Chapter 49: Donghai, Once More
Controlling zombies all day, practically until midnight, had left Lin Jiayao mentally exhausted.
This also made her realize a problem.
The morning, when she was most alert, was when zombies were weakest.
Even Mask, with Bone Skin, was still slightly affected by sunlight.
If she shifted her sleep schedule to the morning, she wouldn’t waste the zombies’ abilities during daylight hours.
I’ll see if I can adjust my sleep cycle later…
Lost in thought, Lin Jiayao finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep.
Lin Xiwan woke up around eight o’clock but didn’t wake her sleeping sister. Instead, she left a note saying she was going shopping.
She’d heard that the military base camp was selling a few modified vehicles. With the growing unease in the camp, she decided to secure one before it was too late.
She also planned to buy a gift for her sister. She had already decided what to get.
A cloak or short cape, for warmth and to cover her legs, preventing her from catching a chill.
After Lin Xiwan left with the shopping list, Lin Jiayao continued to sleep.
She didn’t wake up until noon, feeling groggy and her head heavy.
“Ugh…”
She sat up with effort, her eyes heavy and aching.
The fatigue hadn’t completely dissipated. She hadn’t fully recovered her mental strength.
“Hoo…” Exhaling slowly, Lin Jiayao shifted slightly to avoid keeping her legs in the same position for too long.
Fighting the dizziness, she picked up the note her sister had left on the pillow. After reading it, she breathed a sigh of relief and called out the system.
Looking at the login interface, she paused.
「No.1: [Mask] (Available for login)」
「No.2: 🌐 (Available for login)」
「No.3: 🌐 (Available for login)」
Was the fourth slot, which wasn’t on cooldown, unavailable because the limit had been reached?
Or because she hadn’t unlocked the later slots?
As if sensing her confusion, the system provided a prompt.
「Please build the [Control Center] in the Hideout to unlock more login slots for zombies」
Control Center? It seemed to be a facility she hadn’t unlocked yet.
Lin Jiayao filed this information away and turned her attention to the available slots.
The second and third displayed illusory maps, waiting for her to choose spawn points.
For a moment, Lin Jiayao hesitated.
She could clearly sense her deteriorating mental state. She wasn’t sure if it was a side effect of logging in, or if her body and mind were simply too weak.
“Heh…”
She chuckled, as if mocking her own hesitation.
Did she have a choice?
She had to become stronger, to take her sister away from this misery, so she wouldn’t have to risk her life fighting zombies for blood crystals every day.
Lin Jiayao clicked on the second zombie slot and looked at the virtual map.
The previously darkened icon for Donghai City was now lit up again, indicating it was available.
The first city on the highway from Yangzhou City to Donghai City was Xin City.
But Mask was already heading in that direction, so Lin Jiayao didn’t want to waste a slot on Xin City. Instead, she turned her attention back to Donghai City.
She had to confirm whether Donghai City was truly safe. Otherwise, their journey would be doomed from the start.
Now that she had a better understanding of the Blood Orb Fungus, even if she logged into a spore residing in another person’s body, she wouldn’t be as clueless as before.
Even just accessing memories would be beneficial.
The two foreign women she had previously inhabited were peripheral figures in Survivor’s Light, with few useful memories.
If she could enter the central city district this time, she might be able to learn more.
If Survivor’s Light was truly unaware of the fungal infection, she could find a way to warn them.
As for herself, she wasn’t worried about the Blood Orb Fungus being exposed. The fungus here could restrict the host’s blood flow, but it couldn’t control the spores within their blood.
The infection detectors only checked for blood crystals in the blood, not spores, which was why these highly contagious spores had gone undetected for so long.
With the system, Lin Jiayao could prevent spores from attaching to her own body and generate them only when needed, making them undetectable in blood tests or biopsies.
The Blood Orb Fungus spores and tendrils in Donghai City didn’t have this ability.
I hope Survivor’s Light can still be saved.
Lin Jiayao prayed silently.
She lay back down, rested her head on the pillow, and selected Donghai City on the virtual screen.
Soon, her consciousness was pulled away. After a brief period of darkness, she saw light again.
“Captain Xie, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
A man’s concerned voice reached her ears. Lin Jiayao managed to raise a hand dismissively and rubbed her temples.
A flood of memories surged into her consciousness, revealing parts of this body’s past and some fragmented memories.
Her name was Xie Yi, 28 years old. Before the apocalypse, she had been a recent graduate, working as an interior design assistant at a construction company.
A young professional woman who regretted listening to her parents and choosing environmental design, spending most of her time slacking off at work.
She had lived an ordinary life, attracting many suitors due to her beauty, but rejecting them all due to her strict upbringing.
After graduating and entering the workforce, under pressure from work, she hadn’t had the time or energy for relationships.
Just as her career was getting on track, the apocalypse arrived.
Fortunately, shortly after the outbreak, she awakened her abilities and encountered Gu Wangran, one of the founders of Survivor’s Light, clinging to him and surviving until now.
Now, it seemed to be her break time…
Wait…
Lin Jiayao suddenly realized something was wrong. She sat up straight and looked at her hands.
A pair of slender, fair hands, moving according to her will, completely under her control.
She looked up and saw her subordinate staring at her in bewilderment from across the desk.
“Xiao Wang, right?” Lin Jiayao rubbed her temples again and, following the memories, picked up the leave request form on her desk. “Stomachache… going on a date with your girlfriend, huh? Fine, go ahead. Just don’t stray too far from Donghai City.”
She picked up a stamp and stamped the form.
“Thank you, Captain!” Her subordinate cheered and left with the approved form.
Lin Jiayao looked at herself in the small mirror on her desk and fell into thought.
Xie Yi was dead. The Xie Yi currently active was just a fruiting body of the Blood Orb Fungus – a Mimic.
The one truly controlling this body, acting as she normally would, wasn’t Xie Yi herself, but the fungal zombie lurking within her, ready to erupt at any moment.
That was why Lin Jiayao could perfectly control Xie Yi’s body.
And Lin Jiayao could see the faint, eerie red glow in her departing subordinate’s eyes – the spores had already spread throughout his body.
Lin Jiayao stood up and looked out the floor-to-ceiling window behind her, almost half of Donghai City visible.
How many infected were there in this city…?
She looked down at the black infection detector on her wrist. The LED bar in the middle glowed yellow.
An infected Awakened, and no one had noticed?
It seemed she needed to pay a visit to the leadership of Survivor’s Light.
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