"CHESTNUT, NOW!"

BBZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!

Chestnut discharged an unknown amount of voltage to the bronze statue. The statue zapped all of the zombies that touched it. The electricity and heat even got to the ones that weren't directly in contact with it standing nearby.

Yang Zhang had safely landed on a branch, thanks to Little Ivy, but Chestnut was still there.

Yang Zhang saw Chestnut continuously discharging electricity until the bronze cow turned boiling red from the heat and electricity. He also saw how the bronze cow started steaming up, so there must be something inside the stomach.

Sensing danger, Yang Zhang yelled, "CHESTNUT! STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH!"

But Chestnut continued to discharge electricity, and the bronze cow statue was creating way too much steam from the inside. Fearing the worst might happen, Yang Zhang quickly pulled the vine coiling around Chestnut and instructed Little Ivy, "Ivy! Pull in your vine! Save Chestnut!"

"Vii!"

Zrrrt!

Little Ivy retracted the vine attached to Chestnut's body.

Yang Zhang skillfully caught the squirrel, who was still releasing electricity, "ARRRGHHH!"

His grip tightened on another branch while hugging Chestnut tightly. It felt like his body was burned from the inside when he was zapped with such high voltage, but he didn't want to let Chestnut go.

Chestnut heard the voice of its master, and when it finally opened its eyes, it saw that it had accidentally zapped Yang Zhang.

"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!" Chestnut stopped discharging immediately, but Yang Zhang had lost his strength.

"I—It's okay, bud. You're doing great," Yang Zhang tried to force a smile, though he was in pain. "G—Good thing that Little Ivy cannot get electrified…."

"Squeak!"

"Vii!"

Yang Zhang had lost his footing, but Little Ivy quickly wrapped four vines around his body, securing him to the branch before he could fall.

Yang Zhang felt his entire body go numb, and he couldn't move. Only able to look straight amidst his blurry vision, he could vaguely see the bronze cow had turned boiling red with steam continuously coming out from the nose.

The zombies had all exploded due to the electric discharge or were melted by the heat.

But that wasn't the main show.

The main show was when the steam escaped from the nose and every other hole on the statue, and…

BOOOOM!!

The bronze statue exploded.

Yang Zhang closed his eyes when he heard the medium sized explosion, and the heat that followed burned his skin.

…

…

He closed his eyes for a good while until he deemed it was safe enough.

When Yang Zhang opened his eyes again, he saw the bronze cow statue was broken in half, the pieces blazing. The zombies in the village square were either exploded into bits by the initial explosion or were cremated by the fire.

Yang Zhang guessed about half of the zombies in this darned village had been obliterated.

"How… how could the bronze statue explode?" Yang Zhang asked himself. He only expected the statue to get hot and zap any nearby zombies. But it went full Michael Bay and exploded spectacularly.

Yang Zhang had suspected something was inside the bronze statue because it started steaming when Chestnut zapped it with too much voltage.

"Squeak…"

"Vii…"

"Hehe, it's fine. Let's just wait until I can move again, okay?" Yang Zhang smiled at Chestnut and Little Ivy, especially Chestnut, who looked guilty.

The zombies stood bye in silence while watching the fires engulf many of their fellows. They waited until the flame calmed down and started throwing the heads of the fallen ones to the inferno inside the bronze statue, like an offering.

They threw in the heads of more than 100 zombies that had been wiped out by the explosion, leaving only the ones that had turned into ashes.

"Ah, welp… that's 100 Brain Beads wasted…." Yang Zhang looked at the pile of disintegrating heads that had been thrown at the bronze statue. They burned quickly, so Yang Zhang guessed that the Brain Beads inside were most likely destroyed in the process.

"These zombies are weird, don't you think so, Chestnut, Ivy?"

"Squeak?"

"Vii?"

"I mean, they obviously ambushed us, and when we escaped and killed many of their zombie folks, they stopped chasing me to throw those heads into the fire," Yang Zhang said. "Look at them now. They are bowing their heads in silence…."

"I think these zombies are far more intelligent than what we found in the city. There must be something in this untouched village…."

Yang Zhang, Little Ivy, and Chestnut waited until the zombies finished their silent offering. Then like magic, they turned around and returned to their respective houses like normal humans.

They were still zombies, though. A few of them still looked at Yang Zhang sitting on the tree branch and started salivating like regular zombies looking at normal humans, but they eventually walked away without fighting.

What they did was just too appalling to Yang Zhang. But for now, all he could do was rest a bit.

After taking a break for more than an hour, he could finally feel his body again, and he requested that Ivy release him and put him down.

Little Ivy did that and comfortably hid inside Yang Zhang's sleeve again. She had built up a little courage after what happened, but she was still afraid when she thought the zombies might come back.

"Thank you so much, Ivy, and you too, Chestnut."

"Vii!"

"Squeak!"

Yang Zhang looked around cautiously to ensure he wouldn't get ambushed again. Quickly he ran towards the still blazing bronze statue. Unfortunately, he couldn't retrieve the Brain Beads from the bronze statue anymore because the fire destroyed them. The Mana Bead inside the ability user's head was also irretrievable because the explosion destroyed it.

"Aish, really bad luck, ah," Yang Zhang complained. He searched the ground to see if at least one or two were left over that he could keep.

Chestnut felt terrible for destroying so many chances to obtain Brain Beads, so it jumped out of Yang Zhang's shoulder and started searching inside the charred zombie heads on the ground.

Then it started digging in one and was actually able to pull out an intact Brain Bead. When it searched again it found a second!

"Squeak! Squeak!" Chestnut put the two Brain Beads in its mouth and ran towards Yang Zhang.

"What is it, Chestnut?"

Chestnut dropped them inside Yang Zhang pocket, and it happily nestled inside his jacket again.

"Squeak!"

"Oh! You found two Brain Beads!?" Yang Zhang was happy that they had these two Brain Beads that Chestnut found that they could bring back to the hut. "You're the best, Chestnut! Now let's just get the fuck out of this place before—"

Yang Zhang froze on the spot when his gaze landed on a teenage boy sitting on a tree not far from his position.

The moment their eyes met, the teenage boy smiled and said, "You're the first one to survive here."