Chapter 40

Wind Magic

The mutation started from within the Garden Base.

The patient that Dr. He treated “recovered” and returned home. He even lived a normal life for three days afterward. During that time, he appeared a bit dazed, but his family didn’t think much of it. After all, he had suffered severe injuries, and the hospital had advised him to rest. Besides, he was still eating.

Zombies do not eat human food—this has been a fundamental understanding of people who have dealt with zombies for decades.

However, this man not only ate but consumed a lot. He finished every meal his wife brought him and even wanted more as time went on.

On the third day, in the early hours of the morning, the man’s wife woke up from her sleep.

It smelled terrible.

The unbearable stench came from beside her, and it was her husband. At first, she thought it was just because he hadn’t showered for days, but the rancid smell… reminded her of a trash can that hadn’t been emptied for days.

Unable to endure it any longer, she turned over and met the man’s eyes wide open in the moonlight, his mouth agape, drooling. Then… the stench came from his mouth.

She was about to say something when… there was no more time. The man suddenly opened his mouth wide and bit down on his wife’s neck—

Then, the man left, and his wife stood up, slowly walking toward the kitchen. She opened the fridge and grabbed a piece of bread to eat.

“Alan, why are you up in the middle of the night eating? Our family is relatively well-off, but you can’t just eat recklessly…” It was her mother-in-law, who got up to check after hearing noises in the kitchen.

However, the woman ignored her, still half-leaning into the fridge and devouring the food. Behind the elderly woman, her son, as if seeing food again, was drooling blood, hands on her shoulders, biting down hard on the old woman’s neck!

The same thing happened to dozens of patients who were hospitalized at the time. Some had families, while others were single, but living in a densely populated base converted from a community before the apocalypse, it didn’t take long for things to spiral out of control. By the time people woke up the next day, the outside world had already changed dramatically.

The first group of hospitalized patients mutated a bit slower, but those bitten by them transformed much faster. Their craving for food seemed to be the last remnant of their human instincts, and soon they began to develop a thirst for blood!

Similar events also occurred in the nearby Happiness Base and West Mountain Base. The doctors at the bases mutated, along with a few silkworm farmers who had purchased silkworm eggs from the Garden Base.

Unlike Dr. He, who quickly left after noticing the anomaly, the other two doctors who took on tasks stayed at the Garden Base a bit longer, as treating more people would yield higher rewards.

Did they really not notice anything strange? Not exactly.

Since they were directly in contact with the injured, they could sense something was off, even if they didn’t have the alertness of Dr. He. They noticed that the injured were not mutating as quickly as before, and their sense of luck took precedence. However, neither of them spent the night at the Garden Base; they completed their treatments and left as soon as they received their rewards.

Then, they were stuck on whether to report the incident.

The doctors at the Happiness Base decided not to report it. Their base chief was a newcomer who had just taken office and was busy establishing rules. Reporting this could make him a scapegoat, risking immediate isolation; if nothing was wrong, that would be fine, but if something was, those in the isolation area of their base would almost certainly perish! It wasn’t like the Sunshine Base, which had secured its isolation area.

So, he chose to leave immediately—not by himself, but by hiring the strongest ability users in the base under the guise of receiving a mission.

Since they were leaving under the pretense of a mission, he stocked up on food and energy supplies before departing. If he hadn’t been afraid of attracting too much attention by buying too much, he would have emptied his savings. Then, as he thought about this, he couldn’t help but lament: why didn’t their base use a universal points system like the Sunshine Base?

However, he didn’t dare to go to the Sunshine Base to exchange points; he hurriedly took his people and supplies and left.

In fact, they left much earlier than the large convoy from the Sunshine Base.

But this didn’t mean the Happiness Base was safe.

Even though only one doctor had gone to the Happiness Base a few days ago, a delivery truck from the Garden Base had visited their base just the day before. They collected the specialty products of their base to exchange with another base; this was the default method of material exchange between several bases.

During this delivery, a batch of silkworm eggs had come from the Garden Base.

Normally, other bases couldn’t easily obtain silkworm eggs from the Garden Base, as fabric and clothing were their base’s competitive industries, and they tightly controlled access to them. They had no intention of sharing. However, hadn’t they just received a large order? Thinking they could establish connections with larger bases and gain more orders, they planned to develop supply lines with a few surrounding bases.

As a result, many people in the Happiness Base immediately bought silkworm eggs—not all from one person but a few each.

They weren’t tiny black dots but small, slender young silkworms.

Due to their limited quantity and value, nearly everyone who purchased silkworm eggs carefully counted their numbers. By evening, they noticed some of the silkworms were missing.

Some were short one or two, while others were missing five or six.

After searching high and low and finding no trace of the silkworms, those people could only consider themselves unlucky.

Then, in places they couldn’t see, within their bodies, mutations began to occur.

In the middle of the night, the tiny silkworms, taking advantage of people’s inattention, began to crawl deeper into their bodies through their ear canals and even their mouths.

With their small, almost invisible mouths, they bit tiny holes into people’s bodies, one bite after another, burrowing deeper and deeper.

They would keep biting until they could no longer eat, lying quietly in some part of the human internal organs, without spinning a cocoon; the human organs were the natural warm cocoons.

They would sleep like this until they broke free from their cocoons—

At the moment they opened an orifice somewhere in the human body, transforming into moths that flew out of the human body, the metamorphosis would be complete.

But these were no ordinary moths; they were zombie moths, or perhaps they had been zombies even when they were still in the silkworm state?

No one knew because no one would have the time to study this problem anymore.

As for the doctor at West Mountain Base…

After struggling for half the night, he ultimately chose to report the abnormalities he sensed to the higher-ups of the base. Then, right in front of the base leaders, a moth suddenly flew out from the top of his head.

It wasn’t from behind his head but from the top of his head.

Bursting through his skull, accompanied by a stream of blood, a bloodied moth flew out.

Then, right in front of the base leaders, the doctor from West Mountain Base turned into a zombie!

He had stayed at the Garden Base for too long. Even though he hadn’t chosen to spend the night there, he was still crawled upon by those tiny zombie silkworms. He didn’t even know when they entered his body; it could have been at the Garden Base, on the way back here, or perhaps from the neighbor who bought silkworm eggs from the Garden Base.

In any case, the mutation at West Mountain Base erupted even earlier than at the Garden Base, and when it did, it resulted in the annihilation of the entire leadership—something that no one knew.

Unaware of all this, Sunshine Base continued to maintain strict protocols.

Here, there were no indecisive doctors, only those who immediately returned to report any abnormalities; furthermore, long before Chen Shan discovered the first zombie moth on the road, he immediately reported it to the base leader upon returning to the base. The base leader indeed took the matter seriously and turned this seriousness into orders.

They listed silkworm eggs, moths, and even butterflies as prohibited items, forbidding anyone traveling to or from the base from bringing these species inside.

As a result, among the nearby bases, only Sunshine Base remained safe; the others had all fallen into the realm of the undead!

However, this safety likely wouldn’t last long, as zombies from the other bases had slowly begun to emerge from the cities.

Coming from three directions, they silently gathered into a large army, pressing heavily toward the only nearby place that still had living people—

Not that there weren’t any living people at all.

Every base always had some lucky survivors, mainly those with suitable abilities who raced ahead of the zombie horde, driving their vehicles quickly away.

Having living people was not surprising; however, a living person among the zombies was rather peculiar.

Amidst a group of individuals who were clearly zombies, a person with an indistinct face smiled as he moved forward.

The reason he was hard to recognize was that he wore an oversized hoodie with a hood that covered most of his face, and it was long enough to nearly cover half of his thigh.

The hood couldn’t conceal the smile at the corners of his mouth; he moved along with the zombies, looking as if he were strolling leisurely.

Above him, above the zombie army, there was a swarm of zombie moths, resembling a dark cloud, heading toward Sunshine Base.

Meanwhile, a bit farther away, closer than the fleeing doctor from the Happiness Base, Juan and Pedro were driving.

Currently, Juan was at the wheel while Pedro sat beside him, guiding him. Although both were learning to drive at the same time, Pedro picked it up exceptionally quickly, to the point where he could instruct Juan.

This left their original “teacher” sitting beside them without anything to do.

Chen Shan rested his chin on his hand, watching the two. He saw one teaching happily while the other learned diligently, feeling that he had completely lost his purpose.

While thinking this, he couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly Pedro was learning to drive.

“You really learn fast! You were almost driving well right from the start. Did you learn before?” he casually chatted with him.

Without shifting his gaze from Juan, Pedro replied nonchalantly, “I can drive flying vehicles.”

“Really? I heard that only large bases and wealthy individuals use flying vehicles nowadays. Were you a young master from a big base?” Chen Shan didn’t believe it at all and curled his lip.

“That’s not it; I just saw it often and figured it out,” Pedro said. Being taken on missions occasionally, he always traveled by flying vehicle and felt he could do it.

In reality, he had once hijacked a flying vehicle—not to escape, but just to annoy them.

Although that time he flew it dangerously, it was intentional, so he felt he still could pilot flying vehicles.

This was something he wouldn’t share with Chen Shan.

Thus, Chen Shan, who only knew half the truth, said, “Then I can say I can drive flying vehicles too; I have a picture of one on my phone.”

Ignoring him, Pedro continued to guide Juan as he navigated a dip ahead. Once Juan smoothly passed it, Pedro praised him enthusiastically, causing Chen Shan to feel like he didn’t want to stay there any longer.

That’s what he thought, and that’s what he did. In an instant, he disappeared from the driver’s seat. But soon he flashed back, this time holding two bowls.

“The doctor in the back just made some oil tea noodles. He said this is great for eating on the road, as it can adjust the taste and fill you up. One bowl per person; everyone gets a share.”

After finishing that sentence, as he was about to say another, Pedro and he spoke in unison: “What a good person.”

Surprisingly, Juan didn’t say anything, but after they finished speaking, he responded with a soft “Hmm,” clearly in agreement with their statement.

After all, on the road of escape, no one knew what lay ahead. Given the limited food supplies, the fact that the doctor was willing to share his food with everyone could only be described as “good person.”

However, because of the doctor’s generosity, the others felt too shy to hoard their own supplies, contributing something from their provisions at every meal. As for Pedro, he was inherently generous, bringing out more supplies than the doctor!

This way, the atmosphere in their vehicle was quite pleasant, unlike the front convoy, where at least three groups had quarreled over food issues, as evidenced by the convoy having stopped three times, each time with someone getting out to switch vehicles.

Their convoy now had an additional elderly person, making a total of fifteen.

But the old man wasn’t alone; he brought a flock of chickens—yes, chickens—seven in total. If they were in a base, everyone would probably drool with envy at the sight, but in the vehicle…

“They say my chickens stink and won’t let me stay in the vehicle. Can you let me on board?” he asked one vehicle after another, his face stubborn. Finally, when he got to Chen Shan’s vehicle, everyone on board agreed to let him in.

Afterward, it turned out the old man was quite generous; he even shared the eggs laid by the chickens with them!

Freshly laid eggs, just a bit of sugar dissolved in hot water, tasted delicious!

As for the oil tea noodles Chen Shan brought over, Juan naturally wouldn’t eat any, so Pedro had his usual two bowls.

Speaking of which, the two were driving to avoid eating with everyone, since Juan wasn’t eating. Normally, it wouldn’t be noticeable if they didn’t spend every day together, but now that they were always together, it became easier to expose.

So now, they ate their meals in the front cabin every day.

Having two meals daily, Pedro’s complexion improved noticeably.

Driving, sleeping, and eating every day, although it was a journey of escape, somehow for him, it felt more like the carefree spirit of youth, oblivious to troubles.

In fact, it was true.

Pedro was in a great mood; ever since leaving that base and discovering Juan was alive, he had remained upbeat.

Now he was out in the world! Even in the apocalypse, as long as he was with Juan, it was a joyful journey.

Not to mention, they even read magic books together every day!

Pedro had started learning to read the magic book by himself, stumbling through the sentences and asking Juan whenever he was unsure.

He was gradually able to read more and more on his own.

As he read, a gust of wind appeared in the cabin.

If it had been spring, such a breeze would have felt pleasant; unfortunately, it was winter, and with their travel, it was becoming increasingly cold, making the wind feel like a biting chill.

“Why is it suddenly so cold?” Chen Shan’s loud voice echoed from the back cabin.

Pedro exchanged glances with Juan, then extended a finger, letting the wind swirl around it before blowing out of the window.

He then began reading the next sentence, recalling from experience that the subsequent text usually consisted of the author’s remarks and notes.

The author of this book really enjoyed chatting with people—

Not excessively talkative, but not overly reserved either—by the current Pedro.

He couldn’t help but think this and even wrote it on a certain page.

“…Congratulations, you’ve learned another spell, a new one. How do you like it? The new spell is a wind spell, which can help you alleviate restlessness on your journey and assist you in your travels.” Stumbling through the author’s comments, Pedro scoffed, “Restlessness? It’s obviously freezing! And why is it about the journey again? Has this Pedro always been on a journey?”

“Hmm,” Juan, who was focused on driving, responded, “He’s a wizard who has traveled many places.”

“Having traveled to many places, he’s seen many people and many kinds of magic.”

“So the magic book you hold is a particularly good one.”

Juan said several things and eventually steered the conversation back to the magic book.

“Don’t worry; I’ll study hard,” Pedro assured, fully understanding what Juan meant.

“However, starting to learn a new spell suddenly means I’ve finally completed the plant section, right?” Pedro raised an eyebrow.

He called it the plant section because the previous spells had been teaching various plant magics.

“But we previously studied ‘Everything Will Be Fine’…,” he furrowed his brow.

Still looking ahead, Juan spoke, “It’s said that a powerful magic book works like this, flipping pages based on the learner’s needs.”

“For you, plant magic is the most necessary, so the first page you flipped to was plant magic. But if it were a different learner, the magic book would determine their greatest need, and they’d flip to the first page of water magic.”

“Is it really that intelligent?” Pedro asked in surprise.

Thinking for a moment, Juan replied, “It shouldn’t be called intelligent; it’s more like divination.”

“A powerful wizard would certainly learn impressive divination techniques; he has already foreseen everything.”

“Divination… does that guy Xiao Lu know how to do that?” Remembering how Xiao Lu had done a divination for them just as they were about to leave, Pedro said.

“Hmm, in the future, you’ll definitely learn divination techniques that are even more complete and powerful than Xiao Lu’s inheritance,” Juan told him.

“Well, I’m looking forward to it even more,” Pedro nodded, then raised an eyebrow again. “So, does the divination indicate that I’ll be using wind magic next?”