Chapter 44: Human Nature

Luffy led the way forward, towering ancient trees everywhere in sight. They continued southward for several days, until in the distance, a cluster of buildings came into view. The area was teeming with zombies, their guttural roars echoing through the air.

Among the structures were hotels, guesthouses, inns, and restaurants. Luffy and his group had reached the outskirts of Jiuzhou City. Skyscrapers loomed overhead, but a deathly stillness hung over everything.

“We’ve been traveling for days now, eating on the run and sleeping in the open. Let’s find a place to rest,” Luffy suggested quietly as he surveyed the scene ahead.

“There are a lot of zombies around the outskirts of Jiuzhou City. We need to be careful when we move in, or else we’ll attract too many and it’ll be a nightmare to clear them out,” Liu Yanmeng said seriously to Luffy and the others.

“Understood,” Zeng Hongsen nodded.

“I know Jiuzhou City better than anyone here,” Ma Bi volunteered. “I worked a summer job around here before and have toured most of the city with friends. There’s a really nice restaurant nearby—seven stories tall, great environment. If the people inside are all dead, it could be a good spot to rest.”

“My dad works in the city center. I wonder if he’s still alive…” Ma Bi added, a note of worry in his voice.

“If he made it to the safe zones controlled by the Wang or Li families, he should be alive,” Luffy said, patting Ma Bi’s shoulder. He hadn’t seen his own parents in a long time, and the longing weighed on him.

“He should be,” Ma Bi replied with a nod.

“Then lead the way,” Luffy said softly. Maybe there’d be something edible in the restaurant, too—he was sick of roast meat every day.

Under Ma Bi’s guidance, the group silently cleared out a few zombies blocking their path and arrived in front of the restaurant. The main entrance was tightly locked; there was no way in. The place was indeed luxurious, though the ground out front was uneven and battered, evidence that zombies had been there before. The restaurant doubled as a lodging house, so there were probably guests staying upstairs.

“Anyone have a wire? I can pick this lock,” Ma Bi said with a grin.

“That’s easy,” Zeng Hongsen replied, handing over a piece of wire he’d found nearby, keeping a wary eye out for approaching zombies.

Ma Bi straightened the wire and inserted it into the lock, twisting a few times until—click—the door swung open.

A cold, gloomy air greeted them from inside.

Luffy stepped in first and immediately saw a pile of white bones in one corner—a pair of corpses, by the look of them, emitting a foul, sickening stench.

Everyone froze in shock.

“Someone died in here,” Zeng Hongsen remarked, surprised. The two hadn’t even turned into zombies—they’d just died outright, which was baffling.

Luffy pressed on, heading up to the second floor. The others followed, closing the door behind them. The rooms upstairs were quite nice, only dusty from disuse. Luffy checked each room on the second floor, but found no one. The third, fourth, and fifth floors were the same—completely deserted.

Returning downstairs, Luffy spotted a plate of food on a table in the restaurant—a dish of stir-fried pork with cucumber, still steaming and fragrant, as though freshly prepared.

Ma Bi couldn’t resist—he picked up a piece and took a bite. “Mmm, the meat is so tender. Delicious.”

Zeng Hongsen, tempted, followed suit.

Luffy, however, merely smiled. Something about the meat struck him as odd. Activating his Samsara Eye, he saw into the large kitchen not far away, where four chefs were at work.

One was sharpening a knife.

Another was slicing open a man’s abdomen.

The remaining two conversed:

“That stir-fried pork with cucumber turned out great. Used the flesh of that twenty-year-old,” said Chen Gedan, grinning wickedly with a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“Ha… In the apocalypse, monsters roam outside, but we have all this human meat. I wonder how long it’ll last us,” Chen Lijian shook his head. “I’m going to use that guy’s belly to make sticky rice sausage later. Should be tasty.”

“I’d like to try some too!” Chen Gedan nodded.

The head chef, a middle-aged man in a chef’s coat, finished sharpening his knife and stood up. “Drag that one over here. I’ll kill her while she’s still alive—the meat’s fresher that way.”

“No, please… I beg you…” A bloodied woman, suspended in mid-air, pleaded for her life. She’d clearly been toyed with and, being rather plain, had not piqued their interest.

“If you looked as pretty as Chen Xiang, we wouldn’t be butchering you for human meat buns,” the head chef, Li Jian, cackled madly.

Luffy’s eyes went cold. These men were truly inhuman, doing something so vile.

“Enjoying the meat?” Luffy said to Zeng Hongsen and Ma Bi with a half-smile. “It’s human flesh.”

“I figured as much,” Liu Yanmeng replied with a similar smile.

Zeng Hongsen turned pale and gagged the moment he heard Luffy and Liu Yanmeng’s words. The realization that he’d just eaten human flesh made him retch violently.

Both he and Ma Bi vomited up the contents of their stomachs.

Suddenly, two chefs emerged from the kitchen, alerted by the commotion outside. They froze in shock at the sight of over thirty heavily armed people standing before them.

“Who… who are you?” Chen Lijian gripped his knife tightly, nerves taut.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing in our restaurant?” Chen Gedan brandished his knife at Luffy’s group.

With a swift motion, guns and crossbows were trained on the two men, causing them to drop their knives in terror. The other two chefs soon appeared, equally astounded at the armed assembly.

“Eating your own kind—impressive,” Luffy said coldly, then addressed Zeng Hongsen and Ma Bi: “Take them out. I don’t want to see them for another second.”

“Yes,” they replied solemnly. How dare these men feed them human flesh—it was unforgivable.

In a flash, the two surged forward.

The four chefs tried to resist, but were no match for Zeng Hongsen and Ma Bi.

With a single stroke, Zeng Hongsen beheaded two chefs, blood spraying everywhere. Death was too easy a fate for such men.

Ma Bi dealt with the remaining two, cutting them down without mercy.

Their bodies collapsed, blood pooling beneath them. None managed even a scream.

Just like that, the four were wiped out.

“All right—free the surviving prisoners inside and bury the dead,” Luffy ordered.

With his Samsara Eye, he could see through the iron door in the kitchen: several women of good figure and attractive faces were imprisoned there, though they’d already been abused and now looked utterly despondent.

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A recommended read: “Life Kept by Zombies” by Egg Custard—superb!

(The end of this chapter.)