Zombie Queen transmigration into a book-Chapter 157: His face was epic

Zoey felt the temperature was a bit higher than the top. She rubbed her cold fingers together and blocked the yawn escaping her lips.

"Do you have an extra sweater? I can give you the one I haven’t worn yet," Alex asked when he noticed her flushed face and watery eyes.

She looked fragile, unlike the tough men like them who could endure the harsh weather for days.

He expected her to complain, but surprisingly, she endured quietly without a word of discontent. So he couldn’t help but picture his cute cousin in her place, and naturally, he took extra care of Zoey.

Zoey hesitated for a moment before she nodded with a grateful smile. "If it doesn’t bother you, I’ll gladly take it."

"When we get back, I’ll give it to you," Alex responded before joining the others as they headed deeper into the forest to hunt for breakfast.

Zoey followed them slowly, but she stopped when she reached the small stream.

She sat on the boulder, staring out at the glittering stream surface with a lost expression, feeling that life was unpredictable.

In the past, she was part of a team that, unfortunately, disbanded after the dungeon test. Being the only one among the five to get a beast egg caused tensions to form in their interactions.

The others began to doubt themselves, and that doubt slowly turned into envy, fracturing their relationship until she felt uncomfortable around them—especially when she was with her beast.

As the leader, she tried to ease the awkwardness, going so far as to retake the dungeon test to help them succeed. Instead of appreciating her effort, they started blaming her for their failure and doing too much.

A tired sigh escaped her lips as memories of their angry, envious faces flashed through her mind—she had tried her best, but just couldn’t make it work. They couldn’t go back to how things were, so she disbanded the team.

After that, she went on this mission and met that woman. "Puti!" she spat out in hatred, feeling her blood boil at the thought of Selina. Someone she had carried on her beast, helped, and saved multiple times, betrayed her at the moment she needed help the most.

Her actions nearly caused Zoey to lose faith in humanity, making her believe that no one deserved help. Luckily, she met these five cousins, or she wouldn’t have known how she could survive alone on this new, frightening surface.

"Pray you never cross my path in this life, or I would kill you myself,’’ Zoey swore through gritted teeth, staring at the stream with murderous intent as if Selina was right in front of her at that moment.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her mind before standing up, her gaze fixed on her beast, which was watching vigilantly at the stream rippling in the breeze.

"Mint, stop looking at those razor fish, they only come out at night." She called out to her beast, a flash of fear flickering in her gaze when she thought about those fish.

Mint growled in response; its eyes filled with reluctance as it looked at the stream. It had planned to hunt for its meal, and those deadly but delicious fish were at the top of its menu.

"Go hunt somewhere else; I need to take a bath before they come back. Shoo." Zoey patted its head and waved for it to leave.

Mint whimpered softly, pleading with its owner to let it stay, hoping it could catch a fish. "No, out!’’ Zoey said firmly, kicking its butt to signal it to move as she started to undress.

After successfully chasing Mint away, she entered the water cautiously. Although she had noticed the fish’s pattern, she didn’t dare relax for a second, and she couldn’t swim well, so she planned to stay in the shallow areas.

She took her toiletries out of her ring, and within five minutes, she finished bathing—too stressed, keeping her eye open while washing her face, fearing something might pop out.

"I should have let Mit stand guard while I bathed... this was the most never-wrecking bath ever," Zoey muttered to herself as she quickly put on her clothes. She froze when she caught a flash of silver from the stream.

Zoey zipped her trousers and moved closer to the stream to get a clear look; upon seeing the palm-sized but large fish swimming lazily, she broke out in cold sweat.

"Damn the razor fish." She swore, but realizing it was only one and not a school, her fear lessened slightly. Zoey looked around for a stick to lure it closer; using her powers on it might alert more dangerous creatures nearby to her presence.

She found a sturdy stick behind the boulder where she sat and moved closer to the stream, holding the stick out toward the unaware fish.

The fish eyed the stick and swam away, clearly not interested, but Zoey poked it several times until the fish snapped. It opened its mouth and bit down on the stick with its milky white fang-like teeth.

Zoey’s eyes flashed, and she quickly thrust the stick forward. Although she was quick, it wasn’t quick enough—one-third of the stick had already been bitten through, and the remains floated on the water like a cloud of sand.

She gulped at the fish’s ferocity, grateful that she wasn’t in the stream when it swarm to the surface. She continued luring the fish forward, and when it reached the shore, she slammed the remaining stick down hard on its head—knocking it out cold.

"Huh? They’ve started coming out during the day." Daniel’s sudden words nearly made Zoey scream in fright.

She pressed her hand against her pounding chest and turned to face Daniel, who looked surprised at the fish she was reaching for.

"I caught only this one as soon as I finished showering. I don’t think it’s safe for us to keep using this stream. We don’t know when more might swim out and catch us off guard," Zoey suggested as she grabbed the fish by the tail with both hands.

Daniel looked out at the quiet stream and the fish in her hands. "But this fish is a good source of food; we can’t abandon this stream yet." He didn’t fully agree with her words.

The fish here were too good to give up, but he could still look for another water source they could use.

"I’ll explore the area for another water source. If I don’t find one, then we’ll have to keep using this stream. One of us can stand guard whenever someone wants to use it."

Zoey listened as she took out her knife to gut the fish. "Alright, I’ll help you search. Were you guys able to hunt any beast?" she asked, turning to him and just now noticing his hands were stained with blood and dirt.

"Yeah, it’s a big one, haha... Marvin is in charge of washing the meat today. Serves him right for placing that bet." Daniel chuckled, his eyes shining with victory from winning today’s bet.

Zoey was confused for a moment before she understood what he was talking about, and her face showed surprise. "That bet is still on? I thought it was for whoever kills the most dungeon monsters."

Daniel, washing his hands beside the stream, turned at her words. "Marvin was the one who changed the rules today—and the one who lost... ha, classic." He nearly toppled into the water from a sudden fit of laughter.

"Hahaha... his face was epic, I can’t... hahaha..." Daniel had to sit back on the grass and laugh with abandon.

Zoey’s lips curled into a smile, touched by his genuine happiness.

Marvin, who was heading to the stream at that moment, stopped in his tracks, unwilling to move forward and be mocked by him.

"You started it," Alex commented at the side and nudged him toward the stream. The rest couldn’t help smiling at Marvin’s embarrassed, utterly defeated expression.

The morning passed peacefully, and they returned to the dungeon to begin their hunt, while urging Adrain to have a successful space year to connect with the Oasis dungeon.