With my current appearance, even with heavy makeup, I couldn't live alongside normal people.
Moreover, if I revealed that I possessed intelligence,
I might be captured and dissected for research.
It seems the original body's wish to learn about my parents' situation will have to be set aside for now. All I can do is try to survive within the zombie community and see if zombies can evolve, perhaps to a point where they resemble normal humans.
After seeing her own reflection, Ding Yun knew there was no hope of returning to human society in the short term.
However, fortunately, the zombies considered her one of their own. Surviving among them, apart from the unpleasant smell and the rather ugly and terrifying nature of the group, posed no other dangers.
Therefore, Ding Yun quickly accepted this outcome.
She then stood up and began to look for something to eat.
This was actually quite difficult. The difficulty wasn't in finding food, but in convincing herself to put things like steel bars and concrete into her mouth, and to ignore how unhygienic her hands were, covered in dust from being exposed to the air.
Fortunately, after the first time doing something.
The subsequent times became much easier to accept.
At worst, she could close her eyes, not look, and just eat.
Then, Ding Yun embarked on her journey of feasting. Yes, feasting, on steel bars, concrete, wires, copper wires, stainless steel, and the like.
Drinking oil, gasoline, diesel, and cooking oil.
Since zombies couldn't discern taste,
Ding Yun eventually managed to grudgingly accept this scenario and began to constantly try eating various things she could find and get her hands on, carefully observing which items contained the most energy and were the easiest to find.
And also the easiest to absorb and digest.
After a three-day period of feasting and trial-eating, Ding Yun discovered that the easiest things to find and digest were various oils. Almost every household could be searched for some oil, and cars on the road mostly contained some. Gas stations, supermarkets, and grain and oil stores had even more variety.
Next were various metals.
Steel products, alloy products, and the like, although harder to digest than oils, were actually easier to obtain.
After all, metal products were everywhere.
Even if all the metal products inside houses were consumed, the building materials of the houses themselves contained them.
Furthermore, precious metals like gold and silver contained immense energy, hundreds of times more than ordinary metals, but they were relatively scarce.
Finding them was more difficult.
They could serve as dessert or delicacies, but not as a staple food.
Besides these, things like wood and concrete had very little energy. Asphalt, roads, and bricks were also not good. Natural crystals and gemstones were similar to gold and silver, both being exceptions, containing substantial energy, no less than gold and silver.
However, their quantities were also very scarce.
Sometimes, only after ingesting and digesting them could one determine whether they were real crystals and gemstones or ordinary glass.
After tasting most of the things she could find in this manner, Ding Yun finalized her future diet: consuming various metals and drinking various oils, with gold, silver, and jewels as desserts and snacks.
Of course, eating these things wasn't without benefit. If there were no benefits, she wouldn't bother eating them, as zombies wouldn't starve to death in a short time.
With the digestive system modified by her golden finger, it could perfectly digest the consumed items into energy. Part of it would maintain the normal functioning of the zombie body, and another part, of course, would repair damage to the zombie body, as well as modify and evolve it.
After these days of feasting, Ding Yun had largely replenished the missing flesh on her body. To become more agile, stronger, and with the hope that multiple evolutions might make her resemble a normal person, Ding Yun naturally continued to diligently consume more metal and drink various oils.
Thus, in this largely uninhabited metropolis, Ding Yun, a peculiar zombie, wandered around collecting various metals, oils, and gold, silver, and jewels.
Fortunately, she had always been careful to conceal herself,
avoiding scattered survivors.
As a result, no living person noticed her.
After several more months, when all the survivors in the city had either fled or died, and the entire city carried no trace of living human presence, Ding Yun finally welcomed her fourth zombie metamorphosis.
During these months, she hadn't been idle.
Whenever she had time, she ate desperately.
And her efforts were rewarded. Countless metals and oils transformed into energy, becoming sustenance for evolution, aiding and promoting Ding Yun's repeated transformations.
During her first metamorphosis, Ding Yun felt her skin become as tough as oxhide. Although the zombie body's bones, muscles, and internal organs still lacked vitality, their hardness had significantly increased.
Additionally, her nervous system seemed to have undergone some changes.
She became more agile overall, and the crystal core in her mind grew larger and purer,
containing more energy.
The second metamorphosis was similar to the first, with improvements in various physical aspects and speed, but her appearance remained unchanged, still as ugly and terrifying.
It wasn't until the third metamorphosis that new changes emerged. The crystal core in her mind, originally transparent, suddenly turned milky white, and Ding Yun gained healing abilities. These were healing abilities that would directly kill zombies when used on them.
Using them on herself would also cause her harm, and wherever the ability flowed, it would cause damage. It was truly remarkable. For Ding Yun, a zombie, what could be called a healing ability?
It was more like a self-harm ability.
Sometimes, when Ding Yun observed the milky white crystal core in her mind with her psychic power, she felt inexplicably as if a bomb or a tumor had appeared in her brain. This ability was truly tormenting for a zombie.
Did the ability activation not consider the body's attributes?
Was it trying to emerge unstained from the mud?
But regardless, the healing ability had been activated, and Ding Yun dared not remove the crystal core. She had experimentally removed the crystal cores of other zombies, and those without crystal cores had died. Putting them back in was useless.
She didn't dare gamble on whether she would be an exception.
Therefore, after the third metamorphosis, Ding Yun could only try her best not to use her ability to avoid harming herself. Now, facing her fourth metamorphosis, Ding Yun was admittedly a bit nervous, fearing that the fourth metamorphosis would further enhance her ability.
The situation after that was truly hard to predict.
She hoped she wouldn't end up purifying herself.