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"Brother-in-law, I want to keep Slorp!"
Pugsley's eyes were shining as he tugged on Vic's shirt, his voice full of hope.
"Slorp?"
Vic blinked for two seconds before realizing that was the name his brother-in-law had bestowed upon the rasping zombie on the ground.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"Good lord, you've even named it..."
He looked down at the thing—
Cracked skull, dried skin clinging to bone, bulging eyeballs, emitting a smell of dirt mixed with rot.
Vic's expression was complex. His brother-in-law's taste... was a bit off, wasn't it?
In this regard, he really couldn't compare to his sister Wednesday. Look at her taste: impeccable. She's keeping a super-handsome boyfriend.
"Probably not gonna happen."
Vic rubbed Pugsley's soft black hair, his tone helpless.
"Keeping cats or dogs at school is hard enough, let alone a... zombie. The dorm manager would faint on the spot."
"Then we'd both have to write an eight-thousand-word self-criticism, plus an essay titled 'On the Hazards and Considerations of Raising Non-Traditional Pets on Campus.'"
"Ah?"
Pugsley's face fell instantly. His eyes filled with disappointment, and his pout could hang an oil bottle.
Seeing his brother-in-law like this, Vic's sense of responsibility kicked in.
He sighed, wearing a "I really can't say no to you" expression, though his eyes flashed with an eager light.
"Sigh, fine, fine. Who asked me to be your brother-in-law?"
He snapped his fingers, lowering his voice mysteriously.
"Follow me. I know a secret base. Absolutely safe!"
He signaled Pugsley to help support the mobility-challenged "Slorp."
Vic led the way, winding through twists and turns until they reached an extremely hidden entrance at the edge of the academy, half-covered by vines and rubble.
Pushing aside the obstacles, a hole leading downwards appeared, exuding damp, cold air.
This was the secret lair Laurel Gates had used to imprison and control Tyler in his Hyde form.
"Cool~"
The moment Pugsley crawled into the cave, his big eyes lit up like searchlights.
Instead of being afraid of the dark and damp, he marvelled sincerely at the deep claw marks on the walls and the rusty-but-sturdy shackles.
"This place is awesome! It's literally custom-made for Slorp!"
Seeing Pugsley's excitement, Vic lifted his chin smugly:
"Of course. Would a place I found be wrong?"
He looked around and started directing.
"Come on, let's settle Mr. Slorp in that corner... yeah, gently, don't pull his arm off, though it probably wouldn't affect functionality..."
After some effort, they finally settled the zombie in a relatively dry corner.
"But what does this thing eat? Can't be photosynthesis, right?"
Vic scratched his head, looking at the rasping Slorp in the corner, stumped.
Subconsciously, he pulled a limited-edition chocolate bar from his pocket. Halfway through offering it, he froze, smacked his lips in heartache, and stuffed it back.
He pulled out the cheapest, wrinkly-wrapped budget chocolate instead and carefully offered it to Slorp's rotting mouth.
"Here, try this. It's cheap, but it's still chocolate... Hey?!"
Before he finished speaking, Slorp's foul-smelling mouth snapped open.
But the target wasn't the chocolate—it was Vic's head, inches away! The grey teeth snapped shut with a whoosh of wind!
"Holy sht!"
Vic reacted extremely fast, dodging backward. His other hand instinctively swung a slap fueled by annoyance and reflex.
SMACK!
He slapped Slorp's head so hard it slammed into the rock wall behind it with a dull thud.
"Giving you face and you don't take it? I treat you to chocolate, and you want to use me as a side dish?!"
Vic shook his hand, heart palpitating.
"This thing is untamed. No, no, gotta train it! Otherwise, who knows who's keeping whom? Might wake up one night with my brain eaten as a midnight snack."
"Train?" Pugsley's eyes lit up again. He looked at Vic with admiration and expectation. "Brother-in-law, can you do it?"
Hearing this, Vic's lingering fear vanished instantly, replaced by an overflowing desire to perform.
He straightened his back, thumbed his nose coolly, his face written with "Invincible" confidence.
"Can I? Remove the question mark! Are you kidding?"
He lifted his chin smugly and began improvising, combining half-baked theories from some beast-taming manual he read somewhere to start a live tutorial.
"To tame this kind of low-IQ, high-aggression creature, the key lies in establishing absolute authority and conditioned reflexes!"
Vic offered the chocolate to Slorp's mouth again. Slorp's cloudy eyes stared dead at the sweet-smelling object inches away.
A more agitated rasp came from its throat. Its rotting jaw snapped open again, carrying a foul wind, stubbornly biting toward Vic's head!
"Hey! Getting cocky now?!"
Vic's eyebrows shot up, his temper flaring instantly.
Was the display of dominance just now not thorough enough?
The result was naturally another storm of "education" from Vic.
He swung the sturdy short stick until it whistled, even sparking against the air from the friction.
The stick struck precisely on Slorp's relatively "durable" parts, making dull thud-thud sounds.
"Won't eat? Won't eat, huh? I'll make you not eat! Treating you to good food and you're ungrateful!"
Vic cursed as he hit, his movements rough but carrying a strange rhythm, perfectly practicing his theory of "establishing authority."
In the end, Slorp was finally beaten into submission. Curling in the corner, holding its head, it made whimpering noises, daring not to lunge at Vic again.
But it still refused to eat the chocolate offered to its mouth, only staring at Vic's hand with empty fear.
"Brother-in-law," Pugsley said, squatting nearby, chin in hand, his small face confused. "Does he... not like chocolate?"
Hearing this, Vic's eyes went wide as if hearing a fantasy. His voice went up an octave:
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How can there be anyone in the world who doesn't like chocolate? Oh no, not even a zombie! This is a matter of principle!"
It was as if his faith had been challenged.
Vic picked up the cheap chocolate, now slightly squished.
With a brute force attitude, he practically shoved it against Slorp's rotting nose and lips, grinding it in.
"Eat it! Smell it! It smells so good! Eat it for me! You must eat it today!"
His tone was exactly like a grumpy father forcing a child to eat broccoli, except he was forcing a zombie to eat chocolate.
Slorp shrank back from the shoving, whimpering louder, but its teeth remained clenched.
Seeing this, a fierce light flashed in Vic's eyes. His free hand reached for the stick leaning nearby again. He dragged out his voice dangerously:
"Hmm—? Looks like someone wants another workout?"
Hiss!
Although Slorp had low intelligence, it had formed a deep, conditioned reflex of fear toward that stick and Vic's reaching motion.
It shuddered. Seeing Vic's fingers grasp the stick, the survival instinct overwhelmed everything!
It snapped its mouth open—not to bite Vic, but to frantically snatch the chocolate smeared on its face with its rotting teeth! The movement was so fast it blurred!
"See! There it is!"
Vic let go immediately. He flashed a victorious "V" sign at Pugsley, a brilliant smile blooming on his face, as if he had just completed a great scientific experiment.
"I told you! What creature on earth doesn't like chocolate? Just needs discipline! Spare the rod and spoil the child... er, the zombie!"
Clap clap clap clap!
Pugsley's eyes shone. He applauded vigorously, his face full of worship:
"Brother-in-law is awesome! So cool! You tamed it just like that!"
Vic basked in the praise, hands on his hips. He looked at Slorp cowering in the corner with chocolate in its mouth—looking aggrieved and comical—and nodded with satisfaction.
"Yep. Taming Step One: 'Establish Food Authority,' complete success! Next is reinforcement training to form conditioned reflexes!"
He stroked his chin, starting to plan the next step, his eyes shining with the light of a mentor.