Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 336 Breathing

“I’m here to find a zombie,” Doris said calmly, stopping in her tracks.

The bartender was taken aback: "As far as I know, the owner of that zombie is another girl."

“She can’t come right now because of something, so I’m here to collect it on her behalf,” Doris replied.

The bartender looked Doris up and down, then said, "Please come in." He gestured, and the red laser aimed at Doris quickly disappeared.

Those around him were somewhat surprised by the bartender's decision, but no one objected. It was clear that this bartender still held considerable sway over his bar.

Doris bypassed the obstacles and arrived in front of the bartender. Upon seeing her, the bartender nodded, turned around, and led Doris into the bar.

"Did you come from outside the street?" the young man asked.

Doris didn't hide anything and nodded directly. She was spotless, dressed quite luxuriously for the music festival performance. Anyone with eyes could see that she could walk around the streets of Xinjiang like that, which clearly showed that she had the confidence to protect herself.

As for whether they were sent by the Longevity Society, they have their own ways of discerning the truth.

"Everyone is trying their best to get out now, but I never expected that someone would actually come back for a zombie," the bartender remarked.

We entered the bar. It was crowded, but relatively quiet, with only occasional whispers.

All the liquor on the bar counter was removed to prevent it from falling down due to the earthquake.

“Besides the ordinary refugees, quite a few of the people you’ve taken in are quite extraordinary,” Doris said, her black sparrow hand puppet, which was tucked into her waistband, suddenly shaking its head and starting to speak.

The bartender looked over, still showing no surprise: "They are regular customers of my bar. After the earthquake, I realized something was wrong and contacted them. In times like these, teaming up is definitely wiser than going it alone."

This guy's connections are definitely pretty wild.

Judging from the combat-capable people inside and outside this bar, they are basically all imaginative and are obviously some kind of underground gangsters or free agents from the Jiangwen Street underworld.

"What are those things on the street outside...?" Doris asked, concerned.

"I don't know much, but some sources say it's caused by immortality, from that suspicious club from the beginning. The streets are blocked off now, and only the local authorities occasionally come in to help, but they mainly assist the remaining local authorities in eliminating those flesh-and-blood people as much as possible." The bartender didn't hesitate to share the current situation, or rather, there was nothing to hide.

Boom——

A loud, muffled thud came from outside, and the ground visibly shook.

The whispers immediately subsided, and most of the refugees shrank back, some muttering prayers for a safe passage.

"You saw that huge thing again when you came, right?" The bartender asked again after the shaking subsided.

"Yes, it's probably caused by longevity."

"That's right. That thing was originally an earthquake dweller, capable of causing earthquakes of considerable scale. But after it appeared on Jiangwen Street, it was immediately besieged by those flesh-and-blood people from the Longevity Society. They didn't defeat it, but simply stuck to it, eventually turning it into what it is now." The bartender recalled the scene; this was truly rare in Dadu.

"Just thinking about it makes me feel nauseous," Black Sparrow replied.

The waiter led them to the familiar private room and said, "Be careful." Although it was probably unnecessary, he reminded them just to be on the safe side.

Pushing open the door, a strong smell of blood hit me.

"Roar!" A deep roar followed, and a dark figure rushed from the corner of the room toward the door, only to crash into a metal fence. It could only stretch out its bloody claws to try and scratch the people outside.

This private room looks like it's no longer usable.

The floor was littered with blood, flesh, and bones, with human remains still faintly visible. The stench of blood and decay permeated the room, and because it was a closed private room, it was even more pungent, making it feel like the body was about to "ferment."

The zombie girl had disheveled hair and was very dirty.

but……

"Very energetic, well taken care of," the black sparrow hand puppet praised.

"It escaped from the private room during the earthquake and almost attacked passersby, but I found it quite useful against those flesh-and-blood people. We sometimes let it out to fight them, and sometimes we feed it with the flesh-and-blood people. It's kind of a secret weapon of ours. Are you going to take it with you?"

The guy wasn't wrong; this zombie girl was really well-fed. She'd probably be fat by now if she weren't a zombie. Aside from not being properly cleaned, she was very well cared for. Besides, giving a zombie a bath is a bit over the top.

It's still a zombie after all. If you don't keep a close eye on it, it will still follow its instincts and attack others. There are plenty of ordinary refugees outside; you can just have a buffet then.

"Roar!" The zombie girl's roars continued incessantly.

"Since you're taking such good care of her, let's just leave her like this for now. She won't be back anytime soon, and we don't have anywhere to take her if we do," Zheng Fan said upon seeing this.

"No problem, no problem, but managing her is really troublesome every time. It would be great if we could keep her quiet." The bartender scratched his head in distress.

"Roar!" The zombie girl was still breathing.

"Tsk, Doris, pick me up for a second." The black sparrow puppet moved.

Doris obediently picked up the puppet with both hands and placed it in front of the zombie girl.

"Roar!" The zombie girl didn't recognize the black sparrow puppet.

"Haa!" Then the black sparrow puppet suddenly bristled, real black feathers sprouted from its body, a pair of large wings spread out, and its gray eyes flashed with a sharp light.

"Waaah..." The zombie girl became obedient, cowering in the corner of the room, trembling.

Things happened so fast that the bartender felt like he had only blinked, and the black bird monster had already turned back into the cute hand puppet. It was as if what had just happened was an illusion.

So, the way to make a zombie obey is to breathe back at it when it breathes?

"That way, it'll obey for a while." The black sparrow puppet shook its small wings.

Even Doris hadn't realized that the Mr. Music doll in her hand had suddenly changed its appearance. Silly Sheep was still a little dazed.

"...Hopefully it can still come out and help." The bartender glanced at the curled-up zombie girl and said this.

After confirming that the zombie girl was alright, she was temporarily fostered here. The bartender seemed pretty reliable. Putting everything else aside, his connections are at least comparable to Lin Yilin's; he's got some connections.

After Zheng Fan and Doris left the bar, Doris took out her communicator and immediately began trying to contact them.

The target was naturally Tickman's friend, Bidock.

Biddock's sudden discovery of an opportunity to contact Tickman was in the hope that Tickman would spread the message.

Due to the impact of the earthquake, most authorities have been quite conservative in handling matters in Jiangwen Street, and even contacting the relevant authorities has not been very effective.

The current policy is still to deal with the impact first before dealing with the Jiangwen Street incident.

But in a brief contact, Biddock indicated that it was too late.

The specific reasons were not explained in detail. Zheng Fan and Doris took the opportunity of checking on the pets to come and see what was going on.
Tickman hoped to save Biddock if possible, since he was a friend who had helped him a lot.

Doris and Zheng Fan naturally wouldn't mind such a trivial matter.

The contact information was also provided by Bidok, and it's not easy to get in touch normally in Jiangwen Street now.

The communication connection was finally established after a long time.

"Is that Tickman?" a hoarse voice came from the other end.

“I was invited by Mr. Tickman. I have already entered Jiangwen Street. Where shall we meet?” Doris replied.

"You're in? Cough cough, there was no need for you to come in... but since you were able to come in quietly, it doesn't matter. Long communication sessions aren't safe, so please contact the Tower of Observation as soon as possible." With that, he hung up the call.

"What is the Tower of Insight?" Doris, who wasn't a local, was bewildered.

“I have a vague memory of this. Isn’t this a landmark near where Jiang Si turned into a zombie? Let’s go.” Zheng Fan quickly remembered the name and began to act as a guide.

(End of this chapter)