What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH1

Chapter 1: The Villainess is Still Alive

“Why even keep this fickle woman around? Just leave her. She was already bitten by a zombie anyway.”

“Look at the mess she’s made of our team. Some of the guys actually fought in public over a troublemaker like her! And then she shamelessly tried to climb into the captain’s bed. She’s pathetic—she only knows how to survive by leeching off men!”

Atop the crumbling ruins, several figures in tactical gear and bulletproof vests stood silhouetted against the bleak sky. The man in the lead sneered, spitting on the ground in disgust. “The captain isn’t someone she can just seduce whenever she pleases.”

Who could have imagined that the most renowned and powerful S1 team in the entire survivor base would be nearly torn apart by a single woman?

At first, they had only taken her in out of pity because she was the younger sister of the captain’s girlfriend, Pei Yanting. But instead of being grateful, this woman proved to be restless, unruly, and downright shameless. She flirted with nearly every man in the squad, sowing jealousy and discord until brothers-in-arms despised one another, bickering daily.

Today, during a massive zombie horde outbreak, the infighting reached a boiling point. Right in the middle of a life-or-death mission, they abandoned the frontline to fight over this siren. It was a complete disaster that shattered their morale. Had the captain not rushed in to provide backup, the entire squad would have been wiped out—all because of her.

But the most outrageous part? After the captain saved them, this ungrateful woman actually sneaked into his bed while he was recovering from his injuries. When she was caught red-handed, the captain’s girlfriend—her own sister, Pei Yanting—was so furious she coughed up blood and fainted. She hadn’t woken up since.

Fortunately, heaven had eyes. During the chaotic aftermath, this wretched woman had finally been bitten by a stray zombie.

A voice crackled over the lead man’s earpiece. A gloating smile spread across his face. “The captain said to leave her with a few days’ worth of rations and then move out. Whether she lives or dies is up to her. Keeping a plague like her around will only drag the team down. Watch yourselves, boys—don’t let her bite you.”

With a dismissive toss, he threw a few packets of long-expired compressed biscuits and a single bottle of water at the unconscious woman on the ground. Without a second glance, he turned and led his men away.

Hours later, icy raindrops fell against the woman’s thin eyelids, bringing a jarring chill.

Pei Xiqing’s eyelashes fluttered. Every single part of her body ached, but the pain in her lower back was the most excruciating.

Her last memory was of being on the set of a historical drama. The director had asked her to perform a complex wire-fu stunt. She was suspended over ten meters in the air when the wire snapped. She had hit the ground back-first, a flash of blinding agony piercing her spine before the world went black.

When she finally opened her eyes, she was enveloped in thick, oppressive darkness. The distant, guttural howling of beasts echoed in the air. A frigid wind swept past, carrying the unmistakable stench of decay. She was sitting in a ruined wasteland, surrounded by a mountain of mutilated corpses.

Stunned, Pei Xiqing spent several seconds convincing herself she was either having a nightmare or had somehow wandered onto the set of a big-budget apocalypse movie. She rubbed her throbbing temples, wincing at the sharp pain.

Suddenly, a flood of unfamiliar memories crashed into her mind.

She realized with a sinking horror that she had transmigrated into a popular post-apocalyptic novel—a story where the overpowered male and female leads team up to slaughter zombies, punish villains, and level up.

And she? She was one of the many disposable villains.

She had become the notorious, vain female supporting character. In the story, the original owner of this body survived the apocalypse by weaponizing her charm. She relied on pouting and flirting to coax food and protection out of men, expertly manipulating them while keeping them at arm’s length.

But as the apocalypse dragged on, humanity’s patience wore thin. Survival became far more important than a pretty face. When the zombie hordes descended, the men who swore to protect her scattered in an instant. Desperate and alone, she was eventually rescued by the elite team that housed the novel’s heroine—her older sister, Pei Yanting.

Instead of laying low, the original owner immediately caused chaos. Driven by jealousy over her sister’s relationship with Xiao Yue—the novel’s fiercely powerful, dual-ability male lead—she tried to seduce him. The attempt backfired spectacularly. In the ensuing chaos, she was bitten by a zombie, abandoned by the team, and left in a corpse pile to rot.

Pei Xiqing stared at the sea of dead bodies, her expression cracking. She had read this script, but she never signed up to live it.

She had arrived at the exact moment the original owner’s fate was sealed. She was already bitten, abandoned, and waiting for the virus to take over. It wouldn’t be long before she joined the shrieking, mindless horde of the undead.

Pei Xiqing slowly raised her arm.

Right on cue, a jagged, pale-green bite mark marred her skin. The infection was already spreading. Her entire arm had taken on a sickly, grayish-green pallor, stiffening like cold iron. It burned and itched so intensely that she wanted to claw her own skin off.

Reality was undeniable. Enduring the agonizing pain, she tore off strips of cloth and bound her arm tightly to stop herself from scratching it to the bone.

She forced herself to stand on trembling legs.

Beyond the clearing of corpses lay an abandoned city, choked with pollution and black smoke. She limped toward it, finding the streets littered with the undead. The sheer volume of bodies painted a grim picture of the massacre that had occurred here.

Ignoring the overwhelming stench, she scrounged through the wreckage. She managed to find some relatively clean clothes, a combat knife, a handgun, and a few scattered weapons. Judging by the modern, lightweight firearms strewn about, this world possessed advanced military technology before the collapse. The corpses, though twisted by the virus, wore ordinary civilian clothes. These were just the everyday citizens of a fallen city.

She scavenged everything she could carry—except food. Even the municipal water sources reeked of the virus.

Her only sustenance was the meager offering left by the men who abandoned her: a bottle of water and a few packets of compressed biscuits. She checked the label.

They had expired a month ago.

Pei Xiqing’s lips twitched in a cynical smirk.

When the apocalypse hit this world, humans had awakened superpowers. Dual-ability users were the rarest and absolute strongest—like Xiao Yue, and eventually, Pei Yanting. Together, they were destined to conquer this wasteland.

As for her, the universally despised cannon fodder? She hadn’t awakened a single ability.

Not that it mattered now. The virus was already in her blood. Soon, it would corrode her mind, rot her flesh, twist her limbs, and force her to crawl through the shadows as a monster.

As the apocalypse worsened, resources would only grow scarcer. Survivors would slaughter each other over a single scrap of bread. Right now, people were still fleeing and forming factions, but the zombie infection was spreading faster than anyone anticipated. Only the absolute strongest would survive this brutal, global elimination game.

Since she was destined to join the enemy ranks anyway, Pei Xiqing decided not to stress over it. Since she couldn’t outrun her fate, she might as well embrace it. She officially began her “Pre-Infection Sightseeing Tour.”

She wandered aimlessly until nightfall. As she drifted through the desolate streets, the sudden, distinct roar of a heavy engine broke the silence.

A vehicle.

Vehicles meant humans. Had another faction of ability users arrived? With one foot already in the grave, the last thing she needed was to be captured by trigger-happy survivors. If she turned into a zombie, she could at least wander the earth. If she was caught now, she’d just be executed.

Pei Xiqing immediately ducked into a nearby abandoned attic.

The roar of the engine grew louder. Hiding behind the shattered remains of a second-floor French window, she peered out into the terrifying, pitch-black city. The cold wind howled, carrying the bitter scent of gunpowder.

A massive, armored black G-Class SUV rolled slowly down the street, its headlights cutting through the gloom.

The heavy door swung open. A pair of long, powerful legs stepped out, clad in tailored black trousers that stretched over heavily muscled thighs. The man was easily over 1.9 meters tall. He wore a crisp black shirt, his broad shoulders and imposing frame radiating an intense, aggressive aura. His muscles seemed barely contained by the fabric.

His face was strikingly sharp—aristocratic, predatory, and cold. Framed by gold-rimmed glasses, his dark eyes swept the area as his polished leather shoes stepped indifferently over severed limbs and rotting corpses.

A few moments later, a second vehicle approached from the opposite end of the street. A man stepped out and nervously handed a heavy metal lockbox to the driver of the G-Class.

The distance was too great for Pei Xiqing to hear clearly. Shrinking back behind the window frame, she only dared to peek out with her eyes, catching fractured fragments of their conversation.

It sounded like a high-stakes transaction. A dark, windy night in a dead city—the perfect setting for illicit deals.

The brief exchange concluded. The imposing man adjusted his glasses, shook hands with the courier, and turned to leave. The street fell dead silent again, save for the howling wind.

Standing by his vehicle, the man lit a cigarette. Through the smoke, his dark, unfathomable gaze seemed to lock directly onto the second-floor window.

Pei Xiqing yanked her head back, her heart hammering against her ribs.

No way. He couldn’t possibly have seen me in this darkness… right?

She held her breath for what felt like an eternity until the rumble of the G-Class faded into the distance. Exhaling a shaky breath, she stepped away from the window, preparing to leave the attic.

But before she could take a single step, a low, chilling voice echoed from the shadows directly behind her.

“A zombie?”