Commenter @hoshiandme, *pats shoulder in comradery* I want more Zombie King route too
Thanks to Anon for supporting on Ko-fi (/^∆^)/ ❤ ❤ so here comes 3 of 3 full chapters
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The Institute’s interior was also full of plants causing walking to be difficult. No one knew where the sound of water falling came from but it made people unnerved but it was even more strange to walk such a long distance without seeing any corpses.
Even if the zombies ate people, it definitely didn’t eat even the bones.
After pushing open a door, a black shadow jumped out suddenly. Before everyone could respond, the shadow's skull was pierced by Yin Han’s ice cone. After falling to the ground, it could be seen that it was a mutant zombie.
Shao Ci was still in a state of uncertainty but the other people had long become used to such a scene of Yin Han killing powerful mutant zombies and continued to move forward.
Yin Han noticed Shao Ci’s nervousness and held his hand in silence. Shao Ci calmed down and felt he was too inexperienced…at least he couldn’t be calm when a mutant zombie came upon him.*
*T/N: Lol, once Yin Han is your bae, you will become numb to the surprises of the protagonist aura.
The more they walked, the more the plants, almost like walking in the jungle. Many strange plants grew in the corridors. Shao Ci didn’t know how these plants thrived in a sunless research institute but when he thought again, he remembered they’re all mutant plants and felt normal again.
The original institute had many facilities to prevent foreign invasion but since only zombies inhabited it now, these facilities almost did not work. It can be said that the only danger along the way were the hiding mutant zombies.
Although Yin Han could take care of the zombies in a second with one move, except for the first time, he did not usually start so simply. Instead, he liked to be hands-on as it was more challenging to beat the mutant zombies thoroughly. With such great strength, no wonder those people were fanatic believers in Yin Han.
Like this, it was no wonder that his strength was far greater than most of the ordinary ability users, since he trained through fighting directly with the zombies.
While they fought fiercely, Yin Han took out the snacks he had brought and threw them to Shao Ci, his PDA completely ignoring the situation and making Shao Ci feel he was being fed like an invalid/baby.
*T/N: PDA is 秀恩爱 apparently
Shao Ci took turns alternating to beat the zombies, thinking that if someone else was engaging in PDA while beating zombies, they would be real angry. Why was Yin Han acting this way?
'If you’re tired, say so." Yin Han gently wiped Shao Ci’s sweat away with a handkerchief and said, “I can walk with you on my back.”
Shao Ci: "Oh, it’s okay, I can walk by myself…”
Speaking of the original text, people who are close to Yin Han are particularly unlucky and could even die when they are on a mission. Being close to Yin Han makes him feel scared.
At this time, a zombie rushed from the side, biting towards Shao Ci, only its shadow could be seen as it moved at a fast speed. The speed-variant zombies in the Institute are much faster than those outside, presumably because of the strengthening fluid.
Yin Han did not even turn his head to look. He just continued wiping his Shao Ci’s sweat and the zombie was frozen without even touching Shao Ci’s shadow. Soon after, the ice burst into so many pieces that the corpse’s previous shape could not be seen.
“!!" Shao Ci touched his heart, which had almost flown out. Even if he knew that nothing would happen, the zombie had jumped out so suddenly. Suddenly, he felt that he had a long way to go in the future.
After half a day of walking, although everyone was more or less injured, no one’s life was endangered. After Shao Ci’s cure, they all became lively and well.
Shao Ci thought that about when Chu Jin and Yin Han came together in the original text, a lot of people died. It seemed that at that time, Yin Han was someone that simply let anyone that was not one of his men die. This time, they were all his own people so he actively fought.
The plot that should have been similar to horror movies was turned into a safe and harmless training in the hands of Yin Han. Those mutant corpses would surely have run to shout abuses in the streets if they had IQ.
The group arrives to the core of the Institute and looked in the cabinets covered by plants. With powerful abilities, some boxes that required passwords to open could be opened at will/if desired.
It’s none of Shao Ci’s business. At this time, the biggest villain of this text, Zombie King, was sleeping in this Institute. How could he be in the mood to look for information here? Shao Ci carelessly opened a drawer and saw a work card/permit in it.
The photo on the work permit showed a teenager who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. He looked cool and exquisite.* He was wearing the white coat of a researcher, making him look like a staff member of the Institute.
*T/N: Villains are hot, aren’t they?
Such a face was not likely to be a cannon fodder but also so young to enter the institute. Before the Apocalypse, this should not be an ordinary person, perhaps even a genius. But there was no doubt that there were no living people in this base. The teenager must have died.
Ah what a fortunate girl there would have been, Shao Ci sighed for a moment in sorrow. Considering that it might be used later, he collected his work permit.
Soon the room was almost scraped clean and the door to the core research area inside was closed forever.
Even after years of abandonment, the door was still electrified, requiring pupil and fingerprint verification to open… But because it was after the Apocalypse, the abilities were able to open by some means.
Shao Ci’s breath caught. Yes, this was the place! The Zombie King should be behind this door!
When the door opened, an unusually clean and tidy laboratory, which was different from the outside, appeared in front of everyone. Even having working lights, as if everything had remained untouched from before the zombies broke through.
It looked much safer than the weedy outside but everyone was holding their breath and looking carefully around the laboratory.
In the middle of the laboratory, there was a huge glass container which contained a very clear liquid. But in the liquid was soaking a dead body with a totally different face in sharp contrast to a clean room.
"What is this?" One man wondered, “Is this the legendary strengthening fluid? Why is there a corpse soaking in it?"
"Don’t worry about it, we are not researchers anyway. It’s enough to collect the water and take it back as a sample.”
“But what if the corpse in it is also useful? Shall we take this body with us?”
Others do not know but Shao Ci was absolutely clear, this was absolutely the Zombie King! Unexpectedly, the all-powerful Zombie King that would give all kinds of trouble to the male lead would be in this situation…he does not even have a face!
Anyway, whether he has a face or not, let’s kill him first! Shao Ci then began to talk nonsense: “I once heard the researchers who escaped from here say that this was a study of extracting viruses from zombies and then trying to make potent enhancers.”
Of course, Shao Ci, who has never been to the institute has never seen it but he had read the original text.
“I’ve heard about it too.” One man said, “If this strengthening could be used on our powers, what could it do for these zombies?”
“As you will all know later, this strengthening fluid can not only be used on ability users but the zombies can benefit from it as well. Shao Ci sighed, “Most of the dead bodies in this room are probably zombies. If they wake up, it will be a mess for us so why not just kill them here."
“But is it really a zombie here?” Others can’t see it. The body floating in the water was obviously not very similar to the body outside. There were some doubts about Shao Ci's statement, “If something exists indispensable to the strengthening fluid, will it not destroy the plan if it is killed here?”
Shao Ci: “!” Strengthening fluid was not soaked in the fluids of the dead body!
“Don’t make any noise.” As soon as Yin Han spoke, everyone immediately quieted down and dared not say a word.
Yin Han said lightly, “I believe in Xiao Ci. What are your opinions?”
Where would someone dare to refute Yin Han, suddenly everyone nods like a chicken. Not to mention that the corpse was really a problem now. Even if Yin Han pointed to a living person as a zombie, everyone would say that it was indeed a zombie and no one would question it.
Yin Han smiled and stretched out his hand. The water in the glass container solidified in an instant and suddenly pierced the body’s head. The spray burst out. “Okay.” "！"
“!” Shao Ci can hardly believe that the Zombie BOSS died like this?! Was it really so easy? Things were going too smoothly.
But if one looked at the body’s head which had been broken into bits, even if it was really a Zombie BOSS, it no longer had a chance to resurrect.
Shao Ci was relieved at last but didn’t know what was still making him feel uneasy.
At this time, other people also went to take water from glass containers for samples although they didn’t know if this was the legendary strengthening fluid.
Suddenly the ground shook and the next moment, in front of everyone, countless vines stretched out and grew along the floor, just like in the movies.
Several people who took water were caught quickly by the vines and the vines were still growing rapidly. At the same time, the people who were entangled were constantly screaming. No matter how hard they struggled, they were completely wrapped in the middle of the vines in an instant.
The rest of them became serious and tried to rush up to save their companions but they knew that even the other side could not get rid of their past fears of death. Only the long-range attackers kept attacking but they had little effect when they met the vine, only slightly destroying the surface.
“How could this mutant plant be so powerful?” “Is it also because of the strengthening…”
Yin Han quickly pulled Shao Ci behind him, then summoned an ice blade and cut directly toward the vine.
It took a lot of effort to cut the vine even with the ice blades, which were more powerful than those other abilities and exposed a few people who had just been involved. They seemed to have been sucked at by the vines and their bodies had become extremely dry just the remains of a layer of skin and bones.
“Abhorrent!” “This damn vine!” Seeing familiar teammates die like this, people’s faces were ugly.
But the cut vine quickly grew new branches and crawled towards this side.
At this critical moment, they couldn’t get any water nor could they take care of the corpses of their comrades leaving them only with the option of running out fast. The slowest runner, Shao Ci, was scooped up by Yin Han immediately.
Not only the vines but also the previously calm mutant plants outside seem to suddenly have gained consciousness. They were attacking people like crazy. Even the weeds on the ground were trying to entangle people’s feet. The fire abilities seemed better suited to burning the weeds away.
The originally not too long road became extremely difficult to walk and from time to time there were mutant plant attacks. A few minutes later, someone was directly swallowed by a mutant cannibal flower. Luckily he was rescued in time.
“What the hell is going on here?” Shao Ci was entirely shocked. In the original work, there was no mention of the mutant plants in the old Institute. Was it because the boss of the corpse was killed directly so the world assigned the task of villain to these mutant plants?
After rushing around a corner, the road ahead was completely blocked by plants so everyone could only attempt to open the exit passage with big moves while watching out for the mutant plants. "
“If the mutant vine catches up, it’s troublesome.” Xiao Zheng opened his mouth and said, “The level of the mutant vine is obviously much higher than that of other mutant plants.”
*T/N: shhhhh Xiao Zheng, no jinxing!
The next moment he said this, the ground of the passage shook and the top of several vines burst out of the ground at the next moment.
Xiao Zheng closed his mouth at once. Everyone’s face changed to glare at Xiao Zheng. Every time he set up a flag, something happened.
Yin Han’s face was serious too so he could only put down Shao Ci temporarily and tell him to stay behind him as he went forward to deal with the sudden emergence of vines.
Shao Ci stayed in a slightly safe place behind. When he saw someone injured, he went to help with the treatment. But his heart became more and more uneasy. He had an inkling that something important was going to happen.
This feeling became more and more intense, Shao Ci subconsciously turned to look in the direction of Yin Han and saw a black vine hanging silently from the ceiling. For a while, no one noticed it. Yin Han was fighting four or five vines with his powers. Obviously, he did not notice the crisis behind him.
Shao Ci was shocked in his heart. From this point of view, he knew that it would be very miserable to be touched.
Seeing that the vine was about to touch Yin Han’s body, Shao Ci could not even say a word of warning. He rushed directly to the vine and pushed away Yin Han but his hand was directly entangled by the black vine.
Less than the time it took to breathe, the vine quickly wrapped itself directly along his wrist and suddenly pulled Shao Ci up.
Shao Ci, "!!!"
Yin Han turned around and saw this scene. He suddenly grasped Shao Ci’s hand. At the same time, the air around him quickly cooled down. His power almost ran out of control and froze all the objects around him. The black vines were completely frozen.
"Alright?” Yin Han looked at Shao Ci nervously. His face was obviously afraid of him. It was obviously unexpected that Shao Ci would be in danger because of him.
Shao Ci said with a little relief, "Don’t worry, this black vine does not seem to absorb human abilities…” Maybe because brushing up on good feelings had become a habit，all of a sudden caused him to overlook that their strength was far inferior to Yin Han’s and he almost could have played with it .
“I’ll let you down slowly.” Because he didn’t know what the black vine was, Yin Han dared not cut the vine directly for fear that Shao Ci would be injured.
After cutting the root of the vine, Yin Han slowly used his power to freeze the vine thoroughly. Shao Ci carefully pushed the ice-cold vine away and jumped out of it. Only then did he discover that where he had just been touched by the black vine, there were small wounds bleeding constantly.
Shao Ci looked at the wound and was frightened to death. If he hadn’t reacted and saved Yin Han, he might have gone straight to cannon fodder.
Then he stepped on the ground for an instant and right as he felt that beneath his foot felt empty, the floor burst open.
Shao Ci: “?????” Hey, wait, what is this luck!!
Under the split floor there was a flower as tall as a person. This was Shao Ci’s first time seeing such a horrible mutant plant. The next moment he fell into the flower. The petals closed the moment Shao Ci touched them and then dived into the earth suddenly.
————
Shao Ci did not know about the people outside. Anyway, he was not dead yet. He feels like he was in a closed space. The petals around him are as thick as walls. He could hardly breathe because they were close to his body.
It’s only a matter of time before he would be suffocated.
Now imagine that the black vine must be with this giant flower, one of them will do it without the other.
Shao Ci didn’t want to resign himself to the realization that he was about to be killed not because he was bitten by the Zombie King but because he was suffocated by a flower. For a while, he didn’t know which way to die was more sad.
From time to time, pain came from the wound and the blood was absorbed by the petals. Shao Ci quickly used the healing power on himself. With a bug-level of healing power, the wound recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Shao Ci didn’t know if it’s an illusion that when the wound recovers, the petals around him don’t seem as crowded as when they just tried to crush him to death.
It wasn’t long before Shao Ci began to feel that his breathing was not smooth, his chest was stuffy and his head was dizzy. When he felt like he was going to faint, the petals around him burst open and he fell into the cold pool.
“Did I die?” Shao Ci was shocked and carefully climbed up to look at the surrounding environment.
Here was a space shaped like water droplets. The water floor was covered with bluestone slabs. The walls around it were covered with mutant plants with thick roots. Out of nowhere, a light was floating in the air and emitting a brilliant light to reflect upon the water's surface. It gave this area a fantastical vibe.
“Where on earth is this?” If it weren’t for the mutant plants around him that were similar to those outside, Shao Ci would have wondered whether he had crossed again. “Could it be the Institute had an underground space? What would the Institute even do with this kind of underground thing…”
All of a sudden, Shao Ci tripped over something and put his dangerous hand down to support his body but felt as if he had touched something. Shao Ci groped a bit more and he was so frightened that his legs became soft. He looked down into the water with trembling trepidation. With the radiant light, he could see clearly that there was a man lying underwater, whose face was just opposite to Shao Ci's.
Lying in the water was a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy. He had a very beautiful face, like a work of art, beautiful enough to let people sigh. The two gently closed eyes made him look like he was in a peaceful sleep.
Shao Ci’s body stiffened in fright. This face, was this not the face of the person on the work permit he got before. Why was he here? Was he alive or dead?
After reacting, Shao Ci subconsciously remembered to run away but the teenager suddenly opened his eyes. He possessed ruby-like inorganic red eyes. He looked at Shao Ci coldly and bit into Shao Ci’s neck the next moment.
At this moment, Shao Ci finally understood.
This guy was the Zombie King ah ah ah ah ah!!!
In the original work, it just said that the Zombie King was asleep in the strengthening fluid but it did not say where the fortified liquid was. He thought that the Zombie King was lying in the glass container of the laboratory above. But in fact, it was just an ordinary body. The real King of the Zombies was hiding in such a concealed place!
And the flower sent him here as the food for the Zombie King!
In response to Shao Ci’s idea, the system also sounded.
[Ouch… Character with a higher power level has been detected… According to the rules, starting to change the target of the system… After replacement, Yushao is the current target to befriend.]
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