Chapter 58: Armored Zombie
The box in her sister’s hand was a slightly worn gift box, the words “China Gold” prominently displayed.
Of course, Lin Jiayao knew it didn’t contain gold; it was just a reusable gift box her sister had found.
From the rustling sound inside, it was likely fabric.
New clothes?
Or a scarf?
Lin Jiayao knew it was fabric because she had cheated with Bone Spike Lurker, but she wouldn’t spoil her sister’s surprise.
“I can’t guess,” she said with a smile, deliberately guessing something else. “Soap?”
“Huh?”
Lin Jiayao’s answer clearly surprised Lin Xiwan.
“Why would you think that?” Lin Xiwan asked, shaking her head. “Of course not.”
“Because you mentioned showering as soon as you came in, so I guessed something related,” Lin Jiayao said with impeccable logic.
“Sigh, you never guess properly.” Lin Xiwan pouted, gave up on the guessing game, and opened the box.
A neatly folded piece of black fabric lay inside.
“Hmm… a scarf?” Lin Jiayao looked up at her sister. “In summer?”
It was only early summer…
“Not a scarf, but better than a scarf.” Lin Xiwan took out the fabric and unfolded it.
It was… a sleeveless cloak?
Lin Jiayao touched the fabric. It was warm and smooth, the large hood seemingly effective against cold winds.
It must have been a designer item before the apocalypse.
“Try it on?” Lin Xiwan undid the clasp and draped it over Lin Jiayao’s shoulders.
After fastening the clasp, she took a step back, nodding in satisfaction.
“How does it feel?” she asked, a hint of pride in her voice.
“Hot,” Lin Jiayao said after a moment of thought, giving an honest answer.
“It’s not for wearing now,” Lin Xiwan said, sitting down and unfastening the clasp. “It’s for the journey. You can use it as a blanket if you don’t want to wear it. You don’t want to catch a cold…”
Talking about Lin Jiayao’s health always made her sister worry.
Lin Jiayao was sure that if heatstroke didn’t exist, her sister would wrap her in layers of blankets.
Like a grandmother worried about her grandchild catching a chill.
Though she thought this, she still expressed her gratitude. “It’s very nice. Thank you, Sister.”
“What are you thanking me for?” Lin Xiwan smiled, pinching her sister’s soft cheeks.
Lin Jiayao turned her head, escaping her sister’s grasp, and asked, “How did the shopping go?”
“Not completely smooth sailing, but I managed to reserve most of the items on the list. And I got a modified SUV from the military base.”
Lin Jiayao had heard her sister talk about the modified SUVs before.
Basically, all non-essential components, like the air conditioning, were removed to reduce weight, and metal grilles were welded onto the windows.
“Trucks consume too much fuel, and an SUV can’t carry enough supplies,” Lin Xiwan sighed. “We’ll have to scavenge along the way.”
Lin Jiayao nodded, thinking to herself, I understand. Plant supplies along the route, no problem.
This was easy to solve; she just needed to have her zombies leave supplies along the way.
Seeing her sister looking down, Lin Xiwan assumed she was worried about supplies and stroked her head.
“Don’t worry. Leave it to Sister.”
“Mm.”
“Oh, and I arranged for some trustworthy people to pick up the supplies over the next two days, so I can stay with you,” Lin Xiwan said, watching her sister’s face for any sign of delight.
To her slight disappointment, her sister’s expression remained unchanged, neither happy nor unhappy.
“That’s good,” Lin Jiayao nodded. Having her sister around was always reassuring.
Before, blood crystal Awakened had seemed incredibly powerful, with their strange abilities. She had envied them.
But now, she realized that low-rank Awakened were just slightly stronger humans.
Her sister was still D-rank. Unless they had exceptionally unique abilities, most Awakened at her sister’s level wouldn’t be a match for her now.
And if a D-rank Awakened encountered Mask, they would be instantly killed – Mask had eight guns.
“What do you want to eat? Sister will get it for you.” Lin Xiwan suddenly stood up. “We have plenty of blood crystals; don’t worry about running out.”
“Hmm… beef, luncheon meat, cola… Coca-Cola. Just one bottle. I still have one hidden,” Lin Jiayao said. She didn’t usually crave meat, but she was starving now.
She hadn’t eaten anything since last night, and the mental exhaustion made her crave high-calorie foods.
Lin Xiwan was a little surprised by her sister’s sudden change in appetite, but she didn’t ask questions. She simply went out and bought the food.
After preparing a warm, home-cooked meal for her sister, Lin Jiayao said she was tired.
Lin Xiwan wasn’t surprised; her sister looked exhausted.
After helping her sister wash up in the bathroom, Lin Xiwan carried her to bed and said goodnight.
Watching her sister fall asleep, Lin Xiwan took the radio, tiptoed out of the room, and turned it on by the door.
She wanted to listen to Survivor’s Light radio but didn’t want to disturb her sister.
But she waited all night and didn’t hear the familiar voice of the broadcaster. The station was just static.
This was the first time Survivor’s Light radio had gone silent since its inception.
This made Lin Xiwan even more uneasy. She was planning to take her sister there.
While Lin Xiwan worried, Lin Jiayao had already started a new zombie login.
This time, she didn’t log into the third fungal zombie, but Mask.
At a service area on the Yanghang Highway, under a dim, yellowish sky, Lin Jiayao, controlling Mask, slowly stood up.
Controlling Mask didn’t burden her with unfamiliar memories like the fungal zombies; it was less mentally taxing.
Standing, Lin Jiayao, carrying her loot and eight rifles, looked towards the extraction point.
「Extraction Time: 4:59:54」
【Extraction Point: 5km】
5km, five hours?
Even a leisurely stroll wouldn’t be that slow.
The unusual numbers puzzled and unnerved Lin Jiayao.
It seemed like a generous allowance, but it made her wary.
Something wasn’t right.
Perhaps something dangerous was waiting for her at the extraction point.
Judging by the direction, it was towards Xin City.
But wasn’t Xin City also suffering from a resource shortage?
She wouldn’t know the true danger until she arrived.
Leaving the service area, Lin Jiayao crawled directly towards the extraction point in Xin City.
Cross-country travel was faster than taking the highway and exiting at a toll station.
As she moved quickly, she thought about the items she needed to collect.
She only had two blood crystals: one in the safehouse for the logged-in zombie, and one in the warehouse.
She wanted to upgrade her Hideout and unlock more zombie control slots.
But besides blood crystals, she also needed other strange items.
Like disposable syringes and sterile bandages for the medical station, or nuts, bolts, and a multi-tool for the workbench.
What could she do with two nuts and bolts?
If the system wasn’t messing with her, then these construction requirements were just arbitrary.
She couldn’t think of any other reason why the system would require these items to build a virtual Hideout.
Soon, Lin Jiayao reached Xin City. The extraction point was only 1km away.
Xin City wasn’t like Yangzhou City; it was just a fourth-tier city before the apocalypse, surrounded by mountains, unremarkable.
Besides abundant natural resources and water, it had no other advantages.
And after the apocalypse, abundant water resources had become a disadvantage.
Such places were breeding grounds for terrifying aquatic and amphibious zombies, and the water contamination was more severe.
The extraction point was close, and she had four and a half hours left.
Lin Jiayao decided to look for a hospital and a hardware store, hoping to gather all the materials in one go.
Nuts and bolts were easy enough; she could scavenge them from something if necessary.
The hardest to find were medicines, especially disposable syringes and sterile gauze, which were usually only sold at the military base camp.
She couldn’t go there herself.
But there was another place where she might find these things: Survivor’s Light.
Although their future was uncertain, they shouldn’t be short on supplies for now.
After spending half an hour locating a hospital and a hardware store and then ten minutes searching, Lin Jiayao only found a nut, a bolt, and a multi-tool.
She put them in her backpack and continued towards the extraction point.
As evening approached, she didn’t see a single person.
Zombies, hidden in the shadows and inside buildings, began to emerge onto the streets.
Activating Lurker hearing, Lin Jiayao hoped to find some mutated zombies for blood crystals, but strangely, there were very few, perhaps because of the district she was in.
Even after actively searching, she only found five Sprinters, yielding about 20g of blood crystals.
Strangely, there weren’t any Lurkers or other types of zombies.
As if they had been deliberately eliminated.
And she saw large craters in the asphalt, three to four meters wide.
The more she explored, the more uneasy she felt about Xin City.
She trusted her instincts.
She decided to stop searching for mutated zombies and head straight for the extraction point.
It was better to extract early, refresh the extraction point, and find a more “profitable” location for scavenging.
On her way, she passed a bookstore.
Initially, she’d intended to just walk past, but after a few seconds, she turned back and entered.
In the apocalypse, bookstores were often surprisingly well-preserved. Some books, still in their plastic wrapping, looked brand new.
Lin Jiayao started browsing.
Her reason for entering was simple.
She wanted to try educating Huayibai, the fungal zombie, but she couldn’t stay with it constantly.
She could, however, choose some books for Huayibai and order it to study them.
Perhaps, after reading these books, Huayibai would develop some understanding of humanity, or even a sense of morality.
She selected a few books from various sections, from sports to philosophy, even children’s books.
She stuffed them into the burlap sack with the magazines and carried it on her back.
She could feel the added weight slowing her down.
Is this the weight of knowledge?
Carrying her loot, when she was about 500 meters from the extraction point, Lin Jiayao felt a tingling sensation on her face.
As if something was watching her.
What’s going on? No feedback from Bone Spike Lurker…
Then, she heard the whooshing sound of something cutting through the air above her.
By the time she registered the sound, it was almost too late. She didn’t have time to analyze it and simply rolled to the side.
“Boom—”
Her reaction was fast, but not fast enough.
A massive iron ball slammed into the ground, creating a deafening roar.
Along with the shattered ground were almost half of Lin Jiayao’s bone legs and three of her rifles.
After rolling away and discarding the backpack, Lin Jiayao quickly turned, aiming her remaining five rifles at the dust cloud and the cracked, cratered ground.
As the dust settled, a massive zombie, about five meters tall, its body covered in jagged metal shards, its shoulders almost three meters wide, emerged.
Lin Jiayao instantly matched the zombie to a description she’d heard on Survivor’s Light radio.
An Armored zombie, a bone-type, following an evolutionary path almost opposite to that of a Lurker.
Its entire body was covered in thick bone plates. It had no neck, and only half a head, as if the lower half had been absorbed into its body.
From a distance, it resembled a grotesque statue, slow-moving, stiff, unable to bite, but with exceptional defense.
While they couldn’t detect humans as effectively as Lurkers, they had one incredibly troublesome trait.
They would attach scrap metal, steel, or anything hard to their bodies, creating an outer layer of armor.
They were among the few zombies that instinctively used tools.
“Roar—”
The massive Armored zombie roared at Lin Jiayao and then charged, its thick, bone-reinforced legs pounding the ground.
Lin Jiayao frowned and opened fire.
Five rifles unleashed a torrent of bullets at the charging behemoth.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—”
“Clang, clang, clang, ding, ding, clang—”
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