Chapter 2: I'll Chop You Too
1528 Words
Lin Yuan shuddered as if an electric current coursed through his entire body, even down to his very bones, where he felt an unbearable itch.
[You’ve bitten Shen Rong hard, transmitting the virus into her body. Reward received: Agility. (From now on, you are an especially fast zombie!)]
[But the one who truly wronged you is still alive. Go on, yank Jiang Yaojin’s head off and shove it in the toilet! Mission reward: Life Sense. (You can sense living beings within a 100-meter radius.)]
The changes in his body made Lin Yuan realize that the rewards from the zombie evolution system had already taken effect. He took a deep breath, then released Shen Rong, who was lying on the ground, panting heavily. Lin Yuan stood up, wiped his mouth, and walked over to the desk, gripping the fire axe in his hand. Although a limp woman posed little threat, having a weapon gave him more control.
The next step was to chop off his boss’s head.
Although he couldn’t fully gauge how much his body had changed, his instincts told him that his reflexes were indeed faster than before.
“You p*****t!”
Shen Rong had recovered, clutching her shoulder, where she now felt a burning pain. But the greater emotion she felt was humiliation.
“You’re the p*****t. You wet yourself just from being bitten. Stop pretending.”
Though Lin Yuan had only done it to complete the mission, he couldn’t help feeling a twisted sense of satisfaction. After all, the female boss from next door had always looked down on them, the workers.
“I didn’t! That was just a physiological reaction from the shock. Everyone has that when they’re terrified!”
Shen Rong bit her lip, glaring at Lin Yuan with resentment. Now that her tough exterior had been exposed, she felt even more helpless. She curled up in the corner, hugging her knees and burying her head.
Lin Yuan spat out a mouthful of blood and began to inventory the available supplies. When they were searching the office earlier, the group had found some food, but most of it had been gathered up and taken by Jiang Yaojin. However, as one of the searchers, Lin Yuan had, of course, hidden some for himself.
Suppressing the disgust he felt, Lin Yuan reached into Wu Kai’s pocket and pulled out two small loaves of bread, a chocolate bar, and a packet of instant coffee. He himself also had a packet of biscuits and a few lollipops.
The first day of the apocalypse had cut off all phone signals and the internet. The office building had lost power yesterday, but water was still running. However, no one dared drink the unboiled water, unsure of what viruses it might contain. After all, at this stage, most people didn’t fully understand how the zombie virus spread.
“We won’t last long without water.”
There was no shortage of water in the building. Nearly every office had bottled water in its dispensers. But the nearby safe offices had already been looted. If they wanted to find more supplies, they would have to risk entering areas overrun by zombies.
“No water, yet you still wasted so much by peeing everywhere. What a waste!”
Lin Yuan muttered as he chewed the bread with difficulty. He needed to restore his strength and get his body back in shape to increase his chances of securing more supplies. There was no need to share anything with Shen Rong.
Perhaps Shen Rong overheard Lin Yuan's grumbling because she suddenly burst into tears.
“Go ahead and cry. Tears also dehydrate you, so the more you cry, the quicker you’ll die!”
Her crying abruptly stopped, leaving only the sound of her shoulders trembling as she sobbed silently.
Lin Yuan didn’t finish all the food. He saved a third and pocketed it, then picked up the fire axe and began getting used to its weight. Years of overwork had left him, a once-energetic young man in his early twenties, feeling drained and listless. Plus, the hunger of the past few days had left him with little energy for any strenuous activity.
As a result, every time he swung the fire axe, it felt like a struggle. But after the initial enhancements from the zombie evolution system, the weapon now felt surprisingly light in his hand, and he could swing it much faster than before. Though his agility had been enhanced, his physical strength had also increased significantly.
As Lin Yuan practiced in the office, naturally making some noise, Shen Rong, who had been crouched in the corner, gradually calmed down and curiously looked up. She didn’t understand why, with food so scarce, he was still wasting his energy.
When Lin Yuan turned around, Shen Rong quickly withdrew her gaze. The office door was already blocked by a cabinet, and several zombies were wandering outside in the work area, making it clearly unsafe to just go out. Lin Yuan glanced up at the ventilation ducts but quickly dismissed the idea—there was no way anyone could fit into the ducts of a building like this.
"Looks like we'll have to face the danger head-on."
There weren’t many things in the office that could be used. The only resources available were the desks, chairs, and cabinets. Lin Yuan dragged Wu Kai's body into the corner and slowly moved the office desk to the door.
"Come and help!"
Seeing Shen Rong sneak a glance at him, Lin Yuan barked out an order. These women always clamored for gender equality, but when real danger struck, all they did was hide behind others. They lacked any awareness of the situation.
Reluctantly, Shen Rong stood up, her legs trembling as she shuffled toward the door. Slowly, she moved closer. "In a moment, you hide behind the door and slowly open it just a c***k. Make sure no zombies squeeze through, or I’ll chop you down too!"
Lin Yuan had already arranged the desks, chairs, and cabinets into a corner by the door, making it so the door could only open halfway. Once the zombie squeezed through, one swing of his axe would be enough to split its head in two.
Shen Rong, full of fear, crouched behind the door, her hands trembling as she gripped the handle.
"Open it!"
Lin Yuan commanded in a low voice, raising his fire axe, ready to strike at any moment.
Shen Rong twisted the handle, but her trembling hand slipped, failing to open the door.
"I can do it! Give me another chance!"
She didn’t dare take the risk—who knew if that axe would really fall on her head. The second time, she gripped it tightly and slowly opened the door, leaving a small c***k.
Outside the office area, there were three zombies—two women and one man. Hearing the noise at the door, they had already gathered, emitting hoarse growls from their mouths, their scratched-up arms flailing wildly. One of their heads squeezed through the door c***k, its half-eaten face clearly showing the exposed jaw muscles.
There were generally two types of zombies. One was the direct virus-infected zombie, whose body showed no obvious wounds but had rapidly growing teeth and nails, giving them powerful bite and grip strength. The other type was the indirectly infected zombie, typically bitten or scratched by a virus-infected zombie. Their wounds would fester and deform. This female zombie was an indirectly infected one.
Strangely, the female zombie wasn’t attacking Lin Yuan, who was directly in front of her. Instead, she twisted her arms, wildly swinging them toward Shen Rong, who was hiding behind the door. Even the head stuck in the door frame bizarrely twisted 180 degrees.
"She thinks I’m one of them?"
Seeing this, Lin Yuan instantly realized that his current status, granted by the zombie evolution system, had him disguised as a zombie. It provided perfect camouflage.
This meant that he could now move through the zombie-filled office building much more easily on his own.
The axe came down with a swift chop, and with a c***k, the zombie's head was split in two. Half of the skull rolled on the ground, and the spilled brain matter was still slightly twitching.
"Ahh!"
Shen Rong screamed, desperately retreating behind the door, kicking the half-skull that had rolled to her feet away.
"Go ahead, scream. The louder you scream, the more excited those zombies will get. Pretty soon, they'll all rush in. Do you think they’ll eat you first or me?"
Shen Rong immediately covered her mouth, forcing herself not to make a sound, whimpering quietly.
At twenty-seven or twenty-eight, Shen Rong had built herself up as a successful businesswoman, becoming a self-made boss. Her life had gone smoothly up to this point, and she had never even killed a chicken or a fish. In the five days since the apocalypse began, she had been protected from danger, but in just these few short hours, her entire past life had been completely overturned.
The only reason she hadn’t lost her mind yet was because her mental resilience was stronger than the average person.
- Writer
