Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess
Chapter 217: WE DON’T HELP

Chapter 217: WE DON’T HELP

Clouds burned red like a cauterized wound, and high above, something had torn a jagged scar into the heavens. It didn’t move. Didn’t heal. Just hovered there, a rift in the atmosphere, flickering with barely-contained power.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Not loud. Not close. But deep — like a growl beneath the earth.

One woman dropped to her knees, gripping her coat around her shoulders. "This isn’t what I thought it would be..."

"It’s not supposed to be anything," Qingran said, stepping forward. "It’s not a shelter. It’s not safe. It’s just not underwater."

She looked around. Some were sitting now, others pacing in numb silence.

"We can’t stay here like this. We have to move and find shelter."

"Lingquan, tell me about this place, why the heck is there a rift in the sky?"

[Well, out of all five zones, this is probably the most dangerous one. This zone has a rift, and from that rift monsters come out to torment the people here, there are no zombies to worry about, cause these monsters are even more dangerous, there are also creatures that roam during the day and the ones at night. That’s why the place is dead silent, if you notice the writing on the walls, it a warning. The people here are also not normal so don’t trust anyone too easily.]

Qingran sighed, then she stretched "Any nearest shelter?"

[Most likely? But you’ll have to share with the survivors there.]

"Got it. Where is it?"

[Give me a minute, I’ll warn again Qingran..the people here, you must not trust them so easily.]

-_-

"Yes I understand, now give me the route."

[Got it.] ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

[It’s kinda tight and they probably won’t take all of you in, but there’s a barricaded supermarket, most of the food reserves is gone so they’re always looking for new intakes, the ones who will go out and find food for them and then bulky them out of their share. They’re quite cruel, they’ll only take 10 to 15 of you at best, so what are you doing to do about the remaining 50 or 45?]

-_-

"They will answer to fate I guess."

[That’s quite heartless but there’s nothing you can do. In this zone, you’ll lose more people than you count. It won’t be pretty.]

Qingran exhaled slowly, the breath white in the strange, stagnant air. The wind had a copper tang to it, and the silence felt suffocating.

She took a step forward, then another, boots crunching over broken glass and sun-bleached bones. A child flinched at the sound and pressed closer to his older sister, both of them silent, watching her like she was the only thing tethering them to hope.

"I’m going to scout ahead.." Qingran said aloud, turning to the loose formation of survivors. "Yu Song, Xu Tianming, you two are with me. Meng Nian, Mora, Feng Yuxi, Bai Shiyue, you’re all in charge while we’re gone. Keep everyone together and quiet. If anything starts to move, you run. Got it?"

Meng Nian nodded once. "I got it."

Maybe it was the look on her face. Maybe it was the red sky. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because no one else wanted the responsibility anymore.

She tapped her earpiece. "Lingquan, ping that supermarket. I need the shortest, least exposed route. We’re moving now."

[Marked. It’s about two miles northeast, past the collapsed overpass and under the rusted skybridge. Stay off the main streets, use the alley grid. But keep your flames close. Something’s circling near the rift.]

Qingran’s expression tightened, but she didn’t say anything. She lifted a hand and azure fire licked to life along her fingers, not bright, just enough to glow faintly.

As they walked, the Zone stretched open before them like a hollow carcass. The buildings leaned in crookedly, swallowed by vines and time.

Some had entire sides torn away, revealing fossilized remains of old lives, a couch with a melted TV screen, children’s drawings still taped to flaking walls. And all of it blanketed in quiet.

The streets were cracked and broken, cars rusted so far down they’d fused with the concrete beneath. Moss crawled up light poles. Windows had no glass.

No movement. No birds. No rodents. Nothing’s alive, there was no hope for life here.

Only that unnatural sky watching from above, red and bruised, with that gaping rift hovering in place like a vertical mouth in the clouds.

From this angle, Qingran could see faint pulses from inside it, like veins under skin, there was definitely something alive behind the tear.

[They call it the Scourge Rift,] Lingquan muttered into her mind. [It’s never closes, and it never moves. Just spills monsters. No one knows what’s on the other side.]

She didn’t answer. Her hand curled around the hilt of her blade, and they pressed on.

They ducked into a narrow side street, one so overgrown with moss and thorned vines that they had to sidestep fallen beams and shattered masonry.

At one point, a collapsed bus forced them to climb through its broken side window and out the torn rear, boots scraping old blood off the floor.

Yu Song muttered under his breath, "This place feels like it’s been cursed."

"Its worse than cursed.." Xu Tianming whispered. "It feels creepy, I’m getting major negative vibes."

Qingran said nothing, but she felt it too, that sensation that they weren’t walking alone. Like every broken window and twisted alley was watching from the edges.

When they finally caught sight of the supermarket, it looked less like a refuge and more like a trap. The front was completely barricaded with scrap metal, fencing, and barbed wire.

The original signage was half-burned. Smeared words had been painted in black on the wall beside the doors:

"NO ENTRY. WE DON’T HELP."

As if that weren’t enough, impaled bones had been arranged on the fencing, a warning, or a show of power. She counted at least three human skulls and what looked like the twisted antlers of some four-legged beast, long since stripped of it’s flesh.

"Friendly bunch huh" Yu Song muttered dryly.

Qingran stepped forward and knocked, once.

No answer.

Twice.

Still nothing.

Then, just as she raised her hand a third time, a voice snarled from a speaker mounted above the door.

"Leave your weapons. State your names. How many with you?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Three. Scouting only. We have a group of over fifty. Flood survivors from Zone One. We’re not here to beg, just to ask if this place accepts trades or shelter."

There was a pause.

Then static.

Then: "We don’t feed extra mouths. Bring something or don’t come at all. You want in, we’ll take ten. Maybe fifteen. The rest? You can throw to the Rift."

Yu Song’s fists clenched at his sides.

Qingran didn’t even blink. "Noted."

The speaker cut off with a buzz.

Xu Tianming turned to her, voice low. "What do we do?"

"Nothing much. In a place like this, it’s survival for this fittest. So we are going to take over and anyone who doesn’t agree with our method, would kindly be shown the door"

Qingran smiled and knocked again.

"WHATCHA WANT HUH?! You got something to trade?"

"Oh yes I’ve got something to trade. Do you mind opening door, so we can come in? I’m kinda scared behind out in the open" she said in her sweetest voice, make Xu Tianming cringe a little.

"Show us what you have to offer first."

-_-

Qingran’s lips twitched "Very well, we have pork and chicken, rice, fish, oil, ramen, noodles, even snacks..we have a little variety too. What do you say?"

At the other side of the door, the man smiled, they were getting a fresh batch of food, there was no way he was going to let them in before. They are already 15 and he was even planning on reducing the numbers.

"Just leave them at the door, after inspecting if they’re good, I’ll let you in." The man sniggered slightly, it was always so easy to fool desperate people.

"Oh, thank you so much. I’ve placed it near the door, please come and inspect it."

In less than a second, the door cranked up a bit and a hand reached out.

The man smiled as he reached for the food, only to feel a sharp pain.

Qingran smiled gently was she twisted her foot on his hand.

"If you don’t want to lose your whole hand. I suggest you open the door all the way."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢

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