The waiting was torture.
No word came from the mall. The silent warehouse was filled with the sound of nervous breathing and the occasional sob.
Lin Feng could not check on the expedition. Z-001's view was blocked by the mall's walls. The zombie waited on the roof, a silent sentinel with nothing to report.
He was blind. And he was exposed.
Mei did not approach him again. But her presence was a constant pressure. He felt her eyes on him every time he moved. When he went to get water. When he pretended to sleep. She was watching, piecing together a puzzle with him at the center.
He had to act. He could not just wait for her to figure it out.
His mind raced. His options were bad.
Option 1: Confess a partial truth. Tell her he had a minor clairvoyance skill. A weak system ability to see glimpses far away. It would explain his knowledge, but seemed too convenient.
Option 2: Run. Abandon the settlement. Take his zombies and disappear into the city to build alone. It was the safest move for his secret. It was also a death sentence for the public Lin Feng, who needed human shelter.
Option 3: Create a bigger mystery. Redirect her suspicion away from him entirely.
Option three was the only viable path. He needed a decoy.
He focused on his system map. His assets. Z-002 was in the factory. Z-003 was back at the construction site.
He needed a new actor. A pattern of activity so strange, so clearly not human, that it would swallow Mei's suspicions.
He opened the Asset Production menu. His IP was 101. The cost for a new clone was 25. He had the points.
But he didn't need a new clone. He needed a show.
He commanded Z-003 at the construction site to cease farming. He gave it a new, simple task.
[Task: Object Transportation.]
[Target Object: 5 x Wooden Plank.]
[Destination: Rooftop of 44 Shennan Road (3.2km away).]
It was absurd. A zombie, carrying planks, walking miles across the city to leave them on a random roof. No reason. No logic.
It was the perfect red herring.
Z-003 dropped its gathered components. It picked up five planks from the site. It turned and began its long, shamble through the deserted streets.
The journey would take hours. The activity would be visible, in a slow, plodding way, to anyone watching the streets.
Lin Feng's next move was riskier. He needed a witness. Not Mei. Someone else.
He stood up. He walked toward the settlement's makeshift infirmary corner. An older woman named Auntie Zhu tended to a boy with a fever. She was kind. She was also a notorious gossip.
"Auntie Zhu," Lin Feng said, making his voice sound shaky. "I... I was on water duty earlier. At the broken pump on the west wall."
"Yes, yes?" she said, not looking up from cooling the boy's forehead.
"I saw something. In the streets. Far away, near the skyline." He let his eyes go wide. "It was... a figure. Walking. Very slow. It was carrying something. Long planks. On its back. Just walking."
Auntie Zhu paused. She looked at him. "A survivor? Carrying wood?"
"No," Lin Feng whispered, injecting genuine fear into his tone. "It didn't walk right. It shuffled. And it was alone. In the open. Where the monsters are."
Auntie Zhu's face paled. "A monster? Carrying planks?"
"I don't know what it was," Lin Feng said, shaking his head. "I just thought... people should know. To be careful."
He hurried away, back to his spot. The seed was planted.
Within an hour, the story had spread among the non-combatants. A strange, shuffling creature carrying construction materials. A new kind of mutant. An omen.
Lin Feng listened to the whispers. The fear was real. The mystery had a new, tangible shape. It was no longer a ghost that left no tracks. It was a thing you could see, a thing that did senseless things.
Mei heard the whispers too. He saw her questioning Auntie Zhu. He saw the frustration on her face as the old woman described the "plank-carrier demon." It didn't fit her theory of a clever, hidden benefactor. It sounded mindless. Alien.
She walked over to him again. Her suspicion was still there, but it was clouded with confusion.
"This thing you saw," she said. "Why was it carrying planks?"
"I don't know," Lin Feng said, meeting her eyes with practiced fear. "It wasn't running. It wasn't hunting. It was just... moving them. From one place to another. Like an ant."
"An ant," Mei repeated, the word tasting strange. She was a hunter of patterns. This was an anti-pattern. It made no strategic sense. "And you're sure it wasn't a person?"
"It moved wrong," Lin Feng insisted. "Its arms... they didn't swing. And the way it turned its head. It was empty."
Mei stared at him for a long moment. She was trying to reconcile the helpful nails with the mindless plank-carrier. They didn't match. Unless...
Her eyes narrowed. "Unless there's more than one mystery."
Lin Feng kept his face blank. Inside, he cheered. 'Yes. Think that. There are many mysteries. I am just the scared boy who sees them.'
Before she could probe further, a shout came from the gate.
"Contact! Someone's coming!"
It was the expedition.
The survivors rushed to the gate's viewing slits. Lin Feng pushed forward with the others.
A ragged group was stumbling across the final stretch toward the warehouse. They were fewer. They were bloody. They dragged two carts, not three. The carts were piled high with bulging sacks and plastic crates.
They had made it. They had loot.
But the cost was written on their faces. Lao Chen had a bloody bandage around his arm. Zhang Wei limped, his jacket torn. Of the twenty who left, only fourteen returned.
They crashed through the gate. The settlement erupted in a mix of cheers and cries for the missing.
Captain Luo was already directing people. "Get the wounded to Auntie Zhu! Unload the carts! Now!"
The carts were overturned. The bounty spilled out.
Canned food. Bags of rice. Bottles of water. Medical kits with red crosses. Soap. Batteries. It was a king's ransom in the apocalypse.
The mood in the warehouse shifted instantly. The despair lifted. They had food. They had medicine.
Lin Feng helped unload, his hands trembling with real emotion. He had helped make this happen. The nails, the rope, the distraction. He had a part in this survival.
As he hauled a crate of canned beans, Lao Chen grabbed his good arm.
"The nails," Lao Chen said, his voice raw. "They saved us. We barred a door with them. Held back a dozen of those things. You have good eyes, Lin Feng."
For a moment, Lin Feng felt a surge of pride. It was quickly crushed.
Zhang Wei was standing over the loot, directing his Union members to separate "the finder's share." His eyes, cold and calculating, scanned the celebrating crowd. They landed on Lin Feng, receiving praise from Lao Chen.
A dark, thoughtful look passed over Zhang Wei's face. Not gratitude. Appraisal.
Lin Feng had done too good a job. He had drawn the attention of two dangerous people.
Mei, who suspected he was connected to something hidden.
And now Zhang Wei, who might see him as a useful tool to control.
The food secured their stomachs. But Lin Feng's secret, and the dangers around it, had just grown larger.
He was standing on the edge of a knife. And the blade was sharpening on both sides.