Chapter 58 – More Than Just Puppet Control

From a single combat perspective, Advanced Zombies are much stronger than Mutation Zombies. The most obvious difference is that Advanced Zombies have a basic level of consciousness.

Take Ye Lian, for example. Her level of Mutation Zombie can only be considered as the budding of consciousness.

But that zombie woman without underwear we just encountered clearly had a hint of true self-awareness. It might not be fully developed, but compared to zombies that act purely on instinct, it’s a qualitative leap.

One can imagine that if she had the chance to continue evolving, she would eventually become an extremely terrifying killing machine.

Lurking in this mall, she would have a sufficient food supply for a long period of time. Mutation Zombies would continuously emerge, becoming the nourishment for her evolution. However, the sudden appearance of Ling Mo and his group led to her demise.

This was the first time since mastering the Puppet Control Ability that Ling Mo had been injured by a zombie, and he had even come close to losing his life.

To say he wasn’t scared would be a lie. In fact, his heart was still pounding even after they had run quite a distance away.

“Too brutal… I didn’t expect there to be a monster stronger than Mutation Zombies already…”

Ling Mo’s face was a bit grim, but soon his mood calmed down.

It was clear that Advanced Zombies like her were rare. In this metropolis teeming with millions of zombies, there might be a few more like her.

But these zombies evolved slowly on their own, whereas Ling Mo could rely on his abilities to quickly enhance Ye Lian and Xia Na.

If one Advanced Zombie was this formidable, what would it be like if he had two of them?

Ling Mo even started to wonder what beings stronger than Advanced Zombies would be like…

“Instead of guessing, I should just cultivate the two strongest zombies myself!”

Ling Mo’s eyes suddenly burned with determination.

Xia Na had already said that she didn’t want to go back to the way things were, and Ye Lian likely felt the same.

Since they couldn’t return to human society, they needed to be strong enough to survive in this world. Otherwise, sooner or later, they would be targeted by other powerful zombies.

Today’s ambush on Xia Na served as a wake-up call for Ling Mo.

Moreover, the basic consciousness displayed by the Advanced Zombie indicated that zombie evolution indeed involved both physical and mental enhancements.

This didn’t go against his original wish!

Just thinking about roaming freely in this city turned into a sea of zombies, with the two strongest zombies by his side, was exhilarating…

“Hiss…” The sharp pain in his shoulder abruptly shattered Ling Mo’s beautiful fantasy. He grimaced, clutching his shoulder, and found a relatively quiet corner to sit down.

After taking off his shirt, Ling Mo couldn’t help but twitch at the sight. The Advanced Zombie’s strength was overwhelming, leaving five dark bruises on his shoulder and causing it to swell slightly.

The Apocalypse was indeed fraught with dangers. Even with his Superpower and two powerful Mutation Zombies by his side, he still faced the constant threat of death.

Anyone else might try to avoid danger, but Ling Mo couldn’t afford to.

While the fantasy was appealing, achieving it wasn’t easy. To enhance Ye Lian and Xia Na, they would need a substantial amount of Virus Gel…

On the other hand, this battle revealed his shortcomings. When facing opponents with strong Psychic Power like Advanced Zombies, his Puppet Control Ability was less effective, and close combat was his weak spot.

His current combat ability gave him an edge only against ordinary people and typical zombies. Against Advanced Zombies, he was utterly outmatched!

If this continued, he would become a burden to Ye Lian and Xia Na, relying on them for protection, which was something Ling Mo absolutely couldn’t accept.

Ling Mo could feel that his Puppet Control Ability had a lot of room for development. Today’s battle with the Advanced Zombie was a complete wake-up call.

Relying solely on controlling zombies wasn’t enough; he had to explore the full potential of his Puppet Control Ability! Besides controlling zombies, couldn’t he use this ability to significantly enhance his own combat power?

Of course, this exploration process wouldn’t be easy.

“What am I afraid of? Compared to those Survivors who have nothing, at least I have something to strive for and a better motivation than just surviving!”

Ling Mo inwardly scoffed at himself. Since he had the ability, he should fully capitalize on it as quickly as possible, no matter how difficult it might be!

After all, he was already luckier than ordinary people.

Ordinary Survivors, unless they joined camps like the one Wang Lin was part of and relied on collective strength for survival, had almost no other options. Those shameless enough could attach themselves to stronger individuals. There were always people willing to take in leeches, like Xia Na, who had turned into a Mutation Zombie but was once a simple-minded girl.

Most Survivors, in such a perilous environment, probably lost their life goals. Their only purpose for living was just to stay alive.

But Ling Mo was different. Because he had a more important goal, he had the motivation and courage to venture into such dangers, and a better reason to keep taking risks for improvement.

As he thought about this, he gritted his teeth, lifted his arm, and pressed on his shoulder, gasping in pain.

“Hiss… Fortunately, the bones aren’t hurt… Xia Na, give me a hand.”

Ling Mo pulled out a tube of ointment from his pocket. It was a pain-relief cream he had found when passing by a pharmacy.

Such an ordinary ointment, costing only ten bucks or so, had become a rare treasure now. After all, crawling through piles of corpses every day inevitably led to injuries. Small wounds could be ignored, but injuries to limbs could be deadly. For instance, Ling Mo could barely lift his arm now, let alone fight.

But when Ling Mo handed the ointment to Xia Na, he couldn’t help but smile wryly.

Probably because Xia Na had been ambushed by the Advanced Zombie earlier, then knocked away and endured a tough battle, her eyes were still blood-red. In her Mutation Zombie state, she could understand Ling Mo’s words, but asking her aggressive self to apply the ointment…

Seeing the murderous intent in Xia Na’s eyes as she stared at him with slightly twitching lips, Ling Mo swallowed hard and silently shifted his gaze to Ye Lian.

Though it was his control, at least it was Ye Lian’s own hands doing the work…

Under Ye Lian’s cool touch, even though the pain made Ling Mo’s entire body twitch, he managed to tough it out. By the time he put his shirt back on, a fine layer of cold sweat had formed on his forehead.

Even with the application of the ointment, it would probably take several days to heal completely. In the Apocalypse, having medicine to apply was already an extremely luxurious treatment; the rest would depend on his body’s healing and regenerative abilities.

If he were a zombie, an injury of this magnitude wouldn’t have any significant impact and would heal quickly…

For a Mutation Zombie like Xia Na, being knocked away hadn’t caused her any harm at all.

After catching his breath, Ling Mo pulled out a plastic bag and took the spoils of their battle from Ye Lian’s hand鈥”the Virus Gel from the Advanced Zombie.

Even through the plastic bag, the distinctiveness of this Virus Gel was evident. It was smaller than the Virus Gel found in the brains of typical Mutation Zombies, but it was almost completely blood-red, without a trace of impurity. Looking at it up close, it resembled a crystal-clear ruby. Despite his resentment towards the Advanced Zombie, Ling Mo had to admit that this Virus Gel was quite beautiful!

And the longer he looked at it, the harder it was to look away…

Who would ever guess that it came from a zombie’s brain?