Childhood Memories

The Zombie King Domain enveloped the Two-Headed Wolf, radiating an intense pressure.

The giant wolf's body immediately trembled, as if it had been plunged into the deep sea. An enormous pressure bore down on it, its limbs went weak, and with a "thud," it actually dropped to its knees.

"Whimper, whimper~~"

It let out mournful cries, like a defeated dog. The ferocity had vanished from its eyes, replaced by terror.

It was as though a single glance from Lin Dong had forced the giant wolf to kneel.

The scene before them

was simply too shocking.

It seemed the Zombie King Domain exerted tremendous suppression over mutated beasts as well.

"Th-this..."

The survivors stood dumbfounded. They had never expected things to end this way.

The man before them was far too powerful.

Meanwhile, Lin Dong was pondering something. The giant wolf had two heads—did that mean it had two Brain Cores, or just one?

To verify the answer,

Lin Dong stepped forward and used his dagger to pry open the wolf's heads. He discovered that each head actually contained a Brain Core.

Unfortunately, the Brain Cores were rather small.

They were inferior to the awakened one from earlier.

If an awakened person's Brain Core was a cherry,

then the Two-Headed Wolf's were more like small cherries.

Lin Dong devoured both Brain Cores.

They still tasted delicious, and their energy was pure. He absorbed it all, and his vitality grew stronger once again.

Then,

he picked up his dagger and licked the blood from its blade.

He found that the Two-Headed Wolf's blood tasted excellent as well. The energy contained within it far surpassed that of cow blood or chicken blood.

"Not bad..."

Lin Dong was very satisfied. With a wave of his hand, he stored it in his storage space, intending to take it home and feast on it.

As for the living people behind him, Lin Dong did not spare them a glance.

There was little point in killing them.

It was like running a livestock farm. He could keep them around to continue their bloodline, or wait until they became awakened before killing them.

Lin Dong's body passed through the wall.

He vanished like a ghost.

The people behind him were so shocked that they could not speak for a long while. They had never expected the terrifying giant wolf to be killed just like that.

"What kind of monster... is he?"

When Lin Dong returned home,

Su Xiaorou had already finished the day's housework.

"Boss, I washed all your clothes. You can change whenever you want."

"Mm. Go rest."

Lin Dong said.

However, Su Xiaorou covered the back of her neck with one hand and shook her head.

"Boss, my brain feels so itchy. Am I about to awaken?"

"Oh?"

Lin Dong glanced at her and observed her for a while before speaking.

"Go wash your hair."

"..." Su Xiaorou was speechless. Her hopes were shattered, and she turned to leave the room.

Lin Dong took a hot bath and changed into his freshly washed clothes.

Then he tied on a spotless white bib.

He came to the dining table, picked up his knife and fork, cut a piece of meat from the wolf he had just hunted, and began eating.

The wolf meat tasted good and had plenty of chew.

It was like an ordinary person eating beef jerky.

The television in front of him was still receiving survivor signals.

"There are monsters! Not only have wild animals mutated, but some have fused with zombies. I just filmed this with a drone—everyone, take a look!"

Lin Dong chewed the meat and raised his eyes toward the television screen.

It showed a giant python as thick as a bucket. Yet the strangest part was that it had grown a zombie's head!

It coiled around a house, looking utterly terrifying.

This was because the giant python had devoured too many zombies and fused with them.

Nor was that all. Many Official Shelters had also released reports of fused monsters.

For example, there were huge spiders with human faces, as large as sedans, covered in fur, with silk tougher than steel rebar.

There were also rats as large as sows, their backs covered in human heads.

They were packed together densely.

They were still letting out agonized howls.

"Perfect with a meal..."

Lin Dong muttered inwardly.

It was clear that the outside world remained fraught with danger. Mutated monsters were everywhere, with escapes and killings unfolding at every moment. One careless mistake could cost someone their life.

Human survivors not only had to guard against monsters, but also against their own kind. For food or beauty, they would slaughter one another, completely casting off their disguises of kindness.

However, that bloodshed and violence had little to do with Lin Dong.

He lay low in his clean home.

He even had a maid waiting on him.

His life was extremely comfortable.

It was practically a completely different world from outside the building.

Moreover, three underlings guarded the outside, and the number of their underlings had already reached over a thousand.

Whether human awakened or mutated beasts, none dared to cause trouble here lightly.

And so, Lin Dong lay low for another ten-odd days.

During that time, he consumed massive quantities of flesh and blood—more than a hundred tons in total!

The meat could not stop...

Lin Dong's strength advanced by leaps and bounds.

Now, once his Corpse Domain was unleashed, its range had doubled to a full twenty meters, and it was even more powerful and enduring.

However, in the past few days,

Lin Dong noticed helicopters frequently roaring through the sky outside his window. Human activity had become much more frequent.

According to the intelligence he had gathered, this was because more human awakened had emerged and were conducting rescue operations everywhere.

By now, the Jiangbei City Official Shelter had grown to fifty thousand people, including seven thousand awakened.

They had also compiled a list of the top one hundred awakened, numbered 001 through 100.

Their strength was ranked from strongest to weakest.

Number 001 was the strongest, while Number 100 was the weakest.

Of course, this was all based on data analysis. No actual combat rankings had been conducted.

Besides that, they released information every day about rescue teams sent out, preventing survivors from mistaking them for someone else or being tricked away by people with ulterior motives.

That day, Lin Dong happened to be watching television.

Most of the network had collapsed by then, leaving little programming. Only signals transmitted by the shelter's radar could still be received.

"Today's rescue team update: We have dispatched rescuers Cheng Luoyi and Sun Xiaoqiang, two awakened individuals. They will soon land in University City. Survivors nearby, please wait for rescue."

"Hmm?"

Lin Dong had not paid much attention at first, but upon hearing those two names, he set down his wineglass and looked carefully at the screen.

He saw that the television

displayed photographs of two people.

The first was a girl with blunt bangs and long, straight black hair. Her skin was exceptionally fair, and her large, round eyes were pitch-black but completely devoid of luster, making them seem especially hollow, as though she had no emotions at all.

Still, the girl's looks were unquestionably top-tier.

Combined with that expressionless face,

she possessed an unreal sort of beauty, almost like a doll...

The second was a man with dark skin, hollow cheeks, and naturally curly hair. Most strikingly, one of his eyes looked straight ahead while the other stared off to the side, giving him an air of profound "wisdom."

Placed beside the girl's photo, the man's photo created an enormous contrast in appearance, like the difference between clouds and mud.

Yet these two people

were both familiar to Lin Dong.

His gaze involuntarily drifted to the photograph hanging on the wall. It had been taken at the orphanage and contained nearly all of his childhood memories.

Those two people were both in that photograph.

Lin Dong remembered Cheng Luoyi most vividly. They had often played together as children, but later, the director said Cheng Luoyi had a mental illness and sent her to a psychiatric hospital. He had never seen her again after that...

Lin Dong also had some memories of Sun Xiaoqiang.

He remembered that Sun Xiaoqiang had a congenital defect and was intellectually disabled. His eyes had been misaligned since childhood, and his parents had abandoned him.

That reminded Lin Dong of a classic incident. When Sun Xiaoqiang was twelve, he had kept a hamster. Later, when the hamster fell ill, Sun Xiaoqiang directly fed it rat poison...

The photographs on the television completely stirred the memories buried deep in Lin Dong's heart.

He had not seen his childhood companions for ten years.

He just had not expected

the two of them to end up together and form a rescue team...

"One lunatic and one idiot—can they even rescue anyone???"