Chapter 37: Devouring the Virus, Crisis
The experiment officially began! Under Su Ning’s control, the Death Worm slowly crawled toward the zombie’s corpse.
Driven by its love for meat, it began to gnaw and feast on the zombie without hesitation.
Su Ning closed her eyes tightly, quickly adjusted her state, then focused all her attention on observing the changes in the Death Worm.
At first, the worm devoured rapidly, but over time, its movements gradually slowed. Then, a startling scene occurred — its body began to twist and writhe violently, as if it were in immense pain.
As it turned out, once it consumed flesh containing the zombie virus, the deadly virus erupted violently within it.
After a period of mutation, a new species appeared before Su Ning’s eyes.
[Corpse Worm]: Evolved from the original Death Worm after consuming virus-infected flesh. This new species shows significantly increased attack power and a much stronger hunger and obsession for flesh.
Compared to regular zombies, the Corpse Worm is far more terrifying.
However, its reproductive system was not affected by the virus. It can reproduce and parasitize at an alarming rate, eventually consuming the host entirely. In other words, any parasitized organism becomes a breeding ground for Corpse Worms.
Su Ning stared at the seemingly docile worm before her and gulped silently. She wondered what kind of havoc such a creature could wreak on the world if left unchecked.
“Luckily, I don’t have any plans to take over the world.”
Though the mutated worm was terrifying, one thing had been confirmed: even after mutation, a refined Death Worm infected by the zombie virus could still be controlled by Su Ning.
A glint of excitement and anticipation appeared in her eyes.
Next, she decided to tackle another crucial question — could her Scavenger Venom devour and suppress the zombie virus, allowing her to remain immune to it?
This experiment was critical. If her venom couldn’t resist the virus, she could be in danger. But if it could, she’d thrive in this apocalyptic world.
Carefully, Su Ning extracted another Death Worm from its container and placed it next to a freshly deceased zombie. As time passed, the worm began feeding and was gradually infected by the virus.
At the same time, Su Ning injected her Scavenger Venom into the worm.
She then concentrated on observing the worm’s reaction.
She noticed that the venom and the virus were fiercely battling for control, but the virus wasn’t fully overpowering the venom.
On the contrary, the venom appeared to be fighting back and attempting to devour the virus.
As time went on, a trace of joy surfaced in Su Ning’s expression.
She discovered that although the process was slow, her Scavenger Venom could indeed devour and suppress the zombie virus. This revelation thrilled her.
After a long while, the venom successfully absorbed and neutralized the virus.
“Excellent!”
Her venom now contained two toxins — the paralyzing toxin of the Emerald Bee and the highly lethal zombie virus. Su Ning couldn’t imagine the horror of using this virus to attack others.
“If I’ve absorbed the zombie virus, would zombies ignore me when I go outside?”
She didn’t try it right away. Instead, she considered using the Corpse Worms — their emergence sparked a new idea for completing the mission of “Killing 100,000 Zombies.”
Su Ning could command a Death Worm army to attack the zombie horde.
“With their powerful parasitic reproduction and hunger for flesh, this mission might actually be possible.”
But that was just speculation. Carrying it out would be full of challenges.
“If only there were a queen-like figure among the Death Worms. I wouldn’t have to micromanage everything. Just give orders to the queen, and the rest would follow.”
Isn’t Su Ning herself now acting like a Zerg Queen?
“I wonder if the Starfruit could help awaken a royal bloodline ability.”
Thinking of the Starfruit, Su Ning decided to try it. If a worm king really emerged, she wouldn’t need to manually control so many worms — she could just command the royal.
The same went for the Emerald Bee species — producing a queen bee was a great idea.
With these thoughts in mind, Su Ning got to work. But just as she was preparing, a burst of machine gun fire suddenly echoed outside.
Bang bang!
Su Ning immediately donned her night-vision goggles and looked in the direction of the gunfire.
She saw a group of people killing zombies.
There were five of them.
Su Ning observed carefully. This group was not led by Gu Cheng’an — it was a different team.
They fought more violently, likely because one of them had an incredibly powerful ability.
In Su Ning’s view, this person was dual-wielding machine guns that seemed to fire endlessly at the zombies.
Information on the person popped up in Su Ning’s interface:
[Player: Li Lian]
Talent: Bullet Storm – As long as he has a firearm, the gun automatically reloads like it has infinite ammo. The downside is heavy stamina and energy consumption.
Skills: None
Just this one talent was enough to make people wary — infinite bullets!
As the saying goes: “All fear comes from lack of firepower.”
This group of five was fearless in the face of zombies, all thanks to Li Lian.
Of course, the other four were also enough to make Su Ning cautious.
As she was watching them, one of the five suddenly looked directly in her direction, locking eyes with her. It startled Su Ning.
That person’s data appeared next:
[Player: Zhang Huaiyuan]
Talent: Perception – Can sense movements within a five-mile radius, possesses extremely strong observational skills, and can mentally link with teammates to share sensory data.
Skills: None
This man’s ability was like a human radar.
Together with Li Lian, Zhang Huaiyuan’s talent was a perfect complement.
Soon, Su Ning noticed the five were heading straight for her.
She grew alert: “No way… why are they coming toward me?”
Su Ning immediately became defensive and began thinking of countermeasures.
To be safe, she decided to infect a few Emerald Bees with the zombie virus, turning them into zombie bees. If things went south, they would be her first line of defense.
Meanwhile, Zhang Huaiyuan told his leader that someone was secretly watching them.
After hearing this, Li Lian responded, “Perfect. I need a rest anyway. My talent is powerful, but it’s draining. Let’s find somewhere to recover. While we’re at it, test that person’s strength and see if she can join our team.”
The group sped up and soon arrived at the tower where Su Ning was.
Li Lian looked around and couldn’t help but feel excited: “Nice spot. It’s remote, hidden from others, and gives a good view of the surroundings. Perfect place to set up camp.”
But the thing that surprised him most — was the presence of a beautiful girl here.
He thought: “Didn’t expect such a gorgeous girl to be hiding in a place like this. Looks like this trip was worthwhile after all.”
(End of Chapter)
