Chapter 102: City of the Jungle
“Zzz… Repeating, operation name…”
“Zzz…”
“Thump—”
“Goddamn it!”
Inside an SUV, a woman, her upper body bare, covered in a phoenix tattoo, slammed her fist against the radio.
The force of the blow made the Voodoo Cult driver in the passenger seat flinch. The female driver looked at the woman nervously. “The Boss’s orders…”
“I know, just shut up… No, wait.”
The woman rubbed her shaved head irritably and then, with a powerful kick, sent the car door flying.
Only then did they see that she wasn’t just topless, but completely naked, her body covered in seemingly random characters, like a full-body tattoo.
But unlike her body, her face was bare, her eyebrows and hair completely shaved, her eyes tattooed black, a disturbing contrast.
Even without makeup, this look would terrify children.
She jumped out of the car, the hot sand and gravel sizzling against her bare feet.
Seemingly unfazed, she stood there, naked under the scorching desert sun, took a deep breath, and then choked on the dust.
“Fucking hell… even out here, they won’t leave me alone.” She rubbed her nose and looked at the driver. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“Yes, Boss,” the driver replied, reaching into the back of the car and retrieving a string of bone plates. She got out of the car, walked over to the naked woman, and handed her the string.
“Thanks,” the woman said politely, taking the bones and putting them around her neck.
The bones were of various shapes and sizes: flat plates, hollow tubes, sharp spikes, seemingly from different mutated creatures.
Intricate patterns, filled with blood crystals that shimmered in the sunlight, were carved into each bone, abstract representations of the creatures they came from.
“Hoo…”
Standing in the desert, the woman exhaled deeply and closed her eyes.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, the tattooed black sclera now streaked with red, the lines spreading across her shaved head like cracks in a volcano.
As if drawn by her will, the bone necklace around her neck lifted and spun.
The spinning necklace slowed, and a small skull hovered before her eyes.
It looked like a cross between a rat and a bat, its four deep eye sockets suggesting it wasn’t an ordinary creature.
The carvings on the skull glowed faintly, pulsing with her will.
“Buzz—”
The small skull vibrated rapidly, breaking free from the string, its jaws, filled with sharp teeth, snapping open as if alive.
Red, crystalline threads extended from the broken edges of the skull, forming bones, then wings, reconstructing its former body.
The woman bit her thumb, drawing blood, and smeared it on the forming skull.
The blood, as if coming alive, spread across the bone, forming a thin film covering the small “bat.”
The bone necklace settled around her neck, and the “bat,” now hovering in the air, flew around her, its movements controlled by her will.
Finally, it settled above her head, its gaze fixed on the desolate expanse before her.
The blood crystal bat opened its small mouth, emitting a silent wave.
The ground trembled as the wave spread outwards.
“This is it,” she said, stepping into the desert without looking back, issuing a command to the driver. “Come back… in an hour or two.”
“The mission can wait. Drive somewhere far away for now.”
“Screech—”
A piercing shriek, like a baby’s cry, and the sand beneath them collapsed, a massive, three-headed Sandworm emerging from the earth.
It lunged towards the woman, its three massive, teeth-filled maws, each almost five meters wide, gaping, its enormous body creating a dust storm.
“Yes, Boss! I’ll be back!”
The driver scrambled into the SUV, slammed on the gas, and sped away, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
Finally alone, the woman relaxed, reverting to her most comfortable, primal state.
She stretched her naked body, smiling at the now inanimate bat hovering above her head. “You did well. Return, Bloodsound Bat.”
“Boom—”
She rolled back, dodging one of the Sandworm’s snapping jaws, and the bat above her head transformed back into a skull, settling back onto the bone necklace around her neck.
“Quite feisty…” she muttered.
Her fighting spirit ignited. Kneeling in the sand, the bone necklace swaying against her skin, she ripped off a triangular bone plate and sliced her wrist with it.
“I choose you!” A grin spread across her face, the blood on her wrist shimmering with a faint, crystalline glow. “Great Blood Mantis—”
…
The sun was high overhead. The woman rummaged through a pile of gore.
She was so focused that she didn’t notice the approaching SUV until its engine roared behind her. She turned and looked back.
“Boss… we received the airdrop,” the driver said, gesturing to the crates strapped to the SUV’s roof. “The plane has landed. The Boss wants you back, ASAP.”
“Oh,” the woman replied casually, her hand still rummaging, finally finding what she was looking for. She started pulling at it.
Using a plane… that meant the situation was serious. But she really didn’t want to participate in these… extermination missions.
She preferred hunting powerful mutated zombies, not defenseless humans. She would give the blood crystals to the organization; she just enjoyed the hunt.
“Crack—”
One of the Sandworm’s teeth broke off. She wiped it on her body, went to the SUV, took out a carving knife, and began working on the bone.
The driver knew it was pointless to disturb her and went to the Sandworm’s massive corpse, collecting the blood crystal stones in a burlap sack.
After carving intricate patterns into the tooth, the woman hung it on her bone necklace, infused it with blood crystals, then, satisfied, placed the now-ornate necklace in the car.
The driver, having collected the blood crystals, placed the sack in the trunk, took the crates from the roof, and then got into the passenger seat.
“Whirr—”
The woman started the engine and sped towards the airport.
“Boss… this is from the Boss… and also, the mission details…” The driver had been with this woman for three years and knew her temperament well.
The Boss was… unpredictable.
After the blood crystal infection outbreak, many survivors had embraced their primal instincts, and within the Voodoo Cult, this was even more pronounced.
Their Boss – the driver only knew her surname was Luo; she rarely mentioned her full name – was perhaps the most… liberated.
She’d heard that before the apocalypse, Luo had been a shut-in, addicted to video games.
After being rescued by the Boss, she had, under the Boss’s guidance, fully embraced her true nature – her aversion to clothing being just one aspect.
And Luo had a unique perspective… she seemed to treat the apocalypse like a game, referring to her tattoos as “skins.”
Under the Boss’s tutelage, Luo’s advancement had been rapid, largely due to her constant battles with mutated zombies. She was the spearhead of the Voodoo Cult’s expansion efforts.
About three months ago, she had reached B-rank, a significant boost to the Voodoo Cult’s overall strength.
But the driver knew that despite Luo’s love for exploring and her disregard for blood crystals, she hated killing humans.
This mission… the Boss must have had no other choice but to send her.
“How long to reach Guangdong Province from here?” Luo asked.
“We can’t reach Guangdong directly… The plane will land in Southwest Province. There’s a convoy waiting for us there; we’ll drive to Guangdong from there.”
“Oh…” Luo was silent for a moment. “Which city in Guangdong is closest to us?”
“Qingzhou City.”
“Hmm…” Luo pressed the accelerator, then, after a while, muttered, “Such a waste of time, fuck.”
“Let’s just get this over with. I’ll just flatten everything with the Sandworm…”
She hoped Guangdong would have some interesting zombies, something to make this trip less boring.
…
Guangdong Province. On the highway from Qingzhou City to Southwest Province, a jeep drove smoothly along the empty road.
Compared to the chaotic mobilization of the Voodoo Cult, the atmosphere inside the jeep was relaxed.
In about an hour and a half, they would be out of Guangdong Province.
Escaping the encirclement soon; this eased Lin Xiwan’s anxiety.
She even had the leisure to try and correct Huayibai’s way of addressing them.
But she quickly discovered it was futile.
Huayibai could pronounce “Sister,” “Yao,” and “Wan,” but after being taught “Sister Wan” and “Sister Yao,” whenever Lin Xiwan pointed at her younger sister, Huayibai would invariably say, “Mommy!”
After several attempts, Lin Xiwan gave up.
Lin Jiayao had already explained the basics to Huayibai after confirming its identity: “Run away from any humans” and “Hide if there’s a fight.”
Lin Xiwan agreed with this advice. She sensed that Huayibai’s blood crystal level was barely D-rank.
Even with its stretchy body, it wasn’t much of a fighter, though it was good at escaping.
Such abilities were usually only effective after reaching C-rank, unless one developed a unique fighting style.
But Lin Jiayao wasn’t worried.
Huayibai was just injured, lacking blood crystals to fully heal.
If they encountered a truly dangerous situation, she could always give Huayibai some blood crystals; fungal zombies were incredibly efficient at absorbing them.
Having confirmed that Huayibai was well-behaved and wouldn’t cause trouble or spread spores, Lin Jiayao closed her eyes in the car.
She had recovered enough from her earlier nap; it was time to log into the second zombie and check on Yun Province.
That was a higher priority than educating Huayibai.
With any luck, they would be out of Guangdong Province by tonight and reach Yun Province by tomorrow night.
Assuming everything went smoothly, the roads were clear, and they encountered no obstacles.
Lin Jiayao took a blood crystal from the warehouse, put it in the safehouse as a reserve, and then looked at the login interface.
「No.1: [Mask] (Available for login)」
「No.2: 🌐 (Available for login)」
「No.3: [Goldie] (Available for login)」
「No.4: [A4] (Available for login)」
She selected the second slot, chose Kun City in Yun Province as the spawn point…
And her consciousness was transported across time and space.
Hopefully, the situation in Yun Province wasn’t too bad. Otherwise, they would have to cross the border from Southwest Province.
Neither of them wanted to leave China.
They didn’t know what the outside world was like, hadn’t heard much about other countries.
The unknown was always frightening; they wouldn’t leave unless absolutely necessary.
Even if the chances were slim, Lin Jiayao wanted to try… disrupting the Voodoo Cult.
If that failed, then they would run.
Perhaps smaller countries had fewer people, fewer mutated zombies.
Just… avoid India.
She was afraid the Ganges had already spawned Cthulhu.
“Splat—”
As Lin Jiayao opened her eyes, she heard a wet, squishy sound.
This is…
A bad premonition.
She’d heard similar sounds before.
Either tentacles, or a slime-covered zombie wriggling on the ground.
And she was certain the sound had come from her… opening her eyes.
She opened her eyes, surprised by the clarity of her vision, and then frowned.
The city before her… she wasn’t even sure if she could call it a city anymore.
Green moss covered almost every building. The sky was overcast, no sunlight. The branches of towering trees intertwined with the buildings, a true “urban jungle.”
A damp mist hung in the air, each breath heavy with moisture.
Seeing this, she was slightly relieved.
At least the mist would prevent the spores from spreading easily.
But she didn’t know the state of the zombies here. This was uncharted territory, even Survivor’s Light hadn’t mentioned this place.
She moved her hand, then looked down at her body.
No… something’s wrong…
I can’t move my neck?
She realized her “neck” was immobile, but her eyes could move freely.
A familiar feeling… like the crystalline red eyes formed by the Blood Orb Fungus.
She looked at her body.
This is…
What the…
“Crack—”
She moved her “wings.” As she did, the branches connected to her body snapped.
Pulling her arms free from the vines behind her, she took a few unsteady steps and then collapsed onto the ground.
She felt weak and drained. Looking behind her, she saw a massive, writhing “building-tree.”
Almost a hundred meters tall, covered in vines, moss, and some fluffy white fungus, she even saw a few strands of the familiar red Blood Orb Fungus.
A powerful urge to consume the tree’s vines and branches washed over her.
But she quickly suppressed it, noticing the countless desiccated corpses, human, zombie, and animal, entangled within the tree.
“Gasp…”
A low growl escaped her throat instead of a gasp.
Looking down at her reflection in a puddle on the ground, she finally saw what she looked like.
A… two-meter-tall, headless skeleton bird?
Only a thin layer of flesh remained on its bones, seemingly drained of all its blood and essence, its internal organs gone.
Dark green vines, having burrowed deep into her body, and a fluffy white fungus covered her skeletal frame.
And wrapped around the vertebrae where her neck should be was an emerald green fungal growth, its tip a large, 25-centimeter-wide cap, serving as her eyes.
She moved her arms – skeletal wings – the vines and fungal growth swaying with the movement.
She… had no idea what kind of monster she was controlling.
It looked like a headless pterodactyl with a giant mushroom cap, its flesh mostly gone, its hollow ribcage clearly visible.
The vines and fungus had become its new “skin,” covering its wings, moving with them.
Its legs had been replaced by two thin, brown branches, its tail a long, faintly glowing green tendril and vine.
After staring at it for a while, Lin Jiayao finally recognized what it resembled.
A grotesque fusion of a peacock and a pterodactyl, its body mostly… parasitized, or perhaps, in a symbiotic relationship with various organisms.
Like a mutated bird, consumed and transformed by various parasites.
And strangely, she didn’t sense any special abilities. She couldn’t control the vines or fungus, only the fungal cap that served as her eyes.
After all she had experienced, she finally understood her current state.
The zombie she had logged into was a mutated bird.
This mutated bird had been captured by the massive “building-tree” and drained of its blood crystals and energy.
But instead of dying, it had become a host for the tree’s various parasites, its life force barely sustained.
She was now a frail husk, animated by a collection of vines, fungi, and bacteria.
Should I use some blood crystals to restore it?
After a moment of hesitation, she dismissed the thought.
I can still move. I’ll check the extraction point first.
She rotated her fungal eye 360 degrees, locating the extraction point behind her.
「Extraction Time 01:58:11」
【Extraction Point: 47km】
Less than two hours?
47 kilometers?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Although she had no fists, she felt them clenching.
No, wait…
The system wouldn’t give her impossible tasks; if it was just about reaching the extraction point, there had to be a way.
But with so little time, how could she possibly cover that distance with these two twig-like legs?
Then she looked at her wings.
Could it be… could I still fly like this?
She experimentally flapped her wings, a faint muscle memory surfacing.
The large wings beat, the vines and fungal growths swaying wildly.
Then, following instinct, she leaped upwards, the six-meter wingspan and the buoyancy of the fungal growths lifting her slightly off the ground.
Dead branches and leaves scattered beneath her, and then she crashed back down.
Still can’t fly…
She struggled to her feet, looking at the claws on her wings, then at the tall “building-tree.”
Perhaps… from a higher vantage point…
She approached the tree, realizing that as long as she resisted the urge to consume it, it wouldn’t attack.
Using the branches and vines as handholds, she began to climb.
The branch-like legs and the claws on her wings made climbing surprisingly easy.
Within twenty minutes, she had reached the top, overlooking the mist-shrouded, green-covered city.
This place seemed just as dangerous as anywhere else… especially with so many parasites and plants.
She would investigate the area around the extraction point later.
If it was too dangerous, she would avoid it.
Gripping the vines at the edge of the rooftop with her claws, she shifted her weight.
Here goes nothing.
With a powerful leap, she flapped her wings, holding them parallel to the ground.
The emerald green fungal growth and the dark green vines trailed behind her like a flowing cape, a green phoenix soaring through the air.
“Whoosh—”
She felt the wind rushing past, her body finding its balance, gliding towards the extraction point.
I’m flying!
The sensation of flight, unlike the insect vision, was exhilarating.
At this speed, she could reach the extraction point within an hour, and from above, the area seemed clear, relatively safe.
As long as I don’t get hit by a plane, extraction should be easy.
Lin Jiayao relaxed slightly, thinking this.
As if there would still be planes in the apocalypse… how ridiculous… A bird-plane collision… seriously…
She chuckled at her own absurd thought.
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