Chapter 21: Practice, and the Fallen Zombie

Actually, the arrival of the poisonous zombies with such fanfare isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In a way, it’s like they’re announcing their presence to the world in the most ostentatious way possible, so people will be on the highest alert. That means it’ll quickly become obvious that these new zombies are different from the old ones—just a scratch can turn you into one of them and kill you. Unlike in her previous life, when they crept in silently and caused countless deaths before anyone realized what was happening.

But precisely because they came so suddenly, and in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, it’s easy to imagine how many people were caught off guard and lost their lives.

Of course, Bian Changxi wasn’t worrying about the fate of the country or humanity—she was worried about Bian Kuang.

In her previous life, Bian Kuang had lived a healthy life for almost a year. Even the catastrophe known as “God Loves to Lie” hadn’t done anything to him, so this time, she hadn’t thought to warn him. But now that history had changed, would he still be safe?

And what about Chen Yisha? Was she okay?

And Bai Heng, all the way across the ocean—how was he doing now?

And, of course, Gu Xu.

Bian Changxi still sincerely hoped he was alive and well.

Now, though, she couldn’t reach the first three, and as for the last one, it was probably better not to get in touch—things were just too weird.

But it wasn’t just that. The changes in history meant that Bian Changxi’s past experiences might be useless. She could no longer predict what would happen next, or whether some unexpected major event or important figure would appear. That made her uneasy. What unsettled her most was not knowing what had caused history to change.

With all these worries on her mind, and the sounds of tragedy unfolding through the walls, Bian Changxi couldn’t sleep at all. She checked the time—it was past three in the morning. She sat in a daze for a while, then went to the living room, turned on two flashlights, and started packing up the scattered food and supplies on the floor into her jade bracelet farm. She didn’t need to sort anything—the farm’s warehouse would automatically organize it all.

The only inconvenience was that she had to touch each item with the hand wearing the jade bracelet to store it. Bian Changxi remembered that once the farm upgraded and expanded, she’d be able to just wave her hand and everything in sight would be stored away—that would really be handy.

After clearing the floor, her back was sore. She went on to store the bed, wardrobe, and desk from the bedroom; the sofa, coffee table, chairs, and water dispenser from the living room; and the toiletries, comb, hairdryer, and so on from the bathroom. As for the kitchen, since the gas was still on and she’d need to cook, she decided to leave it for later.

No one had lived in this apartment yet, so all the furniture was brand new. It would be a waste not to take it, even though she might find better things later. But Bian Changxi had long since developed the habit of not wasting a single thing—in the apocalypse, especially in the first two or three years before technology caught up, every resource was precious. Anyway, the farm’s warehouse was huge, so there was no need to worry about space.

After looting everything, the apartment suddenly felt much more spacious. Standing at the edge of the flashlight’s beam in the center of the room, Bian Changxi heard banging from the ceiling above—probably the people upstairs fighting zombies, making her chandelier sway dangerously. She stepped aside, lowered her head, focused her energy, and with a sudden flick of her hand, a thumb-thick dark green vine shot out and wrapped tightly around the reinforced steel of the security bars outside the living room window, the other end coiled in her hand.

She pulled the vine back—gently at first, then with increasing force—until the steel slowly bent and, with a crisp snap, broke in two.

Bian Changxi lost her balance for a moment and had to take two steps back to steady herself. She quickly reeled in the vine and examined it closely—there were only a few faint scratches on it.

She was overjoyed. Her wood-type powers were much tougher in this life. She was only at level one, so the vines she summoned should have been soft and fragile, not sturdy or resilient, and certainly not able to withstand pulling.

Looking closely, she noticed faint red streaks flashing through the stem of the vine, darting away like lightning before disappearing. She couldn’t figure out what that was, but instinctively felt it wasn’t a bad thing, so she shook her head and let it go.

She steadied herself again, faced the TV wall, took a deep breath, gathered her powers, and flicked her hand—two wooden spikes shot out.

With two sharp thuds, they embedded themselves in the wall. But before she could celebrate, the exposed parts of the spikes slowly drooped and then both fell to the floor. Bian Changxi’s lips twitched. She went over to take a look—the white wall only had two very shallow dents, with just a bit of plaster scraped off.

Zombie bones were much tougher than walls…

She picked up the thick wooden spikes and weighed them in her hands. Suddenly, she pressed them against the wall with both hands, trying to drive them in, but the wall didn’t give way. Instead, the spikes shattered, leaving her fingers numb and tingling.

Rubbing her fingers ruefully, she heard a noise behind her. She turned—and came face to face with a zombie’s terrifying, ghastly face.

Even with her strong nerves, she jumped. Looking closer, she saw the zombie was clinging to the outside of the security bars. She’d opened the window and drawn back the curtains earlier while testing the vine, and now the zombie was pressed right up against the broken steel, its rotting, oozing face squashed against the gap, mouth open and howling into the room.

Bian Changxi looked the zombie up and down and quickly understood—it must have been knocked down by the people upstairs fighting zombies, and somehow managed to grab onto her security bars.

“Raaah—” The zombie, frustrated at not being able to reach its prey, clawed at the bars and slammed its head against them, finally jamming its head into the broken gap. Its bulging, pupil-less eyes stared in, blood and yellowish slime pouring from its mouth and splattering everywhere as it roared, both hands straining forward, making the bars shake.

Bian Changxi stared silently at the zombie—sure enough, it was a poisonous one. Although it was badly decayed, it was in better shape than the non-poisonous ones. Its skin and muscles had a bluish-grey tinge, its nails were sharp and black, and its saliva had a faint green-black hue. The stench from its mouth was not only putrid but also carried a suffocating, irritating odor.

Bian Changxi knew that was the smell of corrosion. The saliva of poisonous zombies was toxic—ordinary people should avoid contact as much as possible. It wouldn’t turn you into a zombie, but it could cause ulcers, sores, and peeling skin. For ability users, the risk was lower. Fortunately, in another month or so, everyone would basically become immune to these toxins.

So after the apocalypse, there would be no shortage of people with disfigured faces…

Bian Changxi approached, eager to try her hand. As zombies leveled up, they’d become more uniform in appearance. Some high-level special zombies, aside from their slow movements, inability to speak, strange skin color, and lack of pupils, would look almost human at first glance—and their abilities would be just as advanced. Honestly, she kind of missed these primitive, savage zombies.

Most importantly, because her wood-type powers were fragile and her level was low, it had been ages since she’d personally cracked open a zombie’s crystal core.

Her eyes lit up as she locked onto the zombie’s pus-oozing head. With a flick of her hand, a green vine shot out and bound the zombie’s flailing arms tightly.

*Sorry for the late update today—I forgot to save the draft and had to rush home after class to post this. Not much happened in this chapter, but there will be more characters next time.*

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