Chapter 458 – Naming Really Is a Troublesome Thing

“…You should understand what I mean now, right? Phew! That was exhausting…”

After a strenuous explanation, Yu Shiran bent over, hands on her knees, and let out a long sigh.

The zombie loli glanced up at Ling Mo and snorted, “Stupid human… According to your human language, my explanation was full of emotion and vivid details! Only a dim-witted human like you would fail to grasp my subtle hints…”

“Smack!”

“What kind of subtlety involves exaggeration…? And next time you complain, remember not to speak all the bad things out loud. Calling me a stupid human, yet using human idioms yourself?”

The unfortunate zombie loli got another solid smack on the head and immediately yelped, “Ouch!”

It didn’t really hurt, but being repeatedly smacked on the head by a human made Yu Shiran feel her zombie dignity being severely trampled upon.

It’s like… lifting the lid to check if the sausage is cooked, only for the sausage to spring up and slap the chef on both cheeks…

“Damn prey! Cursed sausage human, just you wait…”

The zombie loli clenched her fists and gritted her silvery teeth, thinking.

Xia Na crossed her arms and interjected, “In zombie terms, her explanation was like ‘finally catching the prey, only to find most of its blood had already drained, and realizing the real delicacy was left behind during the chase.’ Something like that…”

“Zombie idioms are such a headache…”

Ling Mo shuddered and quickly turned his attention to the mutation panda to change the subject. “Since Black Silk said so…”

The massive National Treasure was still struggling with the invisible tentacles, but much like trying to untangle a ball of messy yarn, the more it swiped its claws, the more entangled it became.

If the zombies present could see the psychic tentacles, they would see that the National Treasure was already wrapped up like a mummy in a dense web of blood-red, semi-transparent tentacles.

“MeGu…”

The mutation panda’s patience quickly wore thin. It suddenly flailed its limbs forcefully before collapsing in exhaustion, panting heavily with its mouth wide open.

“Black Silk, are you really interested in this kind of creature?”

Ling Mo rubbed his temples and sighed.

He roughly understood Black Silk’s intentions, which could be summed up in four words: fatten it up first.

After all, it was a National Treasure… This mutation panda had immense potential for evolution.

Sensing ability, five senses, strength, speed, and size—in every aspect, the mutation panda’s evolution was quite balanced.

“Actually, there’s one flaw… This panda is not only very aggressive but also very… dumb!”

Despite his words, compared to those mutation beasts that acted almost purely on instinct, this National Treasure was already considered quite intelligent.

If other mutation beasts had an IQ of 5, then it at least had an IQ of 9…

What Black Silk meant by “fatten it up first” was actually treating this balanced mutation panda as a container, feeding it continuously to evolve it to a certain level…

Extracting its viral hive now wouldn’t be very useful to Black Silk. But simply letting it go wasn’t Ling Mo’s style either.

“Although it’s a bit troublesome… but…”

Ling Mo frowned and glanced at the mutation panda.

The latter returned his gaze with a look of resignation, even spreading its limbs wide and puffing up its belly, exuding an air of “do what you want, just get it over with.”

“It’s just a panda, but it does have quite the personality… If I keep feeding it zombie virus gel, would it actually turn into a Kung Fu Panda?”

As Ling Mo pondered, he drew out a psychic tentacle and aimed it at the mutation panda’s psychic light cluster.

At first, the mutation panda stared at him with a calm expression, but the moment the psychic tentacle penetrated its body, it suddenly started struggling violently.

“MeGu!”

The mutation panda rolled several times, its eyes wide open. Its thick neck even lifted for about a second…

“Thud!”

It fell back to the ground, its big head hitting the floor, tongue hanging from the corner of its mouth.

With Black Silk’s silver threads aiding and Ling Mo’s psychic power now much stronger, the task was more manageable.

Though it felt like stuffing too much into his head, causing his temples to throb, it was still within Ling Mo’s tolerance.

Ye Lian and Xia Na gathered around. After waiting quietly for two minutes—

“Boom!”

The massive creature finally got up, shook its head vigorously, and fixed its blood-red eyes on Ling Mo, slowly moving toward him.

“What do you want!”

Xia Na frowned and shouted.

Ye Lian reached out as if to grab it…

“It’s okay.”

Ling Mo calmly watched the mutation panda approach, its breath coming out in white puffs as it licked its lips and moved closer.

Just as it was about to bump its head into Ling Mo’s face, the panda suddenly lowered its head, gently touching Ling Mo with its furry forehead: “MeGu.”

The psychic connection was successful, and the mutation panda’s instinctive resistance was weak!

Even on all fours, the mutation panda was over a person’s height.

Ling Mo walked around it, satisfied, and patted its solid, massive body: “With this panda’s speed and strength, it could carry all of us no problem… Using you just as a container seems too unfair. Let’s give you another task… How about being our BMW?”

“MeGu…”

The mutation panda seemed to enjoy the pats, twisting its thick neck and making a soft sound.

“Looks like you’re happy with that… Very good. Since you’ll be with us for a while, you need a name…”

Ling Mo thought for a moment, rubbing his chin: “BMW… How about ‘Don’t Touch Me1’?”

“‘Don’t Touch Me,’ come here…” Xia Na said expressionlessly.

“Got it… that’s a pass.”

Ling Mo waved his hand awkwardly, then thoughtfully stared at the panda for a while before turning to Black Silk: “How about calling it White Silk…?”

“Boom!”

Countless silver threads instantly burst from Yu Shiran’s neck…

“Alright… Let’s call it Xiao Bai.”

This name was unanimously agreed upon. Although the mutation panda had changed from black and white to red and white, it was still very adept at being cute.

Soon, it was playing around with Ye Lian and the others. However… although Ye Lian and the others were laughing, watching the mutation National Treasure wave its paws and pounce around was more chilling and even terrifying than amusing…

“Are they really playing and not fighting each other… Haha, they shouldn’t be, given the psychic link…”

Ling Mo turned to look at the building but missed the scene unfolding behind him…

Yu Shiran was hanging off the mutation panda, prying its mouth open with her slender arms.

Ye Lian was already sitting on its back, smiling contentedly.

Xia Na stood behind the mutation panda, measuring a specific spot with her Scythe: “Is it male or female…?”

The mutation panda squinted its eyes, looking quite pitiful…

“Senior Sister and Lulu have been gone for a long time…”

Even if Senior Sister used the ‘come with me to the restroom’ method to stall, it shouldn’t take this long, right?

Ling Mo suddenly had a bad feeling…

When he arrived at the shelter, he found it eerily quiet, with only a rhythmic “tap tap tap” sound coming from deep within.

Following the psychic link, Ling Mo slowly approached Li Yalin’s location…

The Leader-Level female zombie was sitting on a step, tapping her fingers on the ground with a smile, looking quite pleased…

Ling Mo’s gaze slowly lowered to Li Yalin’s feet.

Lucy was lying motionless in front of her, seemingly unconscious…

“She actually knocked her out! They really did it for convenience!”

Footnote:

1. Don’t Touch Me(别摸我): BMW is humorously nicknamed “Don’t Touch Me” (别摸我, Bié mō wǒ) in China. This joke arises from the phonetic similarity between “Bǎomǎ,” the Chinese pronunciation of BMW, and “Bié mō wǒ,” which means “Don’t touch me” in Chinese. This is an example of a playful wordplay that reflects the unique sense of humor in Chinese culture.