Chapter 121 World L: 4 As he predicted, indeed...
As he had expected, once they confirmed that he had indeed turned into a zombie, they all became wary and demanded that he prove himself.
How can I prove it? Should I spit it out for you?
Owen was secretly heartbroken, but outwardly remained calm, and could only give a brief account of what had happened since he came into this world.
Turner asked, "Ethan, do you have any kind of detection tool? Um, something to roughly determine if he ate someone?"
Ethan pointed at himself, completely bewildered: "Me? I'm not Doraemon."
"Then let's test whether he lied."
"If he ate it unintentionally and didn't even know it, then there's nothing we can do..."
While the two were still asking each other questions, Yaroslava lost patience and, amidst the puzzled looks of the crowd, walked up to Owen.
She drew her weapon and quickly slashed her arm, shocking everyone. Yaroslava, however, simply brought the wound to Owen's mouth.
Irving was terrified. He tried to push Yaroslava away and then run away, but he couldn't move her.
Damn it! How can there be a woman with such a strong and stable foundation!
The nausea that had subsided for some time surged back up, both familiar and strange, making Irving feel nauseous. He could only cover his mouth and back away repeatedly.
How could Yaroslava possibly give in to him? She pressed closer and forcibly restrained him, but Owen struggled too fiercely. Even with one arm covering his mouth and the other hand thrashing about, he still caused her some trouble.
"No, you, don't come any closer!" Owen shook his head frantically, like someone trapped and harassed by someone with ill intentions, his eyes glistening with tears. Only Owen knew that these tears were from nausea; it was unbearable.
Yaroslava, like a bully, forcefully suppressed him. Even though she wasn't a melee-type guardian, she was still powerful. Yaroslava pinned him to the ground, ignoring his resistance, grabbed his chin, and shoved her arm into Owen's mouth.
"Waaah—" Owen wailed, even in this situation, he still frantically rolled his tongue back. Although the close proximity of the blood made him almost vomit, he was certain that if he touched the blood and tasted that flavor, he would vomit all over Yaroslava.
Help! Are Russia's guardians really that terrifying? They're ruthless and taciturn, they just get straight to the point.
Yaroslava was displeased with Owen's continued resistance, feeling that he was suppressing his true feelings: "What did you say?"
"Waaah..." Owen couldn't even utter a clear word because his tongue was rolled up. It was impossible to tell whether his tears were physiological or from crying in despair. Tears streamed down his face.
"Speak." Yaroslava, without her usual smile, forced Owen to speak, subtly squeezing around the wound again.
"Waaaaah!"
"Do you want me to let you go? Then tell me."
Nadia, the other two, and the chicks were stunned. It all happened in the blink of an eye. Before they could react, Yaroslava had already pressed down on Owen's stomach and put the wound in his mouth.
Yaroslava kept urging Owen to speak, and Owen was so anxious he almost spoke up himself.
"Let go of me!" Owen stopped curling his tongue, but when he spoke, his tongue would return to its original position and accidentally lick Yaroslava's wound. When he tasted the rust, a terrible feeling of nausea made Owen tremble all over.
He didn't know where the strength came from, but he shoved Yaroslava away violently. Caught off guard, Yaroslava was actually pushed down and watched helplessly as Owen crawled a few meters away and began to vomit violently.
Because he hadn't eaten much, the energy he had absorbed from the crystal core had been enough to sustain him for a long time. His stomach was also empty, and he couldn't vomit anything. He only vomited some acidic water at first, and then he just dry heaved.
Seeing his huge reaction, his heart-wrenching vomiting, everyone finally believed that Irving's claim that he wouldn't let his appetite control his reason. Seeing that he not only didn't find human flesh delicious, but was also extremely disgusted and repulsed, everyone felt sorry for Irving's miserable vomiting.
"Waaah, ugh—" she cried and vomited at the same time, looking like she had suffered a great injustice: "I, I told you, I won't be controlled by my appetite. I've become a complete vegetarian. I don't even want to vomit when I eat, I feel like throwing up just from the smell. Now you should believe me, right? Ugh..."
"I'm sorry." Yaroslava pulled out a tissue from somewhere and handed it to him, her face full of apology and looking very sincere: "I was too forceful. I'm sorry for using this method to verify, but it's the fastest and simplest way to verify."
Although Irving felt wronged, he could understand. He had already sealed the image of the other person chasing after him to feed him blood and tempting him with his wound deep in his mind.
Because it was so embarrassing and humiliating, he almost scrambled away, but Yaroslava's hand held him firmly, as if glued to him.
Owen felt that in addition to having PTSD from the nausea of meat and blood, he might also develop PTSD from Yaroslava later on. That woman was terrifying; he was even trembling when she was near him.
It was ten minutes later when Irving finished vomiting and his nausea subsided, including the time Yaroslava had to give him emergency first aid to reduce his severe reaction.
Ethan thought Yaroslava was really something else; she just cut herself open without warning, using this most direct method to test whether Irving was cannibalistic or not.
"Do you know what's going on in this world?" Yaroslava softened her tone, knowing full well that she was in the wrong just now.
“This is probably what the apocalypse is like.” Owen’s body trembled uncontrollably before he continued, “I haven’t seen many other people here since I came here. Before I was squeezed into the zombie army, I had met humans from this world. Everything in this world is mutating, flowers and plants, all kinds of animals. The humans here also naturally have superpowers, which are called superhumans here.”
"Humans have a great deal of malice towards anything mutated or lost. They generally choose to eliminate anything they encounter, unless it's something they can't eliminate all at once, like that terrifying number of zombies we just saw." Owen recalled, "I think I encountered a Guardian before, the counterpart of that Morrison from your country. When we met, he wasn't listening to anything I was saying at all. He just wanted to kill me outright. He was too bloodthirsty. I only had time to say that I was from another world before he thought I was talking nonsense and kept chasing me and hacking at me. In the end, I had no choice but to run away."
Owen shuddered at the thought of that easily angered guardian of the world.
The thought of having to go back and face that guardian again filled me with a sense of resistance. If he hadn't run away so fast last time, I don't know how badly I would have been slashed.
“Shall we lead the way first? If there are other witnesses, it should be able to prove that we are counterparts from another world, right? Besides, we’re from the same country.” Tenas suggested, “How about we look for a nearby city that’s still inhabited? Or perhaps a base from this kind of post-apocalyptic setting?”
With Ethan perched on his head and several chick-like figures perched on his arms and laps, Ethan spoke up: "Ethan, don't you know that kind of magic that extracts elements to create simple maps?"
Ethan fell into deep thought: "What? There's such magic? Nobody told me about this. I haven't finished reading all of Lord Starfall's books yet."
"I can! I can!" Ethan volunteered. "I'll teach you too!"
Ethan readily accepted: "Okay! Thank you."
Owen glanced left at the somewhat surprised Tenas, then right at the calm Nadia, before finally fixing his gaze on Yaroslava, and couldn't help but ask the probing question: "Why aren't you surprised at all that the chicken can talk?"
“Because we’re not ordinary chickens,” Nadia said, nestled in Ethan’s arms. “In our world, everyone is just a chick. We are your counterparts, just chicks.”
Owen pondered for a moment, then accepted the chick clone in just 0.1 seconds. After all, he wasn't human anymore; he had become a zombie. So what if he had a talking chick clone?
Under Ethan's guidance, Ethan quickly mastered the magic that gathered and condensed nearby elements into a map, and they used the map to find suitable places to go.
Finally, they locked onto the nearest city, which was in the exact opposite direction from the zombie army, proving it to be safe.
Although they were the closest to them, it still took a considerable amount of time to get there, even though they could all fly; Irving was carried by the others.
When they arrived outside the base, they saw the staff conducting screenings outside, who all looked at them warily.
"Hello, we need to speak with you, the person in charge of the base?" The most sociable of them all, Tenas, stepped forward to negotiate, offering a reassuringly warm smile: "Could you please inform us?"
It was 20 minutes later when they finally met the person in charge of the base.
"So, you mean you are the counterparts of some people in our world?" the person in charge asked with great interest.
“Of course,” Turners smiled, “including you.”
The person in charge, Tenas, squinted and looked at the group of people, including Irving, who was huddled in the corner.
"What is your purpose?" Tenas cut to the chase, a sly smile on his face, like a cunning fox. "Tell me."
Without blinking, Tenas changed the subject of some events and skillfully used montage to tell a story that was half true and half false, saying that he was borrowing the power of the guardian.
“Our world has no guardians.” Tenas conjured a small fireball from his fingertip, which floated leisurely toward them. “But we have special abilities. Do you think they’re the kind of power you need?”
Ethan and Ethan cautiously approached, sensed the surroundings, and nodded to Tenas. Tenas looked at the flying chick Ethan, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
Turnas stated that this was the relevant power, and he lent it to them.
“I’m afraid this isn’t something I can agree to on my own.” Tenas didn’t agree immediately. “I’m sure your demand is quite high, right? As for power, the more the better, of course. But in that case, I might have to discuss it with the other base commanders. You should know them; they are your counterparts.”
By the time the other base chiefs that Tenas mentioned had all arrived, it was already afternoon.
In the unusually spacious conference room, people sat on both sides of the long table. On one side were Tenas and his group, and on the other side were their counterparts in this world, the base chiefs of various bases, led by Reena.
"What do you think we'd gain by lending you our abilities?" Reena's sharp gaze fixed on Tenas, even more intimidating than Reina from their world. This was Reena, older than Reina from their world, and more experienced in the post-apocalyptic world. Her imposing presence made Tenas feel immense pressure. She pointed out sharply, "Why should we lend you our power? Is it merely out of mutual respect between beings of the same kind? That's naive and laughable. We've already expended considerable energy, money, and skilled ability users just fighting off zombies. How could we possibly have any extra abilities to give you?"
Turnas was already marveling at the gentleness of Reina in his own world; compared to her, she was indeed much gentler. But there was no room left for him to overthink things.
“What do we need to give up?” Turner asked.
"To change some of the terrible things in our world." Reena saw that he was on the right track and didn't bother with any of the roundabout ways.
"for example?"
"The zombie horde that has passed through our area these past two days is quite famous in our country. If you help us eliminate them, I will unite with the other base leaders in our country to grant all the superhumans in your country a portion of their superpowers."
Those who had witnessed the spectacular scene recalled the endless zombies and fell silent. Turner said, "This is a bit too much to ask."
“Fine.” Reena said coldly, “Then you help our world develop an antidote to the zombie virus. As long as you develop it, I guarantee that people all over the world will willingly give up their superpowers.”
Everyone: "..."
Tenas: "Let's talk about how to kill all those zombies first."
The final conditions are these two: either they must eradicate zombies from their world and develop an antidote for the zombie virus, or they must eliminate the terrifying zombies in their country.
This is why these people kept the zombie horde at bay, preventing it from straying too far from them, and then began killing the zombies.
Tenas and his men were frantically killing zombies. Because there were so many of them, they could only win by being ruthless. They were covered in blue blood from the fighting. The chickens also put in their efforts, and their speed in killing zombies was not much different from theirs.
They were fighting a bloody battle, while Ethan and Ethan enjoyed a peaceful life.
While creating several puppets to kill indiscriminately and setting them to actively avoid their companions, they captured a live zombie and were slowly taking out bottles and jars and pouring a little bit of each into the zombie's mouth.
I dripped a little, no reaction. I dripped some more, still the same. I dripped some more.
Until the city's will, 'Ethan,' gave Ethan a bottle of magic potion, the zombie suddenly began to struggle violently. Ethan quickly pressed him down and watched as the struggling zombie on the ground slowly stopped moving, its skin fading from grayish-green to only pale.
Ethan was both surprised and delighted; he had only given it a try, but it actually worked.
Even though it's a zombie virus, it still needs treatment. Since its inception, the Starfall Will has collected countless treasures. Whether it's Starfall in Ethan's world or Starfall in other worlds, they all develop in this direction, and they all like to research and brew magic potions.
Before he left, 'Ethan' gave him a lot of precious potions just in case. I didn't expect them to actually work. Are they really that versatile?
Ethan sincerely admired and thanked his counterpart; being the city's will was truly impressive.
After killing zombies today, Ethan told them about it, and everyone was overjoyed. Even Owen, who was picking up the crystal cores left behind after the battle, couldn't care less about those tempting and powerful crystal cores and rushed over to listen.
After a moment of surprise and delight, Tenas regained his composure: "We can't be too happy yet; we still need to kill the zombies."
Everyone looked at him with suspicion.
“Ethan, didn’t you just say that the potion was given to you by your city’s healing counterpart? You haven’t studied it yet, you don’t know the ingredients, and you can’t be sure if you or this world has those potions.” Turnas pointed out a more important point: “What if we can’t find a substitute or make it? It would be terrible if we relied on this for all our hopes.”
Although I really don't want to say such discouraging things, it's important to know the truth. Otherwise, if we happily and hopefully try to create something, only to fail, waste time, and not kill any zombies, we won't know when that entity whose name we still don't know will send people to hunt us down.
If they kill all these zombie hordes, they will gain a portion of the power of all the superhumans in the country; if they develop an antidote, they will gain all the power of the surviving superhumans.
If given a choice, Turnas would certainly prefer the latter, as greater power would give them a better chance of defeating that being later on.
So they split into two groups. One group consisted of Ethan, Ethan, and a few chickens with relevant knowledge who went into the lab to research and create a puppet the size of a palm so that Tenas and the others could use it to kill zombies efficiently.
The other group consisted of everyone except Ethan and the chickens, who were responsible for killing enough zombies at fixed times each day. Owen was always the most enthusiastic, absorbing the power of the crystal cores while fighting, and the others would occasionally throw him some crystal cores that they had dug up while killing zombies.
Owen felt like he was in heaven. After absorbing the crystal cores to a certain level, he suddenly discovered that the crystal cores had a taste. This was a blessing for him, who was now so tired of eating grass that he had almost lost his sense of taste. Every day before eating, he would try to guess what the crystal cores would taste like.
If you guess right, you can reward yourself with another one; if you guess wrong, you can reward yourself with ten.
Ethan, wearing a white lab coat, and Ethan, who was wearing a smaller version of a white lab coat, looked at each other in bewilderment.
Ethan: Wait, is this right?
He's not a medical student, so can this really work out?
No one answered him; only the chick's eyes gleamed with encouragement.
OK.
Ethan and his team began to work diligently, trying to analyze the ingredients of the potion with the least amount of medicine they could find, to see if they had the same herbs in their own potion, and if not, to see if they had them in this world, or if there were any alternatives.
They became so engrossed in the research that they forgot all about it. By the time Ethan came to his senses, half a month had passed, and they had used one-third of the potion. They had completely deciphered the herbs used in the potion, and Ethan had even figured out a little about how to brew it.
However, there is still a problem. There is a kind of herb that they not only do not have, but cannot even be found in this world. Even when Ethan and his counterparts from this world joined forces, they could not find it. Now he has collected a large number of herbs with similar medicinal effects, and he is preparing to experiment to see if he can find a substitute.
As Ethan watched the dwindling supply of potions that could restore zombies, he unusually fell into a state of anxiety, his mood remaining irritable.
Ethan offered her body to him in order to alleviate his negative emotions.
Ethan stroked Ethan's fluffy, soft fur, his mind still blank.
"It's okay, Ethan," Ethan reassured him earnestly. "Even if we fail, Turnas and the others are making great progress in killing zombies. They've already killed quite a few, and Owen has absorbed a lot of crystal cores. I heard he's recently gained the ability to control some of the zombies! Even if we don't succeed, we can see if we can rely on Owen to become powerful enough to control all the zombies?"
Although Ethan felt that what he said was a bit too exaggerated, people still need to have dreams. Even though he was a chicken, what's wrong with dreaming and thinking?
Ethan was somewhat comforted, especially after witnessing Owen control a large group of zombies to kill each other and dig out the crystal core for him. After he ate it like a snack, his mood was finally not so heavy, and he and Ethan continued to focus on their research.
"Have you heard?" Tenas asked with a smile. "They possess a potion that allows them to gain the help of other beings in other worlds, which can turn zombies back into corpses. Therefore, developing a vaccine for the zombie virus is just around the corner."
"...I hope it really works." Reena's eyes slowly moved, gazing absently at the lights still on in the base outside the window, where everyone was still active. She seemed lost in thought. "If they can figure it out, they'll change the world. Once they do, we can restore this society where the strong rule to what it used to be. The society where anyone, as long as they're strong enough, can do whatever they want—burning, killing, and looting—should have ended long ago. I'll make everyone willingly offer their powers to help them. Is the potion you mentioned that can eliminate superpowers stable yet?"
“This is the third experiment already.” Tenas’s smile grew even brighter. “The potion is very stable and has been tested on several morally corrupt superhumans. You should see the expressions on their faces when they discovered their superpowers had disappeared.”
“There’s nothing to see.” Reena said with her eyes half-closed, looking somewhat indifferent. “Just because they are powerful and need others to fight off zombies and go out to find resources, they think they are some kind of noble being, and they even dare to proclaim any audacious idea to the public.”
"Hmm...you mean that arrogant guy who thought he was strong enough to take you in if she wanted to, and who could still control this base afterward?" Tenas thought for a moment, then chuckled, somewhat speechless: "That's not just being crazy, Nadia made him pay the price."
"Tenas".
"Okay, okay." Tenas made a zipping motion with his mouth.
"...Do you think everything will go smoothly and successfully?" Reena asked.
"Yes, as long as they figure it out, and without the major factor of zombies, our plan can be completed many years ahead of schedule." Tenas gave her a positive reply: "We've been preparing for many years, and now we're just one crucial step away from completion. We never expected to have such an unexpected bonus."
“It’s getting late.” Reena picked up her coat and walked out of the room. “Come find me next time they make a major breakthrough.”
Tenas watched her leave.
-----------------------
Author's note: I updated almost 17,000 words today, breaking my record.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
