"Vii…"
Yang Zhang planned to use Little Ivy's whip power to just… whip the heck out of those zombies and collect as many Brain Beads as possible.
But when he saw that Little Ivy got so scared when she heard the word 'zombie,' he bet this little plant wouldn't even dare to attack when there were zombies around.
Yang Zhang patted Little Ivy's leaf gently, "It's fine. I won't let any zombies attack you. As long as there is me, you're safe."
Yang Zhang tried to calm Little Ivy down, and Little Ivy slowly relaxed. She still coiled around Yang Zhang's arm tightly, though.
Yang Zhang sighed, "Well, let's just return to the hut first before we hunt for uh… undead again."
Yang Zhang opened his palm with Little Ivy in it. She instantly grabbed the luggage, and they strode through the forest, returning to the wooden hut.
When they arrived, Yang Zhang told Little Ivy to put down the luggage. He put her down on the soil, and the little plant jumped in and rooted herself again.
"Okay, I'll take a bath first and change my clothes. My shirt reeks of zombies' rotten flesh!"
When he went to the backyard, the rose was dancing again, but he was used to it and went straight past to take a bath.
After bathing and changing his clothes, Yang Zhang returned inside the hut. Chestnut and Little Ivy were playing together, so he checked his phone, and it had been fully charged.
The moment he turned it on and saw the welcome animation, he was so happy that he hugged his phone.
"Oh, my precious phone, my heart feels empty without you. What am I going to do without my stash of porn—I—I mean, without my camera and radio!"
After the apocalypse, the only effective method of broadcast from the government was through radio. Its primary use was to share information with the surviving citizens so they could defend themselves against the zombies.
The government also used it to announce danger zones, places to avoid when moving or migrating from one base to another.
A danger zone was a strange phenomenon that would affect a random area. It was usually late at night. The air in that area would suddenly smell rotten and putrid without apparent cause, and the scent would attract hordes of zombies. The zombies also got ten times more feral in that area. They were an absolute menace that it was best to avoid.
Because it was so random, there had once been an accident where a base for humans and ability users suddenly got invaded, and hordes of zombies massacred everyone.
But that wasn't an issue for Yang Zhang right now. He was literally in the middle of a forest, so he wouldn't be affected.
His focus right now was to collect more and more Brain Beads so that he could get more useful companions.
Yang Zhang stared at Chestnut and Little Ivy. He patted his shoulder and instructed, "Chestnut, let's go, we're going out to hunt zombies!"
"Squeak!" Chestnut happily jumped onto Yang Zhang's shoulder. But Little Ivy hesitated.
"Vii…"
Yang Zhang smiled and patted Little Ivy's leaf, "You can stay here if you want. I will return in the evening, okay?"
"Vii! Vii! Vii!" Little Ivy panicked. She suddenly jumped out of her pot and coiled around Yang Zhang's arm again, trembling in fear.
"What? You don't like to get left alone?"
"Vii…"
"Alright then, how about this…." Yang Zhang was thinking of utilizing Little Ivy when there was no zombie encounter. "Well, Little Ivy is pretty strong. I'm sure you can help take care of stuff as long as there are no zombies around. When there is a zombie, you can hide inside my sleeve, okay?"
"Vii!"
"Hehe, good girl."
Yang Zhang went out and started wandering aimlessly again, hoping he could get out of the forest after marking a path. He intentionally took another path from yesterday since the only thing he found along the first one was that mini-market next to an empty highway.
But the farther he went, the more he thought that he might be walking in a circle.
"Ah, this is bad, the trees are very tall as well…" Yang Zhang looked up, and the lush trees almost completely obstructed his view of the sun. At this rate, he would be forced to return to the hut.
"Vii!"
"Oh? Little Ivy, you want to help me?"
"Vii! Vii!"
"Huh? Raise my hand?" Yang Zhang didn't understand what Little Ivy wanted to do, so he raised his hand to the sky and opened his palm.
Little Ivy pulled out a pair of vines and stretched them to the sky. The vines landed on a tall tree above Yang Zhang and wrapped tightly around the branches.
Suddenly, Little Ivy retracted the vines, pulling them all to the tall tree above.
"VII!"
"SQUEAKKK!"
"GYAAAHHH!"
The sudden action caught Yang Zhang and Chestnut off guard but they quickly reached the tall branches above. Yang Zhang immediately hugged the branch, not wanting to move.
He looked down, and his whole body shook out of fear. He had lost all his strength.
"L—Little Ivy, please put me down... slowly, okay?"
"Vii? Vii! Vii!"
"I—I mean, I know that you want to help me, but this is too dangerous. One slip and I will end up as a Picasso painting on the ground."
Little Ivy didn't seem to listen to Yang Zhang. Instead, she coiled on Yang Zhang's arm tighter and pulled him up to an even higher branch, higher and higher until they reached the top.
"Aaahh!"
Yang Zhang was hugging the tallest branch on top of a pine tree. The branch wobbled left and right as it struggled to hold Yang Zhang's weight.
Yang Zhang closed his eyes tightly, unable to look down, but Chestnut suddenly jumped on top of his head and pulled his hair, "Squeak! Squeak!"
"What? You see something?"
Yang Zhang slowly raised his head and his eyes moved toward the location Chestnut pointed. The moment Yang Zhang saw what the squirrel was pointing to, he saw a deserted village not far from his current position.
He couldn't see what was inside that village. There didn't seem to be many people, but of course, he already expected there to be zombies there.
At least he had a direction now. He hoped that he could find some supplies and a Brain Bead before returning to the hut.
"Alright, the next stop has been spotted! Let's go, Ivy, Chestnut!"
"Squeak!
"Vii!"