Chapter 51: Mommy’s Hand
Facing the little girl rushing towards her, Lin Jiayao quickly extended her right hand. The fungal tendrils beneath her skin twisted and erupted, shooting towards the girl.
“Whoosh—”
A mass of tendrils burst through Lin Jiayao’s skin, slamming into the little girl’s soft body and carrying her backwards into the wall.
“Thump—!”
The girl’s body hit the wall hard.
The tendrils, intertwined like a giant arm, pinned her, preventing any movement.
“Who are you?” Lin Jiayao stared at the girl, her voice cold.
“Oh dear, why are you two fighting? Come now, Huayibai, this is your Sister Xie…”
Gu Wangran stood up from behind his desk, smiling, seemingly intending to mediate.
His voice startled Lin Jiayao, a cold sweat breaking out on her back.
Having Bone Spike Lurker activated for so long with both her main body and Mask had made her almost forget she wasn’t using it now.
She had almost forgotten about the fungal monster behind her!
“Don’t move!” Lin Jiayao turned, her left hand aimed at Gu Wangran. Her skin slowly split open, tendrils writhing within, emanating a dangerous aura.
“Xiao Xie! How dare you?!”
To Lin Jiayao’s surprise, Gu Wangran’s voice boomed even louder than hers. He slammed his hand on the desk, the blood-red mushroom on his split head trembling slightly.
“How many times have I told you, Awakened abilities are absolutely forbidden against comrades within Donghai City! And you’re using your ability now? Against me???”
Gu Wangran’s white beard trembled; he seemed genuinely angry.
This display of concerned reprimand, coming from a fungal zombie, fueled Lin Jiayao’s already simmering anger.
But she quickly calmed herself down.
“Stop mimicking human speech,” Lin Jiayao’s gaze turned from anger to disgust. “Zombies should act like zombies.”
If she had been controlling Mask, she would have ripped off Gu Wangran’s head on the spot.
Unfortunately, she was controlling a fungal zombie. Her only offensive ability was spreading spores and infecting others.
And assimilating two people simultaneously was mentally taxing, especially an elderly person’s memories.
“Zombie? You’re talking about… me?” To Lin Jiayao’s surprise, Gu Wangran reacted to the word “zombie.”
His head twitched violently, and he sat back down, trembling.
“Boom—”
“Crash—”
A wave of pressure erupted from Gu Wangran, shattering the window behind him.
This was Gu Wangran’s Awakened ability… he wasn’t dead yet?
He was still alive, even in this state?!
Fungal zombies couldn’t use the original host’s Awakened abilities; only the host themselves could.
But after unleashing this chaotic blast, Gu Wangran fell silent, sitting motionless in his chair.
The red tendrils within the mushroom that served as his eye faded slightly, revealing the white beneath.
He turned his single mushroom eye, scanning the room, his gaze lingering on Lin Jiayao for at least three seconds before returning to his desk.
The polished rosewood desk, its glass top, reflected his grotesque form.
But he seemed oblivious, his trembling hand picking up the pen again, muttering in a shaky voice.
“After leaving Donghai, we’ll head west, where the population is sparse… continue southwest, to the Kunzhou Botanical Research Institute. That’s where the ‘Ark’ is, humanity’s largest germplasm resource bank…”
“With the seeds, we can restore most of the pre-apocalypse plants and crops… then we’ll move towards the inland lakes…”
He continued writing, his voice so low that even Lin Jiayao couldn’t hear him.
Then, she felt a tug on her right hand.
She turned and saw the little girl hugging her giant, tendril-formed arm with a look of bliss.
The girl’s legs, even in her skirt, were wrapped around the massive tendril arm.
“Mommy’s hand, hee hee…”
“Rustle, rustle, rustle…”
Gu Wangran stopped writing again.
He stared blankly at a withered hyacinth that had fallen from his collar.
The hyacinth symbolized victory, joy, happiness, pride, love, admiration, deep affection, and eternal remembrance.
All words describing beautiful human emotions.
The hyacinth also had another symbolic meaning.
It represented that by igniting the flame of life, one could enjoy a rich and fulfilling life, forget past sorrows, and embrace new love.
“My child,” Gu Wangran said, looking at Lin Jiayao. Even a blind man could see that the child he had raised as his own daughter was no longer the same.
“My child,” he repeated, viscous, transparent pus dripping from his increasingly red mushroom eye, his voice filled with age and despair.
“The hyacinth has withered.”
His last words, whether addressed to Lin Jiayao or the air, were barely audible.
The withered hyacinth, coated in the transparent mucus, fell to the ground.
Before it landed, the B-rank Awakened, near the pinnacle of human strength, unleashed his final, possibly not his strongest, but his last Chaotic Storm.
A terrifying hurricane tore through his withered skin and grotesque head, erupting outwards.
Lin Jiayao’s pupils constricted. Before she could react, she felt an immense force and a searing pain.
“Boom—”
Gu Wangran’s body exploded from the strain, his final Chaotic Storm tearing through the government building like a raging tempest.
Before losing consciousness, Lin Jiayao saw walls crumbling, tendrils being shredded.
Sections of the building were blown apart, revealing the terrified faces of fungal zombies within, before the all-consuming storm tore them to pieces.
The government building was reduced to rubble before Lin Jiayao was consumed by the storm.
Her consciousness faded into darkness.
“Gasp—”
Back in her body, Lin Jiayao sat up in bed, gasping for air, a phantom pain of being crushed lingering in her body.
She stared at her trembling hands, still in shock, until a cold drop of liquid landed on her palm, bringing her back to her senses.
She realized she was crying.
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