Chapter 4 Premature Baby (Revised) What's with all the shell-breaking?! ...

In the pitch-black space, two eyes stared at him.

If this scene happened to a human, they would definitely break out in a cold sweat, but the little zombie just stared straight back.

Those eyes weren't far from him, and they were exactly within the area formed by the four farmlands.

Without a second's hesitation, the little zombie reached out its hand directly towards the two red dots.

"Crack crack crack... Snap snap snap..."

Strange sounds rang out one after another. Before the little zombie could even touch anything, a crisp "ding" sounded in the space.

[Ding—Congratulations on completing your first incubation]

Rewards: 500 points, 5 Universal Pet Food, 1 Universal Evolution Fruit

As soon as the words were spoken, the little zombie felt as if something had appeared in its hand.

But zombies have no sense of touch; he could only vaguely feel his hand being hit and falling down a little.

He simply tucked his finger in and, without thinking twice, grabbed the item first.

He had originally intended to touch those eyes, but now he was holding something in his left hand and his right hand was gone, so he could only stare blankly at the two red dots.

The red dot was initially focused on the little zombie, but clearly, it didn't have the same stamina as the zombie. In the latter half, it would open and close its eyes intermittently, making the two red dots appear and disappear.

The sun's phantom always appears on time. Unlike the normal world where it rises and sets every day, it first appears as a small spot of light in the sky, and then it continues to expand over time.

Zombies' eyes are not sensitive to light, so the little zombie could only see what was in front of it when the entire space was already bathed in bright light.

It was a strange-looking creature.

It wasn't very big, maybe only as long as a small zombie's arm, and it probably had a layer of fur on its body.

The reason I say "should" is because its body surface is covered with some gray stuff, which looks like patches, and it's hard to tell whether it's hair or some part of its body.

It didn't move, just stayed in the corner of the soil furthest from the little zombie. The two red dots were gone, and at first glance it looked like a crooked stone.

The little zombie watched for a while, then tentatively took a step towards it—

"Awoooooo!"

The gray ball of fluff practically tumbled and crawled backward as it fled. It first tripped over the edge of the soil and fell flat on its face. After rolling into the white sand, it stood up but then its legs gave way and it fell back down. The cries it made throughout the process were exceptionally pitiful.

"...dog, puppy."

Upon hearing the sound, the little furball trembled and then quickly took two steps back.

The little zombie tried to chase after it, but as soon as it moved, the little furball let out a threatening "woof woof" sound, its whole body trembling, looking as pitiful as could be.

The little zombie had to stop.

He couldn't speak in complete sentences or make many sounds; he just stared at the furry ball with his dark eyes and called out clearly, "Doggy."

The gray ball of fur stood there watching the little zombie for a long time. Finally, it stopped trembling, stretched out its front paw, and took a small step to the right.

The little zombie immediately rolled its eyes, its gaze still glued to it like a hook.

The gray ball of fur, which had finally calmed down, started acting up again.

It wasn't very big to begin with, and its little outstretched paw was like a thin stick, so thin and short that it probably couldn't support its body and kept trembling before falling down again.

After a long stalemate, the gray ball of fur couldn't take it anymore.

It bent its limbs as if squeezing a bouncy toy, its body and the long fur on both sides concave inward, and then with a "pop," something suddenly popped out from in front of its body.

It's its head.

Its head was very large, almost the same size as its entire hindquarters. However, it had no hair on its head, two things that looked like ears were pressed tightly against the upper side, and it had no mouth. Its eyes were just two slits. The whole head looked like a wrinkled ball of flesh.

It tilted its head to the left towards the little zombie, and the little zombie in front of it paused for two seconds before tilting its head back as well.

Suddenly, a voice rang in the little zombie's mind.

[Uh... Host, where did this ugly thing come from?]

"Awooo, awooo, Tian."

As soon as he spoke, the creature in front of him seemed to be greatly frightened, and it slammed its head back in, rolling twice on the ground because the movement was so violent.

The system remained stagnant for a long time before finally managing to squeeze out a few words: [Incubation progress...3%?]

It stared at the gray ball of fluff, nearly going crazy: [Only 3%! What kind of shell is this?! It's not even fully grown yet, it can't even stand up!]

The system had been thinking that once the pet hatched, it would be able to figure out the previous thunderstorm, why its host's body had recovered, and a whole series of other things. But who knew that the egg would hatch prematurely after it had only just begun to hatch.

Now, let alone getting the whole story out of this guy, it would take a lot of effort to raise him to the point where we could identify what kind of creature he is.

The system was on the verge of collapsing at the thought of the points that were about to be distributed.

It took it a while to take something out of its spatial storage and place it in front of the little zombie.

[Please take this first, I'll go exchange it for morning glory seeds.]

It was a round mirror about twenty centimeters in diameter, with a black and white striped hard material around the edge. The mirror surface looked like it had a thin layer of water on it, and it produced several ripples when shaken.

[Artemis's Mirror (Fragment): A fragment of the moon goddess's mirror, containing the power of the moon, but its effectiveness is greatly reduced because it is a fragment.]

The little zombie couldn't read, but it thought the thing was shiny and pretty.

Because the system has no physical form, most of the things it gives to the host will float within the host's arm's reach. The little zombie was still holding the previous reward in its hand, so it didn't take the mirror fragments and just stared at them.

"rustle......"

The little zombie looked down in the direction of the sound and saw the gray ball of fluff walking.

It was moving this way with its short, branch-like legs. It was probably too weak, because its legs trembled as it landed. Sure enough, it only took two steps before falling to the ground again.

The system returned just then, and upon seeing the situation, sighed: [Host, please open the bag you're carrying.]

It was difficult to operate with one hand, so the little zombie had to put everything on the ground first, and then open the light brown bag as instructed by the system.

The bag contained five cubes, each about the size of a small zombie's fist, and a purple fruit slightly smaller than the cubes.

The cube, once removed, is a light grassy green with a grayish tint, rounded edges, and of average hardness.

The little zombie has no sense of smell or taste, so it doesn't know what it smells like, but judging from the gray ball's somewhat excited appearance, this thing must smell pretty good.

He tried to hand the cube over, but the gray ball of fur didn't dare to take it and just stood there motionless.

Most people in this situation would probably throw the item over or put it down and walk away, but the little zombie just held on and wouldn't let go, staring intently at it. The two were clearly locked in a stalemate.

Once again, the little gray dumpling couldn't resist the temptation of food.

After it popped its head out, it kept its legs still and stretched its head forward with all its might. Just as it could touch the edge, it quickly swooped down and snatched the block away.

Perhaps because of the food, the gray ball was less afraid of the little zombie, so when the little zombie got closer, it quickly noticed something was wrong.

"Aww, aww?"

[Sigh, it probably doesn't have any teeth yet. Could you break its pet food into smaller pieces? I'll go get some water.]

When the little zombie reached out, the gray ball struggled for a moment, but gave up after realizing it couldn't win.

The gray ball of fur had been nibbling on the food for ages, but there wasn't a single dent on the grass-green pet food, and there were even several obvious red marks. It was clear that the fur ball had chewed so hard that it had broken its mouth.

Since they had no containers, the little zombie would put the broken-up pet food in its palm, carefully catch the water that the system poured out from mid-air, and hand it to the gray ball after the food had soaked and softened in its hand.

This time, the gray ball of fluff did not dodge.

In the system's words, this creature was still just a fetus. Logically, it should be able to get full from a little bit of pet food crumbs, but the gray ball had an amazing appetite and ate a whole five pieces of food in one go.

The system watched as it licked its lips with lingering satisfaction, and suddenly felt that the future was bleak.

Seeing that the little zombie was about to ask how to change the pet food, the system could only awkwardly say, "[Host, let's feed it later, let's plant flowers first.]"

It was really afraid that this guy would eat up all the points, so it'd better plant the flowers first.

The little zombie always did whatever the system told him to do. As soon as the system spoke, he returned to the edge of the farmland and listened carefully to the voice in his mind.

[First, dig some holes like you would when planting sweet potatoes, yes, that's enough, no need to dig deep.]

The gray ball of fur didn't make a fuss. It just followed the little zombie for a couple of steps before lying down. Its hairless head was facing the direction of the farmland, as if it was watching the little zombie fiddling with the soil.

The planting process in most systems is pretty much the same: burying seeds, covering with soil, and harvesting.

Because it comes with its own buff, there's no need to worry about watering, no need to loosen the soil before planting, and the crop won't get pests throughout the entire process, making it much easier than the usual planting process.

However, it has one drawback – the germination rate cannot be controlled.

When we planted barnyard grass before, the germination rate of the grass seeds reached 99%. But barnyard grass is one of the most resilient weeds, so it's not surprising that the germination rate was a bit high.

Now that it's time to plant morning glories, the system tells the little zombie that morning glory seeds can be planted directly, but if the seeds are soaked for a while before planting, the germination rate will be higher.

[It's your decision.]

The little zombie looked at the handful of seeds in his hand without saying a word. He should have waited patiently for a clear instruction, but suddenly, the red mist surrounding him moved.

The next second he looked up: "Aww, seed."

As the system was happily explaining how to soak the seeds, the mirror fragment that had been suspended in mid-air rotated a few degrees with the slight airflow.

As luck would have it, the ripples on the mirror reflected some dappled sunlight, which fell directly onto the gray ball of fluff.

Under the silvery light, the gray ball's head twitched.

It opened its mouth in confusion, and a small tooth suddenly emerged from its previously bare gums.