Chapter 30: Linglan’s Death Countdown

“Ugh~ What a pain, what a pain. But since you gave me chocolate, I’ll help you open the ventilation shaft. Come on.”

The real Mother Entity was here.

She didn’t seem in the mood to chat. A massive vine punched through the exhaust fan and dangled down from the wall.

Linglan snapped out of her surprise and hurriedly dug out her notebook, flipping to a page.

“I want to become human.”

She pointed to the words.

The mechanical arm turned toward her and studied the page carefully.

“You’re a strange one,” it said. “But since you gave me chocolate, follow me.”

The mechanical arm led them to the security room, where they saw the Mother Entity’s true form: a huge, writhing green egg.

It stood amid a floor strewn with military ration wrappers. Cooking equipment and piles of firewood surrounded it, while countless vines extended from its body and plugged into the electronics.

For some reason, the horrifying sight carried an indescribable air of languid dejection.

“I need time to adjust your genes. Hungry?”

She tapped a large box with one of her tendrils. The box was full of unopened military rations.

“So much stuff,” Fuling murmured. “You’ve stockpiled all this?”

The Mother Entity didn’t answer. Instead, she deftly opened the packages. A dozen vines worked together to unpack the food, then, using a lighter she’d produced from God knew where, she lit an alcohol burner and began to cook.

The fake zombies in the laboratory had given them quite a scare. Fuling didn’t even bother to mind the vines on the floor as she plopped down on them.

They were soft. Surprisingly comfortable, even.

Linglan, meanwhile, was studying the images on the monitors in the security room. She pointed to one blacked-out screen and looked at the Mother Entity.

“That’s her nest,” the Mother Entity said calmly. “In the central control room.”

Who was she?

And what was that voice over the broadcast saying about the Prototype Entity escaping its containment chamber?

Linglan took out her notebook again.

A vine poked her and pointed to a computer. A TXT document was already open on the screen.

Finally, no more chicken scratch!

“The Improved Entity’s escape—are you talking about yourself?”

“It’s that thing. A bioweapon humans made after the Cataclysm.”

A vine crept over Linglan’s head and stuck up like a little antenna.

“They used your genes?”

“You know a lot about me. But yes, she’s an Artificial Mother Entity.”

“You know about Mother Entities?”

“They kept talking about them. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”

The little antenna swayed from side to side. It trembled as the Mother Entity spoke. “But I can’t be bothered with all that.”

As the words left her mouth, the antenna suddenly drooped and pierced the crown of Linglan’s head.

It felt like getting a shot. Linglan’s skin, which should have been numb, began to swell with a spreading pressure.

Her body went rigid. Fuling, alarmed, yanked out her entrenching tool.

“I’m injecting her with genes. She’s a Mutant. It’s harmless.”

The Mother Entity explained in her usual slow, unhurried voice, tinged with faint world-weariness.

Spores evolved by absorbing genes. Given enough genetic samples, they could even change their own forms.

No one knew how many genes the spores that had descended on Earth carried. They were what gave humans and animals supernatural abilities when they advanced or mutated.

Mother Entities, meanwhile, could reliably cultivate Mutants. They could rewrite genes and raise monsters, and were regarded as advance scouts sent from outer space to prepare an invasion.

The Mother Entity was injecting genes into the spores inside Linglan, unlocking new functions and restoring her senses and desires.

Just like the other Artificial Mother Entity in the laboratory.

“Hm?”

The Mother Entity murmured in puzzlement and stopped injecting spores. Instead, a fiber pierced Linglan’s arm.

Blood welled from the wound.

The Mother Entity absorbed it. A faint, peculiar gasp escaped her—part delight, part astonishment.

“Good thing you found me. If humans or another Mother Entity had caught you, you’d never have left the dissection table.”

She retracted the fiber and went back to fussing over the bubbling pot. “The water’s boiling. Give it a minute.”

Linglan and Fuling exchanged a silent look.

Fuling stared in disbelief. “Ling… are you bleeding?”

Linglan nodded. Her face expressionless, she pinched her cheek. She felt no pain.

“Whoo, whoo?”

She blew on it a few times, then drooped.

The Mother Entity poured instant soup into the pot and stirred it with a tendril curled around a spoon. “Your genes are extremely abnormal. I can’t analyze them, but something is growing inside you.”

All her vines pointed toward Linglan. “It’ll finish growing inside you in ten days and devour you. If I had to guess, it’ll become a Mother Entity.”

“What?!”

Fuling shot to her feet, horrified.

Linglan couldn’t believe it, either. She was a Mutant. The Hell Spores were supposed to be the ones that parasitized other people. How could someone else—

Then she remembered.

The black, spindle-shaped thing that had struck her in the chest. The one fired by that C-Rank Mutant.

Could it mass-produce Mother Entities?

With her death countdown right in front of her, Linglan still couldn’t muster any real fear.

She immediately typed out what had happened to her.

“It doesn’t sound like the result of gene fusion,” the Mother Entity said. “I’d guess humans still look the way they used to in your eyes.”

Linglan nodded, hoping this friendly Mother Entity could give her some advice.

“There’s only one way out. Advance to C-Rank and digest the intruder.”

Linglan’s pupils trembled. The only way to advance to C-Rank was to go to the nearest city, Shanghai City. But an A-Rank Mutant was dormant there—and could she gather enough Essence to advance in just ten days?

Fuling had gone pale. Her hands shook uncontrollably.

“Besides that, you might be able to devour the C-Rank.”

“If she does that, will Ling be saved?” Fuling asked, her voice breaking.

“That’s just a hunch. Your constitution is unusual.”

The Mother Entity lifted the seafood fried rice she’d heated. “Well, since things have come to this, we should eat first.”

Linglan sat slumped in her chair, both hands clasped over her head. Fuling had no appetite, either.

The Mother Entity, on the other hand, ate with gusto, using chopsticks to push rice through a gap between her vines like any human.

Fuling slowly walked over to Linglan and wrapped her arms around her.

“Ling… whatever happens, I’m staying with you.”

Her warm cheek brushed Linglan’s affectionately. Then, lowering her voice, she said, “We’ll go kill that bastard.”

Her words were full of murderous intent.

There was no point in feeling sorry for herself. She’d promised to keep going with Fuling.

Linglan’s gaze hardened.

If they went to Shanghai City, her constitution—which drew Mutants and zombies like hunters—would surely get Fuling killed. Fuling was only E-Rank.

No one could stop Fuling from escaping if she chose to run. But what if she didn’t want to?

There was only one option: kill that C-Rank.

And to beat a C-Rank, Fuling had to advance first.

Linglan lifted her head and brushed Fuling’s cheek. Then she turned to the computer and typed a line.

“I want to kill that Artificial Mother Entity and help Fuling advance.”

“She isn’t intelligent. I don’t care.”

Right. They hadn’t earned the Mother Entity’s trust. Helping them this much was already the limit. They couldn’t greedily demand more.

Linglan took a deep breath and typed.

“I need weapons. I can trade for them.”

The Mother Entity read the message in silence, then slowly turned away.

“Since you gave me chocolate, take whatever you want.”