Chapter 199: How to Become Stronger
Chapter 199: How to Become Stronger
Anran rummages through the warehouse and finds the smallest size of men's casual black pants for Little Mint, along with a small-sized pullover and harem pants for herself.
She hopes to find women's clothing, but this is a men's clothing store—there isn’t much she can do about it.
After changing, she takes apart several men’s cotton jackets, piling them together to create a soft nest for Doll, making sure she will sleep more comfortably. She also spreads a thick layer of clothes across the counter floor, turning it into a makeshift bed. Pulling Little Mint down beside her, she lies on the soft pile of clothes, preparing to get some rest.
Little Mint quickly shuts his eyes—it’s unclear whether he is truly asleep or just pretending.
Anran, on the other hand, only drifts into a light sleep. Doll, in the small nest beside her, wakes up every so often—sometimes needing a diaper change, sometimes hungry, and other times just opening her eyes to take in the world.
To ensure she can care for her at any moment, Anran stays in a half-awake state. At the same time, she grips a handful of crystal cores in each hand, steadily absorbing energy and releasing her powers even in her sleep.
She doesn’t get to rest for long. Doll’s diaper is already full and needs to be changed, and although Doll has only been eating lightly for the past two days, she could have a bowel movement at any moment. Once that happens, the diaper will be completely unusable.
So Anran barely gets any real rest. After only a symbolic nap, she gets up and resumes working, continuing to repair and reinforce her flower wall.
She has lost track of time—whether it is day or night no longer matters.
When Little Mint wakes up, she immediately resumes her tasks. She picks up crystal cores, uses the makeshift clothing fork to hook onto the tattered garments of skeletal zombies, and searches their pockets for food.
As Anran continues using her abilities, she makes an unexpected discovery—the range of her flower field has expanded. Instead of just two square meters, she can now control about three.
Is it possible that as long as she keeps using her abilities, the range of her flower field will continue to grow?
For the first time, she feels a glimmer of hope—an idea of how to strengthen her powers.
By now, there are only a few zombies left inside the clothing store. Wasting no time, Anran builds up the flower wall from the counter and starts sealing the store’s entrance.
As she stacks flower walls at the clothing store’s doorway, no more zombies can slip inside. Most get blocked the moment they reach the entrance.
From her observations, zombies have a particular pattern of movement. If they lock onto a target, they follow the obstacles in front of them, instinctively trying to find a way around. If they can’t bypass an obstacle, they resort to brute force, throwing themselves against it in an attempt to climb over.
So, Anran builds a flower wall right at the entrance of the store. As zombies walk along it, trying to find a way around, they inevitably fall prey to her lilies.
With this setup, she can kill zombies easily—absorbing crystal cores on the spot, replenishing her energy instantly, and then releasing her powers again.
However, she soon realizes a frustrating truth: no matter how many zombies she kills, the number of zombies in the mall’s first-floor lobby does not seem to decrease.
The more she kills, the more zombies surge in from Mall Entrance No. 1 and the supermarket's underground escalator.
Her ability, at most, can only maintain control over a three-square-meter flower field at the store’s entrance. Inside the store, the lilies have already reverted to being ordinary flowers.
The entire floor is covered in lilies, chaotic flower walls stand throughout the store, and the thick floral fragrance fills the air. Meanwhile, an overwhelming sea of zombies floods the first-floor lobby outside.
The more Anran looks at the situation, the more helpless and anxious she feels.