Chapter 86: Seeds of a Long Journey p2
She looked at the evolution options.
「Please retain your evolution」
「1、【Blood Crystal Vision Lv.1 (Purple): When activated, only blood crystals and creatures containing blood crystals are visible, ignoring most obstacles】」
「2、【Blood Crystal Amalgam Lv.1 (Purple): Allows your body to be compatible with different blood crystal abilities, with a chance of incompatibility】」
「3、【Bone Spike Chainsaw Lv.1 (Blue): Transforms your hands into chainsaws, activated by blood crystals】」
The first was the ability that made everything but blood crystals disappear from view. She could even use it to identify weak points, areas with high blood crystal concentrations, in a creature’s body.
The second was a sort of “you are what you eat” ability. She had already experienced its side effect: severing her own muscles when activating the chainsaws.
And the third… the very reason her muscles had been severed. The only blue option of the three.
Lin Jiayao had no interest in gnawing on blood crystals or turning her hands into chainsaws. The first ability was what she wanted.
A search function that ignored visual obstacles was better than Bone Spike Lurker for detecting zombies.
A single glance, and she would know if there were any zombies or Awakened nearby.
If she’d had this ability in the field yesterday, her sister wouldn’t have been injured.
She would have seen the red glow of the Corpse Birds in the tall grass and warned her sister.
With this, she wouldn’t have to choose that disgusting insect ability.
And it could be toggled on and off. There was no reason not to choose it.
Selecting the first evolution, Lin Jiayao felt her eyes grow warm.
Her previous fungal vision had enhanced her sight, allowing her to see further.
Now, combined with this ability, she could probably see blood crystals within a radius of four or five hundred meters with her naked eyes.
A walking, human radar, detecting both terrain and zombies.
She finally felt safer.
Since she was lying on her back, being held by her sister, she decided to test the ability now.
She slowly opened her eyes and activated Lv.1 [Blood Crystal Vision].
Black blood seeped into her eyes, only her pupils glowing red, scanning her surroundings.
Everything went dark, but a faint red glow nearby, the sign of an Awakened, was clearly visible.
Closing and then reopening her eyes, the darkness receded, and the world returned to its normal colors.
And in the location of that faint red glow lay a young woman, her back to her, holding her younger sister in her arms, fast asleep.
After so many days without a proper place to rest, now, finally safe, they were both exhausted.
They didn’t even care about sleeping on a hard bed.
Lin Jiayao also closed her eyes, but not to sleep, but to log into a zombie.
She would log into An Xiaoxi.
And then kill herself.
After the 12-hour cooldown, she would log into a zombie in Kun City, Yun Province, and assess the situation there.
If it wasn’t safe, they would join this camp.
The leader seemed friendly, and everyone she’d encountered so far seemed relatively normal; the atmosphere wasn’t oppressive.
It might be a decent camp, and they were self-sufficient.
After her sister woke up, they would explore the camp together.
Thinking this, Lin Jiayao logged into An Xiaoxi.
…
“Woo—”
“⚡Living like this for thirty years⚡”
“⚡Boom—Boom—Boom—⚡”
“⚡Until the building collapses⚡”
On the highway, a convoy of over twenty vehicles, including a fuel tanker, sped along, blasting music from a loudspeaker.
“Woohoo—” A woman with a green mohawk stood on the roof rack of the lead vehicle, its exhaust pipes spitting flames, cheering.
She wore a black leather catsuit with spiked wristbands and a belt, a skull tattooed on her face, obscuring her features.
From the scattered syringes at her feet, she was clearly high.
“Damn it, you’re not partying with us, you’re writing some bullshit! I didn’t bring you here to write fucking essays!”
The frenzied woman suddenly jumped down from the roof rack and kicked the bespectacled man’s notebook off his lap in the passenger seat.
The man glanced at the dirty footprint on his notebook, wiped it on the driver’s shirt, picked up the notebook, and then continued writing.
“You didn’t bring me, the Boss did. She doesn’t trust you to keep things under control,” he said, adjusting his glasses with his middle finger and flipping through his notebook. “To be safe, I highly recommend you keep this party going for a few more days, until the reinforcements the Boss mentioned arrive.”
“Party my ass, we’re going to Fuzhou City tonight!” The mohawked woman slapped the driver’s head. “Faster! Faster, damn it, faster!”
The man continued to flip through his notebook, his expression unchanged, checking for anything he might have missed.
The woman, bored, leaned over and glanced at the page he was on, reading aloud.
“Zombie or prisoner body fat mixed with N… what the fuck… and alcohol, boiled, then cooled… what the hell is this shit?”
The long list of ingredients gave her a headache. She looked at the title.
Methods for Making Soap from Human Fat and Human Fat Bombs.
She stared at it, silent.
After a long moment, she turned to the bespectacled man and yelled, “You motherfucker! I’ve been washing my face with zombie fat soap for three years?! And human fat?!”
“Fat is fat.” He pushed up his glasses, calmly turning to a blank page. “It makes our lives easier.”
“Ugh—” Even in her drug-induced state, she couldn’t help but gag, then glared at him in disgust.
“How can you be so fucking disgusting?! This is… truly revolting.”
She climbed back onto the roof and then jumped onto the next vehicle, tumbling into the back.
“Ungrateful bitch…” he muttered, continuing to write in his notebook. “Without me, you’d all still be covered in filth, eating dirt… Idiots.”
He paused, the man with the white mask and glasses, and looked at the driver, whose forehead was covered in sweat.
“You’re not as stupid as her, are you, Song… Song… what was it again?”
“Song… Song Qian, Brother Wei…” the driver stammered, his foot on the accelerator, swallowing hard. “Brother Wei… your experiments… they’re incredibly useful! They’ve solved so many of our problems! You must have been an MIT student before the apocalypse.”
Song Qian’s flattery finally made the bespectacled man, known as Wei, smile behind his mask.
“Haha, you flatter me. I didn’t even get into college before the apocalypse.” He closed the notebook and patted Song Qian’s shoulder. “You’ve got a bright future ahead of you, young man. Driving is beneath you, how about becoming my lab…”
Before he could finish, Song Qian, his heart in his throat, interrupted. “Not at all! Not at all! Driving is all I’ve ever done. I love driving, it’s my life.”
Hearing this, Wei’s smile widened. “You love driving, huh?”
Song Qian’s heart sank. He’d said the wrong thing.
Contrariness was the Voodoo Cult’s specialty.
Wei had used this tactic to accelerate the woman’s attack earlier and had now tricked Song Qian into revealing his true desire.
“Don’t worry, you’re not going to be a test subject, just an assistant.” Wei’s casual words reassured Song Qian, whose heart had nearly stopped.
“Thank you, Brother Wei… Thank you, Brother Wei…”
Just then, the car radio crackled to life.
Their modified radio had picked up a signal.
“Zzz… This is the Qingzhou University Camp… zzz…”
“Location… Tianzhou District, Qingzhou Avenue… Password…”
Hearing this, Song Qian stopped trembling, a strange smile spreading across his face.
“Brother Wei… a camp…” he whispered, nudging the man beside him.
What did a camp mean to the Voodoo Cult?
Slaughter! Screams! Women! Parties!
Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!
Any kind of fun you could imagine! Nothing was off limits!
But Wei, his gaze still fixed on his notebook, said calmly, “We’ll go after we complete the mission. The Boss’s orders are more important.”
“Yes, Brother Wei! Fuzhou first!”
“Roar—”
“Whirr—”
Song Qian, unable to contain his excitement, slammed on the gas, the SUV accelerating to a terrifying speed, the entire convoy speeding up with it.
…
“Screech, screech—”
Changzhou City. A van sped down a city road, the screeching of metal against asphalt echoing.
But its tires weren’t moving; the handbrake hadn’t even been released.
Something was pulling the van.
“Screech, screech—”
“Roar—”
Four zombies, their bodies bound to the front of the van with countless tendrils, their limbs churning as they ran, pulled the vehicle forward.
They had been running for who knew how long, their bodies steaming, their muscles, seemingly protected by a layer of fungal mat, unblemished by the sun.
Their heads were split open, blood-red, crystal-like mushrooms sprouting from their brains, swaying with each stride.
And inside the van, a small figure sat in the driver’s seat in a strange posture.
Reclined almost horizontally, its slender legs, clad in pristine white stockings, resting on the steering wheel, its small toes curled around the wheel’s rim.
In its hands was a book, which it read intently in this awkward position, its childish voice reading aloud.
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember…”
“…a fleeting tremor, the skin melting in a pale sweat, the eyes filling with tears, the entire body giving off a mournful lament… bearing the impact with stoic dignity and admirable courage…”
“José Arcadio felt himself lifted up into the air towards a realm of pure bliss…”
The reading stopped. “What’s a ‘realm of pure bliss’?” it asked itself.
After a moment of thought, it murmured, “But it sounds… fun… I’ll write it down and tell Mommy. She’ll be happy…”
It pulled a pen from where it was tucked into its shoulder and began writing in a notebook, the letters crooked and childish.
Notes about what to say to Mommy when they met.
And questions to ask.
The thick notebook was already more than half full, filled with words copied from books; it couldn’t write on its own yet.
Reading aloud as it wrote:
“Mommy, I want to take you on a thrilling ride to a realm of pure bliss.”
“Mm…” It nodded in satisfaction, tucked the pen back into its shoulder, seemingly pleased with its writing.
Although it didn’t understand the meaning, it knew it expressed happiness. That was enough.
Closing the notebook, it hugged it to its chest, raised its small face, closed its eyes, and listened to the primal call within.
“Mommy… Yibai can drive now… Yibai will be there soon…”
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