Chapter 43: An Unexpected Incident

Several zombies had broken into the front yard of the manor. Xiao Guang rushed over upon hearing the commotion, only to see Bae Joo-hyun swinging her heavy iron chain onto the head of a zombie, sending red and white matter flying in a truly horrific scene.

Wielding a hoe, Xiao Guang first pushed a zombie that had climbed up the wall back down. Hearing Bae Joo-hyun's voice, he paused.

"Helmet. Put on a helmet."

Not knowing how many zombies were outside the wall, Xiao Guang hesitated for two seconds upon hearing her warning, then turned and sprinted toward the living room. Fully geared up in no time, he ran back clutching a baseball bat, just in time to see Kang Hyewon headbutt a zombie so hard it slumped back against the wall.

"Minju, are there a lot of them?"

"Seven. Seven."

Hearing Minju's reply, Xiao Guang felt a wave of relief. If there were only seven zombies, it wasn't an insurmountable problem.

However, when an exceptionally burly zombie appeared atop the wall, Xiao Guang couldn't help his heart pounding. *Good grief, a three-hundred-pound Korean can't be that common. How did one end up over here?*

The hulking creature tumbled from the wall into the courtyard, immediately raising both hands to protect its head. Xiao Guang could clearly feel that blows from his baseball bat were causing it no real harm.

His mind racing, he swung the bat in a wide arc, smashing it down toward the zombie's knees as it struggled to stand, though his first strike missed entirely.

Something was wrong. There were still four other mobile zombies that had crossed the wall. Normally, they should have been focusing solely on him, but it was obvious they were trying to grab and bite Bae Joo-hyun and the others instead.

*Aren't you all of the same kind?* Furthermore, Xiao Guang noticed that two of the zombies still had eyes that hadn't turned gray-white. Though puzzled, his top priority was dealing with the massive brute right in front of him. Bae Joo-hyun and the other two seemed to be having an easy time with their one-on-one fights.

The baseball bat struck the giant's shoulder with a muffled thud. Xiao Guang could distinctly feel the impact sinking into thick layers of fat. The fat zombie lumbered toward him, and Xiao Guang realized he had practically no effective way of dealing with it.

Striking the head was out of the question since its arms shielded it, and the strength that usually sufficed to shatter limbs seemed useless against this creature. Hitting any other part of its body was a complete waste of energy. Xiao Guang had no choice but to retreat step by step while frantically trying to figure out how to take down the fat monster.

He could run it over with a car, or perhaps a hoe would inflict more damage. Unfortunately, he lacked a precious blade that could cut through iron like mud, or a gun.

He absolutely could not let this fat zombie pin him down. Given that weight, Xiao Guang doubted he'd be able to push him off. Perhaps sensing Xiao Guang's peril, Kang Hyewon charged in from the side, slamming her head directly into the giant's torso.

The fat zombie merely staggered slightly—and that was the end of it. Kang Hyewon, on the other hand, bounced backward and landed hard on her seat. Seeing the giant reach out toward her, Xiao Guang hurriedly struck its arm with the baseball bat, drawing its attention back to himself.

*No, brute force won't work. I have to use the car. Time to drive.*

"I'm going to get the car. You guys get back."

Xiao Guang shouted at the top of his lungs, not caring whether Bae Joo-hyun and the others understood, nor whether the remaining active zombies grasped his intentions. For the moment, he simply couldn't think of any other plan.

His once peaceful life had become fraught with peril due to the intrusion of these zombies. Having finally cleared out the invaders, Xiao Guang sat inside the car, lingering a sense of lingering dread.

If it weren't for the three zombie girls at home who possessed some combat abilities, being cornered by seven zombies in the backyard would have undoubtedly spelled his doom today.

Had he truly been surrounded by seven zombies of adult size and strength within such an enclosed manor, Xiao Guang could hardly guarantee he'd be able to scale the wall in time.

After repeatedly confirming that the corpses on the ground were completely immobilized, Xiao Guang walked around to the outer perimeter of the wall. One of the plane trees outside had fallen over, which must have been how they managed to scale the wall. He couldn't tell whether this was fortunate or unfortunate; because of this incident, his previously lax sense of security turned into an urgent alarm bell.

"No, I have to get a gun. One isn't enough—the more, the better, placed within arm's reach anywhere in the house. Besides, I need to dig a trench outside the wall. I might not know how to fix a wall, but I can dig a trench, which effectively increases the wall's height."

Muttering to himself, Xiao Guang conducted a final inspection of the zombie bodies. He clearly saw that the ones whose eyes hadn't turned gray seemed to be begging him for mercy.

*Impossible.* He was kind, but he was no saint. Regardless of the reason, as long as something posed a threat to him, Xiao Guang had only one decision: kill it, and burn it.

Out of the seven zombies, Bae Joo-hyun alone had blown the heads off three. Hyewon, possessing only defensive pushing capabilities, had helped out a great deal as well. As for Minju, she acted more like a battlefield radar; her babbling two-word phrases clearly warned everyone who was in danger.

"Everyone did a great job today. Extra milk at noon."

It sounded childish, but seeing the eyes of the three zombie girls brighten visibly proved that his reward was effective.

Kang Hyewon even sidled up to him, her purple eyes filled with clear excitement.

"Pat?"

*What kind of person do you take me for? Oh, fine, a pat it is.* But lifting his hand to look at the bloodstains on his gloves, he decided to go back and take a shower first.

Xiao Guang couldn't lift the fallen tree outside by himself, but he could use a car to drag it far away. This made him immensely grateful that he had learned how to drive. It also cemented his resolve: he couldn't afford to be lazy; he needed a higher level of security. He had to learn how to operate an excavator today.

The three zombie girls sat happily kneeling around the dining table, drinking their milk. Wiping his hair dry, Xiao Guang couldn't help a lingering shiver of fear. Thank goodness today's fat zombie wasn't like the Usain Bolt-esque creature at the shopping mall, or goodness knows what his fate would have been.

Zombies attacking humans wasn't surprising to Xiao Guang, but the fact that seven zombies had traveled together in mismatched clothing left him thoroughly bewildered.

Could they have formed a search party for humans?

If that were truly the case, he was in deep trouble. Xiao Guang had witnessed firsthand places swarming with zombies, like the temple the other day. If twenty-odd zombie monks were to show up at the manor, and he failed to clear a path with his car, it would simply be game over for him.

"If there really ever comes a day when I can't escape, Bae Joo-hyun, just kill me. If you don't have time, bite me—I have no desire to be torn to shreds by zombies."

Bae Joo-hyun was absorbed in drinking her milk and had no time to entertain Xiao Guang, though her reddish eyes did glance over at him. Xiao Guang had no way of knowing whether she had agreed or not.

"Next time you spot a zombies, Minju, you must notify me immediately. You girls aren't allowed to run over there just to gawk."

Minju nodded, nearly dropping her milk cup in her eagerness. That made her panic slightly. Since she was already the slowest drinker among them, she rushed a bit more, poured too fast, and immediately choked.

"I'll let you drink your fill today, Minju. No need to rush."

True to his word, he let them drink until they were completely full. Looking at the milk trace at the corner of Minju's mouth, and then at Hyewon, who still had her head tilted back, Xiao Guang genuinely couldn't fathom why milk powder had become their absolute favorite. Was it simply because it was easily absorbed?

Of the three zombie girls, Bae Joo-hyun sat on the sofa, Hyewon knelt on the floor, and Minju still held her cup with about thirty milliliters remaining at the bottom. Judging by the look in her eyes, she had no intention of quitting until every last drop was gone.

Xiao Guang couldn't resist walking over to Hyewon and giving her a gentle stroke. The moment he lightly scratched her, a hint of milk powder appeared in Hyewon's mouth. Xiao Guang hastily withdrew his hand. *Good grief, no wonder you drank two and a half cans of milk powder—you're literally risking your life for it.*

Since they ate with such fierce dedication, he couldn't afford to be lazy either. He walked over to Bae Joo-hyun, endured the gaze of her reddish eyes, and gave her a thorough petting before finally standing up. As for learning to operate the excavator, he seemed to remember bringing back a book on it; he'd go study it right now.

Finding the excavator manual, Xiao Guang sat by the living room window, but his thoughts drifted back to the earlier incident. When he was driving his car to ram the zombies, two of them had clearly made evasive maneuvers. Did that count as taking a life?

Involuntarily projecting the zombie girls at home onto the perspective of those stray zombies, Xiao Guang felt a deep sense of unease.

The very act of them scaling the wall wasn't normal. As for what they were actually after—could it be that they were searching for a sanctuary?

When he was cleaning up the zombie corpses earlier, that fat zombie had half-eaten potatoes on him. Could the zombies outside be undergoing some new kind of mutation?