Chapter 80: Jackpot Sisters
While Goldie, controlled by Lin Jiayao, was still making her way down from the eighth floor to the sixth, all her insects, except for the one serving as her eyes, were already swarming the battlefield.
Gunfire and roars still echoed from the street below, the trailing zombies less than fifty meters away.
At this close range, Lin Jiayao’s insects scavenged frantically.
Blood crystals precipitated from the scattered limbs and gore. Lin Jiayao directed the insects to collect the tiny crystals and pile them together for fusion.
By the time she reached the first floor, several glowing blood crystal stones dotted the smoke-filled street.
Without hesitation, Lin Jiayao ran to the nearest fully formed stone, snatched it, and put it in the safehouse.
Finally, all four slots were full, a brief surge of satisfaction.
But the satisfaction quickly faded; more and more crystals were being collected by the insects.
“Whoosh—”
“Boom—”
A stray grenade exploded against the building beside her, the deafening blast lifting her dirty blonde hair.
She could feel the grit and debris hitting her face… This place is still dangerous.
I have to hurry.
If there were only a few blood crystals, she would have taken a handful and left.
But there were simply too many… The firefight had killed a lot of mutated zombies.
Lin Jiayao had one of her insects monitor the battlefield while she continued collecting.
Ignoring the smaller crystals, she focused on the already fused stones, picking them up and stuffing them into the pouches of her ammo vest, replacing the magazines.
She tucked the two displaced magazines into the gaps between her body and the vest.
They might fall out while running… but better than losing blood crystals.
One… two… three… By the twenty-third stone, her AVS vest was full.
Twenty-three!!!
Her breath hitched. And even after collecting so many, she could sense even more scattered crystals amidst the piles of corpses, uncollected.
There were at least dozens of mutated zombies and over a thousand ordinary Biters here!
The sounds of battle in the distance were fading; it seemed the humans were running out of ammunition.
“WAAAA—”
A loud wail from behind. Lin Jiayao’s insect showed her the source, and without hesitation, she grabbed a blood crystal with her tentacles and ran towards the extraction point.
I have to extract! I have to extract!
Twenty-three in the vest, one in her tentacles, four in the safehouse… twenty-eight blood crystals in total!!!
I have to reach the extraction point!!!
Her insect had just shown her the massive Hive Zombie turning its attention towards her. It had seen her scavenging.
She wanted to teleport to the extraction point instantly.
But Goldie’s small, frail body, now burdened by the extra weight of the blood crystals, was even slower.
And with every step, the crystals in her vest clattered.
“Wooo—”
With a strange wail, the horde, previously pursuing the humans, turned and chased Lin Jiayao.
Seeing this through her insect’s eyes, Lin Jiayao’s heart sank.
No!
An unprecedented desire to survive surged through her. She wanted to live even more than Goldie herself.
Twenty-eight blood crystals! If she could extract with these, she would be rich!
She could upgrade everything in her Hideout and even max out the zombies’ blood crystal capacity before each login.
Rapid evolution.
The zombies behind her were the slower ones, their own numbers blocking the faster ones, buying her some time.
She saw Sprinters pushing and trampling their way through the horde, coming towards her.
5km to the extraction point… A short sprint for Mask or the fourth zombie, but a daunting distance for Goldie.
One magazine in the rifle, two more tucked into her vest.
Even with perfect headshots, that was only enough for ninety zombies.
Even that elite human squad hadn’t been able to withstand the horde; she had no chance of outrunning them for five kilometers.
Should she discard the blood crystals and run?
No. She wouldn’t outrun them even without the extra weight.
She might as well gamble on the slim chance of escaping with the loot.
Lin Jiayao raised her rifle, aiming behind her as she ran.
An insect perched on the holographic sight, guiding her aim.
Although the bouncing made aiming difficult, she could at least damage them before they reached her.
“Bang—Bang—Bang—”
“Roar—”
A black, muscular Sprinter climbed a streetlight, using it as a springboard, ignoring the slower Biters below, and leaped towards her, roaring.
Lin Jiayao didn’t turn around, but her rifle remained locked onto the leaping Sprinter.
The Sprinter’s speed and agility were remarkable, like an Olympic athlete leaping between streetlights.
Its actions seemed to inspire the others; more Sprinters started climbing the streetlights, using them to bypass the slower horde below.
And Lin Jiayao noticed that some of the faster zombies, likely under the Hive Zombie’s control, had split off at an intersection, heading towards another street.
They would be blocking her path soon.
And she still had a 17-minute run to the extraction point.
“Roar—”
The first Sprinter reached her.
With a roar, it leaped from the streetlight behind her.
If Lin Jiayao didn’t react, her small body would be pinned, her neck snapped in a single bite.
But she didn’t turn, didn’t stop running, didn’t even dodge.
She simply raised her rifle.
The insect on the holographic sight helped her aim at the Sprinter’s head, and she fired.
“Rat-tat-tat—”
Three bullets, hitting the Sprinter in the chest, the neck, and the head.
Its momentum faltered, and instead of landing on her, it crashed to the ground behind her.
“Thump—”
Hearing the impact, Lin Jiayao breathed a sigh of relief.
She hadn’t even turned her head, hadn’t missed a single shot.
But she was still incredibly tense.
Not just because of the blood crystals, but also because she had been shooting while running.
She hadn’t even dared to fire single shots, opting for a three-round burst.
And luckily, none of the shots missed. This made her realize how naive her earlier plan had been.
Killing a zombie with a single shot? While moving, it would take at least three, or even more, to be effective.
Her three magazines were only enough for thirty zombies, assuming perfect accuracy and luck.
This won’t work… No risk, no reward…
If gunfire wasn’t enough, then it was time for the insect swarm.
While running, Lin Jiayao’s left tentacles lifted a blood crystal stone from the ammo vest and stuffed it into her mouth.
Her small mouth made it difficult; she almost dislocated her jaw.
The blood crystal dissolved, a warm sensation spreading through her mouth, reaching her eye sockets, a tingling itch.
“Gurgle—”
“Buzz—”
A buzzing of wings from her eye sockets. Countless newly hatched insects emerged.
The blood crystal rapidly dissolved, fueling the swarm, the insects flying towards the horde behind her.
The ordinary Biters couldn’t dodge the overwhelming swarm. The insects landed on their faces, burrowing into their eyes, ears, and any available opening.
Lin Jiayao was bombarded with the gruesome first-person perspectives of the insects devouring flesh and brains, almost making her stumble.
The insects weren’t very efficient at killing, but their numbers made up for it.
Within ten seconds, the leading Biters started falling, becoming obstacles for those behind them.
And Lin Jiayao used about ten bullets to take down two Sprinters that had used the streetlights to get closer.
The pursuit slowed momentarily. 4.5km to the extraction point… If this continued, she might actually make it.
But she knew it was impossible.
Black Sprinters and Hunter zombies, under the Hive Zombie’s control, had already split off, heading towards another street to intercept her.
She couldn’t escape the encirclement.
She had to choose a route and break through.
The blood crystal in her mouth had almost completely dissolved, transformed into insects. If these insects were killed, each would yield about half a gram of blood crystal.
She was burning blood crystals to slow down the horde.
Twenty-seven left…
Lin Jiayao didn’t hesitate. Her tentacles reached into the ammo vest and retrieved another blood crystal.
The insect production continued, uninterrupted.
But this time, they didn’t all fly behind her, but ahead, towards the intersection.
Turning right and then going straight was the shortest route to the extraction point. She would focus on breaking through on the right.
She had to escape the encirclement.
The new batch of insects buzzed towards the intersection 500 meters ahead and then flew down the street to the right.
According to her plan, if there were fewer than twenty mutated zombies on the right, she had a good chance of breaking through.
Victory seemed within reach.
But reality had other plans.
As soon as her insects reached the intersection, the vision from the insects behind her darkened.
Using another insect to see from within a zombie’s brain, she saw a swarm of red insects, twice the size of her green ones, attacking her swarm.
The red insects seemed to know exactly where her insects were.
Even if she hid them inside the eye sockets of living zombies, the red insects would burrow in and kill them, regardless of friendly fire.
Well, zombies weren’t known for their empathy.
The Hive Zombie had noticed her actions and was retaliating.
Lin Jiayao sent a surviving insect to observe the meat-tower Hive Zombie.
The massive zombie was wailing, struggling to move towards her.
Even obscured by the horde, Lin Jiayao could imagine its dozens of pale, human legs churning beneath it.
The red “will-o’-the-wisp” in its massive eye socket seemed to pierce her soul.
Its mental strength… was far greater than hers…
This was a monster she couldn’t defeat! Not as Goldie, anyway.
With half a blood crystal still in her mouth, she took out another one from her vest and forced it in, pushing the first one down her throat.
Emptying her remaining magazine, she took down two more Sprinters.
Almost all the Sprinters that hadn’t been diverted were dead. Now, she was worried about the Hunters, slower than Sprinters, now blocking the other street.
Her fourth zombie was a Hunter; she knew how powerful they were.
She could only hope they hadn’t all evolved [Hunting Instinct].
She was burning through blood crystals to generate insects, throwing her swarm against the larger red insects.
Although slower, smaller, and weaker, her insects had the advantage in numbers.
As long as she surrounded herself with a dense enough swarm, any red insects that entered would be overwhelmed.
She couldn’t even hear the sound of the pursuing horde anymore.
Only the incessant buzzing of countless wings, like ten thousand flies, an unbearable cacophony.
Shielded by her green curtain of insects, she reached the intersection.
The insects providing her vision showed her the zombies blocking the streets.
Sprinters were rapidly approaching from the left, while on the right, hundreds of her green insects swarmed the leading Sprinter, tearing at its eyes and flesh.
The Sprinter on the right, its muscles giving way, stumbled and fell, devoured by the insect swarm.
But it was the only one.
Several more Sprinters and Hunters were closing in.
“Click—”
Lin Jiayao ejected the empty magazine, inserted a new one, chambered a round, and then turned right.
“Wooo—”
The Hive Zombie’s wail still echoed, but fainter now that she had turned a corner.
Seeing the mutated zombies closing in from both sides, Lin Jiayao knew she couldn’t outrun them.
But she could gamble.
Gamble on whether she could, in this area where the Hive Zombie’s mental control was weaker, seize control of a Sprinter.
Only with a Sprinter could she escape.
“Buzz—”
The insects that had been feasting on the dead Sprinter took flight, swarming a long-haired Sprinter less than twenty meters away.
And Lin Jiayao, firing her rifle, took down a nearby Sprinter on her left, then charged towards the long-haired Sprinter.
The insects slammed into the Sprinter’s face, burrowing into its eyes, others tearing at its flesh, disrupting its sight and smell.
“Roar—”
The Sprinter, which had been less than five meters away, crashed into an abandoned car.
Blinded and disoriented, it couldn’t avoid obstacles or locate her.
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Jiayao climbed onto the car, slid across the roof, and landed on the Sprinter’s head.
“Roar—”
The Sprinter, feeling the pressure on its head, roared and swiped at her with its claws.
“Buzz—”
The holes in Lin Jiayao’s eye sockets buzzed, releasing control pheromones.
“Aooo—Roar—”
The Sprinter shrieked in pain, two different pheromones battling for control, its already weak mind overloaded.
“Roar—Gurgle… Aagh… Haah…”
“Aagh… Aagh…”
Three seconds later, the Sprinter’s tense muscles relaxed, its roaring replaced by meaningless gurgles.
Its mind, fried by the conflicting pheromones, even if it wasn’t controlled, it would just be a mindless, easy target.
And Lin Jiayao could now control it with her own pheromones.
“Get up.”
The Sprinter stood up unsteadily.
Lin Jiayao’s tentacles wrapped around its shoulders and neck, securing her position on its back.
“Run.”
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