Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Six: Mutual Devotion p1
Lin Jiayao, having just switched her consciousness back to her body, didn’t feel any discomfort, nor did any sense of mental weakness assail her. This was because A4 was still running towards the extraction point according to her instructions, and it would take a few more minutes to extract. Only after A4 completed the extraction could she choose which evolutions to retain and experience the post-login weakness.
Glancing at her sister, still sleeping soundly on the bed, Lin Jiayao shifted her gaze towards the window. Outside, the sky had completely darkened, illuminated only by the faint fluorescence flowing within the building-trees and vines. Now, in addition to this natural illumination, there were also the occasional little green bugs drifting by, like fireflies.
Before the post-extraction weakness set in, Lin Jiayao decided to find Huayibai and entrust her with the task of collecting the Blood Crystals. This kind of thing was best done quickly. Otherwise, if any passing zombies or birds flying overhead found them, it might reduce her final harvest.
Huayibai hadn’t gone far from the villa before, so Lin Jiayao only needed to activate Bone Spike Lurker to pinpoint her location. Carefully pushing the wheels of her wheelchair, trying not to make too much noise, she left the room without disturbing her sister.
After pushing the wheelchair out of the villa, Lin Jiayao headed towards the location where she had sensed Huayibai with Bone Spike Lurker.
As she approached, Lin Jiayao realized it was a villa’s garden square—or rather, what used to be a garden. From the flower beds and landscaping, she could barely make out that flowers had once been planted here, but now it was completely covered with white mycelium.
And Huayibai was chasing a strangely shaped white butterfly across the mycelium carpet. Looking closely, the butterfly’s wings were actually made of white mycelium.
It must be the new friend Huayibai mentioned.
“Mommy!”
Huayibai, who had been chasing the butterfly, stopped and turned around upon sensing Lin Jiayao’s arrival. Abandoning the chase, she trotted over, put her hands behind her back, looked up, and smiled at Lin Jiayao.
“Shing—”
Several bone spurs extended from the back of Lin Jiayao’s neck, bracing against the ground behind her, freeing her hands.
Retracting the bone spurs from her hands and lowering herself slightly, she reached out and rubbed Huayibai’s head. “Playing with your friend?”
“Yes!” Huayibai nodded, her eyes narrowing slightly from the caress. She said excitedly, “I taught Little Black how to transform!”
“Look!”
Huayibai pointed to the butterfly, seemingly proud of her teaching ability.
“Oh…” Lin Jiayao looked at the butterfly, which had stopped not far away, and asked curiously, “Couldn’t it do that before?”
Hearing this, Huayibai sighed heavily and said with a hint of frustration:
“It’s too dumb. I taught it how to read, but it couldn’t. It doesn’t really understand when I talk to it. It can only transform into a butterfly, and even then, I had to help it…”
Huayibai lowered her head, counting off her new friend’s shortcomings on her fingers.
Lin Jiayao just patted her head and comforted her, “It’s okay, it should get smarter when it gets stronger.”
Although she couldn’t identify the type of this white mycelium and hadn’t seen its fruiting body, Lin Jiayao knew that it most likely didn’t have the ability to transform into a human form.
The reason Huayibai could transform into a human was because of the golden evolution [Mimic Fruiting Body]. Blood Orb Mycelium could mimic any form, even to the point where humans couldn’t distinguish them.
Moreover, Blood Orb Mycelium mainly infected and parasitized living creatures and zombies, and could also acquire some memories and act according to the host’s behavior patterns before death.
This white mycelium didn’t have the ability to infect humans at all, so naturally, it couldn’t acquire memories or mimic.
To put it bluntly, these white mycelia were, at most, mushrooms with C-rank abilities. They couldn’t possibly have intelligence. The reason Huayibai could communicate with it simply was that Huayibai herself was of the same kind.
It was submitting to Huayibai, not being friends with her as Huayibai thought.
However… Huayibai probably just wanted to make friends and play together. There was no need for Lin Jiayao to tell her the truth and dampen her enthusiasm.
“When it reaches B-rank, it will probably be smarter.” Lin Jiayao patted Huayibai’s head.
This wasn’t just a baseless guess by Lin Jiayao, but a speculation based on her observations of the B-rank zombies she had encountered.
Of course, it was just speculation, not a conclusion. If she wanted to draw a conclusion, Lin Jiayao had to observe more B-rank blood crystal individuals.
“Really?” Hearing her mommy’s words, Huayibai’s previous disappointment vanished instantly. She looked up at Lin Jiayao and asked, “Will Little Black become smarter when it grows up?”
“Yes.”
Looking at Huayibai’s expectant look, Lin Jiayao couldn’t bring herself to say “probably,” and instead gave a more affirmative answer.
Lin Jiayao just wasn’t quite sure why Huayibai called a lump of white mycelium Little Black.
After chatting with Huayibai for a while, Lin Jiayao started to talk about business.
She told Huayibai the exact location of the Blood Crystals and instructed her to control the flapping-wing insects to collect all the Blood Crystals from Shenfeng Mountain.
This was just a simple errand, basically only consuming energy for flight. Huayibai agreed without hesitation.
Just as Lin Jiayao wanted to continue chatting with Huayibai, a suffocating sense of weakness suddenly surged from her heart, assaulting her mind like waves.
The bone spurs supporting her back also began to tremble, almost unable to support her body.
“Eek!”
Huayibai, startled by Lin Jiayao’s sudden state, let out a cry.
Seeing her mommy about to fall, Huayibai didn’t have time to think and quickly rushed forward, hugging her mommy’s slender waist.
But with Huayibai’s panicked lunge, Lin Jiayao, who had been barely maintaining her balance, fell directly to the ground.
“Ah… Mommy…”
After climbing up from Lin Jiayao, Huayibai realized that she seemed to have caused a big disaster, and now she was at a loss, her hands on the ground beside Lin Jiayao’s waist.
Unfortunately, Lin Jiayao didn’t have time to comfort Huayibai, who was about to cry. Her brows were furrowed, and, along with Hunting Rhythm, she was trying to regulate her increasingly drowsy mind and weakening limbs.
Two logins in one day… was the consumption really this high…?
Even Hunting Rhythm couldn’t handle it?
The most likely explanation was that mental power wasn’t as simple as Lin Jiayao thought.
It wasn’t like the fatigue value in games, a simple addition and subtraction within a total amount.
When the fatigue value was used up, you would be tired, but drinking a fatigue potion could clear all negative effects and restore energy. This was possible in games, but it didn’t seem to work in reality.
Mental power seemed to have a built-in “fatigue,” just like metal fatigue. No matter how many times it was bent and restored, it would suddenly break when it reached a certain limit.
Lying on the ground, Lin Jiayao tried her best to get into a comfortable position, keeping still and emptying her mind, not thinking about anything, to avoid fainting directly.
Fortunately, Hunting Rhythm was still effective. After Lin Jiayao lay down for a while, it actually forcibly pulled her body back from the verge of fainting to a state where she could move slightly for a few minutes.
But her body and mind were reminding her with wave after wave of fatigue—it was time to rest.
Using the few minutes of mobility gained by Hunting Rhythm, Lin Jiayao slowly opened her eyes and looked at Huayibai, who was lying on her, at a loss.
“It’s okay… good girl… I just need to sleep for a while…” Reaching out and pinching Huayibai’s nose, Lin Jiayao said weakly, “Take me back to my room…”
“Okay.”
Huayibai nodded repeatedly and quickly climbed off her mommy. She placed her hands on the ground.
A small mycelium blanket slowly spread from Huayibai’s palms, sliding under Lin Jiayao and completely enveloping her.
Wrapped in the soft mycelium, she felt a slight upward force, and then her body was lifted into the air by Huayibai.
Just like this, Huayibai carried her mommy, who was in the mycelium cradle, on her back. Her legs turned into mycelium, creating a mycelium blanket all the way, and quickly moved towards the house where they lived.
Using this method to travel could minimize bumps. Huayibai was very considerate.
This was quite like Lin Jiayao.
After quickly carrying her mommy back to the house where she slept, and finding the room where Sister Xi was sleeping, Huayibai carefully moved inside.
Perhaps because she was in a deep sleep, Lin Xiwan was not awakened by the movements of the two. Even after Huayibai put Lin Jiayao on the bed, there was no movement.
It wasn’t until she saw her mommy fall into a drowsy sleep that Huayibai, who had regained her legs, tiptoed out of the room and gently closed the door.
Lin Jiayao, who was sent to the room, quickly fell into a deep coma, and her sister, who was sleeping next to her, also slept very soundly.
But for some reason, her sister seemed to smell something. Even though she was still asleep, her hand instinctively reached out to the side.
Lin Xiwan pulled her sleeping sister closer and hugged her tightly, her legs clamping together, and her hand reaching into her clothes and resting on her sister’s back.
This set of locking techniques was very smooth, something that wouldn’t be possible without cuddling every night.
Lin Jiayao, in her coma, was quickly repairing her mental power, but at this time, she also fell into a strange dream.
In the dream, she seemed to be trapped in a red swamp. Beside the swamp were her sister, Huayibai, countless camp people, and her zombies, all desperately pulling a rope tied to her, trying to pull her up.
But her body kept sinking, and even with all her strength, she couldn’t pull her body out even a little bit. Until she was exhausted, she couldn’t stop her vision from being slowly covered by the blood mud.
This helpless situation was very much like the situation when her mental power was severely overdrawn.
As the night deepened, the bright moon shone through the hazy mist, casting a pale green fluorescence through the window onto Lin Xiwan.
After sleeping for about six hours, Lin Xiwan, who had experienced a devilish training-like battle, slowly opened her eyes on the bed.
“Ha—”
As soon as she opened her eyes, Lin Xiwan couldn’t help but yawn. After a yawn, she felt an incomparable mental refreshment.
Sufficient food, a hearty battle, and enough sleep kept Lin Xiwan’s mind and body in a very healthy state.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw the back of her sister’s head, very close to her, and even the tip of her nose was filled with her sister’s hair fragrance.
Subconsciously reaching out and pinching, Lin Xiwan froze and quickly withdrew her hand, instantly awake.
Where was she touching while sleeping!
And, when did her sister come to sleep with her? She had no memory of it.
She only remembered having a very relaxing dream, a peaceful dream before the apocalypse about milking cows on a sunny ranch, and even her nose was filled with the very real smell of sunshine.
Lin Xiwan was about to explain something when she found that her sister didn’t move, as if she was still asleep.
“Yao—” Lin Xiwan called softly, then released her legs that were clamping her sister’s thighs, sat up, and looked down at her sleeping sister.
At this time, her sister’s face was pale, and there were a few drops of sweat on her face. Even the pillow and sheets were soaked with sweat.
Under the reflection of the pale green moonlight, her sister’s skin even showed a bluish color like a dead person, which scared Lin Xiwan and she quickly put her finger in front of her sister’s nose.
Breathing…
Fortunately, although it was a little weak, her sister was still breathing steadily.
Looking at her sister’s furrowed brows and pale, chapped lips, Lin Xiwan felt a pang in her heart.
Sister… was she having those nightmares about zombies again?
Although her sister spoke to her in a very relaxed tone, just saying that she dreamed of those zombies.
But Lin Xiwan knew that her sister must have hidden the side effects of this ability from her. Otherwise, it was impossible that her physical condition was getting worse and worse as her ability became stronger and stronger.
It felt like she was overdrawing herself.
