chapter 6

"Malone," Charlotte nodded repeatedly, "What about the old noble family name?"

Charlotte leaned over and said, "So, where are your parents?"

Malone shook his head, and it was not clear whether he didn't know or his parents were not there.

Charlotte felt that she couldn't ask too many questions at once, as it might seem like she was very nosy, and Malone seemed obviously unable to speak, like a little mute. Asking him all these questions might scare him.

But she can't keep Malone at home all the time. She's saving money, and having one more mouth to feed at home will undoubtedly increase her burden. She's not a great benefactor, and she needs to find the boy's parents as soon as possible and send him away.

"Never mind, as long as you're okay, you can rest first and get your body better. Later things can be discussed later." Charlotte, tired all day, slumped down on the bed.

She pulled out a black safe from under the bed, an old-fashioned combination box. She rattled off a combination and took the 260,000 dollars she had retrieved from the Puppy out of her pocket, put it in the safe, and then closed the lid, locking the combination.

Looking up, she found that Malone was staring at her hand movements.

"What are you looking at? It's impolite to look at other people's safes," Charlotte said. "That's grown-ups' things. Don't even think about it. It's not your business."

Malone still stared at the black safe in her hand.

I don't know why, but Charlotte always feels strange. According to the theory, the password disk should be invisible from Malone's perspective, but she just feels that Malone can see it, as if she has the ability to see everything. This boy has a mysterious aura that makes her unpredictable.

She hurriedly pushed the safe under the bed and sat down on the ground.

She looked up at the bed. Her single bed was small and could only sleep one person, but she had laid a carpet under the bed, leaving a large space. She thought about sleeping on the floor. After all, Malone couldn't stay for long anyway. She would have to make do with her own discomfort. Who was Malone anyway?

Thinking about it, she took out cushions and quilts from the cupboard and made a nest. Then she reached down and pulled the pillow off the bed: "It's not good for boyren to sleep with pillows."

To his surprise, Malone bent down from the bed and snatched the pillow back.

"Are you a gentleman?" Charlotte was surprised.

She was not to be outdone, and grabbed it back from Malone again: "How can a boy be so disobedient?"

Malone didn't move. He looked at the pillow and then at Charlotte, but ultimately didn't do anything. He just sat quietly.

Charlotte stared at him with wide eyes, as if warning him to behave himself. Fortunately, Malone didn't make any further moves, and after staring at him for a while until her eyes were tired, Charlotte stood up, took her things, and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

She came in and out to add hot water, and after a long time, she adjusted the water to the right temperature. She took off all her clothes and stepped into the bathtub, finally able to relax in the hot water.

The bathroom is small and steamy.

She suddenly remembered what the Puppy had said to her when she left the bar:

"Sooner or later, you will touch other people's cake..."

She knew this truth, although there was no strong and unified smuggling organization in the south of the mountain, which gave her an opportunity to take advantage of. However, this was not a long-term solution. Although the money from robbery was fast, once the number of times increased, it would eventually cause trouble.

But in this world, it's too difficult for women to earn money. To earn a little more money, she can only go to oligopoly companies, such as the apocalypse company, which is a giant enterprise across various industries. However, this method... is not feasible. In her situation, she can either do low-level jobs or rely on men.

Besides, her beauty is worthless in the chaotic world of the end of the world, and it will only bring her more trouble.

She needs money, she has things she has to do, and she needs a lot of money. Not only that, the money must come as soon as possible, she is afraid that if it is too late, she will be too old and not have the energy to do it.

A box of A15 cans can sell for 300,000 dollars to the receiver, and a box of cigarettes has 120 cans, which can sell for 3.6 million dollars. If everything goes smoothly today, she can at least make 10 million dollars.

Thinking of this, her heart and liver ached. Many cans in the trunk had been smashed by the submachine gun, and no more than sixty cans could be sold. The smashed ones could only be eaten by herself. There were also cigarettes, cigarettes. She had thrown the two boxes of cigarettes on the road to save Malone. Why was she so stupid? Why didn't she pick up the cigarettes and put them in the trunk? It was all money, her seven million and two hundred thousand!

She slapped her thighs excitedly, splashing a large splash of water onto her face. No, she had to go to that satellite town again. The satellite town had been abandoned for a long time, usually only smuggling vehicles would visit there, and the zombies didn't smoke. Maybe her two boxes of cigarettes were still lying on the road, waiting for her to pick them up.

He also took Malone back to where she lived, perhaps her parents were waiting for her there. After all, how could a boy of eleven or twelve survive alone outside the high walls where zombies lurked? There must be someone to protect him, even if it wasn't his parents, it must be a relative.

Anyway, it's impossible to get the answer from him. This little mute can't speak and may have some mental problems. Just take him back directly.

The more Charlotte thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed, especially the hypothesis that the mute was mentally disabled. After all, what normal person would face the dark muzzle of a submachine gun without a trace of fear or even the slightest attempt to move or escape?

Malone's expression was clear to her. It was not Mount Taishan's collapse in front of her eyes, but her inability to recognize and judge danger. In short, it was an intellectual defect.

Just thinking about Malone, who was right outside the bathroom door, in Charlotte's house, in her bed, made Charlotte feel strange.

She has always been used to living alone, and now suddenly having another person in the house, especially in such a small space, she feels a bit... strange.

But anyway, this is a mouth for eating, and it cannot stay for long no matter what!

She thought and thought, but her thoughts eventually vanished, and she was left empty and lost in the misty steam, not knowing where to go.

When she came out, her skin was soaked like a pig that had been rolled through boiling water, and it was red and festive.

She returned to the nest she had built on the ground and took a closer look. She felt that something was missing. When she realized what it was, she looked over at the bed and saw that Malone was holding the gray pillow and leaning against the edge of the bed, looking at something again.

Charlotte was about to get angry, but then she decided to fight back and get the pillow back. However, she then realized that Malone might be a mentally disabled boy, and life might not be very colorful for him. It was already hard enough, so a pillow... let it go.

"Forget it, here you go."

Charlotte didn't care about him and took another soft pillow from the cupboard, put it under her head, and started reading.

Reading is her habit every night, and it seems to be the most enjoyable time of her day. For more than a hundred years, humans have suddenly entered the dark ages from modern society, and the world has undergone earth-shattering changes. The past splendid civilizations have become ruins, technology is lost, art is gone, humanity is corrupted, and life is struggling.

Only the wisdom in the book, the wisdom of more than a hundred years ago, still remains.

This year is the 136th year of the Dark Ages.

In the 136th year, the southern continent of Maixi was hit by a meteorite. The meteorite, which was about 16 meters in diameter, directly fell on the dense rainforest in the northern part of the Maixi Mountains, causing a small-scale forest fire.

After the forest fire was extinguished, scientists conducted research on the meteorite, and they determined that it was an iron meteorite with a symbiotic relationship between iron and nickel. Although such meteorites are not common, they have been recorded many times. All scientists believe that this was just an ordinary meteorite falling.

But the disaster of humanity was brought about by this meteorite.

Three days after the meteorite was brought into the laboratory, everyone who had contact with it mutated. The mutated people became zombies, who were physically dead but still active. They moved quickly and attacked all living things. Those who were bitten by them would inevitably turn into zombies.

The disaster began to ferment in Maixi. Unlike the slow-moving zombies in traditional film and television works, these zombies were very fast and almost actively searched for living people. The police and military were not able to respond in time, and almost all the civilians in the urban area of Maixi turned into zombies. In less than a week, the entire southern continent fell.

This virus quickly spread around the world with the infected meat products exported from the southern continent.

There is no vaccine to prevent this virus, and infected zombies cannot be completely killed. If you shoot a zombie in the head, it can still bite you with a half-cracked skull. Unless you use a nuclear bomb to completely destroy them, there is no way to completely eliminate them.

This year is the first year of the Dark Era.

Although human civilization is falling apart every day and darkness is constantly devouring human hope, people have also found a balance in this struggle. They have built walls and fortresses to defend the last vestiges of human civilization. The largest fortress in the world is the capital of the empire, the city of Malone, the great capital with the same name as Malone.

Now, Moon City, where Charlotte is located, is also one of these many fortresses.

All people who lived before the 129th year of the Dark Era would think that they could only stay in the narrow fortress within the high walls for the rest of their lives, and that the endless hordes of zombies outside the walls would never allow them to see the true green water and blue sky.

But everything was different in the 129th year of the Dark Era.

This year, a lieutenant general in the city of Malone discovered that bullets added with mercury, or quicksilver, could completely eradicate zombies, breaking the human's dilemma of being unable to eliminate zombies except for nuclear bombs. Humanity saw hope for victory and began to actively step out of the walls and destroy zombies on a large scale.

Seven years have passed now, and the discovery of mercury bullets has made every day a better day. Now that there is a way to completely kill the zombies, there will always be a day when they are eliminated. Human productivity has begun to recover, social structures have gradually become normal, and the government has resumed public power, actively organizing military operations to eliminate the zombies and open up new safe areas for humans.

At the same time, the economy is also recovering, and the imbalance between information and material resources has led to the emergence of many large and even giant enterprises, which are in a monopolistic position. On the eve of the extinction of darkness, they are actively competing for the market and empire after dawn.

Tianqi is such a super enterprise that holds a monopoly leading position in heavy industry, medical and technological, and food industries.

But in any case, everything is developing in a good direction, and the dawn will surely come soon.