CH 3

Hao Jian grabbed the edge of the window and lowered her head, stopping herself from seeing anymore of the bloody scene.

She plays a lot of games, including horror games like doomsday survival. She’s also seen a lot of bloody pictures, especially when playing from the first-person perspective. After so many years of playing, she’s become accustomed to it, but she still needs time to digest what’s going on when it happens in real life.

After the death of the neighboring aunt, the zombie son still hasn’t noticed her existence. She sat on the ground and calmed down, but her mind had already worked its gears to the maximum.

“I remember that the neighboring aunt kept bragging that her son had bought a house and car in Focheng. If he came back from Focheng, according to the incubation period of the zombie virus, its been 12 to 48 hours. Its because of him that the aunt died, which means he was infected in the past two days.

It takes nine hours to come back from Focheng without traffic jams on the expressway. I was stuck in traffic all the way back that day, not to mention the chaos this past two days. Assuming that some people are aware of the presence of zombies and will prioritize leaving first. I’m afraid that leaving the city and going back home is no longer possible since its already in chaos. A large number of people will come to the countryside next.”

The system could no longer hold itself back and voiced out.

“The host isn’t worried about the influx of infected people?”

“First of all, I understand what you’re worried about, but the city center that’s an hour away from here can only be regarded as a small 18-tier city, and 70% of the people there relocated to major first-tier cities to make a living. And secondly, this is an overseas Chinese village, There isn’t much but there are many who have migrated to overseas villages.”

Hao Jian finished speaking before peaking out her head and glanced at the neighbor’s window. The zombie son has lost its interest on the lifeless aunt and began to wander around the house. Hao Jian remembered that when the aunt opened the door for her son, the aunt said that he didn’t look good. She couldn’t see the son clearly because of the dim sky and distance but the aunt probably saw the symptoms of the later stage of zombification1-skin color change.

Hao Jian wasn’t sure on how long it would take for these symptoms to appear before complete zombification or whether these symptoms would differ in the human body.

“If the host wants to find an answer, she can start a survival mission and increase her level.” The system once again began to tempt Hao Jian.

“Can you stop reading my thoughts without permission and give me a little privacy?”

“The host can be rest assured that the system does not understand emotions and the host’s thoughts are nothing but a bunch of data.”

Hao Jian wanted to ignore it but instead noticed something.

“Are most people not aware of the symptoms of zombification? Otherwise, why would someone who has experienced nausea, vomiting, and other unspeakable symptoms choose to go back to their hometown? Not to mention he infected his mother!

“Mental stress can cause nausea and vomiting and it could also be easily ignored in a stressful environment. These symptoms area really hard to guard against!”

Hao Jian said in a serious tone.

She picked up the now cold tea in the hall and returned to the window. She looked at her neighbor whose skin has turned to grayish-white, blood in his mouth, hands, and body. She continued observing him while taking a sip of her tea.

After finishing her tea, she knocked the window using her glass. After tapping the window a few times, her zombie neighbor finally discovered her existence. Instead of wandering aimlessly, the zombie turned aggressive and rushed towards her, wanting to break through the anti-theft net.

Although they were neighbors, the distance between the two houses was more than ten meters. Before Hao Jian made a sound, the zombie wasn’t aware of her. However, she can’t be sure that sound is the only way for zombies to discover humans, and the only way to test these possibilities is to deliberately make zombies notice humans.

After having another drink, she filled her thermos with water and stuffed it in her mountaineering bag. At the same time, she cleaned up her current food stocks – two packs of instant noodles, one pack of ham – and her scattered things.

Hao Jian returned to the window and found the zombie still having trouble against the anti-theft net. It didn’t take the zombie too long though since it even used its teeth to break free. How could the stainless steel anti-theft net be bitten off just like that?

She breathed a sigh of relief. “It seems that even if they become zombies, they explode in strength that’s incomparable to humans but they won’t be invincible.” Just like in movies and games. The zombie has already smashed the anti-theft net and rushed over.

She flung her mountaineering bag over her shoulder and went downstairs. After cutting off the power supply, she walked around the kitchen but suddenly remembered that their kitchen knives had been stolen away by thieves earlier. If it weren’t for this, she wouldn’t have given away all their valuable things.

Fortunately, she remembered that she still had the shovel she bought in town to remove the weed from her mother’s grave, so she grabbed it and walked out the door.

“The system cannot understand what the host is thinking nor the host’s actions.” The system’s voice rang again.

“You seem to talk to me more frequently recently.” Hao Jian retorted back.

“According to the instruction requirements after the binding, the system is required to remind the host carefully.”

The corner of Hao Jian’s mouth twitched. “So in other words, you need me! If I die or become a zombie, then the benefits you’re suppose to get will be gone. Because of the said benefits, you need to answer me, question, or give me a reminder.”

The system didn’t respond. Hao Jian was satisfied with herself. After confirming that there were no zombies around, she opened the iron gate and went out.

She didn’t know where the Zhisheng2 that made her feel the life in her surroundings had gone. The forest seemed to become more and more silent. Hao Jian felt stunned.

She walked around towards the door on the neighbor’s house. She peeked through the iron gate and saw the car with a messy appearance across the courtyard. And behind those closed stainless steel doors were bursts of crashing and chilling screams.

She reached out and fiddled around for the lock, after finding out it was unlocked, she opened the gate pretty easily. After entering, she kept an eye for some movement on the door of the house while checking the car door to see if it’s open.

There was a pool of dried blood on the passenger seat and a scarlet patch on the fluffy foot pads. There were pillows, backpacks and other things messily stacked on the back seat. The windshield was a little broken with blood stains on it. The car looked like it went through a fierce battle.

She went and check the trunk of the car. It had an extra tire and a pile of debris.

“Neighbor3 Hao, what are you doing?” A rough and somewhat unpleasant voice suddenly sounded outside the courtyard.

Hao Jian looked up and found that it was a widower living in one of the houses behind her. In terms of relationships, he was the son of her aunt’s grandmother’s uncle, he was of the same generation as her father.

“Are you stealing from Hao Fang’s house?!” The uncle’s eyes widened. He then soon heard some knocking behind the door. “What’s going on? Is Hao Fang’s mother inside the house? I’m so far away but I heard someone screaming, did something happen?”

The uncle was about to come closer to Hao Jian but before he could, she pointed the shovel towards the uncle. The uncle’s black, thick eyebrows wrinkled. It was clear that he was very unhappy.

“What did you do? Did you steal something?”

“I didn’t steal anything.” Hao Jian replied with a guilty conscience.

“Then what are you doing here? Hao Fang’s mother?” The uncle said as he was about to knock on the door.

“Don’t knock on the door. Go home and lock the door. Something happened to them.” Hao Jian responded.

“Something’s wrong with them? Neighbor Hao, put it back. What happened to them?” The uncle was a little anxious which made him knock on the door harder. The stainless steel door almost got deformed due to his continuous banging.

Hao Jian moved away from him and positioned herself on the other side of the window before shouting at him.

“You’ll know what I mean if you come over and take a look.”

The uncle ran up to Hao Jian with doubts. Through the window, one could see the body of the neighboring aunt with the broken neck as well as the zombie son who rushed towards the noise. The uncle was startled upon seeing the corpse and then by the strange and terrifying appearance of the zombie son.

“Hey! This, this-” The uncle became angry, “Hao Fang killed his mother?!”

He seemed to be irritated by the scene in front of him. He quickly reached for his trouser pocket and took out the key. He then ran up the door angrily.

Hao Jian was taken aback by the uncle’s behavior and called out to him, “Don’t open the door!”

But the uncle didn’t listen. Hao Jian saw that the key has been inserted into the door and everything was already too late, so she ran away. As the door opened, she could hear the uncle yelling, “What are you doing?! You dare hit me?! Let go of me! Ah-“

Hao Jian didn’t look back and ran straight to the forest. She didn’t know if there were zombies chasing after her. All she could hear was her ragged breathing and pounding heartbeat.

It wasn’t until she couldn’t feel her legs anymore that she slowed down before looking back. The uneven density of trees and bushes blocked her field of view, there were no zombies or people chasing after her.

“The host is really heartless.” The system commented in her mind.

“What heartless?”4

“If you didn’t let him see that scene, then maybe he wouldn’t open the door.”

Hao Jian knew that the system was referring to the uncle so she asked, “You have eyes, didn’t you see it?”

“This system version 2018 has no eyes, but reads the data in the host’s brain to perceive.”

Hao Jian hummed a smile and pulling out the thermos and took a sip of water before replying coolly, “Even if I didn’t let him see that scene, he would’ve ended the same way.”

“This system is unable to understand the host, please elaborate.”

“That uncle has the key of Hao Fang’s house. If they weren’t close to one another, why would the aunt give him a key? Plus, uncle is a widower while aunt has been a widow for many years. Life in the village is boring, it’s normal for old people to get together and do something. I showed him that scene to show him that it was hopeless and he still has a chance to save his life, but love can really be blind.”