Sickly Girl Doesn’t Die in Zombie Simulator 241

Chapter 241: A Glimmer of Hope

Dense woods enveloped the park, and several uniquely strange giant trees stood in the center. Beneath the dense foliage and vines, aside from the faint silhouettes visible through the misty sunset, it was impossible to see what lay within.

Several orange-yellow “light bulbs,” shrouded in mist, hung in the air, like some kind of illumination.

“Footprints! Big Brother!” the girl who first spotted the light shouted excitedly, crouching at the park entrance.

Everyone followed her gaze and saw several footprints of varying sizes on the moss.

Especially the small footprint, about the size of the girl’s palm, almost confirmed that these weren’t their team’s footprints, but those of the “locals.”

Was this one of the Kun City organization’s bases or a guard post?

“Come back, A-Ling.”

The leader, the Big Brother, took off his sunglasses, hooked them onto his jacket pocket, and called the excited girl back.

He walked forward a few steps with the help of others, stopped at the park entrance, raised his hands, and shouted:

“Hello? Is anyone there? We are survivors from Fuzhou City, peaceful people.”

His voice echoed in the silent urban forest, but there was no response.

Big Brother glanced back. The teammates behind him still had excited, relieved expressions, as if they believed they had found a safe haven.

After waiting for a few more seconds, Big Brother repeated his call, but still received no response.

“I’ll go in and take a look.” Big Brother took off his weapons and other items, placing them on the ground.

“We’ll go with you!”

“We’ve come this far, there’s no reason to split up now.”

“Big Brother, in horror movies, you’d be the first to die doing that.”

The others also removed their body armor and weapons, placing them on the ground, joking as they followed Big Brother.

“Okay, if we encounter anyone, don’t speak, let me handle it.” Big Brother didn’t stop them, following the footprints on the ground, and stepped into the woods.

The small woods seemed to be only at the edge. Passing through the trees, they saw a wide-open space.

Although shrouded in mist, they could still see a lit “tower” and a cluster of strange trees opposite it.

There seemed to be an opening near the base of those trees, as if deliberately left for people to enter and exit.

“Hello, we are survivors from outside, peaceful people.”

Big Brother led the team, walking towards the tower, and called out again.

By now, the smiles had vanished from their faces. They sensed something was amiss.

“Uncle Bai… do you hear the sound of water?” the girl whispered to a middle-aged man with graying hair beside her.

“Yes.”

Uncle Bai nodded, following closely behind Big Brother, his eyes fixed on the “tower” ahead.

A tower built in water? That didn’t seem right…

But the mist was too thick. At this distance, aided only by the faint yellow light, they could only see a dark silhouette.

An unsettling atmosphere began to spread through the group.

They felt like they were in the movie The Mist.

As they approached, the sound of flowing water grew louder, and they gradually saw the black silhouette and the source of the “light” more clearly.

“Hello, we are from…” Big Brother was still calling out, but his voice trailed off mid-sentence.

What they had initially thought was a “lighthouse” revealed its true form in the mist.

Countless black, stem-like objects, over ten meters long, intertwined, forming a giant “black tower.”

The “light” at the top of the “tower” slowly turned, looking towards them on the ground.

A terrifying pressure and aura made them feel like they were suffocating. They had sensed blood crystal fluctuations from outside, but had assumed it was a gathering of Awakened, never imagining such a monstrous creature.

The “monster” tilted its top slightly, but to them, it looked like the terrifying, tower-like monster was slowly lowering its head.

This was definitely a B-rank, clearly a non-human blood crystal! A zombie!

“Run!”

Big Brother instantly turned and ran, adrenaline surging through his body. He couldn’t feel any fatigue or pain.

The other stunned team members, hearing his shout, also turned and fled.

“Uncle Bai! No need to hold back! Use your ability to find where the people are!”

“Okay.”

The middle-aged man, Uncle Bai, didn’t waste any time and closed his eyes.

Before, to avoid alarming the Awakened inside, they hadn’t dared to use their abilities.

But now, facing danger, they couldn’t afford such caution.

When he opened his eyes again, his pupils had turned pale, and everything before him became illusory.

Faint, blurry red dots appeared in Uncle Bai’s vision.

This ability was like a low-level version of Blood Crystal Vision.

Blood crystals, humans!

“There’s a basement! They’re all in the basement!” Uncle Bai quickly reported. “Just ahead, in the tree hollow!”

Everyone changed direction, not daring to look back, and charged towards the tree hollow.

Halfway there, Big Brother stumbled, his strength failing. Uncle Bai caught him and helped him towards the tree hollow.

“Thud—”
“Ugh…”

The man running at the front ran into the tree hollow and then there was the sound of a sudden stop and a fall.

But before anyone could react, the others also rushed into the tree hollow.

At this time, the man who ran in first let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“Ahhhhhhh—”

Uncle Bai and Big Brother, slightly behind the group, exchanged glances upon hearing the scream.

“Go in,” Big Brother ordered decisively.

They had followed him in for their own safety. Even if there was danger inside, he couldn’t abandon his teammates.

Hearing the order, Uncle Bai gritted his teeth, hoisted Big Brother onto his back, and rushed into the tree hollow.

Soon, they saw their teammates collapsed on the ground inside the tree hollow, the unconscious girl, and the faint red glow within.

“What… happened…?”

Before Big Brother could finish his question, he also saw the scene inside the tree hollow.

In the hollow, surrounded by strange trees, was a giant pit, ten meters in diameter and seemingly bottomless.

He could almost feel Uncle Bai’s legs go weak beneath him.

Even standing at the edge of the giant pit, they could see the thick vines spiraling down inside.

And hanging from the vines, cluster after cluster of human brains, strung together by red blood threads.

Yes, cluster was the right word.

These brains, like grapes, were strung together and hung on the vines. Each “bunch” of “grapes” contained hundreds of brains, packed tightly together.

They seemed to be still alive, pulsating slightly, and with each pulse, the blood threads connecting them glowed like a beating heart.

Everyone’s hearts pounded, cold sweat soaking their backs.

What kind of hellish place was this…?

Could it be that this organization wasn’t as benevolent as they claimed, but just another Voodoo Cult?

These brains were clearly not from zombies.

Could it be that they lured survivors here and then extracted their brains for evolution or some other purpose?

Everyone’s hearts sank.

Was the safe haven they thought they had found actually a trap…?

“Big… Big Brother…” the man who had run in first turned his head tremblingly, looking at Big Brother, whose face was pale, his terror evident.

He was the first to see this scene. Even after years of struggling to survive in the apocalypse, even after witnessing the brutality of the Voodoo Cult, he couldn’t withstand this visual assault. Not only were his legs weak and unable to move, but his face was also streaked with tears.

In fact, not only him, but even Big Brother’s mind was reeling.

He could guarantee that even the insane Voodoo Cult wouldn’t do such an inhumane thing.

Stringing brains together like grapes and keeping them here? And in such an unfathomable quantity?

Big Brother’s lips were pale. He turned his head stiffly and found that the black tower behind them had disappeared, as if it had sunk into the water.

This wasn’t a sign that they were safe, but a sign that…

They had been discovered.

Now Big Brother’s biggest regret was ordering them to leave their weapons behind. If they had guns now, he could at least give himself a quick death and avoid being tortured.

Who knew if their consciousness would still exist after their brains were extracted and kept here.

Rather than having their brains dug out and kept here, it would be better to just die.

“Buzz—”

Just as everyone was at a loss, deep in despair, a buzzing sound came from outside the tree hollow.

Except for the unconscious girl, almost everyone heard the sound.

Were they coming? That brain-farming organization…?

In front of them was the pit full of brains, above them were strange trees, and behind them was the buzzing sound.

They had nowhere to run.

“I’ll… go… take a look… If anything happens to me, listen to Uncle Bai.” Big Brother gritted his teeth and turned to walk out of the tree hollow.

Uncle Bai seemed to understand what Big Brother meant and nodded at him.

If Big Brother died outside, he would not hesitate to kill all the other teammates as quickly as possible, and then kill himself.

This was probably the best outcome.

“Big Brother!!”

“Big Brother, don’t go!!!”

The cries of his teammates didn’t stop the tragic figure. He just raised his still intact left hand and waved behind him without looking back.

If fate allowed, they would be brothers again in their next lives.

“Thud—”

The man called Big Brother stepped out of the tree hollow, blocked the entrance, and looked outside.

At the same time, Lin Jiayao, leaning against the headboard, frowned slightly.

Through the green bugs’ vision, she recognized the man standing in front of the Building-Tree Guardian, the team that had been scared by Mask before.

How did these people come to the brain-computer tower?

They really knew how to pick a place. She didn’t know whether to call them lucky or unlucky, encountering Lin Jiayao so many times.

The building-tree couldn’t communicate, so Lin Jiayao sent a swarm of insects over and heard the voices from inside the building-tree through the Bone Spike Lurker of the bone spur insects.

What she heard made Lin Jiayao speechless.

But she could also understand. If she suddenly saw this scene without knowing anything, it would be like seeing a row of corn cobs facing her at the beginning of the apocalypse.

It was indeed quite scary.

Forget it, she would leave it to her sister to explain. She would first find a way to bring these people to the ash area.

Since they were in Waterfall Park…

Lin Jiayao opened her eyes and looked towards the vine curtains.

Soon, the curtains were lifted by the mycelium flesh-person. This mycelium clone carried the small Black Stem and walked in, then placed the Black Stem Fungus beside Lin Jiayao.

Lin Jiayao’s mycelium clone was indeed useful, but it also had a disadvantage, which was that it couldn’t use abilities other than fungal abilities, and couldn’t carry Lin Jiayao’s other evolutions.

But as a clone, it was still sufficient.

Lin Jiayao reached out, pressed her hand on the small Black Stem’s head, and gently blew out a breath. This airflow contained the Blood Crystal Synergist used for commands.

“Control those humans, don’t let them struggle, and don’t hurt them.”

Lin Jiayao gave this command to the Black Stem Fungus.

The first time Lin Jiayao saw the Black Stem, it had strung the people of Wangxi City on its body. Besides malnutrition, it didn’t cause much harm to those people.

The small Black Stem in front of her didn’t nod or shake its head, its face still expressionless, but in the green bug’s vision, the Black Stem Fungus in Waterfall Park began to move.

“Swish—”

More than ten slippery black stems emerged from the water, and in just an instant, they pierced through the mist.

The fastest black stem had already passed through the insect swarm and directly stuffed itself into that Big Brother’s mouth, and the remaining black stems also instantly drilled into the tree hollow.

These people, who were at most C-rank, were directly controlled by the Black Stem Fungus in just an instant.

“Rip—”

The Black Stem Fungus moved its black stems and dragged everyone inside out.

The originally unconscious girl also opened her eyes. When she saw that she was tied up by something black and her mouth was also blocked, she started to cry.

Okay… now she just needed to take them to the ash area.

Lin Jiayao controlled the large Building-Tree Guardian covering the top of the brain-computer tower pit to slowly move.

They looked at the originally “tree hollow” coming alive in horror, but their bodies were paralyzed and they couldn’t move at all.

Even after they were placed on top of the tree-like monster’s head, the paralysis on their bodies still didn’t recover.

“Thump—”
“Thump—”
“Thump—”

They could feel their bodies moving rapidly, the wind whistling past their ears. Almost everyone had given up hope. Now they couldn’t even bite their tongues.

Not to mention that biting their tongues wouldn’t even kill them.

Big Brother, lying on the monster, had already thought about all the good things he had done in his life, but it still didn’t eliminate the guilt of bringing his teammates here.

He now wished he could just shoot himself.

At this time, Lin Jiayao, controlling the little green bugs at the edge of the ash area, formed a small swarm and flew towards where her sister was.

“Hmm?”

Lin Xiwan, who was assigning tasks to the team, suddenly heard the buzzing sound behind her and turned her head curiously.

A small swarm of green bugs stopped behind her, as if they had something to tell her.

She knew that these were insects controlled by her sister, so the first thing she thought of was that her sister was looking for her, and she had to go back and see.

But before she could run, the swarm of flying insects, like a drone array, formed a few words in front of her.

“There are survivors.”

“Settle them down.”

The flying insects quickly changed between these two sentences. Now, not only Lin Xiwan, but also the other Awakened saw the words formed by these green fluorescent insects.

“There are survivors, settle them down?” Wan Zi, standing beside Lin Xiwan, read the words aloud with some confusion.

“There should be other survivors who entered Kun City from the other side.” Lin Xiwan quickly understood her sister’s meaning, so she didn’t choose to go back, but just stood there and waited.

The other Awakened also waited curiously. They were also curious about the newly arrived survivors.

After all, they would probably live and fight together in the future, so they were considered new friends.

After thinking for a while, Wan Zi waved to a girl beside her and whispered something to her.

After receiving the order, the girl jogged away towards the vegetable garden.

The new survivors had just arrived, so according to custom, let’s give them some fresh vegetable soup. Other grains matured relatively slowly, and they would have to wait a little longer to eat a decent meal.

Actually, she also planned to open up an area further out to plant corn, because the yield was high and it was easy to grow, which could also lay the foundation for future animal husbandry.

She planned to ask the people in the Oasis Area for some corn seeds after the land was cleared.

The people in the Oasis Area should also like to eat this sweet food, which could supplement some sugar.

Not long after, Lin Xiwan felt a slight vibration on the ground and heard the sound of a building-tree running in the distance.

“They’re here.”

Lin Jiayao walked towards the border of the Oasis Area, and Wan Zi and the other Awakened also followed.

Soon, they saw the tall Building-Tree Guardian stop at the border and slowly squat down.

After waiting for a while and not seeing anyone come down, Lin Xiwan directly jumped onto the platform on top of the Building-Tree Guardian’s head.

“Holy…”

As soon as she jumped up, Lin Xiwan felt several tragic and desperate gazes on her. She looked at them, and soon, they all fell into confusion together.

After a while, confirming that they couldn’t move, Lin Xiwan turned around and called out to the Awakened below:

“Quick, come up and help carry people.”

Carry people?

Now, even the Awakened below were dumbfounded.