Zhang Chen stood at the edge of the cave and looked down.
Below, luminous mushrooms grew densely, covering the entire area.
The pebbles had made no sound because they fell onto these mushrooms.
The mushrooms emitted faint red halos, pulsing with light, hinting at the danger within the cave.
"It looks a bit scary..."
As Zhang Chen spoke, he leaped, falling vertically from the cave mouth.
Thump!
His feet landed on the mushrooms, producing a dull thud.
The mushrooms cushioned the impact, so the sound wasn't very loud.
Zhang Chen looked around. The place resembled a deep well, but on his right, there was a small opening, barely large enough for a person to crawl through.
Beside the opening lay a dead, giant burrowing worm.
This well-like cavity was likely its creation.
However, the closer it got to its target, the faster it died.
Zhang Chen looked at the small hole and waved his right hand. The soil and rocks on either side of the opening instantly parted, creating a void over two meters high.
Crawling was out of the question; he would just charge through.
Zhang Chen aimed at the extension of the small hole, continuously using his force field to push away the surrounding earth.
He could feel that although this small hole snaked and twisted underground, its general direction led from the city center.
Moreover, it descended deeper, the ground growing damper, and the biological energy density in the air increasing.
Suddenly, Zhang Chen's path opened up.
He found himself in a vast underground cavern.
Stalactites on the cave ceiling dripped water, each drop falling onto the ground and onto the shoulders of countless people within the cavern.
Every two to three meters in the entire cavern stood a corpse.
They all hung their heads and let their hands hang by their sides, just like the people in the shopping mall.
However, being enclosed and humid here, the clothes of these people had weathered less.
Most of their clothes retained their vibrant colors, while a few, soaked for too long, had their colors bled together.
Zhang Chen activated his absolute vision to scan the area.
There were no abnormal energy fluctuations nearby, but at the far end of the cavern, a potent energy circulated silently.
Just as Zhang Chen was about to investigate, a long-haired woman in front of him suddenly trembled at the shoulder.
Then, her entire body stiffly turned, her long-unused joints emitting crackling sounds.
"Zombie?!"
Zhang Chen retreated a step warily.
This time, he didn't knock the woman away. After all, she had kept her word, not suddenly attacking from behind.
"Hello!"
The woman's face displayed a stiff smile as she spoke.
This kind of smile was a typical fake one.
The corners of her mouth were pulled up in an extremely exaggerated arc, but her eyes and the muscles around them remained cold.
It sent a chill down one's spine.
This scene was undoubtedly more terrifying than a female zombie standing before Zhang Chen.
"You can talk?"
"No... you're alive?"
Zhang Chen was filled with shock!
Because he clearly saw biological energy flowing within the female corpse, just like in a normal human.
He could even see her energy core lit up, constantly transmitting energy to her limbs.
Concurrently, the woman's skin gradually changed from deathly pale to ruddy.
"How... how is this possible?"
Zhang Chen curiously reached out and touched the woman's chest.
She even had a heartbeat?
She had truly come back to life!
If not for that unsettlingly creepy smile on her face, she would have been indistinguishable from a normal person.
"Please, don't walk any further, okay?"
The woman said with a stiff expression.
"Why, is there something inside that shouldn't be approached?"
"Are you the main body... or the mental consciousness of that monster?"
Zhang Chen asked.
The woman didn't answer Zhang Chen's question but instead asked:
"What do you want? Food? Women? Slaves? Or something else?"
"Whatever you want, I can satisfy you, as long as you stop, and turn back!"
The woman grinned, maintaining her creepy yet polite smile.
"I have no shortage of those things!"
Zhang Chen said, and with a slight wave of his right hand, a powerful force field instantly pinned the woman in place.
This woman was too strange. She had been a corpse, and in an instant, she came alive.
Until he understood what was happening, Zhang Chen had no intention of killing her.
However, after struggling fruitlessly several times, the woman's smile vanished, and her eyes immediately became dull and lifeless.
"Hmm?"
Zhang Chen noticed that the energy flow within the woman had disappeared.
When he touched her chest again, her heart had stopped beating, and her skin was gradually turning pale again.
She had reverted from a living state back to that of a corpse.
Could it be that... this monster could arbitrarily activate and control any corpse here?!
And it wasn't just controlling the corpses, but the ability to truly revive the target!
As for whether these revived corpses possessed the monster's consciousness or their own, merely controlled by the monster, Zhang Chen had no way of knowing.
Zhang Chen continued to slowly move forward through the dense crowd, heading deeper into the cavern.
The further he went, the colder his spine felt.
He had been walking through this massive cavity for over ten minutes, and the human corpses along the way became more numerous and denser.
From being spaced a couple of meters apart initially, they were now packed tightly, almost body to body.
Zhang Chen had to use his force field to forcefully push the corpses aside, just enough to squeeze out a path.
Some corpses' bones snapped under the pressure, emitting bone-chilling cracking sounds in the vast, silent cavern.
After walking for a while longer, Zhang Chen finally reached the end of the cavern.
To his surprise, there was nothing there, only a rock wall blocking his path.
"Hello!"
Just as Zhang Chen was about to examine the rock wall, a little girl of fourteen or fifteen years old walked out from the side.
Golden hair, blue eyes, and the same eerie smile on her face.
"Don't bother me, I will find you!"
Zhang Chen said flatly.
"I understand your determination. Please don't hurt me, just as I haven't hurt anyone!"
"Perhaps... we could be friends!"
The little girl suggested.
"If you came to see me in person, we might be able to discuss this."
"But you keep playing these mysterious games, and I'm running out of patience!"
Zhang Chen said with a frown.
"Then..."
The little girl, with her chilling smile, pondered for a moment and then said:
"Please, follow me!"