Chapter 52: Nervous Breakdown
Lin Jiayao sat on the bed, stunned.
Lingering in her mind wasn’t just the fear of death and the soul-wrenching pain, but also the chaotic jumble of memories from another person.
The combined effect left her reeling.
Finally, her ragged breathing calmed, and she realized her clothes were soaked with sweat.
“Hoo…”
She exhaled deeply.
She knew she couldn’t log into another zombie for now.
Although she desperately wanted to log back into Donghai City and see the aftermath, her own condition was too precarious.
After the explosion, there would definitely be other Awakened, like Bu Xiaolong, who hadn’t been infected, who would see the fungal tendrils in the ruins of the government building.
Then, they would realize that Donghai City had been infiltrated by fungal zombies.
Survivor’s Light would descend into chaos, leaderless, possibly even turning on each other in the confusion.
Lin Jiayao looked at the system’s evolution interface and shook her head slightly.
Although she admired Gu Wangran’s self-sacrificing act of exposing the truth, her own survival was more important now.
She decided to take a shower and clear her head.
She moved to the edge of the bed. Her sister had placed the wheelchair within easy reach.
Turning her back to the wheelchair, she placed her hands on the armrests, pushed herself up, and sat down.
She wheeled herself to the wardrobe.
She could have crawled with her bone spikes; it would have been faster.
But she didn’t want to use any zombie-related abilities right now.
After choosing a loose black t-shirt and a pair of easy-to-wear black shorts, she went to the bathroom.
This was a villa bedroom, so it had its own ensuite bathroom.
She hadn’t used it before because there was no running water.
If she wanted to shower here, she would have to fetch water from the public bathhouse, which was too much trouble.
But opening the door, she saw several buckets of clean, slightly steaming water.
Her sister had prepared them before leaving.
Her sister’s thoughtfulness calmed Lin Jiayao’s chaotic emotions.
No matter what happened, at least she was alive, and so was her sister.
For now, that was enough.
Inside the bathroom, Lin Jiayao gripped the stainless steel grab bars on the wall, shifted from the wheelchair to the plastic stool, and began undressing.
Lin Xiwan had installed the grab bars herself, one nail at a time, so Lin Jiayao could wash herself independently.
Lin Xiwan often led exploration teams and Grandma Zhang wasn’t always able to help, so Lin Jiayao had to learn to take care of herself.
Placing her change of clothes on the sink, she started to remove her sweat-soaked clothes.
After undressing, she took a towel, dipped it in the water, and washed her face.
Then, as she started to wet her body with the towel, she suddenly remembered something and slapped her forehead.
She had forgotten to bring a headband or hair tie. Her long hair was now wet.
No choice now, I’ll have to wash it.
She usually had her sister wash her hair; it was too difficult to do it herself.
It took Lin Jiayao almost half an hour to finish showering and dressing. She emerged from the bathroom, her hair dripping wet.
Toweling her hair dry, she looked at the system’s evolution panel.
The notification had appeared earlier, but she had dismissed it, distracted.
Fortunately, the options were still there.
「Please retain your evolution」
「1、【Mimic Fruiting Body Lv.1 (Gold): Your fungal tendrils can transform the parasitized host’s body into a fruiting body, directly entering the mature stage】」
「2、【Offensive Mimicry Lv.1 (Purple): Allows the dispersed fungal tendrils to attach to the body’s surface and change color, mimicking the appearance of an ordinary zombie to lure enemies into attacking】」
「3、【Myriad Tendrils Lv.1 (Purple): Consume blood crystals to project a large mass of fungal tendrils, enhancing your close-range attacks】」
Lin Jiayao considered the options.
She wasn’t deciding which one to choose. Now that she had the fungal tendrils, the choice was obvious: gold first, then purple.
She was thinking about the other two abilities, especially the second, [Offensive Mimicry].
So, the so-called Mimics using zombie abilities… did that mean they “transformed” into ordinary or mutated zombies after being exposed?
After reading the description, Lin Jiayao understood just how wrong Survivor’s Light had been.
[Offensive Mimicry] simply meant mimicking a harmless creature to lure prey into approaching or consuming them.
Some parasites in nature used this method, displaying offensive mimicry from within a snail’s body to attract birds, continuing their parasitic cycle.
The fungal tendrils weren’t using zombie abilities; they were mimicking weaker, ordinary zombies to lure Awakened into attacking them.
Once an Awakened got within a dozen meters and attacked, the invisible spores would spread through the air and be inhaled.
Unfortunately, this realization came too late.
Lin Jiayao sighed and chose the first option.
The second was useless to her; she didn’t want to disguise herself as a zombie.
Since it wasn’t the first time she’d evolved a fungal ability, she felt no discomfort, just a warmth spreading through her body before quickly fading.
“Hoo…”
Sitting in her wheelchair, Lin Jiayao stretched her neck. Perhaps it was the shower, but she felt much better.
She opened the system’s login interface.
「No.1: [Mask] (Available for login)」
「No.2: ❌ (23:27:33)」
「No.3: 🌐 (Available for login)」
The second zombie she’d chosen was dead, and the slot was now on a 24-hour cooldown.
Fortunately, she still had the third slot.
Should she try logging into Donghai City again?
The answer came quickly.
Yes.
If Survivor’s Light was truly gone, there was no point in going there.
She might as well suggest to her sister that they change their plans and go to the germplasm resource bank themselves.
Since everywhere was dangerous, they might as well go to the “Ark,” the place that had been preparing for humanity’s recovery even before the apocalypse.
And this time, she wanted to figure out if that white-haired girl with twintails was a mutated fungal entity.
Leave a Reply