"Luoping community is a U-shape... And we live right in the middle of the U-shape at 303——the last two houses we went to clear were the houses on our left side."
Yueyue murmured as the two walked down the street, holding the map in her hand as Xiaoyun focused on watching the nearby surroundings.
"We already cleared the two houses on the left, so we should clear the one on the right now."
Yueyue put the map away as she looked back at Xiaoyun, waiting for him to make a decision.
"Okay. Let's go to the right then."
Ten minutes later...
As they headed towards the remaining houses in Luoping on the right side of the U-shape, they finally could see a mansion ahead.
"Does the map say anything about 304?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Nope, it says no one living in it... Should we just skip that one?"
Xiaoyun stopped for a second as he considered his options, but in the end, he couldn't come up with a decision.
"Hm... let's get closer first and decide later."
"Okay."
After walking for a minute, the two finally arrived in front of the main gate of 304.
At first glance, the mansion looked abandoned as leaves were flying all over the air when a gust of wind flew by.
However, both of their minds changed when they noticed a broken steel padlock on the floor, with traces of brute force applied around the shackle.
"Someone is definitely inside..." Xiaoyun murmured as he carefully examined the padlock in hand.
"Should we go inside then?"
"Yes. They live too close for us to feel safe. We need to check if they are humans or zombies."
"Zombies? How do they know breaking padlock inside a house?" Yueyue raised her question.
"Who knows... Maybe it wasn't Zombie who broke it. It could have been a burglar who broke in a long time ago and left already.
Either way, we need to make sure the community has no zombies in it... And make sure no one could threaten us."
As the two began walking closer and closer towards the front door of the mansion, Yueyue decided to ask a question first.
"Should we be friendly, or should we use force?"
Xiaoyun paused for a second, then answered.
"Let's stick to friendly first. But we'll use force if they don't comply."
As they approach the porch, Xiaoyun suddenly realizes how much he has changed.
The old Xiaoyun would never have thought of needing to use physical force on another human being in the past. However, his experience as Songming made him feel much more cynical toward other people.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized how naive he was in helping Yezi and Huayi, who were strangers to him. At the same time, his gut and heart told him he did the right thing.
"Okay..."
Yueyue felt a little uncomfortable about Xiaoyun's plan but agreed to it nonetheless.
---
After getting fully ready, the two knocked on the door first.
"Hello! Is anyone there? We just want to make sure you are okay. We don't mean any harm."
Despite Xiaoyun yelling just loud enough for people inside the mansion to hear, there was not a single response.
"If you don't open the door, we assume no one is in here."
The same thing happened, as the only sound was the leaves raveling in the front yard.
"Yueyue move back a little."
Xiaoyun took out his axe from the side and raised it all the way to the air.
With a loud chop, a giant cut appeared at right in the middle of the door. But it was still not enough to open it, so Xiaoyun raised his axe again.
This time, it finally made a hole big enough to peek inside.
"You see anything inside?" Yueyue curiously asked as Xiaoyun took a peak inside.
"Nope. There's a security gate behind this door."
Xiaoyun moved his hand inside the hole and opened the wooden door, revealing the metal door right before them.
"There's no way we're opening this one," Yueyue murmured as she poked the door with her baseball bat.
"Yeah... Maybe there's another way to get inside the mansion."
"Wait, I have an idea."
Xiaoyun quickly moved over to the window next to the door and then bashed it as hard as he could.
But as the glass broke open, there was still a metal security bar blocking them from climbing inside.
"Who the hell installed this much security?" Xiaoyun murmured as he stepped back from the metal gate.
"Maybe there's a backdoor entrance," Yueyue suggested.
The two immediately headed to the back of the house, where they found that every window had a security bar behind it.
However, after walking through the mansion in a circle, the two couldn't find the back entrance at all.
"All these windows still have security bar, and there's not even a back entrance..."
Just as Yueyue was about to ask if they should just leave, Xiaoyun suddenly noticed a few footprints on the ground.
"Wait, I think I know where's the back entrance... There are footprints here."
The two quickly followed the footprint to a blank white wall with no entrance in sight.
"Why do the footprints end here?" Yueyue wondered as the white wall was so smooth that it was practically impossible for someone to climb it.
"Wait, there's a door here."
Xiaoyun's sharp eye immediately noticed a small gap in between the walls and kicked it as hard as he could.
To Yueyue's surprise, the 'white' wall slammed right open as the inside of the mansion was finally revealed to them.
"How could you tell there was a door here?" Yueyue curiously asked.
"Well, first, the metal gate is broken into, so something spent all that effort getting through the first entrance.
They aren't just going to stop because of a security door now, so they must have found another way in. And the footprints here clearly belong to somebody who did just that."
Xiaoyun put his axe back to the side, took out his flashlight, and attached it to his chest. Then he pulled out his gun and turned off the safety.
"You ready?" Xiaoyun asked as he turned around to look towards Yueyue.
"Yeah, I'm ready," Yueyue replied as she attached the flashlight to her chest, keeping her bat as her weapon of choice.
The two slowly entered the dark house, with their back facing each other's back to prevent someone from sneaking behind them.
As they walked past the backdoor hallway into the kitchen, they noticed the entire house was empty.
"You scared?" Xiaoyun asked as Yueyue's body was shaking a little.
"N-No... Why does the light switch not turn on?"
Yueyue quickly changed the topic out of embarrassment, but Xiaoyun's plan worked as Yueyue was more relaxed now.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Xiaoyun murmured, drawing his gun out in the other hand to peek around the corner.
Suddenly, a child's screeching sound echoed in the mansion.
"What the fuck was that!" Yueyue yelled in anger as she almost dropped her bat from the surprise sound.
"Somebody is upstairs!"
The two quickly headed upstairs as the sound of the child screaming in pain only got louder and louder.
As the two made it to the second floor, three rooms were in front of them.
But they both could tell the noise was coming from the middle room, as the sound of a child screaming in pain revealed it.
Just as Yueyue was about to open the door, Xiaoyun hesitated for a second, thinking it could be bait.
But he chose not to stop her as the possibility of a child in pain greatly outweighed the risk.
"We're here to help you——"
Both Xiaoyun and Yueyue froze as they couldn't understand what was happening before their eye.
It was a man chewing on some sort of flesh, with a boy tied to a chair, bleeding profusely as his left leg was missing.
"Who the hell are you guys——"
Before the man could say anything, Xiaoyun knocked the man out with the butt of his axe.
Meanwhile, Yueyue ran up to the little boy and started examining the wound.
"Xiaoyun, what should we do? This is way too much blood."
Yueyue was in full panic as the bandage she tried to put on was no use, with blood continuing to flow out of it.
"Shit! There's no way Leyan can get here in time... Wait, maybe I can try this..."
Yueyue couldn't understand what Xiaoyun was trying to do as all he did was hold the boy by the hand, but she didn't ask why.
"Hang in there. We are going to help you," Yueyue assures the boy as she notices him suddenly regain consciousness for a second.
"Thank you..."
As the boy loses consciousness again, Yueyue couldn't help but begin to tear up as a living person was dying right before her eyes.
"No, no, no, please just hold on. You're too young to die here. Please, just hold on for a second."
Just as Yueyue was about to lose faith, a glowing light suddenly appeared at where the boy's wound was.
Slowly, the light disappeared, revealing a fully grown leg on the boy's left ankle. However, as Yueyue examined it a little closer, she noticed the left leg was a carbon copy of the right leg.
"This should be good enough for now..." Xiaoyun murmured, letting go of the boy's hand as a headache began appearing.
Yueyue's face was in absolute shock as she couldn't believe the boy's limb had regrown right before her eye.
"Xiaoyun, how did you do this?"
"It's just a part of my power... This was my second time trying this on someone... You forgot Leyan this morning?"
Xiaoyun slowly sat down on the floor as the headache started to get more and more painful.
"Oh! You did that! I thought it was just Mom's makeup skill. No wonder Mom looks so young..."
As Yueyue double-checked to make sure the boy was fine, she finally turned around to check on Xiaoyun.
"Xiaoyun, are you okay?"
"I'm fine... Just give me a short second to rest."
After sitting for a few minutes, the headache was finally gone as Xiaoyun stood back up to examine the room.
"Yueyue, what do you think we should do with this person?"
"I think we shouldn't let him go. He clearly is insane... Why would someone eat someone else's flesh?"
Yueyue murmured the last part as she looked down at the pot, which still had a little bit of the boy's leg inside it.
"How about we just——"
Xiaoyun moved his hand over the neck, signally that he was willing to unalive the man for his crime.
"W-wait, let's at least interrogate him and ask him why he did this."
Yueyue got a little scared by Xiaoyun's proposal, as she never expected him to suggest killing someone outright.
"Fine, maybe we can get some useful information that way..."
Xiaoyun supported the boy back up to the chair as Yueyue began tying up the man and putting him in the corner.
After everything was done, the two waited for a second as they discussed what to do next.
"How do we wake him up?"
"Maybe you should pour some cold water on him. I saw they do it in the movies," Yueyue replied.
Xiaoyun creates a bottle of ice water and pours it right over the man's face.
"Ah! What the fuck! So fucking cold!" The man yelled as he tried to cover his face with his hand, but he was already all tied up into a ball.
"Huh, I guess those movies aren't just full of lies..." Xiaoyun murmured as the two examined the man in silence.
"What the hell do you want? Have you two heard of our boss? You better let go of me before I call them."
Despite the threat, the two could notice the fear on the man's face.
"I actually never heard of your boss. Can you tell me where he is located? Also, I wouldn't yell if I were you."
Xiaoyun moves the axe next to the man's head, with the blade facing the side of his neck.
"Please don't kill me. I don't want to die." The man begged.
"Answer. The. Question."
Xiaoyun gently patted the man's neck with the axe, giving him a cold touch of the axe.
"Okay, okay. I will answer the question. Our boss is at 312, on the right side of the Luoping community."
"Don't bullshit me. There are only 310 max... Looks like someone here isn't being honest."
Xiaoyun raises the axe on top of his neck as if he is planning to drop it.
"Wait, wait. I remember now. It's 309, 309! Sir, please don't drop that axe."
The man finally seemed to fold, but Xiaoyun took the info with a grain of salt.
"Does he have any weapon? How many people work for him?"
"T-The boss has a gun. H-He used to work in the triad. All of us were part of his gang when the zombie virus broke out.
But he has ten of us as part of his gang right now. Also, several other people are working as slaves for him. Can I go now?"
The man was starting to get more and more nervous as Xiaoyun's axe rested right above his neck.
"One final question before you can go: What are you... eating that boy?"
Xiaoyun moved the axe away from his neck as if he was really going to let him go.
"I was sent here to scout ahead, as the boss wanted the whole community as his base before he went inside the city to explore for more food... I just got a little hungry, so I..."
The man fell silent as if ashamed of his actions but unwilling to admit them.
"You know, I was thinking of punishing you with death for that. But I'll give you one chance. Tell me, what's happening to the city?"
"The city? It's a hellhole. Some zombies can do things we can't even imagine they can do. One time, there was even an invisible one that killed half of our gangs.
Even the boss doesn't want to go there, but there isn't enough food for everyone. Even gang members like us don't get enough ration."
The man noticed Xiaoyun raising his axe again, causing him to panic even more.
"I am sorry, I don't want to do this either, but I'm so hungry. Please! Don't kill me! I have parents and kids to take care of."
The man begged again, but Xiaoyun was no longer listening to his excuses.
"There's always a choice, and you picked the wrong one."
"Wait, wait, I thought I was free to go." The man angrily yelled.
"Yeah, free to go to hell!"
Just as Xiaoyun was about to swing his axe down, Yueyue stopped it at the last second.
"Wait!"
The axe was just on the man's neck, causing him to piss his pant as he almost passed out from the swing of the axe.
"What's wrong?" Xiaoyun asked.
"I-I don't want you to kill someone. It's not our job to deliver justice... and the man already knows he is in the wrong.
He just got pushed to make a hard choice... Can we just leave?" Yueyue pleaded.
"I'm so sorry, but I will never do this again. Please, please spare me. I beg for your forgiveness."
The man yelled out, looking extremely thankful to Yueyue for giving him the chance to live.
"Yueyue... you are too soft."
Just as the axe swung down again, Yueyue pushed his hand back again.
"Brother PLEASE! I don't want to see you kill someone! Please..."
Yueyue suddenly started crying as she held onto Xiaoyun's hand, not letting him move at all.
"Fine. I won't kill him."
Xiaoyun attached his axe back to his backpack and carried the boy in his arms.
"Thank you, thank you." The man thanked the two as the two began heading towards the door.
"Wait, Yueyue, can you hold the boy for a second?"
"Sure."
As Yueyue held the boy in her arms and walked out of the room, Xiaoyun immediately turned around and pulled his gun.
Within seconds, Xaioyun aimed it and shot the man right in the head, not giving him any chance to survive.
The man's face was still in shock as blood dripped out of his forehead, but Yueyue didn't get to see it as Xiaoyun closed the door right away.
"Oops, my gun went off on accident. Good thing it didn't hit anybody." Xiaoyun stated out loud as they walked downstairs.
"Brother, you——"
"What? The man is still alive. I didn't kill him. You really think I will waste a bullet to that trash?"
Despite Xiaoyun's reassurance, Yueyue didn't trust it a single bit as it was just too big of a coincidence.
"Come on, let's go home now," Xiaoyun hurried Yueyue as they entered through the main entrance.
But Yueyue stood still at the doorway with the boy in her arms.
"B-brother, you really didn't kill him?" Yueyue nervously asked as if she really wished it was true.
"Yeah, you can go check right now if you want. But the sun is already down, so we better go home now."
Yueyue had no choice but to take his word as they finally began heading back home.