Host! I told you to do a task! I didn't tell you to bbb.

After a long silence, it was broken by three voices that rang out simultaneously, yet headed in completely different directions:

Li Xin looked utterly bewildered, as if his worldview had been shattered: "Holy crap! I, Li Xin, am actually one day on brotherhood with the Zombie King, and even...playing cards with him?!"

Qin Zheng's gaze was piercing, and his tone was serious: "Chu Sheng, would you hurt Yun Shu, or the humans in the base?"

Liu Yunshu muttered to herself, filled with an unbelievable sense of absurdity: "I actually... forced myself on a zombie?! The zombie king, no less?!"

"cough!"

Bai Shuliu couldn't help but cough lightly, her fist pressed to her lips. Behind her glasses, her eyes were almost overflowing with amusement and laughter.

He truly hadn't expected that the three people's first reactions would be so completely different, especially Liu Yunshu's comment, which perfectly hit his funny bone.

Li Xin's attention was immediately diverted, and he turned sharply to Liu Yunshu, his peach blossom eyes flashing with a strange light.

"Captain Liu! Your words have reminded me! So Qin Mutou was forced upon by you, and so was I... Chu Sheng was like that, and even that time with Dr. Bai... you were the one who pounced on him! Goodness, Captain Liu, your fetish is a bit unusual!"

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the room instantly became ambiguous and strange.

Qin Zheng paused as he wiped Liu Yunshu's fingertips, and his ears turned red at a visible speed.

But she kept a straight face, pretending to be nonchalant, only her lowered eyelids concealed the turmoil in her eyes.

Bai Shuliu's smile froze on her lips, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes behind her glasses.

He then chuckled softly, looking at Liu Yunshu meaningfully: "So Captain Liu has such a 'hobby'? I was quite ignorant."

Liu Yunshu's face flushed bright red instantly. Embarrassed and annoyed, she raised her hand to slap Li Xin's arm: "Shut up! That...that was a special situation! I couldn't control myself when the feeling came!"

"Ouch!"

Li Xin let out an exaggerated cry of pain, clutching her arm and backing away, but her mouth was grinning from ear to ear.

"Is Captain Liu so angry because his sensitive spot was hit?"

Chu Sheng stood to the side, his face flushed, and added in a low voice, his tone carrying a strange hint of pride:

"That day, my sister hugged me really tightly, and... she even bit my shoulder."

"You still dare to talk back!" Liu Yunshu glared at him, her ears turning so red they were almost bleeding.

Seeing that Liu Yunshu was about to explode, Qin Zheng finally spoke, his tone calm but carrying an undeniable authority: "Alright, stop making a scene."

He took Liu Yunshu's hand, gently tracing her reddened fingertips with his own, then turned his gaze to Chu Sheng, his tone earnest:

"Don't reveal your identity to anyone for now. The people in the base are complicated, and it might not be a good thing if they found out."

Li Xin also put away her joking thoughts and nodded:

"Qin Mutou is right. If word gets out that you, Third Brother, are the zombie king, who knows what kind of trouble it will cause."

Bai Shuliu leaned against the wall and slowly replied:

"Moreover, the Zombie King's physique is very important to my research. If outsiders find out, there's no guarantee that someone won't have ulterior motives."

Chu Sheng looked at Liu Yunshu, and seeing her nod, he gave a heavy "Mmm": "I'll listen to my sister."

Looking at the group of men in front of her, each with a distinct style yet inexplicably united, Liu Yunshu sighed helplessly.

She finally understood that ever since these guys got together, she wouldn't have any peace and quiet.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

In the following period, Bai Shuliu secretly studied the connection between the two people's physical constitutions, and the laboratory lights often stayed on all night.

Bai Shuliu compared the blood sample collected from Liu Yunshu with Chu Sheng's cell tissue under a microscope, and the gene sequence curves jumping on the screen surprisingly overlapped by more than half.

He tapped the keyboard, bringing up the pre-apocalyptic human genome map, his eyes darkening.

"Yun Shu's blood contains a special active factor that can neutralize the corrosiveness of the zombie virus and awaken the human consciousness of the virus carrier—Chu Sheng's heartbeat returning from nothing and his body temperature gradually rising is the best proof of this."

Xiao He, who was taking notes nearby, held his breath and couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice when he heard this:

"Doctor, does that mean... if we can extract and replicate this factor, we might be able to reverse the zombification process and turn all zombies back into humans?"

"That's how it is in theory."

Bai Shuliu nodded slightly, pushed up her glasses frame with her fingertips, and turned her gaze to a specially made petri dish next to her.

In the dish, the dull, low-activity cells that originally belonged to Chu Sheng changed color after Liu Yunshu's serum was added.

It is becoming fuller and brighter at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even beginning to show faint spontaneous pulsation.

"but,"

He abruptly changed the subject, his tone tinged with an unfathomable, subtle emotion, his gaze seemingly piercing through glass as he looked towards the dormitory area.

"The number of zombies worldwide is well over ten million. If we were to extract sufficient factor using conventional methods… the amount of blood required would be enormous. In that case…"

He paused, a faint, almost tender smile curving his lips. "I'll feel sorry for you."

Xiao He was stunned for a moment, almost dropping the notepad—was the professor joking just now? Or was he serious?

Bai Shuliu had already withdrawn her gaze and returned to her research, as if her previous remark had been merely a casual remark.

Several months passed quietly as we repeatedly experimented, adjusted the formula, and verified the effects.

Finally, in the early morning light, a rare, genuine smile of relief and accomplishment appeared on Bai Shuliu's usually indifferent face.

He carefully held a test tube up to the light. The liquid inside had a soft and constant warm golden glow, clear and bright, with tiny specks of fluorescent light slowly flowing inside.

"It's a success."

His voice carried a subtle hint of lightness.

"I named it 'Origin Return Agent'. Its core ingredients combine active factors extracted and purified from Yun Shu's blood, as well as stable guiding crystals that have been stripped from and transformed from Chu Sheng's energy core."

"The key is that we do not need to continuously collect large amounts of Yunshu's blood. With just a very small amount of 'mother liquor,' we can use it as a template for biocatalytic mass replication."

He turned to Liu Yunshu, Qin Zheng, and the others who had rushed over upon hearing the news, and continued to explain.

"Initial live testing shows that it exhibits significant neutralization and reversal effects on ordinary zombies and even some high-level mutants."

Liu Yunshu leaned closer to look, and the moment her fingertips touched the potion bottle, she felt a gentle energy spread from her fingertips, instantly dispelling most of her fatigue. "So amazing?"

"Of course, they don't even look at who did the research."

Bai Shuliu raised an eyebrow, her tone unusually smug, and then added.

"However, the first live clinical trial must be conducted with extreme caution. I selected three mutated zombies that were kept in solitary confinement, retained some basic consciousness, and had relatively low aggression."

"They were all close relatives of the base members when they were alive, and the emotional bond may serve as an auxiliary anchor to awaken their consciousness."

Qin Zheng, who had been standing silently observing, finally spoke:

"I've stationed people around the lab to keep watch, so we can take control of the situation immediately should anything happen."

Li Xin rubbed his hands together, eager to try: "Count me in! I want to see if this zombie will recognize its former relatives and friends when it turns back into a human."

Chu Sheng followed closely behind Liu Yunshu and whispered, "Sister, I can sense the energy of the Origin Returning Agent. If it goes out of control, I can suppress it."

The clinical trial was scheduled for the next morning. The isolation ward was reinforced with three layers. Liu Yunshu and Bai Shuliu observed from the control room, while Qin Zheng, Li Xin, and Chu Sheng guarded outside the ward.

When the first dose of the Origin Agent was injected into the female zombie who had once been an elementary school teacher, everyone held their breath.

The female zombie struggled violently at first, her roars shaking the glass and causing the dark green mist around her to churn wildly.

As the warm golden energy spread, the mist gradually dissipated, her movements became slower and slower, and her cloudy eyes slowly became clear.

A dozen minutes later, she stopped struggling, slumped down in the isolation pod, slowly raised her hand, looked at her fingertips that were no longer dry and black, and tears suddenly fell:

"I...I remember you, Kobayashi, you were my student before."

A young team member outside the cabin instantly teared up, nodding with a choked voice, "Teacher Zhang, it's me! We've finally waited for you!"

The experiment was a great success!

The next two zombies also successfully returned to human form. Although their bodies were still very weak, their consciousness was completely clear, and they could even accurately recall their memories before they became zombies.

The news spread throughout the base like a spring breeze.

Instructor Lin was so excited that he paced around his office several times before immediately making a decision:

"Expand the treatment area! Prioritize treating zombies who have immediate family or close friends in the base! Let everyone see with their own eyes that hope has truly arrived!"

Soon, the "source return agent" began to be used on a small scale and in an orderly manner.

One by one, the "patients" were cured, walked out of the isolation area, and embraced their relatives and friends who had been waiting for them for many years, bursting into tears.

For the first time in the long-suppressed base, cheers and cries of pure joy, not stemming from a victory in battle, rang out.

As the production scale of the "Return Agent" gradually expands, the healing operation radiates outward from within the base.

More and more survivor settlements received medical supplies, and the long-lost sounds of normal life began to resound in the silent cities.

The heavy gloom of the apocalypse seemed to be gradually dispelled and penetrated by these warm and steadfast golden rays of light.

And Liu Yunshu's journey through time continues.