Chapter 75: What Happened?
Lin Jiayao, using her bone spikes, crawled through the rain back towards the tarp.
She hooked her sister, still bound by the two vests, and the two little girls with her bone spikes and carried them into the cannery.
The factory machinery had only a thin layer of dust, seemingly well-maintained – at least before the Voodoo Cult arrived.
Inside, a bright red sofa immediately caught Lin Jiayao’s attention.
Beside it was a dry fish tank, its glass walls coated with a blood-red powder.
This must have been where the bald, moth-controlling Awakened had lived, occupying the entire factory floor for himself.
The other Voodoo Cult members probably stayed in the factory dormitories or elsewhere; it seemed the Voodoo Cult had a strict hierarchy.
After checking the sofa for anything unusual, Lin Jiayao placed her sister on it.
“Mmm—Mmm!!!”
Lin Xiwan, her mouth gagged with Lin Jiayao’s shirt, strained against her restraints, the veins on her forehead bulging.
The stitching on the two vests was starting to tear.
Even two vests together could barely contain her Awakened strength.
Fortunately, her bound position limited her leverage.
I have to find a way to calm her down before she breaks free.
And I also have to deal with the two little girls.
Lin Jiayao placed them on the floor, away from the sofa, and looked at their closed eyes.
She couldn’t keep them. If they were older, or if Survivor’s Light hadn’t fallen, she could have taken them there, but not now.
She and her sister were barely surviving themselves; they couldn’t afford to care for two children.
And these two had seen her use her zombie abilities… she couldn’t risk keeping them around.
Remembering the horrified expressions of the two little girls and the bald Awakened, the way they’d looked at her, as if she were some monstrous zombie, Lin Jiayao worried.
She dreaded seeing that same expression on her sister’s face.
“Hoo—”
She exhaled, scarlet spores drifting out, inhaled by the two girls.
She could have the spores develop into tendrils within them, temporarily controlling them through a semi-symbiotic state.
After finding them a suitable “home,” she could have the tendrils withdraw.
With one of the girls having Awakened her ability under extreme duress, any camp would gladly take them in.
Taking them in would only cost a small amount of food, and in return, they would gain at least one potential Awakened. No camp leader would refuse such a deal.
Lin Jiayao could have also infected the limbless woman outside with spores, possibly even restoring her mobility, but the price would be eternal dependence on the fungus.
And the risk of being completely overtaken if she was ever severely injured.
Still, it was better than death; at least there was a sliver of hope, even a chance for revenge.
But Lin Jiayao didn’t do it.
Call her a coward, heartless, but she didn’t want to experience that woman’s suffering.
She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Constantly experiencing the pain and emotions of others through the spores… if she continued, she would eventually break.
In fact, her mental state was already different from a normal person’s, at least in terms of empathy.
Until she found a solution, she wouldn’t infect anyone older than a child with spores.
These two little girls, with their weak mental fortitude and limited life experiences, were relatively safe; infecting them was like watching the same cartoon twice.
As the spores entered their bodies, absorbing nutrients and developing into tendrils, Lin Jiayao accessed their memories.
Two ordinary little girls. A loving older brother, a doting father. Although their mother wasn’t present in their memories, they had been happy.
If the apocalypse hadn’t come, they would have continued to live a happy life in their middle-class family.
Even a difficult life would have been better than this, at least their brother and father wouldn’t have been brutally murdered.
Fate was cruel.
After reviewing their memories, Lin Jiayao stood up, slightly unsteady.
Perhaps because it was her first time engaging in such intense combat with her main body, she felt both physically and mentally exhausted.
Drained.
She desperately wanted to collapse and sleep.
But she couldn’t rest yet; she had to take care of her sister.
Ever since her sister inhaled the red powder from the moths, she had been in a frenzied, highly aggressive state.
Like she was on drugs.
If it wasn’t addressed, she might remain in this state until her body and mind collapsed from exhaustion.
Crawling to her sister’s side with her bone spikes, looking at her bloodshot eyes and her violent struggles, Lin Jiayao didn’t know what to do.
The concentration of the powder in her sister’s blood must be very high.
She didn’t know any antidotes, didn’t even know the composition of the powder.
The most effective method seemed to be… bloodletting and transfusion.
Reduce the powder’s concentration through bloodletting, and then replenish her blood through transfusion.
Like dialysis.
Unfortunately, Lin Jiayao didn’t have the means for a blood transfusion.
But she did have a healing ability.
Lv.1 Symbiotic Link.
Although she had never used it before, according to the description, it could transfer life energy from one person to another through fungal tendrils.
This process consumed either blood crystals or her own energy.
She didn’t have any blood crystals on her; she had used them all to build the [Control Center Lv.1].
She could scavenge for blood crystals from the corpses outside, but her sister’s condition couldn’t wait. She decided to use her own energy.
She could always replenish it later by draining another zombie with Symbiotic Link.
Having made her decision, she acted immediately.
Removing the bulky vest and helmet, she used her bone spikes to lift her body and hover above her sister.
Other bone spikes secured her immobile legs in a spread-eagle position, and then she lowered herself, straddling her sister’s abdomen.
Lin Jiayao looked down and saw her sister’s hands, bound to her sides, gripping her thighs tightly.
Although she couldn’t feel her legs, Lin Jiayao quickened her actions.
She extended bone spikes and made small incisions on her sister’s wrists.
Blood flowed freely, and Lin Xiwan, seemingly feeling the pain, struggled even more violently.
Lin Jiayao’s sweatpants couldn’t withstand her Awakened strength. They ripped down the middle, the lower halves sliding down her legs.
Combined with the torn hem of her t-shirt, which she had used earlier as a gag, Lin Jiayao was now dressed as if she were at the beach.
Rainwater trickled down her flat stomach, onto her wet pants, and then down her thighs, past the bloody marks and bruises from her sister’s grip.
Now, besides the bruises, there was also her sister’s blood on her thighs.
And as the tainted blood flowed out of her, Lin Xiwan’s struggles intensified.
“Rip—”
The bulletproof vest tore, the stitching at the shoulder straps giving way, only a few threads remaining.
Her thrashing sprayed more blood.
Lin Xiwan’s face rapidly paled.
Ignoring the fact that her sister was about to break free, Lin Jiayao activated Lv.1 Symbiotic Link.
Spores gathered in her mouth, forming tendrils that connected to her blood vessels, drawing out her blood.
The blood, filtered by the tendrils, transformed into a clear, metallic-tasting mucus.
Lin Jiayao opened her mouth, and a mass of tendrils, like intertwined blood vessels, extended outwards.
She gently removed the cloth gag from her sister’s mouth.
Perhaps because her jaw muscles were exhausted from straining against the gag, Lin Xiwan’s mouth remained open, drool trickling down her chin.
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Jiayao lowered her head, the tendrils from her mouth probing her sister’s lips, sliding down her throat and into her esophagus, spreading and connecting to her blood vessels.
Lin Jiayao could feel the tendrils; they were a part of her.
They felt like an extension of her tongue.
And now, they were sliding past her sister’s soft lips, deeper and deeper into her throat.
A sensation of being enveloped by her sister’s warm, wet mouth.
“Hiss—”
A sudden wave of dizziness, almost making her black out.
Symbiotic Link was drawing her life force, and the drain was far greater than she’d anticipated.
Her consciousness faded, she could no longer control her bone spikes, they retracted, and she collapsed onto her sister.
The pure life energy transferred through Symbiotic Link quickly closed the wounds on Lin Xiwan’s wrists, the scars fading.
And her weakened body seemed revitalized, strength returning, but her mind remained clouded.
“Rip—”
With her renewed strength, Lin Xiwan tore off the remnants of the vest and then wrapped her arms tightly around Lin Jiayao’s bare waist.
“Mmm—”
The sudden embrace, the pressure against her broken ribs, made Lin Jiayao black out. The tendrils retracted from her sister’s mouth, and her head lolled against Lin Xiwan’s forehead.
And Lin Xiwan, though not fully conscious, seemed to be regaining some awareness, perhaps due to the reduced concentration of the powder in her blood.
Although she could feel and smell, her vision was still clouded, as if she were dreaming.
She felt a soft body in her arms, a familiar scent, but all she saw were white clouds.
But she couldn’t let go of the body in her embrace.
Lin Jiayao was completely unconscious, unaware of what happened next.
…
The next morning, as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the factory windows, Lin Xiwan slowly opened her eyes.
An unprecedented clarity filled her mind, as if her mental strength had undergone a profound transformation overnight.
And she felt an abundance of energy, her Awakened abilities tingling at the edge of a breakthrough.
Refreshed and invigorated.
But then, her muscles tensed.
What… what happened? Wasn’t she in the warehouse? Surrounded by the Voodoo Cult?
Had she been captured? Drugged?
Or… was she in heaven?
She tried to sit up and realized she was holding a soft body in her arms, her embrace tight.
Her eyes widened, her newly found clarity replaced by confusion.
My… my sister?
Why was her sister in her arms?
And… they were inside the factory; she could see the production machinery in her peripheral vision.
“Uh…” Lin Xiwan carefully placed her sister beside her and noticed the dried blood on her lips.
Was she injured?
She quickly sat up and then gasped at the sight of her sister’s condition.
Her beautiful, frail sister’s brow was furrowed; she seemed to be unconscious.
Her clothes were torn, her pants ripped into shorts and pulled halfway down her thighs.
And on her smooth, white thighs were several gruesome bloody marks and bruises.
As if she had been… been…
Lin Xiwan pounded her temples, trying to remember what had happened.
She only remembered seeing strange blood-red moths while searching for weapons.
Before she could react, the moths had swarmed her gas mask, and she had thrown it away in a panic.
She couldn’t remember anything after that.
But judging by their surroundings, they were safe.
Who had done this to her sister?
Lin Xiwan pulled at her hair, remembering that she had been holding her sister tightly when she woke up.
Could it be… that she…
She gasped, a wave of panic washing over her.
What should she do? How could she explain this to her sister? What would her sister think of her when she woke up?
Would she think she was a pervert?
Lin Xiwan was now certain that she had inhaled something and lost consciousness.
And she must have still been active while unconscious… otherwise, they wouldn’t be safe now.
She looked at the scattered bloodstains, the firearms, the torn vests, the two little girls lying nearby, and knew there had been a fight.
As she tried to piece together what had happened, she saw her sister’s long eyelashes flutter.
She’s waking up! What do I say?
Panicked, she waited.
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