Chapter 113 – Caught a Mouse

“Don’t be afraid, I won’t kill you.”

Ling Mo put away his Short Knife as he spoke to the terrified girls huddled together.

Ling Mo would never show mercy to those who dared to provoke him, but he also wouldn’t kill innocent people indiscriminately. These girls posed no threat at all, so he naturally wouldn’t harm them.

Seeing that the girls were still looking at him warily, Ling Mo sighed inwardly and decided to ignore them. He began searching the room.

Xia Na and Ye Lian curiously stared at the girls for a while but soon lost interest. The two female Zombies then started rummaging through the bookshelves, imitating Ling Mo.

Ling Mo quickly discovered some miscellaneous items under the makeshift beds—dirty clothes and some household goods. The biggest find was several boxes of food and some drinking water, though most of these items were either expired or hard to swallow. The majority of the food was divided into many small portions, packed in bags. Ling Mo roughly counted them and found there were exactly twenty portions.

This must be the “places” that Li Danyang mentioned. However, judging by the quantity, it was clear that these girls, along with some of the people who died outside, didn’t have any places.

Exchanging supplies for shelter… This might explain why Tang Xiaoxue and his group were desperately searching for supplies.

What kind of scheme has Wei Junyan, a man known only by name, orchestrated to turn these Survivors into lunatics?

Ling Mo frowned as he sorted through the items, eventually picking out just a few packets of chocolate candies and a few bottles of water.

He then glanced back at the girls and said calmly, “These are all yours now.”

His words made the girls stop crying immediately. They eyed Ling Mo warily, but seeing that he had already moved on to search elsewhere without any reluctance, one of the girls fixed her gaze on the pile of food. She swallowed hard and, unable to resist, slowly crawled over. Once she safely grabbed a bag of food and eagerly tore it open to start stuffing her mouth, the other hesitant girls couldn’t hold back any longer and rushed over as well.

It seemed that prolonged hunger outweighed their sense of shame. Even though Ling Mo had deliberately thrown the old clothes to the side, they didn’t spare them a second glance.

This wasn’t the first time Ling Mo had seen Survivors mistreating women, but given the generally weaker position of women, this phenomenon was almost unavoidable.

Under the immense pressure of survival, almost everyone needed an outlet to vent their primal needs. Abusing women was, undoubtedly, the most convenient way to do so.

Being used as tools for release over a long period, these girls naturally had no self-respect left.

From the search results, it was clear that Li Danyang’s group was quite impoverished, likely due to their location. The surrounding area was filled with Teaching Buildings, so the resources they could gather were limited.

What surprised Ling Mo, however, was finding a solar-powered flashlight among the items. A flashlight that didn’t require battery replacements was quite a valuable find, and Ling Mo didn’t hesitate to take it.

There was also a baton, but such an item was useless against Zombies. Even Li Danyang didn’t use it, so Ling Mo had no interest in it either.

Seeing that there was nothing more of value, Ling Mo cleared a corner, intending to spend the night there. But after organizing the area, he looked around and realized that Ye Lian and Xia Na were nowhere to be seen.

“Where did those two go?”

Ling Mo walked toward the bookshelves and switched his vision. As soon as his sight shifted to Xia Na’s perspective, the scene before him startled him.

A large, dark, furry thing was swaying back and forth in front of him, making Ling Mo’s scalp tingle.

Fortunately, in the next second, Xia Na used her knife to flick the thing onto the ground, and Ling Mo realized it was an exceptionally large rat.

The rat was likely drawn out by the intense scent of blood, but somehow Xia Na had spotted it. Judging by the bloodstains on its pointed snout, it had already feasted on human flesh. Whether it had eaten the flesh of the Survivors or the Zombie Puppets was unknown.

After a brief glance, Ling Mo lost interest and focused on surveying the surroundings. Once he roughly determined Xia Na and Ye Lian’s location, he quickly headed in their direction.

However, just then, the rat suddenly began to convulse violently and started darting around like a flea. It then crazily charged straight towards Ye Lian.

Unfortunately for the rat, despite its rapid movements, it was no match for Ye Lian, who had become an Advanced Zombie renowned for her speed.

With a casual flick of her toe, Ye Lian sent the rat flying with a shrill “squeak!” The rat smashed into a nearby wall.

After hitting the ground, the rat stopped moving and began to convulse. Blood started to pour from its eyes and mouth, while its body swelled like a balloon. Its skin occasionally burst, causing blood mixed with pus to ooze out, creating a horrifying sight.

Seeing the rat’s transformation, Ling Mo froze for a moment before suddenly recalling someone—Lu Xin, the one responsible for Xia Na’s mutation. Lu Xin had experienced similar symptoms: Psychic madness and a body in a constant state of decay.

Lu Xin had died because he was directly infected by the high-purity Virus from a Mutation Zombie, which his body couldn’t withstand. But this rat had only consumed the blood and flesh of a regular Zombie. Why was it showing the same symptoms?

Could it be that animals simply couldn’t endure this Virus?

By this time, Ling Mo had already navigated through several rows of bookshelves and entered a Utility Room at the back. As soon as he stepped inside, he saw Ye Lian and Xia Na. They were quite resourceful, taking advantage of Ling Mo’s search to slip into this room.

At the moment, they were curiously staring at the rat. Once Ling Mo entered, he too turned his attention to the rat.

The rat’s insides were rotting, and it twitched in pain but soon ceased to move entirely.

In a remarkably short time, its body decayed into a mere skin, the speed of which was almost unbelievable.

If Ling Mo hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed such a thing could happen. It was merely the Virus from a regular Zombie, yet it reduced the rat to this state.

No wonder there weren’t many animals around these days. It’s likely that many rats or birds had eaten the flesh of Zombies and then quickly rotted away like this.

For instance, if other rats consumed the decayed flesh left by this one, they would likely suffer the same fate.

Ling Mo watched for a while and surmised that the small size of these animals made them unable to withstand the Virus’s intensity. If the creature were slightly larger, like a human, it could endure the Virus from a regular Zombie and then mutate.

When Xia Na was infected by Lu Xin, she managed to survive the Mutation Zombie Virus, which had been diluted by Lu Xin’s blood. However, whether this varies from person to person, Ling Mo couldn’t say for sure.

Unfortunately, determining the exact size a creature must be to carry the Virus was not something that could be confirmed immediately.

At least the fact that rats couldn’t withstand the Virus was undoubtedly good news for humanity. With the enormous number of rats, if they could mutate, humans would be in serious trouble.