Zombie

Zhu Jiusi opened his eyes abruptly and looked up at the sky.

It was raining... He had almost forgotten the last time he had been caught in a downpour.

In the previous round, he had a vehicle. Although it was only a wheelbarrow, it had a canopy after one upgrade, so he would just crawl inside whenever it rained.

Getting caught in the rain had become such a niche concept.

Zhu Jiusi looked up at the sky; this rain would likely last for a long time.

Great mountains, deserts, dark forests... the path of a Path Seeker was almost always defined by such environments.

The temperature was currently that of late autumn. For a lone traveler caught in a heavy downpour, who knew how many would die on this rainy night?

In this place, hypothermia was nearly impossible to stave off.

Every ordinary change in weather was a natural disaster for a Path Seeker.

Zhu Jiusi sighed with emotion, then jumped up and let out a series of snorting, pig-like grunts.

Rain is good!

Rain means water!

He leaped out of his nest and let the heavy rain wash it clean before rooting at the structure until it collapsed, turning it into a proper basin to watch the rainwater accumulate.

He drank his fill.

He then took out the empty gourds he had saved over the past few days and used his hooves to press them into the water. They filled with a gurgling sound, and he stuffed them into his pack.

He even opened the unopened gourds he had obtained from Heart Without Darkness, one after another.

Open one, fill one; this time, he had stored at least forty or fifty liters of water. At the very least, he wouldn't die of thirst for the next ten days.

Journey Survival had its own patterns. A hearty, drenching rain meant that for a long time afterward, the probability of finding drinking water in gourds would drop sharply.

Zhu Jiusi wasn't the only clever one. A glance at the Scroll showed that others had already been reminded to store water. They didn't know the patterns of Journey Survival, but they knew how hard it was to find drinking water!

Almost no one was sleeping; they were all in the group chat sharing their methods for storing water.

Someone even posted a lively short video.

Rain Seeker: A picture of a fish leaping in a shallow puddle.

A fish had been parched for five or six days and finally saw water. The joy and excitement were something others could hardly understand.

Crack!

A thunderclap illuminated the night, and the heavy rain was mixed with hail the size of fish eyes, pelting down with a clattering sound.

The weather in Journey Survival changed instantly, without any warning.

Just like the setting and rising of the sun.

Heavy rain, gale-force winds, blizzards, hail... these were the types of weather Path Seekers least wanted to encounter.

Such weather was often accompanied by more powerful monsters.

But the higher the wind and waves, the more valuable the fish; this type of weather also meant a higher probability of encountering high-grade gourds.

He was still in the novice protection period, so no monsters had appeared yet.

Very good, he was about to make a fortune.

Zhu Jiusi jumped up, packed away his nest, and charged into the night, braving the heavy rain and hail.

He checked the Scroll as he ran.

Sparrow: "Damn it! My newly renovated nest was smashed through by three hailstones! Does anyone have wool or bird feathers? I need to repair the nest."

One Step Won't Walk: "Why repair it? Who knows how long this hail will last? You want to fix it just to have it smashed again?"

Sparrow: "...That makes sense! But the nest is soaked and heavy as hell. How am I supposed to travel tomorrow!"

One Step Won't Walk: "Just wait for the rain to stop and the sun to come out. It'll dry out after half a day in the sun. Besides, you can fly, traveling is easy for you."

Sparrow: "Don't mess with me! Flying isn't easy at all. Only the first fifty miles are easy. If you want to go further, you hit strong winds everywhere. If you aren't careful, you'll be blown backward..."

Journey Survival was generally balanced; no single race had an advantage that put them in a league of their own.

Birds could fly, but not without limits. Fish on land also had a huge advantage—what kind of proper fish could breathe on land and roll on a skateboard just by flapping its tail?

Even for Zhu Jiusi, having transformed into a Wild Boar, while his health was high, his intelligence was only 4.

His spirit and IQ were both affected. If he weren't someone with the rich experience of having done this once before, it would be questionable whether he could have survived the seven-day novice protection period.

The group was a mix of excitement and worry.

Some were happy to finally have enough water to drink their fill. Others feared hypothermia in the rainy night, as they didn't even have the ability to start a fire.

A thousand people, a thousand worries; Zhu Jiusi couldn't help them. Regardless, as a sturdy Wild Boar, he didn't feel the cold.

He crashed through the curtain of rain and hail, and after running three miles, he saw a gourd vine with a Bronze Gourd shimmering under the lightning.

Zhu Jiusi was overjoyed. As expected, the dual blessing of night and extreme weather brought a great harvest.

He ran toward the gourd vine, but before he could reach it, it suddenly flickered.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning struck the gourd vine, and two more Bronze Gourds visibly sprouted from it, while the original ones grew by a third.

Beautiful!

This was the second time Zhu Jiusi had witnessed how the gourds grew.

In Journey Survival, this is how all gourds are formed; flash floods, lightning, earthquakes... any place where energy is released can condense into a gourd.

If there is no such event, they require a long, slow growth period.

With lightning providing the energy, this vine should have produced a Silver Gourd. But since the beginner protection period does not allow for Silver Gourds, it resulted in three Bronze Gourds on a single vine instead.

These must be true masterpieces among the Bronze Gourds!

Zhu Jiusi stood motionless for over ten minutes, and only after confirming there was no residual charge on the vine did he dash forward, yanking the vine and the gourds off together.

He placed the gourds at his feet and pulled out a stopper.

White mist sprayed out, followed by a sudden "Awoo" cry.

It was shrill and eerie.

Zhu Jiusi instantly retreated, his front hooves pawing the ground, his hind legs braced, hooves half-buried in the soil, assuming the perfect posture for a sprint.

The mist from the gourd was scattered by the heavy rain, revealing the monster.

Humanoid, emaciated, covered in a layer of white, frost-like fuzz.

A zombie!

The moment it appeared, it let out a long howl and leaped toward Zhu Jiusi.

Its fingers were tipped with pitch-black, inch-long nails, already poised to pierce as it hung in mid-air.

But the instant it jumped, Zhu Jiusi kicked off with all four hooves, transforming into a porcine tank as he charged.

Thud!

The impact felt like hitting a cold coffin lid; the corpse was hard as iron.

Zhu Jiusi rammed into it sideways, sending the airborne zombie tumbling until it slammed into the ground.

Yet, it sprang straight back up. The Wild Boar's brutal charge had caused it no damage at all.

The stench of rot hit him with the wind and rain.

Despite the reek of death, the zombie's eyes held a flicker of vitality, its head tilted at an unnatural angle as it stared fixedly at the carotid artery on Zhu Jiusi's neck.

The surging blood within Zhu Jiusi held an irresistible attraction for it.

"Wooo—"

With a shrill, long howl, Zhu Jiusi felt a buzzing in his mind, and the entire world seemed to tremble.

It felt like being seasick.

The creature's cry struck directly at the soul, and unfortunately, Zhu Jiusi's spirit stat was only 5!

The zombie let out another howl and lunged again. Zhu Jiusi rolled on the ground, barely dodging the pounce, and tumbled into the nearby woods.

The cold rain hitting his head brought him back to his senses. Zhu Jiusi crouched low, watching the zombie, and retreated step by step, his eyes filled with a hint of terror.

Fear is the best nourishment for all things of the netherworld.

The zombie's howl became short, excited, and bloodthirsty as it lunged at Zhu Jiusi, unleashing its Corpse Howl.

It leaped into the air to strike the boar, only to suddenly realize that the fear radiating from the pig had vanished.

Instead of dodging, the pig arched its back and charged straight forward, slipping right underneath it.

Then, it turned around and rammed!

Thud!

With a dull thud, the zombie, having just landed, was sent flying by a headbutt from Zhu Jiusi, crashing straight into the mist outside the woods.

The rolling and dodging from before had merely been to lure the zombie step by step toward the mist.

Zhu Jiusi's brain might not be the sharpest, but the instinctual experience gained from three years of Journey Survival had not been lost.

Zhu Jiusi shook his head, still reeling from the impact of the Corpse Howl, and turned back toward the road to check the items that had fallen out of the gourd.

It was a lump of mud.