He took a deep breath...
Li Ke adjusted his breathing as much as possible to reduce any unnecessary noise and lighten his footsteps. His efforts paid off. At least as he got closer to the sleeping zombie, it wasn't startled awake by his footsteps. It remained hunched over, exposing its vulnerable neck.
Li Ke took a sudden, deep breath of the rotting air. He brought the fire axe in his hand down hard, and the zombie's already-decaying neck snapped from the blow. The zombie fell face-first to the ground.
But Li Ke didn't stop. He didn't bother with the axe stuck in its neck, letting it fall with the zombie. He unhesitatingly drew another axe from his back and viciously swung it at the zombie's head. However, as the zombie shrieked and tried to stand, the angle was off, and the axe got stuck in its forehead without delivering a fatal blow.
Still, Li Ke was prepared. He let go of the axe again, retreated two steps to dodge the zombie's counterattack, then pulled a hammer from his back. He swung it in a wide arc and slammed it into the axe stuck in the zombie's forehead. The back of the axe head was wrapped in cloth, so the impact was a dull thud. With that sound, the axe was driven into the zombie's forehead, causing it to finally collapse and wobble on the ground.
Li Ke didn't approach rashly. Instead, he walked over to the other twitching zombie, pulled the axe out of its neck, and before it could get up, he chopped its head off.
Only then did Li Ke finally let out a sigh of relief and sit down in the room, recovering his strength. But he couldn't help but curse.
"What a screwed-up world."
He had appeared in this world just yesterday morning. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw two lightly dressed blonde women rushing toward him as if to embrace him. If it weren't for the fact that half their necks were rotted and their intestines and spleens were exposed yet they could still walk, he would have been very happy. Seeing a body with only its upper half crawling toward him, he immediately knew he had either landed on a zombie movie set or stumbled into a ghost world.
Many people instinctively freeze and scream in moments of crisis. This is a natural instinct, much like when a car is about to hit you. The best choice is to run, but people often get so scared their minds go blank.
But Li Ke was different. He would throw a punch. Once, what should have been a minor scrape resulted in a broken right hand and a month in the hospital. This time, when the two blonde zombies pounced on him, he instinctively tried to push them away and was scratched by their fingernails. As a result, he was, of course, scratched by a zombie.
Looking at the scabbed wound on the back of his hand, Li Ke couldn't help but look up. This was quite embarrassing. Other protagonists in similar situations usually manage to fight back or escape unharmed. He, on the other hand, had simply sent himself to the brink with a reflex action. While this wasn't the most embarrassing way to be an interdimensional traveler—plenty of others have had it worse—it would certainly make for an interesting story.
However, if it hadn't been for that reflex punch, he probably would have had his throat bitten through by the zombies' fangs, and he wouldn't have had the time to grab a crowbar and shatter their already-fragile skulls.
After realizing he was injured, Li Ke searched the RV for things to clean his wound. He even considered cutting off his arm, but he knew that without a proper medical environment, that would only lead to a faster death. So after a night of thought, Li Ke decided that whether he was infected or not, he would make the most of his remaining time. He didn't want to starve or die of thirst in the end.
He rested for a little while before starting to look for supplies. Most of the food in the dilapidated house was inedible. Only five cans of Spam, two jars of jam, and an unopened bottle of water remained. The rest was either spoiled or dried out and completely unpalatable.
So Li Ke searched as quietly as possible for the supplies he needed. Thirsty, he didn't find much water, but in a cupboard on the roof, he found two well-preserved bottles of honey.
"There's actually this stuff..."
Li Ke licked his lips. All he wanted now was to enjoy life as much as possible, so he opened a jar of honey and took a big swig. The sweetness of the honey lifted his spirits. Normally, he would never dare to eat honey like this, but now it was different. He didn't know if he was about to die, so why would he care about such things?
As he drank the honey and ate the Spam he found in the room, Li Ke only relaxed after confirming there were no other zombies. However, he still planned to return to the RV at night because the nearby houses were mostly wooden and showed signs of decay. If a large number of zombies attacked, he would be done for. There were reinforced concrete buildings nearby, but Li Ke had seen at least twenty zombies there and gave up.
Just as he was packing up the remaining items and preparing to return to the RV, a girl's scream suddenly rang out. The next moment, Li Ke saw a blonde girl in a Japanese school uniform open a door in a house on the next street and run out. Behind her were two or three zombies.
But the noise she made woke up all the zombies on the street. Li Ke saw it clearly: the moment she screamed and ran out the door, the sound of things falling echoed from the surrounding houses, and swaying, rotting figures appeared in the windows. Among them was a zombie that moved like a frog. It looked normal when it was on the ground, but it could make incredibly long leaps and was quickly closing in on the girl.
"Stupid woman..."
Li Ke glanced at the scar on his arm. If he hadn't been scratched by a zombie, he absolutely wouldn't have gotten involved. But unfortunately, he already had symptoms of infection. Besides, these zombies weren't that fast; the fastest ones moved at a regular walking pace.
He quickly pushed the door open, with an axe in one hand and a hammer in the other, and rushed out, roaring in the girl's terrified gaze.
"Get down!"
Li Ke's voice made the terrified girl instinctively crouch. The next moment, Li Ke threw away the axe and swung the hammer with both hands, hitting the face of a zombie in a yellow shirt that was leaping toward the girl like a frog. Li Ke heard the sound of cracking bone. He twisted his body, let go of the hammer, and pulled out his other axe, viciously chopping at the face of another rushing zombie, splitting its forehead and sending it twitching to the ground.
Looking at the zombies frantically smashing doors or breaking windows, Li Ke picked up the axe and hammer. Without even looking at the staggering zombies emerging, he grabbed the girl's fair hand and ran back the way he came.
"Go!"
The terrified girl nodded and followed Li Ke, sprinting into the woods. They quickly outran the shuffling zombies and escaped their senses. Li Ke stopped only when he looked back and saw no zombies. He pulled the girl behind a tree. Her full figure was pressed against him, but he had no time to pay attention. He was nervously watching his surroundings. Only when he was certain there was nothing around did he sigh in relief, gasping for breath as he turned to look at the only other living person he had seen.
He then noticed that the girl in front of him was much prettier than he had imagined. Her skin was fair and delicate, her eyes were purplish-red, and with her pitiful expression, she was an undeniably beautiful girl.
Something was strange, though. Her clothes were quite pristine and seemed out of place in this zombie-filled world. Unlike him, who had only been here for a day and was already covered in dust and blood.
"Why did you scream?" he asked directly. The girl, with tears in her eyes, spoke in a slightly wronged voice.
"I, I was too hungry, so I wanted to find something to eat, but..."
Li Ke understood immediately. He nodded, didn't say much, and simply handed her a can of Spam. But after the girl took the can, she pursed her lips and spoke hesitantly.
"Excuse me, do you, do you have something better to eat? I can't eat this stuff. I got sick from eating a can, and that's why I, why the zombies found me."
The girl herself knew her request was too much and couldn't help but lower her head.
Huh?
Li Ke was stunned and looked at the girl again.
"Then how have you been surviving in this world? Were you some big shot before? And now you've been kicked out?" He couldn't understand, but he thought about plots he'd read in novels and came up with a possibility.
"No, no, that's not it. I just suddenly arrived here yesterday morning. I just opened the door to my room and suddenly ended up here!"
Tears welled up in her eyes again as she spoke, clearly still very panicked from her near-death experience. Seeing Li Ke seemed to make her feel a bit better. Noticing Li Ke's strange expression, she quickly reacted and bowed deeply, causing the "slimes" on her chest to jiggle wildly.
"Ah, I'm sorry! I forgot to thank you! Thank you for saving me. My name is Erina Nakiri, pleased to meet you!"
Erina Nakiri?
Li Ke's expression grew even stranger. If he remembered correctly, Erina Nakiri was a character from an anime.
She also came here yesterday?
Li Ke carefully looked at the blonde girl who called herself Erina Nakiri, especially the exposed white calves beneath her skirt.
He wasn't captivated by her beauty, but rather...
There was a bloody scratch there, too.