Chapter 55: The Difference Between Human and Zombie
Lin Jiayao quickly turned her head. This time, the girl didn’t avoid her gaze but smiled sweetly.
“Who are you?” Lin Jiayao asked, looking at the white figure.
“Me?” The girl tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said in a sweet voice, “Your daughter?”
Daughter? Another one calling me mom.
This child, whom Gu Wangran had called Huayibai, accurately identified her new body.
If there was any commonality between these two bodies, it was the fungal tendril ability inherited from the system.
The spores Lin Jiayao released now weren’t from this body originally, but generated by the system.
Could there be something special about the system-generated spores?
Special enough for this girl to pinpoint her across different bodies?
If her main body came here, would this little girl be able to locate her too?
“Let me rephrase,” Lin Jiayao said, seeing that the girl was capable of communication. “What are you?”
Although it sounded like an insult, it was a genuine question.
What exactly was this girl?
A real girl controlled by the mutated fungal tendrils, or a girl formed by the tendrils themselves?
“Me? I’m the same as you, Mommy,” the girl replied, pouting slightly, as if feeling wronged. “We’re the same kind.”
Lin Jiayao looked at her and said, “Deactivate your mimicry.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
To Lin Jiayao’s surprise, the girl obeyed without hesitation.
Her lips split open, and a mass of tendrils erupted from her mouth, connecting to the ground.
Her body collapsed, supported only by the tendrils. Her white dress and hair transformed into off-white mutated tendrils, attaching themselves to the blood-red ones on the ground.
There was no little girl.
That little girl was merely a mimicry created by the fungal monster before her.
After revealing its true form, the mutated fungal zombie writhed and reformed itself into the little girl’s shape.
“Yibai still wants to be like Mommy,” the girl said, shuffling closer to Lin Jiayao with a sweet smile.
“Who gave you that name?” Lin Jiayao asked.
“My name? I don’t remember. Maybe it was the name of a friend before I evolved.” The girl shook her head, a confused look on her face.
This mutated fungal zombie… had it inherited human memories?
But even if it had, it only allowed them to mimic human behavior; their nature was still to spread spores and infect.
Perhaps, after infecting and consuming more people, merging with more memories, it would no longer call itself Huayibai but something else.
“Can you control the other spores and tendrils in this city, make them detach naturally?” Lin Jiayao asked the crucial question.
If there was any disagreement on this, she would have to resort to the pistol.
The pistol might not kill it, but the gunshots would attract the other Awakened.
But the girl’s response, once again, surprised her.
“Yes, but after I do that, can you promise me one thing?” the girl asked hopefully.
“What is it?”
“After I’m done, can you hug me?”
“Sure.”
It wouldn’t cost her anything. Lin Jiayao readily agreed.
The creature before her was just a fusion of mutated fungus and some poor girl’s memories; Lin Jiayao felt no sympathy for it.
“Done.” Almost instantly, the little girl rushed towards Lin Jiayao and threw herself into her arms.
Holding the girl at arm’s length, Lin Jiayao frowned slightly and carried her towards the street.
She saw several people suddenly coughing, some even vomiting blood-red material.
Had it really controlled the fungal tendrils to detach?
Lin Jiayao was incredulous. She hadn’t expected the fungal infection to be resolved so easily.
No, it was only a temporary solution. Without knowing the source, there would be another outbreak. It was impossible to eliminate the fungus so easily.
And Survivor’s Light was severely weakened, leaderless. It would take years to recover.
But at least, the organization had been saved… for now.
Lin Jiayao looked down at the little girl, her eyes filled with surprise.
Such large-scale control of the fungal tendrils, and yet it hadn’t been affected by their memories?
In this aspect, it was far superior to Lin Jiayao herself.
But it seemed completely obedient to her, following her every command.
She even suspected that if she ordered it to kill itself, it would do so without hesitation.
And, most importantly, it seemed to genuinely consider her a more powerful mother entity.
Did this mean that any sentient fungal infected she encountered would also see her as their mother?
Being a mother to a bunch of monsters was disgusting.
“How did you infiltrate Survivor’s Light?” Lin Jiayao placed the girl on the ground. “Tell me.”
She wanted to know how it had gotten in.
“Um… I don’t know,” the girl said, shaking her head with a confused look. “I was already in the camp when I gained consciousness.”
“You were already in the camp when you first mutated?” Lin Jiayao pressed. “Do you know how long ago that was?”
“About… a month?” She gave an approximate time.
“What have you been doing this past month?”
“I’ve just been wandering around, collecting other… um… you said, fungal tendrils as daughters? And I made a lot of friends… but they all died in the explosion.” Her expression turned somber, as if recalling something unpleasant.
Lin Jiayao frowned.
This large-scale infection… wasn’t caused by this mutated fungal zombie?
The first “Mimic” incident had been two years ago.
This mutated fungal zombie had evolved recently.
And its thinking seemed genuinely childlike and innocent.
It had even “befriended” other Awakened who had been infected and was saddened by their deaths.
From its perspective, it probably didn’t even realize it was indirectly killing people; it just thought it was making friends.
But regardless, a zombie was still a zombie. No matter how innocent it seemed, it was just an imposter wearing someone else’s memories.
Lin Jiayao took out her pistol and chambered a round.
The girl watched her actions curiously, her large, blood-red eyes filled with confusion.
Lin Jiayao placed the gun against her forehead.
“What are you doing, Mommy?” the little girl asked.
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