"Why is Evelyn Johnson still here? Isn't she some disgraced celebrity? Why hasn't she quit the industry yet?"
"So petty and shady. Everyone who crosses her path ends up unlucky!"
"Can't do anything right except climbing into bed with men. How does someone like her even survive in showbiz?"
"As if it isn't obvious? She's slept her way up, duh."
"This two-faced snake, stay away from my idol, you hear me!"
"Shameless trash, trying to seduce my idol? Go rot!"
Suddenly, someone hurled a glass bottle filled with clear liquid straight at her face.
Panic hit her instantly; Evelyn dodged just in time as the bottle barely grazed her hair. It smashed against the wall behind her, shattering into pieces.
The acrid smell filled the air—it was sulfuric acid.
But the crowd? Not a shred of concern. They just stood there, disgusted faces frozen in judgment, muttering cruel insults under their breath.
...
Evelyn stood in front of the floor-length mirror in her apartment, staring intensely at the reflection of the woman who looked exactly like her.
Her mind was a chaotic mess, unable to focus.
Strange, unfamiliar memories kept flooding in, wave after wave, overwhelming her entirely. The woman in her memory was also named Evelyn Johnson, a barely-known actress in the entertainment industry.
She held a low-tier position, yet somehow managed to stir up big headlines.
Online, her reputation was shredded to pieces with endless rumors and scandals.
"Shameless," "crashing red carpets," "stealing camera spots," "using shady deals," "bullying teammates," "trying to frame top actresses," "seducing high-profile actors…"
Eventually, during one event, she accidentally fell on a wildly popular male celebrity. His obsessive fans retaliated by attacking her with acid.
Though she narrowly escaped serious harm, the sheer terror caused her to die of a heart attack.
At the same time, Evelyn Johnson—another Evelyn—was fighting off hordes of zombies in the apocalypse, desperately unleashing her high-level wood powers for one final blow to annihilate both herself and the undead.
When she woke up again, she found herself in the body of the superficial and fame-obsessed Evelyn Johnson from the showbiz world.
But as a celebrity… what was she supposed to do?
Singing, photo shoots, acting?
Oh no, she was doomed.
The only skills she had revolved around summoning plants to take down zombies.
Her eyes landed on a pitiful little plant sitting on the coffee table, half-withered and struggling. Instinctively, she tried stirring the powers inside her, hoping to heal the greenery.
But, to her shock, the plant remained unchanged.
And the energy within her? Completely gone—nothing left.Evelyn Johnson felt like her world had just crumbled in that moment.
She had grown up in the apocalypse, and it was all she had ever known—where survival meant being strong, where power was everything. This peaceful world she was now in, it didn’t bring her any sense of security. If anything, it left her uneasy, especially with the loss of her wood-based powers.
Instinctively, her hand moved to the safety pendant resting against her chest. She gripped it tightly, desperate, trying once again to activate her abilities.
Suddenly, a surge of energy—familiar, almost comforting—poured through her body. Her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly tested her power again.
This time, the lifeless plant in the corner of the room responded. Its leaves, drooping and sad-looking moments before, perked up, standing tall in a way you could actually see.
After a few more tries, Evelyn began to see a pattern. Back in her old world, the apocalypse had corrupted everything—the land, the air, even the sky. Only the energy within the zombie crystals held any sort of power that she, as a wood-based ability user, could absorb and channel to grow plants and strengthen herself.
But this world was different. There was no virus eating away at nature here, yet also no natural energy for her to draw from. For the longest time, she thought her powers were gone for good.Evelyn had just accidentally tried something and realized that the pendant on her chest, the simple jade peace charm, actually allowed her to use her abilities.
But how could this ordinary jade, nothing like the crystal nuclei from zombie heads, contain any sort of energy? And wasn’t she soul-trapped in this body?
Why did this original body also have a peace charm identical to hers?
Lost in a whirlwind of these unanswered questions, her thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell blaring continuously.
When she opened the door, a mob of people surged in like they owned the place.
At the forefront was a man and a woman, followed by two elderly individuals with graying hair.
Their aggressive attitudes and enraged expressions hit her like a storm.
Evelyn instinctively stepped back, her face tense with precaution as she stared at them, “Who are you, and what do you want?”
“You shameless witch! How dare you call the police on my daughter!” the woman screeched. “She’s not even eighteen yet—she’s still a child! And you’re willing to hurt a child?”
Evelyn’s gaze chilled as she scanned their furious faces. Fragments of memories surfaced in her mind—red carpets, insults, and the acrid stench of liquid searing her skin.
“Oh, so your daughter’s the one who threw acid at me?” Evelyn’s voice cut through the air, frosty and unyielding. "My daughter didn't do it on purpose, and you weren’t hurt anyway. What's with the victim act?" The man stepped forward, shouting. "Come on, let's go to the police station right now and sort this out. Get my daughter released."
As he spoke, he reached out to grab Evelyn Johnson's arm.
Evelyn Johnson quickly stepped back, avoiding him with ease, and sneered. "Why would I go to the police station to release her? The fact that I’m unharmed is just pure luck. Throwing acid at me—it's attempted murder. Shouldn't she face proper punishment for that?"
Upon hearing this, the woman started yelling hysterically.
"Punishment? She's just a minor! She doesn’t know any better! She acted out impulsively because she was overwhelmed! And besides, the acid didn’t even touch you. You’re completely fine—how on earth is that attempted murder? You're a big celebrity, why make a fuss over a kid?"
Evelyn let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Completely fine? Really?" If she'd been "fine," the original Evelyn wouldn't have lost her life and disappeared from this world.
"Being underage doesn’t mean you can go around hitting or killing people. Being underage doesn’t exempt you from obeying the law. Whether I'm unharmed or not isn’t up to you to decide. I trust the law will give me justice."
After all, she owed it to the original Evelyn. She’d been scared to death—and for what? It’s not like the apocalypse, where consequences are more brutal, but justice still needs to be served, fair and square.The man, clearly furious, raised his fist, ready to teach Evelyn Johnson a lesson, but was stopped by an old man with a face full of menace.
The old man turned to Evelyn Johnson, pulling a pitiful expression, though the cold glint in his eyes was impossible to hide.
"Miss, our Kate is actually a good child; she just made a mistake in a moment of rashness. We're here to apologize to you on her behalf. If you have any requests, just let us know. As long as we can fulfill them, we'll agree to anything. We beg you to be generous and forgive her this once. I heard you're a famous celebrity; if this gets out and it looks like you're targeting a kid, wouldn't that hurt your reputation too?"
"Please, please, spare my child! She's still young—it was youthful ignorance. She has to go back to school, take exams, think about her future. One slip-up shouldn't derail her life! Frankly, isn’t some of the blame on you celebrities too? You can't say it's entirely her fault," a tearful old woman burst forward from behind, wailing and pleading loudly.
