Chapter 85

Chapter 85

Feng Chen opened the window at the end of the fifth-floor corridor. Cold air with snowflakes rushed in, instantly frosting the wall beside the window.

"I'm off." He quickly climbed out of the window, Black Lion following suit, closing the window with a clang as he spoke.

Although he still didn't hear those lingering goodbyes, his expression was relaxed, a stark contrast to his recent despondency.

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of knocking on the window came from behind.

He turned his head and saw Yan Bubu lying on the window, mouthing the words: "Come back soon."

Feng Chen nodded in acknowledgment, smiling slightly as he turned and walked away.

The world was left in a singular color, an endless expanse of white. The extreme cold, like mercury, seeped through every pore, stripping away the warmth he had brought from inside the house.

The snowstorm made it difficult to walk, so Feng Chen mounted Black Lion's back, letting it carry him toward Haiyun Mountain.

Yan Bubu wiped away the quickly forming frost on the window, watching intently as Feng Chen disappeared into the blizzard.

He stood in front of the window for a while before reluctantly turning and heading upstairs. Passing the hall where Binunu was confined, their eyes met.

Binunu lay against the transparent wall, staring fiercely, scratching the wall with its sharp little claws, making a screeching noise.

Yan Bubu coldly shifted his gaze away and continued upstairs without looking back.

Since Feng Chen had assigned him homework, Yan Bubu started writing. Binunu in the fifth-floor hall, after causing a commotion for a while, finally quieted down.

The floodwaters of Haiyun City had frozen over, the buildings jutting out of the ice like sculptures. Haiyun Tower still stood in the center of the city, its peak hidden in the snowstorm, its once dark body now silver-white.

Passing the ice-covered beehive boat again, Feng Chen's mood was vastly different from when he had sat there holding Yan Bubu, crying. It felt like a world apart.

Black Lion's paws landed steadily on the ice. After more than half an hour, they stopped at the base of Haiyun Mountain. Before even climbing up, Feng Chen found the tracks of a rabbit mutant in the snow and patted Black Lion's head, "Let's go, dig into the rabbit burrow and catch some."

While Feng Chen was hunting rabbits, Yan Bubu was diligently writing. The temperature inside the house was just right, and he was only wearing a thermal suit, his shoes kicked off, standing on the floor in his socks.

In the silence, a sharp howl of cold wind suddenly echoed on the fifth floor, followed by a loud bang at the window at the end of the corridor. The wind noise stopped abruptly.

It was as if someone had opened the window and then closed it again.

Bang, bang, bang!

Binunu, which had calmed down, started banging against the wall again.

"Brother!" Yan Bubu excitedly dropped his pen, not even bothering to put on shoes, and ran down the stairs thumping loudly.

Standing at the stairway entrance, he saw no one in the corridor, only Binunu banging against the wall, looking even more frantic than before.

"Brother," Yan Bubu called again, but heard no response.

He walked forward slowly, amidst the squeaky scratching noises, reaching the window at the end of the corridor and pressing his face against the glass to look outside.

But all he saw outside was a blizzard, not a single person in sight.

Could it be that his brother hadn't come back, and he had heard wrong? Just as Yan Bubu thought to turn around, his gaze fell on the wall beside him.

The wall was covered with light brown wallpaper with a subtle pattern, coated in a thin layer of frost that was rapidly melting into droplets.

Yan Bubu, somewhat surprised, reached out a finger to touch one of the droplets, watching it break apart at his fingertip.

This had happened before when Feng Chen started to leave the house; frost quickly formed on the wall and then melted away just as quickly.

Could it be that his brother was hiding on purpose?

"Brother!" Yan Bubu wiped his damp finger on his clothes and turned towards the stairs.

He saw Binunu still frantically scratching the wall, revealing two rows of bright, sharp little teeth, looking no different from a zombie.

"Brother, have you come back?"

Yan Bubu called out again towards the stairs, still receiving no answer, his head dropping in disappointment.

Behind him, Binunu made various noises. Angrily turning around, he yelled, "Can't you stop causing trouble? Why are you so annoying?"

Binunu ignored his anger, still baring his teeth and grinning, his eyes, like those of a zombie, staring fixedly behind him.

"Can you stop scratching? You’re really annoying..."

Yan Bubu complained, his voice gradually fading.

Finally sensing something was off, he turned around sharply. But there was nothing behind him, only the empty staircase.

When his gaze shifted to the side of the stairs, he saw a huge black shadow on the floor.

The shadow had a massive body and head, with a protruding snout, clearly that of some large, fierce beast.

Yan Bubu's heart raced suddenly, and after a moment of paralysis, he began to step back, retreating until his back was against the transparent wall.

Not daring to go up the stairs, he stared unblinkingly at the shadow, quietly moving towards the left corridor, hoping to sneak into any room to hide.

Squeak! Squeak!

Behind him, the zombie-like Binunu was incessantly scratching the wall, leaving marks even on the unusually sturdy transparent wall made of special material.

Yan Bubu moved slowly to the left, reaching out for the doorknob of the first room.

But the shadow suddenly moved, revealing a gigantic brown bear emerging from under the stairs.

The bear, massive as a small hill, blocked half the staircase. Its eyes, fixed on Yan Bubu, were red, exuding a cold, murderous glint.

Yan Bubu froze, his breathing halted, pressed against the wall. His trembling fingers touched the doorknob, ready to turn it.

However, at that moment, the bear opened its mouth wide and let out a long roar at him, buzzing in his ears.

The distance between Yan Bubu and the bear was only about four or five meters. He could see the transparent saliva stretched on its sharp teeth and the sharp barbs on its tongue, like bent little knives.

Terrified to the core, he immediately turned and twisted the doorknob.

A gust of cold wind, carrying a strong stench, swept up behind him. Yan Bubu caught a glimpse of the shadow on the floor in his peripheral vision, knowing the bear had lunged towards him.

The bear's enormous body enveloped him completely, and the skin on the back of his neck prickled with goosebumps from the wind it generated, making his hair stand on end.

He had nowhere to hide, and as he realized he was about to be torn apart by the bear, his only response was to mechanically rush into the open door.

Just as the bear pounced down, Yan Bubu's mind suddenly flashed with many images.

These images appeared simultaneously in his mind, like a giant screen divided into several small screens, each displaying different content.

All the scenes appeared inconsistent, yet they shared one commonality: a brown bear pouncing from behind, its sharp fangs just less than two feet away from the top of his head.

However, his reactions in the small screens varied.

In one, he dashed to the left but was caught by the bear, biting off half of his head before the screen turned black. In another, he moved right, but his shoulder and arm were seized by the bear, plunging the screen into darkness again.

Yet, in the screen on the far left, he suddenly lunged forward, rolled half a turn to the left on the ground inside the house, successfully evading the bear’s attack.

In the lower right screen, he was seen squatting and quickly retreating backward, as the bear leaped over his head into the house.

Without hesitation, Yan Bubu made his choice among the two remaining images, mimicking one and suddenly abandoning the attempt to enter the house, squatting in place.

He felt the bear’s belly brush over his hair and the chilling coldness as its claws swept overhead, then quickly retreated backward, all the way into the corridor.

Caught off guard, the bear continued its charge forward, crashing down like a small mountain, toppling several experimental instruments inside the house.

The images in Yan Bubu’s mind didn’t stop; in that instant, countless new small screens appeared.

If he reached out to close the door, his hand barely touching the doorknob, the bear would have already turned and pounced on him again in that time.

The screen turned black.

He got up and ran towards the window at the end of the corridor, but only a few steps in, the screen turned black.

He ran to the adjacent room, burst through the door, and the screen turned black.

Black, black, black...

His mental strength functioned like a high-speed computer, calculating every possibility, presenting precise answers as images in his mind.

His consciousness, like growing hands, rapidly sifted through the screens turning black, leaving only those that continued to develop further.

While Yan Bubu used his consciousness to discern and select these images, it seemed to take a long time, but in reality, it was less than half a second.

One by one, the screens turned black, leaving only three still lit.

The image on the far right showed he could charge into the house at this moment, heading straight for the bear's position. The bear would also leap at the same time, allowing them to pass each other, one above and one below.

The middle screen depicted him squatting in place, rolling to the right as the bear's head just passed the door frame, causing the bear to miss its target.

The lower left image was still of him squatting, but rolling toward the left, in the direction of the stairs.

Enveloped in immense fear, Yan Bubu’s mental strength operated at high speed, generating other images following these three scenarios.

If he chose the first option, charging toward the bear and switching places, the ensuing developments could vary greatly.

The bear turns and pounces into the house, the screen turns black.

The bear smashes the closed door with a swipe, the screen turns black.

The bear charges towards a cabinet; he darts out the instant it opens its mouth to bite the cabinet door, followed by several other selectable images.

But those images start turning black rapidly.

……

Countless small screens emerge endlessly; some turn black, while others give rise to new scenarios, flickering rapidly in Yan Bubu’s mind.

This entire process spanned only a second, but Yan Bubu had already made his choice amidst the infinite possible outcomes.

He used his mental hand to select one of the images, enlarging it to fill the entire screen while brushing away the other small screens, turning them into countless flickering points of light in his psychic domain.

The bear charged into the house, toppling the instruments, but its massive body was incredibly agile. It immediately turned and pounced towards Yan Bubu again.

The brown bear leaped into the air, its fiery red eyes reflecting the figure of Yan Bubu.

The little boy curled up under the wall, his body tightly coiled, neither resisting nor screaming, as if he had accepted the fate of being torn, crushed, and then devoured.

But just as the brown bear was about to pounce, Yan Bubu suddenly rolled toward the left, towards the direction of the stairs.

He lacked extraordinary strength and explosive power; his small form was clumsy and disheveled, his face streaked with tears.

Yet, even though he only managed to roll halfway, it was enough to make the brown bear miss its target and crash heavily into the wall.

Yan Bubu got up, suppressing the immense fear in his heart, and dashed towards the staircase. During this run, his mind was busy calculating the next steps.

The giant screen lit up, numerous smaller screens running simulations of the ensuing scenarios.

If he ran up the stairs and reached the corner, the screen would go black.

If he ran straight towards the opposite corridor, timing his crouch perfectly as he approached the first room, the brown bear would leap over him. He could then seize this opportunity to turn and run, facing countless other choices…

Yan Bubu rapidly flipped through these screens, constantly looking down.

But to his despair, he realized that no matter how he hid, he would end up running slower and slower, gasping for breath, and his rolls becoming increasingly sluggish.

At a certain point, he couldn't get up quickly enough and was pinned down by the brown bear that pounced on him.

Swish, swish, swish!

All the screens simultaneously went dark.

The world faded into a deathly, silent black.

Yan Bubu did not want to die.

After being bitten by a zombie, he could still hear the outside world in his semi-conscious state. He heard Feng Chen's cries and pain during those days, like a heart-wrenching knife constantly stabbing at his chest.

He didn't want his brother to cry for him anymore.

The brown bear behind him charged forward, and Yan Bubu caught a glimpse of Bi Nununu behind a transparent wall out of the corner of his eye.

No, Yan Bubu refused to accept it as Bi Nununu; it was a zombie mutant.

Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang!

The zombie mutant looked even more terrifying than the brown bear behind him, baring its sharp teeth, its black eyes bulging in anger, surrounded by a dark bruise-like halo. It seemed even more violent and crazed by the brown bear's agitation, as if it couldn't wait to break through the wall and pounce to tear and bite.

Yan Bubu instinctively turned his eyes away, but his gaze fell upon a small box on the corridor wall.

He had seen Feng Chen use this small box, knowing that it contained the switch to open the transparent wall. A single press would release the zombie mutant.

Yan Bubu didn't intend to release the zombie mutant, but his mind subconsciously started calculating the consequences of opening the small box.

The main large screen showed the moment he pressed the switch, followed by numerous small screens lighting up, each depicting the outcomes of this action.

To his surprise, these small screens were not black, but they didn't show any images either, not even static, just a bright white color.

He couldn't see what would happen after releasing the zombie mutant.

Yan Bubu stared at the box in a daze for half a second, but in that brief moment, the brown bear had already charged to within two meters of him.

Faced with the choice of being eaten by the brown bear or releasing the zombie mutant, Yan Bubu didn't hesitate any longer and pressed the switch inside the small box, despite not knowing the outcome, as the screen didn't turn black.

With a loud clang, the transparent wall retracted into the left side of the wall. As soon as a small gap opened, a round object shot out like a bolt of lightning.

The brown bear lunged at Yan Bubu, its rage intensified by several missed attacks, its eyes bloodshot as if seeping blood.

But just as its sharp claws were about to touch Yan Bubu's back, Bi Nununu leaped onto its head, its small paws extending long, sharp nails, plunging into the brown bear's eyes with a thud.

After piercing the brown bear's eyes, Bi Nununu didn't withdraw its paws but instead thrust them deeper with renewed force.

With a roar of agony, the brown bear fell straight from the air to the ground. Its angry roars echoed in the building, causing Yan Bubu's ears to ring and momentarily lose hearing.

Yan Bubu, pressed against the corridor wall, watched the bloodied brown bear charge past him, recklessly slamming into the wall at the other end with loud bangs.

Fortunately, the building was made of the most durable military materials by the Eastern Allied Forces. Had it been a regular house, it would have collapsed under the brown bear's assault.

Meanwhile, Bi Nununu firmly rode atop the brown bear's head, its claws buried in its eyes, mouth relentlessly tearing and pulling at its scalp, some with bloody flesh attached.

Witnessing this bloody scene, Yan Bubu found it hard to breathe, gasping for air, clutching tightly at the corner of his clothes.

The brown bear's roars gradually subsided, eventually crashing down with a thud, lying motionless in the corridor, silent forevermore.

Bi Nununu then slowly raised its eyes, its dark pupils fixating on Yan Bubu, its mouth rimmed with crimson blood.

Yan Bubu had known it to be fierce, but he hadn't expected it to be this ferocious!

It had bitten Black Lion and Feng Chen's buttocks without drawing blood, but now, it looked even more terrifying than a real zombie.

Yan Bubu watched as Bi Nununu hopped off the brown bear's head and slowly walked towards him.

Although it was only knee-high to Yan Bubu, small in size, with a head like a large potato, Yan Bubu felt more afraid of it approaching step by step than being chased by the brown bear, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Bi Nununu halted, looking up at Yan Bubu.

Its eyes were pure, a deep, absorbing black, as if any light that fell into them would be swallowed whole. Confronted with its icy gaze, Yan Bubu wished he could meld into the wall, or transform into a Kanzel lizard, disappearing from its sight and swiftly climbing up the ceiling.

But Bi Nununu only gave him a glance, then continued forward with an indifferent expression. Reaching the end of the corridor, it jumped onto the windowsill and opened the window.

As cold air and snowflakes poured into the corridor, the small, round creature leaped forward and vanished into the blizzard in an instant.

"Wow…" Yan Bubu, watching the open window, couldn't distinguish if it was fear or something else, finally bursting into loud tears.

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Author's note:

Yan Bubu: I'm like a big computer.

Feng Chen: What's 34 plus 67?

Yan Bubu: ???