Chapter 85: Devouring Evolution
“Qingzhou University Camp?” Lin Jiayao blinked, looking at her sister curiously.
But more importantly, where were her stockings?
“I heard about it on the radio yesterday morning while you were asleep. It sounded pretty good…”
Seeing her sister’s puzzled expression, Lin Xiwan continued, “Qingzhou City is almost a hundred kilometers from Fuzhou City. The sweep team shouldn’t reach that far.”
“We can also warn them to stop their automatic broadcasts, so they don’t attract the Voodoo Cult.”
There was another reason she didn’t mention in front of the two little girls who were eating their bread.
If the Qingzhou University Camp was indeed decent, she could leave the girls there.
After two days of observation, she was certain the older girl had Awakened an ability, though she hadn’t learned to control it yet.
Seeing her sister still looked puzzled, Lin Xiwan asked, “What’s wrong? Is there something you don’t understand?”
“Sister, I was wearing stockings when I fell asleep, right?” Lin Jiayao asked.
Although she couldn’t feel her legs, she clearly remembered her sister putting stockings on her, claiming it was to keep her warm.
She hadn’t worn stockings since kindergarten, except for the white tights, so the memory was distinct.
“Ah? Stockings?” Lin Xiwan’s expression remained neutral. “It was getting warm this morning, so I took them off so you wouldn’t overheat.”
“But I can’t feel heat in my legs,” Lin Jiayao blinked.
“But you were sweating. It’s uncomfortable to have them sticking to your skin, so I removed them.” Lin Xiwan’s expression didn’t change.
“Then where are they?”
“Impractical. I threw them away.”
Her sister’s answers were contradictory, and she seemed to be changing the subject.
It seemed she would never know the fate of those stockings.
But Lin Jiayao didn’t care; they were just stockings.
“Let’s go then.” She leaned back against the headrest, looking at the sunlit service area ahead.
With plenty of food and water, she felt both physically and mentally well, a welcome change after the storm.
Seeing her sister drop the stocking issue, Lin Xiwan breathed a sigh of relief and started the engine.
She swore, the stockings had been an accident.
She’d been holding her sleeping sister, keeping watch until dawn, then carefully moved her to the passenger seat and then—
Well, she’d accidentally ripped them with her fingernails while massaging her sister’s legs to improve circulation.
And why had she lied?
Ahem…
She didn’t know; it had been instinctive.
After all, massaging her sister’s legs while she was asleep… it did sound a bit… strange.
And she’d been bored, sitting still all night; anyone would be.
Thankfully, her innocent sister hadn’t suspected anything. Perhaps because she’d been by her side, her sister had slept soundly, not even waking when she’d moved her to the passenger seat.
From this service area to the Qingzhou City toll station was only about thirty or forty kilometers.
Considering the uncertain road conditions, they should arrive within forty or fifty minutes.
Lin Jiayao didn’t intend to log into Mask or Goldie during this time, and there wasn’t anything she needed to buy from Survivor’s Light. It was better to wait for the fourth zombie, the Hunter, to finish evolving.
After all, it was still in Fuzhou City; she had to get it out before it was caught in the Voodoo Cult’s sweep.
She didn’t think it could withstand an entire Voodoo Cult sweep team on its own.
According to the diary her sister had described, the sweep team was far more powerful than the small outpost they had encountered.
The sweep team would be led by at least a C-rank Awakened, with better equipment and weapons.
She would let the fourth zombie continue leveling up on autopilot for now.
After they reached the safety of the camp her sister had mentioned, she would control the other zombies.
Everything in the Hideout had been built, but they were all Lv.1. She didn’t know the requirements for upgrading them.
If it were like the Control Center, then she probably needed to evolve certain abilities first, like [Vigor] or [Robust].
“Sister,” Lin Jiayao said, “I want to nap for another five minutes… Can you wake me up then?”
Asking her sister to wake her was just an excuse; she didn’t want her consciousness to remain in the Hunter zombie’s body for too long.
She didn’t want to taste zombie flesh again.
She planned to log into the fourth zombie just before the five minutes were up.
A perfect plan!
“Sleepyhead…” Lin Xiwan chuckled, stroking her sister’s head. “Still tired? Fine, but only five minutes more.”
“Mm.” Lin Jiayao nodded, closed her eyes, and started counting down mentally.
At about four minutes, she entered the system’s login interface.
「No.1: [Mask] (Available for login)」
「No.2: [An Xiaoxi] (Available for login)」
「No.3: [Goldie] (Available for login)」
「No.4: [Unnamed] (Available for login)」
Both zombies that had evolved yesterday were now available; the twelve-hour evolution time was over.
They had probably finished evolving around midnight, while she was sleeping.
Thanks to the upgraded Control Center, both evolution and the cooldown timer were now twelve hours.
She wondered if upgrading it further would reduce the cooldown to within ten minutes.
Then, if she encountered a particularly dangerous area that she couldn’t clear, she could just repeatedly log in and die, waiting for the cooldown, retrieving the blood crystals from the corpse, and then repeating the process.
Like exploiting a bug, gaining blood crystals effortlessly.
But reality was often disappointing.
Even the Lv.1 Control Center had a 12-hour cooldown; reducing it to ten minutes would probably take a long time, and a lot of blood crystals.
As she continued counting down, she heard her sister calling her.
“Yao?”
The moment she heard her voice, Lin Jiayao clicked on the fourth zombie slot and logged in.
Meanwhile, Lin Xiwan was driving leisurely, enjoying the morning breeze.
“Yao? Yaoyao?” She tried waking her sister, even pinching her cheek gently, but seeing she was truly asleep, smiled indulgently.
“Such a sleepyhead… I’ll let you sleep a little longer and wake you up when we reach the camp… I’m not a monster, after all…” She chuckled to herself.
Imagining her sister’s sleepy “Thank you, Sister,” when she woke up, Lin Xiwan felt a surge of affection, even humming a tune.
But she quickly stopped.
I shouldn’t be too loud, I might wake her up~
Thinking this, she even slowed down to give her sister a more peaceful sleep.
They might reach the camp a little later, but they had left early; they should still arrive at Qingzhou University before ten o’clock.
Unlike the relaxed Lin Xiwan, Lin Jiayao was now—
Completely consumed by bloodlust.
“Roar—”
A chilling roar echoed from the underground parking lot of the Fuzhou Commercial Hotel, and then a figure burst out of the darkness and into the sunlight.
“Roar—”
“Sizzle…”
A horrifying, upright zombie, its muscles exposed, roared in fury under the scorching sun.
Its flesh sizzled and smoked, slowly dissolving in the UV rays.
But it seemed oblivious to the pain, its roars echoing as if unleashing a long-suppressed rage.
Compared to yesterday, its body had changed.
The previously emaciated, three-meter-tall Hunter, hunched over due to its elongated limbs, could now stand completely upright.
New muscles bulged beneath its skin, not quite connected, seemingly designed for bursts of speed and agility.
And its hands had also changed.
The sickle-like claws were now straighter, more like blades, better suited for slashing.
Overall, the changes weren’t drastic; just more muscle and different hand weapons.
But Lin Jiayao and the zombie knew its true evolution.
“Clang—”
Lin Jiayao’s vision was almost completely dark, only faint red silhouettes moving in the distance.
Instinctively, she lunged at the closest one, slashing through a streetlight and then, reaching a building, pounding on the wooden door with her bladed hands.
“Crack—”
The flimsy door splintered; nothing could stop her.
She burst inside, lunging at a half-dormant Lurker, a blade plunging into its body.
Although Biters and Hunters were more common in Fuzhou City, other types of zombies also existed, just in smaller numbers.
“Crack—”
The Lurker’s head was severed. Lin Jiayao bent down and tore into the exposed neck, her four bone mandibles crunching through bone and flesh.
Like eating crispy potato chips.
As she fed, her body changed.
The smooth, skin-covered blades on her hands developed jagged edges, like a Lurker’s bone spikes.
Bone spikes erupted from her spine, piercing through her skin.
And her joints thickened, like those of an evolved bone-type zombie.
It was evolving as it ate?!
After devouring the Lurker, blood crystal and all, Lin Jiayao discarded the remains and charged towards the next red silhouette.
Smashing through windows, tearing down walls… nothing could stop her relentless hunt.
Seemingly less intelligent than a typical Hunter.
And as it hunted, its body continued to change.
Its jaws grew thicker, its teeth transforming into spiraling bone grinders.
Its biting power had reached monstrous levels.
It could even sink its teeth into concrete walls and gnaw its way through.
And the blades on its hands, now dark red and black, had visible veins and blood vessels, as if being supplied with blood and energy.
The spikes on the blades had extended, covering the entire length. Finally, after failing to bite through a metal billboard, Lin Jiayao stood up, her three-meter-tall body towering over the street, and raised her arms.
Blood, infused with blood crystals, flowed into her arms, the two chainsaw blades extending from her hands pulsing with power.
“Whirr…”
With a grinding sound, the chainsaws spun rapidly. The initial rotation tore through the flesh and muscle connecting them to her arms, sending sprays of blood flying.
“Whirr…”
She swung the chainsaw blades, sparks flying as they tore through the metal billboard.
Meanwhile, Lin Xiwan had parked the jeep on a street in Qingzhou City.
Qingzhou University was just across the street.
It was time to wake her sister and have her hold the rifle. This would show the people in the camp they weren’t helpless.
“Yao, Yao? Wake up, sleepyhead.” Lin Xiwan smiled and shook her sister gently, then, seeing no response, shook her harder.
“If you’re still sleepy, you can sleep after we reach the camp. Don’t be lazy—”
She pinched her sister’s nose playfully.
This seemed to work; Lin Jiayao’s eyes slowly opened, her gaze unfocused.
Just as Lin Xiwan was about to tease her about her sleepy state, her sister’s eyes suddenly widened. She flung open the car door and tumbled out, collapsing onto the ground.
“Ugh—”
Lin Jiayao vomited the remains of her breakfast.
Leave a Reply