Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 166: I died in agony

The group of medical professionals, were wide-eyed, silent, and trembling with exhaustion nodded as they were led away.

Even the strongest among them moved with the tentative steps of people just emerging from a nightmare.

For them, the hotel might as well have been a second chance at life.

Qingran watched them go until their figures disappeared into the elevators, then finally exhaled, the tension bleeding from her shoulders.

59. That was the new number. These were the number of people that had rescued so far. She would stop at 60, after that she wasn’t saving anymore.

She’d only meant to take 47. It had crept up without her realizing, one more here, another there. But in the moment, it was always the same: one more was a life she couldn’t just ignore.

She turned, stepping away from the lobby’s polished floor and heading to the command room they’d set up in one of the hotel’s former conference spaces.

A large whiteboard stood against one wall, half-covered in names and notes, most in Qingran’s sharp, no-nonsense handwriting. Scouting maps were spread across a long table, dotted with pins and small color-coded stickers.

Yu Song stood by the window, talking quietly into a walkie. When he saw her, he gave a short nod and ended the transmission.

"They’re secured," he reported. "Rooms 3701. No bites. No infections."

"That’s good. I would have given them rooms in the 36th floor but we haven’t cleaned thsr floor..have we?"

"No ma’am." He paused and continued.

"They’re shaken. That last nurse... she kept crying. The doctors had to sedate her."

Qingran made a faint sound in her throat, she neither agreed nor judged. "Let them have six hours. After that, I want the doctors in triage and the nurses doing rounds. We’ve got a lot of people, and our medbay is still a joke."

Yu Song nodded. "Understood."

Meng Nian came in, placing his jacket on the table as he sat down.

"We’re running low on medicines. Lucky for us, the injured people aren’t that many.."

"Nothing to worry about, just get me the list of what’s running out and I’ll provide more."

"Got it."

The room fell into a tense silence. Everyone seemed to have questions but didn’t know how to say it.

"If you have anything to ask, feel free..I’m not going to bite."

Meng Nian cleared his throat, nodded slightly before saying what he had in his mind.

"All these things, how did you know about it? You’re so calm, you weren’t scared at all or confused, it’s like you knew it was going to happen and that system thing where is it from? Who are you?"

Qingran didn’t say anything for a while, Meng Nian thought he had said something out of line and was about to apologize when Qingran stopped him.

"I’m a normal human being like you are and you’re right..I did know all these was going to happen. How did I know? Cause I’ve lived through this hell before, I died and with the help of the system..I came back to life again, the system also warned me about the apocalypse, so I prepared myself before it came. When you’ve experienced hell once, going through it again isn’t as bad."

Meng Nian stared at her, processing each word slowly. His lips parted, but nothing came out for a moment.

"You died?" Yu Song’s voice was quiet, disbelief tightening his brows. "You actually died and came back?"

Qingran nodded. "Not peacefully. I died choking on my own blood, in a pile of corpses, betrayed by the very people I saved.

They turned on me for food, medicine, supplies. Killed me because I was the only one still standing when they got desperate."

The silence that followed was heavy.

"I fought for them. Led them. Fed them. Gave them everything I had." Her voice didn’t rise, didn’t shake, but the bitterness beneath it was like steel. "And they repaid me with a knife in my back."

Meng Nian looked like he wanted to speak, but nothing came.

"I died in agony and I was deeply hurt" Qingran went on, her tone steady. "The worst part wasn’t the pain. It was the regret. Regret that I was stupid enough to believe saving everyone was worth it."

She let that sit before continuing.

"When the system brought me back, it gave me one chance. A warning, and a head start. I used it. I built up supplies, memorized weak points in the city, traced out survival routes. And I made a decision."

"To never make the same mistake again.." Meng Nian said quietly.

Qingran looked at him, expression unreadable. "Exactly."

Yu Song leaned forward. "Then why save anyone at all?"

"I didn’t want to.." she admitted. "Not at first. I was just going to save myself. But some people... they reminded me of the ones I couldn’t protect before. So I saved a few. Then a few more. Haha I’m not heartless..."

She looked back at the whiteboard, where the numbers were beginning to blur into names.

"I told myself I’d stop at forty-seven. But it kept going. Because every time, it was the same. One more. Just one more."

"And now sixty..." Meng Nian said.

Qingran didn’t answer right away.

"Sixty is the limit" she said finally. "Past that, the risk outweighs everything. We can’t keep stretching our food, our meds, our safety net. I won’t let the past repeat itself. If we take more, we won’t survive ourselves."

"And if someone begs for help?" Yu Song asked.

"I can only turn my back and say no. Humans are selfish, they will turn on you at any chance they get, only few are grateful..some are neutral, they don’t do anything just blend into the corner watching the chaos unfold. I will never go out of my way to be a savior, I’m one’s savior, if you’re here...in this hotel. It was my chance, you were saved because I wanted to saved you.."

Yu Song bowed, he didn’t want people to die and he didn’t want to die as well. He just wanted to wake up one morning and seee the blue skies again.

"Then keep saving us. I beg you. Even if we get to only eat once a day or not even eat at all. As long as we’re with you, I know we’ll live.."