When Chen Beimo looked at the group of girls eagerly watching the dissection of a zombie corpse, he felt as if he had just gotten a glimpse of a new world. Not to mention, weren’t these girls responsible for killing this zombie as well? Weren’t they a little too strong?
The zombie Jun Zishu and Liu Yingtong dragged into the kitchen belonged to a middle-aged man, and he was one of the stall owners in the food court. He was still wearing the standard uniform required of food court staff even.
“I know him. He sells rice noodles. Ahh… His rice noodles were one of the better foods on the second floor,” Liu Manman said, letting out a melancholy sigh. She was one of this rice noodle stall’s frequent customers.
The middle-aged man’s face was relatively intact. He was probably bitten on the arm since a huge chunk of flesh was missing there. The back of his head also looked a little gruesome since that was where Jun Zishu had stabbed him with his fruit knife.
Honestly, though, this was a rather good outcome already. Had Jun Zishu already switched to using a cleaver at the time, his head would’ve been split apart like some of the other zombies outside.
Liu Yingtong first cut open the man’s chest, revealing an unspeakable scene and assaulting everyone’s nasal cavity with a thick fishy smell.
Xu Qiu turned her head away and covered her nose, finding the sight and the smell a little unbearable.
Liu Manman also wanted to dry heave, but when she saw that most of her friends remained unperturbed, she held the urge within her. Even so, she still dared not look down at the cadaver.
Lin Su: This smell really is…something.
Liu Manman: Shouldn’t mosaics appear at this time?
Xu Qiu: Why aren’t you guys afraid to see this…
Lin Su: It’s a little disgusting, but just look at Zishu. We should learn to be strong like her.
Ren Nanying: It’s already dead. What’s there to be scared of?
Jun Zishu was indeed unperturbed by the gruesome sight. On the contrary, she looked at the organs of the cadaver closely from a researcher’s perspective.
Meanwhile, although Ren Nanying found the sight a little revolting, she quickly grew calm and fascinated when she looked at Jun Zishu’s face. Then, she resumed staring at the zombie corpse, even though she didn’t really understand what she was looking at.
“It looks no different from normal. The only difference is the color of the organs and blood.”
The blood that flowed out of the zombie’s body was dark red bordering on black. The color of the zombie’s organs had also turned into a greenish-gray, which was consistent with the zombie’s skin color.
Liu Yingtong moved around the zombie’s organs with her hands for a bit, her face the embodiment of a deadpan expression. After failing to find anything meaningful, she opened up her foldable scalpel, made an incision on the zombie’s arm, and watched as only a small amount of blood flowed out of the cut. Then, she commented, “The amount of bleeding has also reduced.”
After saying so, Liu Yingtong cut open the zombie’s stomach, finding minced meat and other things inside.
“He probably ate these things previously. It’s obvious that he has mutated, but I still can’t see how he mutated exactly,” Liu Yingtong said, taking note that none of the things in the stomach looked native to the zombie’s body.
After inspecting the stomach, Liu Yingtong pulled out a slimy organ from the zombie’s chest. Jun Zishu could tell that it was a heart. As for the others, all but Ren Nanying steadfastly followed Jun Zishu in observing the organ. Everyone else had already turned away in disgust.
“Even though he no longer has any living features, how can he continue moving his body? What does he rely on to do so?” Liu Manman muttered as she scrutinized the heart.
Liu Manman felt that she was going to have a heart attack at this rate, so she hurriedly looked at the floor and prayed for her safety.
Meanwhile, Lin Su carefully observed the heart after taking a deep breath and pushing her glasses.
“Aren’t you scared, Susu?” Xu Qiu asked as she tightly held onto Lin Su’s arm and pressed her face against Lin Su’s shoulder.
“It’s manageable. The zombie’s dead already, anyway. I’m also curious to find out how they suddenly turned into those things,” Lin Su answered.
Since the apocalypse began until now, they had never discussed how the apocalypse came about. After all, everyone was still busy trying to survive back then. Nobody had any energy to discuss where and how the zombies appeared.
Was it a natural disaster? Or was it a man-made disaster?
“Did you find out anything?” Jun Zishu asked as she looked at Liu Yingtong.
In response, Liu Yingtong shook her head and cut open the zombie’s skull.
Xu Qiu finally couldn’t hold it in anymore, and she hurriedly ran aside and started dry heaving.
Seeing this, Lin Su followed Xu Qiu and patted her friend’s back.
Although Liu Manman had wisely kept her head down, she couldn’t help but grow curious at what had just taken place. Thus, after struggling with herself for a moment, she eventually chose to look up.
At this time, Liu Yingtong was expressionlessly holding something gray with both hands. If Liu Manman guessed correctly, then that should be the zombie’s brain.
“Ugh…”
The visual impact Liu Manman received was too much for her to bear. Immediately, she stood up and walked away while covering her mouth. The sight was simply too stimulating for her to handle. Just by looking at the rotten brain, she could already imagine how sticky and disgusting it would feel to hold it in her hands.
At the same time, Liu Manman couldn’t help but acknowledge that Liu Yingtong was a truly dedicated forensic scientist. The girl’s heart was simply unshakable. The only question she now had was…why were the two non-forensic science students reacting so calmly to this sight as well?!
In Jun Zishu’s case, she didn’t feel much from seeing this horrid sight. Living through several worlds and centuries had allowed her to become much calmer than before. She also came to realize that there wasn’t anything worthy for her to be afraid of. Not to mention, she had seen even more gruesome sights than this in the past.
In Ren Nanying’s case, she wasn’t feeling particularly well, in reality. However, when she saw Jun Zishu’s calm expression, she promptly firmed up her mind. She couldn’t allow herself to appear ungraceful in front of Jun Zishu. She must leave a brave impression on Jun Zishu. Thus, she held back her disgust and forced herself to look at the disgusting sight before her.
“Their main method of transferring their virus should be through their saliva and nails. I’m not 100% sure about the nails, but I am certain that the virus is present in their saliva,” Jun Zishu said, sharing the findings of her observation. In reality, though, this was an obvious fact. After all, the zombies would try to bite any living human they came across. Meanwhile, humans who were bitten would turn into zombies shortly afterward.
“They’ve regressed. But in a sense, they have also evolved,” Liu Yingtong said as she returned the zombie brain to its original position and opened the zombie’s mouth.
The shape of the zombie’s teeth was very different from when he was human. His teeth looked more like some kind of beast’s, jagged and sharp. His tongue had also mutated, growing slightly longer and more slender than a normal human’s. The tongue had also taken on a dark purple color.
“Indeed, but this isn’t the kind of evolution humans want to see,” Jun Zishu said.
It was accurate to say that the zombies had both regressed and evolved.
The zombies had regressed to become humanoid monsters. They possessed the characteristics of beasts, their five senses had grown less sensitive, and their running speed had become slower. Most importantly, they had lost the ability to think.
However, in exchange for these weakened characteristics, zombies had evolved to become independent of food. Even without eating for days, the zombies could maintain normal physiological functions. In addition, they no longer felt pain, and they became significantly stronger than the average human.
“Can this even be considered an evolution? They’ve become such monsters, after all. There’s no way any human would wish to evolve into such a thing. Rather than an evolution, doesn’t this look like it’s caused by a man-made virus?” Ren Nanying said while caressing her chin. She felt that there was a high likelihood of this happening. After all, there were some crazy researchers desperately trying to make humans achieve “evolution.” Of course, this was still only a conjecture.
“Could it be similar to the situations you see in novels and movies? Did some scientists conduct a secret experiment and accidentally release the virus?” Chen Beimo suddenly asked as he walked over to the dissection group. Then, when he saw the state of the dissected zombie corpse, he couldn’t help but gulp nervously.
“That’s my speculation, but it isn’t necessarily true,” Ren Nanying said. Although she believed in her countrymen, it was inevitable for a dark side to exist in society.
“Could this have been caused by some radioactive meteorite that crashed into Earth?” Chen Beimo casually guessed.
“I don’t think so. We’ve never received any news of such incidents happening. Although some novels write about meteorites causing zombie apocalypses, I think that’s too much of a fantasy. These novels even talk about people gaining psychic abilities, but we don’t have any of those.”
“I want an ability, too!” Chen Beimo exclaimed.
“You read novels, too? So we have the same hobby,” Liu Manman said in surprise.
“That’s right. I love them.”
An unexpected consensus was reached in the kitchen.
“What psychic ability?” Liu Yingtong, who was in the midst of researching the zombie’s hand, asked curiously.
“Uh… Have you read zombie-related novels before?” Liu Manman asked.
Liu Yingtong shook her head in response.
“Novels with the zombie apocalypse genre were typically split into two tropes. The first trope involves a meteorite carrying radioactive substances crashing into Earth, and this radioactive substance merges with human cells, causing the cells to mutate. Then, some of these mutated humans would become monsters that bite people…”
“Wait, let me interrupt you for a second. I have a question. If the cause is a meteorite that changes people’s genetic structure, then how do these mutated people infect others? Bruce Banner might have mutated because of gamma rays, but I don’t believe he can mutate others through his saliva. You’d at least have to inject his blood into others for there to even be a possibility of mutation,” Liu Yingtong said with a confused expression.
“I don’t know, either. But that’s how it’s written in novels. Don’t be too nitpicky about it,” Liu Manman said, the corners of her mouth twitching a little.
“What is she saying? How come I can’t seem to understand?” Xu Qiu asked in a small voice as she poked Lin Su.
“She’s talking about the Hulk.”
“Oooh.”
“I don’t think you should think of it that way. The Hulk is a fictional character. How can you be sure that the Hulk can’t cause others to mutate through his bites? I don’t remember seeing him being described biting others before,” Chen Beimo said, shrugging.
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“The Hulk biting others? With his size, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that he eats people whole?” Jun Zishu joined in on the conversation.
“Back to the point! I’m not done talking!” Liu Manman protested the change in topic.
“The second trope involves scientists accidentally releasing a virus into the world, and those infected by the virus would become its carriers and spreaders. Those who get scratched or bitten by zombies would catch high fevers in these novels. Then, after the fever, they would either become zombies or psychics who can manipulate wind, fire, earth, water, etc.”
“Do such psychic abilities truly exist?” Jiang Mubai, who had been silent all this time, couldn’t help but speak up at this time.
“Wouldn’t you know if you go out and get bitten?” Jun Zishu coolly said as she leaned against Ren Nanying.
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