Sickly Girl Doesn’t Die in Zombie Simulator 237

Chapter 237: Clash of Minds

Lin Jiayao opened her eyes and moved her body slightly.

“Crack—Crack, crack—”

The unidentified red substance covering her body flaked off, shattering into powder on the ground and being swept away by the wind.

Huayibai’s “remains.”

Lin Jiayao stood up, shaking off the remnants and cleaning herself.

This was the body Huayibai had abandoned. Huayibai’s main focus was still on Japan. Even if she had any spare mental capacity, it would be used to devour the remaining Living Weapon, leaving little to assist Lin Jiayao.

She couldn’t rely on Huayibai for a “ride” for this extraction in America.

Lin Jiayao looked around, searching for her Extraction Points.

Finally, she settled on the Garfield Park Conservatory Extraction Point in Chicago, 111.8km to the south.

Now that Goldie was B-rank, she didn’t need to worry too much about inland combat strength.

Her current location wasn’t ideal. To the east was Lake Michigan, to the north was Kiel, and to the west was Albany, all sparsely populated areas.

And from the Crystal Detector during login, she could see that the area with the highest blood crystal concentration was where Goldie was—because the reading included Goldie herself.

If she wanted the brain worms to parasitize more zombies, she could only go south, where the blood crystal concentration was higher.

Lin Jiayao knew about the Headshavers in the south, but she wasn’t concerned. Their leader was only a mind-control type Awakened. In terms of mental power, Lin Jiayao hadn’t seen anyone stronger than herself and Goldie.

This was the confidence the Hive Zombie gave her.

Lin Jiayao glanced at the extraction time. The standard five hours, plenty of time. She began to sense the currently active brain worms.

So far, Goldie’s brain worms had only parasitized one person from the Hand of Freedom, for the purpose of relaying messages. She didn’t know how things were going over there.

Closing her eyes, through the brain worm, she could see the host’s vision and share their senses.

This was an advanced version of Hive Zombie control.

In the brain worm’s vision, Lin Jiayao saw a blurry, blood-red scene. It seemed the host’s vision was stained with blood; they were in the midst of battle.

The host was in a vehicle, seemingly not having had time to relay Lin Jiayao’s message before extraction, fleeing with the convoy.

Through the host’s erratic gaze and frequent glances back, Lin Jiayao saw an “old friend” chasing the convoy.

A Fish-Man zombie with a massive, rotting fish head, its black scales indicating it was at least C-rank.

Was this the Hand of Freedom on the run?

Judging by their route, they seemed to be heading east, inland, towards Lin Jiayao.

She had to finish parasitizing Chicago before they arrived.

Goldie’s current location could be considered deep inland, with nowhere to run. She could only strengthen Goldie as much as possible before the seabed zombies fully invaded.

If the seabed zombies invaded this area, as long as there weren’t a large number of B-ranks or A-ranks coming ashore, Goldie could deal a heavy blow to the horde.

Trying to seize the blood crystals on land with swarm tactics? Goldie specialized in swarm tactics.

She was confident that as long as she could accumulate a tide of flying insects like the Human-Headed Hive Queen before, Goldie could unleash even more terrifying power.

Perhaps next time she could bring the Black Stem Fungus and just plant brain-computer towers in America.

Herding zombies while planting brain-computer towers, it was a kind of idyllic pastoral scene.

Before that, she would parasitize more B-ranks.

Anyway, the Headshavers entrenched in Chicago were villains like the Voodoo Cult. It didn’t matter if she parasitized or killed all their high-ranking members.

Having decided on her target, Lin Jiayao wasted no time.

A black tentacle, covered in holes, emerged from the junction of her right shoulder and neck. From each hole, large and small, various flying insects began to crawl out.

At the same time, the flying insects left behind for surveillance during the extraction took off into the night sky, like a scattering of stars.

Several white bone spur insects hooked onto the holes on Goldie’s tentacles, easily lifting her into the air.

This was the advantage of being small.

“Buzz—”

The bone spur insects carried Lin Jiayao, swiftly flying, surrounded by a swarm of other flying insects, like several fully staffed air fleets.

Passing areas with zombies, Lin Jiayao didn’t stop, but dispatched a brain worm from the “fleet” to dive down, pierce a low-level zombie’s brain, take control, and then reproduce.

The parasitized zombies became miniature hives, their heads riddled with holes like honeycombs.

New brain worms continuously emerged from the holes, draining the zombies’ mental power and flesh for reproduction, then flying off in search of their next host.

And the brain worms that absorbed the most nutrients, their bodies beginning to glow faintly, would return to Lin Jiayao, merging with the main swarm and burrowing into her tentacles, dissolving their bodies and transferring the acquired mental power and nutrients to Lin Jiayao for storage.

Having evolved to B-rank, she was finally starting to resemble a true Hive Zombie.

The insect swarm pressed southward, destroying the low-level land zombies along the way.

The few C-rank zombies that could resist the brain worms’ attacks were no match for the penetrating power of the golden flying insects.

The golden flying insects would directly pierce through these zombies’ spines, leaving behind immobile bodies for the brain worms to slowly devour.

Hive Zombies had an almost absolute advantage over ordinary zombies.

It was just that the previous Hive Zombies were too territorial, hoarding zombies and staying put to defend their territory after reaching their devouring limit.

Otherwise, Hive Zombies wouldn’t be limited to Wisconsin. They would likely have overrun all of America, perhaps even evolving an A-rank.

A Hive Zombie like Lin Jiayao, leaving its territory and roaming freely, was still a first.

The bone spur insects weren’t as fast as Huayibai, and they had to slow down from time to time to wait for the brain worms to “return to the nest.” It took Lin Jiayao almost an hour to travel sixty kilometers.

But this slow travel wasn’t a waste of time.

Over these sixty kilometers, Lin Jiayao had already “stored” one and a half tentacles’ worth of Blood Crystals.

Goldie’s original translucent golden tentacle, having reached its storage limit, had been severed by Lin Jiayao, ready to be placed in the Item Storage Box.

This single tentacle contained the equivalent of about thirty Blood Crystals. Once its outer layer was pierced, it would quickly precipitate into Blood Crystals.

When it came to harvesting low-level Blood Crystals, Goldie was still the most efficient of all her logged-in zombies.

Soon, after another half an hour, as they neared their destination, the golden tentacle on Goldie’s shoulder had fully regrown.

This meant that from this login, including what Goldie had stored before, Lin Jiayao could harvest over sixty Blood Crystals.

If she had enough time, harvesting from South America all the way to North America, she might actually be able to accumulate thousands of Blood Crystals to upgrade her golden Spirit, and even try to evolve Goldie to A-rank.

Of course, this was just wishful thinking. After all, there was another force plundering Blood Crystals on land, and their speed was no slower than Goldie’s.

If this continued, Goldie and the seabed zombies were bound to clash.

A massive swarm of insects, like a shimmering, colorful cloak, followed behind Lin Jiayao, incredibly conspicuous in the night.

But Lin Jiayao didn’t intend to hide. Goldie didn’t have any evolutions for concealing the swarm, so they could only travel like this, in full view.

Fortunately, the sheer number of insects made Goldie, hidden within the swarm, inconspicuous, easily overlooked.

This was also a form of protection for her main body.

Chicago was just ahead…

Chicago, territory of the Headshavers, and the city with the highest blood crystal concentration in the surrounding states.

It was filled with mind-controlled members, led by a group of deserving-to-die Awakened… This situation was perfect for Goldie.

She could plunder without restraint.

Even if she ran into trouble she couldn’t handle, she could still reach the Extraction Point under the cover of the flying insects and let the system deal with the aftermath.

Lin Jiayao got the Blood Crystals, America got peace, the villains got eternal sleep, Goldie got combat experience, and a world without casualties was born.

Perfect.

What about the system? Did the system count as a person?

It was the system’s own fault for placing the Extraction Point so close to danger.

Meanwhile, at the Chicago Naval Pier, alarms blared and radios crackled, the entire pier on high alert.

In the command center of the naval base, a bald man in a large hood stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, listening to the commotion from the walkie-talkie, his eyes on the strangely glowing sky in the distance.

“Hurry! Hurry! Bring out all the missiles in storage!”

“Buzz…”

“Commander Yuri! That thing is approaching! Orders!”

“Buzz…”

Even without the warning from the walkie-talkie, Yuri could see the abnormal flickering lights in the distance. Through his subordinates’ binoculars, he could even clearly discern that those points of light were flying insects.

He was certain they came from Wisconsin.

He had once led a team north, intending to take over the entire state of Wisconsin through Milwaukee.

But their team was stopped at the border.

Because in southern Wisconsin, there was a terrifying zombie controlling a massive swarm of flying insects, blocking their path north.

Yuri couldn’t even get close to the zombie, let alone mind control it.

After that disastrous northward expedition, Yuri had marked the northern route as a forbidden zone and hadn’t sent anyone there again.

For years, there had been peace, but now, how did that zombie cross hundreds of kilometers and come here?

But now, Yuri wasn’t afraid of that zombie like before.

Because this was his home turf. Rockets, tanks, and other destructive weapons were at his disposal, and everyone could perfectly control those weapons under his command.

There was no shortage of weapons in the apocalypse, only a shortage of people who knew how to use and maintain them.

After acquiring the memories of a few US military personnel, he gained the knowledge to control these weapons, and what he gained was equivalent to what the entire Headshavers gained.

This was the reason why he had the confidence to stay here. Even the Hand of Freedom couldn’t do anything to him.

He had also recently learned from the radio about the attack on the Hand of Freedom and was preparing to organize people to attack them together with the zombies.

If he succeeded, the entire America would be under his control, becoming his paradise, and he would use all the resources to further enhance himself…

If he could truly reach that unseen A-rank, the entire world would fall under his control—Yuri firmly believed this.

He slowly took off his large coat, removed his hood, and sat down in the huge, custom-made chair behind him.

He pulled out two tubes from the back of the chair and connected them directly to the holes reserved in the back of his head.

Then, Yuri pressed the button beside the chair, and with the roar of the machine, a large amount of Blood Crystal fragments were directly injected into his brain through the tubes behind him.

“Argh！！！！！！”

The immense pain made his eyes bloodshot, and the veins on his temples bulged, flashing with red blood.

And his consciousness also drifted. In the hazy blur, he slowly raised his right hand towards the floor-to-ceiling window in front of him.

“Whoosh—”

Several missiles, with tail flames, were launched by his subordinates under his mind control, dragging their tail flames in the night sky towards the colorful glow in the distance.

And on the ground, a man holding a huge alloy sword like a large steel plate raised his head with blood-red eyes.

His body emitted the thick blood crystal aura of a B-rank, and there was very little hair left on his head, only deep bone-deep scars.

But soon, the redness in his eyes slowly dissipated, and he regained his senses.

“You don’t need to control me… freak.”

He lifted the greatsword, rested it on his shoulder, let out a roar, and rushed towards the colorful glow in the distance.

“Boom, boom, boom—”

The missiles exploded in the colorful glow, creating a few gaps. Under the firelight, a large number of colored light spots fell and extinguished in mid-air.

The man carrying the steel plate greatsword quickly shuttled between the buildings, like a truck, crashing through all the friendly troops and vehicles along the way.

“Ha—!”

When he was only a few hundred meters away from the colorful glow, he directly raised the steel plate in his hand and blocked it in front of him.

“Ding, ding, ding, ding—”

Several sounds rang out, as if being hit by large-caliber sniper bullets, and he could even see visible dents on the huge steel plate in front of him.

Did the other party have guns?

“Whoosh—”

Before he could react, several golden lights had already bypassed the steel plate and directly blasted towards his head.

“Fuck!”

He quickly bent down and dodged, and at the same time, jumped back.

But the moment he jumped back, his pupils constricted slightly.

Those golden light spots did not hit the ground because of his retreat as he had thought, but continued to buzz above his head, changing their positions as he jumped back.

They were still hovering above his head.

Fast… too fast…

A chill instantly permeated his body, and his original fighting spirit was instantly extinguished by this chill.

He rolled backwards several times in horror, but still couldn’t shake off the terrifying buzzing.

Just as he raised his head, wanting to see what these terrifying golden light spots were, the moment he looked up, the light spots moved.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—”

The moment he looked up and saw the light spots, several golden light spots shot straight towards his eyeballs. In just an instant, his vision was enveloped by a golden light, and then completely darkened.

I’m going to die… I’m going to die!!!

“Ahhhhhhh—!”

He constantly felt something clinging to his body, and his whole body seemed to be experiencing the burning pain of being gnawed.

Just then, a sigh came from his mind.

“Sigh… I told you, the consciousness of one person is limited…”

“Yuri! Save…”

The moment he let go of his mental resistance, his shouts and trembling stopped.

As if he couldn’t feel the pain in his body, he slowly stood up, covered in insects, and walked towards the alloy steel plate.

“Clang—”

He pulled out the steel plate inserted into the road, lowered his waist and charged up, without even looking up, and directly threw the steel plate in his hand into the air with all his might.

“I see you.”

“Whoosh—”

The steel plate cut through the air with a huge whooshing sound, flying towards the sky like a cannonball, blasting away a large number of flying insects, and revealing the golden-haired little girl wrapped in weak flying insects inside.

“Clang, clang, clang—”
“Boom—”

Even though several golden flying insects flew up to block it in a short time, their size was too small to offset this huge force.

The steel pillar directly pierced the girl’s chest, creating a large hole in her chest.

“Did it work?”

Through the binoculars, Yuri saw all of this happen. Seeing the little girl in the air with a large hole in her chest, even her heart missing, and the large number of dimmed insects around her, Yuri slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

So it was an Awakened?

Then it was easy to deal with… With her heart destroyed, even a B-rank Awakened couldn’t last long. The massive blood loss would quickly make them brain-dead.

When a huge hole appeared in the girl’s chest, the entire swarm seemed to freeze, staying still for a second.

But soon, the dimmed swarm was rekindled.

“What?”

In Yuri’s multiple binocular views, the swarm began to rapidly contract, filling the hole in the girl’s chest and stopping the gushing blood.

And the girl also opened her eyes again and looked at the B-rank close-combat Awakened standing on the ground.

Damn it! Not human!

Yuri gritted his teeth and began to deploy rockets again.

At the same time, he also controlled the B-rank Awakened who was already covered in insects, preparing to burn his life to hold that zombie, so that the missiles could hit accurately and quickly end this battle.

Anyway, with two B-rank corpses, he could raise another obedient and controlled B-rank Awakened, so why not?

“Crack…”

A slight cracking sound of bones did not attract Yuri’s attention.

But soon, a mental pull made Yuri’s eyes widen.

What was going on?

Sam clearly had no mental resistance, so why did his control fail?

Was it that zombie?

He quickly looked at the small girl-shaped zombie in mid-air through his subordinate’s binoculars and found that it was staring at a certain direction.

This was…

The binoculars turned, looking at the end of the zombie’s line of sight.

It was the direction where he was.

He had also been “seen”.