Chapter 142: I Am Sophia!

"Carmen."

Fredrinn and Rose exchanged a subtle glance, having to fight down a genuine urge to laugh.

This was easily one of the weirdest sibling dynamics they had encountered so far.

It felt as if some mad scientist had conducted a bizarre experiment, successfully managing to swap the maturity and intellect of the elder and younger sister right down the middle.

The elder one, Sophia, was carrying herself like a spoiled brat who had accidentally stumbled upon her father’s private wine cabinet and drank until her brain turned to mush.

Meanwhile, the younger one, Carmen, behaved like a grimly responsible child left home alone for the very first time, clinging desperately to the solemn duty her parents had laid upon her small shoulders.

Yet, no matter how comical Fredrinn found the mismatched duo, he had zero intention of antagonizing them.

Sophia had already demonstrated that she was exceptionally strong and capable, and despite her pint-sized appearance, Carmen was clearly not as simple as an ordinary eight-year-old girl.

If Fredrinn had to make a calculated guess, he figured Carmen’s abilities might even be more busted and terrifying than Sophia’s flashy botanical magic.

At least, that was how these tropes usually played out. There was always the obscenely gifted younger sibling living beside the chaotic elder sister.

On top of that, Carmen’s glowing azure eyes had locked unerringly onto Rose earlier while Sophia was busy engaging Selene, and also effortlessly tracking Fredrinn’s invisible sound frequencies before they landed.

It could have been sheer coincidence, but Fredrinn was too seasoned to leave things to blind chance.

"Myself Fredrinn, and this is Rosaline—or Rose, if you will," Fredrinn introduced smoothly, maintaining a polite, easygoing smile that showed not a trace of disappointment over Sophia cutting her floral demonstration short.

Rose didn’t even bother to offer a verbal greeting.

She merely gave a languid nod against his chest, tucking her face closer into the crook of his neck.

Sophia and Carmen might have been formidable, high-value Awakened, but to Rose, their existence carried zero personal weight.

As long as she was glued to her hubby’s side, everyone else in this ruined world was nothing more than background noise.

"You both are married?" Sophia asked, her slurred tone laced with genuine, wide-eyed awe.

She blinked repeatedly, her watery blue gaze bouncing between Fredrinn’s handsome, youthful face and Rose’s bewitching features and impossibly voluptuous curves.

Her eyelids twitched with a deep, silent ache. ’Fuck, she looks like a walking human corpse, and yet she’s getting laid before me... The universe is so fucking unfair!’ she wept internally, feeling an overwhelming urge to throw a childish tantrum and curse the sky.

Fortunately, she held the bitterness inside, dimly recognizing that not even an entire bottle of high-proof vodka could excuse throwing a pity party over a zombie girl’s love life in the middle of a monster-infested corridor.

"Kind of," Fredrinn replied with a noncommittal shrug, choosing not to delve into the complicated web of his harem dynamics just yet.

After all, if he managed to recruit Sophia into their survival group, she would inevitably witness the reality soon enough.

And if she refused or went her own way... well, there was no reason to waste his breath explaining his private affairs to a passerby anyway.

"Oho~ Secretive~" Sophia giggled softly, instantly interpreting his vague reply as the tragic silence of a forbidden romance.

She had spent too many pre-apocalypse weekends binge-watching soapy rom-coms and late-night dramas, so her alcohol-addled mind eagerly filled in the blanks, painting a picture of star-crossed lovers braving an impossible bond against all societal odds.

Before she could open her mouth to yap further about her wild assumptions, however, a series of rhythmic thuds filtered through the corridor.

Their ears picked up a lively symphony of ascending footsteps.

The cadence was far too light, quick, and synchronized to belong to the undead, as it was common knowledge that low-tier zombies were clumsy, uncoordinated, and retarded as fuck.

There was no way in hell a group of corpses could scale concrete stairwells on their own with such brisk, purposeful momentum—not without tripping over themselves, at least.

The party wasn’t left guessing for long.

A familiar figure soon bounded up the final flight of stairs with a bright, beaming smile, practically skipping over every other step along the way.

"Freddy~ I brought all the civilians to the second floor, and they are currently dividing themselves amongst the roo...m...s?" Jenny announced happily, her cheery voice losing steam toward the end as her amber eyes dropped toward Charlie.

The hulking brute was still kneeling stoically on the bloody carpet, his massive hands and heavy knees pinning three squirming, snarling zombies beneath his frame.

The exact instant the pinned creatures caught scent of the blonde beauty’s fresh, living flesh, they renewed their frenzied thrashing, snapping their rotten jaws in desperate hunger.

Alas for them, Jenny was a fully Awakened combatant in her own right.

Without a hint of panic, she casually side-stepped the reaching claws, sliding effortlessly past their flailing limbs to step onto the third-floor landing.

Fredrinn stood right where she had left him, Rose resting contentedly against his chest with a faint, sleepy smile, while Selene held Fredrinn’s broken blade at the ready—relaxed, yet poised to defend her master at a second’s notice.

Then, Jenny’s eyes shifted toward the stairwell, widening as she spotted the green-haired stranger lounging haphazardly on the tiled steps along with a young little girl.

"Wowww~ Another human! Heyyyy! I am Sophia!" Sophia greeted excitedly, sitting straight up and waving her hand in the air like an overeager golden retriever.

After dealing with an emotionless little sister and a countless number of zombies ever since the apocalypse started, seeing a gorgeous, lively blonde human around her own age felt like an absolute breath of fresh air.

At least it was better than gazing at the handsome young man in front of her, embracing his zombified lover and making her feel very single all over again.