Chapter 168 Taste Like Chicken
When a Mind Parasite took over a strong host, it became super powerful.
In his past life, people both feared and were fascinated by Insectoid Beings, like the top monsters in The Land of Death.
William ran into the Mind Parasite about two weeks after the apocalypse started. As a two-star Evolving person, he had to fend off against corpse hordes. But if he won, he'd gain a lot.
Now, it was time to cash in.
William casually pulled out a red object from his space crystal.
It was a sodium ammonium phosphate dry powder from a fire extinguisher.
Without hesitation, he sprayed the Mind Parasite!
The parasite, unable to dodge, let out a sharp, piercing scream.
Despite its power, the Mind Parasite had many weaknesses: it feared water, needed oxygen, and couldn't take heavy hits.
One big weakness, discovered by humans, was its fear of sodium ammonium phosphate. Even a tiny bit could paralyze it, stopping it from burrowing into a human and causing it immense pain.
Luckily, this stuff was easy to find in some fire extinguishers.
Seeing the Mind Parasite stiffen and collapse, William walked over, eyes full of killing intent.
'Please... please...'A thought popped into his mind, like a whisper. He didn't expect it to communicate this way.
Pointing the fire extinguisher at the parasite, William saw second-level mutants coming to its rescue and said, "Tell them to stop."
The Mind Parasite said, "No... can't..."
Before it could finish, it felt a cold blade against its head.
The second-level mutants slowed down, eyes showing struggle.
Taking advantage, the red-haired Iron Corpse and Pill, both naturally aggressive, killed four second-level mutants with continuous attacks.
With similar evolutionary levels, one side giving up meant slaughter.
But whether due to the parasite's weakened control or the creatures breaking free, they suddenly roared and fought back.
William pressed his blade a bit harder, making the Mind Parasite scream. Its minions hesitated again, and two more were instantly killed.
The fight was one-sided. After William poked a few holes in the Mind Parasite, Pill and Iron Corpse finished off the second-level lifeforms.
William grabbed a metal box, sprayed it with the fire extinguisher, and tossed the screaming Mind Parasite inside.
Meanwhile, Pill was munching away. These creatures provided it with a lot of energy. What surprised William was the red-haired Iron Corpse, was also "eating."
Unlike Pill, the Iron Corpse dug out Magic Crystals from the corpses and swallowed them.
Could this be its way of evolving?
The skill scroll only explained how to create Human puppetry. William thought he had to remake them for higher levels. When the Iron Corpse wasn't strong enough, he'd make a Copper corpse. When that wasn't enough, he'd look for an intermediate Human puppetry spell.
He never thought the Iron Corpse would consume Magic Crystals.
He couldn't be sure if this would make the Iron Corpse evolve, but it gave him a new idea.
The Iron Corpse stopped after eating one second-level Magic Crystal, maybe temporarily satisfied.
When William locked the Mind Parasite in the metal box, the corpse horde lost control.
Michelle and her team got lucky. They followed the horde, killing many zombies. But the horde was huge, and after intense fighting, the remaining two to three hundred people were exhausted. Even the Evolving persons were panting and sweating.
At some point, they stopped chasing and started retreating while clearing the battlefield.
When the horde dispersed without the Mind Parasite's control, the team had already distanced themselves. They cleared the battlefield more discreetly.
They had killed so many that they didn't finish collecting all the Magic Crystals until nightfall.
Of course, it wasn't all smooth. The strong scent of blood attracted some mutant lifeforms, leading to several fierce battles. Some zombies that weren't completely dead also caused some casualties.
By the time William returned to Hope Base after cleaning up, only about two hundred of the original thousand people remained, and more than half of the newly promoted Evolving persons had died.
In just two days, the death toll at the base was alarming.
Rewards come with sacrifices.
After tidying up, everyone regrouped. Lucy, in charge of inventory, couldn't stop smiling. She'd counted so many Magic Crystals her hands went numb.
"Guess how many level-one Magic Crystals we got?" Lucy asked excitedly, patting a large box full of them.
"Over five thousand!" Jack guessed, eyeing the box.
Lucy rolled her eyes.
Michelle analyzed, "The people we took out today lacked experience and courage, and later fell into chaos. On average, I think they didn't even kill ten zombies each. But with traps and other kills, we should have over ten thousand Magic Crystals."
Due to the water shortage, everyone could only wipe down and change clothes. Michelle had found some wet wipes and was sharing them with the other women, wiping her hands while guessing.
Lucy gave Michelle a thumbs up, her hands buried in the pile of Magic Crystals, eyes gleaming like a miser seeing gold. She shouted, "Over fifteen thousand! Imagine how much Evolution Elixir we can get with these."
Magic Crystals were now currency; without them, you couldn't get anything. The days spent at the base had made this clear. Holding such a huge fortune, everyone felt a surge of excitement.
David and Michelle had complex expressions as they looked at the Magic Crystals, perhaps recalling past experiences.
"I don't know about the level-two Magic Crystals. They're all with William," Lucy said, spreading her hands innocently, making everyone chuckle.
William smiled. He had over a hundred level-two Magic Crystals.
But these weren't the biggest gain of this trip.
"Keep ten thousand, and use the rest on the roulette," William said, waving his hand.
Jack, Donovan, Marcus, and others immediately took a large bag of Magic Crystals to the roulette. Only Michelle, Candice, David, Lucy, and Anthony stayed in the room. Natalie, due to her severe injuries, was resting in the next room, protected by Pill and Iron Corpse.
"If we're lucky, these Magic Crystals can get us about a hundred Evolution Elixirs. Anthony, you keep fifty and decide how to distribute them," William said.
Anthony was excited. He'd always felt uncertain about controlling the base, but with so many Evolution Elixirs, he had no worries. He was confident he could use them to firmly control the base.
"At this time, you need to use people close to you. Even if you can't control all the evolving forces in the base, you need to control the majority. Understand?" William reminded.
"Understood, Mr. Wright," Anthony replied immediately.
William nodded and continued, "Tonight, organize people to move stones to the east wall, the kind that can kill. Also, get a team ready for another zombie hunt tomorrow."
"Tomorrow again?" Anthony asked, surprised.
He touched his nose, worried that if they kept this up, most of the base's people would be dead.
William reassured him, "Just one more day, and I'll give you a third of the spoils. After that, we'll leave."
"You're leaving?" Anthony asked, shocked. He'd gotten used to the huge gains under William's leadership and felt reluctant to hear this news.
William didn't explain much, just sent Anthony to do his tasks.
Over an hour later, Jack returned with ninety-eight Evolution Elixirs and some useful supplies. William kept his promise and gave Anthony fifty.
Early the next morning, William arrived at the east wall, where hundreds had gathered, each with a pile of large stones beside them.
Anthony, with nearly twenty Evolving persons, was ready to drop ropes and fight the zombies face-to-face.
No one knew what William was planning.
Seeing the horde below was now sparse, William didn't mind. He took out the box containing the Mind Parasite and said, "I know you can understand me. Gather them all below!"
"Let... me... go..." the Mind Parasite stammered.
It looked weak, its pure white body now tinged with faint blue, slumped in the metal box.
William nodded.
The Mind Parasite opened its small eyes, mustered its remaining strength, and sent a silent mental wave to the horde below.
Moments later, the zombies began to gather below the wall, numbering at least six or seven thousand. However, there were no mutated animals or level-two zombies among them. Clearly, without a host, the Mind Parasite couldn't control higher-level mutated lifeforms.
The battle was one-sided, posing no threat to the humans. The zombies were like lambs to the slaughter. After that, most were killed by the survivors on the wall, Anthony and his men finished the job.
Thus, the zombies on the east side were cleared, giving Hope Base a relatively safe ground entrance.
"I... made it... Let me... go," the Mind Parasite's thoughts were urgent, as it couldn't survive long in its original form.
"You still have one more thing to do," William said coldly, stabbing it with a knife.
He continued, "I heard... you taste like chicken?"
