Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 553 – The Origin of the Zombies

Two in the morning.

The corridor of Fragrant Hills International Tower was dark, with only the moonlight from outside spreading a cold white layer across the floor tiles.

Lin Li walked barefoot across it, her toes touching the icy ground without any reaction. She tilted her head, staring at the tightly shut window at the end of the corridor, her eyes reflecting the several swaying dark figures in the distance.

“Sleepwalking?”

Chu Chen leaned against the wall at the third-floor corner, holding a lollipop in his hand, the plastic stick poking out from the corner of his mouth. His dark circles were especially prominent under the moonlight.

“I’m not sleepwalking.” Lin Li turned her head to look at him. “I can’t sleep.”

“You’re barefoot, running around the building.” Chu Chen switched the lollipop to the other side of his mouth. “Looks like sleepwalking.”

Lin Li looked down at her own feet, then stretched her jade-like toes in front of Chu Chen’s eyes.

“My feet don’t get dirty.”

Chu Chen paused for a moment, then raised an eyebrow and dropped the topic.

Lin Li walked to the window, leaning over the sill to look outside. In the distant ruins, several hunched figures moved slowly under the moonlight, occasionally letting out muffled growls.

“Those things… what exactly are they?”

“Zombies.” Chu Chen walked over and leaned against the sill beside her.

“I know they’re called zombies.” Lin Li wrinkled her nose. “I mean, where did they come from?”

Chu Chen’s mouth twitched.

“You want to hear it?”

“Yeah.”

“That story’s a bit long.” Chu Chen pulled a handful of candies from his pocket, picked out a strawberry one, and handed it to her. “Want one?”

Lin Li opened her mouth, “Ah~” like a kindergarten student waiting for a reward.

Rеaԁ oո КαtRеaⅾіոɡСafe

Chu Chen didn’t mind. He tossed the candy into Lin Li’s mouth, then tore open another one for himself.

“Seven years ago, the Federation found something in Hang City.” He chewed the candy, speaking at a steady pace. “A door that wasn’t fully open.”

“A door?”

“A portal. A passage connecting Blue Star to another world.” Chu Chen said. “The Federation studied the unique energy emanating from that door and developed a serum that could strengthen the human body, making ordinary people faster and stronger.”

“The Federation higher-ups thought they’d struck gold. After sufficient testing, they started mass-injecting it into the military.”

“Then what?”

“Two years later, that door fully opened.”

Chu Chen crunched down on the candy in his mouth, a crisp crack.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people who got the serum turned into the things you see outside your window. Brain necrosis, only the instinct to feed remained—they bite anyone they see.”

“The military had the highest injection coverage, so the military collapsed first. Then the cities. Then the villages. Then everything.”

Lin Li listened quietly, without interrupting.

The moonlight fell on her profile, and in those iridescent eyes there was no fear—only focused seriousness.

“The ones who survived are called the Chosen Ones.” Chu Chen continued. “They were naturally immune to the serum. Instead of turning into zombies, they gained power.”

“Is Lei Li one of them?”

“Yes and no.” Chu Chen glanced at her. “They never got the serum. They evolved by eating the Crystals from zombie brains.”

Lin Li thought for a moment.

“What about Lin Fan?”

Chu Chen’s chewing paused for a beat.

Rеаⅾ oո КаtReadіոɡCafе

“Lin Fan… he’s a bit different from them.”

“No one knows where he came from, but his rate of evolution is terrifyingly fast.”

Chu Chen’s tone remained calm and measured.

“Five years. He went from an ordinary person to an eighth-level Evolved being.”

“Impressive?”

“In the entire Blue Star, he’s the only one who reached Level Eight in five years,” Chu Chen said. “No one else has even come close to touching the threshold of Level Seven.”

“No one knows how he managed to rise to Level Eight.”

Lin Li lowered her head, wiggling her toes as if studying why her feet never seemed to collect dust.

“You said the Portal opened earlier—what was on the other side?”

“The Dragon Spirit Continent.” Chu Chen pulled the lollipop stick from his mouth and tossed it into a nearby trash can. “A world ruled by the Dragon Clan. The Pureblood Dragon Clan’s physical constitution and Spirit Energy intensity far surpass Blue Star’s Evolved beings. Level Eight combatants are a dime a dozen, and the strongest—the Dragon Emperor—has reached Level Nine.”

“But fortunately, there’s only one Portal, so the number that can cross over is limited.”

Lin Li lifted her head.

“Then the last great battle…”

“Three months ago,” Chu Chen said. “The Dragon Emperor personally crossed over.”

He paused for two seconds.

“Only Lin Fan could face him here.”

The corridor fell silent for a moment. In the distance, a zombie let out a low howl that was carried away by the wind.

“He used his Spatial Ability to forcibly teleport all the Dragon Clan back to the Dragon Spirit Continent, then blew the Portal to pieces. The connection between the two worlds was severed completely.”

Rеаd οո ΚаtRеαdinɡСafе

“What was the cost?”

“He vanished for three months. Everyone thought he was dead,” Chu Chen said. “Until a week ago, when someone suddenly found him in the rubble and brought him back. He’s been unconscious ever since.”

He turned to look at Lin Li.

“And you appeared around the same time he did.”

Lin Li opened her mouth to speak.

The spot on her chest began to warm again. It wasn’t pain—it was a strange pulling sensation, like an invisible thread connecting her to something, gently being tugged.

“Chu Chen,” she spoke up suddenly.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think… there’s a connection between me and him?”

Chu Chen didn’t answer right away.

He pulled another piece of candy from his pocket, unwrapping it slowly, as if buying himself time to think.

“Xiao Yao showed me the comparison of your brainwave patterns,” he said. “The waveform overlap is ninety percent.”

“Even identical twins max out at sixty percent.”

Lin Li listened quietly.

“The moment you appeared and the moment he appeared align perfectly. Your familiarity with this building exceeds even the residents who’ve lived here for five years.”

Chu Chen popped the candy into his mouth.

“So waking him up and recovering your memories might be the same thing.”

Lin Li lowered her eyes.

Read oո КatReadіnɡСafе

“Chu Chen.”

“Yeah.”

“When I passed by his ward earlier…”

Lin Li bit down on her candy, her voice growing slightly muffled.

“I heard his heartbeat.”

Chu Chen turned to look at her.

“Through a wall and two closed doors?”

Lin Li nodded.

“It was slow. But powerful.”

She lifted her head, her eyes reflecting the moonlight, suddenly bright.

“And… his heartbeat was in the same rhythm as mine.”

Chu Chen’s chewing came to a complete stop.

Just then, hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. Xiao Yao came running over in a draped jacket, her face a mix of shock and excitement.

“Commander Chu! Lin Li! Come quick!”

Her voice reverberated through the empty hallway.

“Lin Fan… his fingers are moving! His brainwave activity just spiked threefold!”

The candy wrapper in Lin Li’s hand fluttered to the ground.

She had already run out barefoot.