An Electrically-Charged Zombie

Just as he opened the door, a small soft body bolted into his embrace.

The distant lines that sculpted Lin Chao's face melted as a faint hint of gentleness appeared. He said with a smile, "Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to me."

"Mm!" Lin Shiyu gave a hard nod inside Lin Chao's embrace. Whether she was acknowledging him or praying that it would always come true, nobody knew.

Lin Chao looked up and dropped his gaze from Lin Shiyu towards whom was also in the room, recovering to his cold expression. "Did you do anything foolish while I was gone?"

Anything foolish…

Fan Xiangyu was sobbing on the inside. This man had indeed prepared beforehand.

Lin Shiyu picked up her head from the hug and said with a beam, "She's been good."

Heaving the breath she subconsciously held when she heard what Lin Shiyu said, Fan Xiangyu made a consequential nod. "Yes, I've been good to your sister. A group of zombies came last night and I drew them away. Right, Big Sis Yu?"

Lin Shiyu stared straight at her, imparting a warning hidden in her gaze to indicate that she better not exaggerate.

Fan Xiangyu clamped her mouth shut meekly.

Sitting down at the couch, Lin Chao dug out the little shrub monster from his pocket. The plant was already at the brink of dying. When Lin Chao poured a few drops of water, its dull leaves glowed an emerald green radiance at once as they unfurled and recovered a slight sense of life.

"A plant that moves?" Lin Shiyu and Fan Xiangyu came closing in to watch in amazement.

Lin Chao nodded, "This is a mutated floral monster. It's very rare and very nourishing. Common injuries can be healed just by eating a piece of its leaves."

"That's magical!" Lin Shiyu prodded her glasses, approaching closer to the little shrub monster's tendrils to observe them with a magnifying glass.

"Can it act as an antidote if one's poisoned?" Fan Xiangyu asked as she thought about it.

Giving her a glance, Lin Chao told her, "You can try."

"Um, it's fine," she replied embarrassed.

Lin Shiyu asked curiously, "Are you going to grow it?"

With a shake of his head, Lin Chao answered, "I'll eat it immediately after finding the tools. It can strengthen me."

Swish! The frail little shrub monster that lay in his palm squeezed itself into a ball in a blink of eyes. Its tendrils quivered lightly, it was very much frightened.

A chortle escaped Lin Shiyu, "It could actually understand us. That's unbelievable."

"That means that it's eaten humans before," Lin Chao explained calmly.

Lin Shiyu's chuckle died down. She nodded vehemently, "Then it should be eaten."

The little shrub monster shrunk into itself even more as it trembled.

Fan Xiangyu was suddenly stunned as she spoke hesitantly, "I seem to have felt the organisms electric wave just now. It's begging you."

"You can also sense the flora's life wave?" Lin Chao was quite surprised.

A ghostly smile appeared on Fan Xiangyu's face. "It's a little difficult and the receiving isn't very accurate but I understand most of the message. It says that as long as it's given soil, it will bear fruit and it'll give the fruit to you."

Lin Chao nodded, "I know. The fruit it bears is called the Fruit of Life. It's valuable but the growth period is too long. We don't have a secure place either. It's impossible for the two of you to watch it twenty four hours a day and once you girls take a break, it'll escape tunneling through the earth."

Fan Xiangyu was rather bewildered. She knew about it from communicating with the little shrub monster but it was impossible for Lin Chao to have talked to the plant, yet what he knew was more detailed than her. What else did he not know? Scrupled, she took a cautious peek at Lin Chao before asking in doubt, "Does it count as a merit if I can control it?"

"You can control it?" Lin Chao was astounded.

Giving a hard nod, Fan Xiangyu replied, "I tried it just now. I can't manipulate it fully like how I can with zombies but I can interrupt its life wave and make it unconscious."

Lin Chao's eyes shone. It was dumb to kill the goose that lay golden eggs, thus it was definitely more appealing to be able to grow it than to eat it!

"Sure, then it's under your care now!" Lin Chao passed the sickly little shrub monster to her and jovially said, "As a reward, I can agree to one reasonable request of yours. What do you want?"

"I want to evolve!" Fan Xiangyu answered quickly with delight.

Without even thinking, Lin Chao refused, "Not for now."

Fan Xiangyu was not upset, she did not hope for Lin Chao to agree to this request; it was only a starter. She stated her real wish immediately, "Then give me ten zombies, ten special zombies that have evolved!"

Stroking his chin, Lin Chao said, "My time is tightly packed. I'm not free to catch special zombies for you and I will need to use them even if I did catch some. That said I can give you a quota of ten special zombies. You think of a way to catch them."

"Sure!" Fan Xiangyu was overjoyed.

With the quota of ten zombies, her overall capability could multiply twice or thrice, or even more! Although ten special zombies could not overturn Lin Chao's supremacy over her, it was only the first step of her plan; she could secretly nurture her power with ten special zombies.

When they came to a certain level, it would be her time to be crowned master instead!

Once she thought of this, she was in glee.

Beep, beep…

Electronic ringtone rang from Lin Chao's wrist then.

He was slightly puzzled before realizing the Organism Detector that he wore on his wrist vibrated softly. There was a red dot on the screen; judging from the crosshair on the screen, the little red dot was on the lower left, not very far away from where he currently was.

'A special zombie?' Lin Chao did not expect to encounter a special zombie just as he returned. He picked himself up immediately and gave Lin Shiyu a few instructions before leaving the room and going downstairs with the Golden Hound.

Woof! Woof!

The Golden Hound barked at a broken down car not too far away once they were on the surface.

When Lin Chao looked over, a zombie slowly crept out from behind the vehicle. Its neck was twisted to an impossible angle, its eyes were rolled to their whites, and the rotten flesh on its face was nearly falling off; from the clothes it wore, it looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties whose suit and tie were largely stained with blood.

The zombie snarled in pursuit upon seeing Lin Chao. Its speed was alarming, taking less than two seconds to cross tens of meters.

Roar!

The middle-aged zombie growled. The saliva on his teeth was actually sizzling with an electrical buzz.

'An electrically-charged zombie?' Lin Chao went forward immediately.

Special zombies that possessed only five times more enhanced a physique were nothing to the current Lin Chao. He could totally subdue them with just his basic physique.

Wham! A punch.

His fist landed brutally on the special zombie's face like a hammer, dropping a huge piece of festering flesh and revealing eerie white bones.

While the punch did not behead the zombie, it swayed it to the back. Lin Chao took a step forward and hurled another punch on its throat.

Crack!

The carrion on the special zombie's throat splattered like wet mud and its cerebral vertebra was broken, the middle-aged zombie's head flew out.

Lin Chao took out his flying knife and cut open its chest swiftly.

A soft blue fingernail-sized crystal was found amidst the flesh in the heart, like a beautiful gem.