This is going to be rough. I managed to squeeze out only two chapters by 3 AM, after sleeping for just four hours. I have to be up at seven to pound out three more chapters this morning, and then five more this afternoon and evening. I didn't save any drafts beforehand, so this is a disaster. ... Not long after, the man in the suit set down several fried eggs and a can on the table, then turned and walked into the bedroom without acknowledging Ye Chen or the others.

"Aren't you eating?" Ye Zhu felt a wave of gratitude seeing the man bring them food, and couldn't help but ask curiously.

"None of your business!" the man in the suit snapped back coldly before disappearing into the bedroom.

Bailong sighed, "He has such a terrible temper, even worse than Little Chen Chen!"

Ye Chen shot him a side-eye.

Bauer and the others sat at the dining table, preparing to start, but Yue Heng eyed the food suspiciously. "There's no poison in this, right?"

Bailong frowned at Bauer and the rest. "Don't eat it, you might get poisoned."

Bauer and the others froze, their faces shifting between shades of green and white, and they awkwardly put down their chopsticks. Mo Feng looked at the fried eggs twice, cut off a small piece, found some water in the kitchen, dropped it in, and after a while, dipped a tiny bit of the water and waited half a day. Seeing no adverse reaction in his body, he announced, "There should be no poison here. Even if there is, it must be a slow-acting one. As long as we finish the mission quickly and leave this scenario, any poison in our systems should dissipate automatically."

Bailong translated the latter half of the sentence, and Bauer and the others nodded repeatedly.

"Huh?" Ye Zhu's ears twitched suddenly. "What was that sound?"

The group started, their expressions shifting slightly. Bailong walked to the door and frowned. "Are the zombies here?"

Ye Zhu shook his head. "I think I heard the sound of bamboo breaking."

Bailong breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled. "You're overthinking it."

"Maybe so," Ye Zhu quickly let go of the thought.

Mo Feng walked over to the dining table, looked at the canned food, and used the same testing method once, only relaxing after confirming there was no immediate poison.

Bauer and the others devoured the food impatiently. They hadn't managed a full meal in days; their stomachs were aching with hunger.

Bailong and the others were slightly more cautious, not eating too much. They tore off a small piece each, just enough to settle their stomachs, and stopped there. Not long after, the man in the suit emerged from his room. He glanced at the table, a flicker crossing his eyes, and then headed toward the kitchen.

Mo Feng suddenly moved closer to Ye Chen. "Have you noticed a really heavy smell of mildew in this room?"

Ye Chen nodded, glancing deeply at the man in the suit. He immediately understood Mo Feng's implication: a place occupied long-term should not have such a potent smell of decay unless it was intentional, yet the room was clean...

That could only mean one thing: the resident was not human!

Ye Chen fell silent for a moment, then beckoned Mo Feng over and whispered a few words into his ear. Mo Feng paused, then furrowed his brow. After a moment, he slowly nodded.

"Finished eating?" At that moment, the man in the suit walked out of the kitchen, surveyed the group, and said coldly, "Don't roam around tonight!" He then retreated back into the bedroom.

Ye Chen watched the man's retreating figure, sensing something profoundly wrong for some reason. He frowned, just as his sister, Ye Zhu, approached and whispered curiously, "That's strange. This person has so many birthmarks."

"Birthmarks?" Ye Chen was startled.

Ye Zhu nodded. "When he walked past me just now, I saw birthmarks on the back of his hand and on his neck. How can a grown man have so many?"

Ye Chen knitted his brows. Mo Feng, standing nearby, suddenly spoke, his eyes glowing with a chilling light. "What color were those birthmarks?"

Ye Zhu gave him a strange look, paused, and then replied, "They were dark black, with patches of whitish markings. These birthmarks looked weird too, not like the usual small, wheat-colored spots."

Hearing Ye Zhu's words, Mo Feng froze for a second, a look of distraction crossing his face. He then turned to Ye Chen, his voice laced with a shiver that sent chills down their spines. "Those are... Lividity marks!"

Ye Chen's heart leaped. Bailong and the others, who had been chatting, abruptly fell silent. A deep quiet settled over the room.

Only a corpse develops lividity! Yet, the man in the suit was clearly alive. The group exchanged glances, seeing the horror reflected in each other's eyes, and it felt as if the temperature in the entire room had plummeted to absolute zero.

Bailong was too shocked to translate. Bauer and the others, seeing the terror on their faces, felt a terrible premonition and urgently asked what was wrong.

"How is that possible!" Yue Heng lowered his voice, but the shock and tremor in his tone were audible to everyone. "Is this man in the suit a dead body walking around on its own?"

Mo Feng stepped forward, standing in the center of the group. He felt as if a pair of icy eyes were staring at his back; the sensation was deeply unsettling. He nodded. "We can't be certain yet. It might be mutated markings, or perhaps tattoos."

Bailong, unable to stand the eerie atmosphere, stood up. "Talking about it won't help. We'll know once we call him out and ask." Saying this, he cautiously approached the door. Just as he was about to knock, a sudden thought struck him, and he pressed his ear against the wood.

The door swung open slightly...

"Fall back!" Ye Chen suddenly roared. Bailong jumped in fright, looking up to see that the door was already open. The man in the suit stood right there, staring at them with a blank expression, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

Bailong stumbled back three steps, nearly falling over in fright.

The man in the suit looked up at the group and grinned. "What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to behave? Why aren't you listening?"

Yue Heng stared at his row of pale, white teeth, feeling a chill run down his spine. He forced down his fear and asked in a low voice, "Are you human or ghost?" The man in the suit turned to him, a faint hint of mockery in his eyes. "What do you think?"

"You are a corpse!" Mo Feng stated coldly.

The man in the suit paused, then grinned, licking his lips. "Since you are being so uncooperative, I suppose I'll have to quiet you down first." Saying this, he drew a handgun from his waist and suddenly aimed and fired at Mo Feng.

Not good! Ye Chen's eyes widened in alarm. The moment he saw the man in the suit reaching for the gun, he shoved Mo Feng, rolled across the floor, drew his own weapon, and without even aiming properly, fired two shots in the direction of the man in the suit before darting toward the kitchen, pressing flat against the wall, his chest heaving slightly.

"Bang!"

In that split second of lightning speed, the living room erupted in screams, gunshots, the shattering of plates, and the scraping sound of tables moving. But the instant Ye Chen reached the kitchen, all those sounds abruptly vanished, as if frozen in place.

Ye Chen felt a rising sense of dread. He slowly shifted his body and peered outside...

Silence!

His heartbeat instantly stopped.

A face smeared with blood, its fangs menacingly bared, was only three centimeters from Ye Chen's nose. Although the face was horribly distorted, the clothing remained unchanged—it was the man in the suit!

Zombie! Just as the thought crossed Ye Chen's mind, his vision swam, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head, and the world went black.

Sometime later, vaguely aware of his surroundings...

Ye Chen slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, and his entire body felt ice-cold. He looked up: he was in a room. His arms were bound by iron chains that he couldn't break free. Beside him were a dozen figures: his sister, Bailong, Mo Feng, Bauer, and five other young men and women.

Seeing that everyone else seemed unharmed, Ye Chen finally let out a sigh of relief. He then looked forward, and his pupils instantly constricted. Ahead of him was an iron cage where two figures sat, gnawing on a small, blood-soaked corpse they held.

Zombies!

A wave of terror washed over Ye Chen. He looked to his side and saw that one of the young men among the five captives was missing a lower leg. Due to massive blood loss, the man's face was ghastly pale.

Soon after, everyone else began to wake up, witnessing the horrifying scene before them.

"How could this be!"

"Damn it, this beast was too fast. It knocked me out before I could even see clearly."

Bailong and Yue Heng struggled against their bonds, their faces full of rage, but the chains were incredibly tight. Looking at the two zombies in the cage before them, a cold sweat broke out across their bodies. If those two zombies were to get out of the cage, they would likely be eaten alive, unable even to commit suicide.

Click!

The door was pushed open, and the man in the suit walked in with a blank expression. He was carrying vegetables, potatoes, rice, and other food, which he handed to Ye Chen and the others. "Eat!" He didn't give anyone a chance to speak, glanced at the two zombies in the cage, and then turned and left.

Yue Heng glared at the food. "This beast is planning to use us to feed the zombies!"

"Who cares about that? At least we aren't starving," Bailong said heartlessly, snatching the food in front of him and beginning to eat like a pig, leaving the others speechless. They couldn't tell if this man was just slow-witted or excessively optimistic, having such an appetite at a time like this.

Ye Chen glanced at him, then also began to eat. Seeing the two take the lead, the rest of the group said nothing more and started eating in extremely awkward postures.

After they finished, Mo Feng looked at the two sleeping zombies and murmured, "The man in the suit should be a mutated zombie that, for some unknown reason, has retained human thought but is extremely hostile toward humans, going so far as to capture people to feed these two."

"Are these two zombies very special?" Bailong asked with a frown.

Mo Feng shook his head. "Judging by their attire, they are most likely the man in the suit's parents."

The others suddenly understood.

Zhuge Fan watched the two zombies that had fallen into a deep sleep, his body trembling slightly, and whispered, "What do we do now?"

Everyone's expression was grim, except for the five young men and women who were outside their group; they were pale and unconscious. About four or five hours later, the two zombies in the cage slowly woke up, their eyes shining with bloodlust as they looked at the food before them and let out roars.

Soon, the man in the suit walked in, holding a cleaver. He looked over the group, sending shivers down everyone's spine, each fearing they might be the one he targeted. The man in the suit seemed to deliberate for a moment, then walked toward Bauer and the female captive, a hint of cruelty in his eyes. "You two are ready to be culled."