Chapter Seven: An Enchanting Encounter in a Dream

Three days later, on the twenty-fifth day since the apocalypse began, the tenants living below Lin Qingqing’s apartment were subjected to a home invasion.

“This situation is getting worse—this group is clearly more brutal than the previous waves.”

These people were no good. Even from her apartment, Lin Qingqing could hear the relentless sounds of smashing and breaking downstairs, interspersed with the cries of women and the roars of men.

She listened cautiously. The commotion downstairs went on for quite a while before finally dying down. Then, faintly, she heard the guttural growl of a zombie.

“Has someone turned into a zombie? How did that happen?”

Lin Qingqing had always believed that as long as one wasn’t bitten by a zombie, they wouldn’t turn. But now it seemed that wasn’t necessarily the case.

Anxious to know what was happening but wary of the number of people below, she dared not make any move.

If the floor below was already compromised so quickly, her own place would soon become unsafe. She needed to find an escape route.

Looking at her dwindling supplies, she cursed herself for not having some sort of magical space ability like in novels—then she could have escaped at any time. She was reluctant to part with her belongings, but this was hardly the time to go out. Biting her lip anxiously, she paced around the room.

Just as she was about to give up some of her supplies to hide elsewhere, a sudden thought struck her.

She lived on the top floor, in a corner of the building, and when she bought the apartment, the developer had included a small attic space on the rooftop.

From the outside, this attic was just a pointed architectural feature on the roof. Few would suspect there was a hidden space inside.

She had always thought it useless before—small, ugly, only about four or five square meters, with a ceiling too low to stand upright. So during renovations, she had sealed it off with panels. However, fearing leaks, she hadn’t sealed it completely and had left a secret door.

“This could be a perfect place!”

The idea of an escape route lit up Lin Qingqing’s eyes. She immediately began preparations.

The attic entrance was above the wardrobe in the guest bedroom, a spot most would overlook.

She stood on a chair to pry open the top panel and cleared away the thick dust accumulated over time.

Inside, the attic was cold and damp. The only small skylight on one side was rusted shut, and ventilation was poor. It would be acceptable as a temporary hideout but unbearable for long-term stay.

Still, Lin Qingqing was satisfied. After tidying up, she moved all her supplies up there, added a quilt, and packed herself in tightly.

Besides food, she collected anything that could serve as a weapon. Finally, she tidied the apartment to look as if its owner had fled.

Once everything was in order, she exhaled deeply, feeling a bit more secure.

She couldn’t say when someone might come looking for her, but an escape route was an escape route. So she continued to stay downstairs most of the time, just more cautious—wearing clothes even to sleep at night.

Perhaps because she had found the attic during the day, she slept soundly that night for a rare moment.

It was still the same icy dream, but this time different from before. She dreamed she was lying at the bottom of a frozen lake, surrounded entirely by water.

The lake contained no fish or plants—just pure, crystal-clear water.

From a godlike vantage point, one could clearly see her frozen into an ice sculpture, drifting slowly with the current, bobbing up and down.

Around her, countless tiny ice crystals swirled protectively. Though they looked cold, her body felt surprisingly comfortable, as if the ice was part of her, and she was part of the ice.

This time, Lin Qingqing’s consciousness was lucid. She knew she was inside a dream world.

Feeling no danger nearby, she tried to open her eyes.

She saw herself encased in ice crystals, glowing a cold yet gentle blue from the light filtering through the lake’s surface.

She moved her limbs, feeling no suffocation—only a familiar warmth and security, like returning to her mother’s womb.

“So comfortable!”

Just as she was enjoying this soothing feeling, the lake water suddenly shook violently, ripples spreading outwards.

From nearby, a massive black fish appeared out of thin air and lunged at her.

The fish was over three meters tall and nearly ten meters long, its eyes blood-red and mouth full of sharp teeth.

Lin Qingqing’s pupils constricted. The giant jaws were about to snap down on her.

She instinctively closed her eyes and raised her arms to block the attack. The ice crystals around her seemed to respond to her call, swiftly gathering to form a curved shield before her.

With a loud “bang,” the black fish slammed against the shield. The shield held firm. Undeterred, the fish turned its head, swished its tail, and charged again.

“Bang, bang, bang”—three more collisions, but no breach.

“We can’t just take hits passively,” Lin Qingqing thought. She didn’t know where this fish came from or why it attacked her, but since it was an enemy, it had to be killed.

Sensing her resolve, the ice crystals forming the shield scattered, streaked through the water in an arc, then reformed—this time into an ice trident.

Grasping the trident, Lin Qingqing dodged the fish’s strike and slashed its body with the sharp blades, leaving a deep wound.

“What a powerful weapon!”

The wounded fish grew even more ferocious, attacking with increasing ferocity, determined to end her.

But armed with the trident, Lin Qingqing was no longer afraid. She gained confidence, gradually taking the upper hand.

For half an hour, she and the black fish battled fiercely, churning the lake into raging waves. Both suffered serious injuries.

Finally, despite the risk of severe wounds, Lin Qingqing found an opening and drove the trident deep into the fish’s eye, even as its tail swept her away, sending her flying backward.

The ice trident pierced through the fish’s left eye, through its brain, and out the right eye. The fish struggled fiercely for a moment before dissolving into tiny points of light and vanishing.

Nearby, Lin Qingqing was gravely injured, her consciousness fading as the surrounding ice crystals began to dissipate.

At that moment, two voices faintly called to her simultaneously: one gently urging her to sleep, the other anxiously begging her to wake.

As she struggled to discern the voices, a sharp metallic screech sounded—like a blade tearing through the sky.

The fragile dreamscape began to collapse rapidly.

Just as the dream shattered like dust, Lin Qingqing suddenly awoke with a start.