NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: A House Visit
Xu Duoduo was engrossed in browsing the internet, something she hadn't done since the apocalypse began. She went through each post one by one.
It wasn't until she noticed the sky darkening outside that she realized she had been crouching on the floor, scrolling through her tablet for a long time. Being a zombie, her legs didn't get sore, unlike a normal person whose legs would have gone numb. She finally stood up, swaying a bit.
Looking down at her blood-stained clothes, now dry and stiff, she immediately headed to the bathroom.
She carefully adjusted the water heater temperature, making sure not to cook herself.
Thanks to the Mutation Core from the old monkey king, she had regained control of her body. Otherwise, she would only be able to move freely at night, which would have been too miserable.
Xu Duoduo carefully washed herself clean, pulling out toiletries from her multi-faced cube space, turning herself into a fragrant little zombie.
She then took out a change of clothes and put on another comfortable set of pajamas.
As for the pajamas she had taken off, she soaked them in the washbasin, attempting to clean them. Sometimes her brain would suddenly stall and fail to process things properly.
If it were the normal-thinking Xu Duoduo, she would have probably thrown them in the trash bin by now. However, the little zombie Xu Duoduo's instinct to save money outweighed her rationality, so without thinking it through, she subconsciously put them in water to soak.
When Qin Luo and Chen Xiaofei knocked on Xu Duoduo's door, she was still scrubbing clothes. So she ran to open the door with her hands full of soap bubbles.
"Little team leader, look what we've brought you! Well, actually, we've exchanged some... Huh? What are you doing?"
Chen Xiaofei was shocked to see Xu Duoduo with hands full of soap bubbles.
Qin Luo frowned, peeking into the bathroom. He grabbed Xu Duoduo's arm and led her to wash her hands. "Why are you washing those clothes? They're full of contaminated fluids. This stuff needs to be sealed in a garbage bag and thrown into the hazardous waste bin downstairs."
Xu Duoduo hadn't thought it would be so particular, but it made sense. After all, the survivor base wasn't just for ability users; there were also many ordinary people living there. If they came into contact with the contaminated blood from the mutant monkey group, wouldn't that end up killing people?
Frightened, she quickly tried to retrieve the clothes, but Qin Luo stopped her. He pulled out a sealed garbage bag from a box next to the sink. "I'll do it. You wash your hands, and when you're done, come out to eat."
Xu Duoduo was still wondering about the meal when she finished washing her hands as instructed. Then she heard Chen Xiaofei calling from the other room, "Little team leader, come quick!"
How could these two be so familiar! This was her house!
Couldn't they show some respect for a corpse?
Xu Duoduo ran out, feeling annoyed. She saw a transparent box on the table containing three Mutation Cores: one green and two orange-red.
"Look! To welcome you to our 3A Special Operations Team, our Brother Qin spent a lot of money to buy you three Mutation Cores!"
"You're such a lucky little zombie. You just happened to join when the base rules were reformed. Now we don't have to hand over Mutation Cores anymore! We can even buy Mutation Cores with points in the future!"
They're just a bit expensive.
Chen Xiaofei looked excited and urged her to come try the taste. "And little team leader, you're really something else. Other normal people and ability users would die immediately if they ate Mutation Cores, but you can chew them like candy. Can you eat another one for me to see?"
Qin Luo had already packed up the contaminated clothes and washed his hands. Hearing this, he clicked his tongue and said, "Are you treating her like a monkey to perform tricks?"
By now, Xu Duoduo's eyes were sparkling as she leaned close to the coffee table, staring at the three Mutation Cores. The transparent box was probably made of some special material; one had to get very close to smell the fragrance of the Mutation Cores.
The green Mutation Core still had that fresh scent, like the smell of fresh grass, while the orange-red ones smelled a bit like cumin-flavored barbecue skewers.
It smelled so good.
But she wasn't hungry at the moment. She felt her stomach carefully and estimated it was about 60-70% full.
"Ding dong, ding dong."
The doorbell rang again.
Xu Duoduo turned to look. Qin Luo had already gone to open the door. Bai Shu and Wang Weihu had arrived too.
Bai Shu had changed into a white shirt and black trousers, wearing frameless glasses. He looked more like the familiar Bai Shu that Xu Duoduo knew; he had worn glasses since middle school.
Wang Weihu was also wearing casual clothes. In his left hand, he held several unopened sets of combat uniforms. "Just got these approved. Size 165 clothes, should fit the little team leader. Her code number also came down. It's quite unlucky."
Bai Shu couldn't help but complain about this, "The headquarters people even said, 'The little team leader is already a zombie virus mutant, why worry about 444 being unlucky?' Damn, don't mutants have rights? It's too unfortunate to get this number."
Chen Xiaofei exploded when he heard this, slamming the table as he stood up, "What? This is too much!"
Even Qin Luo asked, "Didn't anyone ask the headquarters? How can they give such an unlucky number to a girl?"
Bai Shu said, "They brushed it off, saying it's the apocalypse now, not peacetime. They don't have time to deal with our trivial matters and told us to make do. It's all just talk. There's even someone with connections waiting to pick their number next door! It's clearly discrimination."
...
Honestly.
If it weren't for the huge walls outside and her still lack of a heartbeat, Xu Duoduo, watching the four of them chat casually, might have thought for a moment that the apocalypse was just a dream. But unfortunately, the apocalypse was real, and she was truly just a corpse with consciousness. So she took out her tablet, tapped away, and then showed them what she wrote: [It's okay, I don't mind.]
It's just a code number after all.
After reading this, the four of them fell silent for a moment. Then Qin Luo turned to make a phone call, "No, I'm going to ask about this. We should at least get a luckier number. I want to know why people with connections can change their numbers, but we can't after risking our lives on the front lines? This doesn't make sense. They're just bullying us!"
Chen Xiaofei also complained dissatisfied, "That's right! Even in the apocalypse, they're still playing the connection game?"
After saying this, he urged Xu Duoduo to eat, "Don't worry about this nonsense. Little team leader, eat up! Brother Qin pulled a lot of strings to get these Mutation Cores!"
Bai Shu also stared at the three Mutation Cores and sighed, "Old Qin can even get his hands on these?"
Wang Weihu leaned in to take a look and thought about the mutant animals with a headache, "These things are much more troublesome than zombies. Even these low-level ones are annoying. If there are higher-level mutant creatures in the future, life will really be..."
The topic became a bit heavy.
So the three of them immediately fell silent. Bai Shu put some nutrient solution and a bag of steamed buns on the table, "Let's eat first. It's only been ten days, and the food in the cafeteria has already decreased by 80%. Guess how many points this bag of steamed buns cost?"
Chen Xiaofei skillfully opened the bottle of nutrient solution and asked curiously, "How much?"
Wang Weihu sighed and said, "8 steamed buns, 200 points."
Chen Xiaofei gasped, "How much?! 25 points for one plain steamed bun?"
His face immediately showed pain at the cost.
Xu Duoduo remembered that Professor Ji and the others had said at the beginning that three points could buy a full meal, but given the current situation, being full certainly didn't mean eating well.
She also fell silent.
Wang Weihu, while munching on a steamed bun, said, "There are too many rescued survivors now, and the base's food supply is tight. We have to prioritize the ordinary people. Those of us who can survive on nutrient solution will just have to make do for now."