Apocalypse: My Companions Are From The 3D District Chapter 7

# Chapter 10: Chun Li's Bedtime Story

The two backpacks filled with food and other supplies lay quietly on the counter.

The counter's perimeter had long since been barricaded with shopping carts, just in case zombies broke through the rolling shutter door during sleep.

Chun Li's breathing was heavy. She looked at the flawless young boy standing on the counter wearing only his underwear, swallowed her saliva, and lifted Li Pu down.

"No, I need a righteous reason. He's the rebellious disciple who defies his master—I can't be a master who forces herself on her disciple. I need him to stay by my side forever with guilt and gratitude." She suppressed the flames of Bathed in Fire, saving it for future indulgence.

Pinching Li Pu's tender cheeks, she spoke softly: "Alright, time to rest."

Seeing the single blanket on the floor bed, Li Pu was silent for a long moment.

"I want to watch the monitors a little longer, Master."

The moment Li Pu said this, Chun Li's face fell. Her eldest disciple, Li Fen, had been addicted to computers day and night, ignoring her. Now that she'd finally gotten her most beloved little disciple, she absolutely wouldn't allow this to happen again.

"You're not thinking of playing games on that computer, are you?" Chun Li's smile didn't reach her eyes.

Wrongful accusation! That monitor-watching PC—anything that could run games has been gutted. Play games? It can barely even boot up.

Li Pu grumbled inwardly but said nothing.

Chun Li, who had been obsessed with wuxia novels as a child, unconsciously slipped into her father's old-fashioned tone.

She still remembered how her father had personally torn up her treasured four-volume set of The Return of the Condor Heroes because of her grades.

It was because of this that when her eldest disciple, the little lolita Li Fen, enthusiastically introduced her collection of game cartridges, she could barely force a smile.

Thinking of this, Chun Li looked at Li Pu with some guilt.

But every woman harbors some hostility toward anything or anyone that steals the attention of the important man in her life.

Chun Li had already regarded Li Pu as half her lover. She absolutely wouldn't allow Li Pu to neglect his master for video games like her eldest disciple Li Fen!

"This is a war!" Chun Li silently resolved.

"No, Master. Look at the zombies on the monitor." Li Pu pointed helplessly at the screen.

On the monitor, carnivorous zombies and plant-type zombies had already started tearing into each other after sunset, though thankfully the supermarket hadn't been affected.

A mushroom mutant zombie covered in spores stepped forward, infecting and assimilating the other zombies at an alarming rate.

Li Pu and Chun Li watched in shock: Mushrooms, as spore-based organisms, don't need photosynthesis or meat—just water and organic matter for saprophytic living. They could survive a long time. This was indeed the optimal evolutionary form for this group of zombies. If they evolved just a little more to overcome their temperature dependency, the consequences were something Li Pu didn't dare imagine.

"This virus is twisted. It can transform cells in living organisms into plant or animal cells, evolves quickly, and can even choose its evolutionary direction based on the environment."

"Spore and mycelium transmission would definitely be faster than spreading through blood, saliva, or water sources."

Li Pu recalled a book he'd read: Life has three levels and stages.

Life 1.0: In its lifetime, it cannot redesign its hardware or software—both are determined by its DNA. Only evolution can bring change, and evolution takes many generations. For example, bacteria might evolve antibiotic resistance over many generations, but a single bacterium won't change its behavior. Bacteria, mice, etc., belong to Life 1.0.

Life 2.0: Can redesign a large portion of its own software. Humans belong to Life 2.0. Our hardware evolved, but our software—the ability to walk, read, write, calculate, sing, and tell jokes—is largely designed. Humans program our brains through the process of "learning."

Life 3.0: Can not only redesign its software to the maximum extent but also redesign its hardware, without waiting for slow evolution over many generations.

"Are these zombies actually in a Life 3.0 form? Or are they failed products of Life 3.0?"

"It's hard to tell if they have intelligence yet."

At this rate of evolution, Li Pu estimated it wouldn't be long before an army of spore zombies appeared.

"The system said this place has anomalies, zombies, and aliens coexisting. The real trouble is probably still coming." Li Pu's heart was unsettled.

"My rate of ability acquisition seems to be falling behind the zombies' evolution speed."

Deep in thought, Li Pu didn't notice that Chun Li had long since given him a brain-pillow wave, her two big white cats resting unabashedly on top of his head.

Chun Li took in everything on the monitor: "Tomorrow, we'll go to the police station first and find some guns."

She saw the worry in Li Pu's eyes and smiled gently: "We'll be fine. We'll definitely survive. Master promises you."

A strand of hair curved down, draping over Li Pu's shoulder. Her captivating eyes were filled with tenderness as she looked down at her beloved disciple.

Chun Li was no longer a lewd woman. She brought out the unique gentleness and wisdom of a mature woman, soothing most of Li Pu's anxiety.

And so, in a daze, he was coaxed into the blankets...

Li Pu snapped back to reality from the fragrance of orchid and blue: "Master, I should make another floor bed."

Chun Li smiled seductively like she'd gotten away with some scheme, firmly pinning Li Pu's hands down as her voluptuous body pressed against her beloved disciple.

The two big white cats pressed down on him, making it hard to breathe, and his foot seemed to have touched something indescribable.

Really big white steamed buns indeed.

"Two people are warmer. Master can protect you." Chun Li pressed cheek-to-cheek, persuading him.

"I still—"

The beautiful mature woman's face darkened: "Listen to Master. Don't make Master angry!"

"When Master gets angry, she eats children. Do you want to be eaten by me?" Chun Li extended her pink, agile tongue and licked around her plump lips in front of Li Pu. The nectar made a lewd sound as she stirred, and he could see the threads of desire in her eyes and mouth.

"Hehehe~ Let Master tell you a bedtime story~" Chun Li slowly pulled the blanket over both their heads.

"Am I... about to be crushed by a big truck?"

Minutes later, nothing happened.

The lights in the supermarket were still on, and from under the counter came Chun Li's vivid, animated voice.

"Harry Potter was no pushover, you see. Twin axes in hand, he carved through the fray without a shred of mercy—not for the fair maidens nor the flower sprites. In an instant, peonies turned to ash, roses to mud."

"Then Hermione spoke, her voice sweet as honey: 'Brother, did you come to save only me, or the other girls too?'"

"'Sister Hermione, in times like these, why not join me in the Order of the Phoenix? Let that old scoundrel Voldemort taste my might.'"

"Ron clapped his hands in delight: 'Well said! I've been saying all along, brother, why suffer this foul treatment? Let the two of us follow you to the manor, drag down that Voldemort, and seize his wretched throne! If he can sit on it, why can't our brother?'"

"Hearing this, Hermione's face went pale with shock: 'Brothers, crossing Tiger Trap Pass to reach that manor—it's a journey of a hundred thousand miles. Why put yourselves through this...'"

Having narrowly escaped disaster yet feeling an inexplicable sense of loss, Li Pu listened to Chun Li's rendition of Harry Potter and the Combined Edition of the Four Great Classics with utter resignation.

You said you'd tell a bedtime story, and you actually went through with it?

Seeing Chun Li eagerly awaiting his reaction, Li Pu had no choice but to play along.

"Master, you've got to admit—Harry Potter really is something else..."

Author's note:

Author's note: That Changban Slope was no pushover either—it was the famed Courtesan of the nearby pleasure houses...

Chapter 11: Fugitive Lovers

Chun Li gazed at Li Pu, who was pretending to sleep beside her pillow, pink little hearts practically floating from her beautiful eyes.

"Just like a little cat." She gently stroked Li Pu's sleeping face, then drifted off to sleep contentedly.

That night, Li Pu slept lightly.

So he knew that Chun Li had covered him with the blanket at least three times and kissed his forehead no fewer than ten times. He could only feign deep sleep to satisfy her joy in playing the role of teacher and mother.

In the haze between sleep and waking, Li Pu vaguely saw the couple who had died during the day. After thanking him and Chun Li, they scattered into specks of light.

Dawn.

"Vroom~ vroom~ vroom~"

"Crash! Clatter!"

The roar of motorcycles and the harsh screech of the rolling shutter door jolted them awake.

Chun Li quickly pressed herself over Li Pu to shield him.

She looked up at the monitor—a gang of Japanese bikers was attacking the supermarket.

The chaotic shouts outside filtered into the store.

"Crawl under the counter and wait for your master to come back!" Chun Li got up, wrapped Li Pu in the blanket, and shoved him under the counter.

"I..." Before Li Pu could speak, Chun Li grabbed a fruit knife and a frying pan and rushed out.

You wrapped me up so tight I can't get out or run away...

Li Pu started wriggling, finally managing to free himself from the mandarin duck quilt that still carried Chun Li's warmth and scent.

He hurriedly dressed while watching the monitor. On screen, Chun Li was confronting the bikers at the entrance, guarding the supermarket door with her life.

"As long as the bikers don't have guns, they're no match for Chun Li."

Li Pu recalled a scene from some work where Chun Li blew up a tank with a single Hundred Rending Kick: "Wait, even if they do have guns, it probably wouldn't matter?"

But then he noticed a corner of the monitor—the spore-spewing zombie had reappeared, and it had grown larger.

"Not good!"

Chun Li, with her keen senses, also spotted the zombie. Before the spores in the air could drift over, she made up an excuse to the bikers she was confronting and slipped back into cover.

Li Pu finished dressing and welcomed Chun Li back.

"Quick, Little Pu, we have to reinforce the door!"

Without a word, Li Pu joined Chun Li in pushing all the heavier shelves in front of the door.

His enhanced body handled the shelves with ease.

But outside, screams and wails came one after another.

Something kept pounding on the supermarket's rolling shutter, shaking even the shelves.

Li Pu quickly pulled Chun Li back to the counter to check the monitor.

The more he watched, the grimmer his expression grew.

It was the same group of zombies from yesterday's footage. Besides the spores spreading from their bodies, they had also retained the traits from their previous evolution.

Bone spurs, muscles, branches, vines.

Following the giant mushroom-headed zombie, they crawled out one by one from the bare soil of the green belt.

The spore zombie had converted them into saprophytes, feeding on the decaying plant and animal matter in the soil.

"They've found a new source of nutrients, but they're still interested in people and animals?" Li Pu watched as the bikers were brutally devoured by these zombies on the monitor.

"Master, what were they here for?"

Chun Li gasped a few times before speaking: "They said something about avenging their buddies—they found the remains of that biker gang from yesterday that got eaten by zombies, and we had the supermarket doors locked."

"But explaining didn't help. They claim it's revenge for their friends, but really it's for the supplies in the store and for me, a woman."

With that, Chun Li shot Li Pu a reproachful glance.

Everyone except you knows your idiot master has charm, so what are you waiting for? Hurry up and betray your teacher already!

Her inner complaints unending, Chun Li looked at Li Pu, who was staring seriously at the surveillance feed, and sighed helplessly: "Give it a few years—this kid should hit the age where he's interested in women by then."

A zombie with a massive fleshy bulb for a head let out a pained howl, then its skull suddenly burst open. Countless blood-red spores, like tiny mushrooms, shot out with the force of the explosion, piercing into the thugs' bodies. Even genuine leather biker gear couldn't withstand the bullet-like impact of the blood mushrooms.

Outside the supermarket doors, the stricken thugs kept wailing, pounding on the metal shutters and begging Chun Li to open up.

These evolved spore zombies were also drawn to the supermarket entrance by the commotion of the thugs.

The rolling shutter door had been battered and twisted by both zombies and thugs.

Gradually, the biker gang members turned into zombies, mindlessly repeating the motion of pushing the door as they had in life, while the spore zombies behind them joined in.

Seeing that the door might soon be breached, Chun Li and Li Pu sprang into action.

"Masks! Grab masks first!" Li Pu rushed toward the shelf where masks were displayed.

Chun Li, meanwhile, pulled out the cardboard she'd made yesterday in the residential building: "I was planning to use the welding torch and iron sheets here today to make something better—what a waste."

After taping it back together, she quickly grabbed the two backpacks stuffed with supplies and ran over to meet Li Pu.

"We're going out the back door of the supermarket—this place is done for!" She grabbed his hand and dashed toward the rear exit.

Li Pu took the lead and pushed open the back door.

Suddenly, a baseball bat swung at him. Li Pu dodged nimbly and saw who it was.

A few bikers who had been hiding in the surveillance blind spot.