Chapter 51 - Peashooter

"Okay, guys, do you want to meet a new friend?"

"Vii!"

"Chirp!"

"Squeak!"

"Then, let's go to that village and collect Brain beads!"

Little Ivy stretched out two vines and then started swinging from one branch to another, heading to the north where the village was located.

Yang Zhang started singing Chandelier by Sia again. His pets also started singing because Yang Zhang taught them the song, making some sort of bizarre duet in the middle of the forest.

"1 2 3, 1 2 3—"

"Chirp!"

"1 2 3, 1 2 3 —"

"Squeak!"

"I'm gonna swinggg from the—'

"Viii!"

Yang Zhang enjoyed his afternoon swinging around and singing with his pets until he saw the sight of an abandoned village that the old woman mentioned.

"Ivy, pull up!"

Little Ivy pulled up, allowing Yang Zhang to take a good look at the village from a tall branch.

The village should be smaller than Xi Feng's bronze cow village. But there were indeed a few zombies wandering around the outer village, and there were probably more wandering inside.

"Okay, I need to refill my ammo first," Yang Zhang said. He looked around for a river, and after he found it, he told Little Ivy to swing in that direction.

He let his pets find fruits to eat and drink in the river first while collecting pebbles to refill his gauntlet gun. After the preparation was complete, Yang Zhang commanded, "Little Ivy, go to the village's west side. I saw it's less crowded compared to the rest."

"Vii!"

Little Ivy obediently swung to the west side of the village and then landed behind a tree.

Yang Zhang quickly hid behind the tree and stuck his head out to check on the zombies wandering around the west gate.

"Okay, there are three zombies. I can take them down alone," Yang Zhang said to himself. He couldn't use any of his pets right now because Chestnut would generate a lot of noise with its electricity. Spicy Wing needed a long charge time before it could do any meaningful damage. Little Ivy… yeah, she was still scared of zombies, and she was currently hiding inside his sleeve.

Yang Zhang climbed the short tree and then aimed his gauntlet gun. He squinted at one zombie, and then—

Bang!

"Grrrrarrh!"

The pebble hit the temple of a zombie, but it wasn't an instant kill. It did stagger the zombie, though.

The other two zombies looked at their fellow zombies and then returned to their previous activity of wandering aimlessly.

Yang Zhang aimed again at the previous zombie, and he shot twice.

Bang! Bang!

"Grrhh…" Yang Zhang hit the head two more times, and the zombie was down with his dark blood leaking from the holed skull.

Yang Zhang did the same for the other two, he aimed at their weakest spot, but he really needed three shots to take one down, which was far from efficient.

"Three zombies, and they already depleted my ammo by half, tsk!" Yang Zhang clicked his tongue in annoyance.

He climbed down from the tree and walked towards those three zombies. Yang Zhang then grabbed a medium-sized stone and cracked the zombie's head by repeatedly bashing it a few times until it cracked in half.

The brain from a zombie was black and rotting. It was also only half the size of a normal human with the Brain bead in the middle.

Yang Zhang used a stick to scrape the stinky zombie brain and found the Brain bead intact. He collected the Brain bead and put it inside the tote bag on his shoulder.

He did the same on the second one and found another Brain bead, but when he cracked open the head of the last zombie he killed, the Brain bead was already shattered because of the pebble he shot.

"Dang, so we ruined one Brain bead," Yang Zhang sighed pitifully. "Well, at least we get two Brain beads! We should find a place for shelter first while planting this Brain bead inside the pea."

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

"Vii…"

Yang Zhang found it difficult to find pebble within the shape and size that would fit his gauntlet gun, and the pebbles that had been shot were already chipped or cracked.

"Well, that gives me more reason to make my own ammo," Yang Zhang said as he looked down at his pea plant inside the tote bag.

Yang Zhang looked at the sun that started setting, and he could hear the grunt of a zombie near him. He didn't think it was possible to come inside the village right now because it was way too dangerous, especially with his ineffective pebble gun.

So he carefully looked around for a place to rest for the day, and after he found a small cottage near the entrance of the west gate, he went in and closed the door carefully.

"Okay, this place should be safe for the night, I guess," Yang Zhang said in a low voice because this was still around an area with zombies wandering nearby.

"Guys, you can come out now, but don't make noises, okay? We're still near many zombies."

"Vii…"

"Squeak."

"Chirp?"

"Ah, are you asking when will we go all Rambo on them?"

"Chirp!"

"Well, I think we can start raiding tomorrow morning. Because I really need a better way to stock my ammo or at least stronger bullet than just pebbles," Yang Zhang said. He put down the tote bag containing the pea plant in a pod and two Brain beads he had just collected.

"And that's why we're going to make a new friend!"

"Vii!

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

Yang Zhang wiped one Brain bead with his shirt until it was clean and then carefully planted it inside the soil of the pea plant until the Brain bead touched the root.

He closed the soil and nodded, "Well, we should wait for the whole night, and we will meet our new friend tomorrow morning."

"Chirp?"

"Yes, then we can go full Rambo on those zombies tomorrow as well, now let's just wait."