Chapter 17: Bumping Into a Stone Wall

The Chinese alligator, bristling with spines and enduring the pain, drew closer to Lu Li. The willow vine also coiled back around her wrist. Abandoning their earlier nonchalance, the two watched the porcupine with extreme vigilance, the atmosphere thick with tension.

Lu Li tucked the children back into the bottom of the pit for safety, clutching the half-finished wicker basket she had hastily closed off. Her heart was racing.

The porcupine shook its quills and lunged straight at her. Within the protective circle formed by the willow vines, Lu Li moved with lightning speed, flipping the basket so its open end faced the porcupine, and lunged forward under the cover of the vines.

The porcupine was faster. The moment the basket drew near, it twisted its body. Its backside brushed against the rim of the basket, causing its quills to flare out. It then nimbly dodged, leaped up, stepped on the top of Lu Li’s head as she lunged, and snatched away a large chunk of the willow vine.

Caught off guard by the momentum, Lu Li broke through the protection of the vines and was sent sprawling face-first by the porcupine’s kick. The wicker basket rolled away into the distance.

Darkness clouded Lu Li’s vision. The persistent, searing pain from the spines embedded in her hands made her muscles tremble.

As another thin, hard object poked at her head, Lu Li scrambled away, wiping the mud from her eyes. The swollen, fat face of the Chinese alligator, covered in spines, came into view.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"

She turned her head to spit out the grit, feeling deeply moved by the sight of the alligator, which was still trying to nudge her up despite its own pain.

"Brother Gator! These 100,000 contribution points are just too hard to earn."

The porcupine, holding the willow vine in its mouth, tensed its muscles and raised its quills, wiggling its rump as it prepared to strike again.

Looking at the quills trembling in anticipation of being launched—identical to those embedded in her own hands—and estimating their number, Lu Li felt a phantom pain radiating through her entire body.

She hurriedly scooped up the alligator and jumped back into the pit. Ignoring the system’s frantic shouting, she slammed the holographic panel over her head. Although zombie eyes had a slight tint, their night vision was quite good.

"System, help me block the 100,000 points requirement for a moment. And please, look up some scientific facts about this creature."

"System, you are the absolute pinnacle of all systems, super invincible and incredibly reliable. Could you just spare a little effort to protect this poor, weak little chick?"

Though she was flattering it, the system felt a bit strange about the praise. Nevertheless, upon hearing Lu Li’s plea, the panel hummed and began to work.

The panel became completely transparent, and with the foreign object still lodged in her head, Lu Li was finally able to start pulling out the spines.

The porcupine’s quills were barbed. Following the system’s instructions, Lu Li used her long fingernails to pinch the base of a spine, keeping it perpendicular to her skin, and took a deep breath before slowly pulling it out.

The agony was comparable to Jiang Linyi slitting her throat. She was already grimacing in pain after pulling out just one, but looking at the dense clusters of spines in her hands, she felt a wave of despair.

Beside her, the Chinese alligator was rooting in the dirt, hissing and wailing in pain. Lu Li steeled herself to continue, but her other hand, also riddled with spines, was too weak to move. She lifted her wrist and shook the somewhat wilted willow vine.

"Sister Willow, I can't do it anymore. Could you please pull all the spines out of my hand at once? It’s holding me back from making compost for you."

Between the choice of long-term pain and short-term agony, the willow vine chose excruciating pain for Lu Li. It ignored her instructions entirely, simply curling around a huge handful of spines and yanking them out all at once, regardless of the angle.

"Aww!!!"

Lu Li bit her lip, a wail escaping her throat. Even with mental preparation, she was hopping mad with pain. Fortunately, the willow vine was efficient and capable of physically restraining her.

Struggling and swaying, Lu Li was pinned to the wall of the pit as the vine roughly ripped the long spines from her hands.

By the time her bloodied hands hung limp at her sides, Lu Li was barely breathing, yet her mind remained clear. She owed this to Jiang Linyi; the pain in her hands felt familiar, though it was still less intense than the time he had crushed her hands during their fifteenth encounter.

After clearing the spines from Lu Li’s hands, the willow vine seemed to have developed a taste for this stress-relieving game. It patted the Chinese alligator, which was busy shaking off the dense thicket of spines on its own body. Both the alligator and the vine were trembling with excitement.

The alligator turned its head to look at Lu Li, who had collapsed in a heap from the pain, and hissed a low, unceremonious threat. The willow vine retreated sheepishly back to Lu Li’s wrist.

Lu Li rested for a moment until the pain subsided. She was instantly revived and resumed the game.

Not sure if the alligator could understand her, Lu Li picked up one of the quills from the ground and held the blood-stained end in front of the creature.

"Brother Gator, these spines have barbs. Pulling them straight out will worsen the injury. Let me handle it for you."

Before the alligator could react, she picked up its head and carefully began removing the quills from around its mouth.

As she grew more proficient, she found the process strangely cathartic and rewarding. The willow vine on her wrist could no longer restrain itself, its leaves quivering as it reached out to help.

Lu Li tapped its tender sprout tip. "Sister Willow, you have to be careful with Brother Gator. If he gets angry, he could swallow both of us whole, and not only that, you’ll be out of fertilizer for good."

After a few more demonstrations, the willow vine began its own performance. Watching its technique—which was far more precise than her own—Lu Li silently backed away and lit a candle for herself.

She was destined to be the lab rat, always the first to be operated on.

Lu Li shook the blood off her hands and wrapped them simply with a piece of cloth. The little boy huddled behind her was breathing steadily, and when she touched his forehead, the high fever was finally fading.

Meanwhile, at the unfinished villa, Jiang Linyi had carefully surveyed the surroundings. Aside from the addition of a dung pit, some poisonous silver fish, and the bizarre, overly pink and luxurious redecoration of the bedroom, everything else remained the same as in his previous N-lives.

After counting the tools he had gathered, Jiang Linyi fell into deep thought.

Most of the daily supplies had vanished, while other items remained largely untouched—except for the offensive weapons, which were all gone, without a single one left behind!

Just as he had hypothesized, this zombie seemed to retain human habits but was extremely hostile toward anything stronger than herself.

He wondered if she still held memories of her time as a human. He was curious about the "heaven" described by those ancient humans who were nearing death.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Jiang Linyi carefully checked his equipment.

Once everything was organized, he ran to the basement of the villa. A heavy padlock still hung on the door. Jiang Linyi couldn't fathom what was going on with Lu Li, nor who the laboratory actually belonged to.

He hurried to the entrance, then emerged with a frail, delicate air, panting every few steps. After looking around to ensure Lu Li was nowhere in sight, he began to dig the soil near the steps with great vigilance. The zombie had made off with his multi-tool shovel, so he had to make do with something he’d scavenged.

He gripped the blade, plunged it into the earth, and with a surge of strength from his legs, pried up a chunk of dirt. Jiang Linyi used both hands and feet, looking around guiltily, sweat beading on his forehead. He was simultaneously terrified of and expectant of Lu Li.

Under his multifaceted expression, a hole was dug, and a rustic wooden box came into view.

Stunned to have actually unearthed something, Jiang Linyi carefully lifted the box and opened it.

Lying inside was a very old, pre-apocalyptic key.