Jiang Jiang's hands paused as he polished a crystal core. He looked up at the胖子 (pangzi), "My face is injured, it's very scary. Sister was afraid I'd frighten people, so she gave me this mask to wear and told me to cover it so I wouldn't scare others."
He hadn't mutated, he was still a normal person, so it could only be understood as an injury that couldn't heal.
After hearing Jiang Jiang's answer, the 胖子 slurped up some instant noodles and drank the soup, "Will it get better?"
Jiang Jiang shook his head. He didn't know how to answer the 胖子's question, "Maybe, maybe not."
He didn't care. As long as he could follow his sister and eat well, he would be content. As for whether the ugly and ferocious other half of his face could recover, he would leave it to fate.
The 胖子 wanted to ask something else, but the 瘦子 (shouzi) kicked him. He obediently shut his mouth and stopped asking unnecessary questions.
Jiang Jiang had finished polishing the crystal core. He zipped up his bag, picked up the knife and wolf-tooth club from the ground, and stood up, "You guys eat slowly. I'll go ahead and check the situation. I don't have that many crystal cores, so I need to collect more."
When he met up with his sister and the others later, he would give her a whole bag of crystal cores, and she would surely be very happy.
"Be careful," the 瘦子 reminded Jiang Jiang. After finishing the rest of his instant noodles, he looked at the 胖子, "Eat up quickly. After we finish, we should continue killing zombies and collecting crystal cores."
Relax when it's time to relax, and tighten your focus when it's time to be vigilant.
They couldn't let others continue on the path of becoming stronger while they stood still; that would lead to elimination.
After parting ways with the 瘦子 and 胖子, Jiang Jiang went to a residential area alone.
Because he was half-human and half-zombie, the zombies along the way did not attack him.
Zombies didn't attack him, but that didn't mean he didn't have his eye on them.
As he moved along, he collected so many crystal cores that his hands were sore.
Jiang Jiang moved through the zombie-slaying process with ease and nonchalance, feeling no pressure or sense of crisis. He kept stuffing crystal cores into his bag.
He was so immersed in the world of crystal core collection that he forgot Su Ling's reminder to constantly pay attention to his surroundings.
As a result, while he was busy killing zombies and digging out crystal cores with joyous shouts, he was unaware of a pair of eyes watching him from the shadows.
These eyes had been watching him for a long time. When they saw that Jiang Jiang was not attacked by zombies, obvious envy flickered in them.
When they saw Jiang Jiang splitting open zombie heads and digging out white, blue, and red crystal cores, the eyes widened with curiosity.
Jiang Jiang was too engrossed. Otherwise, with his keen senses, it wouldn't have been difficult for him to notice the eyes secretly observing him.
Jiang Jiang noticed that after the heavy rain, the zombies' speed had indeed improved; they were less clumsy and moved faster. Moreover, the crystal cores in their brains were almost entirely gone, mostly white and blue.
Of course, if he was lucky, he might occasionally find one or two red crystal cores.
These zombies were quite easy to deal with, Jiang Jiang thought. The reason he found them easy was that he wasn't attacked by them.
But his sister and the others probably weren't having such an easy time.
Soon, the area Jiang Jiang had passed through was cleared by him. He rested by the roadside, his bag bulging with supplies that were not yet full, eating bread filled with red beans that he had scavenged from a shop.
Watching him eat the bread, the eyes hidden in the shadows cast a gaze of envy and greed.
This time, Jiang Jiang was not lost in the world of crystal cores and thus noticed the eyes watching him from the shadows, peeking at his every move.
Jiang Jiang remained silent. He continued to eat the red bean bread in his hand.
As if deliberately, he acted as if it were incredibly delicious.
After finishing one bag of red bean bread, he took another bag from his backpack.
Not only that, but he also took out a bottle of milk that was still within its expiry date and started drinking it.
It was truly a blatant temptation.