Yangyang's dilemma

Zhang Yi shook his head. He was still wondering himself. Why did it feel as if that guy had suddenly sprouted spikes all over and was stabbing everyone he saw? Did he have a time of the month like women did?

"Come on, let's go too, in case Nan Shao can't handle it." He stood up as he spoke.

By the time the two came out, Nan Shao had already killed two zombies. He had opened the door just wide enough for one person to pass through. The table was still braced against it, but its other end now rested against the wall, so no matter how strong the zombies were, they couldn't push the door any farther open. This way, only one zombie could enter at a time, making them even easier to deal with than outside. The only problem was that the space was too narrow. Once a few bodies piled up, there was no room to turn around. Hearing the two come out, he glanced back before taking on the next zombie. Seeing them standing side by side on the stairs to the first floor irritated him all over again. With a thud, the zombie's head parted from its body just as it poked through the gap.

"Watch out!" Zhang Yi saw the zombie's head bounce as it hit the floor, its mouth wide open as it snapped at Nan Shao's calf. He hurriedly shouted a warning and flung the machete in his hand at the same time. It collided with the head just in time, knocking it away, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. "It's too cramped here, so you need to be even more careful. Whatever's on your mind, you'd better put it aside for now." He walked over to pick up his machete and spoke to Nan Shao, who had yet to recover, his words carrying a distinctly earnest note. Remembering how his own past had been stirred up that day, nearly getting him bitten by that old zombie, and how Nan Shao had saved him, his voice grew much gentler toward the end.

Hearing the concern in his voice, Nan Shao's thoroughly irritable mood suddenly brightened.

"Nothing's on my mind." The corners of his lips lifted slightly, though his tone was a little unnatural. "If you've got nothing to do, help me move these bodies and heads away so I don't get hurt by accident next time." Getting along like before wasn't actually that hard, he thought. Of course, he wouldn't admit that he was afraid Zhang Yi would grow closer to other people if he kept acting awkward. No matter what, he would never give up his place as Zhang Yi's best partner.

"Sure." Seeing him return to normal, Zhang Yi couldn't help wanting to laugh. He couldn't understand how a man who looked so steady could have such bouts of temper.

Li Muran had watched coolly from the sidelines for quite a while, feeling that something wasn't quite right. But she couldn't figure out what it was just then, so she couldn't be bothered to think about it any further and went over to help Zhang Yi drag the bodies away. Working together, the two soon cleared the stairwell again. After that, Nan Shao cut down a zombie, and they dragged it away, working very efficiently. With no other threats this time, Nan Shao killed more than twenty zombies before retreating to the back and letting Zhang Yi take over.

"How many are left?" After three rounds of taking turns, Nan Shao had to wait ages for a single zombie to come in, and couldn't help asking Zhang Yi.

"Seems like... there aren't any left," Zhang Yi answered uncertainly. He glanced back at Li Muran, since she was the one who had told him that. "Really none left?"

Li Muran nodded. "I looked out the window. It's very empty outside, so there probably aren't any left. But it doesn't hurt to be careful."

Hearing this, Nan Shao couldn't hold back any longer. He dragged the table a little farther toward the stairs and opened the door wider. Even then, no more zombies surged inside. All three immediately grew excited. Usually, they were the ones being chased by zombies; never before had they looked forward to zombies appearing like this. Though their hands were getting weak from all the hacking, they had to admit that this was their most triumphant moment since the apocalypse began.

They closed the door and first carried the sofa and table back into the room. Only after checking through the window again that there were no zombies outside did they open the security door and walk out. Some headless bodies lay scattered across the concrete in front of the building, the ones they had killed earlier. Apart from those, the surroundings were completely empty. There really wasn't a single living zombie left.

"Why were there so few?" Nan Shao asked, puzzled.

"It wasn't that few. Including the ones we killed last time, it should be over two hundred. This residential complex is pretty quiet. There usually aren't many people around. I suspect those two hundred or so all came in from outside," Zhang Yi explained. Although zombies elsewhere would also be drawn over by the sounds their kind made while feeding, even the keenest hearing and sense of smell had a limited range. Beyond that range, they naturally couldn't pick up the corresponding signals. There were very few people around this complex to begin with, and survivors who had broken in to gather supplies had killed zombies here several times, so this number wasn't all that surprising.

"So does that mean there might not be any zombies left in that stairwell?" Nan Shao pointed to the place they had entered on their first visit, his mind getting to work.

"We'll have to look to find out," Zhang Yi said with a smile.

"There are still lots of Corpse Crystals on the street outside that we haven't dug out," Li Muran, who had remained silent, suddenly said.

"Then let's collect what we left behind last time first," Zhang Yi replied without thinking. They were going upstairs for Corpse Crystals anyway. With the zombie threat gone, there was naturally no reason to pass up the ones outside.

Chapter 32: Yangyang's dilemma

On the street, they simply chopped off all the heads whose Corpse Crystals hadn't been removed and brought them back to the room where they had stored zombie heads before, waiting to dig them all out together later. In the stairwell of the first unit, only four or five zombies remained on the top floor, and Zhang Yi and the others dealt with them on the rooftop.

They gained quite a lot that day. Not only did they obtain nearly two hundred Corpse Crystals, but they also gained a wealth of experience in handling and killing zombies. After all, they had previously spent most of their time running away, and had actually spent very little time facing zombies head-on. Of course, there was one other result: both their arms almost felt as if they no longer belonged to them. After resting, even lifting them a little was agonizing.

On the drive back, they ran into members of the Vanguard Team, who no longer looked quite so arrogant. When Wang Yuanwei saw Zhang Yi and the other two, he even gave them an unexpected nod of greeting, though he said nothing more. Otherwise, it would only have made them uneasy.

"Set aside enough for rent and shared expenses, then let's divide the remaining Corpse Crystals among us. From now on, we'll each use our own for cultivation and personal purchases," Zhang Yi said when they got home. He hadn't said much before because they had earned so little. Keeping all the Corpse Crystals together, with none of them having any private savings, would lead to trouble sooner or later. Besides, although he couldn't cultivate, he needed to set something aside for himself and Yangyang, in case they split up one day or Yangyang awakened an ability and they found themselves in dire straits again.