Chapter 151

Xie Zhou held little An An firmly in his arms, feeling the child’s body trembling. The boy’s mouth began to emit the “ho-ho” rasping sounds unique to zombies.

At this moment, he suddenly felt that if he became a zombie just like his son, the outcome wouldn’t be so bad.

He closed his eyes and waited quietly for his son’s transformation to finish. If he was destined to be bitten by a zombie sooner or later, he hoped the one to do it would be his own flesh and blood.

He just didn’t know if he would retain his sanity after turning. He was an ability user, after all; even as a zombie, he should be stronger than the others. That way, he could ensure his baby wouldn’t be bullied by other zombies.

The scratches on the back of the baby’s chubby hand were leaking blood that had already turned black. His eyes gradually lost focus, turning a dull grayish-white.

The wind kicked up yellow sand. Not far away, the screams of people being chased by zombies rang out. The setting sun was as red as blood, casting a heavy, suffocating mood over everything.

Xie Zhou waited for a long time, until his legs grew numb from crouching, yet the expected pain never came.

Being held in that position for so long made An An uncomfortable, so he reached out and gently poked his father’s shoulder.

“Ho-ho.”

“Baby?”

“Ho.”

An An answered subconsciously. Upon hearing the sound he made, his eyes instantly widened. Both father and son froze.

From the start of the apocalypse until now, Xie Zhou had seen new zombies basically every day, but he had never seen a situation like this.

Seeing the look of shock on his son’s chubby little face, an unbelievable hypothesis suddenly surfaced in Xie Zhou’s heart.

Perhaps… the baby still recognized him?

“Baby, who am I?”

“Ho-ho.”

“Daddy?”

“Ho.”

It was difficult for Xie Zhou to communicate with him. Right now, the little zombie could only make rasping noises, but by observing An An’s expressions and movements, he could roughly guess what the boy wanted to express.

Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Xie Zhou’s tears of excitement broke free. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t hold them back.

He felt ashamed that a grown man like himself was crying, and he sniffled. An An reached out his small hand, using the back of it to gently wipe away his father’s tears, then hooked his arms around the man’s neck.

In the past, his son loved to act spoiled like this, usually when he wanted Xie Zhou to bring him a bar of chocolate back from a supply run at the supermarket.

Xie Zhou’s spirit was instantly revitalized, breaking free from his previous state of despair.

He had been like a puppet devoid of emotion, but now, vitality seemed to have been injected into him in an instant.

Xie Zhou packed their things simply and walked forward while carrying An An. He kept a close eye on the roadside and was lucky enough to find a motorcycle.

The roads after the apocalypse were severely damaged. Aside from high-performance off-road vehicles, motorcycles were the most convenient form of transportation.

The key was still in the ignition. Xie Zhou opened the fuel tank to look, but there wasn’t a drop of gasoline left.

Once the fuel ran out, the vehicle became nothing more than scrap metal. No one wanted to lug such a heavy object down the road, which was likely why it had been abandoned here.

Xie Zhou had two bottles of gasoline in his backpack. He had been lucky enough to find a gas station a few days ago, and everyone in his group had carried some in their packs.

When he had fled with An An in a hurry, he had taken these supplies with him.

After pouring in the gasoline, he turned the key to start the engine. He sat An An in front of him and warned him not to move around.

Whether it was the child of the past or the little zombie of the present, taking care of him was a habit for Xie Zhou.

An An sat obediently at the front of the motorcycle. Xie Zhou didn’t drive fast, but the ride was still very bumpy on the pitted road. An An reached out and gripped the base of the motorcycle’s rearview mirrors.

Previously, Xie Zhou had always headed toward crowded areas. People gathering together meant a better chance of reaching a survivor base, and it was the best way to get the latest news about the apocalypse.

But now that he was with An An, he chose paths that clearly hadn’t been trodden by humans for a long time.

Anyone who saw a zombified baby would be terrified and would want nothing more than to kill him to eliminate the threat.

Although Xie Zhou’s ability level was among the highest in the entire apocalypse, he had never been arrogant because of it.

There was always someone stronger out there. His power only made him more cautious, as he strove to nip any potential danger in the bud.

Xie Zhou carefully avoided crowds and found another abandoned gas station before his fuel ran out completely.

After confirming there was still oil, he filled the motorcycle first and then filled several bottles.

In the apocalypse, he couldn’t guarantee when he would encounter another gas station, so he had to take as much as he could within his capacity.

After walking a few steps, Xie Zhou looked back with a trace of regret.

This place was quite remote, and few people had likely passed through here since the end of the world. The gasoline reserves inside were very plentiful.

Carrying his regret, Xie Zhou walked back with the fuel canister.

Before he could take two steps, the canister in his hand suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving Xie Zhou stunned.

Coming to his senses, he instinctively looked at the baby who had been following him. An An tilted his chin up slightly, hoping his father would praise him.

Yes, yes, he did it! Wasn’t he the best, best, best little zombie in the whole world?

The original child had been a bit of a show-off, and An An was somewhat influenced by that after taking over.

Even though the baby’s eyes were the grayish-white characteristic of zombies, Xie Zhou had a very strange feeling that the boy’s eyes were sparkling, waiting for a compliment.

Xie Zhou crouched down in front of the baby and straightened his messy clothes. After a long moment of thought, he asked:

“Is it a space-type ability?”

An An nodded like a chick pecking at grain, his little head bobbing with great cheer.

His messy hair bounced with the movement, making him look inexplicably adorable.

“Can you take it out?”

With a thought from An An, the canister that had just disappeared reappeared in front of Xie Zhou.

“Can you put it back again?”

Xie Zhou had An An demonstrate it many times before he was willing to believe that his baby, who wasn’t even three years old, had actually successfully awakened a space-type ability after being bitten by a zombie.

He decisively carried An An back to the gas station, found some containers that could hold gasoline, filled them all, and had An An store them in his space.

Only after An An had tucked everything away did Xie Zhou notice something was off. He stared intently at An An’s expression for a while.

He had encountered space-type ability users before; their leveling speed was extremely slow.

In this apocalyptic world where top experts had only reached the second tier, it was said that the highest-level space user was someone in the Blazing Sun Base in the Capital City, who had reached the peak of the first tier.

That person’s space could store five bags of rice, while common space-type users could generally only store one.

Overusing the ability would also cause headaches, requiring about half a month of rest for the body to recover.

Once Xie Zhou thought of this, he quickly snapped out of his joy and instead carefully checked An An’s body.

“Does your head hurt? If it hurts, give me a ‘ho’.”

An An tilted his head. After some thought, he let out several rasps, going “ho ho ho ho” repeatedly. Xie Zhou couldn’t help but let out a short laugh.

“My baby has become so powerful? You’re not even tired after putting so many things in your space?”

An An let out a “he-he” sound in agreement, feeling that he was indeed quite impressive.

Their luck was decent. Before nightfall, they stumbled upon a hotel. Xie Zhou first cleared out all the surrounding zombies before selecting a relatively clean room for them to stay in.

He checked the doors and windows before bed, lying down only after ensuring everything was secure.

When Xie Zhou rested, he truly rested. The idea of being on guard against his son scratching him didn’t even cross his mind.

Because he was so exhausted from the day’s travel, he even let out shallow snores that sounded particularly distinct in the silence of the night.

Zombies did not feel fatigue, nor did they require any rest.

However, An An was still forced to take off his jacket and pants to lie beside his father, staring with wide eyes as he contemplated life.

When would he finally learn how to speak? He wanted to tell his father that zombies didn’t need sleep, not even a Little Zombie.

The System took this opportunity to transmit the world’s plot and the original host’s memories to Zai Zai.

An An vaguely realized that his current identity in this world was not accepted by others. He looked down at the arm currently draped over his waist.

Although zombies had lost their perception of temperature, he still felt a warm, fuzzy comfort in his heart.

Perhaps because his biological parents served as a stark contrast, An An felt deeply satisfied whenever anyone showed him even a tiny bit of kindness.

This was especially true for someone like Xie Zhou, who gave his heart and soul, willingly leaving the squad for his sake to venture alone through the apocalypse.

The original host’s role was the villain of this world. In the timeline where An An hadn’t arrived, he had similarly been taken away from the squad by Xie Zhou.

By a twist of fate, Xie Zhou discovered that feeding his son Crystal Cores could help improve the boy’s intelligence and abilities. He began a frantic crusade of hunting zombies, feeding every Crystal Core he saved to his son.

Crystal Cores were the key to human superpowers and zombie evolution. Fed by Xie Zhou, the strongest man in the apocalypse, the original host quickly became a Zombie King.

The boost in strength gave the original host an intelligence far beyond his years. He became obsessed with growing stronger, and his personality turned cold and ruthless.

In the end, to become the Zombie Emperor, he personally murdered his father, Xie Zhou, who had raised him throughout their journey. After devouring the energy in Xie Zhou’s Crystal Core, he successfully became the world’s ultimate villain.

However, the original host didn’t meet a good end. His existence posed a threat to the entire human race, and he eventually died at the hands of the male and female leads.

By successfully killing the Zombie Emperor, the leads ascended to the position of base leaders without any opposition.

An An pursed his lips after finishing the story, unwilling to believe he could ever do such things.

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

He would never eat his daddy just to get stronger. Even if he remained weak for his entire life, he wouldn’t do it. At most, he would just lean over and cling to his daddy’s leg.

Xie Shi’an silently repeated the mission objective of “not biting people” in his mind, then stared at his father beside him for a long time.

He hadn’t thought about it that way before, but now, the more he looked, the more he felt an urge to lean in and take a bite. It was as if the very air was floating with the sweet fragrance of blood.

An An silently ground his teeth and turned his head away.

No, no, I can’t bite.

An An spent a long time agonizing between biting and not biting, right up until dawn when Xie Zhou woke up.

As soon as Xie Zhou opened his eyes, he saw An An gulping, his grayish-white pupils showing a hint of eagerness.

Realizing his father had noticed his strange behavior, An An’s entire body instantly froze.

He used to be human, so he knew very well that most people could not keep someone beside them who might threaten their life at any moment.

He opened his mouth, trying to explain, but only “he-he” sounds came out. It sounded more like he was reminding his father to hurry up and send him away.

Realizing this, An An’s mood grew even more dejected. He hung his head, looking exactly like a child who had done something wrong.

Xie Zhou had just woken up and didn’t immediately realize his son’s intent to take a bite of him. He reached out and ruffled the boy’s messy hair.

“Baby, are you hungry?”

An An nodded instinctively. For a zombie, perhaps this wasn’t exactly hunger, but more of an instinct.

“There’s still that chocolate you like in the backpack.”

Just as Xie Zhou said this, he suddenly remembered that An An had become a Little Zombie. He didn’t know if the boy would still love chocolate like he used to.

He reached out to gently pry An An’s mouth open to check his teeth, asking curiously:

“Can you still eat chocolate now?”

The original host had loved chocolate. Every time his father went out to scavenge for supplies, he would pester him, reminding him to bring back a bar.

But now, when An An thought of chocolate, he had no worldly desires for it whatsoever. He felt much like a eunuch visiting a brothel^[1].

“I’ve never seen a zombie eat chocolate… so I probably don’t eat it.”

“Then what do you eat? Should I go catch a person for you? No, no, that won’t do.”

As soon as Xie Zhou said it, he immediately rejected the idea himself.

Since the start of the apocalypse, Zai Zai was the only Little Zombie he had seen who retained his memories and reason after turning.

Xie Zhou couldn’t help but harbor a hope. Perhaps the government could develop a Zombie Vaccine to return his son to normal?

If Zai Zai truly started eating human flesh like other zombies, then for Xie Zhou, all possibility of him ever returning to normal would be lost.

An An, who still maintained his ability to think, was also extremely repulsed by the idea of eating human flesh. He buried his face in his father’s chest, leaving only the back of his head visible, silently expressing his refusal.

“Can you drink water?”

Xie Zhou leaned in to ask, but An An didn’t really want to drink either.

Xie Zhou went to a nearby supermarket. It was a very large one, and the goods on the shelves had already been looted clean.

However, relying on his long experience living in the apocalypse, Xie Zhou found the warehouse with practiced ease.

After checking the expiration dates, he brought every item in front of An An to ask if he wanted to eat it.

Things that Zai Zai used to want to eat but wasn’t allowed to for health reasons were now placed before him, but he only took one look before quickly averting his gaze.

Even that one look was only done to humor his father.

The unhappy Little An’an didn’t want to deal with anything at first, but remembering he still had a father to look after, he used his superpower to store all the food in the warehouse into his Space.

Xie Zhou watched the warehouse, which had been full moments ago, turn completely empty. Looking at the gloomy Zai Zai, he rubbed the boy’s soft hair to soothe him.

“My baby is so impressive.”

For a long time to come, he probably wouldn’t have to worry about food again.

But Zai Zai was still so small. Even if he had turned into a zombie, he was still a Little Zombie. How could he go all day without eating anything?

In a father’s eyes, even a Little Zombie needed to grow and required sufficient nutrition.

Little An’an, with his empty stomach, slumped against his father’s back. He hugged his father’s neck, his face practically screaming discomfort.

For An An’s sake, Xie Zhou specifically found a place where he could cook. He personally went to the kitchen to prepare a meal that looked and smelled delicious.

He had traveled a long distance just to find frozen chicken wings and cola in a supermarket warehouse to make Cola Chicken Wings, the dish the boy used to eat the most.

Back then, because An An was still too small, he spent most of his time drinking milk, and at most he could only manage two pieces of cola chicken wings.

An An could smell the fragrance of the food, but unfortunately, he had no desire to eat it at all.

Like a little puppy, he leaned in to sniff, then quickly turned his head away, letting out aggrieved ho-ho sounds.

Several days had passed since he was first infected with the zombie virus, and the baby had eaten nothing during this time.

Xie Zhou sat there in silence for a long time, waiting until the food on the table had gone completely cold, yet he still could not think of a solution.

He still held onto his initial thought: since the baby was fortunate enough to be one of the few zombies to retain his memories and reason, he absolutely could not let that go to waste.

Perhaps one day in the future, the scientists on this planet would successfully develop a vaccine to purify the zombie virus.

Crossing out the option of kidnapping a person for the baby to eat, it seemed that every other path was a dead end.

Unable to even fill his own son’s stomach, Xie Zhou fell into deep self-reproach. He walked over, pulled the baby into his arms, and kept whispering apologies in his ear.

An An could feel that his stomach was already very flat.

When Daddy hugged him, the distance between them was very close. An An tried to endure it again and again but ultimately failed. With an “ao-wu” sound, he bit down on Daddy’s clothes, grinding his teeth to satisfy his cravings.

He still couldn’t bring himself to bite Daddy; even if he starved to death, he was unwilling to use his teeth on him, so he could only try to quench his thirst by looking at plums.

Xie Zhou listened to the sound of An An grinding his teeth and saw him squinting his eyes as if fantasizing about having something to eat. Guilt and self-reproach weighed heavily on his heart, making it difficult for him to breathe.

As the apocalypse dragged on, the vast majority of people would lose their basic moral compass.

No one was certain if they would live to see tomorrow, so living for the moment became the choice for most.

Morality, values, and laws could no longer restrain anyone. In this environment, Xie Zhou was inevitably affected as well.

He only wanted his son to be able to fill his stomach; beyond that, he didn’t care about anything else.

Xie Zhou patted the baby’s back, soothing his emotions just as he used to when coaxing him to sleep as a child.

An An rested his head against the side of his father’s neck. Even with his most vulnerable spot exposed to a Little Zombie, Xie Zhou didn’t feel the slightest sense of crisis.

He couldn’t bring himself to kill people to feed An An just yet, but if An An wanted to bite him, as a father, he wouldn’t refuse.

An An leaned in and rubbed the tip of his nose against Daddy, keeping his mouth tightly shut to ensure he was only rubbing.

He was truly too hungry. Right now, his father’s behavior was practically like holding a delicious little cake and waving it in front of someone who had been starving for three days and nights.

Xie Zhou knew the baby was only doing this because he was desperately hungry, so he wasn’t afraid. He even thought that if the boy really wanted to bite him, that would be fine too.

An An was unwilling to eat anything here, and it was obvious he had no energy throughout the day.

Xie Zhou could only take him away, intending to look elsewhere.

He even risked danger to observe other slightly higher-level zombies, wanting to see their methods of feeding.

Xie Zhou desperately hoped that more zombies with retained memories would appear in this world. As a human himself, he really had no way to teach his own Little Zombie anything.

After traveling for two days, Xie Zhou found a hotel to rest. A few days ago while they were on the road, he had traded a pack of instant noodles for a piece of information.

Near this central plaza, a high-level zombie had appeared. It was said that this high-level zombie possessed the ability to control low-level zombies and even understood tactics. The preliminary judgment was that he possessed human-like intelligence.

While others avoided this place like the plague, Xie Zhou decisively brought An An here.

For Xie Zhou, this was actually very good news.

He wanted to ask that high-level zombie for help, to teach An An other ways of feeding besides eating humans.

Xie Zhou’s level had broken through again a few days ago, successfully entering the ranks of Rank Three experts.

His ability was the extremely powerful Lightning Ability. Back when he was only at Rank One, his strength was already comparable to most Rank Two ability users.

Now that he had broken through to Rank Three, his strength was considered among the most excellent group of all humanity.

Along the way, Xie Zhou rarely communicated with other humans. Occasionally, he would ask for news and then leave as quickly as possible.

In front of others, he only needed to show that he was an ability user and someone not to be trifled with. Beyond that, Xie Zhou did not expose his true strength.

That night while Xie Zhou was resting, the little fellow lying on the other side in his pajamas really couldn’t take it anymore and secretly crept up.

Xie Zhou was sleeping very lightly tonight. Realizing the baby had gotten up, he continued to feign sleep, wanting to see what the baby would do after he fell asleep.

An An reached out and gently pushed open the hotel room window. His short little legs struggled as he hopped onto the windowsill.

Immediately after, he leapt down from the sixth floor.