Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Triangular Trade
“Buzz…”
Inside the “arena,” a few buzzing little green bugs, carrying a damp but clean towel, flew to a fallen, massive Building-Tree Guardian.
Lin Jiayao sat on the vines covering the ground, her sister lying limp in her lap, completely exhausted, her head pillowed on Lin Jiayao’s legs.
Lin Jiayao took the towel from the little flying bugs, wrung out the water, and began to wipe the blood and sweat from her sister’s face, checking for wounds as she did so.
Just now, her sister had fought a fierce battle with the Building-Tree Guardian she controlled.
What Lin Jiayao never expected was that her sister, relying on her own strength and a near-suicidal, rabid fighting style, had actually smashed the No. 2 she controlled to pieces.
Although the No. 2 Building-Tree Guardian hadn’t used the vascular network for unlimited replenishment, its strength and defense were already near the peak of C-rank.
This was an existence that, after connecting to the vascular network and gaining almost unlimited backup hidden energy, could beat a B-rank to despair.
Yet, her sister had found an opportunity and smashed its head with one punch.
No. 2 was originally a zombie that Lin Jiayao planned to “sacrifice,” so she didn’t feel any heartache. Moreover, her sister’s punch didn’t hit the Awakened corpse in No. 2’s mouth, so Lin Jiayao suffered almost no loss.
And now, that corpse, along with the other two B-rank Voodoo Cult corpses, was carefully sealed in the [Item Storage Box] by Lin Jiayao, waiting to be fed to A4 or used for other experiments.
The Blood Crystals precipitated by the death of blood crystals were only a part of the liquefied and stored Blood Crystals. Their flesh and blood also had a high blood crystal content.
Before, let alone other Awakened, even Lin Jiayao wouldn’t be crazy enough to eat zombie corpses.
But now, with A4, it was different – after a blood crystal died, it should be used to its fullest, without any waste, even the corpse.
Anyway, it’s A4 who eats it… not me…
Whenever she thought of those cannibalistic scenes, Lin Jiayao would think this way to make herself feel better.
“Does it hurt here?”
Just then, as Lin Jiayao was cleaning near her sister’s collarbone, she saw a terrifying laceration extending from her collarbone to her chest.
Although the wound was no longer bleeding, it looked painful, especially since the location of the injury was not easy to treat.
“It hurts…” Lin Xiwan, lying on her sister’s lap, moved her head, resting it in a more comfortable position, and replied weakly.
Lin Xiwan, who had just had a thoroughly satisfying fight, was still enjoying her sister’s healing time.
Who wouldn’t like to see a cute, beautiful, and understanding sister gently treating their wounds and comforting them?
“Bear with it, it might be a little numb…” Lin Jiayao recalled the scene of the system-managed surgery and comforted her sister.
She covered her sister’s eyes with her left hand, and slowly cut a wound on her right index finger with the bone spur extending from her right thumb.
The wound was not deep, just a few drops of blood oozed out.
But from the wound, several blood-red mycelia emerged, intertwining and forming a soft, strange mouth.
Symbiotic Link. Lin Jiayao had tried using this skill to inject energy into her sister back in the Voodoo Cult factory.
But at that time, Lin Jiayao didn’t have much blood crystal, she was very poor, and her physical and mental condition was not good. Just trying to inject a little into her sister, Lin Jiayao was so exhausted that she fainted directly.
But now, Lin Jiayao was much stronger than she was at that time, and she could heal her sister without much effort.
The mycelium connecting tube extending from Lin Jiayao’s wound, mixed with a little of Lin Jiayao’s blood, attached to Lin Xiwan’s wound and wriggled down from the top of the wound’s mouth.
It looked like two pieces of leather were glued together with strong glue.
While Lin Jiayao was carefully treating her, her sister, whose eyes were covered, gasped.
Lin Xiwan, with her eyes covered, although she couldn’t see anything, her senses were actually stronger.
She could clearly feel a moist and warm object sliding from her collarbone all the way to her chest.
Where the warm object slid, there would be a feeling of instant numbness. After a brief stinging pain, only numbness remained.
This sliding stopped after she gasped. At the same time, in the darkness before her eyes, she heard her sister’s voice coming from above.
“What’s wrong? Does it still hurt a lot?”
She could hear that her sister was still very worried about hurting her.
“It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt… just right…”
Lin Xiwan gritted her teeth and didn’t move, waiting quietly until all the wounds on her body were treated before she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Okay, go take a bath and rest. That’s all for today’s training.” Lin Jiayao looked up at the sun. It was time to eat and rest.
Lin Xiwan, who had been lying in her sister’s arms for a while, had also recovered a lot of her strength. At this time, she also sat up, picked up her sister, and stood up shakily.
Lin Xiwan really didn’t have the strength to carry her sister and run and jump now, so she could only carry her sister to the vine wheelchair and put her down, preparing to push her sister.
But just as Lin Xiwan was about to push her sister and run over the blood and flesh all over the ground to leave the “arena”, the two of them almost simultaneously looked up at the entrance.
“Huayibai?”
After Lin Xiwan called out, she smiled and waved to Huayibai, saying: “Awake? Huayibai, come quickly, help push…”
It wasn’t that Lin Xiwan wanted to be lazy. If she could, she would even be willing to carry her sister all the time, but unfortunately, her steps were a little unsteady even when pushing the wheelchair now, and she was afraid that she would accidentally fall and knock her sister to the ground.
“Oh!”
Huayibai also waved to the two from afar, responded loudly, and then ran to the two of them.
“Good afternoon, Mommy~ Good afternoon, Sister Xi!”
After running to the two of them, Huayibai first greeted them with a smile, and then prepared to go behind and take over Lin Xiwan’s position.
“Awake?” Lin Jiayao reached out and rubbed Huayibai’s head when she passed by, but at the same time, she was a little puzzled.
She didn’t feel Huayibai waking up at all, and she didn’t even feel Huayibai’s movements when she was nearby.
Huayibai’s “dormancy” this time was like a “restart”. Except for the system disk (memory), even the spores Lin Jiayao buried in her body were absorbed.
Was it to clear all the negative effects on her body?
This ability was not bad… It was just that there were no powerful fungal zombies for Lin Jiayao to log into now, so she couldn’t get this skill.
And, Lin Jiayao would never choose to log in where Huayibai was.
Although she knew that there were many zombies in one place, and it was basically impossible to hit the jackpot by logging in casually, but if she could really log into Huayibai, erase all her memories, and occupy her body…
It would be too hellish… This kind of cliché plot could only be thought of by a third-rate novelist, and it had to be the kind with mental problems.
As long as Lin Jiayao still had a trace of intelligence, she would never let these things happen.
After finally rubbing Huayibai’s head, Lin Jiayao patted the back of her head, signaling her to go behind and push the wheelchair.
But what Lin Jiayao didn’t expect was that Huayibai didn’t follow Lin Jiayao’s instructions and go behind, but stood directly beside Lin Jiayao without moving.
Lin Jiayao turned her head and noticed that Huayibai’s expression was not right, as if she had something to say to her.
“Is there something wrong? Huayibai.” Lin Jiayao did not wait, but asked directly.
“Um… the people from Survivor’s Light are here, in Chongyu City. Huayibai just woke up and found that they arrived yesterday. They came too fast…”
Speaking of this, Huayibai looked a little aggrieved and sad, as if she felt guilty for not telling her mommy the news immediately because of her dormancy.
At this time, Lin Xiwan, who was originally swaying on the side, as if she was about to fall asleep at any moment, suddenly became energetic and listened to their conversation with her ears perked up.
“It’s okay, I didn’t know they would come so fast, and they didn’t inform me in advance.” Lin Jiayao smiled and rubbed Huayibai’s head to comfort her.
Actually, Lin Jiayao hadn’t paid attention to the radio at all these days. Even if the people from Survivor’s Light had informed her, Lin Jiayao probably wouldn’t have heard it.
“Did they say anything?” After comforting her, Lin Jiayao glanced at her sister, who was gradually moving her body closer, and asked about the key matter with a smile.
Hearing Mommy’s question, Huayibai obediently told Lin Jiayao everything that had happened from before she fell asleep to after she woke up until now.
“Huayibai went back to that place and brought a bottle of each kind of seed that Mommy mentioned…”
The flying insect that Huayibai originally used to carry the seeds did not crash after dormancy, and the seeds were all well preserved.
The problem was not with the transportation or anything else, but after visiting the destroyed Voodoo Cult territory, the leader of Survivor’s Light directly told Huayibai that she wanted to talk directly to Huayibai’s “mommy”, that is, the high-level person.
This question stumped Huayibai, and she could only run over and ask Lin Jiayao directly.
Now, Jiang Chun, who was far away in Chongyu City, was still waiting for a reply.
“Did they ask to talk to me after seeing those factories?” Lin Jiayao confirmed with Huayibai again, and after getting an affirmative answer, she nodded slightly.
Lin Jiayao was very clear about the comparison between the industrial level of the Voodoo Cult and the industrial level of Survivor’s Light.
Whether it was the types of products or the efficiency of the factories, the Voodoo Cult was completely superior – because they had no taboos about raw materials.
Like soap, the people of the Voodoo Cult even dared to use human corpse oil or zombie oil to refine it… It was simply insane.
And, Lin Jiayao and Lin Xiwan, even unknowingly, had used the Voodoo Cult’s soap once.
Lin Jiayao had never told her sister about this, which was a kind concealment, so as not to give her sister another psychological shadow.
And the most important thing was that Jiang Chun must have seen the “workers” in the Voodoo factory now.
All zombies.
All kinds of zombies.
They were the best laborers. Under the control of spores, they could mechanically repeat some labor, and almost didn’t need to rest.
If they were scrapped, they would be directly replaced.
Under such circumstances, the productivity of the Voodoo factory had reached another level.
It was estimated that after Jiang Chun saw this scene, the idea she came up with was similar to the “triangle line” that Lin Jiayao originally envisioned.
Open up a triangular freight line between Donghai City, Chongyu City, and Kun City to supply the necessary materials for the survival of some camps along the way, and even provide blood transfusions for “large camps” like Kun City.
As long as this transportation line was established, Kun City and Donghai City would be responsible for research and planting, and then the central Chongyu City would process and distribute…
They might be able to achieve true food freedom.
The premise was that there would be no other disasters within a year.
No major disasters within a year?
This sounded very simple, even Jiang Chun, the new leader of Survivor’s Light, felt that it was not difficult.
But in the eyes of Lin Jiayao, who had witnessed the disaster in Japan, it was hard to say.
Disaster might be very close to them.
But no matter what, the establishment of this transportation line would be beneficial to Lin Jiayao, and her sister would definitely agree with both hands.
This was a big project that could really help all survivors. Even in the worst-case scenario, it could also allow Lin Jiayao to not have to do anything and not have to worry about food in the future.
A business with no capital and huge profits.
“Okay, let’s talk to her now. Just tell her that I can hear her, and you can just relay her words to me.” Lin Jiayao looked at Huayibai and said.
“Okay~”
Huayibai nodded, and at the same time extended her palm, her palm wriggling, using mycelium to create a miniature version of Jiang Chun.
This miniature version of Jiang Chun said with some doubt: “Now… we can talk?”
On the other side, in Chongyu City, in the former Voodoo occupied area, outside a soap factory, Jiang Chun was looking at the black-robed villain in the little girl’s hand with a puzzled look.
“Hello, Miss Jiang Chun.”
The black-robed villain in the little girl’s hand made a hoarse voice that was neither male nor female, confirming again that the little girl was not lying to her.
With half-belief, Jiang Chun took a slow breath, turned her head and looked at the factory, and at her subordinates who were looking at her dumbfounded, not knowing why she was so flustered.
Finally, Jiang Chun turned her head back and looked at the black-robed villain in the little girl’s tender palm.
“Hello, my name is Jiang Chun, and I’m the temporary leader of Survivor’s Light… I want to ask you something.”
“Please ask.”
“The mushroom zombies here… did they appear earlier than the mushroom zombies of Survivor’s Light?”
“Yes.”
“Then the mushroom zombies of Survivor’s Light… were they brought by the people of the Voodoo Cult?”
“Yes, they were mixed in with the refugees you accepted. They called this the Plantation Project.”
“Plantation… Project?”
“Yes, Plantation. The leader of the Voodoo Cult used this kind of zombie to train high-level individuals, and then fed them to a certain mycelium individual with human memories, to achieve the purpose of resurrecting someone in disguise. Of course, this is impossible to succeed…”
Jiang Chun’s mouth opened slightly, and she felt a sense of suffocation. She turned her head to look at her subordinates again, and also saw confusion, horror, and anger in their eyes.
All the efforts they had made… were they ruined by a lunatic’s dream of resurrection?
It was absurd and ridiculous, and extremely sad.