A Fake Holy Mother in the Zombie Apocalypse

It was almost too late, Du Ruo thought.

He should have left last night, but Du Ruo hesitated for a long time, unable to bring himself to do it.

Even in this chaotic apocalypse, he had found a few good friends, and he was reluctant to leave this precious warmth.

He had already delayed for a whole day, and he couldn't delay any longer. He had to leave now, no matter what.

Staying any longer would be too dangerous for everyone. Du Ruo knew clearly that once he mutated, given Lu Xingchi's friendship with him, Lu Xingchi would definitely refuse to kill him. It would be chaos, and others might get hurt.

Leaving quietly was the best option.

It was a pity he couldn't say a final goodbye.

Du Ruo looked around. The evening breeze was cool, and the tree-lined path was dotted with a few zombies, creating a strange atmosphere.

Du Ruo thought, he was still human, not yet mutated, and he might be eaten by zombies.

Du Ruo took a few more steps forward, thinking, who's afraid of who? Let's see if your teeth are sharper or my fists are harder, come on!

However, no one paid him any attention.

Perhaps it was too dark, and Du Ruo looked too much like a zombie, so they couldn't see clearly.

Du Ruo simply continued walking along the main road of the tree-lined avenue.

Since the apocalypse began, Du Ruo hadn't been able to relax outside like this for a long time. The air smelled fresh, and Du Ruo took several deep breaths.

Each breath might be his last.

This was probably his final moment before turning.

He wondered if he would still have consciousness after mutating, or if he would become a mindless walking corpse like in the movies.

Suddenly, something rushed out from the side and bumped into Du Ruo.

It was a girl with long, flowing hair, wearing shorts and a backpack. She was quite pretty.

It was a pity that her face was expressionless, her eyes were vacant and bloodshot.

Du Ruo didn't want to be bitten to pieces by a zombie in his final moments before turning, so he hesitated for a second between punching her and running away.

Unexpectedly, the girl seemed to ignore Du Ruo completely, walked around him, and left.

Left?

Du Ruo took out his phone and looked at himself again.

His eyes were blood red, making him look quite like a zombie.

He immediately fell into deep self-doubt.

Du Ruo pondered: Was he still human? Or had he already turned into a zombie without realizing it?

What is four hundred and thirty-two multiplied by six hundred and fifty-four?

Du Ruo quickly gave himself a math problem.

A zombie wouldn't be able to calculate that in their head.

The units digit must be eight, what about the tens digit? Was it two? What about the hundreds digit? Du Ruo couldn't figure it out either.

While he was struggling with the calculation, he suddenly saw a figure flash through the heavy shadows of the trees.

Du Ruo was certain that it was a human because his movements were very different from a zombie's.

It was a tall, thin man, about thirty years old, with a huge backpack and another bag in his hand. He walked quickly, looking around from time to time, seeming very alert.

Du Ruo suddenly realized: So human movements are different from zombies.

Du Ruo also quickened his pace, turning his head left and right like the man.

Du Ruo glanced at his own shadow.

His tall shadow stretched long in the moonlight, and his head-turning movements looked incredibly silly, making him look even more like a zombie.

The tall, thin man was still sneaking forward.

He was walking towards an intersection. Du Ruo was in the middle of the road and saw two male zombies coming towards them from the side road.

Du Ruo was about to warn the man when he saw him glance at the zombies and, surprisingly, completely ignore them, walking straight across the intersection.

The key was that the two male zombies also seemed to not see him at all, passing right by him.

Du Ruo: ???

Had he suddenly found a fellow half-human, half-zombie?

The man continued walking along the edge of the road, using the shadows as cover, but he didn't seem to be wary of the zombies. It looked more like he was wary of humans.

Du Ruo was torn between rushing up to acknowledge this potential brother and continuing to follow him, when he saw the man cross the tree-lined road and turn towards a building.

Du Ruo followed and saw the building's door was tightly closed. The tall, thin man was standing at the door, swiping his card, and fiddling with a small, square device he had pulled out of his bag, connecting it to the card reader.

Another zombie was coming this way, dressed like a dorm supervisor who was casually strolling around campus.

This time, Du Ruo had experience.

There was no need to warn the man at the door; the zombie wouldn't attack him.

The dorm supervisor zombie passed by Du Ruo and suddenly stopped. It slowly turned its head, as if adjusting a signal-receiving radar.

The radar finally locked onto the man at the doorway.

It lunged forward.

The tall, thin man was still fiddling with the card reader, completely unguarded.

Du Ruo instinctively blurted out, "Watch out!"

He hadn't spoken for a long time, so his throat was still sore, and his voice was hoarse.

The tall, thin man was startled by Du Ruo's voice and only then noticed the zombie charging at him. He muttered in confusion, "Why did it fail again?"

He ignored the zombie and lowered his head to rummage through his bag.

Du Ruo thought: Dude, the zombie is coming! What good stuff do you have in your bag that you have to look for now?

Du Ruo wasn't afraid of zombies and couldn't just stand by and watch. He strode forward and punched the dorm supervisor zombie.

Without worrying about infection, he let loose. The dorm supervisor zombie was no match for Du Ruo and was sent flying.

The tall, thin man finally pulled out a small box from his bag, layer by layer, and took out a syringe.

Du Ruo wanted to retort: Your needle is too thin, you can't kill a zombie with that, you can only give it acupuncture.

Then he saw the tall, thin man roll up his sleeve and bravely jab the needle into his own arm.

Even though it was knocked down, the dorm supervisor zombie wouldn't give up. It struggled to get up from the ground and charged again, still bypassing Du Ruo and heading straight for the tall, thin man.

The tall, thin man ignored the zombie, focusing his attention on Du Ruo with an intrigued look.

"Could you please punch it again for me? Thank you," he said to Du Ruo calmly and politely while injecting himself.

Du Ruo was bewildered, but he still threw another punch.

The dorm supervisor zombie flew again.

But as he threw the punch, Du Ruo's vision went black, and then he knew nothing.

After an unknown amount of time, when Du Ruo woke up again, the first thing he saw were bright fluorescent lights.

He was slumped in an office chair with the sleeve of his right arm rolled up.

Du Ruo, being a doctor, immediately noticed a new needle mark on his arm, in addition to the bruise from Jiang Xu's blood draw.

"Awake?" The tall, thin man turned around from the lab bench.

The bright fluorescent lights made his skin look deathly pale, but his hair was a deep, rich black, and his pupils were almost the same color as his hair.

Du Ruo said helplessly, "If you wanted to draw my blood, could you have at least used the other arm?"

His voice wasn't as hoarse as it had been earlier.

"Oh," the man walked over and said calmly, "Actually, I drew blood from both arms."

Du Ruo: "…"

The man smiled. "Your situation is very special, very interesting. You have human consciousness, but zombies don't attack you. I've traveled so far, and I've never seen anyone like you."

Du Ruo retorted, "Aren't you the same? I followed you all the way, and they didn't bite you either."

The man shook his head slightly. "I'm different. I injected myself with something. Yours is natural, even better than the zombie invisibility potion I made. So I really wanted to see what's going on. Maybe it can help me improve my potion."

"So, did you figure it out?" Du Ruo tried to sit up, but he had no strength.

"No. I didn't have time, I only took blood samples."

The man walked to a cabinet by the wall, rummaged through it, and complained in a low voice.

"How can their Shuida University virus lab be so poor? Is this a slum? They don't have anything I need."

Du Ruo looked around. It really did look like a laboratory.

There were several rows of fluorescent lights on the ceiling, a row of wide stainless steel lab benches in the center of the room, sinks, fume hoods, and ovens on the lab benches along the wall, and tables and several large cabinets on the other side.

This man mentioned a virus lab, which must be Jiang Xu's.

"You came here looking for something?" Du Ruo tried to make conversation.

"Yes, I passed by Shuida University today and happened to be short of some supplies. Knowing there was a lab here, I came in to take a look."

He said "came in" as if locks were nothing to him, as impressive as Lu Xingchi.

The man pulled out a pile of boxes and reagents and stuffed them into his two large bags.

Du Ruo tried hard, but he still couldn't get up. He managed a weak smile. "What did you inject me with? I can't move at all."

He felt like a lab rat being experimented on by a mad scientist.

The man glanced back at him, his tone light. "You were about to mutate downstairs. If you had turned into a zombie, your blood sample would have been useless to me, so I injected you with a viral suppressant."

"Viral what??" Du Ruo's tone changed.

"Suppressant." The man sounded a little impatient. "The weakness is a side effect. It'll wear off soon."

He said it so casually, as if the viral suppressant he was talking about was just an ordinary cold tablet.

The legendary viral suppressant? The viral suppressant that Bei Nuan and Lu Xingchi had been talking about?

Du Ruo stretched out his hand with difficulty, took out his phone from his pocket, turned on the camera, and looked at himself.

His eyes were clear, and the bloodshot redness that had just filled the whites of his eyes was completely gone, back to normal.

Du Ruo cheered up.

"Don't get too excited, it's only temporary," the man said, zipping up his bag, picking it up, and looking like he was about to leave.

In any case, having the suppressant was better than turning into a zombie immediately.

Du Ruo asked, "How 'temporary' is it?"

"It varies from person to person. Some last for several days, some for months, even years. It's hard to say," the man replied.

Du Ruo wanted to stand up with him and ask him a few more questions, but his legs felt like jelly and he still couldn't move.

"So, am I still contagious?"

"No. Before the suppressant wears off, your bodily fluids and blood are completely non-infectious. Kiss whoever you want while you can," the man said, walking to the door.

"I don't really want to kiss anyone," Du Ruo explained. "So I can freely eat hot pot with everyone now?"

The man paused, smiled slightly, and said, "Is hot pot that important? Yes, you can eat whatever you want."

Even if it was only a temporary reprieve, at least he could continue to fight for meat in the hot pot with Bei Nuan and the others for a while.

Du Ruo let out a sigh of relief. Life without hot pot was incomplete.

Du Ruo looked up again at the tall, thin man.

He said he could become invisible to zombies by injecting himself with a potion and that he also had a viral suppressant. Who was he?

This man was a complete mystery.

Du Ruo seized the last opportunity to ask him, "So, who are you?"

The man smiled but didn't answer, opening the door.

Du Ruo quickly called out to him, "Whoever you are, oh great one, could you please leave me a few more doses of that suppressant?"

The man replied casually, "That was the last one. I don't know when I'll have the resources to make the next batch. I'll give you some when I do."

Du Ruo asked, "The question is, when will you be able to make it?"

The man didn't answer, closing the door. The sound of footsteps in the corridor gradually faded away. This time, he was really gone.

After a while, Du Ruo finally regained some mobility.

Although his legs were still weak, he managed to stand up with the help of the chair, using it as support to slowly shuffle to the door.

He quickly realized another problem.

If the suppressant was working and his body was back to normal, would he no longer be invisible to zombies?

It was at least a few hundred meters back to the cafeteria. Walking a few hundred meters on a zombie-infested road was no joke.

Du Ruo regretted wandering so far.

He quietly opened the door and peeked into the corridor. He immediately saw several zombies at the end of the corridor. They had heard the sound of the door opening and were turning their heads towards him.

Bei Nuan woke up with a start while it was still dark.

The first thing she did was check on Du Ruo and the others.

Lu Xingchi and the others were a little distance away from her, still sleeping soundly.

Du Ruo's sleeping bag, however, was flat, and it didn't look like anyone had slept in it.

Bei Nuan got out of her sleeping bag and ran barefoot to Lu Xingchi's side.

"Lu Xingchi," Bei Nuan squatted down and poked him gently.

"What's wrong?" Lu Xingchi opened his eyes before she could call him a second time.

Bei Nuan lowered her voice, a little anxious. "Du Ruo is gone."

Lu Xingchi glanced at Du Ruo's sleeping bag and immediately sat up.

They both put on their clothes and went to the small dining hall door. It was locked from the outside, and the person on night duty was not there.

Lu Xingchi reached out and twisted the lock, and the door opened.

As they were going downstairs, they ran into Song Xiyi, who was on duty, coming upstairs.

"I was just about to look for you," he said. "The person who was with you said he was about to mutate and went out by himself."

Lu Xingchi and Bei Nuan exchanged glances. They both knew: Du Ruo was afraid of endangering them.

But going out like this before mutating, wouldn't he be eaten by zombies?

Lu Xingchi held out his hand. "Give me the crossbow. I'm going out to find Du Ruo."

"I'm going too!" Bei Nuan said quickly.

She looked so determined that Lu Xingchi couldn't refuse her. He agreed, "You can go, but you have to dress properly and wear your helmet and gloves."

Three minutes later, fully equipped, Bei Nuan followed Lu Xingchi out of the cafeteria.

There was no sign of Du Ruo outside, nor any strange noises. At least they didn't see any zombies feasting, which calmed Bei Nuan down a bit.

The campus was so big, where could Du Ruo have gone?

They went through the dormitory area, using the greenery as cover, quietly searching along the road.

There was no sign of Du Ruo anywhere, nor any gathering of zombies.

Clueless, they wandered around the vast campus. After searching for who knows how long, Lu Xingchi suddenly nudged Bei Nuan's shoulder and gestured in a direction.

Not far ahead, under a streetlight, amidst a group of zombies, two figures were squatting.

One was a student-like zombie, squatting with its head down, making "goo goo goo" sounds.

The other was Du Ruo.

He was squatting opposite the zombie in the same posture, also making "goo goo goo" sounds.

"Goo goo goo?"

"Goo goo goo."

"Goo?"

"Goo! Goo goo goo goo!"

The two were having a question-and-answer session, as if they were chatting.

Bei Nuan: "…"

Her heart broke.

Bei Nuan grabbed Lu Xingchi's clothes and whispered, "Has he really turned into a zombie?"

Du Ruo hadn't become the Zombie King as he wished. It seemed his greatest joy after turning into a zombie was squatting with other zombies and making "goo goo goo" sounds.

She hoped he would be happy forever, gooing away.

Bei Nuan was so sad that she desperately needed comfort. Somehow, her forehead ended up resting against Lu Xingchi's chest.

Lu Xingchi gently embraced her, stroking her head comfortingly, also looking at the two squatting figures.

After watching for a while, Lu Xingchi suddenly said, "Maybe not."

He raised his crossbow with his other hand.

A long spike shot out, hitting the ground next to Du Ruo's feet.

Du Ruo froze, looked up in their direction, and after recognizing the two figures embracing in the shadows, he immediately waved excitedly.

Bei Nuan: ?

Du Ruo abandoned his "goo goo goo" companion, stood up, and strode towards them.

He passed through the group of zombies without disturbing them.

The zombies made way for him as if a gentle breeze had swept across a pond, creating ripples that quickly subsided.

His expression was calm, his steps light.

Like a king returning.

On the way back, Du Ruo told them about his adventure tonight.

Bei Nuan pondered, "So, the person who gave Du Ruo the suppressant…"

Lu Xingchi continued, "…is very likely the mysterious person Huo Ren is looking for."

Bei Nuan was puzzled. The zombie virus undoubtedly came from the meteorite; that's what the book said, and she had seen it with her own eyes.

But the zombie outbreak had only been a few days, and the mysterious person already had a suppressant. What was going on?

Du Ruo, now injected with the suppressant, seemed completely back to normal.

But they didn't know how long this dose of suppressant would last for Du Ruo.

Du Ruo had already mutated once tonight, escaping death. His mentality was similar to Bei Nuan's after being nearly run over by a truck and transmigrating into the book; he felt like he had profited no matter what.

And he had also unlocked a zombie-ignoring cheat, meaning the current apocalypse didn't exist for him. He was incredibly happy.

"So what were you doing squatting there?" Bei Nuan asked him.

"I wanted to see if I could communicate with zombies," Du Ruo said. "After all, I'm the man who's going to be the Zombie King."

They returned to the cafeteria. Song Xiyi, who was guarding the door, was startled to see them back together.

Bei Nuan explained, "He had an allergic reaction in his eyes and insisted he was mutating. He took some anti-allergy medicine and he's fine now."

She didn't care whether it sounded reasonable or not.

Song Xiyi looked at Du Ruo.

Du Ruo's eyes were now clear, the whites distinct from the blacks, filled with a smile. He really did look perfectly fine.

"Sorry for the misunderstanding," Du Ruo apologized repeatedly.

Jiang Fei and the others were awake. They had probably noticed everyone was gone and were waiting anxiously, even Jiang Xu was there.

Du Ruo's story might fool others, but it couldn't fool Jiang Xu.

Jiang Xu only glanced at Du Ruo's eyes before asking, "What happened? This definitely isn't the effect of my broad-spectrum antiviral medicine."

Du Ruo recounted the events to him. Jiang Xu pondered for a long time.

"Who is this god? I know all the big names in our field, and there's no one like this, no one that young. Who could it be?"

Even he had no clue.

Jiang Xu examined Du Ruo's eyes again, his gaze sliding down to his arm.

Jiang Xu asked gently and politely, "Could I…"

Du Ruo clutched his needle-ridden arm, took two steps back, and said slowly and deliberately, "Even if I die today, I won't let you draw any more blood."

Seeing Jiang Xu's disappointed expression, he added painfully, "Tomorrow. You can draw blood tomorrow."

Because of Du Ruo's incident, they hadn't slept well for two nights in a row, so they decided to rest here for a day before setting off again.

This was the cafeteria, so it was convenient for everything. Jiang Fei kept his word and got up early to make Du Ruo his grandmother's version of braised pork with bamboo shoots and fermented tofu.

Jiang Fei mashed the fermented tofu, mixed it with the fermented tofu sauce, and braised the pork belly with the fresh bamboo shoots they had dug up yesterday.

Bei Nuan saw that he was using streaky pork belly, which she usually didn't like, but she found that the fatty parts, after being braised in the fermented tofu sauce, weren't greasy at all and were even more delicious than the lean meat.

It was so incredibly delicious with rice that they finished the entire pot of steamed rice.

"The rice is pretty good, but it's a pity we don't have a good rice cooker. Otherwise, the rice would be even better," Bei Nuan said regretfully.

Du Ruo, chewing on the braised pork, reminded her, "A rice cooker isn't very useful. Although there's electricity here, there's no electricity elsewhere."

After finishing her portion, Bei Nuan took a look at the task list.

Xiaosan had said that new tasks had been released.

Bei Nuan first looked at the task name—

Light of the Holy Mother.

It seemed alright, at least not as strange as the previous Holy Mother's Kiss.

Bei Nuan opened the task description. It was a dense wall of text, which gave her a headache.

Bei Nuan simply asked Xiaosan, "What is the Light of the Holy Mother task?"

"You're finally paying attention to me?" Xiaosan sounded a bit disgruntled.

"This is a mandatory 24-hour task, divided into 12-hour periods."

Xiaosan explained.

"The target person changes every twelve hours. During these twelve hours, acting like a Holy Mother in front of the male lead will no longer increase your Holy Mother points. Acting like a Holy Mother in front of the target person will give you double Holy Mother points."

Bei Nuan tried to understand.

"You mean, I don't have to show off my Holy Mother act to Lu Xingchi today, but to someone else?"

So she didn't have to chase after Lu Xingchi for the time being?

"That's right," Xiaosan replied. "And it's a mandatory task, meaning you must increase your Holy Mother points in front of the target person, otherwise, there will be a penalty."

"Also," Xiaosan continued, "within twelve hours, you must make the target person voluntarily say something like 'You're so kind,' 'You're very kind,' or 'You're too kind.' Otherwise, the Holy Mother points you earned in those twelve hours will be reset to zero."

"Got it, I have to get him to praise me," Bei Nuan said. "Then who is this 'target person'?"

As she spoke, the first twelve-hour countdown timer popped up, followed by a line of small text.

"Current target person: Jiang Fei."

Author's Note:

Lu Xingchi: Xiaosan, come here, let's have a talk.

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