It is especially emphasized that this book features a strong female protagonist, with no established romantic pairings currently. Furthermore, this book is NOT a gender-bend with marriage!
The college entrance examination, a major event in life, a place of life and death. In just three days of the exam, a batch of national treasure-level products with a shelf life of three days will be born.
Similarly, after the college entrance examination, a large number of pest-level 'Four Pests' will emerge. Our protagonist, Qiming Wen, is a student who has just completed the college entrance examination, joyfully walking home. The examination hall is very close to home, only requiring crossing two roads.
"Let me think about what to do when I get home... I don't think I've ever pulled an all-nighter before? Hmm... Wait, why are the police over there telling me to run to the side? Why is the crowd dispersing?" When Qiming Wen came back to his senses, he only saw a furious bus, its 'eyes' fixed on him. All he could recall was a single thought: "Young man, it's time to reincarnate into another world!"
As his brain briefly crashed, he pulled his gaze from the darkness and looked around. What he saw and heard seemed familiar; the dilapidated scene was no different from a post-apocalyptic survival game. In the distance, he could still see creatures with black spherical heads constantly wandering.
"?? What is that thing? An Eihai?! Wait, an Eihai! This is the world of Zenless Zone Zero!" Feeling his brain crash again, the world of Zenless Zone Zero seemed incredibly beautiful. The Sixth Street where the protagonist lives is even more harmonious, but anyone who has seen the game's background should understand that this game's setting is apocalyptic.
The street where the protagonist lives looks very harmonious, right?
A ramen shop owner who adds special ingredients to his ramen, making customers more potent than a drive disk after eating it; a toy store responsible for producing various weapon products; a repair shop that performs illegal military modifications; and a music store that resells military supplies. Indeed, it's very 'harmonious' (heshan, a pun on 'nuclear' and 'kindness').
Just as he was lost in thought, a familiar voice interrupted him, forcing his gaze back to reality. He saw a woman with pink hair and square glasses, a lightning-elemental switchblade at her waist, looking very 'mom-like,' talking through an earpiece.
"I am Yuecheng Liu. Chief? What? You're not in my area? I'm afraid we've run into trouble." After Yuecheng Liu hung up the communication, she looked towards him with a wary gaze. It was then that he finally had some time to examine himself: red eyes, black hair, a stoic, natural airhead fox-girl, dressed in refugee clothes, with a long katana at her waist, and a full-metal gauntlet on her left hand. If an outsider didn't know, they might think his left hand was severed.
Reincarnated into Zenless Zone Zero as a stoic, ice-elemental katana fox-girl. She looks exactly like Hoshimi Miyabi, except her chest has been changed to lightning. Hmm, the Little Leiyin Temple has won this time. Teacher Shuixiong finally elbowed his way to victory!
He moved a little, and his wrists clearly felt much stronger than his previous body. When he vigorously swung his hand, it even left afterimages. When his right foot pushed hard against the ground, he could distinctly feel the floor groaning. Yuecheng Liu also clearly sensed something different, quickly putting her hand on her switchblade and drawing it. Her movements seemed to slow down by multiples; in her perception, his movements were only halfway done. But because there was no reference point, he actually didn't know that his eyesight was so good that he could see incoming bullets in slow motion.
He looked up at Yuecheng Liu's wary gaze. If he hadn't carefully noticed his own fate, his first thought would probably have been to obediently follow Anti-Air Division Six back. After all, a mortal in a Hollow would basically not even leave a complete corpse. Moreover, Hollows are inherently extremely disorienting, and he happened to be directionally challenged, unable to even navigate within a ten-mile radius. Let alone without a 'radish' (a navigation device), even with one, she might not be able to get out.
The principles of Anti-Air Division Six are very strong throughout the entire force, so he wasn't worried about any major problems. But the problem was that he now had a face identical to a Void Hunter, making it hard to guarantee he wouldn't be captured for strange experiments. The safest approach was to snatch the 'radish' from Yuecheng Liu and escape.
He gathered his thoughts, lowered his body, and gripped the katana at his waist. From a distance, his eyes glowed crimson, like a beast about to pounce on its prey. The moment the katana was drawn from its sheath, a faint red wave quickly spread in all directions.
Several large beads of sweat suddenly formed on Yuecheng Liu's forehead. This kind of aura she had only felt from her own Chief. That suffocatingly powerful, almost impossible-to-resist absolute power.
In his line of sight, Yuecheng Liu had already drawn her blade, and he finally launched his first attack impatiently. Every move, every stance, seemed etched deep in his bones. Without needing to strain his mind or overthink, the moment the blade was drawn, various techniques naturally formed, flowing like water.
He drew the katana from his waist, and a brilliant red light erupted. At the same time, he pushed off with both feet, accompanying the blade forward. To an outsider, only a flash of crimson remained. Yuecheng Liu's pupils constricted, and subconsciously, she brought her blade horizontally in front of her. The first strike was thus blocked. Seeing the difficulty in the opponent's defense, he immediately kicked Yuecheng Liu in the stomach. With a "clank," Yuecheng Liu stumbled to her right, but before she could recover, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen and was sent flying seven or eight meters away.
Yuecheng Liu had just gotten up when she saw the opponent standing motionless, as if her own Chief had entered an AI state, only repeating the last three words of what others said.
Standing opposite Yuecheng Liu, a voice echoed in his mind the moment the blade struck Liu.
"Demon Lord, Demon General, Yao Ji."
------Divider Line------
To help readers who are not familiar with the Zenless Zone Zero worldview understand it, the author has specially rushed back to supplement the Zenless Zone Zero worldview and the situation of various factions, and will irregularly add to this at the end of chapters.
The background of the Zenless Zone Zero worldview is actually post-apocalyptic reconstruction. The longest known timeline extends back 11 years.
First, there is the unknown disaster (possibly man-made, possibly natural) that exists in this world — the Hollow.
A Hollow is an extremely unstable spatial form; its exits and entrances are refreshed entirely by probability. Staying inside a Hollow for a long time will lead to erosion by the unique element within the Hollow — Ether — turning one into a monster with almost no intelligence, an Eihai.
In this worldview, there are not only humans but also other races, the Hii. Simply put, they are beast-eared people, or people who look like animals but possess human intelligence. There are also some familiar traditional elements, such as the Oni (Demon) race.
Eihai are divided into ten levels according to the toxicity of the elemental periodic table. Frankly, the official sources have not given a specific classification of levels. The power system in this book follows the early grid-walking power system leaked by insiders (after grid-walking was deleted, the Zenless Zone Zero plot changed a lot). Specific details will be released later once decisions are made to a certain extent.
Eleven years ago, the known planet had a large human settlement in the city of Eridu, which included the Municipal Government, the Defense Force, the Public Security Bureau, the Helys Organization, and The Society. The known antagonist force that broke away from the city is the Praise Assembly.
Eleven years ago, due to unknown reasons, Eridu fell, and people were forced to build New Eridu on its ruins. Eleven years later, New Eridu is basically formed and is currently undergoing post-disaster reconstruction. This can be directly compared to the period when civil engineering was booming in our country in the last century.
Including the social environment.
The Municipal Government organization is currently controlled by the Mayflower family, who essentially have the final say. If divided, it should belong to the 'political' unit among the four units: political, commercial, military, and 'wild' 【opposition parties, which can be understood as other forces not governed by regular powers】. Below are its subordinate factions.
Municipal Government factions: Victoria Housekeeping, Public Security Bureau, Anti-Air Affairs Special Operations Department.
Victoria Housekeeping is the four-person horror-element group we've seen. Members include Lycane the werewolf (a symbol of elegance and rationality, currently the head of Victoria Housekeeping), the floating maid Lina (the earliest organizer of Victoria Housekeeping who recruited Lycane, but mysteriously became second-in-command; her cooking skills are comparable to Raiden Shogun's), the timid green matcha maid Corin (prototype chainsaw maniac, cute in appearance, like Huohuo, timid and fearful, she will scream in fear while raising a huge chainsaw and charging at you). And the inexplicably working girl Ellen (Victoria Housekeeping's highest combat power, a high school girl from the King's homeland, prone to sleepiness. Her prototype is a great white shark, she is a shark Hii, likes sweets, and can accept Lina's cooking).
Victoria Housekeeping mainly serves high-income individuals and is an organization that runs errands for the upper class. However, because Lycane, the leader, is extremely righteous, Victoria Housekeeping can actually wear the cloak of a vigilante.
The Public Security Bureau is purely Chinese-style and one of the few organizations in the entire worldview that can give you a sense of security. Its police officers are ridiculously equipped with heavy firepower grenade launchers and various military-only equipment. Specific members include: Zhu Yuan, the 24-year-old perfect excellent student (Hoshimi Miyabi's classmate, almost perfect, only failed to get first place once, and that was by scoring a string of numbers to annoy her teacher); Qingyi (an artificial jade doll, made of anti-Ether corrosion material, unknown how long she has lived, shrewd and cunning, with a sense of seasoned statesmanship); Seth (a clear-headed but foolish university student, harboring ideas of justice, despite being a rich second-generation, he seems to have a vendetta against that term); Jane Doe (a woman who made Zenless Zone Zero a high-level action game, with ripped stockings, an unreplicable jazz physique, and the seductive gaze of a bad woman. She understands crime better than criminals. She has participated in numerous undercover operations and enjoys the feeling of walking on the edge of danger. And she is the only one of the above four who comes from the Thorn General Bureau; the other three all come from the Janus Branch Bureau).
The Anti-Air Affairs Special Operations Department, a department with highly overlapping responsibilities with the Defense Force. It is almost explicitly defined as a means used by the Mayor to curb the power of the Defense Force. Its known subordinate units range from Anti-Air Division Zero to Anti-Air Division Nine, with Anti-Air Division Six being a clearly known faction.
(All members of the Hoshimi Family are fox-girls or fox-men; don't overthink it, don't misunderstand.)
Anti-Air Division Six, its members include Hoshimi Miyabi (the current clan head of the Hoshimi Family, Chief of Anti-Air Division Six. One of the few remaining Void Hunters, a combat power ceiling. Hates meetings, will skip work for meetings. Zhu Yuan's classmate), Asaba Yuma (the king of slacking off; he can work 21 hours in a seven-day week. He was once a survivor of human experiments from some unknown department; the reason for his survival was that his teacher, the researcher, realized the wrongness of his actions, believing that life is above all else, but this also made him sickly. However, he is intelligent and emotionally intelligent, the second brain of the entire team), Yuecheng Liu (a motherly character who ended the Oni rebellion, possesses Oni skills, likely related to time. Theoretically, she should have extremely high prestige within the Oni race, but this is unconfirmed. Recognized by her colleagues as the only reliable person in the entire Anti-Air Division Six, the Vice Chief of Anti-Air Division Six, responsible for handling all incoming documents, arresting the truant Miyabi and Asaba Yuma, the first brain of the entire team), Cang Jiao (a child of the Oni race, whose intelligence is still at a child's level, purely because his combat power is too absurd, making him a potential stock for Anti-Air Division Six, possibly growing into the next Void Hunter).
Remaining scattered forces will be introduced in the chapters where they appear. This is the Municipal Government's primary force in the current year.
From known plot analysis, it can be inferred that the fall of the Old Capital was a result of the combined involvement of various forces. In the Zero Hollow plot, Defense Force soldiers encountered the Praise Assembly. A documentary film 【'First Cup of Earth'】 released by the current Mayor's office hints that the Mayor tampered with things. The Defense Force even bears a significant portion of the blame; it is essentially concluded that the fall of the Old Capital was self-inflicted, and disasters are sometimes not natural but man-made.