The Beginning of Enslavement
Though he was standing far away, Xiao Yi's superhuman hearing still caught every word of the three women's conversation. When he heard Tang Ning Ning's solemn vow, he couldn't help but feel a vein throbbing on his forehead.
The bizarre transformations in Li Wan Ning and Shen Ting Ting left him stunned as well.
Shen Ting Ting might have been half-joking, but Li Wan Ning... she had been utterly and completely enslaved.
She even viewed serving and pleasing him as a point of pride—as if it came straight from the heart.
This shift gave Xiao Yi a deeper insight into the frailty of human nature.
Maybe everyone harbors a hidden urge to submit, deep down.
Xiao Yi tuned out their chatter and emptied the zombie corpses from his Space Bag.
He hadn't bothered collecting many this time—only the ones worth the effort. He'd left the weakest ones behind.
Even so, the ground was soon carpeted in a dense layer of rotting bodies.
Too many corpses. He'd need to build a few more Tombs!
"System! Pull up my stats!"
Skills: None
Items:Sin Blade (Junior), Space Bag (Junior)
End Coins:469
His Spirit had ticked up by one point, but the rest remained unchanged.
My hunch was right. 80 is the cap for attributes from ordinary zombies.
Xiao Yi glanced at his End Coins. After all this time scavenging, he'd amassed 469.
A single Tomb only cost 20 End Coins—more than enough to spare. He figured he'd build several at once. The empty plots in the City of Sin were just sitting there unused. They might not boost attributes, but they'd generate more End Coins. Upgrading the city later would demand a fortune, no doubt.
Better to prepare now than scramble later.
"System, can I build more Tombs?"
Yes! Building a Tomb requires: City space: 5 square meters; End Coins: 20; Time: 3 hours.
Proceed with construction?
"Build now!"
He repeated the process a few more times, constructing three additional Tombs in quick succession.
Five Tombs—that was the max for a Junior City of Sin.
These were all low-level zombies anyway. Upgrading the existing Tombs wouldn't yield much for them, so he'd held off on that.
With everything done, exhaustion hit Xiao Yi hard. Protecting Tang Ning Ning on the way back had cost him—a zombie had chomped his arm. Time to crash in the lounge and recover.
Once recharged, next stop: the sports hall. Time to hunt some stronger mutant zombies!
He slipped into the lounge and collapsed onto the cozy bed Li Wan Ning and Shen Ting Ting had so thoughtfully prepared. Sleep claimed him swiftly.
The sun dipped below the horizon. As time passed, the wound on his body knit itself shut, fresh skin blooming over the bite mark until not a scar remained.
…
Up on the sports hall rooftop, four tall guys in basketball jerseys and three girls in yoga pants or dance skirts lounged in a loose circle, debating their next move.
"You all saw it yesterday! That loser with the knife charging in and out of the plaza—zombies didn't stand a chance against him!" The handsomest of the guys shot to his feet, brimming with cocky excitement. "If a short, dumb shit like that can slaughter zombies easy, we beefcakes have nothing to worry about! Stick together, and we'll bust out no problem!"
His name was Shen Jia Bin—president of the basketball club and captain of the school team.
Top grades, killer hoops skills—he was the best in the school at both.
Every game in the gym drew crowds of screaming girls. Half the female population crushed on him hard, dreaming of him as their prince.
A posse of lackeys had naturally formed around him.
Everyone at school knew the basketball star.
Sports majors all called him "Big Bro."
If Xiao Yi had been there, he'd have recognized Shen Jia Bin in a heartbeat.
The guy had left a lasting impression.
Before the apocalypse, Xiao Yi loved hoops too. He'd dreamed of dominating the court like Shen Jia Bin. But at just five-foot-seven, when he'd tried out... not only did he fail, Shen Jia Bin had mocked him outright: "Level-10 cripple!"