In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

The white deer stood still one meter away from the glass wall.

Inside the glass wall, the zombie was baring its teeth and claws at her, spraying murky blood everywhere.

"call……"

The white deer closed its eyes.

It floated up, its full head of black hair moving without wind.

Standing in front of the instrument, Zhang Qian suddenly looked at the screen. "The reading is jumping! Such a strong alpha peak!"

Inside the venue.

Bai Lu took a deep breath, and her originally lively eyes instantly calmed down, her black pupils beginning to dilate slightly.

An invisible wave suddenly rippled outwards from her center.

Standing to the side, Li Guodong felt a chill run down his spine.

It felt like an invisible hand was gently brushing across his cerebral cortex.

But in Bai Lu's eyes, the world has changed.

In her mental perception, the world lost its color and became a gray and white space composed of lines and ripples.

The frenzied zombie in front of them disappeared, turning into a ball of red flame that was burning and leaping violently.

It exudes a nauseating, chaotic atmosphere.

"Connect to its spiritual world..."

Bai Lu silently chanted in her heart, controlling her wisp of spiritual power, and cautiously reached out.

That feeling was amazing.

It's like reaching out a tentacle in the dark depths of the sea to touch a sea urchin covered in thorns.

Nearly.

closer.

The moment the white deer's spiritual tendrils touched that dark red flame.

"boom!!!"

It wasn't a loud bang in the physical sense, but a thunderclap that exploded deep within the soul.

Bai Lu's face turned deathly pale instantly.

She originally thought that after the connection was successful, she would see the other party's "thoughts", even if it was just something as simple as "hungry" or "eating".

but no.

There was nothing there.

What flooded her mind was a chaotic noise like a tsunami!

It wasn't thought at all; it was countless fragmented, sharp, illogical nerve currents running wildly.

It's like ten thousand radios simultaneously tuning to a channel with no signal and turning the volume up to maximum.

Zizizi!

And there was that extremely violent killing intent, a pure, unconditional desire for destruction.

Following the connecting passage, they launched a frenzied counterattack into Bai Lu's mental world.

"roll!!!"

The white deer instinctively sensed a threat and subconsciously used its mental powers for self-defense.

Her previously extended spiritual tendrils suddenly swelled and churned uncontrollably at this moment!

"Bang!"

A crisp, muffled sound, like a watermelon bursting open, echoed across the empty test field.

Inside the alloy cage, the zombie that was still screaming madly suddenly fell silent.

His head exploded like a smashed watermelon.

Red and white debris sprayed in a fan shape onto the alloy wall behind them, and even a few pieces of bone were hanging from the ceiling.

The headless corpse swayed twice, then fell straight backward.

The entire room fell silent.

Fortunately, the researchers present were all very familiar with Bai Lu's supernatural abilities, and the base had been conducting extensive research on zombies since it opened.

Everyone was already desensitized to red and white substances, which is why no one vomited on the spot.

"Tsk, that's too brutal."

Su Ran looked at the corpse, and her lips twitched.

Su Ran felt that the mental shock that had just erupted was enough to kill even a second-tier mutated beast in one hit.

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Below, the white deer opened its eyes, its face pale and looking extremely unlucky.

Su Ran stepped down from the observation platform, casually took the wet towel handed to her by a staff member, and gave it to Bai Lu.

"What happened? Tell me your specific feelings."

Bai Lu wiped her face haphazardly.

"I don't have any particular feelings. It's just chaos, and there's no spiritual core to 'communicate' with. Or in other words, zombies don't have a spiritual world; their actions are based on their remaining instincts."

"As we expected."

Professor Zhang Qian walked over with several assistants, holding a newly printed thermal imaging map in his hand.

"Advisor Su, Miss Bai Lu's intuition is correct."

Zhang Qian pointed to the location of the zombie's brain on the map, where it appeared as a deathly deep blue, with only the brainstem area glowing with a blinding red light.

"This is the most domineering aspect of the Omega-9 virus; it dissolves the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of infected individuals."

The old professor turned a page of the diagram, revealing the bright red area.

"This part was originally responsible for logic, emotion, memory, and rationality. Now it's all gone, leaving only the R-complex, which is what we often call the 'reptilian brain.' It only retains basic instincts: eating and attacking."

"Our Academy of Sciences previously speculated that rather than the infected creatures losing their rationality, it was more accurate to say that the hardware infrastructure responsible for their rationality was physically destroyed."

Su Ran looked at the diagram, lost in thought.

Without hardware, software naturally cannot run.

However, whether it's zombies or mutated beasts, as their strength level increases, they will gradually develop intelligence.

What could be the reason for this?

Zhang Qian stared at the headless corpse, his eyes gradually sharpening. "Now that we've confirmed our biological research findings—that the Ω-9 virus infected organism has no logical center—let's stop trying to 'communicate' with it."

"The first scenario has now been ruled out. The next experimental method will be 'mental suppression.'"

"Mental suppression?"

Su Ran and Bai Lu were both taken aback.

"That's right, it's not about establishing a connection, but a unilateral and violent takeover," Zhang Qian said.

"Since the Omega-9 virus has stripped them of their rationality, leaving only instinct, then let's use mental power to directly override their instincts."

Professor Zhang adjusted his glasses and continued, "Our Academy of Sciences doesn't have a concrete theory to explain this kind of energy called mental power; it's currently just an experiment. It's like... forcibly imprinting a 'thought stamp' into its brain!"

"Thoughts...stamped?"

These four words struck Su Ran's mind like a bolt of lightning.

correct!

This is it!

This reminded him of the scene when he woke up the white deer and it went out of control.

At that time, because he couldn't communicate with her, he forcibly used his mental power to enter Bai Lu's mental world, using himself as an anchor point, and only then was he able to pull her back.

of course,

The "spiritual anchor" that Su Ran gave Bai Lu is vastly different from the "ideological imprint" mentioned by Professor Zhang Qian.

"this,"

After a moment's thought, Su Ran suddenly looked up, her eyes gleaming with fervent light. "It seems feasible!"

"Continue testing."

With a dull hum from the hydraulic rods, sample number two was sent into the reinforced glass isolation chamber.

This is a female zombie wearing a convenience store uniform. Even though half of her cheek is rotting, you can still see the terror she felt before she died.

At this moment, it was irrationally scratching at the stainless steel railing with its fingernails, making a teeth-grinding "sizzling" sound.

"Relax, don't squeeze it again."

Su Ran stood on the observation platform, arms crossed, brows slightly furrowed.

Below, Bai Lu took a deep breath and said, "Understood!"

The girl closed her eyes, and her outward-emitting mental energy field began to recede.

The vibration in the air disappeared.

"The readings are stable."

The researcher responsible for recording the data stared intently at the oscilloscope, his voice low, "The alpha wave is steadily increasing!"

An invisible spiritual energy field emanates!

Inside the glass enclosure, the convenience store zombie that was frantically ramming against the railing suddenly stopped.

It's like the pause button has been pressed.

"They're inside."

Bai Lu's voice was somewhat strained, and a fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Again.

"It's so messy...it's all noise."

The chaotic and tyrannical spirit pierced Bai Lu's spiritual world.

Hang in there.

Su Ran instinctively gripped the railing, her gaze sharp. "Ignore the noise. Envelop it with your mental energy. Since you can't communicate with it, then cover it up. Give it a command."

"Take 'sitting down' for example."

"it is good."

Bai Lu gritted her teeth, and the mental energy she had been cautiously probing suddenly intensified.

The mental field, like an invisible hand, enveloped the chaotic, dark red flame of consciousness from all directions, and then pressed down hard!

"Sit down!"

No sound.

There was no resistance.

The moment Bai Lu pressed down with her mental power, the "flame of consciousness" in her mental world, which was originally chaotic but full of vitality, went out with a "poof".

It didn't explode; it went out.

It's like using too much force and extinguishing the candle.

in the real world.

The zombie didn't even scream; its tense muscles instantly relaxed.

He felt as if his bones had been removed, collapsing limply to the ground, turning into a lifeless pile of rotten flesh.

The entire room fell silent.

"..."

Bai Lu stared at the motionless zombie, equally bewildered, "I... I didn't use any force!"

"Professor Zhang!" Su Ran immediately turned around.

"Testing in progress!"

Professor Zhang Qian's fingers flew across the keyboard. A few seconds later, he looked up, his face filled with incredulous bewilderment.

"He's dead."

"Dead?"

Li Guodong frowned. "Old Zhang, you're confused. Isn't that obvious? Zombies are just dead people."

"No, I mean,"

Zhang Qian pointed to the brainwave graph, which had now become a straight line, and said, "Complete functional death. Just now, although it lacked reason, its brainstem was still in a state of extreme activity, the so-called 'living dead.' But now, brainstem activity has dropped to zero, and neural electrical signals have disappeared. Simply put, it has become a real corpse."

Li Guodong: "..."

Su Ran: "..."

Bai Lu: "..."

"I don't believe it! Let's try again!" Bai Lu insisted.

"Sample number three!"

"puff."

Brainwaves drop to zero, zombies become limp.

"Number four!"

"puff."

He still died instantly.

"Number Five..."

In just ten minutes, five zombies lay neatly on the ground.

He passed away peacefully, without any external injuries or brain matter splattering, as if someone had unplugged the power cord.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Su Ran raised her hand, interrupting the pointless massacre.

He looked at the mess on the ground, then at Bai Lu, who was standing there with a look of utter disbelief.

He didn't speak.

At this moment, Su Ran also fell into deep self-doubt.

In her previous life, the title "Empress Bailu" was renowned far and wide.

Although I did not see her in person, survivors described her as a miracle on the radio.

The image of someone monopolizing a territory, commanding millions of corpses, and having thousands of corpses worship him with a wave of his hand has been vividly described by countless survivors.

Legends about her can be heard on the radio and in the taverns of the shelter.

but……

Why isn't Bai Lu (a famous Chinese actress) doing well now?

Su Ran's heart skipped a beat as an extremely absurd thought popped into her head.

Could it be that the legends about the "Empress" in my previous life were false?

It was fabricated by the survivors to seek psychological comfort.

After all, in the later stages of the apocalypse, the creation of gods was also one of the means by which major forces united people's hearts and minds.

Empress, God of Machines, Beast King...

But "Empress Bai Lu" is also a lone wolf, so who would play GG for a lone wolf for free?

If that's true, then where is the bug now?

If it's fake, then what about the stories passed down from past lives?

Or perhaps,

Su Ran muttered to herself, "The butterfly effect I created prevented Bai Lu from awakening that crucial ability?"

Su Ran's gaze became somewhat strange, carrying three parts scrutiny, three parts suspicion, and four parts embarrassment.

Feeling Su Ran's gaze, which was as sharp as a searchlight, Bai Lu bristled.

As a spiritualist, her perception of emotions is frighteningly acute.

"Su Ran, what kind of look is that?"

Bai Lu pointed at Su Ran, exasperated, "I'm warning you, I can read your expression! You're looking down on me!"

"cough."

Su Ran coughed strategically and looked away. "No, I'm thinking about where the problem lies."

"Don't give me that!"

The white deer resembled a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

An awkward atmosphere spread across the observation platform.

Li Guodong looked at this person, then at that person, and finally had to bite the bullet and step in to smooth things over:

"Hey, Comrade Xiao Su, Comrade Bai Lu, how about we change our approach? Maybe this so-called mental intervention isn't meant to deal with ordinary zombies? Or perhaps we're just going in the wrong direction from the start?"

"wrong."

Su Ran shook her head, her eyes regaining their resolve. "The direction should be correct."

He trusted his intuition.

But where is the problem?

Su Ran's brain was working at lightning speed.

Bai Lu's innate spiritual talent was born for fighting.

"Maybe……"

Su Ran suddenly raised her head, her gaze falling on Bai Lu, and murmured, "It's not a question of whether it's possible or not, it's a question of controlling one's abilities."

"What do you mean?"

Bai Lu was taken aback.

"Your mental strength is extremely powerful, but you are not yet able to control it perfectly."

After calmly analyzing the situation, Su Ran directly pointed out the reason: "For a zombie, a fragile consciousness, your mental contact might be a deadly attack in itself. No matter how careful you are, your essential nature cannot be changed."

"What should we do then?"

Bai Lu looked helpless.

Su Ran remained silent for a moment.

"Mr. Zhang, prepare another sample."

He turned around and looked at Professor Zhang Qian, saying, "I'll give it a try."

The moment those four words were uttered, the air on the observation platform seemed to freeze.

"you?"

Bai Lu's eyes widened, her voice rising an octave in surprise, "Didn't you say you had spatial abilities? You also know how to manipulate mental energy?"

"I know a little," Su Ran said casually.

"You know a little bit?"