Two men appeared outside the villa, covered in blood and looking utterly disheveled. They must have escaped from the town at the foot of the mountain. Instead of approaching the main gate directly, they circled the villa before finally returning to the entrance. They glanced up at the surveillance camera above the gate, then turned their attention to the video intercom.
Yun Huacen searched the original host’s memories and confirmed that these two men had indeed appeared before. They were residents of the town below the mountain. When the zombie virus suddenly broke out, their family members were either infected by zombies or torn apart and devoured. Only these two managed to escape. They had wandered in the mountains for two days, surviving on wild berries when hungry and drinking from streams when thirsty, until they stumbled upon this villa by chance.
That was their own account, but the truth was different. It was true that they were townspeople, and it was also true that their families were gone. However, the reason they managed to escape alive was because they had thrown their children to the zombies, buying themselves time to flee.
The original host was determined to conduct experiments on living humans, and the more subjects, the better. With people delivering themselves to his doorstep, he couldn’t possibly turn them away. However, the original host was well aware that these were not innocent children but two young men armed with weapons. He wasn’t foolish enough to let them in without precautions. He ordered them to throw their weapons far away before pressing the button to open the gate.
As soon as the two men entered the villa, they made up their minds to take it for themselves. But the original host only allowed them into the courtyard and refused to show himself. Without seeing anyone, their schemes were useless. Just as they were racking their brains trying to figure out how to lure the original host out, glass panels suddenly extended from the courtyard walls. Under their stunned gazes, the panels connected to the villa’s roof, transforming the open courtyard into a fully enclosed space.
Realizing something was wrong, the two men tried to escape, but the gate was specially designed. Even if they had explosives, they couldn’t blast it open, let alone with nothing in their hands. They were starved for three days until they could no longer endure it and turned on each other, ending up severely wounded. The original host, unwilling to waste any more time, went outside with an electric baton, only to discover that the two men had been faking their injuries and nearly succeeded in overpowering him.
“Is anyone there?”
The voice from the video intercom snapped Yun Huacen out of his thoughts. He looked down at the screen, where one man was waving at the camera while the other recorded with a phone.
Yun Huacen hesitated for a moment before pressing the call button. “I don’t know you. Leave immediately, or I’ll call the police.”
The two men were taken aback, then exchanged glances. The younger one spoke up, “Don’t misunderstand. We were hiking in the mountains and ran into a wild boar. That’s why we’re in this state.”
Yun Huacen’s earlier statement was meant to mislead them, making them think he lived deep in the mountains and was unaware of what was happening outside. If they were good people, they would have warned him, but they didn’t.
“Why would you need an axe and an iron rod for hiking?”
“We found these in the mountains,” the man said, throwing the axe aside and signaling his companion to do the same with the iron rod. “Luckily, we picked them up, or we would’ve been killed by the wild boar.”
“I don’t entertain strangers here. Please leave.”
“We’re lost, and our phones are dead. We just wanted to borrow a phone.”
“I can call the police for you.”
“No need.” As soon as the words left the man’s mouth, he realized his mistake and quickly added, “What I mean is, even if you call the police for us, our phones are dead. If we leave here, we won’t be able to contact them. Do you have a power bank? Could you lend it to us? Or maybe take our phones inside to charge for a bit?”
“I’ll call the police for you. Wait here by the gate.”
“Um…” Thinking he was about to leave, the man hurriedly stopped him. “I can wait, but my friend is injured and still bleeding. It’ll take time for the police to get up the mountain. Could you bring some alcohol and bandages?”
“Where is he hurt? Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
The man pulled his companion over and rolled up his pant leg. “See for yourself, it’s still oozing blood.”
His companion was indeed injured, having stumbled while climbing and scraped himself on a rock.
Yun Huacen had already given them a chance to leave, but they stubbornly refused to let go.
“Are you still there?” The man thought Yun Huacen had left and quickly called out.
Yun Huacen pressed the door open button. “Come in.”
The gate in front of them slowly swung open. The two exchanged a glance and stepped inside one after the other. As they took in the villa’s landscaping, the gate closed again, and mechanisms in the walls activated, extending glass panels until they connected with the roof.
Snapping out of their shock, the two looked toward the door leading into the living room and started walking toward it.
“Stop!”
They halted and looked up to the second floor, where Yun Huacen stood by the window, watching them. “I’ll prepare medicine and food for you, but you must not approach the door.”
“Fine, we won’t come closer.” To placate Yun Huacen, the man cooperated readily.
The villa’s glass was specially made, transparent from the inside but opaque from the outside, so they only saw the window close, with no idea what Yun Huacen was doing.
The two stood waiting for ten minutes, but there was still no movement from inside. Growing impatient, the companion whispered, “He’s taking so long. Do you think he’s figured something out?”
“He needs to gather medicine and prepare food. It’s normal for it to take a while. Be patient.”
The companion frowned but said nothing more, walking over to a nearby flowerbed instead.
The young man looked over, his eyes lighting up. He hurried over and examined the flowers closely before turning to his companion excitedly. “Do you know what these are?”
“Aren’t they just the roses we grow at home?”
“These are roses!” Realizing he’d spoken too loudly, the man glanced guiltily toward the door and lowered his voice. “And rare ones at that. A single bloom could sell for a thousand yuan!”
“A thousand yuan for one flower?” The companion stared in disbelief at the flowerbed, which held hundreds, if not thousands, of blooms. “This flowerbed alone is worth a million?”
Greed flickered in the young man’s eyes. “We’ve hit the jackpot!”
Just then, the door clicked open. Yun Huacen placed the items by the entrance and closed the door again, the whole process taking only a few seconds.
The young man glanced at his companion, then went to retrieve the items. Besides alcohol and bandages, there were two packs of instant noodles and two bottles of water. He fished a hundred-yuan note from his pocket, trying to slip it through the door crack, but it wouldn’t fit no matter how he tried. Helplessly, he said, “Thank you. Good people live long and happy lives!”
Yun Huacen did not respond. He was worrying about how to deal with these two men. Although they were not good people, he was not the original owner of this body and could not bring himself to use them for experiments, let alone kill them. Keeping them would waste food, but driving them away risked exposing the villa’s situation, it was truly a dilemma.
His companion reached for the instant noodles and water, unscrewed the bottle cap, and gulped down several mouthfuls before eagerly tearing open the noodle packet. He took big bites as he ate, muttering between mouthfuls, “Damn, I never realized instant noodles could taste this good before.”
Seeing him eat so heartily, the young man also opened his own packet. “When you’re starving, anything tastes delicious.”
“That guy earlier looked like a pretty boy. Could he be some rich woman’s lover?” The companion glanced at the door as he spoke.
“You mean like a kept man?” The young man unscrewed his bottle cap and took a sip of water. “Unlikely. He’s good-looking, but he looks sickly. What rich woman would want someone like that? Wouldn’t she be afraid he’d die on her?”
The companion laughed lewdly. “You sure know a lot, huh.”
Listening to their conversation, Yun Huacen frowned in displeasure. Indeed, a dirty heart sees everything as dirty.
After waiting about five minutes, the two men in the yard collapsed. The amount of anesthetic in the bottle was more than enough, just a couple of sips would put an ordinary person to sleep for three hours. To ensure they wouldn’t resist the effects, he had even added a little extra.
Yun Huacen picked up the electric baton from the table and was about to go out to check on them when he suddenly caught sight of a familiar shadow. His hand froze on the handle, not daring to move. It was the cat he had seen when he first arrived in this world.
The cat crept closer to the unconscious men in the yard. After a few cautious tests and receiving no response, it pounced, biting down on the young man’s neck. With a forceful tug, it tore off a chunk of flesh, and blood gushed out, quickly staining the ground red. After finishing the meat in its mouth, the cat began tearing at the man’s face, then ripped off his scalp, even biting through his skull to suck out the brain matter inside. Thanks to the anesthetic, the young man felt no pain and died completely unaware.
Yun Huacen took a few steps back, forcing himself to look away. In his eighteen years of life in his previous world, he had never witnessed such a gruesome scene. Even though he had mentally prepared himself, he still found it hard to accept. His stomach churned, and he couldn’t help but retch. If he had gone out earlier, he might have ended up like the men outside, devoured as food.
Yun Huacen didn’t want to look, yet he couldn’t help himself. The cat only ate the young man’s head before stopping. It then spat out black liquid, corroding the rest of the body until nothing remained but a puddle of black water where the young man had been.
The cat seemed to sense Yun Huacen watching it and lifted its head to look at him. Its pitch-black eyes resembled an abyss capable of swallowing everything, appearing utterly terrifying. Yun Huacen felt as if he had been paralyzed, unable to break eye contact until the cat finally looked away. His legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the floor, leaning against the wall as he gasped for breath. During that brief exchange, he had noticed with shock that the cat’s mangled head had completely healed, and all its wounds had vanished. Moreover, its expression was nothing like that of a cat, it resembled a human. It was highly likely that it had evolved to the third stage.
Species infected with the zombie virus are divided into two types: ordinary species and mutated species. For ordinary species, infection leads to two outcomes: either they turn into zombies or become food for zombies. Mutated species, on the other hand, generally go through three stages. The first stage is the unconscious stage, where they rely solely on instinct to hunt for food. The second stage is the mutation stage, where they develop special abilities. The third stage is the conscious stage, where they can think just like normal humans.
“The zombie virus has only been spreading for three days. How could it evolve so quickly?”