Chapter 34: Secretly Discarding People
Lin Jiayao had initially thought the evolution would be as straightforward as before.
But perhaps because it was a completely new type of evolution, she realized, upon opening her eyes, that the process was still ongoing.
She felt her eyelids growing hot, as if her eyeballs had turned into burning iron balls.
The burning sensation didn’t stop at her eyes but spread across her face, along her cheeks.
If there had been a mirror in front of her, Lin Jiayao would have seen the transformation and immediately dismissed her earlier thought of still being “normal.”
Her pupils were now glowing red, her eyes bloodshot.
The blood vessels spread beneath her skin like a bright red spiderweb.
Looking closely, one could see that these distinct red lines were the Blood Orb fungal tendrils she had seen in the virtual space.
The changes in her eyes and face erased any trace of her delicate, girlish beauty, replacing it with an eerie, almost demonic quality.
Anyone seeing her now, no matter how beautiful she normally was, would instantly recognize her as a zombie.
The transformation continued, spreading down her neck.
The burning sensation persisted, and the areas covered by the tendrils began to itch intensely.
In just three seconds, the Blood Orb fungal tendrils spread throughout Lin Jiayao’s body, pulsing with a faint, intermittent glow with every heartbeat.
As if her heart was powering the tendrils.
Fighting the discomfort, Lin Jiayao slowly ducked under the covers and realized her sister’s legs were still wrapped around hers.
Had her sister felt the burning sensation?
Or was it only her?
“Uh…”
As the burning subsided, a tingling sensation spread through her as the tendrils writhed beneath her skin.
The intense itching made her shudder, and she let out an embarrassing moan.
“Mmm…”
The feeling made her scalp crawl.
It was as if her entire body was covered in worms, a deeply unsettling sensation.
Quickly, Lin Jiayao realized she could control the tendrils.
“Get out!” she gritted her teeth, silently commanding them.
The Blood Orb fungal tendrils retreated faster than they had spread.
Lin Jiayao knew they hadn’t disappeared but had reverted to spores, hiding in her bloodstream.
But they weren’t circulating; they clung to the blood vessel walls. Even if she were cut, no spores would leak out.
“Hoo…”
Feeling the strange sensations disappear, Lin Jiayao sighed in relief.
While the Blood Orb fungal tendrils had been spreading, she had felt a significant increase in her physical abilities.
She could see more clearly in the dim room, her hearing, smell, and strength were all enhanced.
The enhancements disappeared when the tendrils retreated. It seemed that covering her body with the tendrils could boost her physical capabilities.
Useful, but Lin Jiayao didn’t want to experience that sensation again.
She would only use it to enhance specific areas, like generating tendrils in her eyes to improve her vision.
After confirming there were no other abnormalities, Lin Jiayao peeked out from under the covers and looked at her sister.
Fortunately, her sister seemed exhausted and was still sound asleep; whether she would wake up for the afternoon shopping trip was questionable.
Touching her neck, Lin Jiayao realized it was covered in a fine layer of sweat.
The evolution had made her sweat profusely.
But she couldn’t move her sister’s legs and go take a shower now; it would wake her up.
And her sister wouldn’t let her go alone; she would insist on coming along, which would further disrupt her rest.
Lin Jiayao simply pulled down her collar a bit and lifted the blanket slightly, exposing her back to the cool air.
“I’ll save evolutions for when I’m alone. There’s no time limit anyway,” Lin Jiayao thought to herself.
She closed her eyes and silently called out, “System.”
Looking at the login interface, the slot for the second zombie was now also on a countdown timer, like the third.
But looking at the world map, Lin Jiayao guessed that she could still choose any available region, not just the area where the previous extraction had failed.
For now, her only option was Mask.
The second and third zombies would unlock tomorrow.
She wondered if the system had an “auto-extract” function for when she had more zombies to control. Logging into each zombie every day would be too tedious – there were only 24 hours in a day.
Even a dedicated gamer would weep.
With ample time, Lin Jiayao chose Mask and entered her third simulation of the day.
Since Mask had extracted in the sewer maintenance hole last time, she woke up there again.
Regaining control, Lin Jiayao waved her bone spikes, preparing to climb out.
“Clatter, clatter—”
As soon as she moved, she heard a strange sound. The sewer was too dark to see clearly what it was.
Climbing out of the maintenance hole, she saw two empty, large mineral water bottles impaled on her bone spikes.
She seemed to remember putting them there…
“Clatter, clatter—”
She shook her legs, flinging the bottles off, and looked towards the extraction point.
「Extraction Time 2:59:51」
【Extraction Point: 10km】
This was a fairly common extraction time and distance. She hadn’t encountered any major problems with these numbers before.
Ironically, the closer extraction points seemed to be more dangerous and difficult.
And the direction of the extraction point this time… if she remembered correctly, it was towards the highway…
Almost the same direction she and her sister planned to go.
“Click, click, click—”
Lin Jiayao moved her twenty bone legs and crawled towards the extraction point.
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