– ABS – Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The God in Her Palm

It hurt.

It was cold.

It was hungry.

Lin Shengsheng’s consciousness was forcibly dragged back into reality by a violent pulling sensation so intense it felt as if her internal organs were being shaken apart.

Rough gravel scraped against her bare ankles, burning with pain. A dry, biting wind sliced across her thin linen sacrificial robe like a blade, stealing away the last bit of warmth from her body.

Instincts from her past life as the chief genetic physician of Shelter A-7 in the apocalypse allowed her to make a preliminary assessment even before she fully opened her eyes.

Severely weak body, low body temperature, signs of long-term malnutrition and dehydration. Limp limbs, relaxed muscles—this body’s condition was even worse than that of a ten-year-old child in the apocalypse.

She suddenly opened her eyes.

What met her gaze was a barren stretch of grayish-yellow hills with no end in sight. The sky was a murky lead-gray, and even the sun hid stingily behind the clouds, casting only a sickly dim glow.

The air was filled with a thick stench of dust, sweat, and wild beast musk, making her throat itch.

Two unnaturally strong “people” were holding her arms on either side, dragging her across the sand as if she were a torn sack. They were bare-chested, bronze-skinned, with bulging muscles full of primitive explosive power. What made Lin Shengsheng’s pupils contract, however, were the furry hyena ears on their heads—and the ugly tails swaying behind them.

Beastmen.

A word that only existed in novels and fantasies had crashed into her reality in the most brutal and undeniable way.

She had transmigrated.

After being overwhelmed by a flood of infected while protecting a “Seed of Life” sample, she had ended up in this primitive and savage beastman world.

Fragments of memory surged in like a tide.

This body was also named Lin Shengsheng, a snow rabbit tribe female. In this world, females were rare and precious and were supposed to be well protected. But she was an anomaly—a “defective product” who could not beast-transform at all.

In a world that worshipped strength, inability to transform meant weakness, incompetence, impure bloodline—a forsaken existence abandoned by the gods.

Thus, when the tribe suffered a severe drought, water sources dried up, and cubs began dying one after another, she—the “defective product”—became the obvious sacrifice.

She was to be offered to the legendary, unpredictable “Mountain God” of Greyjaw Ridge to appease divine anger and earn mercy.

“Shengsheng, you’re awake?”

A soft, delicate voice, tinged with just the right amount of concern, sounded beside her.

Lin Shengsheng turned her head with difficulty and saw a face that could only be described as perfect.

A fox-tribe female, Leya.

She had long, flame-red hair dyed with some kind of red berry, shimmering like fire. Her red eyes were watery and bright, and at the corner of her eye was a carefully painted teardrop mole meant to evoke pity. She wore the same sacrificial robe as Lin Shengsheng, but hers was noticeably cleaner and better fitted, outlining a slender and alluring figure.

Leya was the most popular female in the Broken Tooth Tribe—and the original owner’s only “best friend.”

At that moment, she looked at Lin Shengsheng with those tearful eyes, full of pity and reluctance.

“Shengsheng, don’t blame the chief or everyone else. The tribe really can’t hold on anymore… this is the only option,” she sobbed, her voice so soft it seemed it could break in the wind. “Don’t worry. When you… when you meet the Mountain God, we’ll all pray for you.”

Truly moving.

If only Lin Shengsheng hadn’t caught, deep within those seemingly sorrowful eyes, a flash of barely concealed jealousy and satisfaction.

In the isolation labs of the apocalypse, she had seen too many betrayals and killings over survival resources. Leya’s clumsy acting looked to her like nothing more than a ridiculous mime performance.

Jealous of what?

Jealous that although she was a “defective product” unable to transform, she had inherited the snow rabbit tribe’s top-tier beauty genes—snow-white hair, gem-like red eyes, and a face that, despite being pale and gaunt from malnutrition, still looked exquisitely doll-like.

Satisfied about what?

Satisfied that the only person who could threaten her in terms of appearance was about to disappear—after this, all the male attention in the Broken Tooth Tribe would belong solely to her, Leya.

“Heh.”

Lin Shengsheng sneered inwardly and couldn’t even be bothered to speak.

Her silence, however, looked like despair and resignation to Leya.

The satisfaction in Leya’s eyes deepened. She leaned closer and, in a voice only the two of them could hear, said with feigned pity, “Shengsheng, don’t be too sad. A defective product like you contributing your final value to the tribe is already a good death. It’s better than being abandoned by a mate later for failing to bear healthy cubs and starving to death, don’t you think? At least this way, it’s more dignified.”

With that, she straightened up again, resuming her saintly, compassionate expression, even dabbing at nonexistent tears.

The surrounding hyena beastmen looked at Leya with admiration and affection.

“Leya is just too kind,” one of the hyena males carrying Lin Shengsheng—named “Fangtooth”—said gruffly. “There’s no need to feel sad over a defective product.”

“Exactly! Being a sacrifice to the Mountain God is her honor!” another male, “Dirty Claw,” echoed, his gaze toward Lin Shengsheng full of disgust.

Their grip tightened, and Lin Shengsheng could feel her arm bones groaning under the strain.

She closed her eyes, no longer looking at Leya’s hypocritical face or the contemptuous stares around her.

Conserve energy.

Stay calm. Think.

That was her first rule of survival in the apocalypse.

But… what could she do now?

In this savage world where strength ruled everything, she was unarmed and weak—like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Despair seeped into her heart like the dust of Greyjaw Ridge, inescapable and suffocating.

But within that cold despair, a faint, almost imperceptible warmth suddenly awakened deep within her dantian.

It was weak, like a thread of silk, slowly flowing through her parched meridians. Wherever it passed, it brought a tingling, almost newborn-like sensation.

What… is this?

Lin Shengsheng’s focus instantly sharpened.

As a top genetic physician, she was extremely familiar with every subtle change in her body. But this warmth did not belong to any known biological current, nor to anything this body should possess.

It had appeared out of nowhere.

Had it come with her soul—her cheat ability?

Her heart began to pound uncontrollably.

The desire to survive, like dry wood meeting a spark, instantly ignited into a blazing fire.

No matter what it was—it was her only hope.

The group continued forward in silence, drawing closer and closer to their destination.

At the far end of the horizon, a massive and eerie black altar appeared.

The altar was built from unknown black boulders, ancient and rugged in style, its surface covered in traces of erosion from the passage of time. A chilling, decayed aura mixed with a thick stench of blood spread from its direction, causing all the beastmen to instinctively slow their steps, their eyes filled with awe and fear.

“Quick… hurry! Send the sacrifice up!”

The chief of the Broken Tooth Tribe, an elderly one-eyed hyena beastman, urged them in a hoarse voice. His gaze was fixed tightly on the center of the altar, where a massive white figure lay.

It was a tiger.

A snow-white giant tiger as enormous as a small mountain!

Even lying there on the verge of death, the terrifying pressure from the apex of the food chain emanating from its bloodline still made the surrounding hyena beastmen’s legs go weak, almost forcing them to kneel to the ground.

Lin Shengsheng was roughly shoved forward, stumbling as she was brought to the edge of the altar.

Only at this moment did she truly see the full form of the so-called “Mountain God.”

Its size was simply too enormous—its shoulder height was likely over three meters, and its body length even more astonishing. Its snow-white fur, which should have been the purest color in the world, was now covered in countless sinister black curse markings.

Those markings seemed alive, slowly writhing and spreading beneath its fur, emitting a dense aura of decay and death. With every movement, the giant tiger’s body would twitch uncontrollably, and from deep within its throat came a suppressed, agonized low growl.

Its breathing was weak yet scorching hot; every exhale released a wave of searing heat, as if it could ignite the air itself.

It was about to die.

No—more precisely, it was on the verge of being completely eroded by a mysterious corruption known as the “Decay Curse,” about to fall into a state of madness and become a “Cursed Fallen One.”

In an instant, Lin Shengsheng’s mind surfaced with the original owner’s memories of the “Cursed Fallen Ones.”

They were monsters who had completely lost their sanity after being corrupted by curses, left with only destruction and killing instincts. They were the nightmare of all intelligent races.

And this white tiger—once it fully fell—its power would be enough to erase the entire Broken Tooth Tribe from this land in an instant.

The beastmen of the Broken Tooth Tribe had no idea that the being they were sacrificing to was essentially a ticking nuclear bomb.

All they saw was their “Mountain God” suffering, and so they foolishly believed that their lack of piety had angered the deity, requiring a “pure” female sacrifice to appease it.

How absurd—and how tragic.

“Go up! Hurry!”

From behind her, Dirty Claw impatiently shoved her hard.

Lin Shengsheng stumbled and was pushed onto the cold, rough stone surface of the altar.

The sticky sensation beneath her feet came from long-dried, blackened blood—belonging to who knows how many past sacrifices.

It’s over.

That was the first thought that flashed through Lin Shengsheng’s mind.

Whether she was killed by the enraged, tormented giant tiger, or torn apart after it fully fell into a cursed monster, her fate would be no different either way.

Fear clenched her heart like an icy hand.