Chapter 283: Seeking Shelter
Lin Jiayao, controlling Goldie, slowly descended and landed before Sharma.
Lin Jiayao recognized the yellow-haired, haggard woman before her.
It was the woman from India she had sold Blood Crystal Serum to before, a B-rank Awakened.
She had thought the woman would have perished in the super infection, but unexpectedly, she had escaped, even bringing a group of survivors with her.
And coincidentally, they were blocking the flesh worms’ transport route.
Lin Jiayao had programmed the flesh worms not to actively attack humans who didn’t attack them, and to strictly follow the roads, taking detours if they encountered survivors. This was to prevent the infection from spreading to the areas around China.
But Lin Jiayao hadn’t anticipated that the flesh worms would encounter this resting convoy on a road with no detours.
It seemed they were preparing to make way. It appeared this woman named Sharma was quite perceptive. Otherwise, instead of a group of survivors, Lin Jiayao might have encountered a group of super-infected.
“Excuse me.” Lin Jiayao switched to Hindi, nodded towards Sharma, then walked around her and towards the flesh worms.
For the next leg of the journey, she could directly transport the Blood Crystals to the China-Myanmar border and hand them over to the team coming from Kun City. Flying was much faster than these flesh worms crawling on the ground.
As for how to transport these Blood Crystals stained with purple blood, Lin Jiayao also had a solution.
Goldie’s evolved Insulated Rubber Skin.
This skin was originally intended to encase and protect the giant eyeball after evolution.
But because Lin Jiayao’s DNA had been mixed in during the evolution, the eyeball form was gone, and naturally, there was no longer any need for the rubber skin’s protection.
This rubber skin could be used as large, transparent bags to store the Blood Crystals, which could then be sterilized with fire.
As Lin Jiayao was thinking about these details and walking towards the flesh worms, Sharma called out to her.
“You… hello… is that you?” Sharma asked tentatively, mustering her courage.
This woman, who looked like a foreigner, spoke Hindi, possessed immense power, and was also the one controlling these flesh worms…
Most importantly, she had just politely said “excuse me.”
All of this, combined with the fact that her Hindi was even more fluent than a native speaker’s, made it hard not to think of the mysterious person who had controlled a zombie to sell her Blood Stone Liquid before.
So that mysterious person… was a young woman? And such a beautiful one…
Of course, the other party’s beauty wasn’t the main reason Sharma decided to speak.
The main reason was that she wanted to seek their protection.
Sharma was practically out of resources. The convoy’s supplies were dwindling. Encountering a couple of zombie hordes, or an unfriendly survivor camp, could mean the end for them.
Facing a horde was one thing, but an unfriendly survivor camp was far more dangerous… After all, besides Sharma and the two young Awakened girls, the rest were ordinary women, most of whom couldn’t even use a gun.
Before, Sharma, with her absolute strength, could protect them, but now, having lost that strength, she couldn’t guarantee their safety.
So, she decided to see if she could seek protection from this group.
After all, they seemed to belong to a powerful organization.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to transport such a large amount of blood stones, and they wouldn’t be able to produce so much Blood Stone Liquid, clearly mass-produced with identical packaging.
And she seemed quite friendly. Most importantly, she was also a woman.
Generally speaking, with a female leader, she and her group of ordinary women wouldn’t face unfair treatment or oppression in the camp.
“Yes?” Lin Jiayao turned around, looking at Sharma. She had already guessed what the woman wanted.
She could see that Sharma was at her limit, and the entire convoy didn’t even have enough people for a single combat squad.
A single horde could wipe them out.
Sharma speaking to her now probably meant she wanted to join them, to seek protection.
Lin Jiayao didn’t mind having another B-rank in the camp, and the language barrier was easily solved.
With her Worm’s Eye, she could send them for a few hours of language lessons, and they would come out speaking fluent Chinese.
Lin Jiayao stopped, turned around, and quietly waited for Sharma to speak.
“Is that you? The one who sold me the Blood Stone Liquid before?” Sharma asked tentatively, swallowing hard.
“Yes,” Lin Jiayao nodded.
The other party likely mistook Goldie for a powerful Awakened. Lin Jiayao didn’t bother correcting her.
“Can… can I join your organization?” Sharma asked hesitantly.
Knowing the other party preferred directness, she didn’t beat around the bush.
Then, as if afraid of being rejected, Sharma quickly added, “I don’t need any payment. I can work for you. You and your organization just need to ensure their safety…”
Sharma gestured towards the group of people behind her.
Lin Jiayao looked at Sharma and mentally calculated the distance from here to Ruili City.
Although the straight-line distance was only six hundred kilometers, traveling by road, they couldn’t just go in a straight line like her.
Even if they took the highway the entire way, the total distance would exceed thirteen hundred kilometers. At their current speed, even driving at a hundred kilometers per hour without rest, they wouldn’t be able to reach Ruili before the Kun City convoy left.
Taking them along was impossible, and judging by their appearance, their supplies were probably also running low…
Lin Jiayao formulated a plan.
“Go directly to Mandalay in Myanmar. You’ll have to pass through there anyway. Rest and resupply at the Mandalay Palace camp, then drive to Kun City in China… You have a map, right?” Lin Jiayao quickly gave them the route and even the resupply point.
Mandalay was where the organization Lin Jiayao had encountered before was located. Since they couldn’t take all the supplies when they extracted, it would be perfect for Sharma’s convoy to resupply there.
And the highways within Myanmar, at least the ones leading to Ruili City, had been cleared by Lin Jiayao. They wouldn’t encounter any danger.
But after Lin Jiayao finished speaking, Sharma was stunned again.
She seemed to still be in disbelief that the other party had agreed, and asked dazedly, “You… you agree?”
“Yes, give me the map, I’ll mark the route for you.” Lin Jiayao nodded.
Any Awakened left outside would eventually consume their Blood Crystals in battles, and then they would have to kill zombies to replenish them… Those were all Lin Jiayao’s Blood Crystals.
If possible, it would be best to gather all the Awakened in the world in Kun City, let them peacefully farm, and stop them from wasting her Blood Crystals fighting.
After hearing Lin Jiayao’s words, Sharma finally reacted.
She quickly nodded, then turned and opened the passenger door of her vehicle, took out the map, and spread it before Lin Jiayao.
Lin Jiayao, following the system map’s location, pointed to the location of the palace camp and then to Kun City, marking out a route for Sharma.
“There are no zombies on the road. We can discuss the details after you arrive, I have things to do.” After saying this, Lin Jiayao turned and walked towards the flesh worms.
Under Goldie’s pheromone control, the flesh worms’ abdomens split open, and a large amount of Blood Crystals spilled onto the ground.
Then, the flesh worms, having emptied their cargo, resealed their bodies and crawled back the way they came.
And Lin Jiayao’s flying insects lined up, flew to Lin Jiayao, coated themselves with a layer of Insulated Rubber Skin, picked up the Blood Crystals with their legs, and took to the air.
After collecting all the Blood Crystals, Lin Jiayao also vibrated her wings, flew out of the forest, and disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Lin Jiayao had shown them a clear path. Those willing to trust her would come; those unwilling, she wouldn’t force.
If things went well, they should be able to reach Kun City within three days, after all, there were no more zombie threats along the way.
Now, she was leading the insect swarm, carrying a large amount of Blood Crystals, and flying towards Ruili City. She had wasted a lot of time looking for the blood worms just now, and now Lin Jiayao just wanted to transport the Blood Crystals over as quickly as possible.
Now Lin Jiayao was carrying three hundred and forty-one Blood Crystals in the air. Although this amount was still not enough to upgrade the Control Center, it was a big step towards her goal.
Next, besides waiting for the blood worms to transport the remaining Blood Crystals, Lin Jiayao could also log into Goldie and think about how to cooperate with Huayibai to collect all the Blood Crystals in America.
During the flight, Lin Jiayao also saw a convoy of military trucks, probably the convoy that had already departed from Myanmar. They should arrive in Ruili City in about half an hour.
After about another ten minutes, Lin Jiayao, carrying the Blood Crystals, appeared above the Ruili River and saw the Black Stem Fungus, already six or seven meters tall, and the three giant egg sacs on its top, on the surface of the Ruili River.
The part emerging from the river was already six or seven meters tall, so the body in the river must be more than ten meters long. It seemed that the food in the river was quite good.
Lin Jiayao, controlling Goldie, landed by the river with the Blood Crystals.
At the same time, she also controlled her mycelium clone to come to the riverside and met Goldie.
This could be considered the first time Lin Jiayao had seen Goldie – although it was just a descended body.
Lin Jiayao had also seen A4’s descended body before.
It had to be said that if the body she had been controlling appeared in front of her own body, it would indeed feel a bit strange, as if two originally parallel lines had intersected.
After handing over the Blood Crystals to the mycelium clone, the descended Goldie had completed her mission this time.
But Lin Jiayao didn’t immediately log Goldie out. Since she wasn’t planning to log in immediately, she would let Goldie hang around for a while, maybe she could help with something.
At this time, Lin Jiayao, controlling her mycelium clone, walked towards the Black Stem Fungus and said something to it.
Soon, the Black Stem Fungus shook its branches, lowered its head, and began to gestate something.
Lin Jiayao wanted the Black Stem Fungus to create a low-cost clone that could transport and clean Blood Crystals, and was also easy to destroy, without much combat power.
Even if it was accidentally infected during the cleaning process, it wouldn’t be a big threat.
Soon, the first batch of tool gene bodies bred by the Black Stem Fungus fell from the cracked, yolk-yellow egg sacs, fell into the river, and then slowly climbed up along the embankment.
They were heads with only a little muscle attached. To save Blood Crystals, the heads only had a hole in the middle, and two legs extended from the jaw and the back of the head for movement.
And on both sides of their temples, two hand bones like baby arms, with only a small amount of flesh and skin attached, extended out, seemingly for grabbing Blood Crystals.
These Head Spider scattered, began to collect flammable things and piled them up in the center, and one of the Head Spiders found a lighter.
Soon, these Head Spiders started a bonfire.
Lin Jiayao, watching the whole process, felt more and more that these Head Spiders looked very much like the initial Mask and the fusion monsters created by the Worm Ancestor later.
Although the details were different, they were all equally abstract.
After the bonfire was lit, the Head Spiders began to pick up the Blood Crystals one by one and throw them into the fire, adding firewood and Blood Crystals at the same time, and soon all the Blood Crystals were thrown in.
During this process, quite a few Head Spiders were accidentally stained with purple blood, and their bodies began to rapidly mutate.
But before the purple blood spread, those infected Head Spiders frantically ran towards the bonfire and jumped into the fire, burning themselves to death.
Those that were further away from the bonfire directly decomposed, leaving only a pool of pus and blood on the spot.
It seemed that the Black Stem Fungus could deal with the black blood very well itself, without even needing Goldie, who was on standby, to help.
This made Lin Jiayao feel more at ease letting the Black Stem Fungus stay here by itself.
While watching the bonfire burn, Lin Jiayao suddenly raised her eyelids and looked in a certain direction.
Just now, in Goldie’s vision, a flying insect had spotted a convoy heading here.
It seemed that the people from Kun City had arrived.
Yao, get PR team ready