Apocalypse Life Starting as a Lord

Jiang Hao, a powerful seventh-tier adept from a post-apocalyptic world, dies and is reborn a week before the apocalypse on November 6, 2025. He vividly recalls the pain and loss of his previous life, including the faces of friends, comrades, and enemies. Armed with memories from his past, he immediately sets out to secure a crucial advantage: a base-building system known as the Star River. His past intelligence leads him to Mangshan Yanhu in L City, where he discovers a hidden dock. Reaching into the lake, he finds an invisible door and enters. The Star River system activates, binding to him and opening an initial storage space. The system has resource reserves and a construction interface that includes buildings like a Medical Center, Storage Center, Machine Workshop, Paddy Field Farm, Water Purification Plant, and War Workshop, as well as a unit exchange for Engineering Robots, Sentry-Level Machine Guns, Military Off-Road Vehicles, Bulldog mechanical dogs, Tang Dao swords, Type 01 Automatic Rifles, and Hyena Wheeled Armored Vehicles. Recognizing the immense potential, Jiang Hao spends his savings over the next several days, building a Paddy Field Farm, Water Purification Plant, and War Workshop within his territory, Fengqifeng, by the time the apocalypse arrives on November 13, 2025.

The apocalypse is caused by mysterious creatures called Spores. In his past life, Jiang Hao learned that these spores, while the root of the catastrophe, also offer unparalleled opportunities for humans and animals. One particular spore was the key to the rise of Li Changhe, the Undying Martial Saint, one of the seven major forces in Shenzhou District. Jiang Hao decides to seize this opportunity for himself in this new timeline. With his Bulldog, he navigates the zombie-infested streets, witnessing chaos and destruction. He traces a pungent smell of blood to a courtyard, where a zombie child is licking a flower bud. The Bulldog kills the small zombie, and Jiang Hao identifies the flower as the spore-grown plant containing immense energy. The flower is not yet mature, so he waits. During this time, the Bulldog extracts a warm-colored crystal from the zombie's heart—a Crystalline Core. The system detects it as a new resource called Energy Crystal, which will be usable after returning to the territory.

While waiting for the flower to mature, Jiang Hao senses a first-order adept zombie approaching. The adept is incredibly fast and strong, knocking the Bulldog back with a single blow, denting its metal body. A first-order adept is an evolved zombie with human-like intelligence and strength rivaling exotic beasts. In his past life, these creatures became the overlords of the apocalypse. Jiang Hao realizes the danger. The adept, feeling threatened by Jiang Hao's Type 01 Automatic Rifle, attacks him, but the Bulldog bites its leg, slowing it down. Jiang Hao seizes the moment, fires the rifle, and kills the adept. As the adept dies, the flower bud in the courtyard fully opens, releasing a soft red light. The Bulldog swallows the light, and the flower withers, revealing a red fruit. The Star River system announces the discovery of unknown genetic traits that can be researched at a Research Center.

Jiang Hao later encounters Shen Bingyan, the manager of the Jinzhou Steel Factory, who offers steel in exchange for help. Suspicious of her knowledge, Jiang Hao decides to trust her. He gives her a crystalline core, explaining that there is a one in ten thousand chance her body can withstand the zombie virus to awaken as an adept. She falls into a coma, her body heating up. Jiang Hao secures her in a room and then leaves to rest. He rescues a little girl named Duo Duo and her brother Jiang Tao. He brings them back to the courtyard where Shen Bingyan is recovering. During the night, Shen Bingyan awakens, her body covered in ice frost, forming a cocoon. The next morning, Jiang Hao drives an off-road vehicle to retrieve Shen Bingyan. She emerges as an ice-type adept, creating an ice frost path. She gets into the car without asking about the new survivors and directs them to the Jinzhou Steel Factory warehouse. In the car, she gives Duo Duo an ice flower as a gift.

At the steel factory, they are confronted by Ma Wei, a man with a missing arm who is acting as the local boss. He demands food in exchange for steel or suggests Shen Bingyan stay with him. Shen Bingyan reveals her ice ability, freezing Ma Wei's feet to the ground. But Ma Wei is a Strength Type Martial Dao Awakener; he breaks free. Jiang Hao engages him in combat with his Tang Dao, and after several exchanges, he manages to wound Ma Wei. The conflict is ongoing as the narrative pauses.