Chapter 23: A Strange Encounter in the Women's Restroom! Double Happiness Arrives

After casually dispatching a zombie, Yazī proceeded along the corridor he had eyed from the start. Yet he did not rush in blindly—he knew this passage might not only be attacked from the front but that the adjoining men's and women's restrooms could also hide lurking zombies. If a fight broke out and a couple of undead emerged from inside, things could quickly get out of hand.

First, Yazī crept toward the washbasin area of the men's restroom. He paused at the door and listened intently; inside he detected the slow shuffle of footsteps. Unsheathing his Tang Blade, he entered and soon spotted a zombie pacing back and forth. Judging by its disheveled state—its pants still barely covering its knees, as if it had been interrupted mid-use—it seemed the creature had mutated while in the restroom.

When the zombie noticed Yazī's entrance, it excitedly charged at him. However, its strides were too large; its legs, still entangled in its trousers, betrayed it. With a loud thud it tripped and fell. Yazī couldn't help but feel mildly annoyed at such clumsy "combat"—when a proper duel is expected, you really shouldn't resort to such theatrics. Not wasting time, he glanced down the corridor to ensure that the commotion hadn't alerted any others, then dispatched the hapless zombie with a single swift strike. After securing its dropped card, he searched the men's room further and found nothing more—apart from a severed arm and a stray eyeball in the sink.

Next, Yazī turned to the women's restroom. The layout, he noted, was much like the other ones he'd visited in this post‑apocalypse world (and yes, all his prior restroom incursions occurred after the world ended). Still cautious, he checked each stall one by one. In the next-to-last stall he found something odd: the door was locked. As he pushed it gently, two distinct roars erupted from inside—two different timbres! Curiosity piqued, Yazī crouched down and peered beneath the stall door. Sure enough, he saw four feet: two at the front and two at the back. The two rear feet unmistakably belonged to a man.

Internally, Yazī mused in crude humor that "you two are as bold as a mother cow opening the door for a little heifer"—in other words, it was utterly unexpected to find a pair of undead "in cahoots" in the women's room of the Modu Sports Center. Apparently, two zombies were engaging in a risky escapade in the female restroom—a scenario only urban survivors could dream up.

As the locked stall was disturbed, the two occupants began to bang on the door. Not wanting them to raise too much noise, Yazī decisively unsheathed his Tang Blade and hacked through the lock and door panel. What met his eyes was astonishing: inside, a pair of zombies were locked in a tight embrace—the female in front and the male behind. Their skin was a dull, ashen grey, their eyes milky white (or so it seemed), and their mouths streaked with blood. Despite the gruesome details, there was something almost…poetic about the scene.

Yet when they spotted Yazī, both zombies moved in unison—just as if they shared one mind. The female stepped with her left leg, and immediately the male mirrored by stepping his left; then both swung their right claws in perfect synchronization toward Yazī. Without hesitation, Yazī reversed his blade and struck, ending the "passionate" pair in one fluid motion. System messages flashed as their heads tumbled to the floor, though miraculously their bodies, balanced on four feet, remained conjoined.

Stunned, Yazī fished out his battered second‑hand phone and snapped nearly a hundred photos of this bizarre "zombie couple"—a duo that, according to legend, were known as the infamous "Zombie Spouses" whose combined strength nearly rivaled that of the Zombie Emperor. Finally, he bent down to retrieve a dropped item: a stone glowing with a cyan light.

[Fusion Stone (Bronze‑Grade)] – A one‑use item that allows the fusion of two bronze‑grade equipment of the same type into a new piece—and it may even upgrade the item to silver‑tier.Yazī grinned at the discovery, thinking that perhaps the couple had "fused" together, which might explain why only one item had dropped from them.

Not finished, Yazī then pushed open the door of the final stall in the women's restroom. And he froze. There, right beside a squat toilet, sat a cyan treasure chest—adorned with intricate, mysterious carvings and set above a glowing, rotating hexagram.

"Damn, I'm unbelievably lucky today—finding a wild, bronze‑grade treasure chest!" he exclaimed.A system prompt appeared:  "Detected player 'Yazī' has discovered a Bronze Treasure Chest; reputation +10."  "Would you like to open the Bronze Treasure Chest? (Opening takes 30 seconds.)"