Chapter 9: No Honor Among Zombies
Lin Jiayao’s eyes lit up as she ran out of the dim elevator shaft.
Before her was a vast shopping mall. Though the floor was covered in blood and gore, and shops showed signs of destruction, it was full of supplies.
Whether clothing stores or food stores, aside from a thick layer of dust, everything inside was intact.
Food was out of the question, of course. After five years, apart from long-lasting compressed canned goods, humans couldn’t stomach other spoiled and rotten food.
But now wasn’t the time to think about that; there was still a terrifying zombie chasing her.
Lin Jiayao, supporting her head with a dozen meter-long bone spikes, hooked onto the railing of the mall’s eighth floor, then released her grip and dropped.
Upon reaching the seventh floor, she extended her bone spikes again, hooked onto the railing, slowed her descent, and then released again.
Repeating this process, Lin Jiayao quickly reached the first floor.
As her bone spikes touched the first-floor ground, she quickly looked towards the extraction point.
Still 3 meters away?
Lin Jiayao tried moving left and right, confirming that the extraction point was in the underground parking lot.
She quickly located the elevator shaft. The elevator was stuck on the eighth floor, allowing her to descend directly to the underground parking lot.
Lin Jiayao repeated her trick, using her bone spikes to grip the elevator door, securing her body, then extending another bone spike to pry open the elevator door to the basement level.
Like a nimble spider.
Entering the dark parking lot, Lin Jiayao walked step by step towards the extraction point.
In the pitch darkness, Lin Jiayao could use her bone spikes to sense sounds and feel her way, so there was no risk of getting lost.
Unlike upstairs, the basement was full of skeletons, and even some ordinary Biters were wandering around.
That worm-like zombie didn’t come to the basement?
【Extracting in: 7.7】
When the green extraction countdown appeared before Lin Jiayao, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Until the countdown ended, Lin Jiayao didn’t hear that creepy “click, click” sound.
It seemed that the worm zombie, for some reason, couldn’t enter the basement, which was why the system had set this as the extraction point.
Soon, the countdown ended, and Lin Jiayao lost control of the zombie, entering a dark interface.
“Hmm?”
She hadn’t returned to her body?
Before Lin Jiayao could think further, a system interface appeared.
「Successfully completed two extractions, [Safehouse] unlocked」
“Safehouse? The second entry on the login interface?”
Lin Jiayao continued to listen as the system read in its emotionless mechanical voice.
「Items looted during login can be stored in the Safehouse and will not be lost upon death」
After this simple description, the system disappeared.
Only Lin Jiayao remained, staring blankly at the 2×2 grid in front of her.
Beside the grid was a head, as handsome and pale as a sculpture, with an item highlighted in its mouth.
“Could it be…”
Lin Jiayao slowly reached out and grabbed towards the blood-red glowing object.
Soon, a fingernail-sized blood crystal was in Lin Jiayao’s hand.
「Obtained Blood Crystal 10g」
「No more movable items, confirm departure?」
Beside the head sculpture, in one of the squares of the 2×2 safehouse, a blood crystal appeared, clearly marked as 10g, occupying one grid space.
This is…
She could bring items looted by the zombie back to her side?!
This discovery made Lin Jiayao’s heart beat a little faster.
Once she found her sister, she could even use zombies to transport food and weapons back, without having to worry about survival!
Lin Jiayao clenched her fists and clicked confirm departure.
A flash of light, and the darkness around Lin Jiayao receded. A room filled with dust and cobwebs appeared before her eyes.
「Please retain your evolution」
「1、【Bone Spike Lurker Lv.2 (Gray): Increased Lurker range, can control bone spike shape change】」
「2、【Bone Manipulator Lv.1 (Gold): Mutates your bone spikes, allowing you to connect and control zombies or living creatures with them】」
「3、【Bone Skin Lv.1 (Gray): Hardens your skin, granting some defense】」
Bone Manipulator?
Was this the ability evolved by that mutated zombie head?
Gold?
It seemed that Lin Jiayao’s instinct to struggle was correct; that zombie head seemed to have great growth potential.
Without hesitation, Lin Jiayao chose the [Bone Manipulator] evolution.
A warm current surged through her body, and the evolution was complete, without even needing to lose consciousness for over an hour like the zombie head.
After a brief test, a bone spike slowly protruded from Lin Jiayao’s palm, also finger-thick, ten centimeters per section, and able to change shape at will.
She quickly retracted the bone spike. Lin Jiayao’s palm was still delicate and fair, making it impossible to imagine that such tender skin could produce such terrifying bone spikes.
Perhaps because she had controlled zombies, Lin Jiayao felt no worry or fear about the changes in her body.
Now she was more concerned about whether she could retrieve the blood crystal.
With a thought, an illusory gray safehouse appeared before her. The blood crystal in the 2×2 grid flashed, and it appeared in Lin Jiayao’s hand.
On a whim, Lin Jiayao tried putting the blood crystal back in, and it worked.
One of the four grids was once again occupied by the blood crystal.
“Storage space???”
This discovery widened Lin Jiayao’s eyes slightly.
She hadn’t expected the safehouse to have this function.
Then couldn’t she…
With a thought, the pistol that had been on her lap disappeared, placed into the safehouse.
But unlike the blood crystal, the longer pistol occupied two grids.
After removing the blood crystal and the pistol, only one grid remained in the safehouse.
“Hoo…”
Lin Jiayao took out the blood crystal and the broken pistol again. A bold idea arose in her heart.
Perhaps she really could take on that worm alone…
Let’s call it the Nest Zombie for now. Lin Jiayao might actually be able to kill it!
She could give her zombie a more powerful gun—she didn’t have to fight it hand-to-hand like some honorable zombie duel.
Guns and bullets weren’t hard to come by in the camp, as long as you had enough blood crystals—even 5g could buy a working pistol.
Because of Lurker zombies, firing a gun was basically suicide for survivors.
But Lin Jiayao didn’t have that problem.
She controlled the zombies herself; she could completely control a zombie to use bullets to eliminate the Nest Zombie.
This was the fastest way for Lin Jiayao to become stronger—the blood crystals contained within the Nest Zombie might be beyond her imagination.
If she could kill it, her search for her sister could be greatly accelerated!
Acting immediately, Lin Jiayao pushed her wheelchair and opened her door.
She had already sensed the boy approaching with the canned food through her bone spikes.
Lin Jiayao’s sudden opening of the door startled the boy.
“What guns are left in the camp, for sale?”
The boy trembled under Lin Jiayao’s icy gaze, stammering, “I, I, I… I don’t know… I’ll ask Aunt Ma.”
After saying that, the boy placed the can on the ground and ran off.
His innocent admiration for the beautiful sister had vanished.
Lin Jiayao wasn’t aware of how terrifying her gaze, fresh from the pile of corpses, appeared.
She bent down to pick up the can, half-closed the door, and ate the canned food while waiting for the boy to return with information.
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