Book 1 Chapter 2: TheApocalypse Cometh!
Chicken eggs are a rich source of protein aswell as being a versatile food ingredient. In the later stages of theapocalypse, eggs have long ceased to exist.
Other than these, Ye Chen also bought largequant.i.ties of foods that were both nutrient rich as well having a long shelflife. As for meats and vegetables; he didn"t bother with those at all. Freshvegetables were excellent, however they expired too quickly. Meat products onthe other hand would be instantly contaminated during the apocalypse causingrapid decay. It was pointless stock up on those.
Due to Ye Chen"s ma.s.sive food purchase, thesupermarket attendants had to arrange for all the goods to be delivered to the hotelwhere Ye Chen was staying. After thinking it over, Ye Chen decided to requestanother room directly beside their original room for storing all their food.
When Ye Zhu saw the mountain of food, she wasnothing short of astonished. Her delicate mouth formed the shape of an "O",even then, she fought back the urge to question Ye Chen.
With the food problem dealt with, Ye Chenglanced at the time; it was already 3:00 in the afternoon. He left the hoteland headed towards a hardware store in order to purchase five watermelonknives. He originally thought to buy a pair; however he considered the factthat they might be damaged while fending off the zombies, so he decided to buysome extras as a precaution.
Lastly, Ye Chen calculated his remaining funds.He had roughly eight thousand left, he took out a thousand and spent it onbottled mineral water, it would be his contingency when mutant rats started todamage the underground water pipelines. As for the remaining seven thousand, hedumped it all into purchasing gasoline.
Gasoline was quite the volatile substance whichwould explode when ignited; he could fill an empty can or water bottle with thestuff in order to serve as a makeshift explosive. This would serve as asuitable weapon in case he came across a powerful mutated beast.
When he was finally done, it was already 5:00in the afternoon. Ye Chen took the watermelon knives and returned to the hotel.There, he wearily glanced at Ye Zhu for a moment, without a word he shut thedoor, dropped the knives in a corner and collapsed on the bed.
"Let me sleep first, later no matter who knockson the door, do not open it, remember! Wake me up when its 7:00." Ye Chensleepily told Ye Zhu before falling into slumber.
He was simply too tired….
Right now was before he strengthened his body.After running all over the place for the entire day, he had long sinceexhausted himself. Therefore he almost instantly fell asleep when he dropped onthe bed.
Ye Zhu mildly knitted her slender brows. Shesat on the sofa in utter silence, Ye Chen"s slew of incomprehensible actionssimply left her flabbergasted.
Thud thud!
From beyond the door came the sound offootsteps.
Ye Zhu glanced at her watch; it was already7:02. She had prepared to awaken Ye Chen, however she hesitated when she sawhow peacefully he slept. She simply couldn"t bear to disturb his slumber. Whenshe heard the footsteps, her brows mildly furrowed as she got up to approachthe door.
The footsteps outside seem to react towards thenoise. Whatever it was, it had already decided to move on, however, itinstantly spun around and vigorously hammered the door with loud bangs.
"This hotel"s attendant is simply too full ofvigor!" Ye Zhu thought. She twisted the doork.n.o.b to open the door.
"Rrrargh!!"
The door had just opened before a horriblysavage growl akin to a wild beast entered Ye Zhu"s ears. Immediately after, shewas greeted by the sight of a man dressed in a black tuxedo pouncing towardsher. The man"s face was covered with pustules oozing rancid yellow pus, hispupils were milky green and his teeth were protruding. He looked every bit likea jiangshi! His fingernails were pitch black and three inches long, sharp asknives.
"Aaah!" Ye Zhu had never encountered such aterrifying person, she was instantly sent into a frantic state of terror. Shesubconsciously held out her hands to protect herself while closing her eyestightly in a shriek.
Sphhhlt!
Blood splattered to the side followed by a bodyhitting the floor with a thud.
"Don"t be afraid!" a gentle voice like calmingnature entered her ears. Ye Zhu opened her eyes in astonishment, she saw YeChen whom she didn"t even know when had awakened, carrying a watermelon knife,its blade glistened with blackish blood, and the frightening man from beforehad his head split wide open and was laying on the ground not moving an inch.
"Bi-big brother…. y-you killed someone!" Ye Zhustuttered in panic.
Ye Chen gave a smile while patting hershoulder, saying: "You go back into the room first; I"ll explain things to youin a bit."
Ye Zhu glanced at him, after giving it a thought;she eventually turned and entered the room.
Once she left, Ye Chen withdrew his smile. He bentdown and heaved the corpse away from the doorway. Fortunately there was onlyone zombie in the corridor, had there been more, it would have been a disaster.
Ye Chen had a glint of coldness in his eyes ashe hacked at the corpse"s chest a few times before parting the skin to revealits innards. While committing such gory actions, he maintained a calm andcollected demeanor, as though he had long since become accustomed to suchsights.
"There"s no mutagenic flesh!" Ye Chen furrowedhis brows while shaking his head. "Makes senses, on average, only one in tenzombies contain mutagenic flesh, there is no way it could be this easy."
With that, he got up and entered the room whileclosing the door behind him, as though it was all just a trifle.
As for disposing of the zombiecorpse?
Completely unnecessary.
Thing is, with zombies being sobloodthirsty, why won"t they attack each other? That"s because once they becomezombies, their blood will start lacking a certain substance which turns thecolour from a once bright red to an inky black, and zombies will only go forblood that"s bright red.
Therefore, this zombie corpse wouldnot attract any other zombies over.
Of course, in the later stages, evenzombies will start to develop a certain level of cognitive thinking. Forexample, it would discover a corpse of one of their own, therefore come to theconclusion that there was another living creature in the vicinity, attractingit over. The early stage zombies without such intelligence could be called"naive" in that sense.
In the room, Ye Zhu was quivering onthe sofa, completely lost in a daze, her thoughts incomprehensible.
Ye Chen placed the knife into acabinet on the side before walking over to pat his little sister"s shoulder, hesmilingly asked: "What"s on your mind?"
Ye Zhu gazed at her brother beforereleasing a sigh, saying: "Brother, I believe that no matter what you do, thereis a reason behind it. I only beg of you to not attempt anything foolish!"
Ye Chen couldn"t help but broke intolaughter.
Confused, Ye Zhu stared at him whileasking: "What are you laughing about?"
Ye Chen tapped on her beautifulnose, saying: "I"m aware that you must have a belly full of doubts, now that ithas really happened, I should tell you about it."
Ye Zhu expression was coloured withapprehension.
Ye Chen withdrew his smile. After amoment of thought, he mentally compiled the important points before turning tostare straight at Ye Zhu. With a solemn tone, he spoke: "The person I killedjust now was not human, he was a zombie!"
"Zombie?" Ye Zhu was clearlyastonished.
Ye Chen nodded before saying: "Youmay find this hard to believe, but starting from 7:00, the world as we know ithas been plunged into an apocalypse. A catastrophic virus has been unleashedfrom North America and has since swept the entire earth, from 7:00 onwards,over 70% of the human race has been transformed into zombies. As for theanimals, they have evolved into horrifying bloodthirsty monstrosities!"
Ye Zhu"s eyes widened, although shehas never doubted her brother"s words, what he just said was simply tooshocking to believe.
The end of the world?
It should be noted that, ever sincethe year 2010, there had been numerous debates over the apocalypse approachingin the year 2012. At the time, there were even various large scale naturaldisasters and earthquakes happening all over the world, seemingly indicatingthe world"s end. In the region of j.a.pan, there was also an incident wherenuclear waste leakage resulted in countless creatures in the ocean experiencingslight mutations.
However, it is a fact that the worlddid not end during the year 2012, all speculations and indications leading upto it were instantly revoked. Yet at this very moment, Ye Chen was suddenlysuggesting that the world outside was currently swarming with monsters, wasn"tthis a bit of a stretch?
Ye Chen seems to have antic.i.p.ated herthoughts, he did not press further. He knew that convincing someone of theharsh reality of things immediately was truly an almost impossible task,therefore having decided to keep things simple for now, he said: "In any case,no matter what, do not open the door no matter who comes knocking!"
Ye Zhu was clearly still a littleout of sorts, she responded with only a few nods of her head.
Ye Chen sunk into the sofa nearby,contemplating his next course of action as well as giving his sister some timeto herself.
"Big brother…." Ye Zhu suddenlycalled.
Ye Chen was jolted into turningaround, the girl seems to have calmed down considerably and was staringstraight at him. Speaking with conviction, she declared: "I believe you!"
Ye Chen"s heart quivered, he felthis blood suddenly surge all over his body. After staring blankly for a moment,he mischievously asked: "You actually believed what I said?"
Ye Zhu earnestly nodded her head,saying: "Brother, ever since we were little till now, you have never lied tome."
Ye Chen could only smile bitterly.
Ye Zhu flitted her eyes playfully,giving others the sense that she had none of the concerns or fears a.s.sociatedwith a world ending apocalypse. The girl acted like a mischievous child,raising her hand while saying: "Big brother, I have a question!"
Ye Chen rubbed his nose whilesaying: "Name it."
Ye Zhu blinked her eyes withinquisitive fervor asking: "How did big brother know about the apocalypse?"
Ye Chen was momentarily at a lossfor words, he gave a dry cough before breaking into a righteous fit ofpa.s.sionate zeal saying: "This, obviously was a natural case of receiving a propheticdream from the heavens. Its definitely a blessing from a higher power, surely youare already aware that I, your big brother am an incarnation of luck descendedupon this very earth. Ah! Don"t start yawning now, at least listen to me tillI"m finished? Eh, are you asleep?"
Ye Zhu waited for him to finish before openingher eyes, she pouted her lips before saying: "Alright, another question."
Ye Chen rubbed his nose once againsaying: "Ask away."
Ye Zhu considered carefully beforeasking: "Brother, why did you decide to bring us here, if you were looking fora st.u.r.dy base, there are surely more secure locations, like somewhere in a ruralarea perhaps? The zombies there would naturally be quite limited."
Ye Chen no longer danced around thesubject, but seriously replied saying: "I picked this location for two reasons.The first reason being that hotels were both convenient and hygienic, youshould know that the virus not only turns humans into zombies, animals as wellas insects, will evolve into monstrosities, far more fearsome than zombies!What"s more, the place with the least mosquitoes and bugs was undoubtedly afive-star hotel."
Ye Zhu instantly understood, shereplied saying: "Following that line of reasoning, doesn"t that mean that ruralareas were far more dangerous that the city?"
Ye Chen nodded in agreement; theaverage person would flee the city the instant they saw the hordes of zombiesthinking that it was safer out in the wilds. However, if infected humans weremutated into zombies, would infected animals maintain their forms unaffected?Naturally they too would mutate into unspeakable monsters!
And animals were obviously moreconcentrated in rural areas.
"What"s the second reason?"
"The second reason being that thishotel has st.u.r.dy doors and walls, able to hold up against your average zombiewithout a problem." Ye Chen chuckled. Anyone who"s been to this hotel will knowthat the doors, although seemingly made of wood, had a layer of steel within makingthem feel quite weighty when opening and closing the doors. Even against a packof ten zombies, it would take a considerable amount of time for them to breakthrough.
Ye Zhu then glanced at him with suspicionbefore asking: "Then why haven"t we become zombies?"
Ye Chen"s eyebrow twitched, beforeimmediately saying: "Have you forgotten, we have always been self-reliant eversince we were young, making our bodies strong. What"s more, we"ve just had ourvaccination done last year, naturally we"d never turn into zombies."
"Is that truly so?" Ye Zhu eyed himsuspiciously.
Ye Chen was inwardly ashamed, heknew not the specifics. However, having experienced the apocalypse once beforewithout turning, he was certain that in this second life, he would remainunchanged. As for his little sister Ye Zhu, she died during the apocalypse atthe hands of a zombie, which meant that she too was originally unaffected.
Translator"s Notes:
Jiangshi is a Chinese vampire, a reanimatedcorpse from Chinese legends and folklore, its rigid body probably due to rigormortis causes it to "hop" after its prey with both hands outstretched.