Chapter 236: Haisa 19

「Day eighteen of the game.」

At this moment, Perry Yates was incredibly grateful for her brilliant foresight in sending away all the shipping containers filled with zombies.

After two days of evolution, the claws of the Basic-level Zombies could now easily tear through steel plates.

Steel plates seven or eight centimeters thick were as fragile as paper under their sharp claws.

If she hadn’t sent away all the containers holding zombies, they would have been easily ripped open by the zombies’ claws, releasing every last one inside.

The entire cruise ship would have been swarming with roaming zombies, nothing like the current situation. Though the number of zombies was still high, the ship was large enough for the survivors to hide and wage a guerilla war against them.

It was no exaggeration to say that every survivor on this ship owed her big time.

「Day nineteen of the game.」

Perry Yates was still hiding on the chandelier in the second-floor ballroom. There was no other reason—it was safe.

Since it was a lower floor, it had become a main activity area for the zombies. Every day, she could see Basic-level Zombies and Secondary Zombies milling about below.

However, while she was out of danger for now, she faced a much bigger problem.

Looking at the re-solidified chocolate in her hand, Perry Yates brought it to her mouth, but the moment she opened it, she felt all the strength drain from her body.

She used to love chocolate, but no matter how much you like something, you can’t stand eating it constantly, especially not as your only meal. And this was a high-calorie food like chocolate, to boot.

After days of eating nothing but chocolate, Perry Yates not only felt nauseous at the sight of it, but her teeth were starting to ache. ’Too much sugar is definitely a bad thing.’

Perry Yates felt like even her saliva was sweet now, and every breath she took smelled of chocolate.

AAAAHHH!!

She couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted fruit; she wanted natural food.

「Day twenty of the game.」

[Intermediate Zombie

Evolved from Basic-level Zombies. Aside from their eyes, their appearance is indistinguishable from that of a normal person. However, their bodies are far stronger—dozens of times stronger than an ordinary human’s. Their skin is tough and impenetrable, rendering conventional weapons ineffective against them.]

Early this morning, Perry Yates noticed that one of the Basic-level Zombies that frequently appeared in the ballroom had changed.

Its originally grayish-black skin had returned to a normal human complexion, and even its facial expressions had become more vivid. If not for its still-white eyes, Perry Yates would have mistaken it for a normal person.

It was because of these changes that Perry Yates had used one of her identification items on it again. The final Identification result was just as she expected: the zombies had indeed evolved.

Perry Yates sighed from her perch on the chandelier.

’Oh well, let them evolve. It doesn’t have much to do with me for now. As long as I keep laying low here, I’ll definitely clear this game.’

Besides, in the current situation, the presence of these zombies was actually beneficial to her. With them around, the non-Dealer Players would be distracted fighting them, leaving them no time to cause trouble for a Dealer Player like herself.

The most important thing for her right now was to find something to eat that wasn’t so sweet.

Perry Yates felt that if she kept eating like this, she might actually get diabetes.

But by now, almost all the food on the ship had been contaminated. The only uncontaminated food was in the hands of the other survivors.

Just as Perry Yates was wondering how she could get a change of diet, the ballroom doors were suddenly thrown open. Two Basic-level Zombies walked in, dragging a struggling woman with them.

The Basic-level Zombies threw the woman down in front of the Intermediate Zombie and left.

The captured woman scrambled up from the floor. When she saw the Intermediate Zombie, who looked exactly like a normal person, a flicker of astonishment crossed her face.

"Y-you, don’t come any closer, or... or I’ll make you regret it."

As she spoke, the woman pulled a kitchen knife from somewhere.

Perhaps her movements were too frantic, or perhaps she was just too nervous, but as she drew the knife, something else fell out of her pocket.

Up on the chandelier, Perry Yates’s eyes lit up the moment she saw the familiar silver glint on the floor.

Seeing that neither the human nor the zombie in the standoff had noticed the card on the ground, Perry Yates focused her will. The silver card instantly transformed into one of her poker cards.

Having acquired the card, Perry Yates used the cover of the ornate chandelier to examine her new prize.

[Card Name: Fantasy King

Rank: No Star

Ability Introduction: A card that can change its form according to the holder’s imagination, but every transformation comes at a price.]

Perry Yates hadn’t yet figured out what that price was when a piercing Scream suddenly erupted from below.

AHH!!!

Looking down, she saw that the captured woman had been cornered at some point. The Intermediate Zombie’s face was almost touching hers, its pupil-less white eyes staring right at her.

"Cooperate with me, and I can let you go."

Just when the woman thought she was dead for sure, the zombie actually spoke.

Who would choose death when they could live? Even though it was a zombie she was negotiating with, and even if its demand was to betray all of humanity, she agreed without hesitation.

In the woman’s eyes, this was just a game world anyway. What did these "humans" have to do with her? As for the other survivors on the ship, she didn’t know them. Compared to her own life, her own life was of course more important.

"Okay, I agree. What do you want me to do?"

The Intermediate Zombie spoke slowly. "I need you to find the other survivors and convince them to turn the cruise ship around."

"Turn around? Why?"

"You don’t need to know that. I have my reasons."

In the Intermediate Zombie’s eyes, the woman was just a tool to achieve its goal, a dog. A dog doesn’t need to know its master’s plans; it just needs to obey and carry out its master’s commands.

The woman didn’t get the answer she wanted, but Perry Yates had a suspicion. ’This zombie... it’s not trying to go back for the shipping containers I got rid of, is it?’

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Perry Yates was about to move and intervene, but she quickly dismissed the idea.

’After all, a cruise ship isn’t that easy to pilot. Besides, it’s not like they’d actually agree to turn back just based on one person’s word.’

Not feeling any particular hurry, Perry Yates went back to studying the card she had just obtained.

’So it consumes lifespan to change its form. No wonder that woman would rather use a kitchen knife for self-defense than take out this card.’

However, for this particular card, lifespan wasn’t its preferred energy source. What it really liked was Card Energy.