Summer licked her upper lip, slowly savoring the residual taste of the light yellow core.
She had always enjoyed eating zombie cores. At first, she thought it was simply because they quenched her endless hunger.
But as she evolved into an Elite zombie, the foggy veil clouded around her mind loosened once again, granting her access to hidden fragments of her past life.
Along with those fragments came muscle memories. The most prominent among them was her deep addiction to sweet candies.
These high-tier cores did not taste like cold flesh. They tasted like liquid candy, bursting with a rich, sugary flavor that melted instantly on her tongue.
Summer licked her lip once more, her tongue catching a small droplet of yellow liquid.
It was delicious.
A few meters away, the survivors stood frozen, watching her in complete and utter fascination.
Evolving into an Elite zombie had massively changed Summer’s appearance. Her skin remained pale like smooth porcelain, but her features had become dramatically sharper.
Deep red pupils glowed like crimson rubies beneath refined, dark eyebrows.
Extending outward from the edges of her eyes and eyebrows were thin, dark red veins that stretched across both sides of her face toward her hairline.
On each side, two veins traced gracefully from the outer corner of her eye, while a third vein extended from the tail of her eyebrow.
They looked like intricate, dark crimson roots embedded beneath her pale skin, giving her an eerie, supernatural beauty.
Except for those dark red veins, her face was completely spotless. It was a visual contrast that could take the breath away from anyone who caught sight of her.
Yet, despite the dangerous red veins and glowing crimson eyes, the most prominent feature on her face remained her cheeks.
They were so full, soft, and remarkably chubby. Her long, jet-black hair flowed wildly in the cool night wind, dancing like dark silk threads against her shoulders.
She looked like a deadly mythical creature, but at the same time, she looked ridiculously cute.
"So cute..." Ella muttered aloud, her voice filled with absolute awe.
Beside her, Ilas nodded vigorously, her dark eyes wide as if invisible pink hearts were fluttering in her pupils.
Angela, who was leaning against a broken concrete wall while holding her bleeding shoulder, let out a soft sigh and nodded in total agreement.
For a brief moment, every single person in the ruined intersection stood staring at the little zombie girl in a trance.
Ahem!
Jacob let out a heavy cough, forcing a sharp breath through his lungs to wake everyone out of their reverie.
The loud noise shattered the quiet atmosphere, instantly reminding the group of the stark reality before them.
The young girl standing opposite them had just single-handedly killed a monstrous creature that had effortlessly overpowered all of them combined. And right after caving in its skull, she had swallowed its core without showing the slightest struggle.
"She... she just ate its brain," one of the surviving soldiers said, his voice trembling with a mixture of terror and disgust as he gripped his empty assault rifle.
"Not its brain... it’s a core," Ella corrected sharply, glaring at the soldier. She did not like the hostile, fearful looks these men were directing toward Chubby Cheeks.
"Does it even matter?!" another soldier snapped back, stepping behind an overturned vehicle. "Look at her face! Look at her eyes! She’s not a damn human!"
"You..." Ella gritted her teeth, her fingers tightening around her aluminum bat.
She watched closely as the three surviving soldiers shifted their stances, their knuckles white as they held their weapons at the ready, looking almost prepared to open fire on Summer at the slightest movement.
Although the soldiers were fully ready to plunge back into battle mode, not a single one of them dared to make a move.
They were not stupid.
They had just witnessed her bypass a psychokinetic barrier and crush a Peak-level Feral Boss in less than a heartbeat.
If they shot at her and failed to kill her, none of them would survive the next five seconds.
"Oh, come on," Angela said, rolling her dark eyes as she took a small step forward.
"What if she’s a zombie? She literally just saved all our lives, didn’t she? Besides, she looks super cute. Honestly, if I have to die in this apocalypse, I’d rather get eaten by a cute zombie girl than those ugly, rot-brained ferals."
Ella and Ilas nodded in agreement at once, matching Angela’s sentiment. Summer was simply too cute to be viewed as a mindless monster.
In fact, looking at her soft, puffed-up cheeks, their palms were practically itching with the desire to reach out and pinch them.
Jacob shook his head slowly as he watched his daughters and Angela fall completely under the little zombie’s spell.
He recalled how his daughters had rebelled against him and his wife earlier, risking their lives and sneaking out into the dark streets just to support their zombie friend.
In truth, Jacob still did not fully trust Summer. It was not that he was coldhearted or ungrateful for his life, but he was a father first.
He deeply feared that no matter how intelligent or calm Summer appeared right now, she would eventually lose her mind and revert to the feral instincts of her kind.
Every single Feral zombie they had encountered so far possessed a basic level of consciousness, yet every single one of them tried to tear living humans to pieces.
However, Jacob knew that currently, he had no other option than to rely on her strength. His original plan had been to use her combat abilities as a shield until he and his family made it safely out of the city.
But looking at his daughters now, he severely doubted they would ever go along with that plan.
Considering they had dared to defy his orders to save her, Jacob was certain that to Ella and Ilas, this little zombie girl had already become much more than just a powerful bodyguard.
She had become their friend.
* * *
NB: Read Author notes.