Chapter 91: Sister’s Awakening?!
Lin Jiayao, like a child with a new toy, experimented with her new abilities.
But she was soon interrupted by a vibrating notification from the system window in the upper left corner.
Then she remembered asking the Awakened little girl to wake her up.
The vibration must be the little girl shaking her.
Lin Jiayao reluctantly put aside her exploration of her new abilities and switched back to her main body.
Opening her eyes, she saw the little girl kneeling beside her, gently shaking her shoulder.
“Go back to sleep…” Lin Jiayao said, canceling the synergistic pheromone control over the little girl, watching her climb back into bed before closing her eyes again.
There was no time to waste!
According to the system, there should be a lot of blood crystals at the site of the battle; she had to get there before the Biters scavenged everything.
Back in the fourth zombie’s body, Lin Jiayao extended her left arm into the sunlight.
Hmm…
Although she felt a slight instinctive aversion, the sunlight didn’t burn her skin.
This new body wasn’t vulnerable to UV light either, which would make daytime travel easier.
She left the basement, following the incline upwards.
Nearing the surface, she saw a long chain.
“Huh… an exploration team? Local to Fuzhou?” Lin Jiayao wasn’t sure if there were any other camps left in Fuzhou City besides the cannery.
No, the cannery wasn’t even a camp anymore.
It seemed that every camp she visited, or planned to visit, ended up destroyed after the system appeared.
Perhaps it was bad luck brought on by the system.
Thinking this, she bent her knees, leaped, and tried to jump over the chain.
But mid-air, she froze, staring at the scene before her.
A shattered machine gun, mangled corpses, crushed SUVs, and swarms of Biters feasting on the remains…
And those car logos…
All the vehicles, both SUVs and pickup trucks, had their logos replaced with metal “V” symbols, their bodies covered in graffiti and “V” markings.
Was this… a Voodoo Cult convoy?
Had the system’s autopilot wiped out an entire Voodoo Cult sweep team?
“Thump—” She landed on a car, denting the hood, the impact snapping her out of her stupor.
Holy shit… did my system actually do this…?
Lin Jiayao took a deep breath and activated Lv.1 Blood Crystal Vision.
A black film covered her eyes, only her pupils glowing red.
Good, this ability had been retained in this new body.
Quickly scanning her surroundings, besides the faint glow of blood crystals within the Biters and the scattered crystals on the ground, there weren’t any larger concentrations.
A few Biters, having consumed some blood crystals, were curled up on the ground, evolving.
Lin Jiayao glanced at the extraction point and time.
「Extraction Time 2:29:33」
【Extraction Point: 21km】
A long distance, but with her tireless body, she could easily reach it within the allotted time.
“Shhh—”
Red and green veins pulsed on her right arm as tendrils extended, wrapping around the large bone blade.
She crouched and charged towards the evolving Biters.
“Slash—”
“Swish—”
Swift, clean cuts, ending their lives.
Such strength… such speed!
This was the most powerful body she’d ever controlled… like a physically enhanced Awakened!
She’d never experienced such fluidity of movement before, not with An Xiaoxi, Goldie, or any other humanoid zombie.
With An Xiaoxi, she’d mostly felt the tendrils moving within her, not natural movement; she’d been controlling the fungus, not the body.
And Goldie… small and frail, its joints stiff, slow.
But this body… she felt like a normal person again, running and jumping.
This made her long for the use of her own legs.
If her legs recovered, she wouldn’t have to rely on her sister for everything.
Her figure weaved through the horde, quickly and efficiently killing Biters.
The Biters seemed unconcerned by the presence of a “high-level zombie” in their midst, continuing to scavenge for blood crystals, gnawing on corpses.
The slaughter continued for half an hour. Lin Jiayao was almost numb to it.
Although this new body was powerful, it wasn’t as efficient at killing as her previous, slender form.
There were no more moving targets within her Blood Crystal Vision, only a sea of red on the ground.
Looking at the scattered crystals, Lin Jiayao felt a headache coming on.
When Goldie scavenged for blood crystals, she had the insects to collect and fuse them.
But now, she had to bend down and pick them up one by one.
She finally realized how useful those insects were… at least for scavenging.
Finding the mostly skeletal remains of a few Voodoo Cult warriors with distinctive flattop haircuts, she tied their legs together, grabbed them by their hair, and started sweeping the battlefield.
Sweeping and kicking aside corpses, clearing an open space.
After removing the bodies, only the blood crystals remained.
It took her another thirty minutes to sweep them all into a pile.
The crystals, mixed with blood and gore, slowly fused together.
Lin Jiayao picked up the fully formed stones and put them in the safehouse.
After filling all four slots, she found a backpack in one of the smoking Voodoo Cult vehicles, emptied it, and filled it with blood crystals.
Including the four in the safehouse, the crystals from the Voodoo Cult vehicles and the scattered ones on the ground added up to eleven.
Mostly from the Voodoo Cult convoy; the Biters themselves hadn’t yielded much.
Lin Jiayao took a deep breath, forced herself to look away from the backpack, zipped it closed, and slung it over her shoulder.
Immediately, she felt uneasy and took it off, holding it in her arms instead.
This felt safer.
She could understand now why Huayibai liked to store valuable things inside its body; she wanted to swallow this backpack whole and run.
After checking the backpack for any holes or tears, she looked towards the extraction point and ran.
Extract!
Extract now!
Eleven blood crystal stones!
The Voodoo Cult was rich… too bad they were also dangerous. She probably wouldn’t have another chance to encounter them.
Lin Jiayao ran straight towards the extraction point, leaping over low walls, her feet pounding the concrete, wanting to reach it as quickly as possible.
Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any more surprises.
And as she ran, she occasionally activated Blood Crystal Vision to check for any high-density blood crystal entities nearby.
Just in case.
She was starting to see the limitations of Blood Crystal Vision.
To detect blood crystals, she had to keep it activated, but to see the terrain, she had to deactivate it.
She had an idea for a workaround, but she would have to test it with her main body.
Luckily, she encountered no obstacles and reached the extraction point, a villa garage, sliding inside.
[Extracting: 6.6]
The timer counted down. As the last few seconds ticked by, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Extracted!
Looking at the black settlement screen, she quickly transferred the backpack and the four blood crystals from the safehouse to the warehouse, arranging them neatly.
1, 2, 3, 4… 20!!!
Besides the 150g of crystal fragments, there were now twenty blood crystal stones in her warehouse!
Looking at the two full rows of crystals, Lin Jiayao’s illusory form smiled.
She looked at the extra 150g of fragments in the third row, hesitated, and then placed them in the fourth zombie’s mouth.
The fourth zombie had done a good job and deserved a reward.
After one last look at the neatly arranged crystals, Lin Jiayao nodded, exited the settlement space, and returned to her body.
Before even opening her eyes, she felt a cool breeze on her face.
Opening her eyes slightly, she saw a fan waving in front of her.
She turned her head and saw her sister lying beside her.
Her head was resting on her sister’s right arm, and her sister’s left hand held a makeshift fan, gently fanning her.
“Awake?” Lin Xiwan smiled, putting down the fan and pinching her sister’s cheek.
“Mm…” Lin Jiayao sat up with her sister’s help.
“You were sweating in your sleep, so I went and got you a fan,” she explained, seeing her sister looking at the fan.
“Oh…”
It’s because you were cuddling me… and your legs were wrapped around mine… of course I was sweating…
Lin Jiayao complained mentally, then glanced at the evolution retention interface, her eyes widening at one of the options.
「Please retain your evolution」
「1、【Liquid Blood Crystal Veins Lv.1 (Purple): Liquefies and stores blood crystals within your body, allowing you to mimic blood crystal intensity to deceive enemies】」
「2、【Trait Fusion Lv.1 (Gold): Allows your body to be compatible with different blood crystal abilities and perform targeted evolution】」
「3、【Hunting Rhythm Lv.1 (Gold): You are always in optimal hunting condition】」
Two gold and one purple!
What surprised Lin Jiayao wasn’t the two gold evolutions without negative side effects, but the first, a purple evolution.
Was this the fourth zombie’s ability to hide blood crystals?
And the description… mimic blood crystal intensity to deceive enemies…?
Mimic blood crystal intensity…
“System?! Can this evolution make me… mimic an Awakened? Have blood crystals flowing in my blood?”
Lin Jiayao asked mentally, her heart pounding.
The system’s answer was immediate.
「Yes」
Without hesitation, she chose the first evolution, ignoring the two gold options.
Even with more time, she would have still chosen the first.
Although she might not be able to get those gold evolutions if the fourth zombie died during its next extraction, this was what she needed most right now.
With this, she could disguise herself as an Awakened.
She could “charge” herself with blood crystals, E-rank, D-rank, C-rank, depending on how much she absorbed.
With enough blood crystals, she could even mimic a B-rank.
She could finally reveal some less… monstrous abilities in front of her sister, like Blood Crystal Vision.
She could pretend to be a reconnaissance-type Awakened.
And then gradually increase her “power level” by absorbing more blood crystals over time.
Just like a real Awakened.
Only her progress would be much faster. After all, she wanted to surpass her sister’s strength quickly, so her sister would also learn to rely on her.
“Yao? Yao? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Seeing her sister sitting motionless, lost in thought, Lin Xiwan panicked.
Had her sister become… brain-damaged from all that sleep?
Seeing her sister’s worried expression, Lin Jiayao decided to put on an Oscar-worthy performance.
An Awakened suddenly developing her abilities in her sleep… it wasn’t that implausible, was it?
“Sister…” Lin Jiayao frowned, clutching her eyes. “My eyes… they hurt… so much… it hurts…”
“What? Your eyes hurt?” Lin Xiwan panicked and turned to the two little girls, who were now awake. “Go to room 101 across the courtyard, find Auntie Lan, and tell her to get a doctor! Now!”
While her sister was distracted, Lin Jiayao quickly took about 5g of blood crystals from the warehouse and put them in her mouth.
The crystals instantly dissolved, following the evolution’s guidance, spreading throughout her bloodstream.
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