Chapter 67: Red Light District
It looked like the rain was gradually dying down. Ling Mo swiftly re-arranged his backpack and left the building with Ye Lian and Shana.
As for the corpses inside it, they’d likely attract zombies very soon. Dying without even leaving behind a skeleton was an inevitable outcome for everyone who lived in this current world.
The construction site was, in actual fact, only a short distance away from X City University if one traveled in a straight line. However, in this flouris.h.i.+ng area filled with many high rise buildings, just pa.s.sing through like that was impossible. After a few days of scouting, Ling Mo chose a path with relatively fewer zombies.
In order to reduce the time spent hurrying on their journey, Ling Mo specially selected a zombie and placed it far ahead of their group to lead the way.
His spiritual strength had grown somewhat, increasing his range of control to nearly five hundred meters.
But for the sake of preserving his strength, Ling Mo usually maintained a distance of between three hundred to four hundred meters. With this, not only would he be able to exert more control over the zombie, his stamina consumption wouldn’t be as large as well.
Once the zombie leading the way provided intelligence on the enemy, it was then Shana and Ye Lian’s turn to take care of them. Ling Mo himself stood at the back, conserving his physical strength as best he could.
As the rain gradually died down, this hazy looking city gradually regained its sense of permanence.
Dark clouds towered over a large building, its streets desolate and decaying. What was once a flouris.h.i.+ng city had now transformed into a meat grinder where danger lurked around every corner.
The route that Ling Mo chose was previously a gourmet street. It used to be packed with people once night fell. But aside from that, it usually experienced relatively little human traffic during other times, resulting in few zombies lingering around the area.
But what counted as “little” in a flouris.h.i.+ng city center was almost the same as “many” in the surrounding areas of the city. Luckily, there was a zombie leading the way, giving Ling Mo advance notice of zombies hiding within shops along the way.
Ling Mo had no interest in getting rid of these regular zombies if he could help it. He even made the zombie he controlled close the doors of shops with a larger number of zombies within them, locking them in completely.
Not long after, they’d start ma.s.sacring one another. In the end, a mutated zombie might even appear from within them.
Roar!
Ling Mo suddenly heard a howl from somewhere off in the distance when he reached the middle of the gourmet street. He immediately stopped and furrowed his brows, looking towards the direction of the sound.
Ye Lian and Shana had stopped as well, a blood red layer of color surfacing from within their eyes, as if they’d been influenced by something.
“Yet another zombie… Why are there so many zombies roaring out lately?”
This wasn’t Ling Mo’s first time hearing such a sound. He’d vaguely heard this sound many times over the past few days of living in this district.
It was different from the low growls he’d hear when he fought zombies. It was much clearer and of a higher pitch, and hearing it would give others the faint impression that their blood was boiling. It gave them a sense of discomfort.
Just like these zombies…who seemed like they were crying out.
Ling Mo tried to ask Shana about it, but unfortunately, she unhesitatingly shook her and said, “I don’t really understand what’s going on,”
This zombie was far too incompetent…however Ling Mo wasn’t going to let her get away with this, so he proceeded to make a series of careful inquiries.
What Shana could confirm was that this roar originated from a male zombie and that it wasn’t crying out about anything in particular.
“Also…” Shana’s eyes displayed a rare look of displeasure. Simply put, the color of her eyes had started to change, “When I hear it…I feel a little…uncomfortable.”
“Hm…could it be a form of protest for zombies?” Ling Mo asked with some doubt as he knitted his brows.
He even guessed that the one roaring out might be a mutated zombie or even an advanced zombie.
After carefully approaching, Ling Mo unexpectedly saw just a few regular zombies. There wasn’t a trace of blood on the ground either. He originally planned on hiding in a corner and observing what was happening, but little did he expect the direction of the wind to go against him, allowing them to pick up on the scent of blood drifting off from his short saber. Feeling depressed, Ling Mo had no choice but to take care of them, resulting in a small, unresolved question.
Unexpectedly, he’d heard this very same sound today while walking. And when Ling Mo looked over to Ye Lian and Shana, their reactions seemed to be a little odd…
However, the origin of this sound was too far away. Who knows how many times he’d have to go around round this district just to find its source…
Shana had tightened her grip on her long saber while Ling Mo was hesitating. She turned towards him and said, “Let’s go. You won’t hear this sound anymore.”
“Eh?” Ling Mo gave Shana a look of doubt.
Shana looked as if she didn’t know how to explain herself. After giving it some thought, she said, “The last roar sounded it like received a reply, that’s why he won’t be calling out any longer.”
“Since all of you are zombies, you should be able to tell what he’s roaring about, right?” Ling Mo curiously asked.
Shana gave Ling Mo a glance and said, “It’s not very clear. I only know that I myself feel like going over after hearing his cry. But you and I share a connection, so I won’t leave you. That’s why I feel uncomfortable.”
Could this be similar to how members of the same race beckoned one another? The connection that Shana talked about should be referring to the spiritual connection they shared. Shana would indeed be unable to leave Ling Mo’s side on her own accord after remaining connected to him for a period of time.
But when Ling Mo thought of the time they spent together, where their life and death depended on one another, he guessed that Shana wouldn’t see him as prey even if their spiritual connection were to disappear…probably?
Seeing as Shana was unsure as well, and the fact that this roaring seemed annoying, Ling Mo had no choice but to suppress his thoughts of going over to take a look. Instead, he continued on while using the zombie in front to search for a path.
After roughly an hour had pa.s.sed, Ling Mo’s group pa.s.sed through the gourmet street and entered a narrow street that led straight to the rear entrance of X City University.
This place looked a lot more dreary when compared to the gourmet street. Buildings that were two or three stories high were constructed at one side of the street, while the other was the enclosure surrounding X City University.
These buildings looked rather aged. Their walls were plastered with all kinds of propaganda posters. This, coupled with the neon lamps arranged in front of their doors was enough for one to realize what kind of place this was.
“Musical s.h.i.+p”, “Red Spider”… There varied kinds of pubs and discos were so numerous that it threatened to overload one’s senses. Many different signboards were hung on the second floors of these buildings: love hotels, accommodations, hotels. On the contrary, there were virtually no kiosks around.
This was the most important red light district near X City University. Rumour has it that a number of beautiful young women from universities would moonlight here. As for what they did, one should be able to easily guess…
If one didn’t have enough money in their pocket to go to a high-quality club, but still wanted to have some fun, then this was the best place to do so. All these factors combined together caused business within the district to boom in the past.
It was reasonable to say that places like this red light district were simply unable to operate in the vicinity of a university. But since this issue wasn’t settled in the past, it’s presence now was a foregone conclusion.
Based on the current situation, Ling Mo felt that humans wouldn’t be able to reclaim this world from the hands of the zombies.
A majority of the survivors were bitterly hoping for someone to save them, but in the end, no one came. Now, they were holding onto the delusion of relying on someone else for help. It was unavoidably ridiculous.
Of course, this was just Ling Mo’s way of thinking. But to him, regardless of whether or not help came, the two female zombies by his side were an undeniable truth. Bad things might happen if he got too close to other survivors…
Although he’d picked up and dropped Ye Lian off at X City university a few times before, this was Ling Mo’s first time pa.s.sing through the red light district behind its rear entrance.
But this was the sort of place where people frequented only at night. So when disaster struck, it had the least amount of zombies.
“Who knows, we might even be able to find a suitable place to stay here.”
Ling Mo rubbed his nose and got the zombie in front to take the lead, as usual, and they walked further into the red light district.