Mutant Farmer in The Apocalypse

"Well, let's forget about that for now, because the main goal is right in front of us, that big house," Yang Zhang said as he pointed at the two stories house that was noticeably bigger than the rest of the houses here. "We need to go there!"

Chestnut and Lt. Spicy Wing stared at the big house and asked;

"Chirp?"

"Squeak, squeak?"

"Hehe, I don't know what's inside. But one thing is for sure since it's the biggest house in this village, that means it belongs to a rich man! We're going to be like a Robin Hood here, stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor."

"Chirp?"

"Oh, who's the poor one?" Yang Zhang had a wide grin on his face. He giggled evilly, "Us, of course! We're the poor one here!"

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

Chestnut and Spicy Wing didn't really understand who Robin Hood was, nor understanding why did they need to steal from the rich.

But if their master said so, that meant it was right!

"Now, what should we do to go there without the help of Little Ivy?" Yang Zhang thought. Since Little Ivy was terrified of the sound of so many zombies around them, it wasn't morally correct to force her right now.

Thus, Yang Zhang measured the distance between one roof to another, thinking if his jump would be enough to cross each roof until he could jump to the balcony of the big house.

There were waves of zombies under him. So, if he failed the jump, he would be a lunch for them.

"Okay, the gap is narrow enough. Just hope that we don't slip," Yang Zhang said. "Hang on tight, guys!"

Yang Zhang took a few steps back and then dashed straight.

"Hup!" He jumped when he reached the roof's edge and landed safely on the other house.

He counted the number of roofs he had to pass to reach the balcony and nodded, "Alright, four more! Continue to hang tight, guys!"

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

Yang Zhang took a few steps back again and jumped to another roof. He did it two more times until he landed on the last roof before reaching the balcony of the big house.

But when he was about to prepare the jump to the balcony, he accidentally stepped on a cracked roof tile and—

CRACK!

"AHH!!"

The roof tile was destroyed, and Yang Zhang fell to the house under him.

He closed his eyes, afraid that his body would be crushed to death once he landed.

But he actually landed on a soft bed—well, not really soft. It was dusty and old, but it was still a bed.

Yang Zhang coughed a few times as he inhaled the dust while his pets were scattered on the bed after the fall.

"Everybody okay?" Yang Zhang asked as he checked on his pets.

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

Chestnut and Lt. Spicy Wing seemed alright, just covered in dust now.

"Vii…" Little Ivy was still wrapped tightly on Yang Zhang's arm.

"Okay, and—OH, PODDIE!"

Yang Zhang completely forgot about Poddie since Poddie was well hidden inside the tote bag in his arm the whole time. He didn't make any noise either.

Yang Zhang quickly checked the tote bag and saw that Poddie was gone.

"Oh, no, did I drop him somewhere?! NOOOO, PODDIEEE! You're so young and died so fast…."

"Pii?"

Yang Zhang turned his head towards the source of the voice and found Poddie sitting at the edge of the bed. He was completely fine, though covered in dust.

"PODDIE!" Yang Zhang snatched the pea plant and hugged him tightly, "Oh, Poddie, I really thought that I lost you! You're too young and cute to die!"

"Pii! Pii!" Poddie tried to separate himself, and after he could break free, Poddie returned to the edge of the bed and seemed to be pointing at something under the bed.

"Huh? What is it?"

"Pii!" Podio jumped to the floor and then pointed at something under the bed. "Pii! Pii!"

"Huh? You see something under the bed?"

Yang Zhang got curious, and it didn't seem to be a zombie or other dangerous thing since Poddie didn't seem scared at all.

Yang Zhang got up and checked under the bed, then he found something that shocked him to the core.

It was a corpse, like… real corpse, not a zombie. It was the corpse of a female, looking at her tattered skirt. But other than that, there was no identification. Judging by her spot of death, she might die out of starvation or might have been wounded terribly by someone and died alone under the bed while hiding.

"And she doesn't seem to be an ability user or a zombie, since there is no Brain or Mana bead inside her skull," Yang Zhang assessed as he shook the skull, hoping that he would find the rare Mana bead.

She had turned into a skeleton, hiding under the bed, clenching into something while putting her hands on her chest.

"And she doesn't seem to be an ability user or a zombie since there is no Brain or Mana bead inside her skull.

"What is that?" Yang Zhang asked himself as he carefully opened the skeleton hands, trying to reach something she held.

After reaching it, Yang Zhang pulled his hand and opened it to see what he had just stolen from the skeleton.

"A key?" Yang Zhang frowned. From the shape of the key, it didn't seem to be the one on the front door. Since this key looked too antique for such a regular house like this.

"Maybe this is a key in a secret room or something," Yang Zhang thought. He looked around the bedroom and found nothing valuable as well.

"Let's just keep this key, for now. I have a feeling this key would be helpful for us," Yang Zhang said. He looked at his pets and commanded them to gather.

"Okay, let's explore this house first before going to the next door. Maybe we can find something," Yang Zhang said.

**

Yang Zhang checked the bedroom first, trying to find anything valuable. But this bedroom was very simple, and there was nothing worth taking here.

He opened the door carefully and peeked first, trying to see whether this house had been broken down by those zombies.

Fortunately, the front door was locked, and he could see zombies walking around in front of the house, unaware that Yang Zhang was there.

Yang Zhang took a deep, relieved breath and then looked around in the living room.

This place was very much deserted, and the woman in the bedroom seemed to live alone. Yang Zhang checked the kitchen, trying to find things that might be useful.

Since he was wearing a gauntlet gun on his right and Little Ivy in his left palm. He couldn't use a short-ranged weapon now.

Not that he wanted to. Getting too close to the zombies scared the heck out of him.

Again, he found nothing worth taking, except a note on the kitchen counter.

He got curious and read the note. It was probably written a year ago before the zombie apocalypse started.

—

To Nurse Xie:

Nurse, please prepare yourself for dozens of patients. It seems that everybody has gotten sick since last night. The clinic will be crowded today.

—Doctor Liu

—

"Wait, that woman… was she a nurse?" Yang Zhang wondered. "Ah, too bad she is dead. At least she could give me a heads up on where she hid her first aid kit, hehe."

Yang Zhang and his pets continued searching until Chestnut discovered something.

"Squeak?"

"Huh? What did you see?"

"Squeak!"

Chestnut pointed at a door well hidden behind a cupboard. The door was quite antique, and it should fit with the key that Yang Zhang just recovered from that skeleton.

"Okay, so that's the door for this key. Damn, this place is like an escape room or something, hehe," Yang Zhang pushed the cupboard that was actually lighter than he thought and then used the key.

Click.

The door was opened, and Yang Zhang was baffled by what was behind the door.

"What a dark corridor…." Yang Zhang mumbled.

There was a long corridor behind the door, a passage that led to another door at the end of the corridor, but it was so dark Yang Zhang couldn't see anything.

"Lieutenant Spicy Wing."

"Chirp!"

Lt. Spicy Wing understood the order. It jumped from Yang Zhang's body and started running around in a circle to light up its body, making itself a walking torch.

But, even with the help of Spicy Wing, Yang Zhang still couldn't see clearly, so he asked his other pet, "Chestnut, light up your body."

"Squeak!"

Chestnut charged itself and turned into a flashlight for Yang Zhang.

Now, with the help of two pets to light up the dark corridor, he could clearly see what was inside the corridor, and Yang Zhang got sick immediately.

"Oh my god… URK—" Yang Zhang puked his breakfast this morning upon seeing the scene.