WEF - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: You Even Grow Muscles When You Turn into a Zombie...

It took Iron Face a long time, with Zhao Jin's help, to sort out the entire timeline.

About four hours earlier, Ning Dali had made her last appearance at a market outside Fertile Base. She bought nearly two hundred Points' worth of supplies, then drove away.

Not long afterward, an uproar erupted online. Zhuang Yuezhen and Wang You took their little car out, sneaked into one of Ning Dali's hidden outposts outside the Base, and found large quantities of blood and food there.

The pair kept quiet about it. The moment they saw a refrigerator full of meat, they switched sides, grabbed the refrigerator, and raced straight to Fertile Base. They traded it for Points overnight and made their home inside the [Shield].

Not only did they settle in there, they even declared that they were financially independent and would never leave Fertile Base's [Shield] again.

"The two of them are actually this sort of person?!" Iron Face's eyes went wide. "The boss asked them to help find a home, and they stabbed her in the back. I really was wrong about them."

"Speaking of which, does what they did count as theft? Wouldn't that violate [The Law]? They stole so much meat. Is the Base not going to do anything about it?"

Zhao Jin, dark circles hanging beneath her eyes, was silent for a few seconds before saying, "[The Law] did not condemn them. That means Ning Dali has already joined the Extremist Eaters."

Taking food from the Extremist Eaters was not a crime. It was snatching food from a tiger's jaws and protecting it.

They were not only innocent; they had actually rendered a service.

"Damn!" Iron Face slammed her fist against the table. "Think how much pain the boss must be in after her home was raided."

"Calm down. Don't show so much sympathy for the Extremist Eaters. Mind your allegiance." Zhao Jin reminded her, then steered the conversation back to business. "I came mainly to ask whether you're planning to buy any supplies... We can offer you 2% off!"

Zhao Jin looked at Iron Face the way a drowning person looks at a last lifeline.

"The meat Zhuang Yuezhen and Wang You brought into the Base really is plentiful, and its quality is excellent too. If we miss this chance, we may never taste anything this good again in our lives."

Of course, the meat was also exceptionally expensive, far beyond the means of ordinary people.

"I have no plans to buy any." Iron Face said loudly.

She had already made up her mind. She was going to find Ning Dali.

Zhuang Yuezhen and Wang You were traitors who had betrayed Ning Dali. Iron Face had a backbone of iron and would never bend. She would never betray Ning Dali. She would follow the boss fate had chosen for her for the rest of her life.

For this, she was willing to follow Ning Dali into the Extremist Eaters!

Hold on. If she joined the Extremist Eaters, her Points would be worthless.

Iron Face's tone abruptly changed. She seized Zhao Jin, who looked dejected and was about to leave. "Sell me those two hens you just mentioned."

"Those two hens cost two hundred Points," Zhao Jin said, stunned. "Are you planning to leave yourself with nothing?"

She looked at Iron Face suspiciously. "You aren't thinking of..."

Iron Face nodded honestly. "That's right. I am."

Zhao Jin: "..."

"If you're willing to sell them, bring the two chickens over now," Iron Face said with fearless determination. "If you're not, send someone to kill me right now."

Zhao Jin's face became a riot of conflicting emotions.

In only one tenth of a second, she understood Iron Face's decision.

If Ning Dali were merely powerful, that would be one thing. What made her even more irresistible was the fact that she also possessed a Resurrection Ability.

For Iron Face, who grew stronger by enduring beatings, spent every day on the brink of death, and devoted herself to becoming stronger, this was an irresistible temptation.

At Ning Dali's side, she could take a beating without fear and make progress without reservation.

Iron Face's decision was hardly strange. If she had hesitated, that would have been strange. Ning Dali was the boss heaven had made especially for her.

Zhao Jin gave Iron Face a despairing look, took several deep breaths, and decided to pretend she had heard nothing.

After all, Iron Face was only preparing to join the Extremist Eaters. She had not joined them yet.

You have to be flexible when it matters. You cannot hurt your own performance record.

"Wait a moment. I'll go get them for you. Do you only need two chickens? Want me to throw in two bottles of shelf-stable milk?"

"I have two hundred twenty Points on hand. Pick whatever combination you think best." Iron Face waved a hand, her attention already fixed on the smart device.

She weighed every word as though drafting a law that would decide the life or death of the entire world.

Boss, where are you?

No. That sounded like I was probing for Ning Dali's whereabouts, which could easily cause a misunderstanding.

Boss, I've come to find you.

That did not work either. It sounded as if I had come seeking revenge.

Boss, I've come to follow you.

That still felt strange somehow, as if I were bestowing the favor of my loyalty upon Ning Dali.

Her face solemn, Iron Face summoned every ounce of talent she had possessed in her life and finally typed a line.

Boss, I've joined the Extremist Eaters too.

She sent it, but a sensitive word was detected, and the app blocked the message immediately.

Iron Face: "..."

She typed again.

[Boss, I've joined the Extrem-ist Eaters too.]

Filled with longing, she sent the message and waited for Ning Dali's reply.

For four days, Iron Face did not receive so much as a single word.

That was because Ning Dali had thrown away her old smart device partway through the journey, bought a new one out there, and activated a new anonymous number.

After setting up the number, she found an empty house, lay down quietly like a corpse, and stayed there for four days.

She lay there until day and night blurred together, until the Shadow King flew into a rage, stormed over, and demanded to know whether she had given up on living.

Ning Dali had, of course, not given up on living. She simply had her own rhythm.

For one thing, she had only just returned from the Federation, and it was not a good time to stir up trouble.

For another, her Countdown needed time to settle.

Finally.

"I am dissecting Plague's persona," Ning Dali explained to Ying in the corner. "Don't you think the two days you originally gave me were too short? If I found Plague in only two days, it would easily arouse her vigilance and suspicion."

Ning Dali slowly pressed down the hand Ying had raised. "If you cannot tolerate a little delay, you will ruin the greater plan. We have to proceed steadily."

"Wary? Suspicious?" Ying curled her lip in a cold smile and treated Ning Dali's analysis with open disdain. "That is impossible. Do I not know her?"

"She is just a child starved for affection. After her Ability upgraded, she had no friends left. You need only beckon, and she will come scampering to you, ready to bare her heart and soul."

Looking at the confident Shadow King, Ning Dali raised her eyebrows high and clapped. "It seems you know Plague very well. You must have drawn up a similar plan before. I assume it succeeded?"

Ying faltered. Countless failures flashed through her mind, and she was about to flare up in shame and anger.

"Remember," Ning Dali said with a smile, "if you kill me now, I will turn into an infant. You will have to wait another eighteen years before carrying out the mission."

Ying: "..."

This was plainly a weakness in Ning Dali's Ability. Why, then, was the Shadow King the one being held in her grip?

This was not right. This was very wrong.

"You are not afraid I will kill you after the mission is complete?" Ying ground out through clenched teeth.

Ning Dali looked at Ying in shock. "Didn't you promise that I would receive a Single-Character Ability when the mission was complete?"

Ying: "..."

She did seem to have said that.

"Actually, I am being this brazen only because I trust the promise you made to me," Ning Dali said. "If I did not believe you, if I did not believe I would receive a Single-Character Ability, how could I dare provoke you again and again?"

"Could you doubt your own words? Would the mighty Shadow King go back on her word?"

Ying replied instinctively, "The mighty Shadow King, of course, keeps her word."

"Then are we equal from now on?" Ning Dali frowned. "If you have confidence in your promise, I hope you will set your attitude straight from now on. Honestly, I have already become dissatisfied with you."

Ying: "..."

She lowered her head in thought for a moment and was successfully persuaded by Ning Dali.

When she spoke again, Ying's tone was gentler than ever before. "Then what exactly is your plan? You have to tell me. You cannot keep leaving me to wait. I am very busy, too."

"Do you know where Plague is now?" Ning Dali asked.

"Somewhere," Ying said, offering a useless answer. "I can take you to the area nearby, and you can fight your way in yourself."

Fight my way in?

"What do you mean?" Ning Dali asked.

Ying's expression grew more serious. "What I am about to tell you is very important. When you hear it, do not be afraid, do not put on that idiotic expression, and under no circumstances may you tell anyone else."

The idiotic expression... Is it somehow connected to the Federation's Stupidity-Dampening Aura?

Ning Dali considered the question and prepared to give a performance.

Ying took a photograph from the shadows and tossed it in front of Ning Dali.

"Actually, Plague's Ability turns injured Ability Users into Zombies."

What? Zombies?

Zombies still existed in this world? She had spent hours surfing online and had never once heard anyone mention them.

For a moment, Ning Dali doubted her ears. She took the photograph in a daze, glanced at it, and froze.

"You are just digesting this information, not failing to understand it, right? You are not actually stupid, are you?" Ying asked nervously.

"I understand." Still gripping the photograph, Ning Dali looked at the familiar species shown in it and spoke in a slightly colder tone. "Tell me more about the Zombies."

"The name Plague has two interpretations. One is the plague of disease; the other is the plague of a plague god. When Plague first awakened her Ability, she was merely unlucky. But later, as her Ability grew stronger, she began spreading plague."

Strange Ability Users began appearing around her one after another. They had no self-awareness, were highly aggressive, and could pass the virus from one to another.

"We fashionably called this sort of Ability User a Zombie."

"Whenever a horde of Zombies appeared, Plague would hurry over to eliminate it and clean up the mess she had made."

"Now that Zombies have appeared, it means Plague is nearby."

Ning Dali silently gripped the photograph.

"Are you sure... the Zombies were created by Plague? Specifically, when did this begin?"

Ning Dali had seen the species in a Federation news report fifteen years earlier.

It had been a major scandal for the Federation. A laboratory funded by the Federation government had been conducting illegal human experiments and had created monsters that were neither human nor ghost.

When the story broke, it caused a public uproar. The laboratory was shut down immediately, the people involved were punished, and the professor in charge of the experiment was sentenced to death.

The Federation had never seen another "Zombie" since then.

But from Ying's description, that did not seem to be quite true.

All these years, "Zombies" had been appearing here.

Ying hesitated as she tried to remember. "Around fifteen or sixteen years ago?"

The timing matched.

So, had Plague created the Zombies, prompting the Federation to begin studying them?

Or had the Federation created them, framed Plague, and made this world's Ability Users deal with those troublesome Zombies?

Ning Dali was inclined to believe the latter because the Ability Users in the photograph did not seem hungry at all. At a glance, they looked like people born and raised in the Federation.

She lowered her gaze to the photograph and asked, "Do you know the Ability Users who turned into Zombies? I can see that their physiques are all rather solid. They are more robust than most people."

"How could we possibly recognize them? Sigh, after a person turns into a Zombie, both their appearance and physique change. They even grow muscles," Ying said gravely. "Isn't that fascinating and terrifying? Please, don't be afraid. Sis Yuan will bless you."

Ying: "..."

So even Single-Character Ability Users can be affected by the Stupidity-Dampening Aura? Could they really believe that?

Or do these Single-Character Ability Users know too little about the Federation to make a correct judgment, so that they can only use their Ability to explain away everything unreasonable? Ning Dali felt a faint sympathy for Plague, who had been made to take the blame.

"Actually, Plague is the only person I admire in the Extremist Eaters." Ying said with emotion. "She may be extreme when it comes to eating, but she still dares to act and dares to own the consequences. Whatever trouble she caused, she always cleaned it up herself."

After a moment of silence, Ning Dali said, "I admire her too..."

Get instant access to all chapters now.

Previous Table of Contents Next