Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess
Chapter 221: You’re not using adrenaline right now

Chapter 221: You’re not using adrenaline right now

[System Notification: Mental strain at 62%. Recommended rest period: minimum 5 hours. Azure flame regeneration complete. Status: Optimal.]

She blinked, then acknowledged the message silently.

Her gaze drifted toward Rong’s group. He had taken a spot near the wall, still seated rather than lying down, his arms folded behind his head in a posture that looked relaxed but wasn’t. He was watching her.

She didn’t look away this time either.

Whatever fragile truce they had tonight would need to hold through morning.

It wasn’t trust. Not yet. But it was something.

She laid down finally, on her left side facing the room, coat pulled close.

The weight of her body settled slowly onto the mat, and the ache of the day began to creep into her limbs. It wasn’t exhaustion, not quite but the kind of weariness that lingered deep in the joints, earned through motion and vigilance, through choices made under constant threat.

Above her, the ceiling stretched gray and steady, the echoes of a life once normal trapped in fluorescent hums and ceiling dust. But she no longer missed it.

The apocalypse had taken everything once. She had clawed it back, inch by inch with ash on her skin and fire in her veins.

She would not lose it again.

Morning has arrived faster than both groups expected. Both has managed to maintain peace.

"Alright. This is the time we must keep quiet. The monsters did not come out yesterday, so it’s going to be a full on rampage this morning. We must be silent, to avoid gaining their attention."

[Ding! New task alert! Survive a rampage!]

-_-

Qingran expressed turned blank, did Lingquan seriously just gave her a mission? Like right now?

"You can’t be serious!"

[Oh I am. This will give you insight on how to fight the rift monsters when the challenge begins.]

-_-

"This is sooo.."

[Yes, yes.. best be on your way.]

-_-

Qingran’s lips twitched as she stood up. Turning to Bai Shiyue "I’ll be out for a bit, so let me drop breakfast."

She dropped enough ingredients before stepping out of the bed array.

"Where are you going to?" Meng Nian asked, it looked like she was going out of the supermarket.

"I have an unfortunate task to handle at the moment. I’ll be back in a bit, no one follows me out, I’ll be back soon."

Meng Nian frowned, clearly displeased by the vagueness, but he didn’t press. His hand flexed once at his side, a visible twitch of worry, before he gave a short nod. "Be careful."

Yu Song, already halfway through rechecking the perimeter gear, glanced up. "Want me on standby?"

"No. Stay. I need someone to watch over everyone else." Her tone brooked no argument, and the faint shimmer of command behind it told them both she wasn’t just humoring them , she meant it.

Without waiting for more questions, Qingran stepped through the sliding glass remnants of the supermarket entrance, letting the jagged edges part before her like teeth held in check.

The morning air was brittle, sharp with chill and the promise of violence. Pale light filtered through a ceiling of gray smog, painting everything in faint hues of steel.

The street beyond the parking lot stretched silent, eerily so. No breeze, no cries, not even the usual distant shuffle of dragging feet or the croaking groans of wandering undead.

It was the kind of silence that screamed.

Qingran’s steps were measured, deliberate.

Lingquan didn’t say hide, after all. He said to survive.

And that meant facing it.

[Challenge Initiated: Rampage Simulation Alpha-1. Rift Creatures Incoming: 3. Estimated Arrival: 1 minute.]

"Three?" she muttered under her breath, unslinging the reinforced axe from her back. The blade caught a dull glint as she adjusted her grip.

[Survive or eliminate. Optional objective: Kill all rift creatures for bonus reward.]

"Bonus?" Her brows arched. "You really are trying to kill me early in the morning."

[Consider it breakfast training.]

She exhaled once, long and even. Then she stepped into the open street.

The first sign was the crackle in the air, not like thunder, but like the distortion that came from a television screen breaking signal. Reality pulsed wrong. A flicker near the edge of a burned-out sedan. Then another just past the alley.

And then they came.

The first one burst forward with the boneless grace of a nightmare given skin elongated limbs jointed wrong, skin that flickered between translucent and ink-dark, with a face that wasn’t a face at all.

No eyes. Just a writhing mass of fissures.

It was Riftborn.

Qingran didn’t hesitate. Her axe spun up into a high arc, catching the edge of the beast’s descending limb. The force cracked bone and muscle, sending black ichor splashing across the pavement.

It screamed. A warping, low-pitched sound that didn’t come from any mouth, vibrating straight through her ribcage.

She ducked under the retaliating strike, pivoted hard, and slammed the axe head into its torso. Her arms jarred with the impact, but the creature staggered back, destabilized.

From the corner of her eye, the other two emerged.

One slithered out of the concrete itself, like ink leaking from a broken line in space. The other dropped down from a rooftop ledge, landing with a wet crack that reassembled into motion mid-stride.

She flung her hand to the side. A blue-white spark ignited in her palm, then coiled upward in a ribbon of fire that curled over her arm like a serpent claiming its perch.

The first creature lunged again, too fast this time, faster than she anticipated. It collided with her midsection, knocking her backward onto the cracked asphalt.

She tasted blood, but didn’t let herself stay down.

Rolling with the momentum, she surged to her feet and flung the flame straight into its face.

The azure blaze caught like dry oil. The creature shrieked again, its mass convulsing as the fire devoured it, not just burning it, but purifying it.

Its form fractured in segments, imploding inward with pulses of blue light.

[Target One eliminated. Energy reduced by 78%.]

-_-

"How did it drain that fast??"

"You’re not using adrenaline right now, so you’re burning your own fuel.."

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