From Apocalypse To Entertainment Circle (BL) Chapter 168: Sian Is Awake

Ordinary humans now possessed a chance to awaken supernatural abilities without first becoming infected.

Unfortunately...

The success rate was painfully low.

One in a thousand.

Only a single person among a thousand candidates successfully awakened.

The rest suffered horrifying consequences.

Some permanently damaged their bodies.

Some became mentally unstable.

Others...

Simply died.

Even knowing the risks, volunteers lined up outside research facilities every day.

No one complained.

No one hesitated.

Because everyone understood one cruel truth.

An ordinary human was little more than prey.

Outside the walls, monsters ruled the world.

Without power...

Without strength...

Death was only a matter of time.

Some chose to gamble with their lives.

Others accepted reality and hid behind stronger people, praying someone else would continue protecting them.

Neither choice was easy.

Neither guaranteed survival.

Silence settled inside the vehicle once more.

Kira rested her forehead against the cool window.

She watched ruined neighborhoods drift past outside.

Apartment buildings stood hollow like giant skeletons.

Cars lay abandoned where their owners had fled in panic.

Streetlights leaned at unnatural angles.

Rust covered everything.

Dried blood stained the roads in dark, endless trails.

The occasional zombie wandered between the wreckage before disappearing behind collapsed buildings.

Her reflection stared back at her through the glass.

She looked exhausted.

"...This world..."

Her voice barely rose above a whisper.

"It’s becoming more and more like ours."

There was no fear in her tone.

Only sadness.

A month ago...

People had been laughing.

Children had filled the parks.

Restaurants overflowed with customers.

The streets never slept.

Warm sunlight had bathed the city every morning.

Life had felt ordinary.

Safe.

Now...

Dark gray clouds permanently covered the sky, as though the heavens themselves mourned humanity.

The temperature swung violently without warning.

One week was unbearably hot.

A few days later, freezing winds covered entire districts with frost.

The seasons had lost all meaning.

Nature itself had become unpredictable.

After several moments of silence, He Jinyun finally spoke.

His calm voice filled the car.

"We expected this."

He paused briefly before continuing.

"Ever since the island incident."

Kira remained silent.

The only sound inside the vehicle was the steady hum of the engine as it rolled across the cracked highway.

He Jinyun kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead.

His voice was calm, almost detached, yet every word carried the weight of experience.

"We predicted this from the moment the virus escaped the island."

"The instant it spread beyond containment, the outcome became inevitable."

He drove around the rusted shell of an overturned bus before continuing.

"No matter how much humanity tried to suppress it... no matter how many cities were quarantined or destroyed... the balance of this world had already been broken."

His fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel.

"This was never something humans could truly control."

Kira lowered her gaze.

She remembered that island.

The blood.

The screams.

The endless tide of monsters.

Everything had begun there.

He Jinyun spoke again, his tone quieter this time.

"The fate of this world was never in our hands."

"We were merely visitors."

His words lingered between them.

Visitors.

It was an oddly fitting description.

Neither of them truly belonged to this world.

Everything they knew—their original home, the people they had once fought beside, the countless years they had spent surviving the apocalypse—existed in another reality.

Yet after everything they had experienced here...

This world no longer felt foreign.

It had become home.

Kira gave a bitter smile.

"You’re right."

She watched a flock of mutated birds circling high above the ruined skyline.

"They’re just like us."

"They’re struggling."

"They’re trying to survive."

"Even if this isn’t our original world... I don’t want to watch it disappear."

He Jinyun gave a faint nod.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

The silence between them wasn’t awkward.

After years of fighting side by side, words were often unnecessary.

Finally, Kira stretched lazily before letting out a soft laugh.

"Still..."

"I’ve lived through one apocalypse already."

She shrugged.

"So this doesn’t scare me anymore."

A playful grin appeared on her face.

"As long as Boss is here..."

Her bright eyes sparkled with unwavering confidence.

"I believe we’ll survive."

"We’ll grow old together."

"Even if it’s in a world like this."

For the first time in a long while...

The corner of He Jinyun’s lips lifted almost imperceptibly.

"...I agree."

That single sentence carried more certainty than any grand declaration.

To them...

Sian had always been their anchor.

The man who repeatedly accomplished what everyone else believed impossible.

If anyone could lead humanity through another apocalypse...

It was him.

---

Several minutes later...

A colossal wall appeared on the horizon.

It stretched for miles, towering over the surrounding landscape like an iron mountain.

Watchtowers stood every few hundred meters, each equipped with heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, and high-powered searchlights.

Snipers patrolled the upper ramparts.

Military helicopters continuously flew overhead.

Beyond the walls, thick smoke curled into the sky from dozens of factories working around the clock.

Massive solar arrays glittered beneath the dim sunlight, while enormous wind turbines turned steadily in the distance.

Everything had been built for one purpose.

Survival.

As the vehicle approached, Kira looked out the window.

Long lines of armored trucks waited outside the gates.

Some had returned from supply missions.

Others carried rescued civilians.

Medical teams rushed from one vehicle to another, treating the wounded before they even entered the base.

Nearby, soldiers unloaded crates of Energy Crystals under heavy guard.

Even from a distance, the base resembled a fortress prepared for war.

The enormous steel gates slowly began to open.

Hydraulic mechanisms groaned as layers of reinforced armor slid apart.

The sound echoed across the barren plain.

One checkpoint.

Then another.

Each vehicle underwent multiple inspections before being allowed inside.

Armed soldiers surrounded their car almost immediately.

The moment they recognized the military insignia and the occupants inside, every soldier straightened instinctively.

One of them hurried forward and saluted sharply.

"Commander He Jinyun."

"Welcome back."

He Jinyun lowered the window.

"What is it?"

The young soldier couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice.

"General Lan asked us to deliver a message the moment you returned."

He paused, unable to suppress his smile.

"Mr. Sian has awakened."

For a brief second...

Time seemed to stop.

"...What?"

Kira froze.

Her heartbeat skipped.

Then—

"What did you just say?!"

She practically threw herself across the front seats, grabbing the bewildered soldier by the shoulders through the open window.

"Boss woke up?!"

The soldier nodded repeatedly, laughing nervously at her overwhelming reaction.

"Y-Yes!"

"He regained consciousness not long ago."

"The doctors have already completed the initial examination."

"They confirmed that he’s awake."

Kira’s beautiful eyes instantly filled with tears.

The exhaustion...

The worry...

The helplessness she had buried deep inside her heart for an entire month...

All of it shattered in that single moment.

"He finally woke up..."

She covered her mouth, laughing and crying at the same time.

"I knew it..."

"I knew Boss wouldn’t leave us..."

Even He Jinyun, who rarely displayed emotion, slowly closed his eyes.

The invisible weight pressing against his chest for the past month finally lifted.

When he opened them again...

The usual calmness had returned.

But there was unmistakable relief hidden beneath it.

Without another word, he shifted the vehicle into gear.

The engine roared.

"Hold on."

Kira immediately fastened her seat belt, already grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, I know that look."

"You’d better not get us killed before we even see Boss."

The corners of He Jinyun’s lips curved into the faintest smile.

"I won’t."

The vehicle shot forward like an arrow, speeding through the massive Safe Base toward the villa where Sian had been sleeping for the past month.

After thirty long days...

Their leader had finally opened his eyes.

And none of them knew that the moment Sian awakened...

The fate of this world was about to change once again.

The armored vehicle sped through the heart of the Central Safe Base, its engine roaring as soldiers and civilians instinctively stepped aside.

News traveled faster than the vehicle itself.

"Mr. Sian is awake."

The words spread from checkpoint to checkpoint, whispered first in disbelief before erupting into excited conversations.

Many of the younger Awakened had never met Sian personally.

They only knew him through stories.

The man who had single-handedly held back a sea of monsters.

The strongest superhuman alive.

The commander who had saved countless lives without asking for anything in return.

To them, he had become something far greater than a soldier.

He was a symbol.

A reminder that humanity still possessed someone capable of standing against the apocalypse.

Inside the military headquarters, officers abandoned their ongoing meetings.

Research staff hurried down sterile hallways.

Even General Lan, who had maintained his composure for an entire month, couldn’t suppress the relieved smile spreading across his weathered face.

"He finally woke up..."

He quietly repeated the words to himself before standing from his chair.

Outside the villa, the security detail immediately straightened upon seeing He Jinyun’s vehicle approach.

The massive iron gates slid open without delay.

The car hadn’t even come to a complete stop before Kira threw the door open.

She jumped out and sprinted toward the entrance with tears still shimmering in her eyes.

"Boss!"

He Jinyun watched her disappear inside before silently following behind.

For the first time in weeks...

The villa no longer felt like a hospital.

It felt alive.