Yang Zhang followed the sun while kept marking a few tree barks with Chestnut or Lt. Spicy Wing's ability, so he wouldn't get lost when he returned back to his hut.

It took a while for him until he ensured that he was far from his hut. Because he looked around and found the place to be alien for him.

"Squeak, squeak!"

"Huh, a lake?"

Chestnut pointed at an easily missable spot while they were swinging around. When Yang Zhang looked in the pointed direction, he saw a calm lake in the middle of the lush forest. It wasn't a big one, but the water was dark, and it seemed to be really deep.

"Ivy, let's go down and check!"

"Vii!"

Learning from his mistake with that Catfish with four legs, Yang Zhang instructed Little Ivy to stop. They landed at least five feet away from the lakeside, afraid that he'd get ambushed by another weird mutated fish.

The water was so deep when he stretched his neck to check from five feet away, he still couldn't see any sign of fish swimming in it.

"Should we check the water?" Yang Zhang asked. He cast his eyes down, looking at Chestnut, who was hiding inside his jacket pocket. "I have an electric type anyway. I can win if there is a random water type jumping out, right?" Yang Zhang tried to convince himself.

Yang Zhang gathered his courage and advanced a few steps to the deep water. He wanted to check whether he could find any sign of normal fish that would be good as a source of protein for him.

But the moment he was only a foot away from the lakeside, he heard a soft hum from someone across the small lake. Since the forest was quiet, the soft hum echoed gently around the tree.

"Oh, shit—" Yang Zhang quickly scurried and hid behind a bush near the lake. He peeked from the bush, trying to check what caused the hum. He expected another mutated animal or plant that might make the similar sound of a female humming.

But what he saw was definitely out of his expectation.

He saw a woman, probably around Yang Zhang's age, early twenties. She had wavy shoulder-length, sky-blue colored hair that was very unusual in this apocalypse world. Because dying hair was almost extinct due to people focusing more on survival.

She had around eyes and thin lips, and Yang Zhang wouldn't lie that he was stunned by the beauty that hummed while walking to the lake.

She was only wearing a towel covering her chest down to her thighs, showing the smooth and slender shoulder. She was also wearing a necklace with a pendant shaped like a teardrop.

She hummed a song that Yang Zhang recognized, Doja Cat - Say So.

Yang Zhang continued peeking without blinking. He lost himself for a while as the girl walked towards the lakeside and then touched the dark water with her toe. In an instant, the dark lake turned crystal blue.

The seemingly scary dark lake that didn't even show anything inside had magically turned into a pool with fishes swimming around.

The girl smiled thin and was about to take off the towel, Yang Zhang continued peeking, but Lt. Spicy Wing thought it was shameful for a soldier to peek at a lady, so the little chick protested.

"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"

"Sshh, silence, Spicy Wing," Yang Zhang ignored the little chick and continued peeking.

Lt. Spicy Wing saw that the lady was about to take off her towel. Thus, the little chick started thinking of a way to distract Major General Yang Zhang.

"Chirp!" Spicy Wing jumped out of Yang Zhang's head and did a fiery spin around the bushes, burning it instantly.

It took a few seconds for Yang Zhang to realize that he felt something burning, "Wait—"

Yang Zhang looked around and found that the bushes had caught fire, including his jacket and pants.

"AAHHHH! My pants! Pants on fire!"

"Squeak! Squeak!"

"Viii!"

Yang Zhang quickly dashed to the crystal blue water and dove in. Little Ivy and Chestnut also followed Yang Zhang to jump in because they got burned as well, only Lt. Spicy Wing chirping around the lakeside, telling his soldiers to be proper in front of a lady.

After putting out the fire, Yang Zhang quickly swam to the surface while Little Ivy and Chestnut hung onto him.

The moment his head popped out to the surface, he made eye contact with the girl, who was so shocked that she couldn't even speak.

Yang Zhang made an awkward smile and tried to break the awkward situation, "G—Good morning, Miss. Good weather today, isn't it?"

…

…

"GYAAAAAHHHHHH!" The girl was hysterical, she screamed out loud, and her scream summoned a big wave out of nowhere that swept Yang Zhang out of the lake quickly.

"Whaaaaa!" Yang Zhang and his pets were thrown by the big wave to the tree, and his back hit the tree back behind him before he slumped to the ground. "Ouch!"

He grimaced in pain while rubbing his back. He looked at the girl across the lake who suddenly jumped into the lake, summoned a water tentacle, and slammed it to Yang Zhang.

"Oh shit!" Yang Zhang's adrenaline kicked in, and he grabbed all his pets. He rolled to the side to avoid the water tentacle.

CRASH! CRACK!

The water tentacle hit the tree bark and instantly uprooted the tree.

"HOLY FUCK!" Yang Zhang paled instantly. He would've died instantly if he got hit by that.

The girl summoned another water tentacle, but this time, she asked, first, "WHO ARE YOU?!"

"M—Miss, please don't misunderstand, I wasn't meant to peek on you—"

"YOU'RE PEEKING AT ME?! PERVERT!" The girl attacked with another giant tentacle towards Yang Zhang. Yang Zhang looked at his pets. Only Ivy had recovered from all the water stuff thrown at them. So he instructed quickly;

"Ivy!"

"Vii!" Little Ivy stretched two vines and grabbed a tree branch on their left. She quickly pulled Yang Zhang to the side to avoid the giant water tentacle in a close call.

CRASH! CRACK!

The giant tentacle hit and uprooted another tree.

Yang Zhang was swinging to the side, but the vines slipped and lost their grip because Little Ivy was still fairly wet, and Yang Zhang fell to the ground.

"Ouch!"

The girl found that Yang Zhang was unable to avoid her this time. She summoned to giant tentacle aiming towards Yang Zhang, "Tell me who you are before I drown your ass!"