Chapter 35: Hunting Time
While walking, Lin Jiayao returned the 250g of blood crystals from Mask’s mouth to the safehouse.
Having used 10g for the Blood Orb Fungus evolution, she now had 490g left.
Barely enough.
And her pistol had been confiscated by her sister, so she couldn’t go back and take on a Nest Zombie loaded with blood crystals.
She could only search for zombies along the way to the extraction point and see if she could kill some mutated ones for more crystals.
You could never have too many blood crystals.
Walking and stopping along the way, after killing a few less-evolved mutated zombies, Lin Jiayao finally replenished the missing 10g and even gained an extra 5g.
Then, she encountered a problem.
The safehouse grids could only hold 500g of blood crystals.
A 500g blood crystal was only the size of a fist, while a mineral water bottle was much larger. One grid could hold a large bottle of water, but not two blood crystals.
And the pistol, much smaller than the water bottle, took up two grids.
The safehouse’s storage didn’t seem to be based on the size of the items.
Without the system’s explanation, she could only figure out the rules through trial and error.
Soon, Lin Jiayao reached the entrance of the Yanghang Highway toll station.
She noticed that the closer she got to the highway, the fewer zombies she detected.
Toll stations were usually located on the outskirts of cities, with little to no shade. Only zombies that had evolved Bone Skin could wander around in the sunlight.
After passing through the toll station, Lin Jiayao was still 5km from the extraction point.
She didn’t bother clearing the surrounding zombies.
If she and her sister were driving, they wouldn’t be entering the highway from this toll station.
However, a little further ahead, this highway converged with other highway entrances. She could start clearing the zombies from there.
If she could control a zombie in a city near the highway every day, she should be able to map out most of the highway sections in advance.
At least ensuring safe passage wouldn’t be a problem.
If she detected danger ahead, she could feign illness and have her sister stop the car, deal with the problem, and then have her sister continue driving.
Along the highway, Lin Jiayao saw a few overturned or rear-ended cars at intervals, but the road was generally clear.
To be safe, she didn’t walk on the highway itself but crawled through the bushes outside the fence.
From the other side of the fence, it would only look like a head bobbing along.
Crawling rapidly along the highway, Lin Jiayao didn’t detect any unusual sound vibrations.
No zombies, no humans. The entire highway was as quiet as a deserted wasteland.
A few people from the highway would arrive at Lin Jiayao’s camp every year.
These people were usually those who could no longer survive in the surrounding cities, carrying enough food and water, traveling by bicycle or on foot, until they reached another city.
Lin Jiayao had heard her sister talk about these people. The highways they described weren’t this safe.
Often, a large group would set out, and only one or two would survive.
As she approached the extraction point, Lin Jiayao finally sensed an unusual vibration.
The sound of water dripping onto the ground.
It was coming from the road ahead.
Lin Jiayao lowered herself, completely concealed in the bushes, and crawled towards the sound.
When she was about 50 meters away, she cautiously peeked out from the bushes.
Is that… a truck?
It was a small, overturned truck, its cargo bed filled with supplies.
The fuel tank was ruptured, gasoline dripping onto the ground.
Recently overturned?
Back in the Hengyang Stadium camp, Lin Jiayao had used Bone Spike Lurker to gather information from the people around her.
She hadn’t heard of anyone from the three camps in Baiyan District driving onto the highway.
Could it be from another district?
The closest one should be Haixin District.
A truck from Haixin District?
If that were the case, then this truck was likely from the Yangzhou Tower camp.
What had happened to them? Why had they overturned on the highway?
And the scattered supplies… no one seemed to be collecting them…
Lin Jiayao even saw several police pistols among the scattered goods.
Haixin District used to be a commercial center, full of high-rise buildings, but the military base wasn’t there, so the best weapons they could find were police-issue.
Modified pistols and low-powered bullets weren’t much of a threat against mutated zombies.
These guns weren’t designed for killing people, let alone zombies.
They weren’t as reliable as her own bone spikes.
After confirming there was no other movement within 150 meters, Lin Jiayao crawled towards the truck.
The truck had overturned on its right side, the driver’s side door open upwards. Lin Jiayao climbed up but didn’t see any bodies inside.
Had they escaped safely?
But why hadn’t they taken their supplies?
She couldn’t find any bloodstains inside or on the handles. The only suspicious sign was a spiderweb-like crack on the windshield.
Like it had been hit by a bullet.
“Those two bastards are fast. I almost got hit trying to stop them. I’m heading back to tell the boss. They should be in that village up ahead, not far from here.”
“Alright, I’ll call some brothers over to collect the goods. This is a big haul…”
“Feels like more and more people are going onto the highway these days. Probably running out of resources in the city.”
“Whatever, not like we’re competing with the city zombies for resources…”
The voices of several men reached the edge of Lin Jiayao’s Bone Spike Lurker range.
She quickly climbed out of the cab, crawled across the highway to the slope on the other side, and hid in the bushes.
Through the foliage, Lin Jiayao waited for the voices to approach.
Soon, she saw several figures walking towards the overturned truck on the opposite side of the highway.
“Alu, S1, 5 kilometers past the toll station. The sheep escaped, cargo intact. Tell the brothers to pick it up.”
A man spoke into a walkie-talkie.
“Zzz… Roger… We’ll be right there…”
This is…
The people from Yangzhou Tower camp had escaped, only to be ambushed by a gang?
Poetic justice, perhaps.
With an hour left until extraction, Lin Jiayao didn’t leave. She waited for the “brothers” mentioned on the walkie-talkie to arrive.
They ambushed; she would clean up.
In Lin Jiayao’s eyes, they and their gang weren’t worth much.
Lacking the courage to face the zombies in the city, preying only on their fellow humans, she had little respect for such people.
Now it depended on whether she could eliminate this gang within an hour.
Lin Jiayao’s long bone tail curved over her head.
Like a scorpion’s stinger, its tip gleamed with a jade-like luster, waiting for its prey.
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