He put on a dazed expression and asked, “What ability? Was the way you were acting just now because of an ability? I didn’t feel anything.”
Yun Zhuan was somewhat surprised by this answer, but they couldn’t discuss much at the moment; they simply knew too little.
“By the way, how are your parents? And what did you mean when you said there were screams outside?”
A series of events had crashed down upon them, and Yun Zhuan’s attention had been heavily scattered. Only now did he have the chance to ask these questions.
“I just came out of my parents’ room; they were both quite normal. But as soon as I stepped out, I heard noises from outside. I was worried, so I wanted to come check on you, but you wouldn’t wake up. Then, after you woke up, you became like this.”
Lin Po omitted certain details, but the general gist was accurate. Yun Zhuan frowned; it seemed this “mutation” didn’t just involve evolving abilities—something else might be happening.
He got out of bed, pulled Lin Po along, and said, “Let’s go take a look outside.”
Lin Po pointed toward the roof. “To the rooftop.”
Yun Zhuan followed Lin Po up to the roof. Without the soundproofing of the walls, the screams from outside grew even more piercing. There was also the sound of people running in panic. The Lin family’s estate was some distance away from the neighbors, and everything was currently blurred and unclear, making it hard to see exactly what was happening.
“Something seems to have happened. Lin Po, go quickly and check if the front gate is locked properly. I see people running.”
Lin Po replied, “I locked the gate tonight; it’s closed tight. Yun Zhuan, what do you think is going on?”
Yun Zhuan contemplated for a moment and said, “I suspect that besides bringing about evolution, this mutation has certainly caused something bad to happen. It feels like they are being attacked by something.”
As Yun Zhuan was speaking, a rapid, urgent pounding suddenly echoed from the front gate downstairs.
Lin Po was startled. Yun Zhuan quickly reached out to steady him, and they saw someone banging on the gate outside. Because there were no lights, they couldn’t clearly see who it was.
Yun Zhuan glanced at Lin Po and said, “Stay up here; I’ll go down and take a look.”
Lin Po shook his head. “No, I’m going down with you.”
Lin Po had his reasons for saying this. Although he hadn’t awakened an ability yet, he had, after all, struggled through several years of the apocalypse. There was no hardship he hadn’t faced. While Yun Zhuan had an ability now, he hadn’t used it at all and needed time to adjust. If something happened to him downstairs, Lin Po would regret it unto death.
Seeing his determination, Yun Zhuan had no choice but to agree. The cries for help outside were beginning to turn into despair. Afraid of wasting time, the two grabbed their keys and bolted downstairs. When Lin Po opened the door, a frantic-looking woman stumbled in and collapsed onto the ground, unable to get up for a long time.
Lin Po took the opportunity to glance outside. Fortunately, besides this woman, there were no other people or zombies.
He quickly relocked the gate and turned his focus to the woman.
Having returned from the end of the world, he had originally lost much of his sympathy. However, he had promised the Heavens that if his parents and Yun Zhuan were safe, he would be willing to help others to the best of his ability, treating it as accumulating merit for himself and his loved ones.
Yun Zhuan walked over to help the woman up. She had no strength left and leaned against the large water vat in the courtyard to rest. For some reason, the pajamas she was wearing were in tatters, and there were bloodstains—he couldn’t tell if they were hers or someone else’s. Lin Po looked at her face; he didn’t really recognize her. He didn’t return to his hometown often, so many faces were unfamiliar, and since she looked young, she might have been someone who married into the village later.
Lin Po reached out and shook her slightly, asking, “Are you alright? What happened?”
The woman’s gaze was vacant, as if she had suffered a massive shock; she couldn’t say a word. Yun Zhuan gave her a cursory examination for injuries, but suddenly he froze. He grabbed Lin Po’s hand and yanked him forcefully to the side.
“Get away from her!”
In that split second, the previously catatonic woman began to change. Her flesh turned a bruised green, her canine teeth grew and protruded past her lips, and saliva began to drip out, creating a sense of dread.
Her eyes were clouded, appearing as if she couldn’t see anything, but her nose and ears were twitching. Her attention gradually shifted toward Yun Zhuan and Lin Po.
Lin Po saw that things were bad; the woman must have been bitten. The blood on her was her own, but the wound had been hidden, so they hadn’t noticed it at first. Now that the toxin had entered her bloodstream, she had begun to turn. Once she fully transformed into a zombie, her next targets would be him and Yun Zhuan.
Lin Po pulled Yun Zhuan back. Even though Yun Zhuan had evolved an ability, he was still just an ordinary college student; Lin Po wasn’t sure if Yun Zhuan could bring himself to actually strike. Thinking carefully, Lin Po grabbed a shovel from the corner. “An inch longer is an inch stronger”—at least they wouldn’t be at a total disadvantage.
Lin Po pointed to the corner. Yun Zhuan glanced over and understood Lin Po’s meaning. They slowly backed away, not daring to make a sound.
The atmosphere in the courtyard was incredibly eerie, starkly different from the noise outside, like the calm before a storm.
Yun Zhuan’s hand touched the handle of the shovel. He gently pulled it out and held it horizontally in front of him. Lin Po did the same. He pointed at the woman, signaling: Should we strike first?
Yun Zhuan hesitated. Although the woman looked abnormal and dangerous, he had evolved an ability—perhaps this was just another form of evolution.
Lin Po knew exactly how things would develop, while Yun Zhuan knew nothing. Asking him to strike now made him waver.
Lin Po was anxious, but he couldn’t expose his secret. He could only huddle in the corner with Yun Zhuan. Regardless, a low-level zombie that had just turned wasn’t much of a threat to him; he just needed to keep an eye on Yun Zhuan.
Yun Zhuan’s full attention was on the woman. They weren’t very close; the courtyard was large. The vat was in the corner by the entrance, while they were at the diagonal end of the yard. They had enough time to react.
During the standoff, the woman suddenly stood up. Her limbs were twisted, as if her bones had been broken and then haphazardly reassembled. She stumbled around, seemingly searching for something.
As she moved, Lin Po finally saw the wound. It was on her neck, hidden by her long hair; it had been covered at first but was now exposed by her movements.
The wound was horrific—four dark, hollow tooth punctures with flesh torn away. It was truly a feat that she had managed to hold on long enough to run here.
Lin Po pointed there. Yun Zhuan nodded, indicating he saw it. He had noticed a wound during his check but hadn’t seen the teeth marks; now he had a guess. This wasn’t evolution; it looked more like an infection. And the woman’s searching movements were clearly intended to spread this unknown virus, like spores taking root to create new puppets.
Lin Po gripped the shovel handle tightly. This shovel was new, and the head was sharp enough to cut through packed earth, let alone soft flesh.
His eyes were locked on the woman. Just then, she seemed to discover something. She abruptly changed direction and lunged forward. Her limbs were stiff, but her movements weren’t slow at all. Lin Po shouted, “Yun Zhuan, watch out!” Then, he swung the shovel to meet her, knocking her to the ground. Likely due to the infection, she seemed to have lost the sensation of pain, and her recovery speed was extraordinary; she scrambled back up after just a brief struggle.
Yun Zhuan was now completely certain—she was no longer human. She had lost even her most basic sanity. He no longer hesitated and charged forward with Lin Po to attack her.
Although both were just college students, they were young men with significant strength. After a few blows, they pinned the zombie to the ground so she couldn’t get up, but the zombie continued to struggle, liable to lash out again at any moment.
“What do we do? She doesn’t seem to die,” Lin Po asked. He had to guide Yun Zhuan to discover things step by step so that their shared growth wouldn’t seem suspicious.
Yun Zhuan began to recall the few post-apocalyptic movies and novels he had seen, tentatively offering an answer: “Do we have to attack the head?”
Given that the brain is a vital organ for any biological entity, his guess had a very scientific basis.
Lin Po couldn’t help but give him a mental thumbs-up. As expected of Yun Zhuan, who could read even obscure documents with gusto—his mind worked fast.
Once he made up his mind, Yun Zhuan’s movements were no longer hesitant. He shielded Lin Po behind him and said, “Let me do it.”
He tried to mobilize his ability, bending the metal head of the shovel into a hook shape. He looped it around the zombie’s neck and pulled hard. The crushing of bone made a skin-crawling sound. When Lin Po looked again, the zombie had collapsed to the ground, completely dead.
Lin Po felt like applauding Yun Zhuan. He hadn’t expected him to grow so quickly, cleanly harvesting the zombie’s life.
However, Yun Zhuan turned his head and asked somewhat cautiously, “Are you afraid of me?”
Lin Po stunned for a moment, not quite understanding why he would ask that.
Yun Zhuan said, “For a moment just now, I felt a bit scary. In such a short time, I overturned my view of a ‘human.’ Do you think I’m cold-blooded?”
Lin Po shook his head and said, “How could I? You’re amazing. Sometimes indecision can cost you your life. If she didn’t die, then the ones falling might have been us.”
Lin Po’s eyes were filled with nothing but trust and admiration. Yun Zhuan’s heart couldn’t help but soften. He suddenly pulled Lin Po into a hug and whispered a promise into his ear: “If you don’t have an ability in the future, I will always protect you.”
Being held in his arms, Lin Po blinked, and a single tear slid from the corner of his eye.
The heart that had been empty for so long in his previous life was now being filled.