章節 10: The Crystal Core
Shen Yize frowned in annoyance, but then breathed a sigh of relief. He asked once again, "Why are you sneaking around, huh?"
Jiang Zhi, who was a little behind Shen Yize and couldn't see clearly in the dark, asked, "Who's there? I can't see very well."
"Who else? Your friend Zhang Rui, huh!" Shen Yize's tone was filled with complaints.
Zhang Rui hobbled over to them, wide-eyed and with his hands clutching his flat stomach. He had a tired and slightly pale face as he said, "I'm starving. You guys left no food on the table."
Hearing that, Jiang Zhi lightly patted his forehead and chuckled, "Ahh, I've eaten everything. I forgot there were still people here."
"Hmm. Come on, I'll make something for you to eat. Jiang Zhi brought a lot of vegetables earlier," Shen Yize said as he led them out of the storage room and into the kitchen.
They sat at the dining table while Shen Yize struggled with the vegetables and cooking utensils.
"Where did you get vegetables in the midst of this world chaos?" asked Zhang Rui, looking at Jiang Zhi in confusion.
Jiang Zhi wasn't too confident to reveal about the space he had, so he quibbled, "Well, we always buy groceries ahead of time. We also have some dried vegetables. Just cook them, and they're ready to eat."
Half an hour later, Shen Yize placed the food in front of Zhang Rui and asked him to eat quickly. Looking at the food on the table, which was rather unusual as these vegetables had never been in the city's supermarket, Zhang Rui was very skeptical. He hesitated when he picked up his spoon.
"Yo, these vegetables... are you sure they're safe to eat?"
"Bro, I checked and it's safe. Plus, it's really good for your body."
"If I die after eating this, I'll haunt you, man."
"Relax, eat it before it gets cold." Actually, what made Jiang Zhi feel uncomfortable was thinking of Shen Yize, who had gone to the trouble of cooking for Zhang Rui. If he could, he wanted Zhang Rui to cook for himself, but he remembered that Zhang Rui had just woken up from a coma and his hands were still missing.
"How pathetic," Jiang Zhi thought.
Zhang Rui took his time to eat, and although Shen Yize's cooking was not very special, it was still edible, even better than his. After a while, Zhang Rui also showed a happy expression.
"Hey, my hands don't hurt anymore! And I'm starting to feel less weak." He looked at his best friend for a moment and continued eating while speaking, "You don't mess with this food, man! I'll eat and get better."
Jiang Zhi felt a little proud. "That's it, keep eating and you'll get better. Oh, and tomorrow you'll help us clean up the mess outside."
"Mess? What mess?"
Jiang Zhi looked at him lazily and didn't want to explain; he just said casually, "You also contributed to it, bro."
That night, they rested early to prepare for tomorrow's chaos. In the morning, Shen Yize woke up early and made breakfast with the vegetable soup Jiang Zhi brought from space. After breakfast, the three of them got ready to clean up the mess outside.
Shen Yize reminded them, "Don't forget to wear raincoats. This drizzle will last for a few days."
Jiang Zhi and Zhang Rui answered in unison. Then Jiang Zhi had another question, "What will happen when this rain stops?"
While putting on his raincoat, Shen Yize replied, "The zombie attacks will get crazier. Because even after the rain stops, the sky won't return to normal, and the sun will still be covered by thick clouds."
Staring at the sky covered in thick clouds and the sunlight not penetrating it in the slightest, Jiang Zhi again asked, "So when the sun rises again, the zombies will hide?"
"It's possible. I've never experienced that; how would I know?" Shen Yize shrugged and looked indifferent.
They were already wearing raincoats and armed to the teeth, ready to exit the base gate. There were many zombie corpses lying on the streets in various forms, whether burnt, hit by gunshots, and so on. The appearance was disgusting, coupled with the puddles of rainwater.
After pausing for a while and calming his shock, Zhang Rui said with a sigh, "Bruh, I only have one hand. Are you guys really going to make me work hard?"
Hearing that, Jiang Zhi and Shen Yize both looked at Zhang Rui with a look that said "Don't expect any mercy from us."
"What's the matter? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
Instead of answering him, Shen Yize glanced at Jiang Zhi on the side and said irritably, "We shouldn't help this guy, Jiang Zhi."
Jiang Zhi agreed with Shen Yize's words and replied viciously, "Yeah, exactly."
Zhang Rui was furious but helpless. He lowered his shoulders and exclaimed, "What are you talking about? That's nonsense!"
"Listen, Zhang Rui. If you want to survive in this chaotic world, you need to be strong and learn to handle zombies by yourself." Shen Yize patted his shoulder encouragingly and continued his lecture, "You can't rely on others to help. This is the best way to train yourself."
They never knew who they would encounter in the future or how strong the zombies were. All they need is to practice as much as possible and familiarize themselves.
Jiang Zhi nodded in agreement. "Shen Yize is right. You have to learn to rely on yourself, even if you only have one hand."
After a while, Jiang Zhi added seriously, "Don't worry, we'll find you a prosthetic leg when we go hunting out of the base."
Zhang Rui couldn't complain anymore, so he agreed quickly and followed Jiang Zhi and Shen Yize into the middle of the zombie mass. Each of them had a scalpel and a metal tube for storing zombie crystal core. They braved the spatter and dissected the zombies' heads one by one.
"Wow, the stench makes me want to vomit!" Zhang Rui touched the thick mask covering his mouth and nose, but the stench was too strong.
"Ugh! I'm really going to throw up!"
Jiang Zhi glanced at him disdainfully. "Why do you have so much trouble with change, man?"
Zhang Rui snorted in disgust, turned his face to the other side and said, "But seriously, Jiang Zhi! These corpses smell worse than a garbage dump!"
After a while, Zhang Rui ran to the side of the tree and vomited. His pale face grew paler and his hands trembled.
Jiang Zhi watched him for a moment and let out a long sigh. "Come on, man! Adapt or we'll be here all day!"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Zhang Rui pulled himself together after vomiting and started walking back to the pile of zombie corpses after organizing his mask. He worked hard and quickly understood how to scrape the crystal cores on the zombies' zombie heads.
Zhang Rui began to work frustratingly, following their orders.
Not far from his side, Shen Yize said encouragingly, "Hey, tear the zombie's head off with all your might!"
"It's not as easy as you think, you know!"
Shen Yize snorted and strutted to the other side, he was focused on his work and seemed unfazed by the stench and the disgusting rotting bodies on the ground. After all, Shen Yize had experienced it once.
Jiang Zhi walked up to Shen Yize and held the crystal cores in his hand, watching the coin-sized crystal stone emitting light. He asked Shen Yize, "By the way, can I throw this crystal cores into space?"
"Yeah, you can."
Jiang Zhi was a little excited. "Alright, I'll keep the healing-type and fire-type crystal core."
As if remembering something, Jiang Zhi looked back at Shen Yize and asked another question, "Hey, how can you tell the difference?"
Shen Yize tore off the zombie's head and took out a rare pure white glowing crystal cores. He cleaned the sticky black blood and showed it to Jiang Zhi.
"Look, this is a healing type crystal cores. It glows white. Since these zombies are weak, the light is not very bright."
Jiang Zhi stared at the crystal cores in Shen Yize's hand, then looked at the crystal cores in his hand that was emitting red light. "Oh cool, so red is the fire type!"
"That's right. The one you're holding is fire-type."
They talked briefly about the color of the crystal core before getting back to work. Jiang Zhi continued collecting crystal core and tossing them into space, where they turned to froth and disappeared. Looking at the zombie corpses, he felt they looked much better now.
However, Jiang Zhi was too immersed in his happiness to notice that one of the zombies was still alive. The zombie was about to touch his arm when Shen Yize suddenly appeared and smashed its head, grabbing its crystal core with skillful movements that left Jiang Zhi mesmerized for a moment.
"Stay vigilant!" Shen Yize's voice snapped Jiang Zhi back to reality, and he laughed apologetically. In contrast, Zhang Rui seemed to be struggling, complaining and almost vomiting constantly.
"I need time to adjust! Ahh, something caught my leg! Help! Someone help me!" he cried.
Shen Yize kicked the zombie holding Zhang Rui's leg, then executed it as before, looking flatly at Zhang Rui. "You should learn to deal with these zombies," he said.
Just as Shen Yize was about to say more to Zhang Rui, Jiang Zhi suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, the rain has finally stopped!"
Shen Yize looked up but didn't feel any rainwater. His expression turned worried, and he shouted, "Let's go back to the Zhang Ruias for now! Jiang Zhi, Zhang Rui, let's go!"
Jiang Zhi was confused, not wanting to leave his work. "What? I'm trying hard here, you know!"
"We need to return to base first. I have a bad feeling," Shen Yize replied.
"Seriously? We just started about 5 hours ago, and we still have to take out half the zombie army," Jiang Zhi argued.
"Trust me, we still have time to retrieve this one zombie crystal."
After some struggle, Jiang Zhi agreed, and they headed back to the base. The wind was getting stronger, and the temperature was dropping. They secured the gate tightly upon their return.
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