Chapter 124: Tactical Base Swap
Lin Jiayao, after Goldie’s extraction, didn’t leave the settlement space immediately but lingered, fiddling with something.
In the black void, Goldie’s holographic projection, still absorbing blood crystals, its tentacles growing, hovered beside the safehouse and warehouse, their remaining slots displayed above.
Huayibai, despite having clung to Goldie tightly, hadn’t been brought into this space. A pity.
If she could bring this version of Huayibai back, even if it took up all 100 slots, she would; it was a powerful asset.
But Huayibai wasn’t here, so Lin Jiayao didn’t dwell on it. She arranged the backpacks by size, took out the blood crystals, and lined them up.
Even after seeing so many before, 109 blood crystals was still an impressive sight… like a pile of gold bars from before the apocalypse.
And they were all hers.
Almost… surreal.
She quickly dismissed these thoughts and began arranging the items.
First, she checked the size of each backpack in the safehouse grid.
Most occupied 2×1 or 2×2 spaces, a few 3×2 or 3×3.
And a single 4×3 travel bag, which she discarded; it wouldn’t fit in the safehouse.
She tested a 3×3 backpack, how many blood crystals it could hold.
Thirty or so, stretching the backpack to its limits, not just nine as the grid size suggested.
And this overstuffed backpack still fit neatly into a single safehouse slot, without “overflowing.”
Then, she tried something else. She filled a 2×1 backpack with five blood crystals, put it in the safehouse, and then dragged a 3×2 backpack into the same slot.
The larger backpack “absorbed” the smaller one, nesting it within.
And after nesting the smaller backpack, she could still add more crystals and smaller bags inside the larger one.
It worked!
This safehouse bug… it was like a space-folding technique.
Normally, you couldn’t put a partially filled backpack inside another partially filled backpack.
It would just… explode. Space was finite.
But in the system, these rules didn’t apply.
The safehouse grid was 3×3, but a backpack within that grid could have a 4×4 or even 5×5 internal space.
And smaller backpacks could be nested within, each occupying only its corresponding 2×1 space within the larger backpack.
The system seemed to ignore the actual physical volume of the items.
Of course, she couldn’t nest them infinitely; even the smallest item still occupied at least one grid.
Using this method, Lin Jiayao managed to fit ninety-five blood crystals into a single 3×3 backpack.
The bulging backpack sat neatly within the safehouse grid. Taking it out would cause it to… well, explode.
But as long as it fit inside, that was all that mattered.
After packing the crystals, she put the remaining fourteen blood crystals in the warehouse and then exited the settlement space.
A slight wave of fatigue, but nothing compared to logging into a B-rank.
Huayibai, with its “flying car,” had already reached Fuzhou City. All she had to do was coordinate Mask’s extraction, have Huayibai feed it the crystals, and trigger its evolution.
And once it started evolving, she would have Huayibai transport Mask to A4, also feed A4 crystals to trigger its evolution, and then transport both evolving zombies to Chongyu City.
A solid plan.
Just as she was about to log into Mask, she felt a slight tremor.
“Screech—”
Lin Xiwan, also sensing the tremor, slammed on the brakes.
Enemies?
Lin Jiayao opened her eyes. Everything was dark. Lin Xiwan had turned off the headlights and the engine, the jeep now concealed in the shadows, listening intently.
Lin Jiayao activated Blood Crystal Vision, scanning the surroundings.
Nothing.
What was that tremor?
An earthquake?
Her glowing red eyes in the darkness alerted Lin Xiwan that she was awake.
Lin Xiwan, in the darkness, reached out, felt her sister’s waist, and lifted her into her arms.
She also brought Huayibai closer, her arm shielding both of them, and listened.
“Do you see anything, Yao?”
“No blood crystal entities around us.”
“Mm…”
The tremors continued intermittently, then stopped.
Like a normal earthquake.
“…Just an earthquake,” Lin Xiwan said, placing Lin Jiayao and Huayibai back in their seats after the tremors had stopped, and restarting the engine.
They would reach Kun City in about seven or eight hours; any unusual sound or movement put her on edge.
Thankfully, it had just been an earthquake.
As they drove on, Lin Jiayao was lost in thought.
If she hadn’t been to Japan, she might have dismissed it as a normal earthquake.
But after experiencing the tsunamis and the tremors caused by those massive creatures colliding with the continental shelf, she was more sensitive to such things.
Could there be such creatures along the coast of Guangdong and Southwest Province?
Hopefully not…
But she didn’t think the massive typhoon and the prolonged rain in Guangdong had been a coincidence.
Perhaps there were deep-sea monsters attacking the land…
This thought made her feel a sense of urgency.
I have to become stronger, faster…
Eliminate the Voodoo Cult quickly, so I can focus on evolving…
Having seen the devastation along the coast, she knew the Voodoo Cult might not be their biggest threat. Many other powerful blood crystal entities, after five years of evolution, were now emerging…
But first, the Voodoo Cult…
After reassuring each other, Lin Jiayao looked at the evolution retention screen.
Goldie, having just evolved, wasn’t ready for another evolution yet, but she still offered a few options, likely mental enhancements.
And that was exactly what she needed.
「Please retain your evolution」
「1、Command: Control Lv.1 (White): Allows you to transmit more complex commands through pheromones.」
「2、Vigor Lv.3 (Gray): Slightly increases your mental strength.」
「3、Elastic Skin Lv.1 (Gray): Increases the elasticity and flexibility of your skin, allowing you to store more brains within your body.」
Seriously?
Not even a single blue option?
Pure garbage.
She immediately dismissed the third.
She’d seen this trait in both the “green fatty” and the “corn cob,” and the head-Hive zombie in the sewers. Their skin, like overinflated water balloons, was indeed elastic, capable of storing countless brains…
But what good was that to her?!
Disgusting.
Without hesitation, she chose the second evolution.
At least it directly increased her mental strength, which was what she needed now.
After selecting the evolution, she felt a warm sensation in her head.
And then, a sense of clarity, her mental fatigue from the earlier logins fading.
She felt invigorated, even capable of several more logins.
Silence had fallen in the car.
Her sister had turned on the radio, hoping to find some information about Yun Province and Kun City.
“Sister,” Lin Jiayao said, “I’m going to take a nap. Wake me up if anything happens.”
Hearing that it would take about six or seven more hours to reach Kun City, she relaxed.
Once they reached Kun City, the building-trees would protect them, as long as they didn’t provoke them, and she even had the ability to communicate with them.
Now, she could finally log into Mask.
…
“Say that again.”
Inside a slightly dilapidated, boarded-up building in Chongyu City, Wu Hejun spoke to someone in the darkness.
“Boss… only one of the planes returned… the other… is missing…”
“Get out.”
“Yes, Boss!”
Hearing the dismissal, the woman breathed a sigh of relief and hurried out.
Wu Hejun paced for a while, then also left the building.
“Damn it…” She looked up at the night sky and cursed.
Out of the four painstakingly cultivated flying insects, only one had returned; the others were missing.
And the one that had returned was the one she’d sent to burn the plantation…
And she didn’t even know how they’d been lost!
One disaster after another…
She took a deep breath and looked towards the roof of the building.
“Anan.”
“Yes, Boss?”
A man on the roof jumped down, landing lightly.
In the light of the Voodoo Cult’s searchlights, they could see that his mouth and hands were stained black, a metal skewer in his left hand, a dark red heart clutched in his right.
“Enough with the barbecue, get ready, we’re leaving.”
Wu Hejun frowned slightly at the sight of the heart in his hand, then turned and walked towards the plaza two blocks away, where the remaining aircraft had landed.
“Leaving?” Anan, hearing this, discarded the skewer, swallowed the heart whole, and hurried after her. “Shouldn’t we… consult the oracle first, Boss?”
Usually, before any major operation, the Boss would switch to her cowardly personality and consult the oracle, but this time, she hadn’t.
Hearing his question, Wu Hejun’s finger twitched. She stopped, turned, and looked at him coldly.
“What, don’t you trust me? Or do you want me to die?”
Her voice was icy, unlike any of her usual personalities.
Not cowardly, not enraged, not composed, just… cold, menacing, and unpredictable.
“No… of course not, Boss…” Anan didn’t dare question her further; she seemed… different.
He followed her silently. Even like this, he would still follow her.
He believed she was the only one in this world who understood him; he had to protect her.
He didn’t realize this devotion was the result of years of brainwashing; he was beyond saving.
Wu Hejun’s mood remained dark as she walked.
She wouldn’t use her precognitive ability again.
The personality that had used it had been driven to the brink of madness, which was how she had been able to take control.
If she used it again, the mental strain might cause her to lose control again.
And being suppressed was worse than being imprisoned; she wouldn’t go back there.
That personality had already seen the vision; all she had to do was follow it, take Anan to that jungle city, and eliminate the threat.
The vision: her, holding a blurred head, standing on a battered, scratched jeep.
Two B-ranks, an unstoppable force.
No one could withstand their combined power, especially with Anan’s ability…
After eliminating the “blood crystal destroyer,” she would rapidly expand the Voodoo Cult’s territory.
All those fleeing survivors, ripe for indoctrination and recruitment.
And then, with their new recruits, they would continue their northward expansion.
Survivor’s Light had blocked their advance; the north remained uncharted territory.
Her goal was all of China, and now, it was within reach.
Just one obstacle remaining…
And she would eliminate it today.
“Zzzt—”
A smile on her face, red lightning crackling around her body, she fired a bolt of electricity, connecting it to Anan behind her.
“Boom—”
Their combined forms, a twisting streak of red lightning, accompanied by a deafening crack of thunder, instantly appeared in the plaza two blocks away.
“Click, clack, screech—”
At the center of the brightly lit plaza, a giant insect, seeing the lightning, clicked its mandibles, the sound of bone against bone.
And a figure jumped down from its open abdomen and ran towards Wu Hejun.
“Boss, you called?” the female pilot asked, smiling, glancing around.
The absence of the other “planes” puzzled her, but she knew this was likely an urgent mission; she must have been the last to arrive.
After all, she had been the furthest away.
“Kun City,” Wu Hejun said curtly. “Quickly.”
“Kun City? Quickly?” The woman repeated the words, stunned. “That’s too far, even at full speed, it would take at least six hours.”
“Then fly,” Wu Hejun snapped her fingers, and one of her subordinates brought over a box of blood crystal stones. “Feed it.”
“Oh, okay.” The woman took the box, her hands trembling slightly; it contained about ten blood crystals.
“Do I need to… transport anything?” she asked cautiously.
The last time someone had been given so many blood crystals for an urgent mission, it had been that man with the ornithopter-like insect, transporting some kind of bomb.
And he had been… strangely reluctant to accept any more urgent missions after that.
She was worried she would also be transporting a bomb… and these insects couldn’t fly very high; she would be caught in the blast.
“Transport me, and Anan,” Wu Hejun said, walking towards the giant insect. “Let’s go.”
“Huh?”
The C-rank control-type Awakened, after a moment of stunned silence, hurried after her, carrying the box, her legs trembling.
Transporting two B-ranks?
Holy shit, this isn’t… a suicide mission, is it?
Even a stray shockwave from a B-rank battle would crush her and her insect.
But she couldn’t disobey the Boss.
If she did, Anan would kill her before she even reached the battlefield.
The Voodoo Cult’s “plane” took off. And at the same time, in Fuzhou City, another strange, insect-like creature, a wrecked car dangling beneath it, also rose into the air.
And within this insect’s abdomen, a zombie, encased in a bone cocoon, a terrifying energy building within.
Six hours later, two new B-rank zombies would be unleashed, both targeting the Voodoo Cult’s headquarters.
And the Voodoo Cult’s headquarters… its two B-rank Awakened… had just left.
A simultaneous, unknowingly coordinated… base swap.
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