The third year of the apocalypse was approaching its end, and winter was on the horizon. Not only the major bases but also the smaller bases were putting in extra effort to hunt and harvest the crops they had planted earlier.
In the upper levels of the major base, people had already harvested the potatoes, carrots, and other crops that had been grown on the balconies of every room. On the rooftop of one building, a green bedsheet was spread out, adorned with various red and yellow flowers.
Occasionally, mutated birds passing by in the sky would swoop down to investigate the situation. They wondered if this was edible greenery or remnants of something left behind by the former humans.
Although some of these birds were relatively intelligent and could sense that something was amiss, screeching in alarm and flying away, there were also many large but not-so-bright birds that, upon spotting the greenery, disregarded any potential dangers and descended eagerly to feast.
One of these large birds swooped down but was ensnared by a net that suddenly appeared around the “food.” It was then subjected to a barrage of psychic attacks, blows from pickaxes and shovels, and a ruthless pummeling.
“We got another one!”
“Oh, reserve food, reserve food!”
“Quick, hide! Another one’s coming down!”
The people shouted in alarm and quickly took cover in their prearranged hiding spots. When another large bird came down to avenge its fallen comrade, the group of people once again rose to fight it off.
Two mutated birds would provide enough food for this group of people for a considerable amount of time. Considering that they had already caught two before and now had this harvest, with some thriftiness, they could enjoy meat on their dinner tables every day until spring!
Back in the top-floor room, a group of women worked together to pluck feathers and prepare the bird meat, while the psychic abilities users, who had exerted themselves the most during the capture, rested in the room below.
“Grandma Zhao, how’s your grandson, Xunxun, doing?” asked the only fire-based psychic in the community, a man who looked fierce enough to scare children.
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.
Xgjcvwj Itjb obgmfv j rwlif, tfg fzqgfrrlbc alcufv klat tfiqifrrcfrr jcv rlutr. “Lf’r ralii atf rjwf… Gbc’a kbggs, P kbc’a ifa tlw bea.”
Lfjglcu tfg kbgvr, atf wbbv bo atf batfgr lc atf gbbw ugfk rbwyfg. Ktfs rtbbx atflg tfjvr ribkis. Ycf qfgrbc aglfv ab mbcrbif tfg, rjslcu, “Pa’r bxjs. Weczec lr remt j kfii-yftjnfv mtliv. Obbx, fnfc ktfc tf… mtjcufv, tf’r vloofgfca ogbw atf batfgr vbkc atfgf!”
“Yeah, that’s right! Last time when he changed… wasn’t he with the children? He’s so sensible, not a single child got hurt, and he listens to his grandmother…”
Grandma Zhao lowered her head and wiped her eyes. She nodded in gratitude to the others for their understanding.
Since the onset of the apocalypse, especially in the past year, some people in their small base have unexpectedly turned into zombies. At first, everyone wondered if it was due to contaminated food or items collected from outside that caused some to undergo unexpected mutations. However, it wasn’t until a little girl in their base, who had never been outside and ate the same food as the other children, unexpectedly mutated into a zombie that people began to realize something was seriously wrong.
Though this group of people had each killed zombies with their own hands during the early days of the apocalypse, they had relied on each other’s efforts to survive every day for three years. Despite their quarrels and individual secrets, they had shared their lives together for such a long time.
If they were still strangers, they might have done otherwise. However, when faced with their former companions turning into zombies, even those who had quarreled and argued just yesterday lacked the courage to kill them.
Fortunately, their small base had quite a few people with supernatural abilities. After subduing the newly mutated zombies, the group discussed the situation and reluctantly chose to release them into the area below, where they would coexist with other zombies.
What happened next was even more incredible, some of the people who had turned into zombies didn’t attack humans!
As they watched their former companions clutch their heads in pain, emitting mournful cries and displaying a fearful demeanor, it seemed as if they were avoiding getting too close to the group. At that moment, a glimmer of hope emerged, could it be that those who turned into zombies still remembered their former companions? Did they know not to harm them?
Not wanting to harm these former companions turned zombies, they worked together to suspend a large bucket specially designed for releasing zombies. Astonishingly, the zombie-former-companion crawled into it by itself, and the group lowered it down to the lower levels.
Three days later, they clearly heard the sound of breaking glass coming from one of the rooms. When they rushed down to check, they were stunned to find that the fourth-floor window of a room had been shattered, and the culprit was a backpack filled with salt!
In the days that followed, they discovered a pile of assorted clothing that had been thrown into the same room from outside. Then, one afternoon, the person responsible for monitoring the surroundings witnessed one of their former companions, who had been turned into a zombie just a few days ago, carrying a large backpack, swaggering back to the neighborhood.
These items were virtually useless for zombies but were desperately needed by the people trapped here. Consequently, even when more people mutated into zombies, they didn’t harm them. Instead, they tried their best to lower them to the lower levels. Some of the especially well-behaved zombies, those who were willingly cared for by humans, were allowed to stay in the building.
Xunxun was one such case. After suddenly transforming into a zombie, he simply stared blankly at his former companions and friends. Although he would recoil in fear when others approached him, as if restraining something, he showed no signs of wanting to harm them.
Such a well-behaved child-zombie, who could bear to leave him exposed to the elements like the other zombies below, susceptible to the whims of mutated creatures that roamed the area? So, Grandma Zhao volunteered to lock her grandson in a room, where only she could interact with him. He wouldn’t be let out, eliminating any chance of him harming others.
Carrying a portion of meat for herself, Grandma Zhao returned to her home. Sitting on the large sofa in the living room was a child who appeared dazed, and at first glance, one could hardly tell that he was a zombie.
Hearing the door, the child zombie turned his head in the direction of the entrance. When he saw that it was his grandmother returning, he got up from the sofa, tottering over and throwing himself into her arms.
“Alright, Xunxun, Grandma will put the meat away first. Tonight, I’ll make your favorite shredded meat for you,” Grandma Yu said with a smile as she patted her grandson’s head. She then turned to put the meat in the kitchen, preparing to cook a dish with fresh meat for dinner and store the rest by drying it.
After placing the items in the kitchen, she returned to the living room, pulling her grandson along. She placed a toy car that her grandson used to love from before the apocalypse into his arms and watched as he played with it.
In truth, she had found something strange since the end of the second year after the apocalypse. Something odd was happening to both her and her grandson. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly was strange.
But Grandma Yu had a feeling, ever since the second year after the apocalypse, her grandson seemed to have stopped growing taller. At first, she would often trim his hair, but later on, not only did she not need to cut his hair, but her own hair also hardly seemed to grow.
Furthermore, due to the limited number of superpowered individuals in the neighborhood and their limited resources, they had undertaken a mission earlier this year. Grandma Yu, being observant, noticed that she seemed to be less appealing to the outside zombies? It was as if her flesh had lost its attractiveness to them.
With these worries and speculations in her mind, she recently began to feel that she never seemed to get hungry during meal times. She even tried skipping a few meals and found that she still didn’t feel hungry. She had to eat like a normal person while trying to conceal her abnormality.
She had a nagging feeling that she had changed, much like Xunxun. And it wasn’t just them; a few others in the group had also noticed that their hair growth had slowed down. But at this moment, she couldn’t dare to say anything.
“…This is fine, Xunxun. Grandma will take care of you. If one day things really become unbearable… Grandma will either keep you inside forever or, perhaps, we can leave together and find a place outside. There’s still so much space and resources out there.”
Yes, if one day they truly became like Xunxun, there was no need to stay trapped here. They could go outside and live freely.
The former villa complex, which now looked more like a small fortress from a distance, had erected high, sturdy walls all around.
Though most of the villas within the complex were still standing, they had divided them with a wall into two parts.
One part was inhabited by normal humans, while the other part was designated for those who had turned into zombies along with their families.
The issue of humans transforming into zombies due to their body temperature dropping to a certain point had been discovered in this base earlier than in the official bases.
However, only a minority of the transformed zombies refrained from harming people, and combined with the agreement reached by the group when they were still working together, they temporarily placed them on the other side of the wall when one side had practically turned into zombies.
After all, this villa complex was different from the city—the area surrounding it was mostly populated by mutated animals!
What would happen if they released the zombies outside? They didn’t need to think to know. But for now, they could only do this temporarily.
They would consider moving later, once they had dealt with their current situation— who would have thought? They had chosen this base specifically to avoid trouble, but in the end, they had trapped themselves. Moreover, anyone, whether human or zombie, would be trapped here.
Thanks for the update
These chapters about the other bases aren’t too interesting, but they show very well how the world is changing, and how much better Wei Xuan and Du Hang have it.
Thank you for the update!
Thanks for the update ❤️❤️❤️
So even the little community govern by this grandma us slowly changing. Former comrades helping the small living humans…Such fate.
Thanks for the chapter!
I really like the life’s of Grandma and Xunxun
Thank you for your translation!
So many good zombies…
Eventually all human will become zombie or semi zombie. Eventually they will live together as a whole new community,living in a new normal. ” Lady Zhang where is your son? Haven’t seen him lately” ” oh, he got zombified at work. Probably he need to recuperate at home for awhile then maybe he can start working again 😄”
lmao 😂