MGZ 1

Chapter 1: Corpse Puppet

A zombie was wandering aimlessly down a desolate street.

As it moved along, a grin appeared on its face. The zombie had a pair of glowing red eyes that could send a chill down one’s spine and a trace of saliva could be seen hanging from its lips.

Not far from it was a small abandoned supermarket. Its glass doors were covered in brownish blood. Through the open glass doors one could vaguely see crooked shelves and scattered food.

Behind the supermarket’s door, there was a middle-aged male zombie ambling about. From his clothes, he was probably a supermarket employee.

The zombie slowly made its way to the supermarket. As it passed the middle-aged zombie, it pulled out a chopping knife, turned and forcefully chopped down on the middle-aged zombie’s neck.

A fresh stream of blood flew out and a headless zombie fell on the floor.

Following that, the strange zombie immediately pulled out a shopping bag from the counter and began to rapidly gather food…

“Phew…I’m dead tired…”

Inside a dark house, Ling Mo was sweating as he gave the shopping bag filled with daily necessities a satisfied look.

Sitting in front of him was the strange zombie from the supermarket. There wasn’t a hint of malice within the zombie’s gaze as it looked at Ling Mo. Instead, there might have even been some emptiness within it.

“It’s a lot better compared to a few days ago, it’s easier to control now.”

Ling Mo looked at the zombie and gave a slight smile.

Half a month ago, a new virus emerged and the world turned into a tragic slaughterhouse.

Countless people turned into zombies… To be precise, after being infected by the virus, they lost their sense of self and turned into monsters that only knew how to kill.

The remaining survivors hid like mice in various corners of the city to preserve their lives.

However, Ling Mo who was once a normal person found out that he could actually control zombies.

He could feel a faint connection between him and the zombies. The empty headed zombies were like puppets without any thoughts. He found that he could insert his thoughts into them, controlling their actions.

But the process of trial and error was an arduous one. He often lost control of the zombies, landing him in dangerous situations a few times.

As his experiments continued, Ling Mo managed to gained more control over the zombies. Not only was he able to consistently control the zombies, he could even make them walk around and help him collect daily necessities.

But his range of control was limited, which made Ling Mo a little depressed.

He felt like he was a zombie puppeteer, but the strings in his hands weren’t long enough and his technique was lacking.

However, the ability to live safely by way of controlling zombies was enough to make him feel satisfied. He decided to name the zombie he previously controlled “Corpse Puppet”.

Ling Mo also realized that whenever he tried to control Corpse Puppet, a violent wave of emotion would wash over him.

Whether this was a good or bad thing, he still wasn’t sure…

Recently Ling Mo had also managed gained a better understanding of a zombie’s characteristics. Unlike the zombies he knew of, these zombies weren’t the living dead. Instead, they were living people affected by the virus.

However although their body was still alive, their mind had been turned into that of a monster’s. They attacked the uninfected survivors and bit off their flesh, displaying shocking strength far beyond that of a normal human’s.

Having had their sense of reason destroyed by the virus, the zombies were filled with violent thoughts, turning them into executioners driven by their killing instinct.

To Ling Mo, these types of zombies were scarier than those found in games or movies. As they retained their five senses, they would react to any external stimuli, making it more difficult to deal with them

“The sun’ s going down, let’s call it a day.”

This residential area wasn’t safe, it was just a temporary shelter for Ling Mo while he controlled Corpse Puppet.

After stuffing the day’s haul into his backpack, Ling Mo shook off his headache and made his puppet stand up.

Even though Ling Mo had been using it for awhile now, he still felt a little strange when Corpse puppet stood close to him.

Even though Corpse Puppet didn’t emit any rotting smell like zombies in the movies, it still had a strong smell of blood. The virus had caused his face to turn pale as if it had been drained of blood and his eyes to glow red. Through its slightly opened mouth, one could see a strand of red meat hanging from its teeth.

Of course, it must have been leftovers after eating a human…

This zombie actually looked pretty decent. It was previously a seventeen or eighteen year old male youth. However, now it looked like an evil spirit.

“Let’s go…”

Ling Mo repressed his feelings of disgust and made Corpse Puppet walk downstairs.

Having Corpse Puppet lead the way didn’t mean that he was safe. Ling Mo still had to ensure he had a means to self-defense. To that end, Ling Mo held a sharp knife in his hand as he cautiously followed behind Corpse Puppet.

From his temporary shelter, he had to pass by a large street. He had crossed the street in the morning by using some firecrackers that he had found to cause a commotion in the opposite direction and attract the zombies. However, there were still some zombies wandering along the street.

Having arrived at the intersection without incident, Ling Mo was faced with a problem.

Two zombies were blocking the intersection. No one knew where they came from, but their bodies were splashed with fresh blood. One of the zombies was busily munching on half an arm that was within its hands.

In spite of this gruesome sight, this provincial capital had a population of over ten million people. With a population of that size, there were survivors who died on a daily basis while looking for food. A dead person wasn’t all that rare.

But at the sight of that half eaten arm, Ling Mo couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness at the loss of human life. He had a better chance of survival than others because of his abilities, therefore he couldn’t allow himself to be careless and fall prey to these monsters.

Ling Mo carefully controlled his puppet, making him move towards one of the zombies with his chopping knife raised.

While the other zombie was attracted to the sound, Ling Mo gripped his knife and rushed the zombie from its back, stabbing his knife into the back of its head.

Ling Mo definitely wouldn’t miss out on an opportunity to take action on his own when it presented itself. While controlling his puppet was useful, he had to be able to take care of himself as well.

The two zombies almost died at the same time. After pulling out his knife with some effort, Ling Mo kicked over the body in front of him.

Ling Mo vaguely felt that while he was beheading the zombie, a violent force in his body was subtly affecting him. As he pulled his knife out, he even felt a moment of pleasure.

“The virus can’t be transmitted through spiritual contact 1, right…? If that was the case, I would have turned into a zombie long ago… If the virus isn’t the cause, then what could it be due to…?”

Ling Mo was very concerned about the subtle changes in his body, but he had no clues at the moment.

However being able to cleanly behead zombies, coupled with the fact that his technique was improving was a good thing for Ling Mo.

Before the world ended, he just was an ordinary person. When he first killed a zombie he was filled with terror. Even after that he was so scared he couldn’t think straight for awhile.

But for the sake of survival, he had to increase his strength.

And in Ling Mo’s mind, he was always thinking about a person. Continuously improving his ability to control zombies and collecting as much supplies as possible was all for the sake of crossing this district to look for her…

Next Chapter


  1. The connection formed when he controls zombies 

22 thoughts on “MGZ 1

  1. Hi, I’d like to thank you for picking this up and wishing you good luck in the future with this translation project.
    I’m sure you’re aware that there exists a previous translation project of this, and that you’ve probably contacted our made attempts to contact said translator.
    However I’d just like to mention it in case you haven’t, as it is seen as proper etiquette when translating the same novel as someone else. (Of course you’re free to do whatever you want, but it’s typically frowned upon)

    Like

    1. I actually checked before I started translating. They officially dropped it.

      Here’s the link: http://www.noodletowntranslated.com/2016/11/21/apology/

      In fact, it’s not even listed on their site anymore unless you link directly from NU.

      Also, NU wouldn’t have let me list the release unless I met all their requirements anyway (which of course, I checked to make sure I did kek)

      Here’s the link to their release requirements in case you’re interested
      http://www.novelupdates.com/nu-policy/

      Thanks for the heads up though, appreciate the sentiment 😁

      Like

  2. When just starting out it takes around 3 hours , and then gets shortened to more or less 1 hour for a bit experienced translator. You would reach there in like a month i suppose, i’m not a translator myself so not exactly sure but it should be correct .
    Just try to stick to at the very least 1 chapter a week.

    Btw that other novel you were trying to translate , it’s already being translated , quite often too , here – http://www.novelupdates.com/series/a-naive-short-tempered-girl/
    Not that i like it at all but anyways .

    I’ll probably just skim through the MGZ chapters till around chapter 50 , so ..
    All the best .

    Like

    1. Thanks for the advice! Hopefully I do manage to cut down on my TL time. I’ll do my best to at least put out 1 chapter a week at the minimum

      Ah yeah, we know its already picked up but mxrawks says she still wants to give it a go, that’s why we haven’t listed it on NU. Just putting it here for anyone that’s interested in reading.

      Like

    2. less than 1 hour for an experienced translator? that depends completely on the length of the novel :v even a new translator could translate 1000 words in an hour after all

      Like

  3. Thanks for picking this up. Just curious but do you have a schedule or how frequent will releases be? Love the series, so I’m really looking forward to what happens next once you surpass the previous translations.

    Like

    1. You’re welcome! Not too sure how frequent my releases will be as I’m just starting out.

      I have a day job as well and I don’t know how other TLers manage to do ot but that one chapter took me at least 3 hours lol.

      I’m thinking 3 chapters a week would be manageable but I’ll see how it goes.

      Like

    1. Yup, I’ll be translating it from the start. Want to provide the best quality releases possible and I think terminology etc will make more sense for readers if I do it from the start.

      There’s already some minor discrepancies vs my TL and the previous TLer.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, I did mention that I was aware of the current TL status in my introduction post for the series. But I also said that I’d like to TL from the start to provide high quality TLs to the best of my ability and as practice for myself.

      Hope you guys understand.

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment