Fang Chang and the girl had entered a tug-of-war: one trying to escape, the other trying to catch her. Their struggle filled the room with a riot of springtime color, deepening the rosy hue in the air.

Nearby, Li Zirong found a place to hide from view, opened her pack, and summoned her most personal mechanical body. Soon, she was back to her previous height of two meters.

She still had her sunglasses on as she analyzed the girl's physical data. The numbers were absurdly high, and with another kind of higher-tier zombie virus inside the girl, Li Zirong's eyes shone with fascination.

“As I thought—the Zombie King. The virus inside her has undergone some kind of evolution too. Like Fang Chang, it's now a higher-tier form of the zombie virus, not a point where viruses become entangled. No wonder she's so small, yet so strong. What a shame I can't dissect her for research.”

She began modifying the sunglasses' abilities, using The Game's attributes as a baseline to map the girl's stats. The result was a terrifying set of numbers.

Physical Strength: 76321

Neural Response: 65458

Mental Strength: 40897

Every single one was a five-digit number!

The average human stat was 100, while every one of the girl's stats was hundreds of times higher.

No wonder she didn't use her supernatural abilities at all. With strength like that, there wasn't much she couldn't beat with brute force alone.

A stat multiplier wasn't as simple as one plus one. Assuming all stats were enhanced evenly, then in terms of physical strength alone, 100 meant an ordinary person, while 200 meant twice an ordinary person's strength. That included muscle strength, the strength of bones and blood vessels, the strength of internal organs, and so on.

Strength was too uncertain a value to measure precisely. But doubling muscle strength brought more than double the force.

“She's so strong! She's already completely surpassed the Zombie Mother Nest, and they're both higher-tier forms of the virus. My original plan was to use the Zombie Mother Nest's corpse as a vessel. If I could persuade the Zombie King to let me use her instead, I'd definitely get a more advanced, perfect virus.”

For a moment, Li Zirong's gaze grew even more feverish as she looked at the girl.

Once she'd settled on a plan, Li Zirong took off her sunglasses. She needed to figure out a good way to coax the girl over to her side. Then she spotted Fang Chang, looking utterly hopeless in the girl's arms, and immediately came up with a plan.

During their struggle just now, Fang Chang had escaped the girl's grasp five times by lying, acting cute, and playing the helpless victim. Every time, though, the girl had unceremoniously caught her again. Now Fang Chang was trying to look adorable, dreaming she might escape this whole mess.

The girl didn't care in the slightest. After Li Zirong had set her straight, she was convinced Fang Chang was just a tsundere who actually accepted her deep down. So no matter how much Fang Chang ran, the girl saw it all as a game.

Of course, it also helped that Fang Chang couldn't escape no matter what.

As for Fang Chang...

Actually... being held... feels pretty nice... Hehehe...

Why was she even trying to run?

Because she was a tsundere!

Her heart and body had already accepted the girl's warm, soft embrace. She just didn't want to admit defeat.

Even if it felt good, she still had to refuse!

She puffed out her cheeks and declared righteously, “I, Fang Chang, would rather have no girlfriend! Stay single! And die alone! I still won't accept you!”

The girl just smiled fondly, leaned in, and gave her cheek a loud smooch.

Fang Chang's pretty face instantly turned bright red. “Ah! Y-You’re so mean!”

Watching the two of them flirt in their own peculiar way, Li Zirong gave a light cough and joined the conversation.

“You're the Zombie King, right?”

The girl rubbed Fang Chang's soft, smooth cheek and answered without turning around. “Yep!”

Fang Chang immediately perked up. This might finally solve the mystery of the girl's identity.

She was intensely curious about who the girl was. Ever since they'd met, all sorts of things had confirmed that this was a zombie even more powerful than the Zombie Mother Nest. She'd even evolved considerable intelligence, had her own personality, and could communicate.

“The Zombie King? Is that a higher-tier zombie than the Zombie Mother Nest?”

“Awooo!” The girl howled, then said, “I'm not a zombie! I've never even eaten a human. I only hang around with zombies because I can't find any people!”

Fang Chang didn't believe her just because she said so. Li Zirong might pull a fast one on people, but that was when she was doing experiments. The rest of the time, she really did act like a wise senior.

She turned to Li Zirong, who shook her head. “I only learned that the Zombie King exists from some of this world's databases. I don't know the full story. But if you don't eat people, what do you use to produce energy?”

The girl blinked. “I can just sunbathe to fill up! So why would I eat smelly humans?”

Li Zirong was stunned by that answer. “Could the virus have developed chlorophyll in symbiosis with you?”

The girl was usually so cheerful, but whenever a question came up, she had to ask one of her own. “What's chlorophyll?”

“It's not important.” Li Zirong knew explaining it would be a hassle, so she quickly changed the subject. “Don't you remember anything from before?”

“Remember?” The girl thought for a moment, then suddenly understood. “Do you mean those extra scenes in my head? Those were my memories?”

“I see. So even the Zombie King goes through a transitional stage of evolution?” Li Zirong quickly jotted that down, then asked, “Can you tell me what you remember from before?”

To her surprise, the girl, who'd been cheerful the whole time, suddenly seemed to get stuck. She stammered for a while, then finally shook her head. “I don't want to tell you...”

Fang Chang's eyes lit up. She knew her chance had come. She rubbed her little face against the girl. “Come on, tell me! I want to know too.”

Li Zirong was instantly creeped out.

Fang Chang looked lovely now, but for some reason, Li Zirong couldn't help thinking of the monstrous Fang Chang she'd seen fresh out of the oven.

It felt like her whole worldview was crumbling.

“Even if it's you... I still don't want to say.”

The girl actually turned her down.

Fang Chang took a critical hit of ten thousand damage. “You don't love me at all!”

The girl panicked. “That's not true! I just don't want to remember those scenes. I usually keep them sealed away deep in my memories.”

“If you don't want to talk about it, then forget it!” Li Zirong didn't dare push too hard. After all, this was the Zombie King. If she went berserk, Fang Chang was her wife and would be safe, but Li Zirong was an outsider. Who knew what might happen to her?

Fang Chang had finally gained the upper hand. How could she give up so easily? She pressed on. “Then tell me—why did you fall for me?”

At that, the girl's cheeks turned pink. She giggled. “I don't know either. I wasn't interested in the Zombie Mother Nest at all, but when I sensed your presence, I got all excited for some reason. I wanted to hold you in my arms forever—just like this.”

Her slender arms suddenly tightened with terrifying force, squeezing Fang Chang until her eyes rolled back. She nearly passed out.

Seeing Fang Chang looking as if she were about to die, Li Zirong felt much more at ease. She explained, “There could be several reasons. Let's take the two most likely ones. First, you're a higher-tier virus, so you wouldn't feel a desire to reproduce with or get close to lower-tier ones. Then you met Fang Chang, another higher-tier virus, and on top of that, you could sense her Mother Nest aura. That got you hooked right away. The second reason? You're a sucker for pretty faces. The other Mother Nests are so ugly, and then along comes someone as cute as Fang Chang. Of course you couldn't resist.”

Even though the girl's chest was squeezing the breath out of her, Fang Chang still shouted back, “I'm not just cute! I'm gorgeous, okay?”

Li Zirong said, “Looks like you've completely started thinking like a girl!”

“Huh...”

Fang Chang blinked, then thought it over. The implications were terrifying.

The girl stuck firmly to the truth that her husband was the best, and chimed in, “That's right! My husband's gorgeous. She's way more than just cute!”