CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 40: LILIAN FIRST LIFE

Walking past the mirror, Betty pulled a black mask over her face and tugged a hood down low.

She zipped up her black leather jacket and headed for the front door.

---

Hazel, leaning against a blue car, tapped her foot against the concrete, eyes on her watch.

"Why isn’t he here yet? It’s been twenty minutes."

Inside the car, Maria shook her head, idly twisting a puzzle cube in her hands.

"Why are you so impatient, sister? He’s probably still talking to the little princess."

Hazel blinked, resting one hand on the roof and peering through the window.

"Huh? Little princess? Since when did you start making up random nicknames?"

Maria tilted her head, folding her arms. The cube slipped from her fingers and landed on the seat beside her.

"Of course it’s for Bennett’s daughter. Didn’t you see how cute she is? I was going to call her Panda, but she’s not chubby enough, so I settled on little princess. Hehe."

Hazel rolled her eyes but froze mid-sigh when something caught her attention. Her gaze shifted to the right, a figure in black walking toward them.

Betty slowed her pace, frowning at Hazel’s wary stare. She stopped in front of them, then pulled her mask down to reveal her face.

Betty’s lips twitched as the wariness drained from Hazel’s eyes.

’Tch. All that over a mask? It’s not like I turn into a monster when I wear one.’

Hazel smirked and slung an arm around her shoulder.

"Man, you looked like a creep in full black. At least mix in some color for fashion."

With that, she slid into the driver’s seat and buckled up.

Betty was left standing outside, exasperated. She huffed, opened the back door, and paused before getting in.

"Do you even know how to drive? Weren’t you calling the brake and clutch the other way around before?"

The engine roared to life. Hazel shot her a mischievous grin. "Ah, that? I was just messing with you. You think I bought a car just to sit in the backseat?"

Betty nodded slowly, still not entirely convinced, as the car started moving. She leaned back in her seat, gaze drifting to the passing scenery outside the window.

Her eyes suddenly widened when she caught sight of four people walking along the roadside. The car passed them in an instant.

’H-huh... the Thomson family...?’

"What’s wrong, Bennett? Did you see someone?" Maria’s voice was tinged with concern.

Betty turned to her with a small, forced smile, shaking her head."No... I was just lost in thought."

"Oh, okay then." Maria let it go, though her eyes lingered on Betty a moment longer.

Betty leaned back again, resting her head against the headrest. She draped an arm over her eyes, blocking out the light.

’If they’ve arrived just now... then that already breaks from the novel’s events. So is the plot still following the same course, or is it completely different?’

’Everything is happening faster than it should, like the apocalypse striking months earlier than the novel described...’

---

Lilian happily skipped along the road, humming to herself. Behind her, Damien walked at a steadier pace, glancing at his mother with mild curiosity.

"Mother, why did we come to this base? We’d already settled on the east side base, so why leave that and come all the way here?"

Emma’s gentle smile never wavered as she moved with her usual graceful steps."My princess wanted to live here, so of course, I wouldn’t reject her wishes. Why do you not like this place?"

Damien quickly shook his head."No, it’s not that. This base actually has better security than our previous one."

A few steps behind, the middle-aged man, James, adjusted his golden-rimmed glasses, the lenses catching the light as his sharp eyes swept over their surroundings.

Lilian murmured as she walked ahead. "Hey, system, when will you give me my reward? I’ve already come to this base."

An emotionless voice sounded in her ears, heard only by her.

[Extracting: Congratulations. You have obtained a Zombie Virus Recovery Syringe for one-time usage.]

Lilian’s eyes lit up. "Huh? What does it do? Does it turn zombies back to normal?"

[Incorrect. The syringe can only be used on you. It prevents you from turning into a zombie after being bitten.]

’Wow, that’s life-saving. Even Nova, that bastard fiancé of Betty from the first series, didn’t have this kind of advantage.’

Thinking of Betty, her thoughts drifted to her first life, before she was reborn into this body.

---

In her first life, Lilian’s only best friend was Betty, an otaku girl, but far from being an introvert or a shut-in.

Back in school, everyone feared Betty. She always sat at the back, near the window, her sharp gaze making people think twice before approaching.

Rumors spread that she had beaten up students from other schools, and she was known for thrashing any bully foolish enough to target her.

As for Lilian, back then, she was Cassie. She always scored at the top of the class and had little patience for troublemakers.

Her impression of Betty worsened the day she heard that Betty had been arrested for trying to steal someone’s car.

But only a week later, Betty was released. The police officers who dropped her back at school even teased her along the way, while Betty grumbled angrily at them and cursed.

The students quickly connected the dots in their own way, whispering about how Betty must have powerful political connections.

Cassie had just scoffed at the rumor. ’If she really had political ties, why would she bother stealing a car in the first place?’

One afternoon, Cassie was hurrying home from school and decided to take a shortcut.Her luck, however, was not on her side. A group of thugs were drinking outside a small roadside shop.

The moment they spotted her, they sneered and staggered toward her, one of them extending a grimy hand.

"Hand over all your money," he demanded, his tone dripping with menace.

Cassie froze, her heart pounding. But before the thug could touch her, a glass bottle came whistling through the air and smashed against his head, shattering into a spray of liquor and glass.

She turned toward the source and saw a girl sitting on a stool inside the shop—Betty—nonchalantly chugging from another bottle.

"Huh? Who the hell are you?" one of the thugs barked. "You’ve got a death wish, hitting our boss like that?"

Betty smirked and got to her feet, wobbling slightly. Holding another bottle, she strode over and slammed it against the speaker’s shoulder with a dull thud.

"You cowards only know how to pick on people who can’t fight back," she spat. "Why don’t you try stealing a politician’s car if you’re feeling so tough?"

The last thug hesitated, his eyes darting to the jagged glass in Betty’s hand.

His bravado crumbled, and he muttered, "This isn’t over," before dragging his injured friends away.

Cassie stood there, clutching her schoolbag, her voice trembling.

"Um... t-thanks for saving me."

From that day, their friendship began. Cassie started bringing her lunchbox to Betty’s table, chatting with her like she was just another classmate. Slowly, Betty—who was usually rough and distant began talking back.

By the time they graduated, Betty’s violent edge had dulled, replaced with a knack for sarcasm and humor.But years later, Cassie’s world was shattered when she heard the news of Betty’s death.

And the guilt cut deep, because she was the one who had invited Betty over that day.

After Betty’s funeral, she goes to visit her only friend’s apartment, and she found the novel that made Betty curse many times.

The novel pages were crumpled as if they had been slammed somewhere.

Picking the book up, she started reading, trying to bury herself away from her guilt.

By the time she finished the novel, the knock on the apartment startled her, as she opened her eyes, narrowed, seeing a man standing with a package, his face covered with a hood and mask.

"Miss, this is the package Miss Betty asked to deliver."

The man quickly left after giving the package, not even asking for a signature.

"Huh, strange, why didn’t he ask for identification?"

As she opened the package, there was another novel with the same cover as the one she was reading.

The woman on this novel’s cover has short hair and a determined expression.

After reading it, she suddenly felt sleepy, she fell on the bed, the book slipping from her grasp, and vanished into the floor.

---

"Huh, Lilian, what happened?"

Lilian woke up from her thoughts. Damien was standing in front of her with a concerned expression.

"What.."

She felt wetness on her chin, touching her face confusely her eyes widened, feeling tears covering her chin.

"Dear, what happened? Tell your mother we are here for you."

She looked at her mother’s comforting glance, she shook her head.

"No, nothing, I think it’s because the air is misty, so dirt has fallen in my eyes."

A/N: The grammar can be bad in this Chapter because I made this Chapter in a hurry.}