Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

"elder brother."

A trembling voice rang out from the side. The zombie that was gnawing on the rotting flesh suddenly went berserk and jumped up. The muscles in his two remaining legs were straining, and thick blood was accumulating between his teeth.

With another "bang," the hand pierced through the zombie's head, digging out the entire gray crystal core hidden inside its brain.

Before the zombie could react, the person wearing white gloves moved swiftly and without splashing water, and after obtaining the crystal core, kicked the zombie aside.

The rotting corpse made a loud noise when it hit the ground, startling the four golden crows that were watching nearby.

The newcomer seemed oblivious. He walked to the corpses of the other two zombies, pried open their heads with his fingers, and dug out the gray crystal cores hidden inside.

He had four dark crystal cores in his hand, which he tossed with one hand to the child behind him.

The child's neck was half-split, and his stomach was hollowed out; he was simply wrapped in his shirt to support his dislodged spleen and stomach.

His eye sockets were completely black, devoid of any light, and the edges were cracked, covered with fine black lines. The crystal cores thrown from the air were too heavy for him to catch in his palm; they all passed through the air and landed on the sand below.

The child staggered forward, picked up the crystal cores, and crushed three of them in one go, absorbing all the energy inside.

"Brother, here you go." He hesitated when it came to the last crystal core. He pulled up his overalls, which were half down, and limped as he presented the crystal core in the center of his palm to the man who had come before him.

"I don't need it, you can eat." The man picked him up, hugged the child's body, and said with lowered eyes, "Eat more, so you can grow up faster."

The child wrapped his arms around his neck, and he looked down at his stomach, then lowered his head and crushed the only remaining crystal core in his hand.

The energy contained within the crystal core floated upwards in the air and eventually merged into the child's body. The child closed his eyes, and after a moment, he mechanically turned his head, his eyes fixed on the dark stairwell in the dilapidated building.

"Brother, meat."

He pointed to the third floor of the dilapidated building.

The man didn't say anything more. He hugged the child and turned his gaze towards him.

A light flashed in the third-floor room, like a fleeing prey disappearing in an instant within the decaying and long-abandoned space of the building, swallowed up by darkness.

"I want to eat meat."

*

On his way back, Shen Yi also ransacked the empty rooms on the second floor.

As he expected, there was nothing left in the empty room on the second floor. Compared to the third floor, there was almost no food on the second floor, but fortunately some utensils were still usable. Shen Yisui even found a flashlight in the bedside table of one of the rooms on the second floor.

The flashlight still had a few bars of power left. He figured he could at least see some light, so he put the flashlight in his pocket.

The presence or absence of light didn't make much difference to him, but it did for Cheng Jingyi. Cheng Jingyi lived in a high-end villa in the zombie stronghold, with all the lights on, and he needed light to assist and support his movements.

Shen Yi picked up the flashlight and then returned to the room where they had lived before.

The door to the room was already rusted and broken, and Shen Yisui had no intention of closing it again. He simply tied bells to both sides with ropes to make a basic alarm clock.

Cheng Jingyi and Shen Yisui's wrists were tied together. He was forced to walk back and forth with Shen Yisui several times. When they returned, he made a sound and asked to have the garbage bag on his head untied.

"Don't worry, I'll untie it for you right away." Shen Yisui tidied everything up before going into the inner room. He fumbled to take the trash bag off Cheng Jingyi's head, and then untied the one on his own head.

Despite having several holes poked in it, the garbage bag over one's head still made one feel stuffy and suffocated. Shen Yisui threw the garbage bags over their heads aside, frowned, and pinched the corner of his eye.

"Eat." Cheng Jingyi placed the full garbage bags they had just bought on the table, untied the knots, and looked at Shen Yisui. "Quickly divide them."

Shen Yisui: "..."

"Are you in such a hurry to break up with me?" Shen Yisui, who was leaning wearily against the back of the sofa, sat up straight upon hearing this.

"What's yours is yours, and what's mine is mine." Cheng Jingyi and Shen Yisui separated, and he sat cross-legged on the floor, tearing at the trash bag with his hands, making a rustling sound. "I won't take advantage of you."

Shen Yisui scoffed and said, "Then I thank you."

Cheng Jingyi didn't say anything. He untied the trash bag and pushed it to the center of the table, then tugged at Shen Yisui's sleeve: "Hurry up and divide it, I want to eat."

Shen Yi pulled his sleeves back. He didn't waste any more words with Cheng Jingyi. He dumped everything from the trash bag onto the table and then counted the contents in front of Cheng Jingyi.

"There are four packs of instant noodles in total. You take two and I'll take two. Here you go," Shen Yi said, pushing the two packs of instant noodles in front of Cheng Jingyi.

The flashlight shone on the table, revealing the appearance of all the food on it to Cheng Jingyi.

Cheng Jingyi picked up the two buckets of instant noodles in front of him. He glanced at his own and then out of the corner of his eye looked at the ones in front of Shen Yisui.

All four packs of instant noodles tasted the same, with nothing special about them. Cheng Jingyi stared at them for a few seconds, then silently and quickly stuffed them into the garbage bag she used to cover her head.

"These are compressed biscuits. I counted them, there were seven bags in total. We'll split them in half now, and the remaining bag will be considered ours, is that alright?"

As Shen Yisui spoke, he took out all the compressed biscuits from the table. He groped around on the table for a long time, but in the end, he could only find six bags.

Cheng Jingyi: "..."

Shen Yisui couldn't find the remaining bag and suspected it had fallen on the floor. He crouched down and searched around the sofa for a while, but couldn't find it.

"Cheng Jingyi, check if it's with you. I don't have it here." Shen Yisui frowned as he sat down, somewhat suspicious. He continued, "Did it fall with you?"

Cheng Jingyi remained silent. Seeing that Shen Yisui was determined to keep the seven bags of compressed biscuits, he took out the box of compressed biscuits from his pocket under the pretext of searching.

"It fell." Cheng Jingyi put the biscuit on the table, tapped it with his fingertip, and said, "It's on my side."

Shen Yi casually touched the bag of compressed biscuits, his tone somewhat ambiguous: "I didn't hear anything fall just now."

Cheng Jingyi rested her chin on her hand and looked at him. The corners of his lips curled up, but his eyes were dark and devoid of any smile: "I don't know."

Shen Yisui was suspicious for a moment. He recalculated the items on the table and didn't put down the box of compressed biscuits that had disappeared and then suddenly reappeared.

"I've counted the sausages too, let's still split them in half."