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Halfway through his shower, Qin Luo realized the little zombie was scratching at the door. With injuries all over him, washing was a real hassle. How could he possibly be as quick as the little zombie, who only had to soak herself and scrub away?

"Hey, hey, I'm coming, I'm coming! Stop scratching, your majesty. You're about to tear the door apart."

Qin Luo had no idea why Xu Duoduo had latched onto him. Her thoughts could no longer be judged by normal human standards. Since when did zombies listen to reason?

When he opened the door, he saw that Xu Duoduo had changed into soft pajamas. She had even taken off her combat uniform, looking much like she had when he first reunited with her.

And those blinking almond-shaped eyes looked so clear and clueless, no matter how he looked at them.

Before, they had darted about, her head full of little schemes. Now she was even worse off than she had been at the beginning.

Qin Luo braced one hand against the doorframe and studied Xu Duoduo. The little zombie actually seemed a bit embarrassed and reached out to tug at his training shirt.

He had no jacket on, only a dark green training shirt that really showed off his physique. A certain little zombie kept staring at his chest and abs.

"You're in trouble, Xu Duoduo. You seem even dumber than before. What if someone lures you away someday?"

Qin Luo sighed and swept back her soaking-wet bangs, giving her a slicked-back hairstyle. Fortunately, Xu Duoduo had a small face and delicate features. Exposing her forehead gave her a completely different look, one that even he found novel.

He kept brushing her bangs down, then sweeping them back up. "Hey, you know what? This is pretty amazing. Two completely different looks."

While he was playing with her hair, a young member of another squad happened to walk past. Catching Captain Qin "flirting," they blushed and looked at him as though he were a pervert.

Qin Luo froze in embarrassment. His gaze happened to meet Xu Duoduo's eyes, where the colored contacts had turned red from splattered blood. He wiped at her eye with a finger, but couldn't get it clean.

He simply scooped her up, tucked her under his arm again, and carried her away. "Oof, we need to do something about those eyes. I'll ask the others how to handle this."

And so, three minutes later.

Xu Duoduo sat on bedding spread over the floor, with Qin Luo behind her drying her hair. Bai Shu, Chen Xiaofei, and Wang Weihu sat opposite them.

All four men wore solemn expressions as they studied her colored contacts.

"Shouldn't we take these out?"

"Brother Qin, you'll have to do it. You put them in, so you take them out. Taking them out looks even trickier than putting them in."

"What's wrong with Little Class Monitor? Why does she seem so spaced out?"

Their defeat at the hands of the mutated snake person had admittedly been a little embarrassing, but what couldn't they get over eventually?

Before long, they found their stride again and stopped feeling awkward.

Qin Luo turned Xu Duoduo's head, holding her chin to tilt her face up, then lowered his own head to inspect her eyes. "The whole problem is that I'm scared to try, isn't it? Should we get someone who knows how? I'm afraid I'll poke her in the eye."

After saying that, he realized the three opposite him had gone silent.

Then he looked up.

Good grief.

All three wore indescribable expressions. Wang Weihu even rubbed his arms.

Sitting cross-legged, Chen Xiaofei let out a "Wow." "Brother Qin, are you about to kiss Little Class Monitor in that position?"

Bai Shu immediately clapped a hand over his mouth. "Sorry about that. My son doesn't know any better."

Chen Xiaofei exploded, struggling against his hand. "Mmph! Who are you calling your son?!"

Wang Weihu helplessly brought them back to business. "How about finding a girl who knows how to put in colored contacts? Assuming Little Class Monitor lets her take them out, of course. Also, do you guys really not think something's wrong with her? She's been like this ever since she used that finishing move."

He had brought it up several times without getting an answer. This really was unusual.

Bai Shu had Chen Xiaofei's head tucked under his arm and thoroughly "roughed him up." Once they had settled who was the father and who was the son, he straightened his crooked glasses and said seriously, "Probably an aftereffect? That move of hers seemed a bit like spatial compression. She compressed the snake person until it burst."

But that was only a guess.

Still, their line of reasoning wasn't wrong. They hadn't seen Xu Duoduo use it on previous occasions. When Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei arrived during the mutant monkey incident, severed limbs already littered the ground, and the chainsaw in her hands was still buzzing. But they hadn't witnessed what had happened.

So they couldn't determine whether she had used her ability or the chainsaw last time.

She hadn't fainted then. Although there had been plenty of mutant monkeys, they were only a nuisance. Apart from the slightly stronger monkey king, the others didn't even qualify as one-star.

At most, they were frenzied animals in the early stages of infection, not particularly hard to kill.

But this snake person had been three-star. Even the men had struggled against it, let alone a little zombie like Xu Duoduo. It would have been stranger if she hadn't suffered backlash.

Chen Xiaofei also sat up, his short hair thoroughly mussed. Folding his arms, he mused, "Tsk, tsk. When you put it that way, Little Class Monitor's finishing move is seriously powerful! It's just that overusing it can cause backlash and make her intelligence regress?"

Wang Weihu thought that reasoning made sense too. "We just don't know how long she'll need to recover. Or whether she can recover at all."

That made the conversation rather grim.

The three turned to see how Qin Luo would react. Though he could be unreliable at times, he was still their captain, someone they could depend on when things got serious. Besides, Little Class Monitor was his first love.

They might have been better off not looking. What they saw left them utterly speechless: Qin Luo was prying the little zombie's mouth open to inspect her teeth, even sticking a finger inside.

Unable to stand it anymore, Bai Shu threw a wet wipe at him. "Seriously! Did you even wash your hands before sticking your finger in her mouth?"

Chen Xiaofei wore an expression of utter disbelief, covering his face while leaving his eyes exposed. Pointing at Qin Luo, he said, "Brother Qin, how did I never realize what a pervert you were?"

Wang Weihu was dumbfounded too.

Qin Luo caught the wet wipe Bai Shu had thrown and hurried to explain. "Hey, I just showered! How could my hands be dirty? No, wait, I'm checking her teeth. Did you know she's grown little fangs? This is incredible!"

That frightened all three of them. Was Little Class Monitor turning into a full-fledged zombie?

Then Qin Luo followed up with, "Seriously incredible. They're so cute."

The three men's faces fell. Something was wrong with him. Had the earlier fight strained his brain too?

But then they caught sight of Xu Duoduo's fair, soft little face, her wide eyes, her small, pert nose, and those little fangs peeking out...

Fine.

Maybe she really was pretty cute?

But that wasn't the point!!

Looking at the wounds on Qin Luo's face, Wang Weihu noticed they had already healed considerably. Shocked, he said, "Brother Qin, how are the wounds on your face healing so fast? Come to think of it, wasn't your final move today more powerful than usual too? Are you okay?"

His words caught the others' attention, and Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei both looked over.

Qin Luo stopped joking and thought seriously. "At first, I really did feel completely drained. Like my brain just went blank for a moment..."

But at the time, all his attention had been on Xu Duoduo. Seeing her sitting alone in all that blood and filth, looking pitiful no matter how he looked at her, he had forced himself to go to her.

He hadn't had room to worry about anything else.

Bai Shu analyzed it calmly. "That's true. I just thought Qin Luo was an absolute beast, getting up with injuries that bad without anyone even helping him, and still carrying Little Class Monitor around. Thinking about it now, it really is unbelievable."

As he spoke, he pointed at Chen Xiaofei and Wang Weihu. "Don't you think that, despite how badly injured you two looked this time, you recovered much faster than before?"

After mulling it over, Bai Shu suddenly pushed up his glasses and reached a conclusion. "Maybe, just maybe, pushing ourselves beyond our limits can help us improve?"