Chapter 61: Not Very Bright
The next day, at the resort camp, despite it being midday, the sky was overcast, dark clouds obscuring the sun.
“Boom—”
A bolt of lightning split the sky, the brilliant white light branching out like fungal tendrils before exploding with a deafening roar.
The sound, like a bomb detonating, jolted Lin Jiayao awake.
She sat up quickly, her movements guarded, but her eyes were slightly unfocused, as if disoriented.
“Rumble—”
“Pitter-patter—”
The distant thunder and the relentless drumming of rain against the window gradually brought her back to her senses.
A rainstorm?
“Hoo…”
Lin Jiayao exhaled softly. A good night’s sleep had restored her mental strength. Apart from the lingering fear from the thunder, she felt fine.
“Has Sister gone out…?” Lin Jiayao picked up the sticky note on the nightstand and slowly read it aloud. “Picking up the car and loading supplies today. Might take a detour. Will be back before dinner…”
Beside the note were a can of luncheon meat and a bottle of water – her breakfast.
Lin Jiayao usually slept for more than ten hours, so waking up to find her sister gone was normal.
Her sister couldn’t just wait for her to wake up; buying supplies and a vehicle was a priority.
“Boom—”
Another clap of thunder interrupted her thoughts.
The thunder worried her.
The sky was so dark, the sun completely obscured; there would definitely be mutated zombies out and about.
But she quickly dismissed the worry.
Her sister had been in Baiyan District for five years; she knew which areas were safe and which weren’t.
Rather than worrying about her sister, she should worry about her own mental state.
Although she had been logging into zombies for several days, her mental strength was increasing very slowly.
If this continued, she would have to limit her login time to ensure her own safety.
This would, in turn, slow down her evolution rate.
And she could control her own login time, but the system’s extraction times and distances were unpredictable.
Not to mention the unexpected encounters and battles during extraction that could delay her return.
Strengthening her mental fortitude seemed to be her top priority now.
She called out the system.
The system panel still displayed the evolution options from her last extraction with Mask.
「Please retain your evolution」
「1、【Bone Skin Lv.2 (Gray): Hardens your skin, granting some defense】」
「2、【Bone Spike Lurker Lv.3 (Gray): Increases Lurker precision, can simulate terrain by emitting vibrations, 50m range】」
「3、【Bone Regeneration Lv.1 (Gray): Your bones regenerate faster. Consuming blood crystals doubles the regeneration speed】」
She hadn’t chosen one yesterday before falling asleep in her sister’s arms.
She’d been too mentally exhausted to care, putting it off until now.
Mainly because the options weren’t very appealing; they all seemed equally mediocre.
After a moment of thought, Lin Jiayao chose number 3.
Her Lv.2 Bone Spike Lurker was sufficient for now. Lv.3 didn’t increase the range, just added a terrain simulation function.
While potentially useful for scouting, it wasn’t something she needed right now.
She preferred the Lv.1 Bone Regeneration.
After the battle with the Armored zombie, she understood its importance.
Mask’s face had been practically ripped off, and she’d almost been killed by the Armored zombie’s fist, but thanks to blood crystal regeneration, she’d survived and won.
As long as she had enough blood crystals and wasn’t instantly killed, this ability was a lifesaver.
It was likely classified as gray because of its high blood crystal consumption.
After choosing number 3, Lin Jiayao felt a tingling sensation in her bones, which quickly subsided.
It was so quick that she almost missed it. Just as she was about to open the login interface, she paused.
Wait…
She had felt the tingling in all her bones.
All of them???
Lin Jiayao quickly pulled back the blankets and looked at her legs.
Her slender legs lay straight and still.
Though they didn’t get much exercise, thanks to her sister’s regular massages, they hadn’t atrophied and were still perfectly shaped.
Holding her breath, Lin Jiayao tried to move them… and failed.
They remained motionless.
Was it… just her imagination?
No, definitely not.
She clearly remembered the sensation, the distinct feeling in her legs – although it was only in her bones.
Was this a sign of improvement?
It had to be!
Lin Jiayao smiled faintly at the thought.
She opened the water bottle and the can of luncheon meat her sister had left and ate her combined breakfast and lunch while looking at the login interface.
「No.1: [Mask] (Available for login)」
「No.2: [Unnamed] (Available for login)」
「No.3: 🌐 (Available for login)」
Her goal was clear: to find a way to enhance her mental fortitude through evolution so she wouldn’t be incapacitated after long login sessions.
She first renamed the second zombie “An Xiaoxi” – this body’s original name – and then started thinking about how to increase her mental strength.
Logging into Mask wouldn’t help; its evolutions were all bone-related.
Logging into An Xiaoxi was also unlikely to be helpful; she had already chosen two fungus-related evolutions, neither of which seemed related to mental strength.
Her only option seemed to be the third zombie slot.
But even if she chose a specific region, the assigned zombie would still be random; finding a mental enhancement evolution this way was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
But even with complete randomness, there were ways to increase her chances.
By focusing on specific regions.
Although Lin Jiayao had only been to three cities with zombies, it was clear that the zombies’ evolutionary paths differed in each city.
Yangzhou City had a higher concentration of Nest Zombies, Xin City had a lot of Armored zombies, and Donghai City was dominated by Blood Orb Fungus zombies.
There had to be regions where zombies had mental evolutions.
And Lin Jiayao, a regular listener of Survivor’s Light radio, remembered hearing about a type of zombie with a hive mind, controlled by a “queen.”
The radio hadn’t provided details, only mentioning that they were still researching it, and then the topic was dropped, as if they’d hit a roadblock.
Zombies with a hive mind might have enhanced mental capabilities.
Survivor’s Light must know where these zombies were located.
She just had to find out the specific region and then select it as the spawn point for her third zombie.
After confirming her plan, Lin Jiayao decided to log into An Xiaoxi first and ask a familiar Awakened for information.
But before logging in, she remembered something.
She opened the safehouse and warehouse interfaces and then hesitated.
The burlap sack filled with books occupied a 2×2 space.
Her safehouse was also 2×2.
And she still had a blood crystal and a pistol in her safehouse.
The pistol wouldn’t be of much use this time. If she encountered trouble in Donghai City, a pistol wouldn’t solve it.
So, she moved the pistol to the warehouse.
Now only the blood crystal remained in the safehouse.
It was essential to carry a blood crystal with her. Although An Xiaoxi was an Awakened, her ability wasn’t combat-related, so her blood crystal stipend wasn’t much.
And An Xiaoxi didn’t have the habit of saving blood crystals, so Lin Jiayao had to bring her own.
If only the safehouse were bigger…
After a moment of hesitation, Lin Jiayao tried dragging the blood crystal into the 2×2 burlap sack.
Although the sack only occupied a 2×2 space, in reality, it could easily hold twenty books and a blood crystal.
To her surprise, the blood crystal went into the bulging sack.
Then, she moved the sack into a 2×2 grid in the safehouse.
It actually fit…
This seemed to be the limit. She tried adding more, but it wouldn’t fit.
But she had discovered a useful function: these containers could automatically stack items.
For example, the twenty books that had occupied twenty grids in the warehouse were now neatly stacked within the sack.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t be manually stacked, and not all items could be stacked, like blood crystals.
She would experiment more later.
Dismissing the thoughts of the warehouse, she lay on her side and, carrying the burlap sack of books and a blood crystal in the safehouse, selected the second zombie slot.
Familiar darkness enveloped her, her body falling asleep, her consciousness awakening in Donghai City, 1400 kilometers away.
Sensing the light, Lin Jiayao slowly opened her eyes.
Sunlight streamed through the mall’s glass windows, warming her.
One moment she’d been in a thunderstorm, the next in bright sunshine. The abrupt shift was slightly disorienting.
But the feeling quickly faded. Lin Jiayao took a deep breath, thinking about who to approach for information, and prepared to stand up.
But then she realized a small head was resting on her thigh.
“Mm…”
Startled by her movement, the fluffy white head turned, looking at her sleepily.
Uh… that zombie monster… Huayibai? Why was it lying on her lap?
Before Lin Jiayao could speak, Huayibai seemed to realize its actions were inappropriate.
It quickly sat up, retracted the tendrils connecting the bench to Lin Jiayao’s chair, and scurried to the mall entrance, peering in through the glass.
As if the glass provided some sort of separation, making it less intrusive.
Hmm… it seemed to understand that she wasn’t particularly fond of it.
But even so, it hadn’t left. She wondered why.
Was it simply because it saw her as its mother?
Lin Jiayao took the burlap sack from the safehouse and placed it on the side, beckoning to Huayibai, who was hiding behind the glass.
Seeing her gesture, Huayibai looked around, saw that no one else was nearby, and then, its eyes lighting up, ran towards Lin Jiayao like an obedient puppy.
“Mommy…” Huayibai stopped in front of her, hands behind its back, looking down at its shoes.
Lin Jiayao looked at the seemingly well-behaved little girl and asked, “You’ll do anything I ask, right?”
“Mm-hmm,” Huayibai nodded vigorously, its white twintails bouncing. “Yibai will be obedient.”
“Can you read?”
“Mm-hmm, Yibai can read human writing.”
“Good.”
Lin Jiayao nodded and pointed at the burlap sack. “These are for you. Make sure you read them all.”
“Eh?” Huayibai looked surprised, then delighted. “For me?”
Seeing Lin Jiayao nod, it ran to the sack and crouched down, eager to see what was inside.
Its posture was rather… unladylike, its white dress riding up, revealing a flash of white thighs and underwear.
Lin Jiayao frowned.
Even knowing that a zombie had no concept of modesty, seeing Huayibai, in a human body, behave this way made her uncomfortable.
“Huayibai, your skirt,” Lin Jiayao said, unable to help herself. “Girls shouldn’t show their private parts to others, understand?”
“Eh?” Huayibai looked up at Lin Jiayao, confused, then seemed to understand.
“Okay, Mommy.” It pulled its skirt down to cover its legs.
It probably didn’t understand why, but Mommy had said so, so it obeyed.
Then, it turned its attention back to the sack, opened it, and saw the books inside.
“Wow! So many presents!” Huayibai’s eyes lit up. It picked up a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and smiled at Lin Jiayao. “Thank you, Mommy!”
Seeing its excitement, Lin Jiayao asked curiously, “Do you like reading?”
“No,” Huayibai shook its head. It didn’t understand the appeal of books at all.
“Then why are you so happy?”
“Because these are presents from Mommy~”
Hearing its innocent answer, Lin Jiayao felt a pang of guilt.
As if the creature before her was truly a child, delighted by a gift from its mother, even if it didn’t like the gift itself.
Lin Jiayao stood up and looked towards the mall entrance, avoiding Huayibai’s gaze.
「Extraction Time 00:56:51」
【Extraction Point: 1km】
One hour, one kilometer. Not much time.
This wasn’t good news. It meant she didn’t have much time to gather information.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Huayibai looked up at her curiously.
“It’s nothing,” Lin Jiayao shook her head and walked towards the mall exit.
Huayibai quickly stood up, picked up the large burlap sack, and followed closely behind.
“Yibai,” Lin Jiayao said, knowing it was following but not turning around. “If you have any questions about humans, you can ask me anytime.”
This meant she was willing to teach Huayibai.
“Really? Mommy?” Huayibai’s red eyes flickered with excitement.
Although it had some human memories, it didn’t understand most human rules and customs. It needed a teacher.
“Mm.” Lin Jiayao nodded slightly.
What Lin Jiayao didn’t realize was that this nod had activated a relentless question-asking machine.
In fact, she regretted it almost immediately.
Huayibai: “Mommy, Mommy, do you know about diving?”
Lin Jiayao: “Yes, I do.”
Huayibai: “On TV, they said the less splash, the higher the score. Then why don’t they just jump onto the land?”
Lin Jiayao: “…”
Huayibai’s questions weren’t something a normal human would ask.
Of course, it wasn’t human, so its questions, while strange, made sense.
“Mommy, Mommy, a person’s last words are called a ‘will.’ What are their words after death called?”
“Mommy, Mommy, I read in a book that the human intestines are as long as a basketball court. Why don’t people play basketball in their intestines?”
“Mommy…”
At first, Lin Jiayao answered patiently, but it became increasingly difficult.
What kind of questions were these?!
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