Chapter 548 – The Broken Doll

“Coo-coo!”

Suddenly, the chirping of insects broke the silence that had blanketed the night, emanating from the grass by the roadside.

The small town near the Falcon’s Second Base was now unrecognizable.

As far as the eye could see, the entire town had turned into ruins.

The wreckage of a helicopter lay askew in the debris of a building, still faintly smoking.

From the cabin, a hand hung limply, covered in dust and blood.

Crack!

Suddenly, a light sound was heard, and the hand moved slightly.

A cold wind blew, lifting a cloud of dust and making the eerie scene under the moonlight even more hazy…

The hand moved twice more and then abruptly swung upwards.

The entire helicopter was flipped over with a loud crash. Amid the flying dust and debris, a staggering figure slowly stood up.

The figure wobbled in the gray mist, and then suddenly, countless threads shot out from this figure, radiating from the center.

Under the moonlight, these threads appeared vividly blood-red, like congealed blood.

As the dust settled, the face of the figure became clear.

Bright eyes, blood-red pupils, long hair, dirty clothes, and from her wrists extended numerous red spider silks, gently waving…

“Ugh…”

She slightly parted her lips, letting out a soft groan as she pulled her leg free.

The leg was almost completely deformed and covered in wounds.

But as the spider silk wrapped around it, a continuous series of “crack” sounds of bones snapping back into place could be heard.

One could imagine the excruciating pain, but there was no expression on the Spider Queen’s face.

After the spider silk retracted, her leg had returned to its normal shape.

However, it was only the appearance that had recovered; the bones would take much longer to heal.

But the open wounds on her body had clearly stopped bleeding and were even visibly closing up.

This broken, blood-stained porcelain doll was rapidly repairing itself.

Behind her, in addition to the flipped helicopter, was an entire street that had been completely destroyed.

“Humans…”

The Spider Queen staggered out of the wreckage, her arms hanging limply and awkwardly by her sides. Her injured leg was still unusable, but her tentacles helped her maintain balance, preventing her from collapsing.

Her eyes gazed in the direction of the Falcon Second Camp. After taking a deep breath, she slowly turned towards the direction of X City.

“It must have been that human, right?” The Spider Queen’s intelligence was evidently quite high. During her self-talk, she had already pieced together most of what had happened.

From the traces at the scene, it was evident that the Spider Queen had gone through a particularly brutal battle.

But she wasn’t dead…

Moreover, given her current intelligence, it was easy for her to deduce the reason for the sudden attack.

However, even if those flying metal creatures hadn’t attacked her, the Spider Queen wouldn’t have been able to suppress her instinct to attack.

As her memory returned, the Spider Queen’s impression of Ling Mo began to grow more profound.

She knew she had to find this man no matter what…

“Reproduction… Nutrient…” The Spider Queen muttered these words under her breath.

She moved slowly through the ruins, her tentacles swiftly and precisely rummaging through the debris below.

To restore her body, she needed to eat.

“Roar…”

After a large pile of bricks was overturned, half a zombie emerged from beneath.

It was only half because this zombie only had its upper body remaining.

Seeing daylight again, the zombie immediately began to growl and, like an insect, used its hands to drag its bloodied torso swiftly towards the Spider Queen.

“Ugh…” The Spider Queen stared at it for a moment before suddenly shooting out a tentacle, which accurately penetrated the zombie’s mouth.

“Gulu gulu…”

Inside the tentacle, a liquid seemed to flow and was injected into the zombie’s mouth.

The zombie’s body began to convulse violently, its head shaking vigorously as if electrified. Its already gruesome face became completely contorted.

Simultaneously, its skin started to bulge abnormally, and its abdomen began to shrink rapidly…

Under the moonlight, a half-zombie and what appeared to be a delicate female figure stood in silent confrontation, one tall and one short.

Minutes later, the female figure remained in the same posture, while the half-zombie deflated like a punctured balloon, shrinking bit by bit…

Finally, the half-zombie’s raised arm, now just a layer of skin over bones, dropped down with a “plop.”

“Still not enough…”

The Spider Queen swayed slightly, looking at a rapidly healing wound.

She had hundreds of such wounds on her body, and there was even a nearly fatal gash hidden under her clothes.

“Humans… are not obedient prey.”

The Spider Queen looked up at the moonlight and said, “To succeed, I must think like a human, evolve like a human. Round iron bullets, highly penetrating ammunition, those flying insects in the sky… Continue to evolve, recover quickly.”

At the same time, one of her tentacles reached forward but pressed onto a loose piece of debris.

“Thud!”

As the debris fell, the Spider Queen also toppled over, her voice echoing in the night without any emotional fluctuation or intonation: “Oh no, I fell.”

“Bang!”

Simultaneously, a figure was also being knocked down in an alley.

Watching the zombie convulsing on the ground, Ling Mo folded his arms, frowning with a startled expression.

This unfortunate zombie was Ling Mo’s experimental subject, and the bait was merely a piece of viral hive clutched in Ling Mo’s hand.

As the zombie lunged forward, Ling Mo instantly controlled it, turning it into an obedient Zombie Puppet.

With the help of Black Silk and Yu Shiran, Ling Mo successfully managed to extract virus gel and the viral hive from an advanced zombie and an advanced variation zombie with minimal disturbance among the horde.

As Ling Mo had previously anticipated, these two samples showed noticeable color changes.

The viral hive had turned a shade closer to pink, while the gel, though just slightly pink, was still quite evident.

This essentially confirmed that the collective evolution process of the zombie horde, which had been accumulating over nearly half a month of Ling Mo’s busy work, had finally achieved a qualitative leap.

The virus gel and mother hive had both changed color, and the number of variation zombies had clearly started to increase.

Even ordinary zombies were showing some changes, seemingly merging with certain traits of the variation zombies.

At this rate, would all zombies develop special abilities?

However, what shocked Ling Mo the most was the experiment process…

After this Zombie Puppet swallowed a piece of virus gel from an Advanced Zombie, it noticeably improved but didn’t show too many abnormalities.

But when it swallowed a piece of pink mother hive, this monster appeared to choke, clutching its throat and rolling on the ground violently.

Even its psychic fluctuations became intense, clearly trying to break free from Ling Mo’s control.

“Sigh… Even if it’s evolving, it shouldn’t react like this. The reaction is way too strong, isn’t it?” Ling Mo muttered.

Yu Shiran, standing guard at the alley entrance, couldn’t help but turn her head at the commotion: “Stupid human, what are you doing?”

“Stupid yourself! You dare call me that with your basic-level intelligence…” Ling Mo retorted, then continued, “The reaction of your kind is too intense. I don’t think this is just a sign of advancement…”

“Hmph, that’s why you’re a stupid human.” Yu Shiran smugly put her hands on her hips, her chest heaving slightly, and said, “It’s clearly evolving.”

“Really? Come here,” Ling Mo beckoned.

“Oh,” Yu Shiran nodded and walked up to Ling Mo.

Ling Mo raised his hand and flicked Yu Shiran’s forehead: “This is what stupid looks like.”

“Ouch!” Yu Shiran clutched her head and roared angrily, “Damn human, I’ll get you one day! I’ll get you, I’ll get you!”

“Uh-huh…”

“I’m serious! Look at me! Hey, don’t ignore me!”

“Shh…”

“Shh what!”