Chapter 48: A Solution Seems to Have Been Found

[An eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy probably has more women in his heart than an emperor's imperial harem, and his thoughts about women are filthier than a public toilet. But at the same time, he is yearning for the purest and most beautiful love.]

This sentence was said by the venerable Mr. Qian Zhongshu. Mr. Qian is a legendary figure, and Xiao Guang has to admit that he was right.

However, having dirty thoughts doesn't mean one will actually act on them. Just like himself right now—clearly in a position to do whatever he pleased—Xiao Guang still stubbornly maintained human moral standards.

Well, his standards were much lower than those of a normal person, considering he was still holding Hye-won's big, soft handful at this very moment.

Reluctantly giving it one more squeeze, Xiao Guang withdrew his hand. Now that he was recovered from his illness, he needed to do something. The current Xiao Guang no longer had that complete desire to just lie flat as before; if he didn't do something with his day, he would feel exceptionally restless.

This was a strange psychological shift. In the past, when he woke up in the morning, looked at the alarm clock, and thought about going to class, he would feel nothing but annoyance. Now, not only did he no longer need an alarm clock, but if he had eaten his fill and wasn't busy with something in his hands, he would feel profoundly uncomfortable.

First, he went to check the vegetable patch in the back yard. The weather was turning cooler, but the garden was still lush and green. His planting season might have been slightly off, resulting in slightly smaller produce, but it didn't affect their edibility. After thinking for a moment, he plucked a noticeably underripe tomato and took a bite. It was a bit tart and astringent—a wonderful flavor.

He casually got into a vehicle and drove over to check the estate's main gate. This time, there were no fallen tree trunks blocking the way; the excavator was parked right by the entrance. Xiao Guang finished off the tomato in a few bites. The layout wasn't properly planned yet; he couldn't just focus on how to defend against a zombie invasion—in case a zombie invasion actually succeeded, he needed to leave himself a fallback route.

This was a double-edged sword. If it was difficult for zombies to scale the walls and get in, it meant it was equally difficult for him to scale the walls and get out. With his hands clasped behind his back, he paced around the perimeter wall of the main entrance, eventually concluding that installing barbed wire along the top of the wall was the most reliable plan.

Zombies generally lacked the intelligence to untangle barbed wire; they would only lunge forward blindly. Therefore, all he needed to do was leave a quick-release back door in the barbed wire.

"If you didn't step on a tree, could you climb over this?"

Xiao Guang stopped, pointed at the top of the wall, and asked Bae Joo-hyun. Joo-hyun looked at Xiao Guang, then looked at the top of the wall, walked to the base of the wall carrying her iron chain, and struck the top a few times. Seeing that the chain failed to catch on the wall, she walked back.

He pretty much understood now. That previous intrusion was purely a coincidence. As expected, the perimeter walls of a wealthy person's estate were thoughtfully designed; ordinary people would definitely find it extremely difficult to deal with a wall nearly three meters high.

This wasn't some ordinary little western-style cottage with a small courtyard where the wall merely served to mark property lines; this wall clearly incorporated security awareness, being at least two meters high if only to prevent peeping.

After pacing back and forth several times, Xiao Guang still felt that digging a trench wasn't quite suitable, but adding barbed wire was definitely a great idea. However, since the excavator had already been driven back, it couldn't just sit idle. Why not drive it to the back yard and dig a large pit to store water, which could be used for raising fish in the future?

For the first time, Bae Joo-hyun did not actively climb into the cab; instead, she looked disgusted and stood some distance away. It seemed that the journey last time had left a deep impression on her.

"Get up here. Sitting on my lap is fine, right?"

Xiao Guang patted his thigh, finally calling Bae Joo-hyun over. He had to admit, driving an excavator was really not very comfortable; with the constant bucking back and forth along the way, Xiao Guang felt slightly nauseous in his stomach.

The back yard was huge, complete with a designed miniature golf course. Unfortunately, in Xiao Guang's eyes, it held no aesthetic appeal whatsoever. Selecting a low-lying spot of terrain, Xiao Guang began to dig a pit.

Operating an excavator, digging holes, and playing in the dirt—women would never understand how joyous these three things could be. The roaring, clanking sound of the excavator was clearly disliked by the zombie girls; apart from initially wandering over out of curiosity to take a look, the three girls immediately vanished.

"What on earth should I do? How can I increase my winning cards for survival?"

Operating the excavator, Xiao Guang pondered this question. Since he already knew that some mysterious force was driving zombies to hunt humans, and judging by the rate at which zombies were gradually recovering their faculties, he would be discovered sooner or later, especially since he was still within the city limits of Seoul.

The correct course of action would be to flee, which was also the simplest approach. But Xiao Guang had no intention of doing that. First, he had accumulated enough supplies here to last for years, and there was still a massive amount of supplies left to scavenge within Seoul.

In the apocalypse, this was vital. Xiao Guang was not Bear Grylls reincarnated; his diet had nothing bizarre or extraordinary about it, and he couldn't imagine what kind of good end awaited him if he abandoned these supplies to go on the run.

Moreover, Xiao Guang always felt that rural zombies might be even more formidable. On the road to the temple, Xiao Guang had seen it very clearly—zombies in the wild could run fiercely. Take Hye-won, for instance; when helping her bathe and squeezing her muscles, leave aside her legs, even her biceps were developed.

He might be able to go fifty-fifty with urban zombies, but he definitely couldn't beat an infected farmer. A person had to have self-awareness; an unhealthy college student should really not take his physique too seriously.

Since he had decided to stay, figuring out how to enhance his own capabilities was what Xiao Guang needed to consider most urgently.

The most pressing task was not searching for supplies, but how to protect himself. The estate's inherent terrain featured a three-meter-high perimeter wall on the outside, followed by a vast expanse of open ground, with the villa sitting in the middle, and another vast expanse of open ground in the back yard. The back yard also had a perimeter wall, but right alongside some sections of that wall stood trees.

So, could zombies climb trees? Xiao Guang glanced back. He seemed to have a chainsaw; maybe he'd go out and test it another day to see if he had any talent for cutting down trees.

The existing terrain was difficult to alter, leaving only his combat power. His combat power was what it was, relying solely on his advantage in intelligence. Zombies that retained some rationality felt fear, which was something he could take advantage of; those with pure white eyes were hopeless—they were no different from madmen.

Bae Joo-hyun was an undisputed top-tier enforcer; as long as her iron chain struck an opponent's head, there was basically only one outcome.

Aside from acting as an early warning system, Min-ju was only capable of pushing zombies away at critical moments. The zombies wouldn't bite her, but she had no real way of dealing with them either.

Hye-won was somewhat more formidable; an ordinary human physique could not withstand the force of her charging headfirst.

Was there anyone else? Xiao Guang stopped the excavator to think. Digging dirt with this rumbling machine caused his entire body to vibrate along with it; he needed to take a break.

"Alas, if only I had a hundred zombie girls. Forget about formations and whatnot; just a few more Bae Joo-hyun types would make me invincible."

Xiao Guang patted the joystick, intending to resume digging. However, just as the bucket plunged into the earth, Xiao Guang halted his movements.

What did he just say a moment ago? A hundred zombie girls?

That actually seemed somewhat feasible. Xiao Guang looked up toward the living room. Hye-won was running, and Min-ju was chasing. Without even looking, he knew Hye-won must be biting down on a small ball, and Min-ju spoke so slowly simply because she could never snatch the ball away.

Yet, thinking about bathing them, feeding them, dressing them, coaxing them with speech, and sleeping, Xiao Guang couldn't help pinching the bridge of his nose.

If he truly had a hundred zombie girls, they would probably exhaust his household food supply in no time. Early in the morning, the living room would be crowded with kneeling zombie girls waiting to be fed. Xiao Guang sighed once more; this was the apocalypse, and a person couldn't—and shouldn't—live like that.

Still, if he found powerful girls, it was genuinely something worth considering. As for how many individuals constituted his absolute limit, Xiao Guang had no idea.

Should he go out and capture another one?