Chapter 67: Control Center
“Pitter-patter, pitter-patter—”
In her hazy dream, Lin Jiayao heard the soft drumming of rain against the window.
The gentle sound, like ASMR, lulled her into a deep sleep.
“Boom—”
A sudden, loud clap of thunder jolted her awake.
She instinctively reached out to sit up and realized she was covered with the familiar black cloak.
Her clothes were wrinkled, as if wrung out with great force, likely by her sister while she was asleep.
Although the large t-shirt was still slightly damp and cold, at least it wasn’t clinging to her skin.
She sat up, moved her legs to the side, and leaned against the sofa back.
A rifle leaned against the sofa, within easy reach.
And the nightstand had been moved closer, with a can of luncheon meat and half a bottle of water on top.
Her sister had left them for her.
Where’s Sister?
Lin Jiayao scanned the dilapidated room.
Her sister wasn’t there.
Lin Jiayao placed her hand on the sofa and activated Bone Spike Lurker.
Only the sound of rain and the clattering of a metal sheet somewhere, buffeted by the wind.
Nothing else.
The storm raged outside. Even before the apocalypse, she hadn’t seen such persistent rain.
She picked up the rifle, checked the full magazine, and felt a little more secure.
Her sister hadn’t taken the food or water, only the car keys.
Perhaps, seeing that she was still asleep, her sister had decided to search for the Voodoo Cult’s car on her own.
After a night of torrential rain, Lin Jiayao only hoped the town wasn’t flooded.
She called out the system and opened the Hideout.
She had gained a considerable amount of blood crystals and wanted to see if she could upgrade anything.
To her surprise, besides the [Warehouse], [Medical Station], [Workbench], and [Training Grounds], there was a new building she could construct, located right in the center of the X-shaped underground structure.
Curious, Lin Jiayao clicked on it.
[Prerequisite for unlocking Control Center met: Vigor Lv.1]
[Control Center Lv.1 (Unbuilt)]
[Description: Unlocks more zombie login slots; allows the host to switch between the main body and logged-in zombies; halves login cooldown time.]
[Construction requires: Blood Crystal x10]
Ten blood crystals, as expensive as the training grounds.
But its functions were powerful.
Halving the login cooldown time from 24 hours to 12?
And being able to switch between her main body and the logged-in zombie without having to extract?
This would greatly enhance her survivability. She no longer had to worry about being vulnerable while logged in.
The reason she couldn’t see the Control Center before was probably because she hadn’t met the prerequisite.
It seemed the prerequisite was Vigor.
And this was just the Lv.1 Control Center. Upgrading it might unlock even more powerful functions.
She made a mental note of the link between Vigor and the Control Center.
Now, she was ready to go all in and build it.
She had exactly ten blood crystals.
She had been considering building the training grounds first and becoming a sharpshooter.
No need to hesitate now. The Control Center was the priority.
With a thought, the ten blood crystals in the warehouse, stored inside one of the ammo vests, disappeared, transferred to the Control Center.
A strange mechanical platform rose from the center of the Hideout, a holographic screen projecting from it, and the construction was complete.
“So simple…”
Lin Jiayao muttered to herself, picked up the can of luncheon meat, and opened it.
She wanted to test the new function, but first, she had to replenish her energy.
She hadn’t eaten since yesterday and had been constantly on the move, cold and wet. She was starving.
It was a miracle she hadn’t gotten sick, considering her frail body.
After finishing the luncheon meat and drinking the water, Lin Jiayao closed her eyes.
「No.1: [Mask] (Available for login)」
「No.2: [An Xiaoxi] (Available for login)」
「No.3: [Unnamed] (Available for login)」
「No.4: 🌐 (Available for login)」
One more slot unlocked, no other changes.
After a moment of hesitation, Lin Jiayao chose An Xiaoxi.
Of the four available slots, An Xiaoxi was the easiest to extract – she was in Donghai City.
And the leader of Donghai City was now her “daughter”; there wouldn’t be any problems. It was perfect for testing the Control Center’s functions.
After selecting An Xiaoxi, Lin Jiayao’s consciousness sank into darkness.
But this time, before regaining vision, a holographic screen appeared in the upper left corner of her view.
It was a miniature map with a 150-meter radius. Lin Jiayao could see her main body and all infected within that range.
A system prompt appeared. She skimmed it and summarized the information.
If a new infected entered the map’s range, or if an infected came within 50 meters of her main body, a yellow alert would flash in the upper left corner.
And if an infected approached within 10 meters, a red alert would flash.
Quite thoughtful.
Lin Jiayao slowly opened her eyes, the familiar setting of an old kitchen appearing before her. A thick layer of dust covered everything, even the air smelled of it.
Sunlight filtered through the grimy windows, indicating it was daytime.
She was in the kitchen of the old café, the extraction point from her previous session.
Sitting on a stool, the constant drumming of rain was gone, replaced by an almost unsettling quiet.
But she felt something in her lap.
As she looked down, her chin bumped against a warm, fluffy head.
Huayibai?
The little girl was sitting on her lap, shoes kicked off, her legs dangling.
It was holding a children’s picture book, reading intently, until her head bumped against Lin Jiayao’s chin. It looked up, blinking.
“Mommy~” Seeing Lin Jiayao, Huayibai smiled sweetly.
It looked so much… like a real child.
Lin Jiayao had intended to resist the urge to pet its head, but she couldn’t help herself.
Compared to Huayibai, her third zombie in America was far more disturbing.
As she stroked Huayibai’s soft hair, she looked towards the extraction point.
「Extraction Time 4:59:51」
【Extraction Point: 800m】
The extraction point was getting closer and closer, and the time allotted was increasingly generous.
It seemed the system was accommodating her fungal zombie form, ensuring that even as a slow-moving blob, she could still reach the extraction point.
Recalling how slowly she’d moved as a tendril mass, Lin Jiayao no longer found the 5-hour duration excessive.
“Pat, pat—”
Lin Jiayao patted Huayibai’s waist. “Get up, let’s go.”
“Okay.” Huayibai closed the book, opened its mouth wide, and a mass of tendrils emerged, engulfing the book.
Then, as if nothing had happened, it jumped off Lin Jiayao’s lap, stood up, and looked at her obediently.
Only then did Lin Jiayao notice Huayibai’s distended belly, stretching its short dress, the raised hem revealing a glimpse of white thighs and stockings.
“Holy shit…”
Lin Jiayao couldn’t help but curse – she was usually more composed.
But seeing this – a little girl, no older than eleven or twelve, looking at you with an innocent smile, her belly swollen as if pregnant – would make anyone curse.
What had happened while she was gone?
Then, remembering the book Huayibai had just swallowed, Lin Jiayao placed a hand on her forehead and sighed.
Seeing her reaction, Huayibai tilted its head and asked, “Mommy, what’s wrong?”
Lin Jiayao reached out and rubbed Huayibai’s belly, feeling the rectangular shape of the book beneath the skin.
This little thing was using its body as storage space.
She glanced at the discarded burlap sack on the floor, picked it up, opened it, and held it out to Huayibai.
“Spit out the book.”
“Okay.”
Huayibai nodded obediently and opened its mouth.
But this time, as its mouth opened, its entire body split down the middle, countless tendrils connecting the two halves, like a lotus root snapping but its strings still attached.
A pair of tendril-formed hands lifted the stack of books from its belly and placed them in the sack.
Lin Jiayao’s eye twitched, watching this.
This little thing… always managed to surprise her with its bizarre behavior.
“Don’t use your body to store things anymore, understand?” Lin Jiayao tied the sack and handed it to Huayibai.
“Oh…” Huayibai clearly didn’t understand why, its voice slightly sullen, but it still obeyed.
It slung the sack over its shoulder and followed Lin Jiayao out of the kitchen.
Leaving the kitchen, Lin Jiayao didn’t head towards the extraction point.
There was still plenty of time. She wanted to check on the situation in Survivor’s Light.
She wanted to see if the uninfected Awakened had taken any action after her warning.
If they hadn’t, then she would have to find a way to announce Survivor’s Light’s downfall through the radio, warning others not to go to Donghai City, and telling her sister to change their plans.
Just as she was about to leave the café, she noticed a green dot rapidly approaching on the minimap in the upper left corner.
It was her main body’s location. Someone was approaching her.
Sister?
Lin Jiayao quickly turned, said “Wait,” sat back down on the kitchen stool, and closed her eyes.
The minimap zoomed in. Her vision blurred, and when she opened her eyes again, she was back in her dusty room.
“Rumble, rumble—”
The loud thunder jolted her fully awake.
Through Bone Spike Lurker, she heard rapid footsteps ascending the stairs.
She raised her rifle, aiming at the door, and then lowered it as her sister appeared.
“Yao! I found it! The car!!!” Lin Xiwan looked at her sister anxiously, shaking the car keys.
Despite finding the car, she wasn’t excited, but rather… apprehensive.
Ignoring her soaked clothes, she rushed over and kissed Lin Jiayao’s cheek.
Then, she quickly gathered their things, stuffed the canned food and water back into the backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and returned to the sofa.
She helped her sister put on the cloak, pulled the hood over her face, and then, lifting her, ran downstairs.
Her urgency wasn’t due to excitement about the car.
But because…
Lin Jiayao, in her sister’s arms, pulled down the hood and looked ahead.
She felt a chill run down her spine.
The murky floodwaters on the first floor had almost reached her sister’s thighs. In this situation, forget a car, even if she could fly…
Then she saw the vehicle parked at the entrance, its engine roaring.
It had massive wheels, almost as tall as Lin Jiayao, with a small driver’s seat and an even smaller passenger seat on top.
It reminded her of an excavator.
A pile of luggage was strapped to the roof, along with a tied-down sofa, seemingly the third seat.
And beside the sofa were two tall exhaust pipes with speakers attached, each displaying a large, red “V” on a black background.
Lin Xiwan carried her sister through the floodwaters, placed her in the passenger seat, closed the door, then climbed over the hood and slipped into the driver’s seat through the window.
“Hiss—”
“Roar—”
Only then did Lin Jiayao notice the zombies in the water, moving towards the vehicle with a strange, underwater running motion.
The horde… how did they get past…?
As Lin Xiwan inserted the key and pressed the accelerator, Lin Jiayao finally understood.
“ROAR!!!!!”
The modified engine and exhaust pipes roared to life, and the speakers on the roof blared unfinished rock music.
“Sunflower!!! AAAAH!!! If you grow in the darkness!!!”
“Sunflower!!! AAAAAH!!! Will you be afraid!!!”
With the music blasting, Lin Xiwan slammed on the gas, the monster truck driving over the submerged Biters, its spinning tires sending sprays of blood and pus flying.
“Yao! Figure out how to turn off this damn music!!!”
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