Chapter 1

Eight years ago, I was transported into this post-apocalyptic power fantasy novel as the same-named expendable nobody.

I had the ability to create a large-scale radiation shield that could block zombies. I was the only S-Rank ability user in the entire colony.

But because my younger brother, Samuel Grant, failed to awaken his ability, my only purpose became providing him with "upgrade materials."

I tried to fight against the story and refused to hand over my crystal core.

But the story's inertia twisted everyone's minds. My parents accused me of working with the Zombie King just so they could forcefully transplant my crystal core into Samuel.

My ex-wife, Chloe Carter, went even further. While I was unconscious, she personally cut open my chest and took half of my crystal core.

I survived. But my spine was severely damaged. My ability circuits were destroyed. I became a cripple who could never stand again.

After I was released from prison, I could only work at a chemical protection laundry plant on the outer edge of the colony.

Then, a mutant zombie horde carrying extreme radiation surrounded the colony. The old shield generator was burned out by the radiation.

Suddenly, my entire family knelt in the dirty wastewater and begged me.

"Ethan, you're the only one who can manually guide the remaining power in your ability to repair the shield! You have to save Samuel! He's still fighting on the front lines!"

Sitting in my wheelchair, I pointed at the eight-inch scar across my chest. Then I pointed at my withered legs. "The crystal core is inside Samuel's body. My broken spine is buried in the mud under your feet. I can't even stand anymore. And you want me to go into the radiation zone? Are you hoping to watch me die?"

Chapter 1

My voice came out hoarse and full of pain, echoing through the empty, crumbling laundry plant.

I glared at the well-dressed people standing in front of me.

Ever since I was thrown into this damned post-apocalyptic power fantasy novel eight years ago, some invisible story inertia had twisted everyone's minds.

To prepare for my younger brother, Samuel Grant, the useless so-called hero who failed to awaken his powers, they had turned me—the only S-Rank ability user in the entire colony—into a cripple left to die in filthy wastewater.

My mother, Claire Grant, stood ankle-deep in the chemical runoff. Even after I tore open my shirt to show the scar across my chest, she didn't look guilty at all.

She froze for only a second before throwing herself onto the ground. She slapped the foul-smelling muddy water with both hands and cried even louder than before.

"Ethan! How can you be so selfish? The colony leaders all agreed to remove your crystal core back then! Samuel is the Chosen One! He's the only one who can lead humanity into the future! You only gave up a little, but Samuel is risking his life on the front lines!"

"A little?" I laughed. The sound echoed through the dark factory like a dying scream.

I pointed at my legs, which had shriveled badly because my nerves were dead.

"My chest was cut open while I was still alive. My ability circuit was destroyed. My spine was broken! You dumped me in this laundry plant outside the colony walls, where nobody even gets a protective suit! I soak my hands in strong chemicals and wash other people's bloody clothes every day! And you call that giving up a little?"

"You were just unlucky!"

My father, Jasper Grant, who had been standing in the back with his clean, pressed clothes, finally couldn't hold back anymore.

He strode forward, yanked Claire to her feet, then pointed at me and shouted.

"A worthless cripple who can't even stand should be grateful we're still letting you live! The zombie horde is surrounding the colony. The shield generator is broken. Only the leftover energy from your old S-Rank ability can guide the repairs. Of course you're the one who has to go! Should millions of people in the colony die just because of you?"

He had always been that heartless.

Eight years ago, he was the one who pinned me down while they injected me with three times the normal dose of anesthesia.

"Jasper, stop wasting time with him. We're running out of time."

The soft, sweet voice made my stomach turn.

My ex-wife, Chloe Carter, carefully stepped around the dirty water in a pair of custom leather boots before stopping in front of my wheelchair.

She wore an expensive radiation-resistant coat today. Around her neck hung the S-Rank ability pendant Samuel had given her. That pendant had been made from scraps carved off my crystal core.

"Ethan, don't push this too far."

Chloe looked down at me with nothing but contempt. "Samuel is trapped near the central zone. If you delay fixing the shield generator and he gets hurt because of it, I'll never forgive you."

Just looking at her face made me sick.

"Chloe," I said, staring into her eyes, "did your hands shake eight years ago when you cut open my chest while I was unconscious?"

Her face stiffened for a moment. But she quickly sneered again. "You owed Samuel that! A loser like you should feel lucky that you got to help him succeed!"

"Fine." Every trace of emotion disappeared from my face. A dead silence surrounded me.

I pulled my thin, torn work uniform closed, gripped the armrests of my wheelchair, and said, "I don't care what happens today. I'm not going. You'll never make me sacrifice myself for Samuel again."

Chapter 2

"Dammit! You've gone too far!"

Jasper was shaking with anger. He suddenly pulled out a top-level military-approved pocket drone camera and slammed the activation button.

Buzz!

A holographic screen instantly appeared in the air, and the live broadcast connected directly to the colony's public channel.

"Everyone in the colony, look carefully at this man!" Jasper cried in front of the camera, instantly turning himself into a helpless victim.

"The situation at the front lines is critical! Samuel is risking his life to protect everyone! But Ethan, his own brother, clearly has the ability to repair the shield generator. Yet he refuses to help because he's jealous of Samuel's achievements! He wants to get all of us killed!"

The moment the livestream started, the terrified citizens who were already panicking because of the zombie horde finally found someone to blame.

Millions of people flooded into the livestream. The endless comments almost covered my entire view.

"What? The shield generator is broken? And Ethan refuses to fix it?"

"Ethan is so selfish! Mr. Samuel is such a hero. How could his own brother be this disgusting?"

"He's nothing but a useless piece of crap. He won't fight. He won't contribute. Why should we keep feeding a parasite like him?"

"Kill him and throw him into the radiation zone! We can't let him get Mr. Samuel killed!"

Jasper looked at the hateful comments filling the holographic screen and sneered.

He leaned close to my ear and whispered through clenched teeth, "Do you see this? This is what the people want. You must repair the shield generator today. If you refuse, I'll let everyone in the colony watch you get beaten to death."

Eight years ago, they had used public opinion to hurt me too. Back then, they framed me for working with the Zombie King. No matter how much I tried to explain, nobody believed me.

They were trying the same trick again. But this time, I didn't feel anything. If anything, I found it funny.

A bunch of brainwashed fools were about to die, yet they were still defending a murderer.

Just then, Chloe suddenly raised her hand, signaling Jasper to stop yelling.

She put on a sad expression. With her lace-gloved hand, she grabbed my chin in disgust and forced my face toward the livestream camera.

"Ethan, I know you're upset," Chloe said. Her voice was filled with fake kindness. "As long as you are willing to take the radiation exposure for Samuel today and repair the shield generator, I can promise you something. I'll remarry you after this crisis is over."

The crowd in the livestream exploded after hearing those words.

"Oh my God! Chloe is so kind! She's willing to marry a cripple again for the sake of humanity!"

"Ethan, hurry up and thank Chloe! You're so lucky!"

Chloe seemed very satisfied with the reaction from the comments. She leaned closer to my ear and whispered, "Samuel said that once he earns enough credit this time, he'll ask the colony leaders to give you the best mechanical legs available. This is your only chance in this life to stand again. And it's your only chance to have me back. Ethan, think carefully."

I looked at her twisted face, distorted by her extreme selfishness, and violently pushed her hand away.

"Chloe, save those things for Samuel."

The moment I pushed her hand away, my left hand quietly slipped under the wheelchair's armrest.

Hidden there was a small metal button I had built from discarded parts.

I pressed it without hesitation.

This was the signal I had agreed on with my hidden allies.

The real show was finally about to begin.

Chapter 3

My refusal finally made the Grants stop pretending.

"You've gone too far! Since you want to die, we'll make your wish come true!"

Jasper shouted and waved at the guards behind him. "Get him tied up and take him straight to the central zone!"

Several guards rushed forward immediately. They didn't care that my legs were crippled. They grabbed my collar roughly and dragged me out of my wheelchair.

Bang!

Without the support of my legs, my body crashed into the muddy ground filled with strong chemical waste.

A sharp piece of broken metal cut into my arm. Blood mixed with dirty water and flowed across the ground.

But I still stared at Jasper and Claire coldly. I didn't even make a sound.

"Put the hazmat suit on him, now!" Claire urged anxiously from the side. She was afraid they would waste too much time and fail to save Samuel.

The guards quickly brought over an old hazmat suit that had been abandoned for more than a decade. The surface was covered with cracks, and several parts were already leaking air.

They dragged me out of the muddy water and forced me into the useless suit that couldn't even block high levels of radiation.

"Tie him tightly to the wheelchair! Don't let him escape!"

Chloe personally walked over while dragging a heavy steel chain.

She knelt and wrapped the chain around my waist repeatedly. Then she tightly tied me and the wheelchair together.

Finally, she took out a heavy-duty combination lock and sealed my last chance of escape.

Chloe's beautiful face moved close to mine through the broken mask of the hazmat suit.

"Ethan, you are a useless person who can't even feel your own ability. You have nothing to offer this world. You're lucky you can sacrifice yourself for Samuel's glory. After this I'll throw your ashes down the sewer where you belong."

Under the eyes of millions of people watching the livestream, the guards forced my wheelchair out of the laundry plant.

They pushed me toward the central shield zone of the colony.

The huge gate ahead slowly opened. Behind it was a terrifying purple radiation vortex. The high concentration radiation twisted like a monster waiting to swallow everything.

The violent wind carried deadly radiation dust and slammed against my broken mask. A terrifying howl filled the air.

"Go in!"

The guard gave my wheelchair a hard push.

I immediately slid down the slope and toward the terrifying purple light.

Right before my wheelchair entered the radiation zone, I turned my head back.

Jasper, Claire, and Chloe were standing safely behind the barrier. They happily waved at the livestream camera.

There wasn't even a trace of regret or guilt on their faces.

Watching them follow the exact same script as the original story, I felt nothing. The last bit of family affection I had for them was completely gone. All that remained was pure irony.

I turned my head back and faced the deadly radiation light. Then I smiled coldly.

Did you really think I was going to die here?

Chapter 4

Just as Jasper, Claire, and Chloe watched my figure disappear into the radiation vortex with excitement, preparing to receive praise from everyone in the colony, something unexpected happened.

The giant screens in the colony plaza and all personal devices watching Jasper's livestream suddenly made a sharp static noise.

Buzz!

The screens immediately started flashing with blinding red lights.

"What is going on? Why did the livestream stop?" Jasper frantically hit the pocket drone camera in his hand, his face full of shock.

The broadcast was forcefully cut off by a higher authority system.

The furious face of the colony's highest military commander appeared on every screen across the entire base.

He shouted. "All citizens, stop this ridiculous act of cruelty immediately! We have just intercepted a top-secret surveillance recording from an underground rebel camp! Everyone, watch carefully!"

The screen suddenly changed.

There was no battlefield filled with smoke, nor any piles of zombie corpses.

Instead, everyone saw a dark, damp rebel prison filled with a rotten smell.

And the so-called national hero who was supposed to be fighting on the front lines, Samuel, was standing there. His upper body was completely exposed. Disgusting purple poisonous spores covered his entire body.

He had accidentally inhaled mutant hallucinogenic spores because of his own greed and was now completely out of control.

Under the silent gaze of millions of people watching online, Samuel started dancing wildly. His bloodshot eyes bulged out as he screamed like a madman.

"Hahaha! Zombies? There are no zombies in this world! As long as I get Ethan's stupid S-Rank crystal core, I'll become a god!"

He scratched his rotting chest violently while laughing. "Mom! You still don't know, do you? Those teammates who found out I ran away from the battlefield years ago weren't killed by zombies! I was the one who killed them! I broke their necks from behind so they couldn't expose me! Their achievements all belong to me! Hahaha!"

The entire colony was stunned.

The people in the plaza who had been praying for Samuel just moments ago couldn't believe what they were seeing.

But Samuel wasn't finished. His face twisted into an ugly expression. "And Chloe? That idiot really thought I loved her? I only used her to deal with Ethan! She believed a few sweet words from me and happily cut open her own husband's chest! How cheap!

"As for those two old fools... I just pretended to cry and said a few nice things. They willingly helped me break Ethan's spine and remove his crystal core so I could use it as a power-up!

"Hahaha! Those idiots were completely fooled by me! Ethan, that flying hero, is probably still surrounded by sewage and garbage in the underground drains right now! Hahaha!"

Jasper and Claire stood frozen in shock.

Jasper rolled his eyes back and collapsed onto the ground.

Claire's legs went weak, and she fell down while her entire body trembled violently.

"No... This can't be real... Samuel would never do something like this..." Claire's lips shook. She couldn't even finish a sentence.

The livestream controller slipped from Chloe's hand and smashed into pieces on the ground.

She covered her mouth in horror. She couldn't even breathe.

Boom!

At that moment, a deafening explosion came from inside the central shield zone. A powerful purple radiation light erupted and completely swallowed the area where I was.

Claire stared at the blinding and deadly light. Finally, she broke down.

She rushed toward the sealed gate and desperately clawed at the gaps between the steel doors. Her fingers were covered in blood. With a scream filled with endless pain, she shouted, "Ethan!"