NOVEL WEB Chapter 243: [Extra] Alyssa Rosewood (part 2)
The meteor shower was beautiful, but no more beautiful than any other meteor shower. No one would connect it to what happened next—
The weather around the globe became increasingly erratic and fluctuated to never-before-recorded extremes.
Many people fell ill and hospitals became overburdened. Governments world-wide started enacting lock-downs while the mysterious new disease was being identified. At least there were no deaths yet.
Alyssa’s base and its people were also affected.
Alyssa was sombre. The people who became ill first were almost certainly going to turn into zombies. The hospital in Alyssa’s base had single rooms with lockable doors for everyone.
Then, the sky turned red. Overnight, many people died, turned into zombies and started craving human flesh.
Overnight, Alyssa became feverish. When she woke up the next morning, the fever was gone and she had fire magic again. But it wasn’t much, far from the level shown by the original body in the original novel. She’d have to consume the solidified crystals in zombies’ heads to gain more power, but at this early stage, these crystals didn’t exist yet.
The morning news was full of the devastating outbreaks. Governments told people to stay indoors as much as possible unless you were an essential worker.
Alyssa sent a message to the core people in her team. “If you have received this, make your way to the office. Bring a weapon, be careful. There may be rabid infected persons on the street. Do not get injured.”
Alyssa showed her fire magic in front of her team members who had survived.
“If you had a fever last night, but did not become ‘undead’, then you may have gained powers. Which of you had a fever?”
The people who had been sick raised their hands one by one. Some of these people had been named in the original novel, so it was simple for Alyssa to identify their acquired power and help them figure out how to use it.
Lily, however, was a mystery. There was no mention of her having any power in the novel. Yet, she had had a fever last night.
They tried all the common abilities first—physical strength, increased speed, enhancement of senses. Then, they tried different elemental powers. Then, they tried the rare abilities—having a special space and telepathy and telekinesis.
Nothing.
Alyssa’s thoughts drifted to the magic system of her old world. She had Lily try to improve the growth of plants (plant magic), to kill plants (poison magic), to manipulate light (light magic), and to manipulate shadows (shadow magic). Nothing worked.
Alyssa frowned. What if—?
She took out a knife and made a small cut on her arm, more like a paper cut than anything deeper. “Try and see if you can heal this. Focus your intent and imagine the energy extending out—”
Lily hovered her hand above the cut.
Something happened. The wound started to fade.
Alyssa felt like something had tipped in her chest. “Lily, you have the power to heal.”
Lily nodded, her eyes lowered in thought.
Was Lily the Saintess of this world? Alyssa pushed her suspicions aside. She gave everyone in her team commands and sent various notices to everyone living in the base.
Against the background of chaos and uncertainty, Alyssa’s firmness, resolve, and clear directions reduced fear and gave hope to the members of her team and the base.
Undead persons were detected and kept isolated. The surviving people in the base didn’t have the appetite to kill yet. They’d need to confirm that the undead were truly dead.
Elsewhere around the country and the world, this time, some governments were a fraction faster at responding, which reduced negative impacts compared to what was described in the book.
Hospitals were still hit badly, but key infrastructure was able to stay up for a little longer; the number of zombies was a little less. More people were rescued.
Alyssa’s base received influxes of people, but she didn’t accept them blindly. All of them had to agree to various rules and to uphold the law. She didn’t want the vulgar culture that had emerged in the base of the male protagonist.
It took several weeks for the new reality to settle in. Aside from Alyssa’s base, there were several other big bases nearby set up by the military, the local government, an unknown civilian, and the male protagonist.
There were also small bases scattered around and wandering groups.
Power plants that required transport of materials couldn’t run anymore, but solar and wind farms continued to produce intermittent energy. Water continued to flow through taps, but due to interrupted operation and general contamination, the water was no longer safe to drink directly from the tap.
Killing the undead was now deemed necessary, and crystals had been discovered in some of their heads. Alyssa started powering up.
She and many others conducted routine operations to clear the surrounding areas of the undead.
As the book foretold, the undead were becoming smarter; some zombies also had supernatural abilities. It was crucial to kill them as fast as possible…but at the same time, this pushed the ones remaining to become smarter.
The government sent hopeful messages that things would return to normal in one month, two months, three months…
Unfortunately, new outbreaks kept appearing. Infection could spread via the water and the air, and the killed undead contaminated their surroundings. People who were lax in water filtration or didn’t wear a mask in contaminated areas became infected, even if they hadn’t been directly injured by a zombie.
At least there were many people who could assist in cleaning up the undead.
There were much fewer people who could research a cure or vaccine. The government had some people, the military had some people, and Alyssa’s base had some people (in her case, those researchers weren’t epidemiologists originally, but they pivoted given the new situation).
Making vaccines and cures were hard during normal times, let alone now with many inaccessible facilities and many talents had already been turned into zombies.
The best way to protect oneself from infection was protective gear.
In the case of infection, immediate amputation of infected limbs sometimes stopped complete zombification, but not always. A rare few people would naturally recover and gain powers…But most became zombies.
Hard choices were made every day.
Several months became half a year. Half a year became an entire year.
If one stayed in Alyssa’s base, life felt almost normal. Many ordinary people went to work in the morning and returned home in the evening. There were shops, a school, power, running water, and some internet access. Most people vastly preferred her base from the others.
The military base was strict, the government base lacked many things, and the male protagonist’s base was only good if you were a powerful ability user, otherwise you were treated as a servant.
The other bases were small and never felt quite safe.
Outside of these bases, it was desolate. Houses stood empty, many looted and destroyed by unruly people.
One day, Alyssa received a distress call from a nearby small base. She formed a team with combat and non-combat personnel. A group of armoured trucks and cars departed from the base and headed quickly towards the location of the distress call.
A wind ability user flew up into the air to survey. She came down with a grim look. “Zombies up ahead, they’re chasing a group of people. It looks like they’re trying to draw the zombies away on purpose.”
Alyssa nodded. “Let’s go. Be careful.”
The convoy altered direction and intercepted the zombie horde.
This battle, like every other battle, was intense and messy. Fire, wind, water, earth and bullets flew through the air. Weapons smashed into the skulls of zombies, sending rotten flesh everywhere.
Alyssa narrowed in on the zombie horde’s leader, an upgraded zombie who stood near the back.
It was a narrow fight. This upgraded zombie was very fast. At the very last moment, Alyssa kicked its head with a fire laced kick, and another team member smashed down a large sledgehammer, pulverising its brains and killing the zombie.
“Clean up,” Alyssa ordered. Usually, she and other fire-ability users burned the zombies, which killed the infectious pathogens and made it easier to pick out the zombie crystals. But before she could do so, she suddenly noticed something.
There was a cut on her trousers.
Alyssa felt a chill. “Healer, come here and examine my leg.”
Everyone understood the implication.
Lily hurried over. “Get into the truck.”
“If I turn, I’ll contaminate it—”
“Get into the truck.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Alyssa could already feel her leg stiffening. Perhaps she should amputate her leg. Or try and burn the infection, like the original did in the book. Perhaps the fate of this body was to die in this manner.
“Don’t say anything,” Lily said through gritted teeth.
“I didn’t—”
“I can see it on your face.”
“I’m infected. You’re my second in command, you—”
“And I’m a healer and you’re going to get fucking healed,” Lily said. She turned to the others. “Get me some crystals. Get Alyssa some too.”
Alyssa frowned. Absorbing crystals wasn’t easy and often put the body in a mild feverish state.
“Take it,” Lily ordered. “I have an idea.”
Alyssa obediently took a zombie crystal and started absorbing it. Lily did the same and started to heal.
The energy from the crystal heated up Alyssa’s body, and combined with the zombie infection spreading through her body, she fell unconscious.
Alyssa had a confusing dream. In that dream, she returned to that fateful night her family was murdered. But she wasn’t in control of her body.
She watched from the outside as her body suddenly showed powerful fire magic, subdued the assassins, and scared the servants.
Her body pretended to be a previously secret sibling and became the Earl Rosewood of Sedaveria. The body interacted with the prince and, somehow, became a tall man with muscles and black hair and a deadpan expression, surrounded by a lot of enthusiastic servants and friends.
They duelled King Augustus and won, and then started making trains???
Then, for some absurd reason, the prince proposed to the man-that-used-to-be-her in front of all the nobility. And they kissed!
The Rosewood fief was thriving and the people were happy, and no plague-curse ever occurred.
The tombs of four Rosewood members were side by side, clean, and always with fresh flowers. Her name was on one of the tombstones.
Alyssa woke up with a taste of bitterness in her mouth.
The dream was vivid in her mind, and the information made her temple throb. She couldn’t believe it…everything about that dream was nonsensical. She still couldn’t believe that her body could become like that.
“Alyssa…” Lily said. Her voice was hoarse, and her face looked gaunt.
That dream had felt very long. It took Alyssa several moments to remember what had just happened.
“I’m still alive? I still have my legs?” Alyssa made to sit up, but Lily pushed her down again. Alyssa looked around—she was lying in bed in a private room in the base’s hospital. “What happened? How long has it been? How did you—?”
Lily’s lips trembled. “You…”
Something in Lily’s voice made Alyssa focus on her again.
Alyssa didn’t understand how she had survived, but it could only be due to Lily. “Thank you.”
Lily swore.
Alyssa stared at her.
“—Don’t you ever try to die again!” Lily said.
“I wasn’t trying to—”
“You were giving up!”
Alyssa frowned slightly. Lily looked at her as though she would be utterly devastated if Alyssa died.
Despite the situation, Alyssa was deeply touched. Her eyes became a bit sore. In this world, there was someone who cared deeply about her.
“Thank you,” Alyssa said softly.
Lily grabbed Alyssa’s hands and squeezed hard. “Don’t you die. There are many more things I want to do, so you can’t die yet.”
“Yes. I’ll do my best not to die.”
“You need to promise.”
“I promise not to die before your say-so. Lily, why don’t we go home and rest?”
Alyssa sat up, and this time Lily didn’t stop her.
Together, they walked to their shared accommodation (with all the new people coming to the base, Lily moved into Alyssa’s house to free up more space).
Alyssa made sure that Lily was resting before returning to her bed.
Alyssa couldn’t sleep, though. Thoughts swirled around her head. About her previous life, about her family and their tombstones, about her current life, about Lily, about this ‘Ren Xiyang’ in her old world, about the plague-curse and the zombies and the fact that Alyssa had been saved from zombification, and what that meant for the future.
That ‘Ren Xiyang’ was the original owner of her new body.
She felt envious of the scenes in her dream where crowds of people came out to see him walk by. To see the people who once shun her follow Ren Xiyang.
But, the base she had built was good. If she walked out, there would also be many people who would greet her warmly or with reverence.
She could have everything he had. The biggest thing missing was a lover…for now.
This was a turning point, in so many ways.
Alyssa could see the path out of this zombie apocalypse and into a better future.
Ren Xiyang had a dream.
He woke up from it, feeling like his entire world was still a dream. There was nostalgia and bittersweetness in his heart.
His old world, his old parents, his old friends, classmates, acquaintances.
Alyssa had turned his body into a woman with curly long red hair dressed in feminine clothing. She socialised with hundreds of people and built a base, leading her people through the zombie apocalypse. She protected many people, including Ren Xiyang’s parents. It was her base which discovered the way to heal zombie infections, provided it was done early enough. After a few years, the world pulled through the worst of it, and things started to become better, and the pockets of “normal” were growing in size.
Ren Xiyang didn’t think he could do better than Alyssa. Not without someone like Rian by his side.
As though he could sense his name, Rian stirred and awoke. Yangyang? Did you have a nightmare?
Ren Xiyang unloaded his dream to Rian.
Rian was alert in a heartbeat. “I see…It’s good to see that Alyssa is doing well for herself.” He leaned over and kissed Ren Xiyang. “If you had stayed in your old world, I believe I would’ve gone to your world instead. We’re meant for each other.”
The absurdness of Rian’s words made Ren Xiyang feel amused—no doubt Rian’s intention. It eased the tightness in Ren Xiyang’s chest.
He still had homesickness for his old world. But he was grateful for this opportunity to learn that there was an end to the zombie apocalypse that he had experienced.
Alyssa: I feel like I got the short end of the transmigration stick here…
Rian: And I got the very long end of it 😉
And that was Alyssa Rosewood, I hope you enjoyed this short snapshot!
tumblr | email newsletter | website | twitter