Chapter Twenty-Five: The Hot Spring Villa

“Peony Garden Hot Spring Resort”!

This was it!

Looking at the enormous sign before her, Linda Lin knew she had found the right place.

Unable to wait another moment, she hurried through the entrance. More than anything, she wanted a proper bath.

The night before, she had been forced to jump into a fishpond. The water, which no one knew how long it had been sitting there, was filthy and foul-smelling. She had spent the entire night wearing those stinking, sticky clothes, and after being baked under the sun that day, they had hardened into a shell. Linda felt no different from a rotten salted fish.

Unfortunately, even after reaching the hot spring resort, she could not actually soak in the springs. She still remembered those zombies running around naked. Casting a regretful glance toward the direction marked “Bathhouse,” she decided she had no desire to bathe in water that had already been used by zombies.

By then, every zombie in the resort capable of moving had been lured away. The rest were either trapped inside rooms or stuck somewhere and unable to move.

Linda casually chose an unoccupied room, dropped her backpack, and rushed straight into the bathroom.

She did not mind the lack of hot water. As an ice-type ability user, cold showers were merely less comfortable; they caused her no real difficulty.

After washing, she put on the clean bathrobe prepared for guests in the room’s wardrobe. She planned to go outside and find herself some clothes to change into. Resorts like this generally had laundry rooms, and sometimes even offered dry-cleaning services to guests.

Linda found the laundry room. Inside were three attendants who had turned into zombies. Dispatching them without the slightest effort, she began searching for clothes she could wear.

Most of the garments there were employee uniforms. There were plenty of skirts belonging to the female staff, but she ignored them and instead found two black long-sleeved shirts and pairs of trousers worn by the security guards.

On another rack, she found several women’s trench coats and sweaters. She did not mind the men’s sweatshirts and jackets either. They had all been washed, after all.

After changing out of the loose bathrobe, Linda returned to her room and ate something.

When she had finished, she collapsed onto the soft bed.

“Living alone isn’t so bad, after all. A hot spring resort this large is far more comfortable than that kindergarten!”

She felt she could easily live here for a month or two. The snacks and instant noodles she had found in every nook and cranny would be enough to keep her fed for quite some time, to say nothing of the comfortable bed and bathing water.

She locked the door and slept soundly. There was no danger here, and no enemies to fear, so Linda slept more peacefully than she had in a long time.

When she opened the door again, it was already noon. The room had excellent soundproofing, and the empty corridor was utterly silent. Linda knew, however, that there were zombies in many of the rooms.

All she had to do was press her ear against a door to hear the zombies pounding against it from inside.

Although they posed no threat to her life, Linda did not like having so many zombies for neighbors.

Besides, zombies were corpses, and given enough time, the smell could only become worse.

“Since you’re no longer human, I might as well send you where you belong.”

With that, she turned back into her room and pulled a mask from her bag, preparing to “clean out” the entire resort.

The front desk had keys and access cards for every room in the resort. Carrying an ice blade, Linda opened each room one by one. Rooms without occupants were locked again; rooms containing zombies were cleared out.

She spent the entire afternoon clearing three floors. She piled the zombie corpses in the courtyard, doused them with oil, and set them on fire.

She stood quietly at a distance, watching until the flames had burned themselves out. Only then did she carry a small bag of crystal cores back to her room.

“I’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”

After stretching, Linda sat on the bed and began meditating.

Ever since she had dreamed about the chains the previous night, that chain of supernatural power seemed to have taken root in her mind. Whenever she wanted to see it, she only had to close her eyes to enter that boundless white space of consciousness.

Captain Shaw had never told her anything about the chain of supernatural power, but Linda felt that everyone probably had one.

“Perhaps Captain Shaw assumes that I already know?”

Linda was uncertain. Perhaps because her body had always been weak, her ability had awakened later than other people’s. As for the chain, it had not appeared until some time after she had advanced to the second rank.

“If I told someone that there was something like this inside my head, they’d probably treat me like a monster.”

If Linda were Captain Shaw, she felt she would not be able to say it either. If everyone had one, there would be no need to mention it. But if she alone possessed such a thing, then keeping silent was the right choice. Otherwise, she would certainly be dragged away and dissected.

Once she had thought it through, Linda stopped dwelling on the matter. To be honest, as far as she was concerned, the chain’s only purposes were to tell her that supernatural abilities had nine levels and to serve as a kind of experience bar.

She could not believe that other people lacked such an “experience bar.”

Linda withdrew her consciousness from the white space and settled into quiet meditation.

The days that followed were simple and fulfilling. Apart from searching for food each day, clearing out zombies became part of her regular routine.

In less than half a month, she had eliminated every zombie in the entire hot spring resort, even those hiding in the most remote corners.

During that time, she tried various methods of killing zombies: burning them, beating them with sticks, smashing them with hammers, and so on.

In the end, she discovered that for ordinary people, blunt weapons were surprisingly the most effective.

Sharp weapons worked well too, but they required a certain amount of skill. If one failed to find the right angle or strike the right place, the weapon could easily become lodged in a zombie’s bones. Zombies were not like humans. They could not be killed with a single blow, and no matter how many times one hacked at them, it would make no difference.

For Linda, of course, the fastest and most convenient method was to thrust directly into a zombie’s eye socket. That spot had no protection and offered a direct path into the skull.

Thus, during this period, she had honed her ice blades to perfection. No matter how tricky the angle, she could strike the vital point.

Not only that, but the number of ice blades had increased to eighteen, while the chain of supernatural power in her mind had also grown slightly.

The fifty-fifth day after the apocalypse.

As usual, roaring flames rose in the courtyard. Watching the last zombie turn to ash in the fire, Linda turned around. This time, she did not return to her room. Instead, she climbed into a black SUV.

Every zombie in Peony Garden Hot Spring Resort had been cleared out. She was preparing to leave.

She had found the vehicle in the parking lot. It was a renowned high-end business model from the Lightning brand, nearly new, comfortable inside, and spacious. Yet its exterior was understated. It was probably the car of some wealthy executive.

Everyone who came to a resort like this would arrive by car, so there were plenty of vehicles in the parking lot.

Linda drove away in the one she liked best, but she did not neglect the others either.

She searched every vehicle thoroughly, even siphoning the fuel from their tanks. She filled her SUV and stored the rest in containers in the trunk for future use.

The back seat held food, blankets, and medicine, all taken from the resort. It could be said that she had stripped the entire place from top to bottom.

There was also a leather suitcase beneath the front passenger seat, and it was filled entirely with crystal cores.

Captain Shaw had once told her that crystal cores were not only used to make ability potions but were also the primary currency circulated among the major survivor bases. Linda did not need the potions, but crystal cores could be exchanged for supplies at the bases, so she had not spared a single zombie while clearing the resort.

These were all her possessions.

The black SUV slowly drove out of the hot spring resort. Before leaving, however, she still had one place to visit.