Chapter 548 – The Broken Doll
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“Chirp, chirp!”
A sudden chorus of insect songs erupted from the brushes beside the road, shattering the stillness of the night.
The small town near Falcon Second Camp had become unrecognizable.
Looking around, the entire town had been reduced to rubble.
The remains of a helicopter lay askew, embedded in the ruins of a building, still emitting a faint wisp of smoke.
From the c.o.c.kpit, a hand hung limply, its skin covered with dust and blood plasma.
Crack!
Suddenly, a soft sound was heard, and the hand twitched slightly.
As the cold wind blew, a whirl of dust arose, making the eerie scene under the moonlight even more blurred…
After shaking twice, the hand suddenly flung upward—
With a violent motion, the helicopter was flipped over, and amidst a thunderous crash, a shaky figure slowly rose from the scattered dust and debris.
This figure wavered in the haze for a moment, then abruptly, countless blood-red lines shot out from it, radiating through the dust.
Under the moonlight, these lines glowed with a sinister blood-red hue, like congealed blood.
As the dust settled, the face of the figure finally became clear.
Bright eyes with red pupils, long hair, dirty clothes, and from her wrists, countless red spider silk tentacles gently dancing…
“Ugh…”
She slightly opened her mouth, pulling her leg out with a m.u.f.fled groan.
The leg was almost completely deformed and covered with wounds.
But as the spider silk wrapped around it, the sound of cracking bones could be heard.
One could only imagine the intense pain, but the Spider Queen’s face remained expressionless.
After the spider silk was retracted, her leg seemed to return to normal.
However, the restoration was only in appearance. It would undoubtedly take a long time for the bones to heal properly.
But the open wounds on her body had already stopped bleeding and were visibly wriggling, healing at a visible rate.
This broken, blood-stained porcelain doll was rapidly repairing itself.
Behind her, in addition to the recently overturned helicopter, there was a completely destroyed street.
“Humans…”
The Spider Queen staggered out of the debris, her arms still dangling weakly and her injured leg unusable, but her tentacles helped her balance, preventing her from falling.
Her eyes turned towards Falcon Second Camp, taking a deep breath before slowly s.h.i.+fting towards the direction of City X.
“It was that human, wasn’t it?” The Spider Queen’s intelligence was clearly high, and during her monologue, she had already guessed much of what had happened.
The traces at the scene showed that the Spider Queen had endured a ferocious battle.
But she had not died…
And with her current level of intelligence, she could easily surmise the reason for this sudden attack.
Despite the fact that those flying metal contraptions did not attack her, the Spider Queen could not control the innate urge to launch an attack.
As her memories returned, her impression of Ling Mo began to grow more profound.
She knew she had to find this individual at all costs…
“Reproduce… Nutrients…” The Spider Queen muttered these two words to herself.
She moved slowly over the ruins, her tentacles swiftly and precisely rummaging beneath the debris.
To recover her body, she needed to feed.
“Roar…”
After a large pile of bricks was overturned, half a zombie unexpectedly emerged from beneath.
It was only half a zombie because it had only its upper body remaining.
Once exposed to daylight, the zombie immediately started howling and, like an insect, it used its arms to drag its mangled lower half rapidly towards the Spider Queen.
“Hmm…” The Spider Queen watched it for a moment before suddenly shooting out a tentacle, accurately inserting it into the zombie’s mouth.
“Gurgle, gurgle…”
Liquid appeared to be flowing through the tentacle and into the zombie’s mouth.
The body of the zombie began to convulse violently, its head shaking fiercely as if electrified, and its already grotesque face became completely distorted.
At the same time, its skin began to bulge unnaturally, and its abdomen started rapidly collapsing…
Under the moonlight, the half-zombie and a seemingly frail female figure stood in a tall-short silent confrontation.
Minutes later, the female figure remained in the same posture, while during this time, the half-zombie deflated like a balloon being emptied of air…
Eventually, the half-zombie’s arm, raised in the air as if only a layer of skin was left on a dry corpse, dropped down with a “plop.”
“Not enough yet…”
The Spider Queen swayed a bit, looking at a wound that was rapidly healing.
Such wounds numbered in the hundreds on her body, and even beneath the cover of her clothes, there was a nearly fatal, ma.s.sive wound.
“Humans… are not obedient prey.”
The Spider Queen looked up at the moonlight and said, “To succeed, one must think like humans, evolve like them. Round iron bullets, high-penetration bullets, those flies in the sky… Continue evolving, recover quickly.”
Meanwhile, one of her tentacles reached forward but pressed down on a piece of moving debris.
“Thud!”
As the piece of debris. .h.i.t the ground, the Spider Queen also toppled over; in the night, her voice came emotionless and flat: “Oh dear, I’ve fallen.”
…
“Bang!”
At the same time, a figure was also being knocked to the ground in a narrow alley.
Looking at the convulsing zombie on the ground, Ling Mo held his arm and frowned, a look of being startled on his face.
This unfortunate zombie was Ling Mo’s experimental subject, lured merely by a piece of the Virus Nest that Ling Mo held in his hand.
When it charged at him, it was instantly controlled by Ling Mo, becoming an obedient Zombie Puppet.
With the help of Black Silk and Yu s.h.i.+ran, Ling Mo successfully managed to obtain a piece of Virus Gel and a Virus Nest from a High-level Advanced Zombie and a high-level mutated zombie with minimal disturbance amidst the vast sea of zombies.
As Ling Mo had antic.i.p.ated, both the Virus Nest and the Virus Gel exhibited noticeable color changes. The Virus Nest was closer to pink, while the gel, though only slightly pinkish, was distinctly altered.
This essentially confirmed that during the nearly half-month period Ling Mo had been busy, the collective evolutionary process that had been acc.u.mulating within the zombie population had finally made a qualitative leap.
Both the Virus Gel and the Virus Nest had changed color, and the number of mutated zombies was clearly beginning to increase.
Even ordinary zombies were starting to show some changes, as if they were undergoing some fusion with the characteristics of mutated zombies.
At this rate, would all zombies eventually possess special abilities?
However, what shocked Ling Mo the most was the result of his experiment…
After the Zombie Puppet swallowed a piece of advanced zombie Virus Gel, it was clearly enhanced but did not show many abnormalities.
But when it swallowed a piece of the pink Virus Nest, the creature seemed to choke and started rolling on the ground, clutching its throat.
Even its mental fluctuations became intense, clearly trying to break free from Ling Mo’s control.
“Ah… evolution shouldn’t be like this, right? Isn’t the reaction a bit too strong?” Ling Mo muttered to himself.
Yu s.h.i.+ran stood at the entrance of the alley on guard, and when she heard the commotion, she couldn’t help but turn her head to look: “Stupid human, what are you doing?”
“Stupid your head, you dare to call me stupid with your low-level intelligence…” Ling Mo retorted reflexively, then continued, “The reaction of this fellow of yours is too strong, I don’t think it’s a sign of advanced evolution…”
“Hmph, that’s why I say… stupid human,” Yu s.h.i.+ran said proudly, hands on her hips, her chest heaving slightly, “It’s clearly about to evolve.”
“Is that so? Come here,” Ling Mo beckoned.
“Oh.” Yu s.h.i.+ran nodded and walked over to Ling Mo.
Ling Mo raised his hand and flicked Yu s.h.i.+ran on the forehead: “Now that’s what I call stupid.”
“Ouch!” Yu s.h.i.+ran held her head and roared, “d.a.m.ned human, I’ll fight you sooner or later! Let’s fight! Fight!”
“Mmm-hmm…”
“I’m serious, look at me! Hey, don’t ignore me, okay?”
“Shh…”
“Shh what? I’m not peeing!”