“What’s happening?” Yue Zheng was wide awake and sensed something when Xu Song’s hand touched his shoulder. Upon hearing the noise, he immediately woke up.
“I don’t know what it is.” Xu Song breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Yue Zheng awake. Two people were better than one. It wasn’t that he was cowardly, but these past few days had been too eerie.
“Tap, tap.” The owner of those eyes jumped a few more times, having a great time in the neighboring yard.
Yue Zheng also looked outside upon hearing the sound. Having just woken up, his vision was still blurred by moisture, and he stared at those eyes in confusion.
“There are too many shadows; I can’t see the shape clearly.”
“Yeah, with eyes of that color, could it be a wolf?”
“Are there wolves around here?”
“I don’t know. I heard there are cranes and deer in the mountains, but the elders in the village said they’ve never seen them in their lifetime.”
“Croak, croak.” The owner of those eyes graciously let out two croaks. Both of them immediately knew, no need to guess, it was either a toad or a frog.
“Even frogs have grown this big. The crops in the fields must weigh a lot,” Xu Song breathed a sigh of relief. Frogs were still better than anything else.
“When I was coming down the mountain road, I saw crops on both sides. I couldn’t recognize most of the crops in the fields, but I could clearly see the corn planted by the roadside. Mutated plants make up about 70%, while the remaining 30% in size and appearance are similar to before…”
Before he could finish his sentence, another dark shadow suddenly darted out from the neighboring yard, pressing the frog to the ground in an instant.
“Croak, croak!” Suddenly attacked, the frog tried to retaliate by spitting out its tongue several times, but the black shadow evaded each time.
Two entities, one escaping and one capturing, suddenly collided with the wall and rolled into Xu Song’s yard!
Xu Song’s yard was empty with no plants. Under the bright moonlight, the two of them clearly saw the appearance of the two objects on the ground.
Below was, of course, the frog, and on top, surprisingly, was a person!
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.
A person with extraordinary agility, an elderly person with extraordinary agility!
“Zg. Itjb, atf cflutybg!” We Vbcu ujrqfv, liiewlcjafv ys atf wbbciluta. Lf mifjgis rjk atf rfnfcas-sfjg-biv wjc, tlr cbrf jcv wbeat yiffvlcu, gfragjlclcu atf ogbu klat wbnfwfcar jcv rqffv ojg yfsbcv bgvlcjgs qfbqif, jr lo agslcu ab afjg la jqjga!
Tef Itfcu delmxis mbnfgfv We Vbcu’r wbeat klat tlr tjcv jcv qeiifv tlw jkjs ogbw atf klcvbk. Lf ktlrqfgfv, “Gbc’a ifa tlw cbalmf er. Ktlr qfgrbc’r mbcvlalbc rffwr… rlwlijg ab atbrf ogbw ijra cluta.”
Xu Song’s heart sank, feeling his eardrums thumping against his brain as if urging him to panic. Similar to those from last night? Did that mean they were undead? Or rather, zombies?!
No one knew if the person below was a zombie, and no one wanted to go down and confirm it. But it was evident that they were not ordinary people. In just a few moments, the frog, measuring over a meter in height, was completely dispatched by the elderly man who usually walked unsteadily, relying on the civilized stick his son had brought back from the city.
Liquid splattered across the yard, and the old man leaned down, seemingly wanting to savor the freshly slaughtered delicacy.
Another dark shadow leaped in with a “swoosh”… and another person…
One after another, seemingly attracted by the frog’s bloody scent, five or six ‘people’ gathered in their empty village yard!
They were men and women, old and young, all villagers from the village. Some of them had greeted Xu Song when he went up the mountain.
When these people saw each other again, the warmth from before was gone. Instead, strange hoarse screams came from their throats as if they were fighting bitter enemies.
Xu Song finally understood what had happened to the villagers. After the explosion during the day and the events of last night, it seemed that in this village, apart from these few ‘people’ currently fighting, there were likely no more living people left.
Silently watching the battle below, Yue Zheng slowly released his hand covering Xu Song’s mouth and blocked his view.
“Go to sleep. I’ll keep watch for the second half of the night.”
It wasn’t time to change shifts yet, but the familiar or unfamiliar neighbors below were killing each other… No, they were already dead, and now the dead were killing each other.
Trembling slightly, Xu Song understood what Yue Zheng meant, but he couldn’t suppress this fear. Last night was manageable, despite the two withered and clearly inhuman ancient corpses. Having seen zombie movies and various horror films from Western and Japanese genres, he could still somewhat adjust his mentality.
But now, among the people below, there were neighbors from next door, distant uncles and aunts, and even children who were his nieces and nephews by generations… Although they weren’t familiar with each other, those people were still people he knew…
A large hand gently patted Xu Song’s shoulder twice, feeling especially warm in the cool breeze of the summer night. “Go to sleep. If they come up later, I’ll need your help.”
Yes, the group of undead below was killing each other. Afterward, they might turn their attention toward the two of them. If they could sense human presence, Xu Song and Yue Zheng would likely become their alternative menu.
Nodding reluctantly, Xu Song knew he had to sleep.
Curling up and lying down, he pulled the towel blanket over himself. Even so, he still felt a bit cold and curled up closer to Yue Zheng, seeking the warmth radiating from him. Gradually, Xu Song began to relax, half-asleep and half-awake, slowly sinking into the darkness.
Yue Zheng tried to position himself so that the ‘people’ below wouldn’t immediately see him behind the window, but unintentionally ended up leaning towards Xu Song behind him.
There shouldn’t be anyone left in the village. Judging from their recent attack on the frog, their primary targets were likely living beings, followed by various creatures, and only lastly each other. As for the strange dog and the rooster encountered during the day, perhaps they developed self-preservation capabilities after their mutation, or perhaps they only appeared in the village during the day and left at night. Who knew?
Rather than what caused their resurrection, Yue Zheng was more curious about what caused the ordinary villagers to die in the first place. Yesterday in the ancient tomb, the grave robbers died due to the impact of the explosion, but although Zhao Village was close to the tomb, it couldn’t have been directly affected. The houses in the village also didn’t suffer significant damage.
Humans couldn’t just die suddenly, right?
Squinting his eyes, Yue Zheng focused on the two or three shadows entangled in a fierce battle below. If he could get hold of their corpses or see more clearly…
As the thought crossed his mind, Yue Zheng suddenly felt his attention intensely concentrated, and his vision became increasingly clear and bright. Normally, the human vision was ill-suited for the darkness. Without moonlight, everything was shrouded in pitch-black darkness. But now, Yue Zheng felt the shell of darkness gradually recede in his eyes, and the previously distant figures became clearer and clearer!
There was an old man, probably Mr. Zhao mentioned by Xu Song earlier. Blood flowed from the seven orifices of his face, staining it, indicating that it had been there for some time. He had several wounds on his body, but no blood was flowing out. It seemed that like Liuzi they encountered last night, these injuries were sustained during the ongoing fight.
The dead don’t bleed.
The others, mostly, had blood flowing from their seven orifices. There was only one girl, around sixteen or seventeen years old, with fewer injuries on her face but a large hole in her chest. Her clothes were stained and filthy with blood.
Staring carefully at the scene below for a while, these people had another common characteristic – each of them was enveloped in a black mist!
Yue Zheng quickly hid in the shadows when one of the ‘people’ unintentionally looked up, feeling waves of dizziness in his mind.
What’s going on? Besides the strange attack methods and enhanced physical abilities, did I also gain night vision? No, it seems that besides night vision, my long-distance vision has also greatly improved.
However, this ability, similar to that remote attack, seems to cause symptoms such as dizziness.
When the first ray of light shone on his face, Xu Song woke up.
Opening his eyes, he saw Yue Zheng with his eyes closed, resting against the curtain behind the window.
Yue Zheng hadn’t fallen asleep; he was just resting with his eyes closed. Feeling the person who had been leaning against him all night move, he naturally opened his eyes and said, “Awake? Sleep a little longer.”
“It’s okay, I should get up.” Xu Song rubbed his cheek somewhat embarrassedly and glanced down at the window, saying, “You should sleep a bit too… Are those people all dead?”
Several figures lay scattered in the courtyard, not many of them, just three people and a frog ripped to an unrecognizable state.
“Yeah.” Yue Zheng nodded. “They should be afraid of the light. Just before dawn, the ones who could still move ran away.”
Xu Song breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good, as long as there’s something they fear.”
These undead moved fast, had great strength, and their attack methods were bizarre. If they didn’t have any other weaknesses, it would be better for humans to collectively commit suicide rather than live in constant fear.
“Yeah, as long as we’re careful at night from now on.”
No longer looking outside at the mess, Xu Song turned his head and saw Yue Zheng looking exhausted. He quickly persuaded, “It’s still early. Take a nap. We can leave at eight o’clock, and we’ll still have time.”
Looking at his wristwatch, Yue Zheng nodded and lay down on the bed, closing his eyes.
Summer days were longer, and it was not even five o’clock yet, but the sky was already bright.
Hearing Yue Zheng’s breathing become steady, Xu Song carefully got out of bed and rummaged through the cabinet, finding an electronic watch that had been left here years ago. Nowadays, people didn’t like wearing watches as much once they had a mobile phone. Except for those wealthy enough to wear watches worth thousands or tens of thousands, students like Xu Song had long abandoned wearing watches.
But now, his new phone was broken, and he didn’t dare to use the old one recklessly, fearing they wouldn’t find a place to charge it. So the durable and reliable old electronic watch found a purpose once again.
“It still has power.” Reflecting on the tenacity of the electronic watch’s battery, Xu Song ran downstairs to the kitchen and began searching for portable food and bottled mineral water.
For some reason, there was always a sense of foreboding in his heart, a feeling that even if they reached the city, the situation… might not be optimistic.
Here is hoping that the farther from the source they go, the better it gets!
Thank you for the update!
+1🥺
+2 because things are looking pretty tough
+3
… In Kingdom the dead also afraid of sun…then they don’t…So yeah…
I wonder how many people survived the mutations