Seeing such a brutal scene, Gong Xiao was dumbfounded. She couldn’t understand why this was happening, weren’t they one of her kind? Why were others of her kind attacking and eating them?
She wasn’t afraid, rather... deeply confused, unable to grasp why mbers of her own kind would do such things, what was propelling them? She couldn’t fathom it!
Ever since that instance, she’d seen even more of her own kind devoured by their kin. She wanted to save them, but fear gripped her heart. It was as if an incessant whisper was warning her: "They will harm you!"
Because of this "voice," she watched helplessly more tis than she wished as her brethren cannibalized their own kind.
She faltered to comprehend what she was; she only knew the existence of zombies and humans, yet she couldn’t grasp the difference between the two.
She started to understand the rules — her own kind would consu those amongst them who could speak, as if so force was manipulating them into cannibalism!
Gong Xiao couldn’t understand, why didn’t she feel the urge to consu those who could speak like her?
Until one day, walking down a street, she spotted her own kind, seeking refuge in a residential building after looting a store. She decided to stay there too.
She observed this group for several days. Their number was unclear - every ti they ventured out to scavenge for food, Gong Xiao watched them from the shadows.
Things took a dreadful turn when the group was spotted by the cannibalistic kin during one of their food hunting endeavors. They were chased down.
Perhaps stirred by compassion, she saved the group when they were cornered by the relentless mass of the speechless kin.
Their expressions shifted from fear to bewildernt, then to terror at the sight of her. Gong Xiao, unsure how to communicate, blurted out a generic programd greeting.
"Hello."
The group was taken aback but over ti accepted her. It was then that Gong Xiao realized she was a zombie and they were humans, not her kin.
The group invited her to their settlent. The others there accepted her after so explanation, and since then, foraging for food beca her duty.
But, she was told she couldn’t consu human food as she was a zombie. With each food trip, she returned empty-handed, her heart sinking with lancholy while the others delighted in the sustenance.
At that ti, their hearts hadn’t turned dark. Everyone was at peace. Among the crowd, she t a little boy who often teased her, nicknad her "Ugly Girl," and told her she was the ugliest in the world.
Rather than being discontent, she fully embraced her new nickna, perhaps because despite his teasing, the boy was good to her.
Having not eaten for a long ti, her body started to grow frail, her skin barely attaching to her bones, giving her a skeletal appearance. The boy noticed this and killed a person, dragging the corpse to her and reasoning that the dead man deserved his fate for his wickedness.
Coaxed by his stories and words of encouragent, she grew to despise the deceased man and consud the body. That day, the little boy told her stories of the past.
His na was Gong Ye. As a child, he loved his na. But in the wake of the apocalypse and the death of his parents at the hands of zombies, his fondness for the na faded, despite it sounding cool.
Zombies were powerful at night and challenging to deal with. Gong Ye began to yearn for eternal daylight, naming her Gong Xiao after his family na, aning dawn, symbolizing hope at the brink of despair!
That day, she was happy, incredibly happy, as she finally had a na.
However, the end tis didn’t cease. Ti flew, the surrounding food stores that Gong Xiao had once relied on were gradually ransacked. The ones further out had long since been ransacked by other survivors. As hunger ensued, the hearts of people took a dark turn!
Gong Xiao couldn’t pinpoint when it started, but people began to physically abuse her, angrily blaming her incompetence for being unable to find food! She noticed multiple won being led into a room by the group’s leader, never to be seen again.
Gong Ye inford her that those girls would get tortured to death by n. The ever kind-hearted Gong Xiao, unable to bear the sight, pleaded with the leader to let her take their place.
But...
"The leader threw out, calling ugly, and then...I heard horrific screams from the room. I don’t know how much ti passed before the leader reerged, and...I saw a woman being eaten! Zombies were supposed to eat humans, so why were these humans eating each other?"
"I beca terrified. But I didn’t leave. The next day, I noticed Gong Ye was missing. I only found him at night, but he was already dead, his corpse left in the trash bin at the stairwell entrance. I was devastated... Watching Gong Ye turn into one of my own kind, losing his ability to talk, only capable of emitting lifeless groans — emotions... what are emotions anyway? He made understand what emotions are, but in the end, he transford into an emotionless zombie!"
"People call this epoch the end tis, and I concur. But the end tis are only for humans. For , it’s a world where zombies live, there’s no end of the world per se. As ti passed, I couldn’t find food for these people anymore. The leaders thought I no longer had any value. I rember that day, many of them tied up. I didn’t fight back, just let them throw off the highest point. During my descent, I thought about a lot and understood even more."
"I saw Gong Ye’s smile, his nickna for , Ugly Girl! Ha-ha-ha-ha..." Gong Xiao burst into laughter, her hands concealing her face, her hoarse, crazy laughter filling the air.
"I know now why I was initially resistant towards humans — because humans are insatiable! They’re a pack of ungrateful wolves! I thought I was going to die, but surprisingly I wasn’t afraid, rather calm. I rembered the plight of many others at their death’s door. Ha-ha-ha, what a joke! In that instant, I began to loathe my ugliness. Oh, there was this woman. She was part of those people, very pretty, though I couldn’t fathom what was pretty about her. But the n were always wooing her. She didn’t even show an ounce of empathy when they threw from the tower, the people shielding her as if she was a precious gem!"
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