Chapter 108: Can They Still Be Called Human?

"We are good people. How do you feel?" Watching the female zombie tremble, Du Yun suddenly felt a pang of heartache and couldn't help asking softly.

"G-good people?" Hearing the gentleness in Du Yun's voice, the female zombie turned back. Seeing the kindness in her eyes and sensing no malice, she asked tentatively.

"Yes, I won't hurt you. How are you feeling now?" Du Yun continued to ask. The female zombie kept her head bowed, and since Du Yun couldn't see her face, she could only sense her fear.

"I feel strange... so hungry, so very hungry." The female zombie suddenly looked up, revealing blood-red eyes and an expression of desperate urgency. She reached out toward Du Yun, but upon noticing her right arm was missing, she shrieked in terror and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Blood-red eyes... she is still a zombie, but her expressions and movements are no different from a human's," Du Yun said, observing the woman. "With intelligence, they are no longer mere zombies. But can they still be considered human?"

After Du Yun said this, Ji Yun’s body visibly stiffened. He looked down at his own hands. Having experienced this transformation process and regained part of his own emotions and intellect, he found himself wondering: was he a zombie or a human? His eyes were filled with confusion.

"Perhaps they can be considered a new race," the Leader said after a long moment of contemplation.

"True. Their bodies are zombie, but their minds are human. Such a combination is strange, but not entirely impossible to accept." Du Yun nodded, looking at the unconscious female zombie on the floor, still feeling a heavy, stifling sensation in her heart.

"When they wake up, what will they eat?" Du Yun couldn't help but wonder. If they possessed human minds, having to kill each other or feed on other humans would surely be even harder to accept than simply being a mindless zombie.

"Hungry. Want to eat!" As if sensing Du Yun’s thoughts, Ji Yun, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke.

"Eat? Alright!" Du Yun had been looking for a solution to this problem, and since Ji Yun had brought it up, she couldn't refuse. Honestly, after ten days in the zombie world, her palate was bored to death; she needed to make something to eat herself.

Du Yun secretly thought to herself that if she could return home, she would harvest plenty of vegetables from her garden to store in her storage grid, and sell some items to buy meat, so she wouldn't have to keep gnawing on bread and nutrient paste until she felt sick.

"Douzhi, does the starship have a kitchen?" The Blue Light starship hadn't been provisioned with humans in mind, so Du Yun didn't hold much hope, but asking didn't cost anything, so she had Douzhi check.

"Yes, it is nearby." As Douzhi spoke, a map appeared before Du Yun's eyes. Following the arrow on the display, she quickly located the kitchen.

"Phew, everything is here!" Du Yun was relieved to see a spacious kitchen nearly a hundred square meters in size. Even if she couldn't find small items like cutting boards, she was thrilled. She had plenty of sundries in her storage grid; she just didn't want to squat on the floor somewhere to cook.

Pulling pots, pans, and utensils from her storage grid along with some supplies, she began to plan her meal. Just as she was busy organizing, she heard a voice behind her.

"Are you cooking?" Ji Yun’s eyes were wide, staring at Du Yun with curiosity. With that look of a curious baby, one could hardly see the ruthless or arrogant side he had shown before.

If not for his blood-red eyes and the distinct energy fluctuations of a high-level zombie, Du Yun would have mistaken him for some cute toddler.

Yes, she had said cute toddler. Ji Yun’s presence was usually so overwhelming that it was easy to overlook his appearance. Now that Du Yun had relaxed and looked at his face, she realized this zombie was actually quite handsome—with fair skin, large eyes, a sculpted nose, and rosy lips, he looked like a young, stylish, and beautiful boy.

"Yes, I'm cooking." Du Yun couldn't hide her storage grid anyway, so she didn't bother covering it up. Seeing that the supplies included rice, flour, meat, and vegetables, her enthusiasm for cooking surged.

Du Yun enjoyed cooking, but she didn't want to be anyone’s servant, so she only considered portions for herself, the Leader, Slim, and Da Zhuang, plus the two high-level zombies and Qingguo and Taozi. Counting them up, there were ten people. She knew how much food that required, and the thought alone was daunting.

Still, it was just an experiment and a way to improve their diet, she comforted herself, and began to prep the meal. To feed so many people, she had to cook large quantities. She decided on a spicy dry pot—one big pot to handle it all!

She got to work. There were plenty of vegetables suitable for the dish: potatoes, wood ear mushrooms, regular mushrooms, and lotus root were all washed, trimmed, and sliced.

For meat, she had beef, pork, chicken wings, and cans of luncheon meat from the general store. Looking at all the ingredients, she secretly marveled at the abundance of the starship’s provisions; back in 3016, she hadn't eaten this well in an entire year!

With plenty of meat and vegetables, she decided to make even more. She quickly steamed a giant pot of rice, braised a pot of potato and beef brisket, fried a batch of chicken wings, and stirred up a massive amount of spicy dry pot. She even found time to sauté some greens and make an egg drop soup.

"Dinner is served!" After finishing, Du Yun brought the dishes to the large table in the kitchen. When she turned to call Ji Yun and the others, she was startled to find a whole group of people already swarming the table, staring at her with undisguised impatience.

"Eat up!" Feeling a bit unnerved by their gazes, she hurried to say the word. Immediately, the humans and high-level zombies alike ignored everything else, their chopsticks flying as they dove into the food.

"Hey, hey, hey! Being hungry is one thing, but you two zombies—why are you eating so fast!" Du Yun thought to herself, watching their chopsticks move so fast they were practically a blur, before quickly joining the feeding frenzy herself.