Chapter 26: Zombie Rescue
After cleaning herself that evening, Lin Jiayao didn’t go to bed but instead slept sitting in her wheelchair.
She slept so deeply it was almost like a coma, not waking up until the next morning.
The repeated strain of controlling zombies, coupled with the fatigue from her body’s evolutions, had plunged her into a long, deep sleep.
Her mental strength rapidly recovered during her slumber.
Around noon, she groggily opened her eyes, staring blankly at the two system notifications.
「You have a new zombie available for login—」
「Mask evolution complete, time elapsed 8:00:00」
“What… time is it?”
Seeing the sunlight streaming through the gaps in the curtains, Lin Jiayao realized it was late.
“Oh no!”
A chill ran down her spine. She immediately tried to push her wheelchair to find her sister.
Lin Jiayao had carefully cleared the path from Huangpu Avenue all the way back to the resort camp.
But even so, she was still worried about her sister’s safety until she saw her with her own eyes.
It turned out that haste makes waste.
Perhaps because she used too much force, several loose screws on the wheelchair finally gave way as she turned the stainless steel handrim.
The already rickety wheelchair completely broke down.
“Damn it!”
Even the usually calm and composed Lin Jiayao couldn’t help but curse.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to use Lurker or Bone Manipulator to control her legs and walk.
But Lurker only allowed her to extend bone spikes, and Bone Manipulator couldn’t control her own body.
And perhaps because of Mask, Lin Jiayao’s fine control over her bone spikes was limited to her upper body.
More accurately, the most flexible area was from her neck up—just like Mask—after all, Mask only had a head.
She couldn’t control her entire body with bone spikes; it would severely damage her own bones—Bone Manipulator’s control was too invasive.
A body controlled by Bone Manipulator would essentially suffer full-body fractures after the bone spikes were withdrawn.
There would be plenty of opportunities to walk again later. Lin Jiayao wouldn’t resort to such a drastic and reckless method just to be able to move her legs temporarily.
However, her current situation made her want to extend her bone spikes and use them to walk.
But then she stopped.
Because she heard two sets of footsteps approaching her door.
And the frequency of the vibrations…
The heartbeat, the voice, the rhythm of the footsteps… Lin Jiayao instantly recognized them as belonging to her sister.
Had she come looking for her?
As Lin Jiayao pondered, the footsteps stopped in front of her door.
“You can go back.”
A cold voice, distant and aloof, came from beyond the thin door. Lin Jiayao didn’t even need to use Lurker hearing.
The voice sent shivers down her spine.
It was her sister!
She had found her!
The guilt of oversleeping and not going to look for her, the joy of their impending reunion, these two intense emotions intertwined, almost making her head spin.
She gripped the armrest with her left hand, pushed against the air behind her with her right, and a meter-long bone spike extended from her palm, supporting her as she pushed the wheelchair towards the door.
Retracting the bone spike, she reached forward and opened the door.
Seeing the familiar figure, Lin Jiayao couldn’t contain her emotions any longer. She opened her arms and lunged forward.
Having grown accustomed to walking with the legs of Mask and other zombies, Lin Jiayao had forgotten that her own legs were immobile.
Lunging forward like this, she could only fall to the floor.
But just as her backside left the wheelchair, a pair of warm hands caught her around the waist and lifted her into a hug.
“I’m sorry I’m late…”
Lin Xiwan’s voice was no longer cold but choked with emotion.
Lin Jiayao could hear the deep guilt in her sister’s voice.
“Welcome back.”
Lin Jiayao didn’t say anything else, just rubbed her sister’s back and smiled.
Her familiar words seemed to stun Lin Xiwan, who hugged her even tighter.
Lin Jiayao was held, her legs dangling uselessly, her feet not touching the ground.
They had been about the same height, around 168cm, but since Lin Xiwan had become a physically enhanced Awakened, she had grown a bit taller, now around 175cm.
This made Lin Jiayao seem smaller in her embrace.
After a long hug, Lin Xiwan seemed to realize her lapse in composure.
They were still in a public area.
She shifted Lin Jiayao into a princess carry, brought her into the room, and closed the door.
Upon entering, Lin Xiwan immediately noticed the broken wheelchair and the bloodstains on it…
Her heart tightened. She quickly sat on the bed and gently shook her sister, asking, “Yaoyao, are you alright? Are you hurt? Were you mistreated these past few days? Did those Blood Gang bastards do anything to you?”
As she anxiously bombarded her sister with questions, she lifted Lin Jiayao’s shirt, checking for injuries.
After a flurry of questions, Lin Xiwan was surprised to find that her sister’s skin was still smooth and delicate, without a single scratch or bruise.
How… how was this possible?
While relieved that her sister was unharmed, Lin Xiwan couldn’t understand how she had escaped unscathed.
How had a frail girl in a wheelchair survived such a deadly situation?
Had someone helped her?
If not, there was only one possibility.
The high-level Mimic zombies mentioned on the radio.
These were terrifying zombies that perfectly mimicked the behavior of their former selves. No one knew how they evolved, only that the researchers in Donghai Province had classified them as a special type.
But this wasn’t Donghai Province. Without their specialized detection devices, it was impossible to identify a high-level Mimic.
Looking at her sister’s questioning gaze, Lin Jiayao slowly spoke.
“Sister… you might not believe this, but I was saved by a zombie.”
Lin Xiwan was stunned. “A zombie?!” she exclaimed.
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