Dark Civilization Volume 1 Chapter 4

Book 1 Chapter 4: Mutagenic Flesh

A glare no matter how vicious could not kill anyone, therefore Ye Chen ignored it, he indifferently approached her body, after confirming her death, he crouched down and used the knife to slice open her torso.

The girl's skin was pasty, with a slight tinge of green, upon cutting open the skin, blood gushed out from the incision like flowing water, darkly glistening like ink, followed by a rancid metallic stench. A normal person would have been deterred by that rancorous glare, not daring to even approach the corpse much less come into contact with it, however, Ye Chen has long since gotten used to this and is no longer mindful of such things.

"Hmm?"

Ye Chen's eyes immediately lit up, "It's mutagenic fles.h.!.+"

There upon, within the girl's chest cavity, right beside her pitch black heart, was a white piece of tender flesh the size of a fingertip, appearing similar to a lump of lamb fat, completely unblemished by the surrounding black blood.

With a plastic bag covering his hand, Ye Chen carefully harvested the white piece of flesh, after which, he gave it a whiff, it didn't give off any unpleasant odours, instead it had a distinct and delicate fragrance.

"I never thought that after taking down two adult zombies without any sign of mutagenic flesh, would I find some on this little zombie." Shaking his head with a smile, Ye Chen headed to the bathroom and gave the white piece of flesh a rinse, after which he popped it into his mouth and chewed carefully.

Mutagenic fles.h.!.+

Containing miraculous effects, consuming it strengthened one's body and health, it could occasionally be found within the bodies of zombies.

The reason human turned into zombies, was because their bodies couldn't handle the rapid changes brought by the viral infection, causing their DNA strands to collapse and their skin to fester, it was akin to pus.h.i.+ng a bicycle to perform as well as an automobile, with its inherent st.u.r.diness lacking, doing so only proved harmful to itself.

What then was the forte of humans?

It was undoubtedly their intellect!

Stripped from their intellect and technologically advanced weaponry, humans were considered weak in the eyes of the many wild beasts of nature. Losing against the bold ferocity of a lion, the speed of a cheetah, the flight capabilities of a falcon, the tenacious vitality of a c.o.c.kroach….

The intention behind why scientist researched such a virus, was to use it in order to stimulate human cells into evolving further, surpa.s.sing the innate strengths of wild beasts, tragically, while the virus was still in development, an explosion occurred causing this chain of unprecedented disasters….

The majority of humankind was infected, and under the violent influence of the virus, they were transformed into zombies. However a portion of these zombies had what the team of scientists who developed the virus coveted, "mutagenic flesh"!

According to their deductions, the perfected virus would transform a human's fleshly body into something similar to mutagenic flesh, vastly improving their vitality as well as giving them ridiculous levels of bodily strength, giving birth to the 'new' human race!

Yet today….

To Ye Chen, mutagenic flesh was something that bolstered his physical prowess!

The tender white flesh gave off a faint aroma as he chewed it, after which, Ye Chen rested for an interval, giving time to digest the mutagenic flesh, gradually allowing it to affect his body.

Ye Chen gripped his hand into a fist, he could vaguely feel that his current strength has improved by around a quarter. This piece of mutagenic flesh was simply too small, if it were the size of a fist, it would have raised his strength by more than a hundred pounds.

Ye Chen circled around the room once more confirming that there were no other zombies, other than that, he found three boxes of canned vegetables, he also found some frozen fish in the fridge which has already decayed due to contamination of the virus. Upon the decayed fish were numerous maggots, having been baptized by the virus, they would eventually start mutating.

Ye Chen then opened a can of vegetables, upon inspection; they appear to be in pristine condition, unaffected by the virus, he then placed the three boxes on the counter, ready for him to retrieve when he was done hunting zombies.

Clenching the watermelon knife, Ye Chen took a deep breath before opening the door and once again ventured out.

The corridor remained vacant, exuding an eerie silence. Ye Chen carefully approached the next room, it was locked, he did not attempt to force it open, if there were any zombies within, it would be wise to let them be, as they were incapable of opening doors, what awaited them was only death by starvation….

The following rooms were also locked; this came as no surprise, after all, the apocalypse struck at 7:00 in the evening, most people would already be in their rooms, and n.o.body would intentionally leave their rooms unlocked when staying at a hotel.

Ye Chen scouted out the entire floor making sure that there were no stray zombies roaming about before heading to the elevator, preparing to venture to the other floors.

"Thirteenth floor!" the number displayed the current location of the elevator, with a press of a b.u.t.ton, Ye Chen summoned for the elevator to ascend. He waited in silence as he observed the rising numbers, for some reason, a gripping sense of unease started to take hold of him….

"Fourteenth!"

"Fifteenth!"

Along with the rising elevator, Ye Chen's sense of unease too, began to worsen. Unable to withstand it further, Ye Chen dashed towards the stairs nearby without waiting for the elevator to arrive. He hid behind the firefighting cabinet, within seconds, the elevator doors began to open, peering from the dead silent stairway; it seemed to have an air of eeriness.

Before Ye Chen could breathe as sigh of relief, from within the elevator, came a few staggering figures….

Ye Chen could feel his eyelid twitch; he hurriedly covered his breathing, seemingly on the verge of stopping his own heartbeat, not making even the slightest of sounds. The staggering figures appear to consist of two men and a woman, dressed in casual clothes. A solid estimation suggests that these people were here for a vacation, when the apocalypse struck, they were still within the elevator, all three of them transformed into zombies.

The woman zombie was wearing a white t-s.h.i.+rt, upon it were cute teddy bear motifs, yet it was smeared thoroughly in blood, perhaps one of their friends or family managed to resist the virus's effects, yet was tragically torn apart by the three….

The woman's hair was in disarray and her nails ghastly, though her skin did not fester; her eyes were milky green, with teeth protruding into grisly fangs and dried blood caking her lips, altogether, her originally delicate countenance has been morphed into something hideous and sinister.

As for the other two men, their current states were more or less similar to the woman. Upon exiting the elevator they began circling around the immediately vicinity, sniffing about as though they just caught the scent of warm blood….

Ye Chen was slightly nervous, it was fortunate that he got away from the elevator in time, if he had just stood there when the elevator doors opened, it would have been the end for him.

Zombies had a surprisingly adept sense of smell, even if you were to jump into a body of water, they could probably still sniff you out. Ye Chen decided to no longer stay put, keeping still only led to eventually being found, he suppressed his breathing and slowly backed away, making sure to keep as quiet as possible.

It's a good thing Ye Chen usually prefers to wear sneakers, had he been wearing dress shoes or something cleated, it would have resounded with every step he took, with sneakers, pacing gently should reduce the audibility of his footsteps greatly.

One step, and another….

Every step seemed to take an eternity; it took him ten steps to reach the opposite corner of the stairs. Just then, a zombified youth from the floor below came, lured by the scent of warm blood, it immediately spotted Ye Chen in the midst of climbing the steps, its eyes immediately sparked with bloodl.u.s.t, with a greed filled growl, it raced towards Ye Chen.

This growl immediately alerted the pack of three zombies, causing them to rush over, upon spotting Ye Chen, their eyes filled with wildness and vigorously dashed to shorten their distance.

Ye Chen knew he was in trouble, yet he did not run to the stairs below knowing that it would only lead to attracting more zombies. If he were to do so, it would end with him exhausted after a prolonged chase and ultimately being torn apart by the zombies. Though he could feel how sweaty his hand grasping the watermelon knife had become, he did not lose his cool, within the seconds it took for the zombies to close in; he took in his surroundings, memorizing every detail.

"Rrrargh!" the first zombie rushed over from the top of the stairs, as it was heading downwards, its momentum greatly increased, with claws held high, it swiped towards Ye Chen's shoulders intending to lock him in place while biting into his neck.

How could Ye Chen allow this zombie to do as it wished? He sidestepped the zombie as it lunged at him while kicking it at the waist at it pa.s.sed him by, if he were to kick it head on, with the strength of a zombie plus its downwards momentum, it would have sent himself flying instead.

With a kick to its waist from the side, the zombie lost its footing, being on the stairs, this caused it to tumble helplessly to the bottom, thoroughly disoriented.

Ye Chen could not relax just yet, with three more zombies incoming, he hadn't the time to take out and ignite the bottle of gasoline. He lowered himself and did a sweeping kick, tripping the next male zombie that came running.

Due to its own forward momentum while das.h.i.+ng down the stairs, it didn't took much effort to send this zombie tumbling as well, it rolled down the stairs and went cras.h.i.+ng into the zombified youth down below. This sudden obstruction caused the woman zombie to leap over.

With his life in imminent peril, Ye Chen managed to roll to the side from his crouching position at the last moment, he got up and ruthlessly kneed her in the chest while simultaneously hacking the watermelon knife with all his might, with a crack, the knife sliced into more than half of the woman zombie's neck, causing her head to drop and dangle, held on by mere sc.r.a.ps of skin and tendons, the sight was truly revolting.

Ye Chen paid her no further heed, as he noticed the zombies down below getting up, he hurriedly dashed to the top of the stairs, whilst das.h.i.+ng, he unstrapped the bottle of gasoline with one hand and simultaneously retrieved the box of matched with the other. With frighteningly deft hand movements, he fluidly pulled a matchstick from the box and lighted it!

This agile series of movements would have dazed any onlookers, if it were an average person; he would have panicked and fumbled at the sight of the zombies down below rus.h.i.+ng towards him.

"It's over…."

Ye Chen stood at the top of the stairs, with a lit match in one hand. He indifferently glanced over the two zombies rus.h.i.+ng towards him, as well as another zombie obstructed by the half-dead woman zombie, he popped open the bottle of gasoline and tossed it towards the incoming two zombies, spewing its contents upon them like flowing water, simultaneously, he flicked the lit match into the air, with a beautiful arc, it landed right where he spilled the gasoline.

Boom!!

A violent explosion took place right in the middle of the stairs, lighting up the surroundings, the loud noise drowned out the pathetic screams of the two zombies. When the fires faded, only a pair of charred corpses remained, even the zombie that finally untangled itself off the woman zombie crumpled on the floor due to the force of the explosion, twitching slightly.

Translator Notes:

The author uses specifically catty which is a traditional Chinese unit of ma.s.s weighing at five hundred grams; I took the liberty of converting it to pounds as it was the closest in weight and I felt it was more understandable that way. However, know that pounds are still slightly lighter than catties; therefore I will supplement adjectives that suggest a higher number.