Gu Yao felt like she had become smarter.
Uh... not that she wasn't smart before, but now she felt a sense of clarity, as if the fog that had been clouding her mind had suddenly lifted, leaving her thoughts sharp and clear.
Of course, she wasn't back to her old self before she became a zombie, but still! She felt confident that she could handle this!
Brimming with confidence, the panic she had felt from being unable to recognize words had completely disappeared. After thinking for a moment, she picked up a pen and clumsily drew a medical kit on a sticky note.
It was a square with a cross inside.
She handed it to Wang Qiqi. Wang Qiqi hesitantly took it, stared at it for a while, and then carefully asked, "…Is this a field?"
Gu Yao: ?
She looked down at the sticky note in Wang Qiqi's hand.
She was illiterate, so she couldn’t tell immediately. After pondering for a while, she finally recognized some traces of her past memory in those wobbly lines.
It did look a bit like a field.
But that was supposed to be a medical kit!
Shaking her head, Gu Yao tore off another sticky note and drew a new one, this time changing the square into the shape of a briefcase.
Wang Qiqi was smart. She took the sticky note, looked at it, and asked Gu Yao uncertainly, "Is the sister hurt?"
Gu Yao nodded.
Wang Qiqi bit her thumbnail, her gaze shifting as if she was thinking. After a moment, she said, "My mom is a doctor. Zombie sister, you wait here, I'll go get her."
Gu Yao nodded.
She stepped out of the room, watching Wang Qiqi tiptoe inside, and began to wait idly.
Chu Muge was currently sleeping on the basement floor, and since Gu Yao could watch her in real time through the flesh carpet, she wasn't too worried about anything.
Wait, hold on.
She manipulated the flesh carpet, extending a thick, worm-like tentacle from the top of the second basement level, slowly penetrating the first basement level, and aiming at the monster's riddled corpse.
A thought naturally arose in her mind:
Collect its DNA.
The worm-like tentacle opened its mouth and, like a snake, began to slowly devour the monster's body, wrapping it up in the tentacle.
It would take some time to digest.
After successfully completing the operation, Wang Qiqi returned with her mother.
The woman still bore the scars from earlier in the day on her face, with a cut lip, and she was holding a medical kit in her hand.
She held Wang Qiqi's hand, keeping her close behind her. Upon seeing Gu Yao, she hesitated, stopped a short distance away, and softly asked, "Can you understand me?"
Gu Yao nodded.
The woman took a deep breath, "Where is she?"
Gu Yao extended a finger, slowly pointing downward.
She motioned for them to follow.
-
Flesh writhed.
The woman held Wang Qiqi's hand tightly, her face filled with fear as they cautiously observed the scene on the first basement level.
Gu Yao walked into the opened door, expressionless, and glanced back at them a few times.
The woman was silent for a moment, then gritted her teeth, letting go of Wang Qiqi's hand, and spoke softly to her:
"Mom will go in and check on the sister first, okay? You stay here."
Wang Qiqi glanced at the eerie, writhing flesh on the first basement level, then mustered her courage and said, "It's okay, I'll go too. The zombie sister won't hurt us."
After saying this, Wang Qiqi seemed to gain more confidence and asked Gu Yao, "…Right?"
Gu Yao nodded.
She had already nodded many times. There was no other way, as she couldn’t communicate normally and didn't know sign language, so she could only rely on the simplest body language.
At first, a sense of panic and confusion rose in her heart. The woman tightly held Wang Qiqi's hand, following closely behind Gu Yao, walking cautiously, afraid that something might suddenly jump out at them.
Everything they saw was entirely unknown to them, as if danger lurked around every corner. Yet, the mother and daughter still chose to come down, something Gu Yao rather admired.
The monster’s corpse had already been dragged away by the tentacles. Gu Yao glanced at Chu Muge, who was lying beside the mass of flesh, then silently looked back at the tense mother and daughter behind her.
Wang Qiqi’s mother instinctively glanced at the enormous mass of flesh, swallowed hard, then let go of Wang Qiqi’s hand and walked over to Chu Muge.
Gu Yao followed.
"Hold her head," the woman tried to communicate with Gu Yao.
Gu Yao nodded.
The cat-girl, with her eyes closed, lay motionless. Gu Yao gently knelt down, placing Chu Muge’s head on her lap.
Chu Muge’s cat ears twitched as if sensing Gu Yao’s presence, instinctively nuzzling closer.
“You, you hold her down,” the woman hesitated, opening a medical kit. “I’ll start with some basic treatment.”
Gu Yao turned into a nodding machine.
Alcohol, bandages, cotton…
“Her wounds…” the woman frowned slightly, “some parts have already started to scab over.”
She lifted the bottom of Chu Muge’s shirt, showing Gu Yao the flat abdomen under her loose sweatshirt, where dried blood clung, but the wounds had already begun to heal.
“But it’s still best to have her checked at a hospital.”
If there’s still a hospital, that is.
The woman picked up a bandage and began wrapping it around the wounds. She glanced up at Gu Yao:
“Uh… you know where the hospital is, right?”
Gu Yao was silent for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright, for now, this will have to do.”
The woman looked around at the blood-red carpet of flesh surrounding them and slowly stood up:
“She seems to be recovering quickly. There’s no major issue.”
Recovering quickly? More like inhumanly fast.
And those ears on her head—cat ears? What’s going on?
Gu Yao nodded, then extended a finger, placing it to her lips.
The woman hesitated before quickly saying, “I won’t tell anyone. I won’t speak about what’s on the basement level.”
She paused for a moment, then bowed to Gu Yao:
“Really, thank you for everything before.”
Gu Yao waved her hand dismissively.
Chu Muge did it, not her.
—
When Chu Muge slept, she liked to tuck her hands into her sleeves.
Gu Yao looked at the curled-up Chu Muge, resting her head on her lap, then glanced up at the blood-red ceiling.
Zombies don’t get tired, otherwise, her legs would’ve gone numb by now from being used as a pillow.
Lowering her gaze, she looked at Chu Muge’s gently trembling cat ears, resisting the urge to pinch them. Instead, she turned her attention to the massive chunk of flesh to distract herself.
Chu Muge’s cat ears seemed very sensitive, making her blush with even the slightest touch.
Gu Yao, with nothing to do, extended a hand and then clenched it into a fist, slowly opening it again.
She had become much more agile, capable of performing precise movements—a good thing.
But with every gain, there’s a loss. Her mind had become much clearer, and some things she had subconsciously ignored were now coming into focus.
Why did Chu Muge seem to have some kind of psychological issue?
Why did this place seem a little different from the novel?
Why exactly did she end up in this world?
Gu Yao’s gaze refocused on the chunk of flesh.
What exactly are these things?
In the novel, the story was told entirely from the male protagonist’s perspective. He wasn’t the zombie queen, so he didn’t know anything about primary nests or hatcheries; he only knew that flesh tumors would produce monsters and that infected areas would contaminate the environment. This ignorance extended to the readers as well.
Moreover…
Through the grayish-white memories from the fleshy carpet, Gu Yao realized that the contaminated areas weren’t naturally formed—or at least, this one wasn’t.
That small figure in the memories was blurry, but what Gu Yao remembered most clearly was the rat on their shoulder.
Who could this person be?
The novel depicted a zombie crisis, telling the story of how the male protagonist eventually saved the world.
And the male protagonist never encountered such a person.
Wait.
She didn’t finish the novel.
So did the protagonist meet this person later on?
Gu Yao racked her brain, finally recalling the last scene she had read:
[Lu Boyuan dispersed the excess elements in his hand, watching as the mutant completely vanished from the spot, letting out a long sigh of relief.]
[He looked at Chu Muge, who was also looking serious. Sensing his gaze, she turned to meet his eyes and said calmly, “So, this mutant wasn’t naturally formed.”]
[“Yes.” Lu Boyuan nodded, recalling the blood-smeared smiley face he had found on the wall earlier.]
[The other person had actually left a message. Next to the smiley face, there was a line of text:]
[I know you; it was you last time, too.]
[The smiley face was crudely drawn, but the blood made it look strangely menacing:]
[Your name is Lu Boyuan, right?]
[Nice to meet you. I’ll be waiting for you in District Nine.]
…
Gu Yao regretted not finishing the novel.
This dialogue clearly introduces a new arc!
How frustrating.
Why did she choose to go for a walk after eating instead of continuing to read?
But there was no time to dwell on that now.
Gu Yao placed her hands on Chu Muge’s cheeks, her gaze somewhat confused.
She hadn’t noticed it before, but now she realized something was wrong.
Normally, seeing all these chunks of flesh, tentacles, and corpses, no matter how calm she was, she should have felt some surprise.
Even if she liked gore.
But now, it all seemed so ordinary to her, like a human seeing a car completely expected.
Gu Yao fell silent.
It seemed like she was...
Losing something inherently human.
**Interlude: Operation Falcon**
On a war-torn highway, the continuous sound of machine-gun fire echoed.
Several infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers drove down the road with overwhelming force, mercilessly mowing down the zombies that lunged at them one after another.
“If you ask me, hey! We should just bomb the hell out of this place!”
A man sat inside one of the transport vehicles, pointing at a map. “It’s all these things; killing them one by one is a hassle. Why not just blow them up? Could they survive a missile?”
“Hey! You can’t just say that.” His comrade nudged his arm. “There are still so many people across the country waiting for rescue. The higher-ups are swamped; are we just not going to save anyone?”
It was still early in the apocalypse; countless survivors were still hiding, clinging to life. Moreover, the government was made up of people too, many of whom had family members still out there. Using large-scale weapons of mass destruction was out of the question.
“You know how it is.” The comrade patted the gun in his arms. “The higher-ups are divided. Some even say the infected might still be treatable, that it hasn’t reached the point of no return.”
The man scoffed.
Gunfire erupted outside as a zombie’s head was blown apart, its lifeless body collapsing to the ground.
“You think these things can be cured?”
He looked around at his comrades sitting in the transport:
“If you ask me, the only cure for them is a bullet. You see any of them recovering from that?”
Outside, an infantry fighting vehicle adjusted its angle, its cannon barrel aimed at the horde.
Fire,
Boom!
Limbs and torsos were blown apart.
The man reloaded his rifle’s magazine. “If you ask me, it’s just rabies evolved just a bunch of crazed thugs. I could kill them all by myself.”
Laughter echoed around him.
His comrade grinned. “Tiezi, if you’re going to boast today, are you planning on boasting about Sanya tomorrow?”
Tiezi glared at him. “You’re full of crap.”
Soft chuckles filled the vehicle.
The comrade fumbled around, pulling out a photo and handing it to him. “If you’re really that good, make this mission count.”
Tiezi took the photo and looked at it.
Tall buildings were covered in a pink fleshy carpet, transforming them into grotesque structures of blood and flesh. Some protruding lumps on the buildings looked particularly eerie.
Tiezi handed the photo back with a look of disgust. “This virus is revolting.”
His comrade shrugged. “It’s a new discovery. The higher-ups said something’s off about it, so we’re supposed to check it out. But hey, we’ve got cannons, right?”
A shell shot out of the infantry fighting vehicle’s barrel, landing straight in the increasingly sparse horde.
Boom!
“Didn’t you want to blow something up? You’ll get your chance soon.”
“Well—”
Tiezi opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly the vehicle braked hard, causing him to lurch forward and instinctively grip his gun.
"What’s going on?"
"Hold on, hold on," the radio operator said with a serious expression. "The lead vehicle has stopped."
Why did it stop?
Had they reached the destination?
Tiezi looked over, seeing the operator's face grow more serious, and frowned.
The radio operator opened his mouth. "They said there’s—"
Thud.
The sound cut off abruptly.
The flesh carpet beneath their feet was soft, almost like a living thing, and they could distinctly feel its movement.
Tiezi glanced around at his comrades who had also picked up their guns and disengaged the safeties.
Something was coming.
The next second, a tentacle with a spear-like tip quivered slightly, then swiftly pierced through the ground, effortlessly puncturing the metal underbelly of the armored vehicle. It wobbled inside the transport, causing everyone to stare in horror.
What the hell is that?
They all knew that even the thinnest part of the armored vehicle’s metal was at least 7 millimeters thick—how could something break through it so easily?
In a split second, the tentacle aimed at a soldier’s head and skewered his skull.
Tiezi reacted the fastest, aiming at the end of the tentacle and immediately firing.
Flames erupted from the barrel,
The tentacle severed, spraying purple blood as it fell limply to the floor inside the vehicle.
Tiezi glanced at the corpse with its head impaled, a growing sense of dread washing over him. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, “Watch out! Below! Below!”
Just as the words left his mouth, a tentacle several times thicker than the first emerged from below, impaling the entire armored vehicle. The vehicle lifted off the ground momentarily, and Tiezi steadied himself, turning to look at his comrade. He was just about to speak when another tentacle burst through the floor, spearing his comrade like a kebab.
Blood splattered.
Tiezi's pupils shrank as he quickly shot the end of the tentacle. At the same time, more and more tentacles started emerging from below, impaling one person after another.
“Get out! Get out!”
The vehicle door was thrown open, but several soldiers who didn’t escape in time had their heads pierced, then were dragged back inside.
Tiezi rolled out of the transport, but a tentacle followed closely behind, stabbing through his abdomen.
Pain shot through his body.
Gritting his teeth, he fired at the tentacle, severing it, and collapsed to the ground. Looking around, he realized that all the other vehicles were facing the same situation.
Flames blazed around him.
There was something underneath specifically designed to ambush armored vehicles.
Without firepower support, the remaining zombies that could still move began closing in on the vehicles, snarling and inching closer to Tiezi.
“Cough… cough, cough…”
He spat out bits of flesh, his vision starting to blur.
Am I going to be eaten...?
But strangely, the zombies stopped their frenzied advance and halted near him, standing still.
Tiezi lay on the ground, his gaze vacant. In his daze, he thought he saw a pair of small, black leather shoes.
Someone...?
Struggling to lift his head, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. All he could see were a pair of mismatched eyes—one gray, one red.
“Wow, you're about to die.”
It was a little girl’s voice.
A little girl?!
Tiezi's eyes, which had been about to close, suddenly snapped open. He tried to lift his head again, but a small, pale hand pressed down on his head, forcing his face into the dirt:
“Don't look, don't look, I still haven't found the other... um... contact lens? That's what you humans call it, right?”
A giggle followed.
Tiezi's abdomen was still bleeding; he had no strength left to speak.
The hand on his head kept twisting back and forth, rubbing his face into the dirt.
The laughter abruptly stopped.
“Hey.”
The little girl’s voice was calm:
“You have guns, planes, and cannons that I’ve never seen before. I’m scared of those things.”
“I can’t beat them…”
Her voice turned sorrowful:
“Next time, could you give me a heads-up before you come? Right now, that’s the only home I have…”
Tiezi’s vision was starting to fade when heavy footsteps approached. A mutant creature reached out, grabbed him by the waist, and lifted him up.
“But it’s okay, soon, very soon, very soon~ I won’t be scared anymore.”
The creature opened its massive jaws and aimed at his head.
Tiezi’s dimming gaze slowly shifted, locking eyes with the mismatched eyes of the little girl who was smiling with narrowed eyes.
A bite,
And the world went dark.