No one? A thought crossed Yue Zheng’s mind as he looked around at the buildings intertwined and blocked by plants. Most of the village structures were not tall, and each household in Zhao Village had built two-story houses.
At this moment, these low buildings were eerily quiet, devoid of any human voices.
“Perhaps they temporarily evacuated after the mutation.”
Xu Song reluctantly nodded, but if there was no danger in the village, he couldn’t imagine the villagers leaving the ancestral village where they had lived for generations. Suddenly, he remembered the “zombies” they encountered the previous night, and his heart tightened. He remembered that the graveyard was only a small distance away from the village. They couldn’t be that unlucky, could they?
“Koko—koko-koko—” a series of chicken noises, accompanied by the flapping of wings. Such sounds were common in the village, but now they startled the two.
As they looked at the oversized vegetables around them and recalled the enlarged trees and vines in the forest, coupled with the significantly amplified chicken noises…
Gripping the dagger tightly, Yue Zheng used his free left hand to push Xu Song backward and stood in front of him.
“Koko!” Another chicken cry, accompanied by the sound of rumbling. A rooster the size of a small house leaped over a two-story building, flapping its wings, and landed in front of them.
“…Is that still a chicken?!” Seeing the vegetables growing to massive sizes, Xu Song could still imagine not having to worry about expensive vegetables, only considering how many meals it would take to finish such a large vegetable. But when faced with this terrifyingly large rooster, he couldn’t muster the desire to eat it.
Who would dare to kill something this big?!
But now, while humans didn’t want to kill the chicken, the chicken had the desire to kill humans. The rooster seemed to be searching for food throughout the village and upon seeing the two, it tilted its head, and its sharp beak lunged toward them at lightning speed!
Yue Zheng pushed Xu Song away and jumped to the other side, swinging his dagger. A white mark was left on the rooster’s hardened beak.
It couldn’t be cut through! It seemed that without using his abilities, he couldn’t harm it.
“Bark! Bark! Bark!” A series of barking sounds echoed, and a dark figure leaped into the air, biting the rooster’s neck.
The rooster writhed in pain, vigorously shaking its head. The dog, about the size of an ordinary mongrel, held a mouthful of chicken feathers and effortlessly landed on the windowsill of a nearby house.
In an instant, like a bolt of lightning, it lunged at the spot where it had previously bitten off feathers. This bite caused the rooster intense pain, and it desperately shook its neck, spewing blood in all directions.
Flapping its wings, the rooster hopped onto a nearby house. With a loud crash, it stomped on the roof, then jumped up again, toppling the grape trellis in the courtyard, and fled.
However, the dog remained clamped on its neck throughout, its entire body stained red with blood, refusing to let go.
“That…was a dog just now?” Xu Song saw it clearly but still couldn’t believe it. Its movements were so swift, able to leap several meters into the air and bite the enlarged rooster’s neck… it couldn’t be considered a regular dog anymore.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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However, seeing the dog’s lively and energetic appearance, without any signs of injury, Yue Zheng wondered if something had actually grown on its body.
The two fell silent. A rooster turned into a giant monster, and a dog transformed into a super dog. Xu Song feared that they might encounter humans who had grown to giant sizes as well. Now that he thought about it, even if they did encounter such humans, it didn’t seem impossible.
They didn’t know if these changes were happening only near Helu Mountain or if they were occurring elsewhere as well.
It was challenging to find his old house amidst the dense vegetation. Looking at his old house, which hadn’t changed much except for the invasion of plants from neighboring houses, Xu Song breathed a sigh of relief.
Pushing the door open, he introduced to Yue Zheng, “We usually don’t live here as a family of three, so we didn’t plant anything in the yard. We don’t raise chickens or ducks like the neighbors… but I’m not sure if any animals might have entered.”
As he unlocked the padlock, Yue Zheng stepped into the yard first. “I’ll go in and check first. If it’s safe, you can come in.”
Perhaps it was just Yue Zheng’s habit, but as the protected one, Xu Song felt deeply moved. They had only just met, yet he had saved him multiple times, not to mention carrying him on his back when he fainted while descending the mountain.
Although later on, Yue Zheng might have protected him because he possessed special abilities, at the beginning when he had no value to offer, Yue Zheng still chose to risk exposing himself to save Xu Song’s life. It was impossible for him not to feel grateful.
Even if it was just his duty, Xu Song would always remember it.
“No problem, come in.” Yue Zheng’s voice came from inside after a quick inspection.
“No electricity?” Xu Song raised his hand to press the switch of the living room light, but there was no response at all.
“The village’s power lines have probably been crushed by the plants.”
Hearing Yue Zheng’s words, Xu Song quickly pointed to a corner of the living room. “Quick, try the phone!”
Their main purpose for returning to Zhao Village was to make a phone call. If there was a power outage and the phone lines were also damaged, they wouldn’t be able to contact anyone at all!
“That won’t work either!” Yue Zheng held the receiver, furrowing his brow as he looked at Xu Song. “Do you have a spare cellphone?”
Xu Song was momentarily stunned, then his face lit up with joy as he ran towards the second floor.
“Yes! Yes! I just got a new cellphone, and I still have my old one!” Luckily, he had been cautious enough to keep his old phone in his luggage without getting rid of it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even have a spare right now.
Yue Zheng followed closely behind him as they went upstairs.
Xu Song’s small second floor was built similarly to other houses in the village, with a similar style of architecture, small Western-style buildings. The interior structure was also similar, with the only difference being the decoration.
After all, the construction of houses in the village was somewhat unified. When the villagers had money, everyone wanted to renovate their houses. So, they decided to do it collectively.
Xu Song’s grandfather was still living in the city at the time, but he planned to return to the countryside for retirement, enjoying the fresh air and reminiscing about his childhood and youth. Therefore, he decided to contribute money and renovate the house together with everyone else.
During the interior decoration process, there were quite a few differences in taste and preference compared to the villagers. As a result, the house had an elegant touch to it.
The wooden furniture, with its natural color, gave a sense of relaxation without any added pressure. Although the wood wasn’t of the highest quality, it had the advantage of being genuine.
Xu Song’s room was on the west side of the upper floor. The room was not small and had all the necessary items like a computer, a desk, and more. However, there weren’t many daily necessities, indicating that it was more of a temporary stay rather than a long-term residence.
Bending over, Xu Song rummaged through his travel bag and finally found the old cellphone.
There were signs of wear on the phone’s case, and judging by the model, it seemed to be a three or four-year-old model, relatively well-preserved.
After Yue Zheng inserted his own SIM card and held down the power button for a while, he let out a sigh of relief when it turned on normally, fortunately, it had battery power.
“How is it? Can you make a call?” Xu Song saw Yue Zheng frowning as soon as he turned on the phone and quickly leaned over to look at the screen. However, it displayed no signal.
“Do you usually get a signal when using your phone here?”
“Yes, the base station is on the eastern side of the village. Could it be out of service too?”
The two exchanged glances and sighed in unison after a long while.
“Let’s forget it. Let’s rest for tonight and find a car to go into the city tomorrow.”
From Zhao Village to City Y, it would take three hours by car on the highway. The two of them could only hope that there wouldn’t be any issues with the road conditions on the highway.
“Okay, there’s a Jinbei van at the convenience store near the highway. If we can’t find anyone, we can borrow it tomorrow.”
Xu Song nodded, then quickly asked, “Brother Yue, do you have your credentials with you?”
“Driver’s license?” Yue Zheng raised an eyebrow.
Xu Song shook his head hurriedly, “Police credentials or something like that. If we encounter someone, having credentials would make it legal to borrow a vehicle, but without them, we would be considered thieves, right?”
He didn’t want to be mistaken for a car thief, and the main reason for the late-night update was that he hadn’t even seen a police credential before!
Yue Zheng twitched his mouth a couple of times, unsure if he wanted to laugh or get angry.
“Let’s talk about it tomorrow.”
After all, he was an undercover agent infiltrating the enemy, so how could he possibly carry credentials with him?!
Seeing his reaction, Xu Song guessed that he probably didn’t have any proof of identity and pretended to be oblivious with a smile.
“I’ll pack some things for the road. There’s food in the kitchen downstairs. Take a look and see what you want to eat.”
“Don’t bring unnecessary stuff.” Glancing at the notebook on the table, Yue Zheng knew that young people nowadays didn’t bother with such things no matter where they went. With the current unknown situation in the village, it would be more useful to bring a few iron rods for self-defense than these items.
“Oh, okay.” Seeing his gaze, Xu Song nodded quickly. He wasn’t the kind of indoor-loving guy who couldn’t survive without the internet anyway. He turned around and started packing his clothes from the wardrobe, preparing to put them in his backpack.
The two of them hastily packed some things and grabbed some frozen food from the kitchen. Xu Song had returned to his hometown alone this time, and as a young man, even if he knew how to cook, he was probably too lazy to cook.
Plus, almost every household in the village had some kind of family relationship with Xu Song’s family. When they saw the young man who was studying in City B coming back, they would either call him over to eat together during meal times or send something over.
Even if he cooked for himself, he would rather make some frozen dumplings or instant noodles. There weren’t even any spring onions stored at home. He would wait for his mom to come over in a few days and show off her culinary skills then.
As the sky gradually darkened, for safety reasons, the two of them decided to share Xu Song’s room for the night after taking a shower. Even the roosters and dogs in the village had mutated, so who knew if there would be anything else lurking around at night?
They set a time, with one person on guard duty for the first half of the night and the other for the second half.
Xu Song sat by the window, leaning against a large pillow, while Yue Zheng slept soundly on half of the bed. The room had no lights on, and with dense vegetation outside, once it got dark, almost nothing could be seen.
After sitting by the window for a while, Xu Song suddenly felt a bit cold. The countryside was always cooler than the city during the summer, and now with the vegetation mutations, the temperature dropped even more at night. A gust of wind blew in, and Xu Song quickly got up to close the window.
Just as he closed the window, he heard a rustling sound outside. Xu Song’s scalp tingled, and he put his hand on Yue Zheng’s shoulder, ready to wake him up if something happened.
At that moment, two yellow-green, bulb-like eyes suddenly appeared on the trellis in the neighboring yard, jumping up and down. With a loud crash, the trellis couldn’t bear the weight and collapsed.
Xu Song you silly, you’re the super-human just like the jumping dog!
This might be worse than zombie town 😂 😂 there is no online guide to surviving this weird apocalypse!
Thank you for the update!
Still wanting to know where all the people went…did they run away or…gulp…
What’s the bulb-like eye thing? Jumping up and down…huh.
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
It’s like a mix and mash of every genre under apocalyptic-themed stories… Plants, animals, zombies… I wonder if there would be more? 🤭