Self-Entertainment is Prohibited
Early the next morning, Xu Mo held his waist as he walked out of the room.
He finally understood why the original Xu Mo in this world had been unwilling to let Alyssa break up with her boyfriend. Beyond indulging a strange little quirk, there was another reason:
This woman was truly poisonous.
As a friend, occasional contact was fine. But as a girlfriend—given the original owner's weak health—he probably wouldn't have lasted more than a year.
---
On the deck of the yacht, Harry was staring blankly at the water.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned and saw Xu Mo approaching. After a moment's hesitation, he asked:
"Who are you?"
As the original owner's best friend, Harry could tell from less than a day's interaction that the person before him was no longer the same Xu Mo he knew.
Xu Mo's expression didn't change. He wasn't surprised that Harry had noticed—after all, he hadn't bothered to hide it.
"It doesn't matter who I am," Xu Mo said calmly. "What matters is that I have no intention of harming you."
Harry looked lonely at those words. That he had risked his life to save Xu Mo proved he truly had seen the original owner as his best friend.
"Can you… help me?" Harry finally asked.
"Speak."
"Can you send me to a deserted island?"
Harry suspected Xu Mo had this ability—after all, he could appear and vanish silently. The yacht's fuel would barely cover a few hundred nautical miles, and there were no habitable islands nearby.
"Sure," Xu Mo nodded. "That's indeed the safest option now."
He snapped his fingers, and a space door slowly opened beside them.
On the other side, Bell was chopping a tree with a white bone knife. Hearing the noise, he turned and saw Xu Mo. A smile spread across his face.
"Hi!" Bell greeted, clearly content with his island life.
Half an hour later, the space door closed.
From Harry, Xu Mo learned that his parents had died a year ago, and he had no remaining family. Choosing to live on the island made sense. Xu Mo left them all useful supplies from the yacht—enough food for months. By the time they finished it, the zombies might already be cleared out.
But once Harry was gone, Xu Mo faced a dilemma:
What should he do with Alyssa?
Abandoning her wasn't an option. He wasn't cruel enough to simply discard her.
After some hesitation, he decided: a devil's contract. At least then, her existence would have value.
He returned to the bedroom. The sound of the door opening stirred Alyssa awake. She looked at Xu Mo, posing seductively.
"Honey, do you want some morning exercise?" she purred.
Xu Mo rubbed his forehead. She looked less like a magic material and more like a succubus.
"Sit down. I have something important to tell you."
He explained the devil's contract.
"The choice is yours. Sign in advance, or not at all."
Alyssa's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Yes, of course! Hurry, I can't wait!"
The contract sank into Xu Mo's brow. After ten seconds, Alyssa frowned.
"Is that it?"
"What else did you expect?"
"At least a clothes-explosion or something!"
Xu Mo sighed and tossed her a black magic tome.
"Study it slowly. I'm leaving."
He opened a space door and stepped through. Alyssa barely noticed, flipping open the book eagerly. Licking her lips at the teleportation skill she had just witnessed, she whispered:
"Wow… now that's a great way to entertain yourself."
---
Kenmary Park
The undead had stood guard all night without fatigue, still following Xu Mo's orders.
The Dark Book floated before him. He turned to the page describing the auxiliary magic circle for the Undead Scourge.
Studying the intricate lines, Xu Mo magnified the pattern tens of thousands of times, sketching its outline on the ground. Then, using liquid mithril he had refined earlier, he carefully traced the formation.
One mistake would ruin everything.
All morning, Xu Mo concentrated without pause. Near noon, the final line joined the others.
The completed circle glowed purple, energy flowing along its veins before fading into silence.
Xu Mo smiled. Success.
At this rate, completing all the arrays would take three or four days. Sitting cross-legged, he decided to rest and check on Kim Tae-hee's progress.
Closing his eyes, he sensed two glowing points in his consciousness—the devil's contracts at work. They belonged to Kim Tae-hee and Alyssa.
He reached out to the more distant one, and a scene unfolded in his mind.
---
West of Suwon City, South Korea
Kim Tae-hee rode a towering skeleton horse, over two meters tall, followed by fifty skeleton soldiers. Their frames had grown by nearly a third, their bones shining like polished jade.
She guided the horse carefully, keeping noise to a minimum.
Last night, she had led her undead to purge an entire university of zombies. Fortunately, the campus was far from Suwon's urban center, so the noise hadn't drawn more hordes.
After the battle, she searched the corpses—no sign of her sister Jenny.
Bloodstains at the school gate suggested a car had left westward when the outbreak began. Two or three hours along that road led to the sea.
Jenny hadn't been found nearby. Tae-hee prayed her sister had left with the fleeing survivors.
Without rest, she pressed on, following the single road that bypassed the city and reached the beach. Less than thirty kilometers remained, but no trace of the vehicle yet. Anxiety gnawed at her.
---
Outskirts of Cheonan City – Less than Ten Kilometers from the Coast
A bus stood broken down by the roadside.
A short, powerfully built man kicked the deflated rear tire with a curse.
"Shibal! Damn thing breaks down now of all times!"
Several college students in school uniforms climbed off the bus.
"Mr. Ki-chul… what do we do?"
Visit patreon.com/Akeyno to get 30+ chapters