Chapter 24: The Genetic Chains

She had intended to take only a brief nap, but the double exhaustion of an sleepless night and her physical injuries caused her to slip into a deep, dreamless slumber the moment she closed her eyes.

This time, she dreamt of a vast, white expanse.

"Where is this?"

Lin Qingqing’s voice rang out in the dream, but no one answered. The surroundings were a featureless, grayish-white void. She tentatively walked in different directions, but found nothing; the space seemed truly endless.

Just then, a beam of light appeared ahead. It was a straight, heaven-piercing pillar, its brilliance standing out starkly against the gray void. It acted like a beacon or a signal, and Lin Qingqing hurried toward it without hesitation. Only when she stood before it did she realize what it was.

It was a straight chain, thick enough to be three of her combined, stretching between heaven and earth. Standing beneath it, she felt as small as someone looking up at a towering monument; the very first segment alone was taller than her entire body. She looked up and counted: from bottom to top, the chain consisted of nine segments.

Except for the first segment, which was "lit up," the eight segments above it remained in a dim, hazy state. Between each segment was a node, acting like a lock or a barrier preventing the light from ascending. The final segment vanished directly into the vast, distant sky, its end invisible.

"What on earth is this?"

Lin Qingqing instinctively reached out to touch it. By the time she realized what she was doing, her hand was already resting on the chain. The "lit" first segment was a translucent, icy blue; it felt freezing to the touch, emitting thin wisps of cold air. As she touched it, the chain shuddered, as if it had suddenly come to life.

"It seems to like me?"

As if to confirm her thought, the chain moved again.

"It can sense my thoughts?"

It moved once more.

"You aren't... inside my body, are you?"

Lin Qingqing was startled, and the chain vibrated even more violently, as if pleased that she had figured it out. She took two steps back, unsettled by her own realization. Her first dream had awakened her supernatural abilities; could this dream hold a similar significance?

Once she calmed down, she took a closer look at the miraculous, sentient chain. It was actually composed of two parallel strands, spiraling upward while intertwined and clinging to each other.

Suddenly, the structure felt hauntingly familiar. "This spiraling configuration is just like, it's just like..."

It was just like the double helix of DNA. Upon closer inspection, they were identical, merely magnified countless times. She stretched out her hands again, feeling the familiar, icy touch that mirrored her own ice blades and daggers. A bolt of realization struck her: "Could this be my own genetic chain?"

Her intuition told her she was right.

"If this is a hint from my dream, what is it trying to tell me?"

She looked closer. The node at the top of the first segment was also "lit," and that state was already beginning to cross the node, climbing toward the second segment.

"If this chain represents my supernatural power, does the 'lit' first segment and the first node mean I have leveled up from Rank One to Rank Two? There are nine segments—does that mean there are nine ranks of power in total? And I have just reached the second level?" Lin Qingqing guessed boldly.

"But what lies beyond the ninth rank?"

She looked up toward the very top of the chain, where the ninth rank was hidden within a bank of grayish-white clouds. She stared at the clouds, feeling certain that something else existed beyond them. Just as she considered trying to climb the chain to find out, she felt her body plummet.

As the dream collapsed, Lin Qingqing opened her eyes.

The sun was already high in the sky. Ignoring the lingering thoughts of her dream, she scrambled down the tree.

Reaching the perimeter of the farmhouse, she discovered that the fire on the three-story building had long since burned out. The area was covered in charred remains. Several zombies wandered the front yard, but there wasn't a single living person left.

"Did Captain Xiao and the others leave?"

Realizing she was truly alone, Lin Qingqing was stunned. Just then, the nearest zombie sensed a living presence and began to shamble toward her. Disgusted by the sight of the naked creature, she conjured two ice blades from a distance and plunged them into the zombie’s eye sockets with a wet thud.

The sound of the body hitting the ground drew the attention of two more zombies. Lin Qingqing frowned as she looked at them. "Why are they all naked?"

It wasn't just those three; a large portion of the remaining zombies, including the corpses on the ground, were completely bare. "Were they all participating in a mass streaking event before they died?"

She chuckled at the thought, but after dispatching two more, a small tag on a zombie’s wrist caught her eye. "What is this? 'Peony Garden Hot Spring Resort, Room 1026'."

She recognized the writing; the number was likely a room or locker designation. *Oh! The Peony Garden Hot Spring Resort! The zombies came from the resort!* She remembered Xiao Lu mentioning yesterday that there was indeed a hot spring resort not far away.

*So these zombies must have crawled out of the hot springs? No wonder they were naked!*

Looking at the zombies still milling around the farmhouse, she thought: *Since they were all lured out of the resort by Zhou Mang, wouldn't it be perfect for me to head there now?*

Fate really did provide a way out. Lin Qingqing shouldered her pack, checked her bearings, and began walking in the direction the zombies had come from.

The road was empty; she was the only one walking along the wide highway. She occasionally encountered a stray zombie or two, but she dispatched them easily. Including the ones she had killed earlier, she had collected six crystals, though they were all basic elemental types—nothing special.

She sighed inwardly. *Mutant-attribute crystals are indeed rare. Thank goodness I have my meditation technique!*

"I wonder how Captain Xiao and the others are doing. They probably think I'm dead by now." This was a problem, as she didn't know the way to the Rongcheng Base. "But is it really necessary to go to the Rongcheng Base? They need to complete missions there to trade for medicine, but I don't need medicine, and I don't have a team to do missions with."

Lin Qingqing instinctively dismissed the idea of joining a squad. To her, the freedom of being alone was far better than being constantly tethered to strangers. Besides, she was now a Rank Two user; whether it was killing zombies or scavenging for supplies, she could handle it all on her own.

"If that's the case, is there any point in going to the Rongcheng Base?"

She felt a bit lost. Since the apocalypse began, she had been scrambling for survival and strength. But now that she had the strength and survival was no longer a major issue, what was her goal?

She thought about it for the entire five-kilometer trek, replaying her experiences over and over. Her mind returned to the chain in her dream. She stopped, looked up at the clouds, and felt as if a chain truly existed, stretching toward the heavens.

What lay at the end of that chain? Was there another world above those clouds?

"I really want to go up and see," she whispered to herself.

After a moment, she lowered her head and said firmly, "If I want to see, then I'll go. I'll go to the clouds at the end of that chain and see for myself!"