Chapter 171: The North Unfrozen p1
Lin Jiayao lay in bed, listening to her sister talk while keeping an eye on Mask, who was extracting in the upper left corner of her vision. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to sit properly and listen attentively, but Huayibai was clinging to her like a little octopus, making soft “hu hu” sounds.
Lin Jiayao knew Huayibai wasn’t truly asleep, but in a state of mental paralysis. It wasn’t sleep or a coma, but more like a loss of consciousness. Huayibai wouldn’t remember anything that happened during this period upon waking, so Lin Jiayao didn’t mind her clinging. After all, Huayibai wasn’t doing it intentionally. If asked about it later, she would probably just stare at Lin Jiayao with a bewildered expression. Lin Jiayao could practically picture it now.
While dividing her attention between her thoughts and her sister’s story, she quickly grasped the gist of what had happened at the camp.
Moving the zombies from the residential area… that was a minor issue.
The people who lit a fire being expelled… that was handled appropriately.
According to Lin Jiayao’s initial plan, no open flames were allowed within Kun City, except for the ash area. This was because all the plants in the vascular network, including “Little Black” outside the network—the white mycelium spread throughout Kun City—were extremely sensitive to fire.
Those two young men were lucky that only a few zombies were dispatched after they lit that fire. When that Awakened, Boss Luo, had started the fire, it attracted a Building-Tree Guardian, leading to her demise.
Therefore, the only place in Kun City where fire was permitted was near Lin Jiayao.
In other words, only Lin Jiayao had the ability to control the vascular network, so only she could safely use fire within Kun City.
“Okay,” Lin Jiayao nodded slightly, “That’s fine. I’ll go and remove the zombies around there later.”
The area where they were currently living had also had the dried corpses removed by the vines. Otherwise, it would be quite creepy to live there. Imagine an entire building covered in vines, with occasional bulges where half a dried corpse hung, or a body half-embedded in a tree. A dried corpse every three steps, rotting flesh every five… living in such a place would be like living in a horror movie every day.
After all, many people in the camp were ordinary people, who, except for the initial period of the apocalypse, had mostly stayed within the camp and hadn’t ventured out much. The fear of zombies was still deeply ingrained in them.
It was no wonder Wan Zi made such a request. Knowing Wan Zi, she wouldn’t ask for anything unless it was absolutely necessary.
Lin Xiwan, sitting by the bed, nodded after hearing her sister’s reply.
It seemed that these weren’t major issues, at least not for her sister. They weren’t even worth two seconds of her thought.
Lin Xiwan had also been unsure whether moving the zombies would affect the building-trees and vines. Now it seemed there was no impact.
“Did you sleep well?” Lin Xiwan reached out and gently poked her sister’s cheek with her index finger, saying with a smile, “Your mouth…”
Hearing her sister’s words, Lin Jiayao subconsciously raised her hand and touched her mouth, but felt nothing.
“Sister…” Lin Jiayao pushed her sister’s hand away from her face, a hint of resentment in her tone.
Obviously, her sister was bringing up the drooling incident from when she was sleeping on her chest at noon.
She didn’t know if her sister had learned it from her, but it felt like her sister was starting to enjoy teasing her, occasionally making little jokes.
This might also be related to her mood. After all, they were now in Kun City, and her sister was in a very relaxed state of mind.
Whether in the camp or on the run, her sister had always seen herself as the last line of defense to protect her, so she had been fully focused all along.
In such a tense state, naturally, there would be less of this playful interaction.
Now she was back to her usual self.
“Oh, I wasn’t finished.” Unfazed by her sister pushing her hand away, Lin Xiwan grabbed her sister’s left hand and said with a smile, “I was saying, you don’t smile enough. You should smile more~”
Her sister continued to justify her previous actions, but the smile on her face completely betrayed her slightly smug mood.
“Is there anything you want to eat?” Holding her sister’s left hand in both of hers, pressing her palm against her cheek, Lin Xiwan lowered her head and asked softly, “It’s my turn to cook for you this time.”
Seeing that her sister was in good spirits, Lin Xiwan assumed she hadn’t dreamt of those strange zombies, so she didn’t ask, but instead asked about dinner.
After all, only when you were full could you have the energy to do other things.
“Yes… there is,” Lin Jiayao thought for a moment and said, “Contact Survivor’s Light on the radio. The B-rank zombie on the route yesterday was killed by the zombie in my dream. Synchronize the information with them.”
“Also, ask them about the situation by the sea. I had a dream about the seaside just now. I dreamt that many zombies were ‘thrown’ ashore from the seabed. I don’t know why…”
Contact Survivor’s Light?
Hearing this, Lin Xiwan also became energized.
She was very, even nine points, interested in the matter of establishing a transit point between Kun City and Survivor’s Light that her sister had mentioned before.
If it worked out, this was something that could benefit a large number of survivors, allowing those who were struggling to survive to at least have some guarantee in terms of food.
Even later, they might develop the transit point, Chongyu City, into a super-large settlement…
They were taking things one step at a time, and the road ahead was smooth. Returning to the pre-apocalypse days seemed to be only a matter of time.
“When are we contacting them?” To make it easier for her sister to see her, so she didn’t have to look up, Lin Xiwan also lay down on her side, facing her sister. “They should be back by now, right?”
“They should be there, they’re very fast,” Lin Jiayao nodded slightly, then pointed behind her with her finger, “We’ll contact them when Huayibai wakes up.”
Huayibai behind Lin Jiayao was still sleeping soundly. She didn’t know when she would wake up.
They could only contact Survivor’s Light through the Voodoo Cult’s high-frequency radio, and using the Voodoo radio required Huayibai to relay the message.
Now, let alone using the radio, even the Blood Crystals being transported might have stopped. The entire “Huayibai Network” was paralyzed because of Lin Jiayao’s blood.
To recover, they could only wait for Huayibai’s state to end.
It was probably soon. Huayibai couldn’t say anything before, but now she could mumble some words unconsciously.
“Wait for Huayibai to wake up…” Lin Xiwan moved a little closer to her sister, reached out and touched Huayibai’s forehead.
It wasn’t hot?
Why had Huayibai’s face been slightly red since she saw her in the morning, and now she seemed a little unconscious?
“Did she eat something wrong?” Lin Xiwan looked at Huayibai, a little worried, and asked her sister.
“It’s okay, she drank some fake alcohol, it’ll be fine after it’s metabolized.” Lin Jiayao said.
It was indeed fake alcohol, it was blood after all.
Hearing her sister’s words, Lin Xiwan looked at Huayibai again and sighed softly:
“Sigh…”
“Huayibai is still too naive, too easily deceived, picking up things and drinking them randomly… What if she’s tricked by someone?”
“We have to spend some time teaching her some common sense, and sex education is also important…”
Lin Xiwan’s worries were not unreasonable. Even in the apocalypse, sex education was still very important.
It wasn’t just that it was important in the apocalypse, but that in the context of the apocalypse, this kind of education was even more important.
Otherwise, in this environment without legal constraints and where survivors were basically decadent, it was easy to be violated or bewitched into promiscuity.
As for her sister’s education in this area, it was Lin Xiwan who taught her hand in hand. Anyway, they were both girls, and there was no need to avoid anything when talking about these things.
This was also for Huayibai’s sake. After all, the further into the apocalypse, the more prosperous the camp would be, which also meant that there would definitely be more and more people coming and going.
She had to instill a stronger sense of safety precautions in Huayibai to prevent her from being deceived.
Although her abilities could be upgraded to B-rank, her intelligence could not. She would still be deceived if she was meant to be deceived.
“Yes…” Lin Jiayao thought for a while and nodded, “Okay.”
Lin Jiayao didn’t think it was necessary.
Because Huayibai didn’t have the concept of “sex” at all, and she wasn’t human in the first place.
In Huayibai’s eyes, perhaps except for Lin Jiayao, all other people were just pieces of meat that could move and talk.
As for Lin Xiwan’s position in Huayibai’s heart, it was indeed much higher than others, but it was also limited. After all, she didn’t have the same information as Lin Jiayao, like the mother of the Blood Orb spores.
If someone Huayibai didn’t remember went to talk to Huayibai, if it weren’t for Lin Jiayao’s words not to kill indiscriminately, they would most likely be swallowed or killed directly as mosquitoes blocking the way.
Because all of Huayibai’s obedience and “loyalty” were based on Lin Jiayao.
But since her sister wanted to teach, Lin Jiayao would definitely agree.
She was even looking forward to seeing her sister being driven crazy by Huayibai’s non-human questions.
It could effectively treat low blood pressure.
Finally, her sister asked her sister again what she wanted to eat. After getting the answer “meat”, she left a sentence of “wait a minute” and rushed out of the villa.
It seemed that she wanted to prepare a big meal for her sister.
After her sister left, Lin Jiayao, who was “tied” in place by Huayibai, began to try to lift the quilt and untie Huayibai’s limbs with her hands.
But unfortunately, the harder Lin Jiayao tried, the closer Huayibai hugged her, her little face constantly rubbing against Lin Jiayao’s arms.
Helplessly, she temporarily gave up the idea of prying Huayibai off and turned her attention to Mask, who was still extracting.
The commotion of Mask’s extraction was much greater than A4’s. The target extraction point was the Fengjiang Hydropower Station located in Hezhou City.
That was the dam that Lin Jiayao speculated had been destroyed when Yangzhou City was flooded at the beginning.
Hezhou City was an inland city, surrounded by mountains, so there was no need to worry about the invasion of seabed creatures for the time being.
And the direction of this extraction was only a little more than a hundred kilometers away from where A4 was, so they could look after each other.
Mask could act separately with A4 to clear the B-rank zombies along the way. If Mask encountered something it couldn’t handle, it could call A4 over to help.
With this double guarantee, the speed of clearing high-level zombies would be much faster.
The only problem affecting the speed was Lin Jiayao’s mental power.
Now Lin Jiayao’s only zombie that could enhance mental power was Goldie, and Goldie was only one step away from being promoted to B-rank.
It seemed that she had to find an opportunity to let Goldie evolve and see if she could obtain an evolution that could improve her mental power, preferably a qualitative improvement.
Otherwise, the current limit on the number of times she could log into B-rank every day was a bit of a waste of time.
Lin Jiayao didn’t want to have a long and painful adaptation period when she logged into A-rank, like when she first logged into B-rank.
It felt like those web novels before the apocalypse, where after running out of ideas, they would change the map and use the same routine to repeat everything, which was meaningless.
After watching for a while, estimating that it would take another half an hour for Mask to reach the Fengjiang Hydropower Station extraction point, Lin Jiayao just moved her attention away from the upper left corner when she felt Huayibai, who was hugging her tightly in her arms, loosen slightly.
Looking down, she happened to see Huayibai release her right hand, rubbing her eyes drowsily, as if she had just woken up.
“Mmm…”
After stretching her arms and yawning widely, Huayibai seemed to realize something, raised her head groggily, and looked in Lin Jiayao’s direction.
“Mo…mmy?”
After muttering, Huayibai’s pupils gradually dilated.
Rustle…
Huayibai lowered her head, quietly lifted the quilt a little, and then saw that her legs were tightly wrapped around Mommy’s waist.
Completely locked.
“Woo…” Huayibai slowly loosened her legs, pulled her left leg away from Lin Jiayao’s waist, looked up at Lin Jiayao, and said carefully, “Huayibai didn’t do it on purpose…”
At this time, Huayibai had also roughly remembered what had happened.
After Mommy and Sister Xi left the room, Huayibai, who was already a little drowsy, directly lay down on the bed.
But she wasn’t asleep or unconscious, just a little confused.
In this confused state, she directly stuffed the sheets, pillows, and quilt cover stained with Lin Jiayao’s blood into her mouth, squeezing out every last drop of blood…
She was already a little high after just licking a little blood, and after squeezing out all the blood on the bed, Huayibai completely fell into a state similar to a blackout.
She didn’t know what she had done at all, and didn’t know what was happening around her, only that her head was dizzy.
When she regained consciousness, she saw that she was holding Mommy tightly, and she didn’t know how long she had been holding her.
Although Lin Jiayao didn’t say anything, Huayibai knew that she had caused trouble.
“Woo…”
Huayibai lowered her head, waiting for the possible blame.
But after waiting for a while, she only felt a gentle touch on her head, as if a warm hand was stroking her head.
“It’s good that you’re awake, rest for a while, and let’s go eat together later.”
Mommy’s indifferent voice came from above Huayibai’s head, but she could feel Mommy’s emotions in her words.
Very gentle…
Huayibai, who had originally curled up in the quilt, slowly stretched out her body, raised her head, and looked at Mommy, who was looking at her with a smile, with some daze.
“You might need to help me use the radio station later, just wait until dinner, Sister Xi also wants to listen.”
After rubbing Huayibai’s soft head with her palm, Lin Jiayao withdrew her hand and sat up.
Huayibai’s consciousness hadn’t fully recovered yet, and she might make mistakes when transmitting information on the radio, so it was better to wait, and let her sister listen together.
Anyway, her sister was also looking forward to listening to the conversation with Survivor’s Light.
Before, she could only listen to Survivor’s Light’s radio broadcast on the radio. Now she could talk to them directly. It felt like she had succeeded in “chasing a star”.
After sitting against the headboard, Lin Jiayao looked at Huayibai, who still didn’t seem to react, poked her face with her hand, and asked:
“Did you hear that? Huayibai?”
It was only then that Huayibai seemed to have just returned to her senses, her eyes refocused, and she looked up at Lin Jiayao and said, “I know.”
At this time, Lin Jiayao, looking at Huayibai who raised her small head to look at her, was a little puzzled.
Why did she feel that Huayibai’s eyes looked a little hazy?
Was she still a little high?
Huayibai’s slightly flushed cheeks basically confirmed Lin Jiayao’s thoughts.
In the following time, Lin Jiayao directly took over control of Mask, running the last part of the way herself, and by the way, seeing if there were any C-rank zombies along the way that she could conveniently kill.
She didn’t notice that while she was controlling Mask to run, Huayibai, who was lying beside her, moved towards her little by little.
Every time she moved a little distance, Huayibai would look up, as if she was paying attention to whether Mommy, who was leaning back with her eyes closed, was angry.
Finally, Huayibai finally moved to Lin Jiayao’s side, gently rested her head on Lin Jiayao’s waist, curled up her small body under the quilt, and narrowed her eyes slightly.
On the surface, the two were taking a nap, but in fact, they were both controlling another self.
Huayibai was controlling the flapping-wing insect full of Blood Crystals and continuing to rush towards Kun City. Fortunately, the dormancy on the road did not cause any loss of Blood Crystals.
And in Chongyu City, two flapping-wing insects parasitized by Huayibai also flew up, their abdomens full of bread produced by the mycelium-infected people in the Voodoo factory.
Not to mention, the wheat fields and the entire bread production line left by the Voodoo Cult were also very complete.
Lin Jiayao and her sister had also seized a lot of bread in the Voodoo Cult camp before. It could only be said that this kind of thing was easier to make than canned food, and it was convenient to carry for expeditions. It was indeed a good food in the apocalypse.
The main reason was that the raw materials for canned food were not easy to obtain, especially for meat cans.
Not only had the human population drastically decreased in the apocalypse, but various animals had also started a mode of cannibalism and survival of the fittest because of blood crystals. Especially in cities, it was almost impossible to see any decent animals, let alone use them to make canned food.
