Chapter 202 - 200: When You Gaze into the Abyss, Part 2

Chapter 202: Chapter 200: When You Gaze into the Abyss, Part 2

A gruesome scar, like a thick, savage centipede, snaked from the top right of her forehead, across half her face, and down into the scarf around her neck.

The eye the scar bisected had turned a ghastly white, like a hard-boiled egg. Her other, unblemished eye was shot through with blood, its dark blue iris streaked with reddish-brown.

Her gaze was numb and vacant, devoid of any human rationality.

Her small mouth was clamped down on her "prey," her teeth grinding back and forth across Lin Fan’s four fingers.

She showed no sign of letting go.

He could still feel a bit of warmth where she was biting his right hand.

’Her Life Value is still yellow, just flashing red occasionally...’

The lightning had done a number on her, but her body was mostly intact. Her limbs were all there, and her clothes showed no signs of being torn or bitten. Faint wisps of smoke were still rising from her shoulder.

’Looks like she really did call down that lightning on purpose. I just don’t know how someone so small survived it...’

She hadn’t fully turned, and Lin Fan breathed a sigh of relief.

He’d been terrified he would pull a half-eaten zombie missing limbs from that crevice. Though he’d never seen an Awakened One get infected, who knew if they turned into zombies when they died?

PAP, PAP, PAP—

"Hey, wake up!"

He reached out with his free left hand and gently patted her cheek, afraid that if he used too much force, he might just kill her.

But she didn’t react at all. Her Life Value wasn’t dropping either, as if it had stabilized in some bizarre state.

’I wonder what kind of skill this is. Did she get too into character simulating a zombie?’

Slapping wasn’t going to wake her.

Lin Fan lowered his right hand, the one holding the "fish," letting her feet touch the ground. With a flick of his left wrist, a syringe materialized in his hand, and he pressed it precisely against the exposed side of her neck.

"TSSS—"

A soft hiss.

Once used, the syringe became a mundane item and couldn’t be returned to his backpack. Lin Fan casually tossed it onto the rooftop beside him.

Next, he took out a round crystal and placed it on the palm of his still-exposed right hand.

The girl on the hook seemed to sense something. Her nose twitched, and her teeth stopped grinding, slowly releasing their grip.

Lin Fan seized the opportunity to yank his hand back, finally freeing his right arm.

He supported her back with his left hand and stuffed the crystal into her mouth. Treatment complete.

An intermediate potion plus a crystal—there wasn’t an Awakened One he couldn’t save.

It had worked for Wang Zhong, and it would work for Ye Qingniao.

[1/400]

The potion took effect. After just a few seconds, Ye Qingniao’s Life Value hadn’t changed, but her Energy Value was the first to recover, gaining a single point.

But a moment later, that point vanished, returning to [0/400]. As that point of energy disappeared, however, her Life Value began to stabilize.

The flashing between red and yellow slowed. With each point of Energy Value that appeared and then vanished, the periods where her Life Value remained yellow grew longer.

Lin Fan tentatively waved a hand in front of her mouth. Her jaw was clenched tight; she no longer tried to attack him.

Her eyes were open, but she was still in a daze, unresponsive to her surroundings. ’Maybe the lightning scrambled her brain.’

But Lin Fan was confident that with the constitution of an Awakened One, she could recover even if the lightning had fried her brain.

He let out a breath.

His actions had been swift, costing him only a minute. Thankfully, he was still on schedule.

’I’ll just treat her as if she’s unconscious...’

Lin Fan took off his jacket and draped it over Ye Qingniao. He then lifted her by one arm, swung her onto his back, and settled her there.

Finally, he took the jacket’s long sleeves, crossed them over his chest, and tied them in a tight knot, securing Ye Qingniao’s upper body firmly to his back.

After a moment’s thought, he pulled the gas mask Hu Chen had given him from his pocket. Reaching back with both hands, he fitted it over her head, which was lolling against the side of his neck.

It was mainly because he’d be running so fast. The wind would be too strong, and he was afraid she might choke on it.

It wasn’t because he was afraid she’d bite him.

’When I get back, I need to use a small interface module to craft some tools for my backpack slots,’ Lin Fan thought. ’Rope, sacks, old rags... things like that.’

He mused silently as he cupped his hands under Ye Qingniao’s legs. He equipped a strength crystal, pushed off with his feet, and leaped into the air, heading for the next rooftop.

He had no choice but to carry her this way. Without a secure hold, he was afraid the combination of his speed and the impact from his landings would jolt her to death.

But with Ye Qingniao unconscious, she couldn’t hold onto him herself. This meant both his hands were occupied, so he would have to avoid combat as much as possible.

’If Wang Zhong is as reliable as I think, he should be gone by now. That means I can only head back at full speed. I probably don’t have time to search for the other person...’

As Lin Fan sped away, the dilapidated building, already riddled with cracks, could no longer withstand the force of his takeoff. A corner gave way, and in the blink of an eye, the structure collapsed into a pile of rubble.

...

The constant jolting made Ye Qingniao feel like she was strapped to a kiddie ride hurtling down a roller coaster track at high speed.

Weightless, then crushed by gravity. Weightless, then crushed again...

If she hadn’t only eaten half a compressed biscuit that afternoon, she probably would have thrown up by now.

She only remembered that as soon as the peak of the zombie tide had passed, she had activated her ability. She’d adjusted the electric field in her body to mimic a zombie’s, allowing her to move along the edges of the horde, searching for a working car.

She’d enhanced the nerve sensitivity in her eyes to give herself a degree of night vision, but all she could see were zombies.

More zombies were constantly pouring in from the residential complexes and alleyways on both sides of the road. Even the number of tall, grotesque Mutated Zombies had increased significantly.

Some of them seemed far more perceptive than ordinary zombies. They could faintly sense her presence and began to push through the horde, tracking her down.

This forced her to be more cautious. She had no choice but to intensify the adjustment of her bioelectric field, to make herself even more "like" a zombie.

She had never used this method to get close to a Mutated Zombie before, but now she was being forced into it.

But this time, as the "mask" she wore grew tighter and heavier, the signal beneath her skin slowly ceased to be a "simulation."

The sounds of the world grew clearer, grander, yet they were filled with countless discordant noises, as if she were "resonating" with the surrounding zombies.

A primal hunger and impulse that didn’t feel like her own began to surge up from the depths of her spine, trying to overwhelm her mind.

The ability she had willingly activated suddenly became a corrupting force. In that instant, she lost control of the feeling of "becoming" a zombie.

It was like falling into a boiling bog.

That inhuman instinct was like a thousand burning hands, grabbing her limbs, fanatically dragging her, bit by bit, into a scorching darkness.

While she still had a sliver of control over her body, she managed to slip into a pile of ruins by the roadside.

She activated her ability, desperately trying to hold onto her sanity.

But the corruption clung to her tenaciously. No matter how she tried to adjust her internal electric field, it was useless.

Her body was out of her control. Lying there in that dark crevice, she fought against the transformation, but she could feel herself being unavoidably dragged into the abyss...

...

"...Is this what it feels like?"

Ye Qingniao murmured to herself.

"When a person turns into a zombie, does their soul stay trapped inside the body...?"

She mobilized the last bit of energy in her body, slowly channeling it into her eyes. She discovered that one eye was completely numb. Even when she poured energy into the nerves of the other, she couldn’t see a thing.

She felt as if a tight bag had been pulled over her head, pressing down on her mouth and nose and cutting her off from the world. Her arms and legs were bound, and she couldn’t move an inch.

It was like being wrapped in something cold, damp, and slick; like being caught in a violent storm with her eyes squeezed shut.

Dizziness, a tightness in her chest, blurred vision, and the inability to breathe.

She could feel her body moving at high speed, but it was no longer under her control.

Running, leaping, and landing with a heavy thud, over and over...

She was bound tightly within this rampaging shell, unable and powerless to break free.

’So this is what happens when I die... I become a powerful Mutated Zombie...’

she thought numbly,

’I hope... I don’t cause them too much trouble...’