Chapter Fifty-Five: The Miraculous Spring Water

The next day stretched on until midday.

Ye Hai opened his bleary eyes and stepped out of his room, only to see seven Mohawk-haired men kneeling in a line on the far end of the dilapidated hall. Qiao was still fiddling with the virus in his hands. Javier sat absentmindedly at the door, smoking and staring at the sky. Liana had somehow found some of the instant coffee Ye Hai had stashed away before. She brewed packet after packet, a look of pure happiness in her eyes.

Zella quietly came over to Ye Hai and said, “I think Javier is homesick…”

“No, to be precise, he misses his wife!”

“Last night he clung to me and wouldn’t let go… He rubbed my bald head all night, and now my scalp is purple!”

“In the end, Liana had to wake Qiao up…”

“That guy gets in a terrible mood when he’s woken—without a word he broke the legs of Bell’s men and tossed them here!”

“He even threatened that if any of them so much as made a sound, he’d break their third leg…”

“Turns out Bell’s men aren’t soft either. They knelt all night, badly injured, and didn’t utter a word.”

“They’re real tough guys. Why can’t I find a few subordinates with that kind of backbone?!”

Hearing Zella’s words, Ye Hai’s eye couldn’t help but twitch. He sized her up, unable to tell if her humor was cold or just foolish.

As soon as Qiao noticed Ye Hai, he lifted his head, dark circles under his eyes, and said irritably, “I’m going to sleep in the room. Wake me when it’s time to go… I didn’t get a wink last night because of those bastards.”

With that, Qiao ducked into his room and slammed the door. Ye Hai clearly saw a few of the kneeling Mohawks let out a sigh of relief. Shaking his head, he went to sit beside Liana.

Liana sweetly moved over to make room for him on the sofa, then handed him a cup of coffee. Ye Hai picked it up and swished it around in his mouth like mouthwash before spitting it out onto the floor. This pained Miss Liana to see, and she quietly pocketed the remaining packets of coffee.

She quickly changed the subject, saying, “Mr. Qiao is really dedicated to his work!”

Ye Hai replied irritably, “Qiao has insomnia. If he’s woken up, he can’t fall back asleep…”

“He can only sleep again when he’s completely exhausted the next day.”

“If you ever get into an argument with him, you don’t even have to fight—just keep waking him up as soon as he dozes off…”

“It won’t be long before he keels over.”

Liana smiled and nodded, “Alright, I’ll remember that!”

She took Ye Hai’s coffee cup and went off to brew more instant coffee. Watching the growing pile of little packets—at least twenty—Ye Hai felt his temples throb.

Inwardly, he resolved that if all the corpse collectors were ever gathered together, he’d stay far, far away. Qiao and the other two were already a handful; if Zero, Big Lung, and Lister were all together, he might be driven mad.

He eyed the man at the front of the group coldly. The man’s face was riddled with a chaotic array of studs, and from the neck down he was a mass of tattoos. Anyone with trypophobia would be terrified at the sight of him.

Ye Hai crossed his legs and spoke: “Jack, it’s been a while.”

“What brings you here?”

Jack fixed Ye Hai with a resentful glare and said, “Ye Hai, I’m here to let you know that other factions are joining forces to seize Plati’s business…”

“According to the rules of the Plati black market, if outsiders make a move against Plati, the five taboo figures must put aside their differences and band together against the threat!”

“Now, the Sula Bullet Workshop to the north, Erik’s Homemade Explosives, and Daly’s Food Processing Plant have united to drive us all out and seize the black market’s trade rights!”

“You corpse collectors have to help, or there’ll be no place for you in Plati’s black market.”

Ye Hai grinned and asked, “Oh? Haven’t those northern folks always been at odds?”

“How’d they end up joining forces?!”

“Any one of those three is a match for us, and now they’ve teamed up?”

“What’s the point in fighting?”

“Let’s just run.”

“Our organization has had it tough these past years…”

“We scrape by trading a few mutants with the Underflow group for meager supplies!”

“We have to buy overpriced junk weapons from Lakan, and musty grain from your boss, Bell…”

“I think letting those northern three take over the black market might be a good thing for us. After all, our business doesn’t conflict with theirs.”

“Maybe I’ll even get cheaper food and weapons from them!”

“I bet they’d like customers like us, and would let us keep our privileges in the black market.”

“What do you think?”

Jack fell silent.

The corpse collectors, led by Ye Hai, sold goods that hardly circulated in Zombie Star. Their dependence on the other three factions was actually quite low. But with over a thousand members, the corpse collectors were a significant market for the other groups.

Though Ye Hai possessed a trove of bio-energy blocks, he’d always kept a low profile and never brought them to the black market. As the black market was an interface for external trade, news of his bio-energy technology could easily leak out, attracting unwanted trouble.

As for weapons and food for his outer circle, he just bought some local products from these people. After all, with so many mouths to feed, imported goods were out of the question.

Ye Hai stared Jack down, waiting for him to propose terms.

After all, nobody really cared much about those ragged black market rules. Since Bella had sent someone to ask Ye Hai for help, she’d have to offer him something worthwhile.

Sure enough, before long Jack spoke up: “Recently, our boss discovered something with truly miraculous effects!”

As he said this, Jack pulled a syringe from his pocket and jabbed it into his own body. Instantly, the legs that Qiao had broken emitted a crunching sound and healed completely.

Ye Hai was slightly surprised. This type of healing serum, refined from the T-virus by the corpse collector Big Lung, was usually sold at high prices to alien merchants. He hadn’t expected any to make its way back to Zombie Star—wasn’t this just export turned domestic sale?

With his legs restored, Jack pulled out a small vial from his pocket. The liquid inside was clear—water?

Ye Hai frowned slightly.

At that moment, Jack’s face darkened as he glanced back at the other six men with him. Instantly, terror appeared on their faces. They endured their broken legs and scrambled backwards, as if the water in Jack’s hand was some kind of monster.

Jack lunged forward, seized the nearest man, clamped his hand over the man’s throat, forced open his mouth, and poured the contents of the vial down his throat.

“No, Jack! You can’t do this to us…”

Ye Hai watched the scene unfold with detachment.

The man who had been forced to swallow the liquid writhed on the ground for more than ten seconds before signs of decay appeared on his body.

Ye Hai glanced at Jack, puzzled…

Wasn’t this just the common zombie virus on Zombie Star?

It was worthless.

Jack gave a cruel smile, signaling Ye Hai to keep watching.

Ye Hai, patience wearing thin, watched as the man on the ground transformed into a stage-one zombie. Suddenly, the zombie sprang up, glaring at Jack with intense hatred. It opened its mouth and fired a fist-sized beam of light straight at Jack.

Jack was ready. He sidestepped, and with a boom, the blast blew a half-meter-wide hole in the villa wall.

After firing the light blast, the zombie’s body split open and crumbled into dust, vanishing without a trace.

The entire scene stunned everyone present.

Qiao, woken yet again, burst out of his room, eyes bloodshot, and immediately broke Jack’s legs again!

Ye Hai, too, was shocked.

“This is…”

“Psionic energy?”

“How is that possible? A stage-one zombie, with psionic energy in its body?”

“What on earth was that solution?”