Chapter 48

The Time Has Come

At this time, zombies had already begun appearing inside Sunshine Base, though only in isolated pockets, limited to certain households. Specifically, the house where Juan was currently residing—An An’s old home.

After receiving a warning from Chen Shan about the zombie moths, the base leader had restricted the movement of related items and anticipated the threat posed by these moths. In preparation, he had set up numerous electric grids within the base. The grids were tightly spaced, clearly intended to counter the zombie moths. However, resources were limited, and these grids couldn’t cover every area of the base. As a further precaution, everyone had been ordered to avoid turning on lights, candles, or any devices that might emit light.

With their lives on the line, everyone complied with this order. An An’s uncle’s family was no exception.

They secured the protective netting over the windows and turned off all the lights. The family huddled in the master bedroom, where they had stored all their remaining food, bottled water, and flashlights. They planned to stay there, ready to grab their supplies and run if zombies breached the base!

Most families in the base were in similar situations, but An An’s family had one key difference.

For a long time, An An had been the one doing the household chores.

From about age nine, he had taken on responsibilities like cleaning, washing dishes, and laundry, as well as handling household repairs.

For example, fixing the protective net outside the window or replacing light bulbs…

Since he had been gone, An An’s uncle had no idea what in the house needed repairs. When the base leader instructed everyone to inspect and repair their homes, he gave the house a cursory look, thought it looked fine, and didn’t make any repairs.

In reality, though, there was a hole in the protective net outside their window. It was near the bottom, hard to see unless closely inspected—but the hole was fairly large.

An An had known about this hole for a while but hadn’t found suitable materials to fix it. He hadn’t told his uncle’s family because they would have just ordered him to patch it up himself.

This hole remained because An An hadn’t had the chance to repair it. If he were still alive, he would have fixed it soon.

If the hole was a repair he couldn’t complete in time, then the clock on the wall was something An An had deliberately left unrepaired.

Neither his uncle, aunt, nor cousin knew there was something else in the house in need of repair: the clock on the wall.

It was an old treehouse-style clock that had been popular before the apocalypse. About thirty centimeters tall and twenty centimeters wide, it hung on the wall above the TV cabinet, near the balcony.

The clock’s timekeeping function worked fine, and it still looked intact despite showing signs of age. But only An An knew that it was actually broken.

Every night at 1 a.m., a small window on the roof of the treehouse would open, and two tiny birds would pop out. Between the birds, a cake almost the same size as the birds would appear, lighting up.

The clock wasn’t supposed to do that in the middle of the night; it was broken. An An hadn’t told anyone. He had even disabled the birds’ chirping function, leaving only the broken lighting function.

An An had intentionally hidden the clock’s defect because it had been a birthday gift from his parents.

If he reported the defect, his uncle would likely sell the clock and buy a new one for his cousin. Knowing this, An An chose to keep quiet.

The light on the cake had burnt out a few times, and An An had secretly saved up to replace the bulb.

He was the only one who knew.

Every night, when he lay on his thin mat on the balcony, he would see the light at 1 a.m., and in that moment, it felt as though his parents had returned.

That single moment of happiness made him keep the secret.

Since An An had left, the light from the treehouse clock still turned on nightly as scheduled. An An’s uncle’s family was usually asleep by then, and with other households still having lights on at that hour, the glow didn’t stand out.

Until tonight.

With zombies surrounding the base, every house had gone dark, and the entire base lay in pitch black.

At 1 a.m., the little window on the treehouse clock opened, the birds popped out, and the cake between them lit up—

In that instant, the dim glow transformed An An’s house into a beacon!

The swarm of zombie moths hovering like part of the night sky immediately honed in on the light, and in droves, they swarmed toward An An’s house! The electric grids couldn’t stop them; they crashed through, flapping their wings against the protective net on An An’s balcony. Finally, one moth found the hole in the net, then another, and another…

They made their way between the net and the glass window!

And soon after, the dark mass of moths began battering the glass window!

“An Shouyi! Turn off the light on your balcony! Turn off the light on your balcony!”

An An’s uncle’s family, hiding in the master bedroom, hadn’t noticed yet, but the base defense team outside, fending off zombies, had seen this lone light in the base! Locating its source, the defense team leader shouted furiously over the base’s public address system.

“An Shouyi? Me?” An An’s uncle, huddled in the master bedroom, heard the announcement. At first, he couldn’t believe it was directed at him. But the loudspeaker kept repeating the address and his name, leaving him no room for doubt.

“The light… all the lights in our house were definitely turned off! I turned them off myself…” An Shouyi—An An’s uncle—kept mumbling as the announcement grew more insistent. Swallowing nervously, he picked up his flashlight and stood up, his wife and daughter following suit, clutching at his back as they moved toward the door in the darkness, bumping into things along the way.

“This is your fault! Knowing we’d have to turn off the lights, you didn’t even tidy up! With everything lying around, it’s no wonder we keep bumping into things,” he muttered under his breath, scolding his wife.

Knowing she was partly to blame, the woman kept silent. They bumped into a few more things before An Shouyi finally reached the door. Turning the handle cautiously, he opened it and immediately noticed a faint light ahead.

The light was barely brighter than moonlight. Was it moonlight? It had to be.

Whispering to himself, An Shouyi continued forward, moving faster than before by the dim light.

Crossing the short hallway, he entered the living room.

And there, he saw the light coming from the clock on the wall.

Staring at the small cake lamp cradled between two little birds atop the treehouse clock, he was stunned.

In the pitch-black base, this was the only light. The odd brightness made his spine tingle.

“Turn it off, yes, I have to turn off this light,” he muttered to himself, rushing forward. Climbing onto the TV cabinet, he reached for the clock. But it was part of the decoration—how was he supposed to turn it off?

After fumbling with it clumsily for a while, he was at a loss.

“Smash it! Just smash it!” his daughter suggested from behind.

Yes, of course! Just smash it!

He raised his flashlight, intending to strike the cake lamp when suddenly—

What was that? Something dark… had landed on his hand?

He saw the dark shape resting on the back of his hand and instinctively tried to brush it off with his other hand, but then…

He couldn’t see anything! The room was completely dark again; everything was pitch black!

What had happened? He hadn’t turned off the flashlight. Did the lamp just go out?

Feeling around, he reached toward the area where the cake lamp had been, but his fingers only touched something dry, brittle, and powdery.

Pain!

First, a sharp pain in his fingertips, then spreading to his fingers and the back of his hand. The pain kept intensifying, until it was so overwhelming that he couldn’t pinpoint where it hurt most—his entire hand throbbed in agony.

Panicking, he pressed the flashlight switch—

The last thing he saw was his body covered in a swarm of black moths.

It was also the last thing his wife and daughter saw.

Hoping An Shouyi would turn off the light was futile. The base leader, having anticipated this, sent an ability user to seal off the doors and windows of An An’s house, trapping the family and a swarm of zombie moths inside.

However, the moths flocking to An An’s home were only a portion of them. Many others slipped through. Despite the Sunshine Base’s best efforts to seal the perimeter, cracks had appeared within the base, and a new strain of zombie virus had begun to spread in a small area.

While hordes of zombies outside tried desperately to break in, inside the base, the new zombies had begun attacking residents. When Juan and Ped arrived, the base wall had already been breached, and the base leader was leading the last survivors in a desperate stand.

Zombies had overrun the base, and the original safe zone had fallen completely. However, someone noticed an area close to the outer wall, which was not initially designated as a safe zone, where zombies seemed noticeably sparse. Realizing this, the base leader led the remaining survivors to take shelter there. But as zombies continued to multiply within the base, creating new threats with each clash, it seemed this last stand might soon be over. When Juan and Ped’s aircraft flew in, the despairing survivors initially thought it was the reinforcement team the base leader had called for.

Soon, however, someone recognized Juan and Ped. The sight of them brought even greater despair as people assumed their entire team must have been defeated, forcing these two to return. A wave of hopelessness washed over everyone.

But Juan and Ped didn’t share their despair.

Recalling the base leader they had spotted from above, Ped looked at the towering Komira flowers outside the walls. Although some were damaged from the battle, the rest were still standing strong and vibrant!

It seemed these Komira flowers had helped hold that section of the wall, allowing the base leader and others to survive until now.

After a moment of thought, Ped waved his hand, and an even larger wave of Komira flowers bloomed both inside and outside the walls.

Outside the walls, the scene was predictable. Inside, however, Komira flowers appeared suddenly in front of many people.

Several people were on the verge of being devoured by zombies. Just as they were desperately pushing them away, a Komira flower appeared, its large mouth open between them and the zombies. When the zombie and flower clashed… the flower didn’t lose!

People stood frozen for a few seconds, but after escaping death, they scrambled away, stumbling over themselves.

Someone dared to climb up the wall to look over and, upon seeing the vast field of Komira flowers on the other side, finally understood why the zombies had been sparse in that area.

“There’s a huge field of those flowers on the other side too,” the person shouted down from the wall.

Surrounded by Komira flowers, watching the large-mouthed blooms fight the zombies on their behalf, the base leader and the other survivors were momentarily dumbfounded.

After planting as many Komira flowers as he could, ensuring the base leader’s safety for now, Ped lowered his hand and smiled at Juan. “Good people deserve good outcomes, right?”

Without looking at him, Juan kept his gaze fixed on the red-haired man amidst the horde of zombies and gave a slight nod.

The red-haired man, who had been watching the two of them, raised his eyebrows when he saw the Komira flowers, letting out a quiet “Oh.”

After a moment, he turned around, hands in his pockets, and called out to them from a distance—

“Hey! Are you a plant manipulator? Your flowers damaged my zombies.”

He was facing both of them, but his words were directed at Ped, clearly aware that Ped was the one controlling the Komira flowers.

“You’re saying these zombies are yours?” Ped raised an eyebrow at him.

“Of course,” replied the red-haired man, pulling one hand out of his pocket. Pointing at the surrounding zombies with his pale fingers, he said, “These zombies are mine. I put in a lot of effort to create them, and your flowers ruined quite a few. I’ll let it go this time since you didn’t know, but if you interfere with my work again, I won’t forgive it.”

“Work? What exactly are you doing?” Ped continued, eyes shifting thoughtfully.

Staring directly at Ped, the man replied, “My ability is to control the dead.”

“A few days ago, I saw a job online. Someone was paying a fortune to hire people for underwater resource extraction. Heh, I thought, what a perfect fit for my skill. The only problem was that I didn’t have enough zombies.”

“So…” He looked at them both with a smile that was carefree but filled with malice. “So, I decided to create more zombies!”

“I didn’t expect to find so many living people in a place like this—and none of them had the latest vaccine. I did the math, and if I turn everyone in these bases into zombies, I’ll have just enough to finish the job.”

“And now, only this one base is left.”

“Don’t get in the way of my mission!” He lifted his chin slightly toward the two of them, his gaze icy. “Or I’ll turn you into my puppets as well.”