As dusk approached, Ling Mo awoke in the small two-story building.
Upon opening his eyes, he was t with the unblinking gaze of three Female Zombies staring at him…
Ye Lian was the first to smile, albeit a bit dazedly, and said, “You’re… you’re awake?”
Xia Na waved a hand in front of Ling Mo’s face, asking, “Ling-Ge, are you alright?”
Ling Mo stared at them for a mont, then suddenly raised his hand to grasp Xia Na’s wrist. “I’m fine…” Using her support, he lifted his upper body and shook his head, which was still aching. “It’s just… a bit swollen.”
“Swollen?” Li Yalin was initially taken aback, then quickly waved her hands guiltily, “About that… it’s not just my fault, okay! They… and Shiran and Black Silk, they all got involved, so… um!”
Before she could finish, Xia Na had already lunged forward to cover her mouth…
“What did you all do while I was unconscious…”
Ling Mo muttered groggily as he stood up fully with Ye Lian’s help.
Whoosh!
As his pants suddenly fell, Ling Mo imdiately felt a cool breeze seemingly blowing in from the window… He was instantly wide awake.
“What did you do while I was out?! Wait… why is there ketchup sared on such an important area?! Who? Who did this?!”
Xia Na blinked, slowly releasing Li Yalin, and whispered, “Shiran…”
“Why did that little one get involved too?! Doesn’t she know this is the adult world? When she pulled my zipper, it was like opening the door to a new world!” Ling Mo shouted, preparing to catch his breath and continue, but suddenly paused. He then asked, “Is Black Silk back?”
“Yes… and Xiao Bai too…” Ye Lian replied, her gaze involuntarily drifting below Ling Mo’s waist…
“Where are they now?” Ling Mo hurriedly wiped himself a few tis, then pulled up his pants and asked, “Where are the others? And… how long was I unconscious?”
“Black Silk and Shiran went to Rosen Company, Skinny Monkey is still in the next room. He’s badly injured and hasn’t woken up yet, so it’ll be a while before we can ask him anything. As for Xiao Bai, it should be on guard nearby…” Xia Na said, glancing down at her watch. “You’ve been out for almost two hours…”
“Two hours?” Ling Mo’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Yeah… but don’t worry. The Progenitor has been killed by you, and over at Rosen Company, there are only so useless bugs left. Yuxuan and the others are ard, with Black Silk, Yu Shiran, and Host Xu assisting them, there shouldn’t be any issues. As for the warehouse location, Senior Sister has already inford them on your behalf. Relax. They’ll handle these matters well. It’s ti you let them take care of it…” Xia Na explained while watching Ling Mo’s actions with curiosity. He was anxiously rummaging through the backpack on the ground, his expression sowhat off.
“Oh, and about your Zombie Puppet… Black Silk has sniffed it out and found those two mother hives… probably.” Xia Na recalled the image that suddenly appeared in her mind, speaking with uncertainty.
Li Yalin tily pulled out a pouch, saying, “Speaking of mother hives… we found a lot of Gel too. Although most of it, we’re not sure if it’s edible… but it should be useful for research, right? Oh! We’ve also handed over the experintal supplies to that Old n. Yuxuan promised to bring so corpses from underground.”
“Corpses?” Ling Mo paused his search, murmuring as he looked up, “Corpses…”
“Yeah, live ones are hard to catch…”
“But Black Silk should have caught a live one, right? Too bad it wouldn’t be willing to hand it over…”
“Xia Na, that sounds pretty dangerous…”
“Isn’t pursuing danger what being a Zombie is all about!”
At that mont, Ling Mo suddenly stood up, saying, “That’s right, it’s the corpses!”
“Ling-Ge…” Lian looked at him with so confusion, calling out with concern.
Xia Na and Li Yalin also stopped their argunt, looking at Ling Mo’s reaction with surprise.
He quickly turned to the Three Girls, urgently asking, “After I killed that Progenitor, did you find anything in that building?”
“Find… just Black Silk and Skinny Monkey, I guess… Black Silk originally ca to find us, but unexpectedly, the first person it found following the scent was Skinny Monkey. He was thrown into a box, if it weren’t for Black Silk and Xiao Bai’s strong sense of sll, it would’ve been really hard to find him…” Xia Na said.
“Is that so? No… no, that’s not what I ant… did you find any other corpses?” Ling Mo asked again.
The Three Girls exchanged glances, then silently shook their heads. But just then, Xia Na suddenly exclaid, “Ah,” realizing, “Ling-Ge ans… the Progenitor’s corpse?”
“Exactly!” Ling Mo nodded.
Xia Na’s expression turned a bit strange, she shook her head, “No… haven’t seen it…”
“Maybe it doesn’t have a corpse?” Li Yalin speculated.
“That’s impossible!” Ling Mo stated confidently.
Xia Na also shook her head. Her figure flickered, and suddenly Nana appeared behind her shoulder. The “two” of them exchanged a glance and spoke in unison, “Just like us… even if it can separate its spiritual body from its physical form for a while, it can’t completely do without a body.”
“Exactly. Without a body, there’s no psychic light cluster, and the spiritual body loses its basic premise of existence. So…” Ling Mo’s expression grew darker, and his tone turned serious, “It’s still alive… that Progenitor, its body is still alive.”
“But… if it’s underground, where do we even start looking for it?” Li Yalin posed a question.
“I think… I know who it is…” Ling Mo bent down, pulling out a large flashlight from his backpack, and picked up a gun.
“Who is it…” the Three Girls asked simultaneously.
“The one lying on the humanoid egg, constantly spawning monsters, the ‘Progenitor,’ is actually the real Progenitor… But after seeing that little girl, I started doubting myself, almost thinking there might be two Progenitors, which is obviously impossible. So I never figured it out… until I confird the little girl was just a spiritual body, then it all made sense. The little girl and that monster suspected to be the Progenitor, when combined, are actually the true Progenitor…” Ling Mo said, then frowned again, “But I still don’t understand, if that’s the case, what’s the point of its experints? And it said it t a long ti ago, when was that? I don’t recall encountering such a monster…”
“A separated existence, huh…” Xia Na nodded thoughtfully, then asked, “So, after you killed the little girl, wouldn’t that be equivalent to erasing the Progenitor’s cognitive ability? If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be much of a threat anymore, right? Even though the Progenitor is gone, the number of monsters underground is still quite…”
“Wait!” Ling Mo suddenly interrupted Xia Na. In that instant, he felt he was close to the answer…
“Erasing… erasing…” Ling Mo repeated, finally pressing his head and exclaiming, “I’ve got it! I know! That’s what it wanted all along… it must be, that’s it…”
“What do you an?” Li Yalin asked, utterly confused. She glanced at Ye Lian and Xia Na, and the two Female Zombies shook their heads in bewildernt, indicating they didn’t understand either.
“The true experintal subject in all those experints was actually itself!” Ling Mo gradually cald down and explained to the curious Three Girls, “Think about it, when that spiritual body first separated, it was like a blank slate. It encountered the initial transford human, Butterfly, and only then began to understand humans… Eventually, it beca one of their mbers, and then personally destroyed these companions… This approach is exactly what it forced us to do. I don’t know where it learned this, but it clearly sees this as a way to learn about humans. Moreover, why is it so interested in my appearance? I even feel that the reason humans discovered us, or why this whole series of events happened, is because it sohow recognizes …”
“Recognizes you?” Xia Na and the Three Girls exchanged glances… It was clear they didn’t recall ever encountering such a Monster. But after a few seconds, Ye Lian timidly spoke up, “I… I think I might have an idea…”
“What?”
“Ye Lian has seen it?” The three turned to her in unison and asked.
Ye Lian shook her head, biting her nails as she said, “This… not… not necessarily that Ling-Ge has seen it… Maybe… when it was still a blank slate, it saw Ling-Ge… Considering it lives underground, Ling-Ge might not… might not have noticed…”
“That’s right…”
“Indeed, Ye Lian makes a good point,” Xia Na nodded in agreent, “Perhaps it didn’t originally live here? You know, the underground sewer runs through the entire city. Even if it’s not the sewer, there are subway lines and other underground structures… It could have seen Ling-Ge anywhere… As for why it is particularly interested in Ling-Ge, I think…”
“It’s because… of us.” Ye Lian spoke again, and as Ling Mo looked at her, she lowered her head and said softly, “It’s because of us… Zombies and humans being together, such a thing… any Monster would be interested in…”
“Yes…” Ling Mo said slowly. This speculation might be the closest to the truth, especially considering Ye Lian’s final words…
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