Chapter Nine: Hunting Expedition

A piercing wail echoed through the empty corridor.

The female zombie was in the room below Lin Dong’s apartment—she had lived there when she was alive.

At this moment, the door was slightly ajar, open just a crack.

The sobbing came from within.

Lin Dong pushed the door open and saw the female zombie kneeling in the living room, her back to him, trembling shoulders wracked with sobs.

"Woo... woo... woo..."

Yet zombies had sharp hearing. Even the faint noise of the door moving startled her.

She twisted her neck a full one hundred and eighty degrees with unnatural agility, her face contorted in a feral snarl, ready to attack.

But when she saw it was Lin Dong at the door, her roar cut off abruptly. The savage features melted into a fawning, almost pitiful expression.

"Woo... woo... woo..."

Through her weeping, the female zombie was sending a message.

Lin Dong understood it clearly. Translated, it was: I’m so hungry, I’m so hungry, I’m so hungry, I’m so hungry...

Every note of her sobbing conveyed those three words.

"Glutton..." Lin Dong thought to himself. "She already ate fresh flesh today—my other two underlings aren’t hungry, but she’s here bawling!"

"Woo... woo..."

The female zombie seemed to understand his reproach, bowing her head in embarrassment, her cries now plaintive and ingratiating.

Lin Dong didn’t dwell on it. With a casual flick, he tossed a corpse into the room.

It was the thug he’d killed earlier.

Fresh meat instantly roused the female zombie’s excitement.

"Hehehehehehehe..."

Her eyes widened, letting out an eerie laugh. In a flash, she lunged at the corpse, tearing off a piece of flesh with her jaws.

Apparently, she could laugh as well as cry.

But her chilling laughter was far more terrifying than her sobs.

Lin Dong also noticed how fast she moved—her powerful, well-shaped legs left afterimages as she ran.

No surprise, given her athletic prowess...

As she gnawed with wet, smacking sounds, the room filled with the stench of blood, accompanied by the noises of chewing and tearing.

The entire scene, feeding a zombie like a pet, was utterly bizarre.

If any normal person saw this, they’d be frightened out of their wits!

"Eat by yourself—the smell..."

Lin Dong turned to leave.

He’d just showered and didn’t want to stink of gore—much like how a regular person would avoid getting hotpot or spicy broth odors on their clothes.

Meanwhile, the zombie doctor and the fitness coach zombie were in the next room.

Neither made a stir, so Lin Dong didn’t bother feeding them.

Apparently...

The zombie who cries gets the meat.

Returning to his apartment, Lin Dong settled onto the sofa, mulling things over.

This way of sitting back and consuming supplies was not sustainable.

Although he still had a vast stock of flesh in his storage space, it would eventually run out.

At the dawn of the apocalypse, resources were relatively easy to find. But in a few days, they would become desperately scarce.

Lin Dong decided he ought to venture out and restock.

So he picked up his phone and opened WeChat.

He went straight to Xu Shan’s chat.

She had already sent him a flurry of messages—he hadn’t replied, and there were even missed calls.

"Hubby, how are you? Why aren’t you answering my calls?"

"Woo woo woo, are you alright? I’m really worried about you."

"Please… please reply to me soon!"

"Don’t let anything happen to you!"

"Woo woo, pick up the phone, I miss you so much, bring some supplies and come find me."

Messages like these filled the chat.

Clearly, Xu Shan was frantic with worry.

At last, Lin Dong replied.

"I’m still here."

It wasn’t long before the screen showed she was typing...

Her reply came quickly:

"You’re alive! Thank goodness!!! Why didn’t you answer my calls? I’m so worried!"

"There are zombies all around me—I’m afraid answering would alert them, so I put my phone on silent."

Lin Dong wasn’t lying. After all, he was surrounded by zombies...

Xu Shan continued:

"I miss you so much. Alive or dead, I just want to see you one more time. Can you come for me?"

"Alright, I’ll come find you tomorrow."

"Okay!!" Xu Shan seemed almost giddy. "I’ll be waiting in my dorm. You must come! Bring as much food as you can—we need to survive!"

"Alright."

A cruel glint flickered in Lin Dong’s eyes, and the corner of his lips curled.

Time to collect some "supplies."

...

The next morning.

Lin Dong changed into a clean tracksuit. He studied himself in the mirror—his handsome face was expressionless.

Since becoming a zombie, he retained human consciousness, but his body’s changes had made him emotionally colder and more detached than ordinary people. This gave him an air of unruffled composure.

He went downstairs.

A medium-sized delivery truck was parked at the curb—the same one he’d used to haul goods from the supermarket.

He climbed into the driver’s seat.

Then he sent a signal to his three minions: time to hunt.

Howls echoed throughout the building.

The female zombie was the fastest of them all, racing down the stairs like a gust of wind, her mouth issuing those uncanny "hehehe" laughs, her face exuberant.

After descending a dozen floors, she evidently grew impatient and crashed through a window in the stairwell.

She leapt from above, drifting to the ground unharmed, then crawled into Lin Dong’s truck.

The second to appear was the fitness coach zombie. His physique had grown even more enormous, muscles swelling to grotesque proportions, his skin ash-white and veined, towering nearly two meters.

He was as strong as an ox—every step seemed to shake the ground.

The apartment door, already half-open, was too narrow for him. He simply smashed through it, bursting outside in a frenzy.

Watching his rampage, Lin Dong nicknamed him—Tank.

Once Tank was aboard,

The zombie doctor was the last to emerge.

He moved slowly, neither hurried nor sluggish, with a composed air. After getting into the truck, he even took the initiative to close the cargo door.

Lin Dong floored the accelerator.

The truck roared onto the street, its powerful engine sending it careening forward. Zombies and wrecked cars alike were either sent flying or crushed beneath its wheels.

Stirred by the commotion, the zombies they passed howled, but being one of their own, Lin Dong was not attacked.

He drove straight toward Jiangbei University.

The female zombie, excited by the impending "hunt," emitted her eerie laughter from the back of the truck.

But Tank, the fitness coach zombie, was confused.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a hunt? Why was he made to sit in this "black box"?

Lin Dong drove recklessly, smashing obstacles, the truck lurching wildly. Tank’s heavy body was tossed about by the inertia.

Fortunately, the ride was short.

Soon, Lin Dong arrived at Jiangbei University. Many zombies roamed near the gate.

He plowed right through them and drove straight to the women’s dormitory.

His three zombie minions leaped from the truck.

Tank, finally freed, gazed around with fierce eyes, noticing the scenery had changed completely from before he entered the "black box."

With his limited intellect, he couldn’t comprehend what had happened.

Had entering the "black box" transported him somewhere else?

"Rooooar—"

When Tank realized this, he lifted his head and let out an earth-shattering howl.

The bellow was so mighty it shattered the dormitory windows nearby, sending lower-level zombies fleeing in terror.

Even Lin Dong was startled and turned to look.

"What are you roaring for?"

"Roar! Roar! Roar! I don’t even know what I’m roaring about!!!"

Tank howled back, confused himself.

"......" Lin Dong was speechless. "What an idiot..."

...