Chapter 110: A Savior in Every Sense of the Word

When the morning sunlight once again bathed the earth, Du Yun stretched languidly, easing the weariness from her body. Seated in the starship’s command center, she gazed at the large screen before her, which displayed the surface of Greenwild Star.

After several days of effort, Du Yun had piloted the Blueglow starship over the entire planet again and again. Nearly all the zombies on the ground and inside the buildings had been purified and awakened. Even those the energy-absorbing vehicles had previously captured and brought aboard the starship—without crushing them directly into energy crystals—had now been returned by Du Yun.

The surface of Greenwild Star had finally regained its former peace and tranquility. Since the people below possessed zombie bodies but human minds, Du Yun had given them a designation: half-zombies.

Between one moment of sleep and the next of waking, the world had been utterly transformed. These half-zombies were still in the midst of adapting to their changed circumstances, so panic and disorder were inevitable. Yet the zombies’ powerful bodies, combined with human intelligence and memories, were enough to help them adjust.

As for the few zombies still concealed in various corners of the planet and not yet purified, Du Yun was not worried.

After all, the surviving half-zombies now had bodies identical to those zombies. There was no need to fear contamination, nor any concern that they would be torn apart. Even if a mere handful of pure zombies remained—just as there were madmen among humans—they would most likely be gradually eliminated as time passed.

Seeing the starship streaking rapidly across the sky, the half-zombies of Greenwild Star fell to their knees one after another, bowing reverently toward it.

They did not know exactly what had happened, but they still remembered the beginning of the disaster and the moment everything was finally restored. They had changed, yet they were still alive. The people aboard that starship had redeemed them.

Watching an entire planet of half-zombies begin to recover and flourish, Du Yun sat inside the starship with a faint smile on her face. Her heart was filled with a wonderful sensation.

“So this is what it feels like to be a savior?”

“As long as you like it,” Big Brother said, gazing at the half-zombies below as they began restoring order. He, too, was brimming with a sense of accomplishment.

Although little military merit from this operation could be made public, everyone knew that their true contribution had been immense. Saving an entire planet’s population from a tragic fate was, by any measure, a deed of immeasurable virtue.

“This time, we really are saviors in every sense of the word!” Du Yun said with a smile to Teasewise in her mind.

“Mm.” Teasewise gave only a single hum, thick with nasal emotion. Clearly, the core intelligence was deeply moved, but it did not want to show weakness in front of Du Yun. Thus it answered with a quiet hum, then hid away by itself to savor its emotions.

In Teasewise’s heart, this success was truly extraordinary. Greenwild Star had not fallen, which meant the seeds of the high-level zombies would not spread from Greenwild Star to the surrounding planets. Could that mean the events of the world they had once experienced might actually be changed?

“We should leave,” Big Brother said, looking at Du Yun gently. He knew she might be reluctant, but he hardened his heart and said it anyway.

“Mm. All right!” Du Yun nodded. She did not actually feel much attachment to Greenwild Star, and leaving with Big Brother seemed like the right choice.

“Mm.” Peach leaned against Du Yun, gazing wistfully at the rivers and mountains below. Her large eyes were filled with tears. She, too, would have to leave the planet where she had grown up, and her heart ached with reluctance for her homeland.

Along the journey, Dong Ironhammer had watched the changes in the zombies’ physiques and understood that the human survivors no longer had a place on Greenwild Star. Even if they remained after the danger had passed, they would be rejected by a society composed almost entirely of half-zombies, for they no longer belonged to the same species.

Thus, when Big Brother asked where he intended to go, Dong Ironhammer resolutely chose to leave with him. It was the promise Big Brother had made to him in the beginning.

Du Yun looked toward the distant port, where countless starships were docked, and felt as though her heart were bleeding. No one knew where these Blueglow starships had come from, but everyone knew they must be connected to the zombification of the entire planet. Therefore, even though Du Yun had captured every one of them, they could not take them all back to Emperor Star.

For one thing, there were simply too many starships. Without exposing Du Yun, the group had no way to explain how they had captured them. For another, there was certainly an enormous power behind the fleet. After disrupting such a vast plan, merely concealing their identities and escaping with their lives was already fortunate enough. How could they dare hope for an even greater reward?

After much discussion, they decided to leave the starships on an uninhabited planet belonging to Greenwild Star. Just as Earth could see only one side of its moon, Greenwild Star could see only half of the uninhabited planet they had chosen.

The Blueglow starships were arranged neatly across the far side. Thousands of unmanned vessels descended densely upon the planet’s surface, resembling chess pieces set out in perfect rows.

Yet to Du Yun, the sight felt as though someone were slicing flesh from her heart. She had captured all those Blueglow starships with Teasewise’s help, but could not make use of them. It was like embracing a mountain of treasure while being forced to beg for scraps.

The starships were simply too enormous, each one the equivalent of a small town. Du Yun’s storage space could not possibly bear such a burden, and she had no way to collect them.

But abandoning them outright was equally unbearable. After weighing the matter again and again, she still found no way to take them along and could only leave them quietly on the uninhabited planet.

Fortunately, Du Yun had not come away empty-handed. The starships could not be taken, but the energy-absorbing vehicles could. After carefully calculating the capacity of her storage space, Du Yun and Teasewise ultimately decided to put ten of the vehicles inside. At least that meant their efforts had not yielded nothing.

Though the energy-absorbing vehicles possessed no offensive weapons, their defensive and transformational abilities were truly unparalleled. No one knew what material the vehicles were made of. From the passenger compartment to the front section, even the tools mounted on top—all of it could transform. Almost nothing was beyond their ability to change, and they obeyed the user’s will completely.

Du Yun had once watched a film from around the year two thousand of the Earth Era called Transformers. The robots in that movie bore a striking resemblance to these energy-absorbing vehicles.

Thinking that she had not come away entirely empty-handed, Du Yun’s heart finally eased. The starships might be large and impressive, but they were of no use to her anyway. It was better to live well in the present.

“Let’s go.” Du Yun patted Peach on the back, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and smiled tenderly. “How about I make you cola chicken wings today?”

“Yes!” Peach immediately brightened. She scampered along behind Du Yun, the two little braids at the back of her head swinging from side to side, making her look especially lively and adorable.

The Blueglow starship, newly named New Haimo, suddenly burst into flame and vanished into the vastness of space.

Emperor Star, here we come!