Just as Ling Qingyun smashed the mutated zombie to death, Zhuang Cheng suddenly tugged on his clothes from behind. Startled, he nearly swung his spiked mace at him!
Fortunately, his senses had sharpened significantly, and he quickly realized it was Zhuang Cheng. Only then did he hold back the swing. But…
Ling Qingyun looked at Zhuang Cheng standing in front of him, cradling three crystal cores with a greedy expression on his face, and was instantly both amused and helpless.
Fine. Judging by Zhuang Cheng’s expression and movements, he clearly had no intention of handing them over. Ling Qingyun saw how his head was instinctively leaning toward the crystal cores, clearly wanting to eat them immediately. He quickly snatched them away and began rinsing them with water.
Seeing Zhuang Cheng’s hands stained with brain matter, Ling Qingyun sighed, then took out a bar of soap from his space and washed Zhuang Cheng’s hands clean for him.
Zhuang Cheng’s eyes never left the three crystal cores. Once Ling Qingyun had cleaned his hands while keeping a cautious eye on him, Zhuang Cheng snatched the three cores and stuffed them all into his mouth in one go. Ling Qingyun was still worried he might choke, but Zhuang Cheng was already staring excitedly in one direction, eyes glowing!
Damn it! Another mutated zombie!
Fortunately, the low-level zombies drawn earlier by the crystal cores had already been scared off by Zhuang Cheng, so Ling Qingyun moved in to face the mutated zombie head-on.
Another crystal core! As soon as the zombie hit the ground, Zhuang Cheng dashed forward at lightning speed. Ling Qingyun had no choice but to wash his hands and the crystal core for him again.
Xiao Gong in the space had said crystal cores could upgrade the space. But for Ling Qingyun, the space was already large enough. On the other hand, Zhuang Cheng…
It’s said that zombies are entirely driven by hunger, forever trapped in a state of starvation. Since Ling Qingyun had already forbidden Zhuang Cheng from eating people, letting him consume more crystal cores to evolve might be a good thing.
And maybe, if Zhuang Cheng had a steady supply of crystal cores to eat, he would gradually stop eating humans altogether?
However, the number of mutated zombies seemed to have increased significantly… Ling Qingyun found it odd but didn’t dwell on it. After all, more mutated zombies meant more food for Zhuang Cheng.
After Zhuang Cheng finished eating the crystal cores, he stood behind Ling Qingyun, watching him kill zombies. Ling Qingyun enjoyed this kind of life too—the periodic notification in his ears saying, “Gained 1 merit point,” was exactly the motivation he needed to keep fighting!
By the afternoon, after nearly clearing out the zombies in the plaza, Ling Qingyun thought for a moment and decided to explore the nearby area and kill some more zombies along the way.
However, with Zhuang Cheng following him… Ling Qingyun considered for a moment, then took off the motorcycle helmet on his own head and placed it on Zhuang Cheng’s.
“Huff, huff—” Zhuang Cheng shook his head furiously in protest, then began pawing at the helmet with his hands, trying to get it off.
“Chengcheng, can you keep it on, please? It’ll make you a bit safer,” Ling Qingyun said as he grabbed onto Zhuang Cheng’s clothes.
Zhuang Cheng continued to shake his head impatiently, but after a while, he quieted down.
“Good boy!” Ling Qingyun said, planting a kiss on the helmet. Why did he feel like he was raising a child?
Unexpectedly, just after the kiss, Zhuang Cheng—still wearing the helmet—suddenly bumped his head hard against Ling Qingyun’s face. There was a loud bang, and Ling Qingyun felt like his teeth were about to get knocked out. Alarmed, he shoved Zhuang Cheng away and, through the helmet’s visor, saw Zhuang Cheng open his mouth wide—he was clearly about to take a bite!
Drenched in cold sweat, Ling Qingyun felt relieved that Zhuang Cheng hadn’t grabbed him with too much strength. It was winter, and he was wearing thick clothes—otherwise, he might’ve been infected and turned into a zombie too!
“Uuhhh…” Zhuang Cheng let out a soft whimper and obediently backed off. He didn’t even know why, but when his food source (Ling Qingyun) got close and brushed against him, he just really wanted to bite him! That was his food. It smelled so good… Fortunately, the thing on his head (the helmet) had gotten in the way. Otherwise, he might’ve eaten the very food he didn’t want to lose…
He didn’t know why, but he instinctively felt that if he ever did eat his food, he would be incredibly, terribly upset.
So putting a helmet on a zombie could actually prevent attacks… Ling Qingyun glanced at Zhuang Cheng’s hands. It was clear—he needed to find some clothes and gloves for Zhuang Cheng as soon as possible!
Back in the area of the shared rental apartments, there had been a massive number of zombies, but around this park were newly built residential neighborhoods with far fewer zombies. It was clear that the military had already carried out rescue missions here. Many of the zombie corpses had bullet wounds, and the survivors were probably long gone.
That was good! It made it much easier to search for clothes! Ling Qingyun took Zhuang Cheng and walked street by street. The scattered zombies on the road couldn’t harm him and instead served as a steady stream of merit points.
He walked while killing zombies, and after passing many supermarkets that had been completely stripped clean, he finally found a few men’s clothing stores.
What Zhuang Cheng needed now were clothes that could completely cover him—layer upon layer—so Ling Qingyun picked out down jackets and sweatpants and swept up every piece of clothing from the shops that would fit either of them into his storage space. After all, when killing zombies, it was easy to get splattered with blood and gore. They couldn’t go around in the same dirty clothes forever. You could never have too many clean outfits!
After looting several clothing stores and finding seven or eight pairs of gloves in one of them, Ling Qingyun pulled Zhuang Cheng into one of the shops and shut the door behind them.
He had expected Zhuang Cheng to fiercely resist being dressed, and had even mentally prepared himself to quickly hide in his space if Zhuang Cheng tried to bite him. But unexpectedly, Zhuang Cheng was surprisingly cooperative and let him do whatever he wanted…
Could it be that he felt guilty for trying to bite him earlier and was now going along with everything out of remorse? Ling Qingyun glanced at Zhuang Cheng’s expression and suddenly had that thought.
There was a time, back then, when Zhuang Cheng came to him all fired up, saying he shouldn’t bully the girls in their class. Later, it turned out to be a misunderstanding. After that, for several days, Zhuang Cheng was extremely obedient—cooking, doing laundry, even cleaning the place they rented until it was spotless—which actually made Ling Qingyun feel embarrassed. He hadn’t even blamed Zhuang Cheng in the first place!
Now, Zhuang Cheng stood obediently, letting him dress him without blinking… Wait a second. Ling Qingyun knocked himself on the head—zombies didn’t blink in the first place!
With careful movements, he helped Zhuang Cheng change out of his outer clothes, which were stained and already starting to reek. He put him into a loose down jacket and, after a struggle, finally got him to sit so he could change his pants. Then Ling Qingyun pulled out the gloves.
First, he put on a thin pair of cotton gloves that covered all ten fingers. Then a pair of leather gloves. After a moment’s thought, he added a third layer—a thick pair of mittens with extended cuffs—wrapping Zhuang Cheng up completely.
Now, Zhuang Cheng was bundled up so tightly that as long as they were careful, no one would be able to tell he was a zombie! And it would be much harder for him to hurt anyone.
Ling Qingyun was satisfied—he even wanted to hug him. But remembering that earlier overly emotional moment, which had left his teeth still sore from that headbutt, and the image of Zhuang Cheng opening his mouth wide to bite him… he ended up just patting him on the back.
Staying with a zombie was incredibly stressful—but this was Zhuang Cheng! Because it was Zhuang Cheng, he was willing to endure the pressure rather than leave. Now that Zhuang Cheng was wrapped up like a ball, it gave him a bit of a sense of security.
Finally, he didn’t need to be ready to jump into his space at any moment! Ling Qingyun felt his idea had been a brilliant move—and after a while, he didn’t just think it was right, he thought it was utterly wise, peerless, and genius-level world-class!
That was because, after they got dressed and stepped outside, turning onto another street, they saw something unexpected—a large cabinet overturned on the ground, surrounded by a few zombies.
Along the edge of this street were many rotting zombie corpses, so the number of zombies in the area was relatively low. It seemed all of them had now gathered around that cabinet.
The cabinet was clearly a custom piece. Ling Qingyun knew that many years ago, there had been carpenters who charged based on how much material they used, and they would go out of their way to use up extra wood, making every piece extremely solid. This cabinet was probably one of those!
Zombies weren’t interested in living animals—only in living humans. Now, they were clawing and scratching at that cabinet…
Ling Qingyun’s first instinct was to kill the zombies and save the people, but he quickly held back and turned to look at Zhuang Cheng.
Zhuang Cheng might remember him, which was why he hadn’t tried to eat him—but what about others? Could Zhuang Cheng still restrain himself? And if someone saw him together with a zombie…
Ling Qingyun stopped in his tracks and turned around, intending to leave.
But it was already too late!
Ling Qingyun saw Zhuang Cheng dashing toward the cabinet and panicked, hurrying after him!
The zombies surrounding the cabinet were all low-level ones. Although they were pounding and scratching at it, they had only left a few fingernail marks and didn’t even think to flip the cabinet over.
They had even tried pushing it, but with some pushing left and others pushing right, the cabinet barely moved…
But now Zhuang Cheng had run over—and his level of mutation was clearly one rank higher than the other mutated zombies they’d encountered! He could understand simple instructions and even restrain himself from eating Ling Qingyun!
Just as Zhuang Cheng placed both hands on the cabinet, clearly intending to flip it, Ling Qingyun finally managed to rush over and hold him tightly. “Chengcheng!”
Ling Qingyun’s approach naturally caught the attention of the zombies who’d been helplessly scratching at the cabinet. Without needing to speak, they all lunged at him in unison. Faced with food behind wood and food right in front of them, of course they would go for the easier option!
At this point, Ling Qingyun had no choice but to let go of Zhuang Cheng and take out the zombies one by one with his spiked mace. Fortunately, the area had already been swept clean before, so there were only a few wandering zombies around. That limited number was exactly why those two people hiding under the cabinet had managed to survive, and it also allowed Ling Qingyun to quickly eliminate the threat.
Then, just as Zhuang Cheng lifted the cabinet, Ling Qingyun finally had his hands free. He grabbed Zhuang Cheng again, stopping him from approaching the two elderly people who had been hiding beneath it.
Yes—two old people. They looked quite aged, and possibly due to hunger, the skin on their faces sagged down loosely, mottled with age spots. At a glance, they looked even more terrifying than Zhuang Cheng, who had already become a zombie.
But no matter how frightening they appeared, they were still alive.
“You have rescued two humans. Gained 2 merit points.” At that moment, the system’s prompt echoed in Ling Qingyun’s ears.
The two elderly people looked frightened when the cabinet was lifted, but they relaxed slightly upon seeing Ling Qingyun. The old man immediately shielded the old woman—her eyes seemed covered by a cloudy film—and pleaded, “Young man, please, give us some food. My wife is starving to death!”
Ling Qingyun didn’t need to be told—they were clearly on the verge of collapse from hunger. That must have been why they had crawled out from under the cabinet in search of something to eat.
But this area had already been visited by the military, and they had taken away not only the survivors but almost all the food. Where could these two find anything? If Ling Qingyun hadn’t discovered them, they would have either been eaten when the zombies toppled the cabinet, or they would’ve starved to death beneath it. They had no chance of survival otherwise.
Fortunately, Ling Qingyun had stored a good amount of food in his spatial storage and didn’t mind giving them some. However, the most urgent priority was making sure Zhuang Cheng didn’t try to eat them!
Fortunately, Zhuang Cheng was tightly bundled up now. Otherwise, his outstretched hands might’ve already torn into the two elders!