Investing in My Harem in the Apocalypse Makes Me Stronger
Chapter 1: The Apocalypse Descends

Chapter 1: The Apocalypse Descends

In a dormitory’s bathroom, Cain was answering nature’s call as he sat down on the toilet, thinking about what to eat after finishing his business.

’Fried chicken again?’

He stared at the photograph on the screen for several seconds before swiping downward.

’No. I ate that yesterday.’

A bowl of spicy beef noodles appeared next.

’This one looks good... but the restaurant is too far away.’ Cain hesitated.

He continued scrolling, his expression becoming increasingly serious as if he were making a decision that could determine the fate of an entire country.

His stomach wanted meat, but his wallet wanted instant noodles as it was almost the end of the month.

Before he could settle the argument between the two, the floor beneath his feet suddenly trembled.

Cain frowned deeply.

The thin metal walls separating the stalls began rattling. Water rippled inside the toilet, and the hanging light above him swung from side to side.

"What the hell?"

The shaking grew stronger, as the entire dormitory seemed to tremble as if something enormous had struck the foundation of the building.

"An earthquake?"

Cain quickly locked his phone and prepared to stand.

However, before he could pull up his pants, a sharp pain exploded inside his head.

"ARGH!"

His back slammed against the stall wall.

Every vein around his forehead bulged as he gritted his teeth, but another wave of agony immediately swept through him.

Cain clutched both sides of his head.

"What the fuck!"

His vision was distorted.

The bathroom walls bent strangely. The light above him stretched into several blurry lines, and countless indistinct whispers seemed to flood his mind at once.

He could not understand a single word. Yet, hidden beneath those whispers, something ancient seemed to stir.

For a brief instant, Cain felt as if his consciousness had fallen into an endless black space.

Then, somewhere within that boundless darkness, a colossal golden eye slowly opened.

The mere sight of it caused Cain’s soul to tremble.

A heavy pressure descended upon him, carrying a destructive presence capable of reducing everything into nothingness.

Before Cain could make sense of what he was seeing, the golden eye vanished and his consciousness returned to the bathroom.

The pain stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

Cain’s body went limp against the wall. Cold sweat covered his forehead, while his breathing came out in heavy gasps.

"Haah... Haah..."

For several seconds, he could do nothing but sit there.

He felt as if someone had beaten him half to death before stuffing everything back into place.

"What... the hell was that?" Cain slowly opened his eyes.

A translucent blue screen floated in front of him.

Several lines of white text were displayed across its surface.

[Cain]

[Level: 0]

[Race: Human]

[Talents: Black Menagerie (Primordial-rank), Piercing Momentum (S-rank)]

[Beast: Primordial Chaos Dragon]

[Element: Ruin]

[Skills: Ruin Dragon Force]

[Stats]: Strength: 18 / Agility: 14 / Physique: 16 / Sense: 13 / Mana: 169 / Magic: 67

— — —

[Ding! Investment Harem System Initializing...]

[0%]

[0.1%]

Cain stared at the information with his mouth slightly open.

Before he could process anything else, something struck the stall door.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The flimsy door shook repeatedly as someone slammed against it from outside.

A rough scratching noise followed, like fingernails dragging across painted metal.

Cain’s eyebrow twitched.

Bang!

"Oi!" Cain struck the door with his palm.

"I’m still taking a shit in here! Shut the fuck up before I throw it at you!"

The banging stopped.

Cain released a breath through his nose. "That’s what I thought."

Scratch...

Scratch...

Bang!

The door shook even harder than before.

Cain’s expression darkened, his patience had never been particularly impressive. In fact, Ron once claimed that Cain’s temper was as thin as a tissue paper.

"Are you deaf?"

He hurriedly wiped himself, pulled up his pants, and unlocked the stall.

"I told you to get the fuck—"

Cain pulled the door open.

A young man stood directly in front of him. At least, Cain thought it was a young man.

His skin had turned pale gray, while several dark veins spread from his neck to his face. Blood covered the front of his shirt.

A piece of skin was missing from his cheek, exposing his teeth even though his mouth was closed.

The creature raised its head.

"Grrr..."

Cain stared at it and the creature stared back.

Bang!

Cain immediately slammed the stall door shut.

Unfortunately, the creature had already pushed its arm and shoulder through the opening. Its upper body became trapped between the door and the frame.

"GRAAA!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Cain pressed his foot against the bottom of the door and pushed with all his strength.

The creature clawed toward him, its blood-covered fingers barely missing his chest.

"Get the fuck off!"

Cain kicked its knee through the opening.

The creature did not react.

"Are you on drugs?"

"Grrr!"

"I swear to God, if you don’t stop, I’ll beat the shit out of you!"

The creature continued snapping its teeth.

Cain stared at it with a deep frown.

It looked exactly like the zombies he had seen in movies and games.

However, accepting something like that in reality was much harder than watching it through a screen.

Cain narrowed his eyes.

He suddenly thought of the perfect method to test whether the person in front of him was still sane.

Something that no normal man with even the smallest amount of pride would tolerate.

Cain leaned closer. Then, he spat directly into the creature’s face.

Hawk Tuah.

The saliva struck its forehead and slowly slid down its nose.

The creature did not blink, it merely opened its mouth wider and tried to bite him.

Cain’s expression became solemn.

"You really are fucked in the head."

A scream suddenly echoed from outside the bathroom.

"HELP ME!"

Another scream followed.

Then another.

People shouted in panic throughout the dormitory. Doors slammed shut, glass shattered, and hurried footsteps thundered across the hallway.

"Get away from me!"

"Someone call the police!"

"He bit me! This bastard bit me!"

"Help!"

Cain glanced toward the bathroom entrance before looking back at the creature trapped in his stall.

Cain tightened his grip on the stall wall.

"Fine."

He suddenly pulled the door open while stepping aside.

The creature stumbled into the stall.

Before it could turn around, Cain kicked it from behind.

The creature crashed headfirst into the toilet.

Cain immediately rushed out and slammed the door shut, trapping it inside.

The creature struck the door from within, but Cain had already retreated several steps.

He looked toward the bathroom entrance as the screaming outside continued.

Cain hesitated briefly before slowly approaching the open doorway.

The moment he looked into the hallway, his entire body froze.

The dormitory had descended into chaos.

Several students ran through the corridor while others desperately tried to hold their room doors shut. Blood stained the walls and floor. Backpacks, slippers, books, and broken phones lay scattered everywhere.

Near the stairwell, three pale figures had dragged a male student to the ground.

One tore into his shoulder and another bit his thigh.

The student screamed until his voice cracked.

"Get them off me!"

Two people rushed forward to help him, but one of the creatures turned around and lunged at them. The frightened students immediately fled in opposite directions.

A few meters away, a woman crawled across the floor while clutching her bleeding stomach.

Someone had already ripped open her abdomen.

Behind her, a female student with blood covering her mouth moved on all fours, chasing her like a rabid animal.

Cain instinctively tightened his grip around the doorframe.

"What the hell happened here?"

The earthquake had lasted only a few seconds.

How could everything have become like this so quickly?

His gaze returned to the male student near the stairwell.

The creatures had stopped biting him and turned toward another fleeing survivor.

The bitten student remained motionless for several seconds.

Then, his fingers twitched. His back arched unnaturally.

The student pushed himself off the ground despite the chunk of flesh missing from his neck. His eyes had become cloudy, and the fear on his face was gone.

"Grrr..."

He lunged at the nearest person.

Cain’s pupils contracted. "He turned into one of them?"

It took less than five seconds and the bitten student became one of those creatures almost immediately.

Another scream rang through the hallway.

Cain stepped backward.

"Nope."

He turned around and hurried back into the bathroom.

The creature trapped inside his stall continued throwing itself against the door.

Bang!

Bang!

Cain stared at the shaking stall.

His heart beat heavily against his chest, but his mind had already started working.

Those things were not acting as they could spread whatever had infected them through bites like those zombies in the movie.

However, nearly every zombie film agreed on one rule.

Destroy the brain.

Cain scanned the bathroom and found nothing that could be used as weapons.

Only sinks, toilet brushes, plastic buckets, and cleaning supplies.

His eyes stopped on a long wooden mop leaning in the corner beside the last sink.

Cain walked over and picked it up.

It was not ideal, but it was better than using his bare hands.

He placed the middle of the wooden shaft against the edge of the sink before stomping down with his foot.

Crack!

The mop snapped into two pieces and he picked up the longer half.

The broken end was uneven and sharp enough to function as a crude spear.

He then returned to the stall.

The creature continued banging against the door.

Cain took a deep breath.

Although he had competed internationally as a javelin athlete and trained his body for years, there was an enormous difference between throwing a spear as far as he could and driving one through a human skull.

However, the creature inside was no longer human.

If he could not force himself to kill one trapped zombie, he would never survive the dozens roaming outside.

He tightened both hands around the broken mop.

"Come on."

Cain unlocked the stall and pulled the door open before immediately retreating.

The zombie rushed out. Its movements were clumsy but unexpectedly fast.

Cain planted his rear foot against the tiled floor. His body lowered naturally, and his right arm drew the makeshift spear backward.

The zombie opened its mouth.

Cain thrust forward with all his strength.

The jagged wooden point entered through the creature’s mouth.

Its momentum carried it another step closer, forcing the shaft deeper until the broken tip pierced through the back of its skull.

Its body trembled once and then became completely still.

A cold notification sounded inside his mind.

[Ding! You have killed a Level 1 Zombie.]

[Ding! You have leveled up to level 1, obtaining 3 free stat points.]

"Thank God..."

Cain slowly released the breath he had been holding.

It truly was a zombie.

Had he not witnessed someone transform in front of him, Cain would never have dared to kill him.

Cain placed one foot against the corpse’s chest and pulled the broken mop free.

The wet sound made his stomach twist.

He looked away and swallowed the urge to vomit.

"Get used to it." He murmured to himself as he thought that something like this would definitely happen again.

Cain suddenly remembered the translucent screen, then he focused on the thought of viewing his information.

The blue panel appeared immediately and the numbers beneath his stats had changed.

[Stats]: Strength: 19 / Agility: 15 / Physique: 17 / Sense: 14 / Mana: 170 / Magic: 68

Every stat had increased by one after leveling up.

However, Cain’s attention was drawn toward the two unusually high numbers at the bottom.

His Mana had already been 169 at Level 0, while his Magic had been 67.

Compared to the rest of his attributes, those numbers were absurd.

Cain nodded slowly.

"As expected of me."

He admired the numbers for another second before remembering that people were currently being eaten outside.

"Right. Important things first."

Cain then checked his talents and skill’s information.

[Black Menagerie (Primordial-rank) — A mysterious inner world exists within your body, containing ancient beasts sealed inside it...]

[Piercing Momentum (S-rank) — Greatly increases the speed, force, and penetrating power of anything you throw...]

[Ruin Dragon Force — Allows you to borrow the Primordial Chaos Dragon’s Ruin energy. You can...]