Chapter 153 – Second Infection

By the time Ling Mo and his group reached the ground floor, the giant Mutation Snake had already started to slowly recover.

However, adhering to the principle of striking while the enemy is weak, Ling Mo, along with the three female Zombies, swiftly took it down for good.

Despite its desperate struggle in the face of death, Ling Mo had anticipated its moves. Using his Psychic Tentacle, he managed to completely control its movements.

Without the ability to move, the Mutation Snake was nothing more than a tough target. The three female Zombies attacked simultaneously, and Ling Mo thrust his Short Knife into the snake’s eye. The giant snake thrashed wildly a few times before it finally went limp.

Panting heavily, Ling Mo stood over the motionless snake corpse, taking deep breaths.

It seemed that the evolution of Mutation Beasts was quite extreme. This snake had a strong physique and lethal Venom, but its Intelligence was not very high.

As for its stealthy attack, that was probably instinctual. But why was it so interested in the viral Gel of its kind? Could it be that this is how it evolves?

Pondering this, Ling Mo took the Gel from Li Yalin and skillfully cut open the protrusion on the Mutation Snake’s head.

As expected, the Gel inside was larger in volume and looked very similar to the Gel found in human Zombies’ brains. However, Ling Mo didn’t dare to hastily give it to the three female Zombies. He decided to set it aside for the time being and experiment with a Zombie Puppet later.

After securing the Gel, Ling Mo turned to Li Yalin and said, “Senior Sister, you did well earlier.”

A hint of surprise flashed in Li Yalin’s eyes, and the blood-red hue in her eyes gradually faded. Her expression looked rather peculiar, perhaps realizing she couldn’t escape Ling Mo’s control.

Seeing Li Yalin remain silent, Ling Mo was indifferent. After all, she was now his true Zombie Puppet.

Ye Lian, on the other hand, glanced at Ling Mo with a look of anticipation. Ling Mo quickly pinched her cheek and praised, “Ye Lian did a great job too!”

Not wanting to show favoritism, Ling Mo immediately turned his gaze to Xia Na and said, “And you also did a good job…”

Xia Na snorted softly and let out a strange chuckle, “I don’t need any praise. I already know I did a great job!”

“You really are confident…” Ling Mo stared at her in amazement and then shook his head with a hint of helplessness.

Ye Lian squatted down and looked at the snake corpse, asking in confusion, “Is this… also a kind?”

A kind? How could it be the same kind with such a different appearance?

Although both were caused by the Zombie Virus, it was clear that the evolutionary path of these Mutation Snakes was entirely different from that of Zombies.

If they encountered other Mutation Beasts in the future, this hypothesis could be easily confirmed.

So Ling Mo quickly shook his head and said, “Absolutely not the same kind! They should be called Mutation Beasts.”

Xia Na agreed, saying, “Yeah… it can’t be considered the same kind. At least we can’t communicate with it. Besides, its blood smells different from ours.”

At that moment, Xia Na suddenly turned her gaze to Li Yalin and said, “Her blood has that smell too. Although it’s faint… hmph, impure blood!”

“Huh?” Ling Mo turned to look at Li Yalin. He trusted Xia Na’s sense of smell and believed that Ye Lian had probably also detected something, even though her ability to express it wasn’t as good as Xia Na’s.

Li Yalin’s eyes had the shadow of the Mutation Snake in them, but it wasn’t eerie; it had altered her overall demeanor.

The once-present arrogance seemed to have returned to her, and paired with her sharp features, she now had a cold aura that made her seem like she viewed all other creatures as prey.

But hearing Xia Na’s words, Li Yalin merely snorted, opened her mouth as if to speak, but ultimately said nothing.

Not good at expressing herself, huh… Ling Mo glanced at Xia Na, seeing her self-satisfied smile, he couldn’t help but feel a bit sympathetic toward Li Yalin.

Not only had she been teased by Xia Na when she was powerless to resist, but now she was also being mocked for her inability to communicate as smoothly…

“Alright, alright. Even if she’s been infected, her appearance hasn’t changed, and she’s one of us now, so let’s all get along peacefully,” Ling Mo said in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

As soon as Ling Mo finished speaking, Xia Na tugged at his sleeve. “Ling-Ge, are you going back on your word? I’m educating her! If you go back on it, Ye Lian and I won’t learn from you anymore!”

“Alright… consider it as if I said nothing,” Ling Mo quickly shook his head, recalling his own “teaching” plan.

He glanced at Li Yalin and thought to himself, Senior Sister, you’ve got it tough… The only useful thing from the giant snake corpse is this Virus Gel. Ling Mo did contemplate digging out the snake’s gallbladder too, but decided against it.

Who even knows if this thing’s gallbladder is still considered a gallbladder?!

In the latter half of the night, Ling Mo had the three female Zombies take turns on watch. Since they didn’t need sleep, it would be downright foolish for Ling Mo to ruin his head over some chivalrous nonsense.

Apart from one Zombie that wandered in from who knows where and gnawed on the remains for a while, nothing else happened.

However, after the Zombie turned its attention to the Mutation Snake, it showed faint signs of evolving.

Its changes were somewhat similar to Li Yalin’s, giving Ling Mo the impression that its eyes were becoming more cold and snake-like, as opposed to the purely frenzied look of a typical Zombie.

Ling Mo figured this Zombie was a perfect test subject delivered right to his door. Seizing the moment it lunged at him, he controlled it and gave it a small piece of the Virus Gel from the Mutation Snake to consume.

Although the Zombie ate the Gel, it would take time for any evolutionary changes to manifest. Therefore, Ling Mo had it follow behind them to guard against possible Mutation Beast attacks, while he and the three girls led the way, leaving the office building together.

In the cold morning breeze, the broad and eerily deserted long street felt particularly lonely. To avoid another ambush from the bushes, Ling Mo chose to walk in the middle of the main road.

Though this would attract some Zombies lurking in the corners and make them targets for the Zombies on the road, Ling Mo now had the strength to handle it.

The closer they got to Baihua District, the more desolate the surroundings became. For a long stretch of the road, they didn’t see a single shop.

There were mostly office buildings and some administrative offices here.

However, considering it’s a major provincial capital, even in a place like this, the road was cluttered with numerous abandoned cars, creating obstacles. Otherwise, Ling Mo would have preferred driving part of the way.

About half an hour later, the Zombie started showing signs of evolution. Perhaps because the amount of Gel consumed was small, he didn’t fall unconscious from the evolution; he just had minor convulsions. This indeed resembled Li Yalin’s reaction when she was affected by the Venom earlier. It seemed the Virus Gel from the Mutation Snake did contain some of that bizarre Venom.

It felt more like a mutation rather than an evolution, almost as if he had been infected a second time.

Ling Mo tried to Control him for some experiments and found that, while his appearance didn’t change, he seemed to have become faster. Moreover, if he remained still and held his breath, Ling Mo could almost believe he didn’t exist at all.

“An advantage in concealing his presence?”

Ling Mo couldn’t help but think of Li Yalin’s earlier behavior. She was already good at hiding, but after the second infection, this ability seemed to have been enhanced.

It appeared that sometimes getting ambushed might not be entirely bad. Although Li Yalin got bitten, she seemed to have gained some benefits from it, improving her abilities to some extent.

Whether this change was good or bad for her, and what would happen in the future, Ling Mo couldn’t tell for now.

But Ling Mo noticed that when he took out the Virus Gel from the Mutation Snake, Li Yalin seemed to show a hint of yearning.

On the other hand, Xia Na and Ye Lian appeared completely uninterested, indicating that Li Yalin’s reaction was likely due to her infection.

Since the situation was unclear, Ling Mo didn’t want to rashly give her the Gel. He decided to wait and see if the Zombie Puppet would show any abnormal reactions first.

Along the way, they didn’t encounter any more Mutation Beasts, and the few Zombies they came across didn’t pose any threat to the group.

Soon, they arrived near Jade Belt River, X City’s largest river.

A large bridge connected the central city with Baihua District, flanked by vast greenbelts and small gardens. From a distance, the environment looked excellent, but at this time, it only felt eerie.

Ling Mo thought that if there really was an Army around, using this river as a barrier and controlling the bridge as a choke point, they could establish a Survival Base in Baihua District.

But he also realized that would be an enormous project, requiring significant sacrifices and effort.

There was indeed a Military District near X City, but when the Virus outbreak hit the Army, it probably wasn’t much less chaotic than the city… They wouldn’t have been wiped out entirely, but organizing themselves and establishing a Base in an orderly and planned manner is not something that could be done in a short time.

Survivors like Lin Luanqiu, who stayed put and waited for rescue, might not hold out until that day… Of course, Ling Mo thought that even if they couldn’t hold out much longer, at least Lin Luanqiu herself would probably be okay.

However, from what he’d seen along the way, Ling Mo had started to somewhat agree with the decision made by Luo Heng’s group. For ordinary survivors, escaping the city temporarily and finding a relatively safe place to stay might not be a bad choice.

But this approach had its problems. First, large Survivor Teams couldn’t possibly sustain themselves in places without ready-to-use resources. Second, most Survivor Teams probably didn’t have the ability or the courage to safely leave the city.

“Baihua District looks quite suitable for survivors… not too crowded, spacious environment…”

Ling Mo gazed at the distant bridge and remarked.

At this point, Xia Na’s expression finally showed a hint of recognition: “I’m starting to remember this place.”

“Good, if you didn’t remember, we’d be like blind men feeling our way. Senior Sister Li is completely lost.” Ling Mo glanced at Li Yalin and said with a smile.

During the journey, Senior Sister Li Yalin had, more than once, been on the verge of pulling her hair out trying to remember…