Chapter 12：Zombies' Self-Hanging

Chen Dao looked at Payton, whose face was smeared with blood, resembling a monster from a horror movie, and couldn't help but laugh.

Dimonia, on the other hand, dropped the handle of her pitchfork, pulled out a towel from her small backpack, and started to wipe Payton's face, causing him to howl in discomfort.

Chen Dao silently finished his cigarette and glanced at the zombie lying on the ground, its ears gone and its head split in half.

"Poor thing," he thought to himself, then turned to the two of them and said, "Do you see that house?"

Upon hearing this, Dimonia, while still wiping Payton's face, looked towards the light-proof house. Being quick-witted, she immediately realized that there might be something inside.

"You two are lucky to have found a good place where zombies rarely go, free from their disturbances," Chen Dao said.

"But not everyone is as lucky as you. Sealing windows, blocking doors, and living in constant fear is what most survivors have to do."

Chen Dao then pointed to a pile of straw next to the house.

"Don't you find that strange?" he asked, not waiting for the Stuart siblings' response before heading straight towards the house.

"Either, before the zombies appeared, some illicit activities were going on in that house, like drug production," Chen Dao speculated as he walked, "or, there's a living person inside, a survivor like me, with some survival experience."

"But it's probably a survivor who used to be alive. We've been shooting here for so long, and he hasn't shown any sign..."

Chen Dao stopped speaking after that.

Dimonia, realizing what was going on, cleaned Payton's face thoroughly, handed him an alcohol wipe to clean himself further, and without giving Payton time to react, she followed Chen Dao towards the house, which was sealed tight with sheets and curtains, to investigate.

Chen Dao first walked around the house.

Behind the house was a cornfield with lush corn. Chen Dao even saw a few corn plants that hadn't died, with full corn cobs hanging on them.

Dimonia saw it too. Her slightly raised lips seemed eager. She liked corn, especially fresh corn.

Chen Dao walked over to the big pile of straw near the house and poked around, discovering several metal cans, which seemed to be distillers, and a strong smell of alcohol wafted out as Chen Dao stirred the straw.

Illegal homebrew?

Chen Dao frowned, unable to figure out what these alcohol-scented things were for. However, these metal cans were excellent liquid storage containers, and the wood-burning heater could also be useful.

The house was a wooden structure with front and back doors, two south-facing windows, a west-facing window, and a south-facing window in the wing. There were no other windows.

Chen Dao tried to turn the doorknob and push the window, but found that all the doors and windows were locked tightly.

The inside of the house was also very dark, and Chen Dao couldn't see anything clearly when he pressed his face against the glass.

Dimonia, imitating Chen Dao, pressed her ear against the window to listen carefully, but the sounds of the wind, the rustling of leaves, and the noise of breathing made it impossible for them to hear anything.

Seeing Dimonia listening for movement inside, Chen Dao was about to ask her when he saw her shake her head.

No movement, huh?

Well, don't blame me then.

Chen Dao pulled over Payton, who had just walked over, and said, "Smash!"

Payton didn't understand and asked with a dumbfounded expression, "Smash what?"

"What else could it be? Smash the window!" Dimonia said impatiently.

"Oh, okay!" Payton swung his arm and smashed the glass with the long knife in his hand.

The wooden lattice window shattered at the touch, and then Payton, under Chen Dao's guidance, used the back of his knife to crush and clean up the shards of glass.

Chen Dao then lit another cigarette, quietly leaning against the door, waiting for any movement inside.

After a while, there was still no movement inside. Dimonia listened again, but still heard nothing.

Seeing Dimonia, who had been listening at the window for a long time, shake her head at him, Chen Dao understood.

He lifted the curtain to look inside. It was pitch black and the light was poor. He could only see some simple furniture, a sofa, chairs, a round wooden table, and a TV.

It seemed to be a living room.

Chen Dao pulled the curtain down directly, letting the sunlight in, and finally could see the interior clearly.

There were many cardboard boxes inside, very many.

One stacked on top of another, and there were also several super large boxes, even the hallway was full of them.

If Chen Dao remembered correctly, in the early days when survivors didn't have tools, materials, and skills, cardboard boxes were the best household containers.

So if a protected house was found to contain cardboard boxes, it meant that survivors had lived here, and there was a good chance of finding useful things inside.

Chen Dao's mood immediately lifted. This was a survivor's cabin, which meant it was a room rich in resources. He was indeed lucky.

Chen Dao said to the Stuart siblings, "This appears to be a survivor's cabin. I'll go in and open the door first."

He then climbed through the window, quickly walked out of the living room, and opened the front door.

"Come on, let's see what we can find. And remember, don't let your guard down. The owner of the house might be lying somewhere, ready to bite you."

Having said that, he left the two of them to their own devices and continued to pull down all the light-proof curtains on the windows and doors.

The fabric of these curtains was of good quality and might be useful for other purposes.

Chen Dao saw a TV in the living room. There was no TV in the farmhouse. Maybe they could take this one back and see if the Stuarts would also gain skill experience from watching videotapes.

At this thought, Chen Dao suddenly realized, who said the information box must be his own?

In the game, there is a basic setting that allows one to perform medical checks on others and help them heal.

So, at the very least, in the "Health" section, one can see other survivors' information. He had never tried to check other people's health status or perform medical checks on them, even though he had a level 9 advanced medical skill.

Thinking of this, Chen Dao decided that when they returned, he would definitely check on the Stuart siblings and see what was really going on. It was about time he studied the real purpose of the information box.

There was no reason that this complex game information system that came with his transmigration only had some auxiliary measurement purposes.

Chen Dao was determined to give Dimonia and Payton a thorough check-up. The determination didn't matter, it just felt a bit weird, as if he was some kind of creepy uncle.

Just as Chen Dao was immersed in his novel thoughts, the house was in chaos. Payton stumbled out of the house, howling, "Ah, there's a ghost!"

Dimonia, seeing Payton rush out, didn't know what had happened.

So she looked into the room that Payton had just opened.

It was a storage room, with a sleeping bag on the floor.

But after she took a look, she too paled and backed away a few steps, leaning against the kitchen cabinet.

Chen Dao, seeing Payton running out howling, initially thought that the survivor in the house had turned into a zombie. He immediately drew his M9 pistol, prepared to shoot, and walked towards the room.

There was a half-open door there, and Dimonia was leaning against the kitchen cabinet, looking shocked.

"What's wrong?" Chen Dao asked Dimonia, pointing his gun at the door, ready for anything that might come out.

Dimonia hadn't come to her senses until Chen Dao came over and touched her shoulder.

"What's in there? A zombie?"

Dimonia finally reacted, pulled out her notebook, and quickly wrote on it. Chen Dao, waiting for Dimonia to finish writing, stood by her side and looked into the room.

The windows inside were also sealed, and the window in the porch at the entrance should be the one inside.

But the sunlight coming in from the entrance allowed Chen Dao to see something moving inside.

"There's a head inside, and a rope...a person." Dimonia wrote these things on the paper, confusing Chen Dao.

He had to ask, "Is there any danger inside?"

Dimonia thought for a moment and shook her head. It was a bit disgusting and scary inside, but there shouldn't be any danger.

Chen Dao sighed, held his gun, and walked towards the door. After getting close, he kicked the door fully open.

There were indeed heads inside, more than a dozen heads placed on the ground, some still being live zombie heads. Their mouths opened and closed, telling of the cruel and bloody reality of this apocalyptic world.

Next to the heads was a red sleeping bag covered in sticky, unidentified liquid. It was hard to tell whether it was originally red or if it was the dried, dirty blood and rotten residue that made it look red.

The farthest inside were a few wooden boxes, which were clearly the kind of rough, low-quality wooden boxes.

Chen Dao saw a bar stool in front of him, lying horizontally at the entrance.

There were also a pair of feet.

In front of Chen Dao, he could see them if he looked up slightly.

The dark green feet were wearing a pair of work boots, without socks.

They were twitching.

Chen Dao looked up and saw a hideous zombie face, her neck elongated due to gravity, seeming to have affected her central nervous system, causing her feet to not move properly.

Her hair was long, half hanging on her chest, and the other half was caught by the rope used as a noose, making this woman's head look very big.

A woman wearing a long skirt and a leather jacket.

A woman who had hanged herself.

She probably didn't know that besides shooting herself and destroying her brain, the only other way was to drink an overdose of disinfectant and die in pain.

Only these two suicide methods can prevent one from turning into a zombie after death.

The sad thing about this is not suicide, but even suicide can't escape the infection of the zombie virus. In this tragic world, she is half-dead, never free.

Chen Dao raised his gun and pointed it at the woman's face, which was now unrecognizable.

The smell in here was really unbearable. The heads in the corner were lined up, watching all this, occasionally making a "click, click" sound as their jaws moved.

It was as if some terrifying demon was hiding behind these lifeless human eyes, quietly watching his masterpiece.

Leisurely revealing a smile, clapping his hands.

Chen Dao gave this woman a belated release.

He pulled up the curtain with a swoosh, letting the sunlight in, and opened the window, trying to ventilate the room.

There were indeed a lot of resources in this house. Chen Dao also found the woman's notebook, which recorded a survivor's heartbreaking tragic past.

Chen Dao didn't know what to say. He walked out the door and Dimonia was still there in a daze. Payton was outside vomiting uncontrollably. He must have vomited everything in his stomach this time, because he only ate one meal today but vomited twice.

Chen Dao handed the notebook, which carried some people's stories written with their lives, to Dimonia.

"Take it easy, Dimonia, this is the reality we have to face. Abandon illusions and prepare to fight," Chen Dao said, then turned to continue looking at the TV.

He added to Dimonia from afar, "I'll clean up this room, you check what's in the boxes in the kitchen, let Payton... let Payton clean up the straw outside the house..."