Summer stood near the headless corpse, initially feeling a bit confused as she picked up on the subtle animosity from the soldiers.
After evolving into an Elite zombie, her passive instincts had refined significantly, allowing her to easily read the emotional waves and expressions of human beings.
Although none of the soldiers possessed direct killing intent toward her, they were certainly not friendly.
Summer pursed her small lips in mild disappointment. She thought they would become good friends, not food options.
Summer decided to divide humans into four types depending on their disposition towards her.
First one was friends. Friends were those who emitted positive caring towards her. Ella, Ilas, and the new loud girl fell into this category.
Second one was Pebbles. Jacob was in this category. Third one was food. Food were those who showed open animosity and killing intent towards her.
And the last one was ’no comment’. They were yet to be assessed by her. These three soldiers just now became food options by showing animosity to her.
They were simply lucky their animosity wasn’t with killing intent....
Luckily, there were humans radiating pure friendliness towards her.
She could feel warm, genuine goodness emitting from Ella, Ilas, and Angela.
Jacob’s emotion was mostly neutral, filled with caution and heavy calculation, while the three surviving soldiers were thoroughly terrified and standing guard behind their training.
Even though they also had animosity against her.
She found these contrasting emotions quite amusing. Her mischievous side quickly surfaced, and she decided to poke fun at them.
"Bahhh..." Summer let out a low growl, puffing out her chest.
However, instead of sounding like an intimidating monster, her voice came out like a soft, squeaky kitten trying to roar.
[Pft. Look at them. They are scared to death,] the system snorted in her head.
’Hehe. I am strong,’ Summer boasted mentally, feeling quite proud of her roar.
[That was sarcasm, dummy,] the system deadpanned.
’Oh...’ Summer instantly deflated, puffing her chubby cheeks in annoyance.
"Damn it, what was that?" one of the soldiers whispered nervously, turning to his commander. "Is she... is she trying to say she’s not hostile?"
Captain Robin did not answer immediately. His dark eyes were shining as he stared at the pale little girl.
Looking at Summer’s small frame, her rounded face, and her innocent behavior despite her terrifying strength, an image of his lost younger sister flashed in his mind.
A sudden wave of grief hit his chest, and he could not stop a few tears from welling up in the corners of his eyes. His poor little sister... was she still alive out there? Was she safe?
’See? He is so scared of me that he is crying,’ Summer boasted to the system, entirely unaware that Captain Robin’s tears were drawn from a completely different memory.
[I am ignoring you. Sigh,] the system grunted softly.
Summer rolled her crimson eyes in response, a gesture she had just picked up from watching Angela earlier.
[Oh no. You are really getting corrupted by these humans,] the system remarked.
’I was once a human too, remember?’ Summer added casually.
The system went completely silent for a few moments.
It was true that Summer’s memories were slowly returning as her core grew stronger, but they were not returning in the way a normal person remembered their past.
Instead, her memories returned as vague instincts, physical habits, and sensory lingering tastes.
Simply put, even if she managed to unlock all her past memories, the human Summer would never truly return.
She was like a brand-new computer downloading old data files from a remote cloud server. She could read the files, but she was no longer the person who created them.
There was one important detail the system had purposefully kept hidden from her.
It had actively blocked specific memories from resurfacing—memories regarding certain individuals and a dark incident from her human past.
It was not as if Summer had many loved ones to miss, as she had been an orphan and a lonely outcast before the apocalypse arrived.
However, there were certain people the system preferred she never remembered, and an incident so ugly that thinking about it made the system want to wipe every living soul in the city off the map.
The system believed the little girl was far better off without those bitter recollections. Watching her take slow, deliberate steps toward her three human friends, the system decided to let the past stay buried.
"Chubby!" Ella cried out happily, stepping forward without a shred of fear.
Before Summer could even react, Ella, Ilas, and Angela surrounded her. Ella reached out both hands first, grabbing Summer’s full, pale cheeks and squishing them together gently.
"Ouch..." Summer mumbled through her squeezed lips, her crimson eyes blinking in utter helplessness as the three girls took turns gently pinching, pulling, and deforming her soft face.
"She really is so soft!" Ilas squealed, joining in to pinch the other side.
"Hey, leave one cheek for me!" Angela laughed, reaching over Ella’s shoulder.
Summer stood completely frozen in place, resigning herself to her fate as her face was stretched in every direction. Her gauntleted hands hung loosely at her sides.
She was an undead monster that had just crushed a terrifying boss, but right now, she was entirely powerless against three teenage girls.
Still, as she felt the gentle warmth of their hands and heard their cheerful laughter echoing through the cold, ruined intersection, a small, subtle feeling of contentment settled deep within her chest.
At least she had managed to make a few friends.
[System Notice: Entering standby mode...]
The glowing blue interfaces faded away, and the system quietly turned off, leaving the little zombie girl to enjoy the noisy warmth of her companions under the dark, starlit sky.
Until a groaning voice sounded nearby.
"What the fuck? Why did this truck suddenly get yoinked into the ground?" A grunting female voice came from an overturned truck. "Ugh, damn it."
"That’s... that’s Leader!" Captain Robin shouted in ecstasy. "She’s alive!"
"Not for long if you don’t fucking help me!" the leader groaned in pain.
Hearing her voice, the three men turned simultaneously to look at Summer. Summer blinked, understanding the hidden meaning behind their looks.
She curled her lips and muttered, "One."
"HAAA!" The ground trembled as the four-armed giant hoisted the truck into the air, revealing a woman in uniform lying on the ground. The woman shielded her eyes for a moment to block the dust, and when she opened them, her gaze went straight to Summer.
"Summer?"
The word made Summer freeze.
This woman... she knew her name.