The spatial bubble kept shrinking, forcing Fang Chang and the other woman closer to the zombie Mother Nest. This was its way of dealing with them: if it couldn’t catch up, it would make them come to it!

The distance between them was closing by force. Fang Chang looked around and realized the space around her was separating from reality. The ground and distant scenery twisted into a mass of shadow, with the zombie Mother Nest at its center.

At that moment, she and Li Zirong were the only splashes of color in the entire spatial bubble.

“This space has separated from reality.” Li Zirong clenched her fists, visibly furious. “It moved too fast. I didn’t even have time to deploy my probes before it wrapped us in a Void Space bubble from its true form. This isn’t a spatial bubble in the usual sense. Breaking through the space wall will take us back to reality, but to escape intact, we’ll need to integrate the information first. Otherwise, even if we get out, we’ll just be a stretch of light and shadow—and end up back here.”

Fang Chang didn’t really understand Li Zirong’s theory, but she could tell the consequences were serious. She panicked too. “Then what do we do?”

“Whether we’re protecting ourselves or trying to escape, we deal with the zombie Mother Nest first!” At this genuine moment of crisis, Li Zirong finally showed the swagger of a top-tier player. “If it clings to us with everything it has, then even if I know how to escape, I won’t be able to put it into practice with it interfering.”

That answer gave Fang Chang a headache. They were the ones being hunted—so how had things suddenly flipped around, leaving them as the hunters?

“Are you sure you can take down that monster?”

Fang Chang asked tentatively. The zombie Mother Nest’s defenses spoke for themselves. Unlike Fang Chang, this hundred-meter-tall monster had a terrifying energy reserve thanks to its massive size, and the shield it formed was frighteningly thick. Li Zirong had blasted away for ages, and all she’d managed was to dim the Mother Nest’s shield a little. She hadn’t even scratched it.

“How would we know if we don’t try?”

Li Zirong answered with swagger. She brought her hands together, and the mechanical structures in her arms came alive, forming a half-meter-wide cannon barrel. Energy compressed inside it, making Fang Chang’s heart race.

“When I was picking flowers just now, I was afraid I’d hit you, so I deliberately used a lot of low-power fire to keep it pinned down. Did you really think I couldn’t take it?”

A pillar of pure white energy burst from the hand cannon. It crossed a hundred meters in an instant and struck the zombie Mother Nest’s head. Its shield rippled like the surface of water, but lasted only three seconds before a sharp crack rang out—the shield around its head had been torn open.

The energy beam struck its head and blasted a bloody hole through it at once. But the zombie Mother Nest’s fatal weakness wasn’t there. Its insides shuddered as it let out a shriek. The sound rolled out like thunder, making Fang Chang’s eardrums ache.

“It had no effect!”

Fang Chang pointed out the result of Li Zirong’s attack. The injury to the zombie Mother Nest’s head hadn’t affected it, and the flesh inside its body seemed to absorb energy. The beam couldn’t even pierce its relatively small head.

Li Zirong wasn’t discouraged. She shot forward, firing energy beams from her hand cannon now and then to punch through the zombie Mother Nest’s shield. More than a hundred nodes extended from her body, firing lasers that cut into the Mother Nest through the gaps in its shield.

That was her strategy: wear it down!

Like ants bringing down an elephant, she’d whittle the zombie Mother Nest away bit by bit.

But the zombie Mother Nest wasn’t going to take it lying down. Its tentacles lashed about, each carrying tremendous force. Just one hit on Li Zirong could break through her defenses and turn the tables.

That response made things extremely difficult for Li Zirong.

Her attacks came in fits and starts, interrupted again and again. The zombie Mother Nest also had tremendous regenerative power. In moments, the blood that had spilled earlier clotted and formed scabs.

At this rate, who knew how long it would take to inflict any real damage on the zombie Mother Nest? Li Zirong didn’t have that kind of time. Fang Chang could return once her mission timer ran out, but Li Zirong still had to stay here for a long while.

She still had several research projects to work on, as well as a promise she’d made long ago. She couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

“Help me! Distract it and draw some of its fire. If we don’t kill it soon, then once the spatial bubble shrinks far enough, we’ll have to fight it at close range!”

Fang Chang was immediately torn. The zombie Mother Nest was simply too imposing. It might not have many special abilities, but its sheer size gave it overwhelming strength.

“I… I’ll have to face this alone sooner or later!”

She clenched her fists, feeling the power within her.

“Whether it’s for my own life or because she’s helping me, I can’t keep standing still! The zombie Mother Nest is powerful, but I’m a zombie Mother Nest too!”

All this time, Fang Chang had relied on the special abilities granted by her fused beast. She’d assumed the zombie Mother Nest mutation had only improved her physical abilities, and overlooked the other powers it gave her.

“If you can create a spatial bubble, then I should be able to as well. We’re the same kind, after all!”

Red patterns, just like the zombie Mother Nest’s, lit up across her body. In that instant, the zombie Mother Nest stopped moving.

It sensed the higher-ranking virus within Fang Chang.

The same kind—but not the same rank.

A sudden urge to submit came over it, as if a subject had met their king and could do nothing but kneel.

At that moment, the name Shadow-Devouring Lord within Fang Chang began to shine.

She was the Mother of Veris. Veris meant virus; she was the Mother of Viruses.

She ranked above the zombie Mother Nest.

Even Li Zirong was affected by the power of the name, but her eyes shone with excitement and fervor.

“I knew it! You really have become even more powerful! If I can create a perfect virus, then I’ll be able to fulfill that promise too!”

A faint layer of spatial power rippled outward from Fang Chang. It neutralized the zombie Mother Nest’s Void Space bubble, and reality slowly began to reappear.

The zombie Mother Nest’s countless tentacles shuddered, and it snapped out of its delusion of submission. Its own immense size gave it enough strength to build up a quantitative advantage and resist the instinct to submit.

All its tentacles abandoned Li Zirong and attacked Fang Chang.

It was going to devour its mother!

If it ate Fang Chang, it could evolve again!

Not just another ordinary buildup of strength, but a direct qualitative leap—becoming the Mother of Zombies for the entire world!