Chapter 263 – It’s All Your Fault I Don’t Want Kids

As soon as he pushed open the apartment door, a faint stench of decay filled the air.

Dark brown bloodstains and some human remains were scattered everywhere.

Directly facing the apartment door, the elevator was half-open, with a corpse stuck in the middle. The upper half of the body had been completely gnawed clean.

Not far from the elevator, around the corner, was the staircase.

Black Silk had just darted upstairs when a shadow suddenly lunged out from the darkness of the stairwell.

The zombie reached out with both hands, emitting a low, meaningless growl, and lunged for Black Silk.

The shadow moved fast, but Ling Mo’s Psychic Tentacle was faster.

Just as it reached Black Silk, it stumbled and crashed heavily against the stairs.

“Whoa!”

A mouthful of fresh blood spewed out immediately, with a broken tooth faintly visible in the blood.

Before it could get up, Black Silk had already sunk its teeth into the back of its neck.

Sharp teeth severed the zombie’s blood vessels instantly. Just as it was about to struggle, a crisp “crack” sounded from its spine.

Black Silk growled softly, releasing its grip and licking the blood from its mouth.

Ye Lian stepped forward, and with a swift motion, extracted a Gel.

“That’s why I love these semi-enclosed places. You can hunt a lot of Gels conveniently.”

Ling Mo took the Gel and said, “In these high-occupancy elevator apartment buildings, there are quite a few residents. Ordinary zombies trapped here can only cannibalize each other, evolving into more advanced zombies. But as far as I know, only Advanced Zombies will actively leave this place to hunt outside. Mutation Zombies… they probably need to reach a fairly advanced level before they leave their territory, right?”

After speaking, he turned his gaze to Li Yalin.

Ye Lian had been with him for a long time, and Xia Na had been by his side since her mutation, so their evolution paths were completely different from ordinary zombies and couldn’t be used as references.

Previously, Li Yalin hadn’t regained much of her rationality, so asking her was futile. But now, he could fully understand the growth patterns of ordinary zombies from her.

Li Yalin looked at Ling Mo and said, “The memories from when I first turned into a zombie… I don’t have those in my head. I only started having fragmentary memories once I regained a bit of rationality. My complete memories only really began after I reached what you call the advanced stage. The clearest ones are of us in the restroom, on the bed, on the floor, against the wall…”

“There’s no need to go into those details…”

“Why not? We haven’t seen it,” Xia Na curiously leaned in, only to have Ling Mo block her forehead with his hand.

“When you fully advance, I’ll let you experience it firsthand, so don’t ask now.” Ling Mo continued, “Senior Sister is right. When you were an ordinary zombie, your brain wasn’t functioning properly and was completely driven by instinct. It’s normal not to have those memories. Actually, not having those memories might be a good thing…”

“Yes! I’ve been categorizing my current memories lately, and there are many interesting ones,” Li Yalin suddenly said with a smile.

Ling Mo looked at Li Yalin curiously and asked, “Like what?”

“For instance…” Li Yalin gave Ling Mo a once-over, which immediately gave him a bad feeling. “It’s all your fault I don’t want to have kids.”

“Even if you don’t want kids, that’s a species difference issue!”

Ling Mo’s gaze quickly shifted downward, and a strange look flashed in his eyes. “Being able to contract and expand at will… and having self-repairing abilities… who knows if the internal structure has fundamentally changed…”

“Didn’t you use Dick to investigate thoroughly?” Ye Lian interjected.

“Uh… it doesn’t have that function,” Ling Mo said, rubbing his forehead.

“That’s why the human body has too many flaws,” Xia Na said thoughtfully. “As zombies, our recovery abilities and physical capabilities far surpass those of humans. The only drawback is our intelligence. But once we regain our memories and intelligence, that gap is closed…”

Ling Mo shook his head and said, “No, the biggest difference is actually that your thought processes are very straightforward, but humans are very complicated. That’s what worries me the most about you.”

“I see…” Xia Na frowned, seemingly deep in thought again.

While they were talking, Black Silk had already run up to the second floor.

“Let’s settle on the second floor. You clean the rooms, and Black Silk and I will handle the zombies upstairs.”

Ling Mo quickly made the arrangements.

“24 floors… just thinking about it makes me tired…”

After handing his backpack to Ye Lian, Ling Mo grabbed his Tang Sword and headed up lightly equipped.

Black Silk seemed very excited…

Whenever it was alone with Ling Mo, it became much more lively. As long as there were no zombies in sight, it would circle around Ling Mo energetically.

The previous disagreement seemed to have been forgotten.

Ling Mo also took a few extra glances at it.

In just a day, it seemed to have undergone some subtle changes. Its fur color seemed a bit brighter, but conversely, its size seemed to have shrunk a bit.

“Were you inflatable before?” Ling Mo wondered, frowning.

He stared at Black Silk’s tail for a moment, barely resisting the urge to pull it to see if it would deflate…

“Spending too much time with Ye Lian and the girls, I’m starting to think like this too…”

Ling Mo quickly shook his head.

Half an hour later, Ling Mo and Black Silk had finished searching the entire building.

Though a bit tired, the results were good. All the zombies they encountered were of the mutated type, and the Gel in their brains was of fairly high quality.

After leaving Black Silk to guard the stairway, Ling Mo walked alone to the apartment that Ye Lian and the three girls had cleaned.

Any room sealed for half a year, even without corpses, would smell terrible, so they had opened the window facing the garden.

The cold wind blew in for half an hour, and the smell finally improved a bit.

The dust-covered bedsheets and blankets had been thrown out. Most of the cotton quilts they found in the cabinets were moldy and discolored. In the end, Ling Mo had to crawl in and find a quilt that was barely usable.

After tidying up the bed, Ling Mo looked at the small quilt and flashed a hopeful smile. “Looks like tonight… we’ll have to squeeze together to sleep.”

“I need to eat this first,” Li Yalin said.

As she spoke, she pulled a small pouch from her pocket. Inside was the viral hive of the Mutation Python.

Ling Mo immediately thought of the Leader-Level Zombie viral hive that he carried. It was always kept close to his skin, separated by just a thin layer of fabric.

However, as he took out the viral hive, Ling Mo once again felt that heartbeat-like sensation.

“This thing is too much like a tiny heart. Maybe calling it a power source is more fitting? Unfortunately, Xia Na and Ye Lian can’t consume it yet.”

Ling Mo said regretfully.

“Ling-Ge…” Xia Na stared at the viral hive and asked, “Why don’t you eat it?”

“Huh?”

“The Leader-Level Zombie this viral hive came from was clearly strength-oriented. Isn’t that what you currently lack the most?” Xia Na said, looking at Ling Mo. “The serums we got from the Biological Research Institute can be absorbed directly by the human body after dilution. As long as it’s not overdone, it won’t cause mutations. Shouldn’t this be the same?”

Ling Mo had never really thought about this question…

Or rather, most people wouldn’t think of this…

“No matter how much it’s diluted, I can’t consume this thing, right? The virus content is immeasurable… No, it’s basically a virus production source. How could it be diluted?”

Before Ling Mo could finish speaking, Ye Lian walked over, grabbed the Gel, and put it in her mouth.

She moved so quickly that Ling Mo didn’t expect it, let alone stop her.

“Ye Lian!”

Just as Ling Mo’s eyes widened, Ye Lian suddenly leaned in, pressing her cold lips against his.

“Ling-Ge… open your mouth…”

Staring into Ye Lian’s now blood-red eyes, Ling Mo felt his heart race.

Opening his mouth, would the Gel go directly into his mouth?

No… Ye Lian wouldn’t harm him…

With this thought, Ling Mo slowly parted his lips.

A cool liquid immediately flowed into Ling Mo’s mouth. A few seconds later, he suddenly felt as if his heart was being squeezed by a hand.

Ye Lian’s blood-red eyes were so close, but Ling Mo’s vision grew increasingly blurry…