Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 155: Maybe it was related to the systems

The survivors straightened instinctively under her gaze.

Qingran didn’t need to raise her voice. The sheer pressure she exuded, it was cold, steady, unshakable.

She made it clear that this was not a place for arguments or complaints.

"I don’t care what your background was before. Doctor, teacher, rich kid, street rat. It’s all useless now. Here, you are what you do. Not what you were. Of course, if you’re a doctor, I’ll hold you with a little more regard."

Several people flinched, a ripple of unease moving through the group.

She continued, "You’ll be split into work groups. Security, logistics, maintenance, sanitation. Each group will have a lead. Orders come from them. If you have a problem, take it to your leaders. If it’s serious, your leaders will come to me."

Feng Yuxi began handing out slips of paper with assignments written on them, moving quickly through the crowd.

Qingran watched silently, arms crossed, as people hesitated before taking them. Some looked relieved, happy just to have something to do. Others glanced at each other, uncertainty in their eyes.

"You’ll get one hour in between to eat, drink, and settle your personal matters." Qingran said. "After that, we work until sunset. No exceptions, of course those would sprained ankles and broken arms and what not..would stay back for now. So Taejin, you’re off duty but once you’re all better, you’ll be in security."

Someone in the back, a young man maybe no older than twenty, raised a tentative hand.

"What about weapons?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly. "To defend ourselves?"

Qingran’s gaze cut to him like a blade.

"Weapons will be issued when you earn them.." she said coolly. "First, show me you can lift a brick without whining. Show me you can build a barricade without tripping over your own feet. Then we’ll talk weapons. Of course, you’ll be given weapons if you’re going on scouting but for now, you don’t need it before you’re safer inside."

The young man swallowed hard and lowered his hand.

Satisfied that no one else dared to speak, Qingran stepped back.

"Feng Yuxi, you have command over the 39th floor. Rotate shifts every six hours. Send the injured or sick to me on the 34th floor."

"Understood," Feng Yuxi said crisply.

"Good. I’ll check the 35th floor markings later. For now, move on."

The group dispersed slowly, pairs and trios forming as they made their way toward their assigned areas. There was still a sense of fragility among them, but Qingran could see the first hints of cohesion too.

The desperate survival instinct that would hopefully bind them into something stronger.

She let out a slow breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Lingquan spoke softly in her mind.

[This is a start. You’re holding them together.]

"For now.." Qingran murmured under her breath. "But the tide will test them. And me."

She stayed on the 39th floor for the next two hours, overseeing the initial sorting. People needed to be nudged into action, sometimes pushed hard.

But after the first few orders barked and the first few tasks assigned, things began moving more smoothly.

Mei Jiao, the fifteen-year-old girl Feng Yuxi had worried about, ended up assigned to sanitation, one of the lighter duties, but still crucial.

Qingran watched from a distance as the girl scrubbed the walls silently, her motions mechanical but still determined. Fear still clung to her like a second skin, but at least she was moving.

At least she hadn’t curled up and refused. Then she would have no choice, than to give her a good beating and knock some sense into her.

As noon approached, Qingran’s body began reminding her that she wasn’t invincible. Her shoulders ached fiercely, her bandaged hands throbbed with every heartbeat, and a low-grade headache was steadily building behind her eyes.

But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t afford to stop.

By the time she climbed down to the 35th floor to inspect the strange markings Meng Nian had mentioned, she felt like she was running on fumes.

Meng Nian met her at the stairwell door, his expression serious.

"They’re still there.." he said. "We posted a guard to make sure no one touched anything."

"Good" Qingran muttered. "Show me."

They moved through the darkened corridor, the lights casting long, eerie shadows against the walls.

It didn’t take long to see what he meant.

Symbols were crude and deliberate, it had been carved into the plaster walls, in spirals, jagged lines and interlocking triangles.

Some parts had been smeared with something dark, like dried blood.

Qingran crouched near the largest cluster, tracing one of the symbols lightly with her fingertips.

"Recognize any of it?" Meng Nian asked.

"No." Her voice was flat. "But it’s not random."

Lingquan whispered quietly:

[Residual energy detected. That’s the only thing I can pick up right now]

This had probably happen before the apocalypse started in full, but what did these symbols mean?

Qingran rose to her feet slowly, her joints protesting.

"Don’t touch anything until I say otherwise," she ordered. "Post two guards here around the clock. I’ll come back to study it later."

Meng Nian nodded, already relaying the orders over the communication device.

Qingran stood for another moment, staring at the wall.

A bad feeling gnawed at her gut.

She didn’t believe in superstitions. She didn’t need to. The world was already broken enough without inventing ghosts to haunt it.

But these markings... They reeked of something old, something malignant.

Perhaps it was related to the systems...

Another problem to add to the mountain already crushing them.

⸻

When she finally returned to the 40th floor in the late afternoon, Bai Shiyue had left a tray of food outside her door again, warm vegetable porridge and flatbread.

"Sigh. She should stop giving me food when I don’t ask for it. But I should eat something. I’ll take Meng Nian along with me during this scouting. I’ll take the SUV and he’ll take the another car. Would be nice if I had a truck, can ferry more people, maybe we can take the ambulance when we scout the hospital."