the corners or sitting quietly with their heads against the wall. Some clutched bags. A few held children asleep in their arms. No one said much. The fear had passed, but a different kind of silence had taken its place, the kind that comes when people don’t know what’s left to return to.

When the water finally lowered enough for them to open the roof, they stepped outside in small groups.

The city was unrecognizable.

From the top of the building, Qingran looked out over the district. Rooftops stretched out in all directions, scattered and broken. The water had receded from the highest levels, but it still flooded most of the streets.

In some places, the rooftops had collapsed. Trees were torn out at the roots. Power lines sagged and dipped into the water.

It was hard to tell where roads had been. Cars floated half-submerged. Some had slammed into each other like toys thrown in a bathtub.

Shattered glass glittered on rooftops. And the bodies, not many, but enough, drifted past quietly, face-down, clothes torn, hair tangled in debris.

No one said a word.

A woman nearby sank to her knees when she spotted a particular building in the distance, what must have been her home. It wasn’t there anymore.

She couldn’t cry, all she could do was just stared.

A man with a little boy stood near the edge, holding his son tightly. The boy asked softly where the playground had gone.

No one could answer.

Qingran kept her eyes forward. She scanned the horizon slowly, taking in every damaged street, every sunken structure. Her hands curled into fists by her sides.

Lingquan’s voice broke the silence again.

[Death toll across the entire zone: two thousand eight hundred seventy-three confirmed. Final numbers may rise as rescues continue.]

Qingran closed her eyes.

The numbers will dropping drastically.

Once the water had dried up completely, she would head to the second zone.

"Well. Things like this and many more will happen. You can’t really guarantee if you’ll survive it or not."

Meng Nian stared at at the wreckage silently and wondered if Haoyu was okay, if he was facing the same thing.

"Can we still stay here? Is there another left for us here?"

Someone asked, if Qingran decided to leave them, they knew it was over for them.

"I’ll find a place for you all, and leave enough food and supplies to last you a while, I’ll also give you possible locations on where to find food."

"..."

"Wait are you leaving us here? Please don’t leave us here. Please take us along with you, please."

"..."

"There’s no way for us to transport there? The second zone is kilometers from here. How do you want me to take you all there? It would be a death sentence."

"..."

"Please, we beg you. I know you can think of way to take us all again."

Qingran looked at them. At their desperate, wet faces. At the bloodshot eyes and trembling hands. No one had eaten properly in over a day. Some of them hadn’t slept. Children were too exhausted to cry anymore. The adults weren’t much better.

Her throat felt tight.

She wanted to say yes. She wanted to say she’d carry them all on her back if she had to — but the truth was, she couldn’t. Not like this. Not without a miracle.

Lingquan’s voice entered her mind again, crisp and emotionless.

[Maximum safe transport capacity: 27 individuals. Current group: 54. Options limited. Recommend splitting into two batches.]

She didn’t respond right away.

The man who had begged her took a shaky step forward. "You saved us before. You can save us again, can’t you?"

A few more voices joined in, soft at first, then louder. One woman clutched Qingran’s sleeve, tears falling down her cheeks.

"We won’t slow you down," she said. "Please."

Qingran turned her face slightly, staring out at the horizon again. The roads were still flooded in some parts. And even if they weren’t, walking that far — with the elderly, the injured, children — it was out of the question. Carrying them all was impossible. No vehicles could pass through this wreckage, not without getting stuck or swallowed up.

She needed a plan. A real one.

[Recommend activating emergency transport privilege.]

Lingquan’s voice again.

[Requires 8000 points. You currently have 8,117.]

Qingran narrowed her eyes.

She’d earned those points slowly. She’d been saving them for future upgrades, for crucial moments.

But what was more crucial than this?

Her lips pressed into a line.

"Fine," she said silently in her head. "Use it."

There was a pause.

> [Emergency group transport privilege activated. Please designate destination.]

Qingran didn’t waste time.

She gave the coordinates of the Second Zone, an exposed part of the ruins, high enough to avoid flooding, far enough to escape the worst of the surge.

There was no shelter there. No supplies. Just land.

> [Confirmed. Portal will open in three minutes. Capacity: 60 individuals. One-time use.]

She turned to face the people behind her.

"You’re lucky," she said, voice steady. "This is the only time I can do this."

A shimmer split the air several meters away, distorted heat waves curling into a tall oval of pale blue light. It spun softly at the edges, glowing faintly against the storm-heavy sky.

Gasps rippled through the group.

A few took a step back. One woman clutched her daughter to her chest like a shield.

Qingran stepped forward and lifted her hand.

"You have thirty seconds to get in. Once it’s closed, it won’t open again."

No one moved at first.

Then a little girl ran.

She slipped free of her brother’s hand and bolted toward the portal, her soaked shoes slapping the flooded rooftop. She didn’t even pause, just dove straight through the glowing oval.

Her small figure vanished instantly, sucked into the light like a stone into water.

That broke the silence.

Suddenly, the crowd surged forward.

People helped each other up. Mothers grabbed children. Older teens wrapped arms around elders and ran. They didn’t yell or scream or ask questions. They just moved.

One man slipped on the slick concrete and bloodied his hands, but someone hauled him upright without a word.

A woman dropped a bag and left it behind.

The shimmer pulsed brighter with every body it consumed. Some ran full-speed. Others shuffled, stiff with shock. But no one turned away.

Qingran counted silently, seventeen, twenty-six, thirty-eight.

Lingquan whispered updates in her mind.

> [Current count: 52. Eight remaining.]

Someone hesitated near the edge, trying to grab a wet duffel bag. Qingran stepped in, yanked it off the ground, and tossed it through.

"Move!"

The man didn’t hesitate again.

A teenager carried a younger boy with a broken leg. Another two flanked them, dragging both forward without slowing.

> [Current count: 59. One remaining.]

Qingran looked around.

The rooftop was nearly empty.

Only one figure hadn’t moved.

An elderly woman with silver hair stood apart from the group, hands folded, face blank.

Qingran crossed the space quickly.

"We’re leaving."

The woman didn’t reply.

Qingran took her arm, not harshly. "You don’t get to give up now."

The old woman blinked, startled. "I thought... I thought I missed it."

"You didn’t." Qingran pulled her forward. "But you will if you don’t walk."

The old woman’s legs moved stiffly but they moved.

The rooftop cleared behind them.

The portal flickered, unstable.

Ten steps.

Five....

They stepped into the light just as it began to collapse.

And then it vanished, without a sound.

Silence fell across the flooded rooftop.

It was empty.

Gone. All of them.

Qingran stumbled forward as her feet hit solid ground. The rush of transition faded behind her, the blinding shimmer of the portal collapsing into darkness.

They were out.

But not safe.

The Second Zone lay before them like a long-forgotten ruin.

Buildings stood crooked, strangled by ivy and creeping vines that had no right growing so fast.

Some windows were shattered. Others were fogged with mold and ash.

Grass pushed up through the pavement in thick, choking mats, splitting roads and swallowing the lower halves of abandoned vehicles.

The cars were still here, hundreds of them, rusted, doorless, or turned over entirely. Most had been picked clean long ago. The rest were cocooned in silence.

The group stood in stunned quiet, eyes wide, breaths ragged from the flood, from the escape and now, from the realization that this place might not be much better.

One child clutched his mother’s arm and whispered, "Is this... where we live now?"

No one answered.

Above them, the sky churned.

It was the same sky, they had all seen in the first zone.

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