Zombies

Seeing the zombie not far away, Taylor instinctively realized he had discovered an entirely new species, at least one he had never encountered before. He immediately pulled a brand-new notebook from his canvas bag and wrote New Species Record on its title page.

"Urgh, urgh, urgh..."

The distant zombie seemed to sense Taylor's presence and limped toward him. As it walked, the rotten flesh on its body stirred in the breeze, and the writhing maggots upon it continuously released the foul gases trapped within the decaying meat.

After sensing that foul stench, Taylor frowned and raised a hand, summoning a wisp of wind that condensed into a rope and bound the limping zombie.

He had long since used the Flame Medal to form a thin, pale-red flaming shield over the surface of his body, preventing infection from imperceptibly tiny creatures or certain viruses.

Taylor walked over to the bound zombie and silently observed its every movement. He discovered that it truly had no rationality whatsoever and possessed an intense urge to attack flesh-and-blood creatures—or him personally. Even when tied up and sprawled on the ground, it still scraped forward, trying to take a bite.

After taking out a small knife and cutting off a piece of rotten flesh, the zombie showed no reaction and continued stretching out its head, trying to bite off a piece of his flesh. Pale-green wind elements supported the rotten meat as Taylor observed it carefully. After probing it with mental power, magic power, and the like, he found that it truly was an ordinary piece of rotten flesh, devoid of all vitality and long stripped of life force.

Next, he cut off and extracted the zombie's hands, feet, nails, bones, and more for research. The zombie displayed no unusual reaction throughout the entire process, continuing to cling to its original goal.

Through dissection, preliminary mental-power analysis, and simulated probing, Taylor concluded that the zombie relied almost entirely on its skeleton to conduct the magic power within its body and maintain its basic functions. A transparent hexagonal crystal had condensed inside its brain.

In essence, this hexagonal crystal resembled a mixed crystallization of life force and mental power. It also absorbed the boiling magical elements around it to control the body's movements.

As for why it possessed such a powerful desire to devour Taylor, according to Taylor's own speculation, the zombie was essentially a creature that had already died. Its life force and mental power had condensed into a transparent crystal, and it was precisely because of this that the instinct born from that transparent crystal—the instinct to strengthen itself—controlled the body's actions, causing the zombie to "crave" flesh.

To further verify his conjecture, Taylor did not remove the transparent crystal from the zombie's head. Instead, he caught two rabbits in the forest and fed them to it. Afterward, he found that once the flesh devoured by the zombie entered its stomach and intestines, and was later removed through dissection, the rabbit meat had become withered and decayed. The transparent hexagonal crystal in the zombie's head had imperceptibly grown a tiny bit stronger.

The bound zombie had effectively become Taylor's experimental material. Fortunately, it had no sense of pain, touch, or any other sensation.

Given the conditions currently available, Taylor had already conducted every experiment he could. The notebook he carried had been filled with five or six pages of speculation, conjectures, analysis, and preliminary information regarding zombies.

Fire elements surged in his palm and condensed into a fireball. After burning the zombie to ashes, he retrieved the transparent crystal from the pile of ash and placed it in a bottle. Then Taylor stepped into the small wooden house.

After entering the wooden house, the first thing that came into view was a collection of strange items resembling furniture, yet inscribed with all kinds of magic arrays.

In another room that looked much like a kitchen, he noticed that magic runes and surrounding magical energy channels had been inscribed beneath two iron pots. The magic runes in the middle belonged to a completely different system from the sorcery runes normally used by Wizards, but judging from the heat radiating from them, their meaning—or rather, what they represented—should be related to burning.

Next, Taylor noticed a refrigerator inscribed with freezing runes, softening runes carved into the sofa, brightening runes everywhere, and cleaning runes carved into the floor. Though the wooden house was small, traces of magic runes could be found everywhere.

Many magic runes and magical connection channels remained activated. Clearly, the owner of this cabin had been the zombie from earlier.

Although the accident had occurred very suddenly, the sturdy construction of the house, the stability of its magical energy channels, and the highly active magical elements in the surroundings had prevented any mishaps. It had not been frozen into ice or burned into ash and remained completely intact.

Even Taylor, a Wizard apprentice, could not help but marvel at how closely the people of this world had integrated daily life with magic, and how proficient their techniques were.

"Sure enough, every world has its merits. The civilizations and wisdom they give rise to are what Wizards yearn for and pursue most."

Now, Taylor felt that the entire wooden house had become a treasure trove of knowledge. He immediately picked up a brand-new notebook and wrote Knowledge Records and Analysis of the First Plane on its title page.

He intended to record everything he had discovered, everything he had seen, and all the magic runes still operating. He had a premonition that if he could fully comprehend this world's entirely new magical system, it would benefit both himself and his future path as a Wizard immensely.

In a vast, desolate city filled with magical elements, zombies of all sizes wandered through the streets. Some appeared bloated beyond measure, while others looked exceptionally thin and small. These zombies roamed about aimlessly, not knowing what they needed or what they wanted to do.

In the deepest part of the city, Construct Puppets with energy crystals installed inside them, bodies covered in magical patterns, and magical power as their driving force continuously patrolled around a barrel-shaped chamber.

Countless energy crystals were buried beneath this barrel-shaped chamber. Through one energy circuit after another and magic arrays of natural attributes, they were converted into magical power rich in life force and transmitted into the chamber.

Inside the enormous chamber was a fleshy egg-like tumor. It looked like a twisted mass of condensed flesh and blood vessels, yet it slowly rose and fell, constantly absorbing the natural power converted by the magic arrays.

Beside this twisted thing, a skeleton lay in a corner against the wall. Next to it was a sheet of paper written in this world's language.

In the end, I was right. This world cannot restrain me. Only the clash between endless death and endless nature can give rise to a "god" that will lead the entire world forward...