"Alright, the next stop has been spotted! Let's go, Ivy, Chestnut!"

"Squeak!

"Vii!"

Yang Zhang took a deep breath to brace himself because he was still on top of a pine tree right now. Looking at the tall trees around him, he stretched out his hand and palm open commanded, "Little Ivy, grab a strong branch for me to swing."

"Vii!"

Little Ivy stretched her vines and grabbed a strong branch in another tree. Yang Zhang took another deep breath. He had to believe in Ivy this time.

Then, he jumped from the pine tree and swung to another branch. Little Ivy helped by releasing a vine and grabbing the next branch so that Yang Zhang could swing around unhindered.

"Weeee! I'm gonna swiiiiing like a chandelieeerr~" Yang Zhang was singing around and enjoying the breeze as he swung from one branch to another.

"Viii!"

"Squeak! Squeak!"

Yang Zhang, who was scared initially, started to enjoy the sensation of swinging like Spiderman. Chestnut nestled inside Yang Zhang's jacket, and they quickly passed through the lush forest without much problem.

They continued swinging until Yang Zhang found a light source in front of him. The exit must be near already.

"Ivy put me down right here. We can't be too flashy!" Yang Zhang said.

Little Ivy obeyed and stopped swinging. She put Yang Zhang down carefully and then retracted all her vines from the tall branches.

"Hehe, you're doing great, Little Ivy!" Yang Zhang patted her head. "You can rest for now."

"Vii!" Little Ivy hid comfortably inside Yang Zhang's sleeve and covered herself with more leaves.

Yang Zhang carefully walked out of the lush forest. When he was out, he saw an empty meadow with a deserted village right in front of him, probably about half a mile away.

He looked around and found nothing. Literally nothing. Not even a zombie wandering around.

"Huh, that's weird…." Yang Zhang said to himself. "Usually, there would be one or two stray zombies near a village, or any settlement, really."

"Did they get exterminated by ability users? But I don't think many ability users have come here because there is no sign of plundering," Yang Zhang commented.

He looked at the empty village. There was no sign of burned or destroyed buildings. Those ability users usually wrecked everything when raiding and pillaging a place.

But he still had to be careful. He didn't know what would happen when he entered the village, especially since he was unarmed right now.

"Ah, shit. I dropped my pitchfork when Little Ivy pulled me to the pine tree before," Yang Zhang cursed himself for his forgetfulness. He looked around to find some emergency weapon he could use but there was only a long stick near him.

"Well, better than nothing, I guess. Chestnut, let's go!"

"Squeak!"

**

Yang Zhang walked through the meadow until he stood right in front of the village gate.

There were dozens of small houses lined up, on the left and right of the main dirt road, showing that it really was an underdeveloped village.

It wasn't that surprising though, this was in the middle of the forest. There was no real road around here, so it must've been a gated village with a small population.

"There should be one or two zombies here… or at least mutated farm animals…." Yang Zhang squinted his eyes, looking around suspiciously.

But since he couldn't find any trace of living or undead, he guessed the place must have been abandoned, maybe even before the Z-20 Virus spread through the air.

The village looked creepy as heck, dust all over, but the house stayed intact.

Yang Zhang clenched his long stick and looked around cautiously. Chestnut also helped to look around, but both of them found nothing until they reached the middle of the village square.

There was a statue of a bronze cow with blood smeared on it. Yang Zhang was instantly on alert when he saw the blood smeared all over the bronze cow. There must be something wrong here. This place was truly suspicious.

"I have a really bad feeling about this, Chestnut."

"Squeak…"

Yang Zhang tiptoed while he approached the bronze cow statue. There was a medium-sized wooden box under the statue, and it was slightly open.

He used his wooden stick to poke the box. It opened.

Creaaak.

"EEEKK!" Yang Zhang jumped out of shock because the first thing that rolled out of the box was a severed head, but it wasn't the severed head of a zombie. It was the head of a regular human or an ability user. The man's face stretched in pure agony as if he had been tortured before getting killed.

"W—What the fuck is happening here?" Yang Zhang was terrified by what he found. He poked the head with the long stick. "Surely, a zombie can't do this, right? They are feral and usually just eat like a monster, you know…."

"What do you think, Chestnut—"

"Squeak!"

Chestnut suddenly jumped from Yang Zhang's shoulder to somewhere behind him. He turned around and saw Chestnut land right on the head of a zombie that was barely one foot away from him.

BZZZZTTT!

The zombie's head exploded, and its rotten flesh went everywhere.

Yang Zhang could only stand in silence upon realizing that he was only one foot away from death. Thanks to Chestnut he was saved.

Yang Zhang sensed something dangerous was coming. His instinct kicked in and commanded, "Chestnut, return here right now! No need to take the Brain Bead!"

"Squeak!"

Chestnut returned empty-handed to Yang Zhang.

Yang Zhang sensed that something even bigger was coming, "That zombie must've been hiding. There is no way a zombie cannot detect the smell of fresh meat from far away. They must've been hiding!"

The moment Yang Zhang finished speaking, a loud growl came from inside the house and a zombie crashed out. In a split second, all of those empty houses suddenly had their doors burst open, and hundreds of zombies came running out towards Yang Zhang!

"HRAARRGHH!"