Before the last glimmer of light faded from the sky, Ling Mo had returned to his place.
It was a small building with nothing out of the ordinary, other than having a firm iron gate. He could jump to the next building from the rooftop in order to escape, and it was rather spacious both in the front and back. Plus, it was also located in the suburbs, where there were less survivors and zombies than in the city, making it safer in comparison.
The main advantage was that it was originally a small furniture warehouse. The smell of low-quality paints and lumber filled the warehouse, covering Ling Mo's scent completely.
The infected monsters didn't lose their five senses but had them became even more sensitive. Their vision remained clear as day even in the night, and their hearing and sense of smell could not be compared to those of ordinary people.
Before Ling Mo went to bed, he fed a chunk of rancid frozen meat to his zombie puppet. He then shut the zombie outside the iron gate and locked it before going to bed in peace.
Even after he fell asleep, Ling Mo didn't break the spiritual connection with the zombie puppet. Although it was tiring this way, he could strengthen his ability as well as keep watch over himself.
It seemed simple to rest while maintaining a connection with the zombie, but it was easier said than done. Ling Mo tried many times before he could grasp the balance required. While in a light sleep, he could even hear the tiny noises around himself.
But today, Ling Mo couldn't fall asleep. The silhouette of that person appeared in his head repeatedly...
After his parents had passed away, the only person Ling Mo cared about in this world was her. He was secretly in love with her, his childhood friend and neighbour, Ye Lian.
When the catastrophe broke out, the last phone call he received was from her.
"Brother Ling, hurry! Run!"
These four simple words were followed by the busy tone...
Ling Mo knew that Ye Lian was probably in danger. When the virus broke out, she was on her way to his house, wanting to make dinner for him and improve his quality of life...
Because of this, there was a lump in Ling Mo's heart. Whether or not she was dead or alive, he would find her nonetheless.
"Tomorrow... I'll go search for her tomorrow."
After having prepared for so long, Ling Mo thought that it was time for him to pass through this area with his zombie control power.
In his head, he had thought of a place where she might be. It wasn't too far from where he was, but there were two residential districts in between, which was the most dangerous zone possible to cross.
In order to cross the zone as safely as possible, Ling Mo had already prepared everything and waited for tomorrow to come...
Early in the morning, Ling Mo opened his eyes and jumped down from the soft unfinished bed he was on. He checked his backpack again and took a deep breath before going downstairs.
Under his control, the zombie puppet guarded the gate obediently. His clothes were wet from the cold air but he didn't look tired at all.
For reasons unknown, this large-scale virus breakout not only turned humans into monsters, but also strengthened their bodies. Ling Mo also noticed that in order to maintain their new bodies' high energy consumption, the zombies' instincts drove them to continuously seek food to eat. Naturally, their food source was uninfected survivors.
Ling Mo opened the door after clenching the cleaver in his hands tightly, and made the zombie puppet head towards the route he had scheduled in advance.
As soon as he entered the residential district, the number of zombies wandering on the street visibly increased. It was impossible to use noise to lure the zombies somewhere else since the environment here was too complicated and he could easily get himself caught.
The only way was to pick the route with the least zombies and pass by silently.
The difficulty for an ordinary person in a place like this was beyond imagination, but luckily, Ling Mo had a zombie puppet.
Working with the zombie puppet, Ling Mo killed more than ten zombies in succession and finally crossed the area, arriving at a large street that used to be bustling in the past.
It was the transition area between the suburbs and the city. Ling Mo predicted that Ye Lian was somewhere on this street when she made the call to him.
There were abandoned buses all over, and all the shops on the street were wide open and pitch black.
Other than blood stains that could be seen everywhere, the only things left were the zombies.
Even though Ling Mo killed quite a few zombies the past few days, it was his first time seeing so many zombies gathered together. He looked around and there were roughly more than fifty zombies in his field of view, not counting those hiding in the shadows.
Ling Mo planned to look around from somewhere high up first, but just when he started heading for a residential building, he heard a shriek.
"Help!"
Ling Mo didn't expect a survivor to be here! Quickly controlling the zombie puppet, he carefully approached the place where the sound came from.
More than a dozen zombies crowded around a residential building, wildly slamming their bodies against the entrance door to the unit.
Behind the door stood two horrified young boys, pressing their bodies firmly against the door while screaming for help.
"Idiots..." Ling Mo frowned and looked around nervously.
Screaming out loud would only attract more zombies over. Ling Mo had wanted to help them if it was within his ability, but now it looked like helping them without careful consideration would only put himself in danger.
As expected, the sound attracted more zombies there and the door banged loudly as the zombies slammed their bodies against it. The door's connection to the wall began to loosen.
The two young boys' faces were ashen and they screamed in extreme fear until their throats were hoarse.
Bang!
With a tremendous sound, the zombies finally knocked down the door, and the boys' screams were soon drowned out...
This was a good opportunity for Ling Mo. He could cross this area while more zombies headed for the two boys.
He successfully crossed the area packed with zombies. But before he could celebrate, he noticed that the intersection ahead was blocked by a bus and a few cars.
When the virus hit the city, they were numerous cars involved in accidents, not to mention buses filled with passengers. Whether it was due to the passengers getting infected or being panicked by what was going on in the streets, tragedies like this were likely to have happened.
Judging from the situation, the bus had collided with the other cars which were fleeing, and its entire shape was deformed.
Ling Mo didn't know what happened to the passengers in the vehicles. Perhaps they died from being trapped, or perhaps they all turned into zombies...
Ling Mo was just about to walk around the collision, but a thought suddenly popped into his head while he was staring at the bus.
Whenever she came over, Ye Lian always caught the bus... He looked at the bus differently as soon as the thought came to his mind.
Ling Mo's heart began to beat rapidly and violently. He was hopeful, yet anxious.
It was very likely that Ye Lian was on this bus. If she didn't escape from the bus in time, she would still be on there.
Although he had sufficiently prepared himself mentally, he was still panic-stricken when he had to face it for real.
Would there be rotten bodies, or perhaps nothing left, or perhaps...
Ling Mo took a deep breath before he controlled the zombie puppet and climbed aboard the misshapen bus.
Controlling the zombie puppet felt very strange. It was as if he had a second body. Through his spiritual connection with the puppet, he could not only control the zombie's actions, but he could also receive information from the zombie's five senses.
However, there was still a boundary between Ling Mo and the zombie puppet, preventing him from being able to freely control the zombie exactly how he wanted.
From Ling Mo's point of view, that level of zombie control was probably the same as becoming one with the zombie...
Although it would feel a bit odd, Ling Mo looked forward to achieving that.