Chapter 876-899
But to Sheyan’s disappointment, after two sneezes, he actually felt livelier! The cold wind blew onto his face but it felt so comfortable. Catching a cold seemed like a luxury at the moment, let alone pneumonia.
“What the hell? Did the steep increase in my HP cause my immunity to increase as well?”
The steep increase in HP here referred to the reward when he broke through the 50-point pure attribute boundary. That reward had been inexplicably retained when normally, all statuses would be reset after undergoing the Babu-Babusar ceremony! Sheyan inferred that due to the soul embryo settling in, the Authoritative precedence of the negative effects of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was lowered, making it unable to suppress the reward for the 50-point pure attribute boundary breakthrough. Thus, this situation occurred.
After spending a whole day in the hospital, Sheyan realised with disappointment that even a cold seemed to be far away from him, let alone pneumonia. Seemed like having a strong immunity was not always good news…. Getting a rank 3 ability wasn’t so easy after all.
At this time, Sheyan received a call.
An international call.
Zi’s slightly deep but sweet voice transmitted over the phone. Her voice was somewhat similar to the voice of the singer, A-Sun. There was a charm to it that’s hard to describe with words.
(T/N note: A-Sun – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60QFQtRAvWQ)
“If you’re Seaman, say something. If you’re not, hang up.”
Sheyan smiled and replied.
“I’m alive, rich girl.”
Zi said emotionlessly.
“How was the last world? Did any of your people die?”
Sheyan laughed and answered.
“Nope. Not only that, I’ve even recruited someone who may very well become your competitor.”
Zi coldly sneered and said.
“What competitor? Can anyone be my competitor? ”
“Hmm, he’s a mage who mastered the laws of Dungeons and Dragons. His main ability lies in producing illusions. He has a limited offensive repertoire; he can only perform burst damage once or twice every battle.”
Sheyan began explaining to her about Franklin. Zi immediately figured it out.
“I see. His main burst method should be rank 3 ‘Great Fireball’ + ‘Empower Spell’. There are limited spell slots for rank 3 spells, that’s why he can’t be the main force in battle. But his ability to create illusions is an extremely rare one. You made a good decision.”
Sheyan smiled faintly and said.
“The best decision I ever made was agreeing to Demondream’s request.”
Zi snorted.
“I’ve already returned your favour! I’m doing pretty well in Aldaris’ party right now. We even got an S evaluation in the previous world. It shouldn’t be a problem for Aldaris to become an Awakener.”
Sheyan knew that Zi was just being stubborn. No matter how strong Aldaris’ party was, there was no way they could compare to his own high-ranking Silver party. Moreover, relationships were complex in large parties. In his Ace party, Reef had long realised that he has no leadership potential, so Sheyan could immediately appoint Zi as the vice leader as soon as she joined. Sheyan laughed confidently and said.
“Of course, of course. Then can Lady Zi give me a chance to owe you a favour back? I am desperately in need of your help.”
Upon hearing Sheyan’s words, the proud Zi finally revealed a slight smile, while her eyes flashed a that’s-more-like-it glitter. She said after a dry cough.
“That would depend on my mood.”
Sheyan smiled.
“I’m in Taiwan now. Let me persuade you face-to-face.”
Zi said without hesitation.
“Go to Taoyuan Airport, the same place as before. I’ll let Gulfstream pick you up.”
***
Senyan was already familiar with all the protocols, so after a few hours, he arrived in Europe. This time, he flew straight to London, to the headquarters of the E.S financial group.
Zi personally picked him up from the airport. She was wearing a Chanel coat tied at the waist with her hair tied up in a bun. It accentuated her slim figure and long legs. She appeared cold, yet alluring.
But when Sheyan walked down the luxurious stairs of the Gulfstream, let alone Zi, even the female assistant next to her was trying hard not to laugh. Sheyan’s clothes were simply too casual…. loose beach shorts, flowery shirt, and to top it off, a pair of large wooden clog flip-flops on his feet. The clip-clopping sound they made caused the aircrew welcoming him to almost burst into laughter.
Zi was also holding herself back from laughing as she approached Sheyan.
“I see that you’re as full of personality as ever, Seaman. Your colour combination is magnificent.”
Sheyan sneezed amidst the cold November wind in London. He quickly hopped onto Zi’s Lincoln limousine.
“What the hell. I don’t usually take aeroplanes. I can’t believe the weather’s so terrible.”
The middle section of the limousine was arranged in the form of a meeting room. Zi got in and sat across from him, then said with a smile.
“Do you want to go buy some clothes first?”
Sheyan instantly rejected such a short-sighted suggestion.
“It’s good to be cold! This is exactly what I want. Achoo!”
As he said that, he nonchalantly picked up a bottle of wine from the wine cabinet at the back, then bit off the cork and gulped down half a bottle like it was a beer. The bodyguards and assistants next to him were all shocked speechless. This bottle of Bordeaux wine was bought by their financial group from an auction with 640,000 euros. It was intended to serve only heavyweight VVIPs such as ministers of the state. Now, it was defiled in such a way by this Easterner. More crucially, Director Su actually did not show any dissatisfaction.
These assistants had never seen a young man acting so casual in front of Director Su. All the other young men would either be intimidated due to her status, or awe-struck due to her cold demeanor. It was common for them to make mistakes out of nervousness. However, this young man had simply made himself at home. His calmness and demeanor were eye-opening.
Zi stared at the half bottle of wine left and said coldly.
“This bottle of wine cost almost a million euros. I’ll send the bill to you later.”
Her stern expression instantly turned into a smile as if she enjoyed her own joke tremendously. Sheyan seriously said.
“No problem. I don’t even have a euro on me anyway, so it makes no difference to me whether you charge me a euro or a million euros. I’ll just run away later…. Uh, I really have something that needs your help. And it’s urgent.”
Zi pushed a button and a tea-coloured bulletproof glass rose to segregate their section into a private space.
“Speak.”
Sheyan spread his hands and said.
“I must catch a disease, and it must be pneumococcal pneumonia. Can you find a way?”
Zi stared at Sheyan after hearing his strange request.
“Is it important?”
“Very,” answered Sheyan seriously.
Zi immediately made a call.
“Hello, Mr. Harvin. Didn’t your previous proposal involve Vorey Pharmaceutical Company? Yes? That’s good. I heard they have their own medical research facility, the 3rd biggest laboratory in Europe? Ok then, I’ll sign it.”
Next, she made another call which was very concise.
“Kevin, stop all negotiations with Krupp and pass the proposal for Vorey Pharmaceutical Company. Why? There’s no why. My decision is why. Any other question? Good. I’m hanging up. ”
After completing this series of matter, she lifted her head and said.
“After signing the contract at 8 tomorrow, I will personally go to Vorey Pharmaceutical Company for an inspection. There will be more than 50 experts there to fulfill your wish.”
Sheyan revealed a smile.
“What an honour.”
Zi grabbed the wine bottle Sheyan drank from, took a crystal wine glass, and poured half a glass for herself. She slowly sipped at the wine before saying.
“Your second request should be to ask me to lead Ace Party for a while, right?”
Sheyan was dumbstruck for a moment.
“How do you know?”
Zi appeared to be very satisfied with Sheyan’s reaction. Her lips curled into a seductive smile.
“I estimate that it should be about time for you to take that step.”
Sheyan smiled bitterly.
“I was forced to take that step. In the world of the Lord of the Rings, with Mogensha away on his awakening mission, I met a really strong team – the Stockholm Party. Unfortunately, their mission contradicted with ours.”
“Stockholm Party?” Zi’s expression instantly turned serious. “Where have I heard this name before? That’s right, they were top 3 in the last realm war!”
Sheyan smiled and said.
“A core member of theirs, Drubal, hunted me down. I was forced to play all my cards, and became a reserve-duty Growth-Hunter. I let him live in the end because he offered some pretty nice things in exchange for his life.”
Zi rolled her eyes at Sheyan.
“You have no idea how cocky you look right now.”
Sheyan laughed.
“You yourself look much better now compared to the cold attitude before.”
Zi blushed and shifted her gaze away from Sheyan to her wine glass. Sheyan knew that she’s a prideful person and would get embarrassed easily, so he changed the topic.
“I’ve awakened a few times in the last world; I couldn’t help using this power after obtaining it. That’s why I will definitely be away from the party the next time I enter the realm. I would be really worried if there was no one there to lead them.”
Zi remained silent while her long fingers swirled the wine in her glass. A cunning glint showed in her eyes.
Seeing the beaming Zi, Sheyan sighed and said.
“Looks like I have to use my trump card.”
Zi snorted disdainfully.
“As if you have any trump cards left.”
Before she had even finished speaking, Sheyan had moved over to her side and squeezed next to her with a vulgar expression. Even through the coat, he could feel the sensation of her elastic thigh. Zi’s body instantly curled up as she nervously exclaimed.
“What are you trying to do?!”
Sheyan looked at her with a naughty glint in his eyes.
“Take a guess. Maybe I’m just repeating something that I’ve done before.”
Sheyan then moved close to her ears and said with an extremely vulgar expression.
“In such a narrow space, having high Strength is more advantageous than having high Intelligence and Spirit, don’t you think?”
Zi awkwardly pushed Sheyan away and angrily exclaimed.
“How dare you!”
However, Zi’s anger right now seemed to have no bite to it, because her usual way of handling such situations was to coldly say “scram”. The chill in that word alone could make most men’s tools shrink back in. If other people could see her reaction just now, they would be shocked that the icy beauty had such a side to her!
Sheyan laughed out loud and shrugged nonchalantly.
“Fine, since you agreed to my request, I’ll forgive your rudeness. But you owe me a meal because I suddenly realised that I’m hungry. Seems like the wine was a good appetizer.”
Zi was dumbfounded. She lashed out.
“When did I agree to your request?! And I’m the one who’s rude?!?!”
Sheyan once again moved close and put his hand on the back of her chair. This simple move caused her body to tighten again. Furthermore, her mind went blank and she was in utter confusion. Sheyan smilingly said.
“Should you treat me to Indian food later? I wonder how to Indian food in London tastes like. Hopefully their lamb curry tastes authentic.”
Zi replied in a panic.
“Okay, Indian food…”
Sheyan decided not to push his luck further so he returned to his seat. Only then did Zi realise that she had conceded to him! She was so angry that she she couldn’t even voice her protest, but she couldn’t think of what she should do either. Fortunately, at that moment, the chauffeur pushed a button and said anxiously.
“I’m sorry, Director Su, but the headquarters just ordered me to return immediately. They said they need an explanation.”
Zi instantly turned cold.
“What explanation?”
Sheyan interrupted her.
“He’s just a chauffeur.”
This made Zi glare at Sheyan in dissatisfaction.
“Fine, we’ll go back. Let me remind you that our dinner has to be postponed until four hours later. You want me to give you some loose change to buy burgers?”
“I’m good, thanks. I’d rather go hungry now so that I can eat more later since I’m not the one who will be paying,” said Sheyan happily.
Fifteen minutes later, Sheyan stood in front of the majestic twin towers of the E.S. financial group. A group of people with solemn expressions were waiting for them. They were all high-ranking members of the E.S. financial group, so when they saw Sheyan, who was wearing flip-flops and a flowery shirt, step out from the car together with the frosty Zi, one could imagine the shock they felt.
They remained stunned for a moment before a grey-haired old man took the lead and coughed drily.
“If I heard correctly, our group just transferred 760 million euros to Vorey Pharmaceutical Company. They said you authorised it?”
“That’s right,” said Zi with indifference.
“Right before we were about to reach an agreement with Krupp?” asked the old man in disbelief. “Can you please give me a reasonable explanation?”
Zi glanced at Sheyan and said emotionlessly.
“There’s no explanation. Anything else? If not, I’m going for dinner.”
An uproar rose from the crowd beside them. A guy who looked like David Beckham stepped forward and talked to Zi with a complicated and painful expression.
“You deployed Gulfstream III and left our VIP guests stranded in Tokyo in order to pick up this….this tourist from the beach?”
There was some pain in his voice. Zi looked at him apologetically but still said in that cold voice of hers.
“This is a personal matter, Mr. Oz.”
Oz seemed to have suffered a heavy blow from her reply. He quietly turned around and walked away. 2 other men walked away with him. They all looked like they aged 10 years. These three were admirers of Zi. Even though they were coldly rejected before, but since she rejected everyone anyway, they didn’t feel that bad. But now, she had clearly made an exception for Sheyan. Imagine how much they hurt inside.
The old man earlier rejoiced instead. In the E.S. financial group, Zi was the largest shareholder. With those 3 shareholders passionately pursuing her before this, it was hard for the members of the board of directors to go against her decisions. Now, they would obviously not be on her side any longer, and might even sell their shares. The other shareholders were also elated. This would mark a new era for them in the financial group.
“Since tomorrow is the weekend, we will hold a board meeting at 9am on Monday to request an official explanation from you for your actions, Ms. Su Lingzi,” said the old man solemnly. “If you are absent from the meeting, we will take it as you abstaining. Our financial group can no longer continue this way.”
Sheyan folded his arms on his chest as he observed the old man who obviously thought he had things in the bag. Then, he asked Zi.
“Can we go for dinner now?”
Zi nodded and said sarcastically.
“I can’t believe their efficiency got so high when it came to these kind of matters. Let’s go.”
A bald guy who looked like he had seborrhoea took large steps and entered the Lincoln limousine before they could. He told the chauffeur loudly.
“Drive me to Sirocco Hotel.”
The chauffeur instantly became flustered.
“But…”
The bald man said coldly.
“No buts. You’re an employee of the E.S. financial group, not a personal chauffeur! Do you want to receive a letter of dismissal on Monday? Don’t worry, you’ll receive your salary for this month in full.”
The chauffeur didn’t dare to speak or look at Zi. He simply started the car and drove away. Zi’s bodyguards and assistants were also rooted in place. E.S. financial group’s organisational structure was quite complex. There was no chairman; the board of directors made all the decisions. If Zi could not take the initiative on the board of directors, then the only authority she would have left was the right to receive dividends. When that time came, their fate would be decided by the other directors. How could they not be afraid?
Sheyan sighed.
“You sure are patient, Zi.”
Zi snorted.
“Just mind your own business. Didn’t you want to have dinner? Let’s go then. The Indian restaurant is pretty far from here.”
Sheyan shrugged.
“I don’t feel like having Indian food anymore. I now want random food.”
“What do you mean by random food?” Zi’s interest was piqued.
Sheyan stared at the man called Oz who was walking away, and said with a smile.
“Since you lost 3 admirers 3 minutes ago, we’ll take a taxi and go to the 3rd restaurant we pass 33 minutes from now. What do you think?”
“Interesting proposal,” said Zi with a laugh.
“I have an even more interesting proposal…..”
“……”
As they stared at the back of the two people walking away, a chill suddenly rose in the directors’ hearts.
The next morning, Zi and Sheyan arrived at Vorey Pharmaceutical Company.
The person in charge received them with trepidation.
Then, within ten minutes, the person in charge summoned five of his experts and asked them to develop a treatment plan that they had never tried before.
A plan to let a person catch pneumococcal pneumonia in the shortest time possible. Although the request was outrageous and inhumane, but for the sake of high salary and a stable working environment, the five experts spent less than three minutes to come up with a plan.
They needed to cultivate a large amount of pneumococcal culture, so Sheyan only enjoyed the custom-tailored treatment eleven hours later. He soon tasted the disease of his desire.
“Sh*t, my chest hurts like hell,” Sheyan laid on the bed with a pale face. He currently looked like a weak old man. “I feel like there are a thousand needles piercing my lungs at the same time! I can’t even breath! *cough* cough”
Sheyan spat out a large lump of rust-coloured phlegm after his coughing fit, which was a typical symptom of pus and blood mixing together after the tissue in the lungs had ulcerated. At least five of Europe’s top nurses and doctors were busily moving around him.
Zi stared expressionlessly at the weakened Sheyan while holding his chilly hand. She wasn’t bothered by Sheyan’s phlegm at all. She quietly observed Sheyan for a while before walking over to a doctor at the side and asked.
“Why is his condition so severe?”
Seeing the respectful attitude of the boss of his boss towards this woman, the doctor didn’t dare to offend her in the slightest. He immediately replied.
“The patient had a very weird body constitution. He seems to have no immunity towards diseases at all. As soon as the bacteria enters his body, it spread rapidly. In my 37 years of practice this is the fastest I’ve ever seen a pneumonia spread. If it wasn’t for the result of tests showing that everything else is normal with him, I would actually suspect that he’s a late-stage AIDS patient.”
Zi contemplated for a moment before asking.
“If that’s the case….is his life in danger?”
The doctor hesitated, but still answered firmly.
“It is! What we’re doing now is to delay the deterioration of his illness as much as possible. Please note that we’re merely delaying it, there is no sign showing that he’s getting any better. If this continues, just like a person who is about to fall into the abyss, there will always be a time when he breaks through that critical line. The good news is that he is still some distance away from that irreversible tipping point.”
Sheyan was drenched in sweat. He felt as if there were more than a dozen rakes going over his chest, and the violent coughing fits even made him vomit. Then, the nightmare imprint sent him some notifications:
[The A-virus has detected the invasion of pneumococcus into the host’s body]
[The A-virus has activated the phagocytosis, replication, and improvement mode]
[Because the phagocytosis, replication, and improvement were all done on the digitized body of the contestant, during these processes, the pneumococcus in your body will be somewhat strengthened. The symptoms on your body will be more severe.]
[The A-virus has injected a catalytic code into the pneumococcus. The host’s symptoms are expected to reach their climax in an estimated time of 30 minutes. That will be the most critical period for the host, and also the most life-threatening period. The period will last for 800 minutes….]
[Data disorder. Data error. Recalculating.]
[Your ‘Stronghold’ innate ability is triggered. All abnormal statuses on you are weakened by 25%.]
[The climax period of your symptoms will last for 600 minutes. Your life may be threatened during this stage. Please make the relevant emergency preparations.]
[…..]
In the next six hundred minutes, Sheyan did not make any noise. He displayed an amazing willpower. But because gripped with too much strength, he tore a total seven bedsheets and blankets. Zi didn’t take a rest either. She silently kept him company.
During this period, both Mogensha and Reef returned to the real world and gave Sheyan a call. When they heard Zi answering his phone, even the honest Reef showed a tawdry expression…. Despite his condition, Sheyan clenched his teeth and personally answered the phone. He was definitely not born with such strong willpower; it was the training from the life-and-death experiences in the nightmare realm!
Finally, Sheyan’s torture ended. A soon as the replication of the A-virus was completed, his strong digitized body swept clean the disease that was running amok in his body. Sheyan sat up on the bed and exhaled a long breath. His whole body felt extremely light!
[A-virus replication has been successful!]
[You have successfully activated the rank 3 branch ability: ‘Common pneumonia’!]
[Rank 3 branch disease : ‘Common pneumonia’ lvl 2 (+1 bonus from the Twilight Elf’s Illumination)]
[This ability will only be effective on enemies who were infected with the bronchitis disease. The area of effect is equivalent to the rank 1 ability – ‘Influenza’.]
[When enemies who already have bronchitis are infected by pneumonia, the infection period is 40 seconds.]
[Effect: Significantly strengthen all symptoms.]
[Sneezing effect evolved into intermittent chest pain: There is a certain chance of the enemy experiencing extreme chest pain for 3 seconds. During this period, the enemy’s movement speed will drop by 80%. They will be unable to attack and will sustain 50 points of damage.]
[Shivering effect evolved into high fever: The enemy will sustain a high fever. Their MP consumption will double.]
[Headache effect evolved into hallucination: There is a chance of the enemy suffering a hallucination. The next attack will miss.]
[‘Violent Coughing’ has been strengthened: During the period of violent coughing, the enemy will be rendered immobile; incapable of attacking or casting abilities for 3 seconds (up from 2 seconds). Every time the enemy experiences ‘Violent Coughing’, it induces a 50-point blood loss damage over 3 seconds (originally 150-point blood loss damage over 15s after 3 times of ‘Violent Coughing’).]
[New effect of ‘Violent Coughing’: When the enemy is suffering from ‘Violent Coughing’, there is a certain chance of spitting out sticky phlegm. The foul-smelling sticky phlegm contains a huge amount of bacteria. It will instantly cause 100 points of damage to the surrounding enemies and lower their evasion by 3%.]
[This branch ability can exist simultaneously with some other disease-type branch abilities.]
[Please make haste to invest achievement points to strengthen this branch ability in order to unlock subsequent higher tiers in the innate skill tree!]
Sheyan was currently accumulating achievement points to promote himself to Lieutenant Colonel. He was quite satisfied with the abilities of ‘Pneumonia’, so he did not spend his achievement points to strengthen it. He could already predict that the next tier in the talent tree should be the ultimate ability – ‘Atypical pneumonia’! When the ‘Atypical pneumonia’ emerged, it would definitely cause major changes to the previous abilities. To be honest, Sheyan really looked forward to this ability.
All the doctors were stunned. Five minutes ago, Sheyan was still struggling for his life, and yet he’s now leaping down from his bed agilely and nonchalantly putting on his clothes.
The nurse nearest to Sheyan stopped him out of her professional attitude and stammered in shock.
“Sir, considering your wellbeing….”
Sheyan politely but resolutely pushed away her hand and smiled at her.
“I’m fine now, thank you.”
The nurse could only look at the attending doctor with a pleading gaze. Sheyan seemed to know what they were thinking, and told them.
“I’ll never be your guinea pig so you guys can just forget about that idea. Zi, I need you to take me to a nice meal. Then we can sit down and discuss about the board meeting next Monday.”
Zi, who had her arms crossed in front of her chest, asked hesitantly.
“The board meeting….do you have any good ideas?”
Sheyan grabbed a pack of biscuits lying at the side and gulped the biscuits down in large mouthfuls while he walked with Zi to her car. Only after she started the engine did he say.
“I don’t believe for a second that you don’t know about the idea I have in mind. You’re just unwilling to do it.”
Zi merely stared at Sheyan without saying anything.
Sheyan persuaded.
“I know why you’re hesitating, but you’re used to being in power. Can you really live a carefree life?”
This sentence spoke deep into Zi’s heart. She looked up at Sheyan.
“You mean….”
Senyan smiled and swallowed the last bit of biscuits.
“I really people who steal my car and force me to take a taxi. What’s the name of that bald director? I suggest we pay him a visit.”
“Sir Balagan,” said Zi emotionlessly. “He’s won’t be easy to handle. More importantly, he’s a very careful person. I could even feel the presence of someone similar to us among his bodyguards.”
“I’ll need his address. Um…do you think we should call Mogensha over?” asked Sheyan. Then, he smiled at Zi and said, “Actually, I feel like I can take on the world with just you by my side. Just like the time we went against the Skull Party and Glory Party.”
Zi could feel an indescribable emotion in his voice. She blushed and turned her head to the side in silence. After a while, she slowly said.
“We should go eat first.”
Sheyan was always swift and decisive when he acted. After stuffing himself, he called Reef to asked him to come over. The palace Reef stayed in was only 2 hours away from London by train. During their conversation, Reef lowered his voice and reminded Sheyan.
“Boss, do you like Melody more or Zi more? Sometimes, you have to make a choice.”
Sheyan had contemplated this matter for a long time. He simply said.
“I won’t let either of them go. At most, I’ll get dual-citizenship and join the UAE where it’s legal to have four wives.”
Reef: “…but will they be happy with this?”
Sheyan said disdainfully.
“How would you know that they won’t be happy? Ancient China practiced polygamy and yet we didn’t see the collapse of society or women suffering all the time. The civilization stood for 5,000 years. Even after the implementation of the monogamy system, there are still many women who choose to be mistresses.”
Reef was dumbfounded by Sheyan’s answer. He could only shake his head and sigh.
The board meeting of the E.S. financial group scheduled for Monday did not take place after all.
That’s because 2 important members of the board were absent. They may very well remain absent forever.
Sir Balagan, who held 11.7% of the shares, had caught a severe case of pneumonia and was currently being treated in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The best case scenario estimated by the doctors was for him to live until the end of this winter. No one seemed to have asked what the worst case scenario was, but the news still spread.
Mr. Leo, who held 8.3% of the shares, met with a serious accident. He would spend a long time in the ICU.
Even if the meeting was held, without the two core members of the opposition faction, the other directors weren’t Zi’s match. There was no longer any point to the board meeting.
(T/N note: The title is a Chinese idiom which means to push someone to do something beyond their ability.)
The enemy was weakened while they were strengthened. One the one hand, two core members of the board of directors fell; on the other, Zi received a mysterious injection of fund (Reef’s savings). They struck while the iron was hot and bought the E.S. financial group shares held by two minor shareholders, thus further increasing the amount of shares under Zi’s name. Zi’s position became unshakeable.
And thus ended Zi’s internal crisis.
It was a shame that Franklin wasn’t from this world, or the Ace Party could have regrouped in the real world and had a real party.
After Sheyan finished dealing with all these matters, he had a thought of returning to Taiwan. Coincidentally, Sanzi’s call came.
Sanzi’s side of the phone was very noisy. It was with a considerable amount of effort that Sheyan distinguished the noise to be the banging of drums and the excited shouting voices of young men and women. Sanzi was obviously either in a club or in a bar.
Sheyan answered with a hello. From the other end came the sound of alcohol being gulped down. Sanzi sounded like a thirsty man in the desert that was gulping down alcohol like he was drinking water. Only after a while did he finally spoke. His voice was hoarse.
“Big brother! I….I….”
The rest of his words did not come out. It sounded like something was shoved down his throat.
Sheyan instantly sensed that something was wrong, and immediately asked.
“What? What’s happening?”
A feminine voice transmitted over the phone.
“Hey handsome, why are you drinking alone? Come on, let’s dance. ”
Sanzi, who had become stupid drunk at this time, had almost zero resistance towards women, so all Sheyan got for a reply was noisy background noises. When he called back again, he was instantly cut off.
Sheyan couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive so he quickly called Uncle Dasi. Uncle Dasi assured him that everything was alright. Sanzi had been running his errands well and had not caused any trouble lately. Sheyan knew that Uncle Dasi had always doted on Sanzi. Fearing that he had concealed something, Sheyan gave a call to Aunt Di Gu. But Aunt Di Gu also told him the same thing, which meant that Sanzi really was alright.
Sheyan felt slightly better but he still didn’t feel completely at ease. He decided to check Sanzi’s Skype. After fiddling for a long time in London he finally pulled Sanzi’s Skype profile out. The guy’s ID had changed to “Passionate Elbow” and his signature was “you just got me!”.
Sheyan determined that Sanzi had fallen into the side effects of a boy’s testosterone and androgen. He should not lack young women on his side after all; it shouldn’t be big problem. They were nothing compared to the icy mature director he had to deal with.
Sanzi was still someone Sheyan brought up so Sheyan still planned to take the time to go back and talk to him for a bit. However, something that demanded Sheyan’s full attention suddenly happened.
The nightmare imprint suddenly sent him a blood-red parcel!
The blood-red parcel contained a roll of ancient looking parchment which was tied with a piece of tattered clothes soaked with dripping blood.
The even blood soaked into the parchment and left large blot marks on it, as well as emitting a foul blood stench.
The thing gave off a primitive, wild, bloody, rough and crazy feeling.
Of course Sheyan didn’t dare to open it carelessly. He immediately reached out to Zi and Reef, and called Mogensha. Zi and Reef had no idea what it was, but Mogensha exclaimed in a hoarse voice after thinking for a while.
“Could this be an invitation from the Bloody World?”
Before they could ask, Mogensha already started his explanation.
“I don’t know the details either but I encountered a person before when I was browsing the marketplace who was selling the things his boss left behind. His boss had died after receiving an invitation for the Bloody World….”
Zi said with a serious expression.
“I think I have some idea what this is now thanks to AK’s explanation.”
Sheyan and Reef instantly looked at her expectantly.
Zi collected her thoughts and said.
“It’s not that easy to explain. Let me think. Um, I’ll start from the Jurassic Park world.”
The rest of them knew that Zi was about to tell them some deep lying secrets of the realm so they paid full attention to her.
“You guys should have fought with and killed members of the Skull Party before. Did you realise that the reward from killing Skull Party members are different from the reward from killing Zeus’ members?” asked Zi while she slowly stirred a cup of coffee.
Sheyan nodded his head.
“Yeah, it was obvious. Killing the Skull Party members awarded additional achievement points, and equipments were directly drawn. The rewards were significantly better than the rewards from killing the Metal Professor and other people.”
“That’s because we were on the same side as the Glory Party. Killing amongst ourselves was not encouraged. That’s why our rewards shrunk,” Zi moved the coffee to her mouth but did not take a sip. She merely let the hot smoke warm her lips, as if doing that made her feel better.
“We were on the same side?” asked Sheyan in surprise.
Zi’s eyes turned fuzzy as she said.
“That’s right! The Glory Party and us were from the same nightmare realm. If you were to compare us to soldiers, it would mean that we were under the same commanding officer.”
Sheyan could already make some deductions based on what he heard so far.
“I understand now. So the Skull Party was from another nightmare realm. They don’t take orders from our realm, so when we killed them, the realm gave us the highest rewards. Seems like the competition between realms is pretty fierce too.”
Zi quietly nodded.
“Fierce is an understatement. The Avatar world should be your first realm war, right? Wait ’til you experience high intensity realm wars. You will know how unbelievably cruel the competition between different realms is! During those times, all the contestants under the same realm must put aside their differences and work together. If they don’t achieve the minimum requirement set by the realm, the furious realm may very well kill all the contestants under its jurisdiction!”
Sheyan found it hard to breathe. Zi’s words had opened up a whole new window in his perspective.
A window full of blood!
Zi finally took a sip of her coffee but it had already turned cold, so she put it back down in disgust. She got up to take a few mouthfuls of cold water. She had given up on preserving her demeanor by now. She took a deep breath, and said.
“The invitation letter to the Bloody World is usually sent by the realm to the leader of a strong party in the realm. It would ask the leader to send the strongest member in their party. The next world this member goes to will be a world of massacre. The only main mission is to kill the other people to collect their invitation letters!”
“There will usually be at least 20 people invited to a Bloody World. The number of people who can come back alive will usually not exceed 5. The more invitation letters a person can collect, the more advantageous the position their realm will occupy in the next realm war. This event is usually a precursor to the start of another realm war.”
“Of course, the nightmare realm will not give out impossible missions, so there might be 2-3 Bloody Worlds open at the same time in order to separate contestants of different strength level. The invitation letter you received should only be an invitation to the lowest level Bloody World.”
Sheyan nodded thoughtfully.
“I see. So the reason the invitation letter was given to me was because I’m the leader of this high ranking Silver party. It’s unfortunate that I haven’t awakened yet or I could go and have some fun.”
The awakened Brother Black laughed and said.
“Leave it to me, boss. Don’t worry, this task suits me perfectly.”
Mogensha moved fast and had a wealth of battle experience. He could already suppress a Growth-Hunter when he was still a Reserve-Duty Growth Hunter. Now that he had become a Growth-Hunter, he should be able to take care of himself even if his opponent was an Awakener. His dark gold leather trousers would also add to his survivability. The Viperwolf it summoned was a great PK weapon.
More importantly was the fact that most of the enemies would also act alone. Mogensha was the best choice for 1v1 in their team.
Sheyan contemplated for a bit and nodded his head. He put his hand on the invitation letter and unfurled it….
Cruel reality hit Sheyan right on the face!
[Contestant no. 1018]
[You are the leader of the Silver party, Ace]
[You have been appointed as one of the warrior representatives to enter the coming Bloody World]
[You will enter the next world alone to battle against various mighty opponents. Hopefully, you can return alive.]
“…..What the hell!!!” screamed Sheyan who immediately queried through the nightmare imprint: “I am still a Reserve-Duty Growth-Hunter. I request a Growth-Hunter awakening mission for my next world!”
The cold voice of the realm shattered Sheyan’s heart into pieces.
[The Growth-Hunter awakening mission can also be performed in the Bloody World.]
Sheyan was speechless. He kept quiet for 2 seconds, then erupted in intense protest!
“Motherf*cker! The Bloody World alone is already insanely dangerous. Awakening missions are life-threatening too (just look at Reef)! Do you want me to die!”
[This is your reward for completing main storyline missions with low evaluations for a few times in a row]
“….Hey, hey, why can’t I send another party member instead?”
[Good luck]
“I’ll get a high evaluation in the next world! I promise!”
[Good luck]
“Can you please say something else.”
[Good luck]
“…..”
Faced with this dilemma, Sheyan pressed his hand on his forehead and fell on the middle seat of the sofa. He could only sigh in depression. Sometimes you really don’t know what would happen. Sheyan had originally planned everything well, but now, the whole plan was completely overturned!
The others knew that his mood must be terrible and they also had no experience with the Bloody World, so there was nothing they could say to comfort him.
One could already tell how dangerous the Bloody World would be from its name alone. The danger level of awakening missions need no introduction either. If Sheyan were to slip just once, even if he were to live, it would cost him dearly.
He was extremely limited in the ways he could complete his missions. For example, he saw that Brother Black went through his awakening mission without wearing anything. But if Sheyan were to do the same, he would just be courting death. The other killers in the Bloody World would be very willing to see a naked lamb like Sheyan enter their tigers’ mouths.
Sheyan grabbed a pen and started to casually draw and write something in a notebook. However, the limited amount of info he had caused him to give up halfway through his deduction. Upset, he logged into his Skype. Miss Su Lingzi, who was sitting beside him, accidentally glanced at his Skype ID, causing her to roll her eyes. His ID was “Extremely Honest”.
Sheyan stared absent-mindedly at the screen for a long time before changing his status to : “If life is like being raped, and you can’t fight back, then the only thing to do is to enjoy it.”
(T/N note: WOW)
(ED: Mr. Authors amazing analogies appear once again !)
Then, Sheyan laughed heartily. He walked into the bedroom and buried his head in a blanket like an ostrich burying its head in the ground. He wanted to forget everything so that he could calm down. He knew what kind of situation he was in. He couldn’t think of anything if he kept feeling so agitated.
Time passed by in a flash. It was time to enter the nightmare realm again. The Ace Party once again congregated.
Sheyan took a deep breath and suddenly hugged Zi. Zi was flabbergasted. Sheyan didn’t try to do anything else though. He merely said.
“I’m counting on you for this world.”
Zi whispered.
“Can’t you let me go first?”
Sheyan laughed and patted on her back, then hugged with Reef, Mogensha, and Franklin. Franklin had just heard that Sheyan had the “honour” of being selected and most likely had to experience the Bloody World + awakening mission simultaneously. He was silent for a moment, then produced a scroll.
“Boss, you might need this.”
The description of the scroll read: [Rank 6 copying scroll (marked) – tear this scroll and use it on a target to produce an illusion of the target. The illusion will have 100% of the target’s HP and 30% of the target’s attack power. It is very difficult for this scroll to be effective on legendary creatures.]
“Isn’t this your innate ability?” asked Sheyan.
Franklin nodded.
“It is. But I think you need it more.”
Sheyan muttered.
“There must be a price for this.”
Franklin told it to him straight.
“My ability is unusable until the scroll is torn, and even after you use the scroll, I have to wait for another 24 hours for it to recover….but I think the danger of our next world should be significantly lower than yours.”
Sheyan nodded and solemnly kept the scroll.
“Thank you.”
This is the cleverness of Franklin. He never stood out, but when the team was in danger, he always displayed his worth. He was low-key but reliable and perfectly understood his role. It was no wonder that Sheyan recruited him.
It was the first time Zi interacted with Franklin, but she had been a team leader for a long time and was very experienced. She silently nodded in her mind, and had basically recognized Franklin as a member of the party.
Sheyan took a deep breath and waved.
“Well then, I’ll go apply for the awakening mission.”
Suddenly, Mogensha spoke out.
“But boss…you don’t have to apply for the awakening mission, do you? Without it, you definitely have a chance of coming back alive.”
Sheyan sighed.
“I’ve awakened too many times in the LOTR world so I don’t have many awakening chances left. I know my limit. In the Bloody World, if I don’t awaken, my survival rate will be less than 70%! I have no choice. It’s ok, you guys get busy, I’ll handle it.”
Sheyan entered his personal room and closed the door. He must take the time to properly review his strengths and weaknesses.
As Sun Tzu said, know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. Sheyan knew that his next battle would be unbelievably hard. He had to squeeze out every bit of his potential or he would never survive this ordeal.
First, he checked his achievement points: 168 points.
He was only one step away from promoting to Lieutenant Colonel.
Sheyan hesitated. Should he keep hoarding his achievement points for his promotion, or use them to strengthen ‘Pestilence Monarch’?
Saving the achievement points would be better for the party and for the future, but strengthening ‘Pestilence Monarch’ would increase his current strength. It also realised one thing – in the near future, he should forget about obtaining both promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and the ultimate ability of ‘Pestilence Monarch’, ‘Atypical Pneumonia’. Both consumed a lot of achievement points to achieve.
After giving it some serious thought, Sheyan gritted his teeth and decided to brave the huge risk to keep the achievement points. He could treat it as a trump card. If he found himself in danger, he could strengthen ‘Pestilence Monarch’ on the spot. It was fortunate that he didn’t need to return to the real world to strengthen ‘Pestilence Monarch’, unlike when he had to obtain a new disease. Otherwise, Sheyan won’t be able to have his cake and eat it too like this.
Next, Sheyan checked his base attributes.
Fang Sheyan (Contestant No. 1018)
Free attribute points: 3
Strength: 43 (23+1+2+2+6+2+3+4)
Agility: 34 (17+2+5+2+6+2)
★ Physique: 49 (50+1+12+2+4+4=73)
Perceptive Sense: 32 (23+2+6+1)
Charm: 1 (10+1-5-2-3)
Intelligence: 12 (10+2)
Spirit: 6 (10-2-2)
★ Before Awakening: HP = 1000 + 1.25[490 + 200(Oceanfreak Moria+Mister healthy) + 50(Monstrous fighting spirit) + 560(lvl8 Asylum)] = 2625
★ After Awakening: HP = 1000 + 1.25[880 + 200(Oceanfreak Moria+Mister healthy) + 50(Monstrous fighting spirit) + 560(lvl8 Asylum) + 300] = 3487.5
MP = 120 + 100(Oceanfreak Moria) + 40(helmet) + 560(lvl8 Asylum) = 820
Defence = 49/2 + 2 = 26.5
Sheyan added all 3 of his free attribute points to his Strength. With the effect of his gene-mix, he could now easily breakthrough dual-50 boundaries. For Sheyan, Physique and Strength were both crucial in his future plan, so he placed a lot of importance in them.
An indescribable sense of pride surfaced in Senyan’s heart. It was very rare in the nightmare realm for someone who had not promoted to Growth-Hunter to have such numbers.
Sheyan double-checked everything, then heaved a long breath and stood up. He issued a order through the nightmare imprint to depart for the honour area. It was time to apply for his awakening mission.
The ground under his feet suddenly descended like an elevator. He didn’t know what he passed through but when light appeared again, the honour area was in sight.
And it seemed that there were quite a few of contestants who came here today. The queue was pretty long. Sheyan wasn’t in the mood to wait patiently in line, nor did he have any thought of concealing himself. He directly displayed his Major rank. He went straight into the passage that only Reserve-duty officers could enter, amidst the shocked gaze of the people around him.
It was a lot more quiet inside as only a few people were waiting. Although their faces couldn’t be clearly seen, the imposing manner of their bodies was suffocating, and the atmosphere in the waiting room was as cold as steel, silent and awkward. From time to time there were undercurrents clashing underneath the surface.
Sheyan was the last to enter. He extended his finger and pressed at the door, which was a process similar to punching an ID card to tell the realm that he had some affairs that need handling. He then walked directly to the entrance of the operation office, and spoke to the person blocking the entrance.
“Excuse me.”
The muscular man glared at Sheyan in disdain and told him off in a hoarse voice.
“Hey retard, are you new here? Don’t you know the rules? I’m up next.”
Sheyan looked at him and said.
“You were up next, but not anymore now that I’m here.”
“Hahaha!” the man burst into a fit of laughter. “Who do you think you are? You want to take my position? I’ve never heard of a Lieutenant General being sent down the pecking order here.”
Sheyan was in a bad mood to begin with so he answered with a smirk.
“Today, you won’t just hear about it. You’ll see it with your own eyes. You think you’re so big just because you’re a reserve-duty Lieutenant General?”
The expression of the muscular man turned dark instantly. Everyone who could come here was the cream of the crop and they all had their pride. He was about to unleash a string of profanities at Sheyan when the green light of the passage suddenly lit up, indicating that the previous person inside had finished their business and the place was vacant now.
Sheyan walked inside like it was the most natural thing in the world. There was originally a transparent glass door in front of him. If a person tried to enter without getting permission, the person would be electrocuted. The muscular man was ready to laugh at Sheyan but the next moment, his eyes almost popped out. The glass door actually slid open to both sides!!
The face muscle of the muscular man twitched a few times. From the side, a person said sarcastically.
“That was eye-opening.”
“You f*cking idiot!!!”
Sheyan ignored the commotion behind him. He turned a corner and took a seat on a chair.
[No. 1018….Scanning….]
[Confirming Identity….]
[Your current nightmare imprint rank is Major.]
[You currently have 168 achievement points.]
[Welcome back, Major. What can we do for you?]
“I wish to apply for an awakening mission for my next world.”
[Information check in progress….. You have received an invitation letter to a Bloody World for your next world, and were appointed as the representative warrior. Are you sure you want to undergo an awakening mission?]
Sheyan thought in his mind that of course he didn’t want to, but there was no doubt that he would die if he didn’t do the awakening mission. If he did, he would still have a chance of surviving. He could only grit his teeth and said.
“I’m sure.”
[Scanning in progress, collecting information…. Respected Major No. 1018, you currently have 2 attributes that can break through the 50-point boundary. Which base attribute would you like to choose to be the first attribute to breakthrough?]
Sheyan’s face twitched.
“I choose a dual-attribute breakthrough!”
[Scanning in progress, collecting information…. Respected Major No. 1018, due to your rank, you obtain the following information.]
[The difficulty of a dual-attribute awakening mission is double that of a single-attribute awakening mission.]
[For the duration of your awakening mission, you cannot consume any medicines or food, including, but not limited to, ‘Honorary Dosages’.]
[For the duration of your awakening mission, you cannot receive help from anyone, including, but not limited to, buffs received before the mission starts.]
[This is the first time you undertake an awakening mission so you can stop the mission anytime. However, every time you fail an awakening mission, the next one will be 10% more difficult. If you choose a dual-attribute breakthrough, the increase in difficulty will become 20%.]
[You cannot reveal any information regarding your awakening mission to anyone in any way. Every time you do so, all your attributes will decrease by 10 points.]
[Are you sure you want to choose a dual-attribute breakthrough?]
“I’m sure!” Sheyan’s voice sounded like it was forced through clenched teeth.
[Scanning in progress, collecting information…. Respected Major No. 1018, your request has been accepted. In your next world, you will undertake a dual-attribute breakthrough awakening mission. Good luck.]
Sheyan took a deep breath. He missed the hoarse voice terribly, hoping that it would show up and give him a hint. Unfortunately, people didn’t always get everything they wanted.
He did not continue his stay because Sheyan suddenly realised that there was one more thing he had to do. The thing seemed simple, but it was quite tedious. And, it would determine whether he could successfully pass the challenge of the awakening mission.
As time went on, more and more people entered the nightmare world. The Ace Party, under the leadership of Zi, had also stepped inside. When Sheyan heard the name of the world they entered, tears instantly streamed down his face. It was the Resident Evil world.
Aaaaaaargh….Sheyan had turned numb. If he were to enter that world, he would be almost completely immune to the disease of the zombies due to carrying the A-virus himself. Without the threat of their toxin and disease, the damage done by the zombies would decrease by at least 30%!
What was strange was that Sheyan still hadn’t received any information regarding which world he would enter next. He found out after enquiring that, in order to ensure fairness, warriors entering a Bloody World would not be informed beforehand which world it would be. This would offset the factor of their parties to a large extent.
For example, if Sheyan knew which world he would enter, he could let Reef and the others collect specific information regarding that world, and even use the resources of the whole party to custom-make weapons and equipments that specifically targeted that world. This kind of behavior did not violate the law of the realm, but it would go against the objective of the realm. What if another party had no resources to do so? What if there was a party with great potential but had just undergone a wipeout and couldn’t pool the resources?
The realm was also trying to maintain a fair environment. Of course, there was no absolute fairness in this world….but to take this measure was better than not taking it.
Finally, the notification for him to enter arrived. When he reached the realm plaza, he saw that next to the ordinary dark blue portal, there was another portal!
The portal seemed to be formed from boiling blood that was flowing in a silky and orderly manner. From time to time, boiling bubbles would emerge accompanied by the sound of a beast burping!
Sheyan’s body turned bright and bloody, looking extremely terrifying. The bloody invitation letter automatically floated to the top of his head, shining with a brilliant radiance!
Step by step, he approached the blood red portal. The crowd respectfully parted to make way for him.
Sheyan took a deep breath and suddenly burst into a crazy roar, then stepped into the bloody portal.
Behind the blood-coloured portal.
Sheyan did not lose consciousness. His vision blurred and he felt like the next few seconds were strangely passing by extremely slowly. It was the same sensation as having a lengthy dream while taking a short afternoon nap. After that, a scene appeared before his eyes.
Dirty grey walls filled with spider webs, the air filled with a suffocating rancid smell. Next to Sheyan’s feet was a ditch about two meters wide. The black water flowing inside the ditch felt horrifying. Various things floated inside including rotten rice, fish bones, small food bags, and even used tampons….
Sheyan felt that he would rather take a knife to his body than fall into the damn gutter. He looked up and found that the ceiling above was only a foot away from his head. No wonder he felt an oppressive pressure. The tunnel he was in was arched. Seeing this architectural style, Sheyan immediately realised that he was in the underground sewer of a large city.
Within such a deplorable environment, everyone’s first reaction would undoubtedly be to immediately climbed above the ground and leave the damn place. Sheyan felt the same. He pinched his nose took large steps forward, but he couldn’t find any stairs. After walking for about forty or fifty meters, Sheyan suddenly heard a rather strange sound.
The faint noise sounded like a group of people whispering, and also like the sound of cockroaches crawling on the ground. In this dim sewer, the visibility was quite low. Sheyan slowly inched forward, ready for any sudden occurrences. He gradually saw several people wearing ragged clothes squatting together in the dark corner ahead. They seemed to be eating something. That was the source of the noise he heard.
Sheyan slowly stepped forward. Those people showed no reaction to his approach. Suddenly, Sheyan’s foot stepped on something fragile. He had raised his concentration to its peak so he instantly felt it.
As his foot pushed downwards, the shell of the object beneath his foot deformed rapidly and ruptured. Cracks began to appear on its upper and lower sides. It then emitted a squeaking sound as the yellow-green slurry and internal organs inside burst out in a hot mess to cover Sheyan’s sole.
“I seemed to have killed a bug?” as soon as the thought flashed in Sheyan’s mind, he saw the homeless people in front turn their heads towards him simultaneously. The muscles on their faces were twisted, and in their eyes were a poisonous hatred. All of them let out a shuddering roar, stretched their hands, and pounced at Sheyan!
Sheyan’s attention was mainly focused on these hobos, so he wasn’t flustered when they launched their attack.
Because the terrain was quite narrow, Sheyan did not use his ‘+7 West’, but instead smashed a bottle of curse-mix on the ground. The group of hobos was stunned by the shockwave and fell to the ground after suffering substantial damage.
That wasn’t the end of it. Sheyan’s eyes widened in shock as everywhere the shockwave passed, the ground would emit cracking noises similar to the sound made by the cockroach-like bug when Sheyan stepped on it earlier.
A large amount of yellowish-green liquid could be vaguely seen splashed on the ground. There were also big spots of yellowish-green stains on the wall. If it wasn’t for the shockwave, Sheyan could never have imagined that there were so many bugs around him!
“Damn, is this an insect nest?” Sheyan’s heart remained suspicious, but his reaction was fast. He stepped forward to meet the vicious hobo closest to him with a fist to the hobo’s face.
Sheyan’s current Strength had reached 49 points. His punch sent the guy flying backwards headfirst before slamming into the wall behind him. The impact sounded extremely heavy. If he was a normal person, the damage that this punch caused would at least give him a severe concussion, making him lose consciousness on the spot.
But the guy merely struggled a few times, then stood back up as if nothing happened.
Sheyan frowned. He clearly felt that when his fist landed on the guy’s face, it felt like he was punching a sandbag filled with hard, tiny stones. His fist sunk into the hobo’s face and he could feel the small bumps inside. It was very weird.
Their companion being knocked down did not cause the rest of the hobos to retreat. Their mouths made a strange distress call of two long sounds followed by a short one. They seemed to be contacting something. Then, they continued to surround Sheyan. Sheyan simply hunched down, flung his fist and threw his knee to send another enemy flying.
The guy that was sent back by Sheyan drew an arc in the air and fell heavily into the dirty water with a loud bang. The huge splash of dirty water sent forth an indescribable suffocating odour that could make one vomit.
The man seemed completely oblivious to his situation. He opened his mouth to reveal his yellowish staggered teeth and screamed out in a hoarse voice. He even swallowed a few mouthfuls of dirty water in the process but showed no reaction to it. He merely tried to rush back towards Sheyan. Sheyan felt a nauseating disgust just from looking at him.
Sheyan was only dazed for a moment but one of the men took the opportunity to rush up behind him and hugged him tightly. After all, Sheyan was not an agility type contestant like Brother Black who could handle any type of situation with ease.
Sheyan reacted fast though. The moment he was caught, he could feel a hot, smelly breath on the back of his neck as well as hear a beast-like gasping noise. He knew this signalled that the enemy was trying to bite into his neck. He immediately slammed his head back while his legs pushed out to heavily throw his back into a wall.
A bang erupted. The sensation, though, left a weird feeling in Sheyan. He felt as if the enemy behind him was made of a lot of broken stones, which scattered from the collision.
The skin on his back felt some prickling pain, and then felt the itchy sensation of crawling things. Notifications from the nightmare imprint followed:
[You are bitten and stung by an unknown creature. You will be infected with various types of unknown diseases….]
[Due to the effect of the Stairway of the Sun in your body, this negative status was resisted….]
[You are bitten and stung by an unknown creature. You will be infected with various types of unknown diseases….]
[Due to the effect of the Stairway of the Sun in your body, this negative status was resisted….]
[……..]
Sheyan immediately reached back with his hand and slapped his back. When he retracted his palm, there was an indescribably pungent odor. A mixture of viscous yellowish-green liquid and internal organs was left on his palm. He couldn’t help but look at the corpses of the bugs on the ground and reluctantly concluded that his back must also be in a terrible mess.
Sheyan took two steps back to place his back against the wall, then avoided close combat with those damnable enemies as best he could. Whenever they approached, he would kick them into the gutter. After doing that to two people in a row, Sheyan saw a gap and unhesitatingly fled.
He was very clear on what stance he should take in this world. He would continue to keep a low profile and try his best to hide his strength, then find the awakening mission as soon as possible. Therefore, although Sheyan was very confident of killing these strange people, he assessed that the intensity of the battle may be beyond the scope of his control, so he would rather avoid the fight than to expose himself by leaving any possible traces that could be detected by his enemies.
Intense footsteps echoed in the sealed, rancid sewer. As Sheyan was stridding forward, he cme to a sudden halt because there was another figure in front of him. This person looked like a tall, obese black man. His face and skin were wrinkled and distorted. Black sarcoma of two to three centimeters in size sagged off his skin, and occasionally, one could see some protruding round things moving under his skin.
Sheyan could sense a dangerous aura from him, which meant that he had the ability to threaten Sheyan’s life. Sheyan wished he could run back but the strange hobos had already caught up from behind!
“Ugh, so you’re forcing me to fight,” sighed Sheyan.
Right that moment, a manhole cover was pried open above his head. From the manhole extended a nozzle that looked like an elephant’s trunk. The nozzle spewed a large amount pungent-smelling white smoke into the sewer. The strange people surrounding Sheyan seemed to be extremely wary of the smoke. They emitted strange sounding screams and limped away quickly with a deformed,twitching gait.
Then, there was an anxious shout from above Sheyan.
“Steven!! If you’re still alive, then let me hear a shout, or at least a moan! If you don’t even have the strength for that, then at least give me a signal. Don’t just keep quiet, alright? Fine, you win, you don’t have to pay me back the 30 dollars you owe me!”
After the shout, a snake-like probe was lowered from above. After observing for a while, a slide was extended down. A fat black man wearing a firefighter uniform jumped down and immediately saw the flabbergasted Sheyan. He exclaimed cheerfully.
“You son of a btch! Fcking hell! For once, God has answered my prayer!”
Next, a lanky guy slid down. As soon as he saw Sheyan, he said with a professional attitude.
“Call an ambulance. This is the fifth infection from the special drug in the last 48 hours. He should be in an unconscious state right now due to his nerves being particularly susceptible to the insect repellent. Maybe one of his ancestors carried the gene of insects. Hospital No.8 in the city center should be able to fix him right up – but it’s hard to tell if there’ll be any side effects.”
After that, a group of people jumped down and lifted Sheyan up from the sewer to the street above. Seeing the sun again almost brought tears to Sheyan’s eyes. Sheyan was about to say something when he saw an old style luxury Cadillac that looked new speeding over from the distance. Two men in stiff black suits and black coats exited the car.
They had very neat hair that was combed to the back with hair gel. They had stiff movements, stiff facial expressions, and spoke with stiff tones. They looked like mannequins, or robots. After they approached, they displayed their ID.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please remain quiet. Seems like something happened here. Can you please tell us about it?”
The fat black dude snapped.
“We’ve submitted five reports of injuries caused by mutated poisonous cockroaches in the sewers to the municipal office, but all we got back in response was “the reports are being processed, please remain patient”. Well then, it seems like the two of you are the answers? This poor guy we’re carrying, he’s the fifth victim. I’m afraid only two out of the four victims before him will survive, and even the two who survive will only be waiting on their beds for death to claim them!”
The guy in black suit ignored his comment and instead asked.
“Where are the mutated poisonous cockroaches you mentioned?”
“We’ve chased them away. For the sake of our safety, we bought all the pesticides from 3 nearby supermarkets. Are you going to reimburse us for this additional expenditure?”
Asked the fat black man.
One of the guy in black suit nodded and said in a stiff, cold voice.
“Not a problem. Also, we’ve already discovered the source of the problem. Please look over here.”
As he said that, he took out a pair of sunglasses from his chest and put it on. Then, a stainless steel tube about 10 cm in length appeared in his left hand. The tube extended to show a shining red light on its tip….
Originally, Sheyan still had some doubt, but now he was completely sure which world this is…..!!!
Strange enemies, old-fashioned but brand-new luxury cars, mysterious people who arrived immediately on the scene, and their uniform black suits and ties which screamed their identity. And, of course, that impressive stick they pulled out.
Sheyan could vividly remember that this thing was described as “a gift from some friends from out of town” in the original version. Its importance was obvious – it could wipe ten to fifteen minutes of memory.
More importantly, it seemed that this object had a strong temporary hypnotic effect after the memory wipe. The victims would be convinced of any information they were fed during this time! It was a great weapon to fool the public!
“This…turned out to be the world of the Men in Black!” Sheyan sighed with a bit of regret. For him, this world was not particularly bad, but it was definitely not a big advantage either.
The man in black continued in a serious demeanor.
“Trust me, I’m explaining something really important to you, so you must give me some time to organize my words so that your poor brain can accept my statement more easily….Come, everyone, look here, click!”
A mild flash came and gone in a blink. The Man in Black did not pay much attention to Sheyan because he believed the words of the fat black dude and deemed Sheyan to be a harmless target. Sheyan had immediately avoided the light, but because he wasn’t wearing sunglasses, he could feel an indescribable strange feeling emerging in him.
It felt like there was an invisible stick stirring a certain area in his brain. The information inside the area was smashed, thrown into an invisible blender, and was finally gulped down by an invisible mouth.
Although Sheyan was not directly exposed to the light, and as a contestant, he was fiercely resisting with his willpower, he soon realized that his last ten minutes of memory had become fuzzy, as if it was covered in a layer of time dust. The memory of the last ten minutes was forcibly fermented for decades. Sheyan could only recall that he seemed to have encountered some disgusting insects, and that the person in front of him may be a Man in Black….
The Man in Black started brainwashing the crowd who all had on dull expressions.
“Gentlemen, I know it’s hard being a municipal worker. In the last few days, you were merely befuddled by some chemical reaction from the damn man-made waste. There’s nothing to fear with cockroaches and bugs. So, after you take these two hundred dollars here, you will continue to work happily, and you will think back of today’s event as just a small incident.”
After the Man in Black was done with his speech, the municipal worker slowly recovered from their stiff expressions and stepped up one by one to receive the money. Then, they sighed as if they just woke up from a dream, slapped each other’s shoulders and made plans for a drink together after work.
The black guy pointed at Sheyan and said.
“Steven seemed to have met with some troubles earlier. Let’s send him home first.”
The lanky man walked over, pulled Sheyan up, then whispered to him.
“Alright, cut the act, Steven. We’ve got more compensation than we expected. Your heavy fall was totally worth it. Now tell me, do you want to rest, or do you want some weed, some drink, and a woman? It’s on Martin and me.”
Sheyan pretended to be in a daze and mumbled something in reply. The two Men in Black had already gotten back into their car and drove away so they didn’t realize that for a contestant like Sheyan, even if he did not deliberately resist, the hypnotic effect would still be completely ineffective on him.
At the moment, the nightmare imprint sent its notifications.
[ Time: June 2018 A.D., 4:30 pm ]
[ Location: United States of America / New York (40°43′ N, 74°00′ E) ]
[ Setting: Men in Black ]
[ Difficulty: Unknown ]
[ Pain limitations: 20% ]
[ Individual capability enhancement: 0% ]
[ Current setting exploration rate: 0.00% ]
[ Additional details: This is a Bloody World. When a contestant is killed, the victor will obtain 2 to 5 achievement points (determined by army rank/character rank) and a random draw of 1 equipment. ]
[ Additional details: Bloody Mode has been activated. As time progresses, at certain intervals, all contestants with a Bloody invitation letter will be able to sense each other. The higher the army rank of a contestant, the shorter the duration of the contestant being sensed by others. The longer a contestant stays in this world, the longer the duration of the contestant being sensed by others. ]
[ You can leave this world after collecting 3 Bloody invitation letters. If you collect more Bloody invitation letters, you will receive additional rewards. ]
[ You will be killed if you do not possess 3 or more Bloody invitation letters after 30 days. ]
[ You automatically grasp the relevant language and will be able to interact freely with characters from this world. This ability will be erased upon leaving this world. ]
[ Accepted mission count: 0 ]
[ Your appearance/identity have been settled; restored upon returning to the present world. You can also commence modifications within the nightmare realm. For any doubts, voice the relevant queries to the nightmare imprint; if your scope of authority is adequate, you will receive an answer. ]
Sheyan was just thinking of what he should do next when he received another notification.
[ Warning, warning: Blood Sensing will be initiated in 3 minutes. Contestant No. 1018, you will sense the location of other contestants after a 1-minute countdown. The base duration of the Blood Sensing this time is 5 minutes. Your army rank is Major, so the duration of others sensing your position is reduced by 2 minutes. At the same time, the duration of you sensing the location of other contestants with army ranks below yours is extended by 1 minute. ]
Sheyan instantly got nervous. If there just happened to be several participants in his vicinity, then it would be really bad. It would totally ruin his original plan. After all, he couldn’t match up against these vicious contestants as a mere reserve-duty Growth-Hunter even if he was willing to.
The Blood Sense was soon initiated. Sheyan’s concerns did not come into existence. The participants were quite evenly distributed in all corners of New York, so they were quite far apart from each other and will not come into contact straightaway.
It seemed that the realm was trying to create a fair environment as best they could by giving everyone the same opportunity and time to adapt to the world. For Sheyan, he must seize this opportunity to break through to a Growth-Hunter first!
He inquired about his breakthrough-related information, but all he got was an address:
Hudson River Estuary, Jersey City, New Jersey
There was nothing else after that.
To be honest, Sheyan was not familiar with New York. Fortunately, he knew now that his identity should be a sewer worker named Steven, and he had two friends nearby. While they were driving towards a bar they usually frequent, Sheyan deliberately held his forehead and moaned.
“Damn, I feel like my brain’s so messed up it’s turning into condensed milk. Right, do you guys know anything special about the Hudson River Estuary in Jersey?”
The black dude, Martin, looked at Sheyan in pity.
“Steven, did you knock yourself silly when you fell? Hudson River Estuary – that’s where the Statue of Liberty is.”
“The Statue of Liberty?” Sheyan came to a sudden realization! He then fell into a deep thought. What purpose did the realm have for arranging his breakthrough at that place?
With this question in mind, Sheyan was carried by a group of friends into a small bar that looked very cheap. He continued his act of feeling dizzy and leaned back on the sofa to carefully ponder the series of problems he faced. First of all, Sheyan must consider what connection his breakthrough had with the Statue of Liberty. But no matter how he racked his brain, he could find no common points between them at all!
Next, Sheyan thought about which period in the Man in Black movie he was in right now. Was it before or after the appearance of the protagonist J, played by Will Smith? J was obviously a relatively weak protagonist in terms of direct combat power. If possible, Sheyan intended to take a drop of his blood to unseal another mission item of his.
Sheyan was thinking about these things so his eyes were naturally unfocused. He was just looking at a general direction in a daze. The others around him simply thought that it was normal behaviour for someone who knocked his head in a fall. At that moment, the bartender in Sheyan’s vision accidentally cut his hand while cutting a lemon. The cut was really deep; half his finger was disconnected. However, he treated it as if it was nothing and simply threw the severed finger into a wastepaper basket.
These all looked very normal but it was not normal at all! Suffering such a severe injury, the bartender did not even spill a drop of blood! As soon as he looked up and saw Sheyan staring at him, his face immediately turned savage and murderous!
That’s right, his intent was quite obvious. The guy wanted to kill Sheyan to silence him! The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Neon lights flashed, shining onto the faces of the drunken dreamers in the bar. Sheyan was also a little drunk by now. As he stared vacantly at the men and women moving and talking on the dance floor, he suddenly felt really frustrated. He threw away the beer in his hand and sneered at the bartender while beckoning at him with his finger.
(Bonus chapter #1 for September)
In the face of Sheyan’s actions, a cold glint that was absolutely not human appeared in the bartender’s eyes. Those were the eyes of a creature at the top of the food chain observing a creature at the bottom of the food chain.
Sheyan was really reluctant to cause trouble – at least not before he awakened – but unfortunately, this world didn’t revolve around the desire of men.
Just like the incident earlier. Who could have thought that the bartender’s secret would be exposed in front of Sheyan? Ok, since he saw things that he shouldn’t have seen, there’s no use saying any more. Even if Sheyan didn’t beckon with his finger, it’s not like the guy would let Sheyan go.
The bartender slowly walked over and actually bowed politely at Sheyan.
“What can I do for you, sir?”
The fat black dude, Martin, was busy breaking the defense line of the girl beside him and smoothly reached into her chest. He was really surprised when he heard the bartender being so serious.
“Wow, Ritz, want to join us? You must give me a glass of your best Ice and Fire today, and remember to add some Spanish fly too.”
Ritz turned his head and showed Martin an impeccable smile.
“Of course, but I have to ask Steven what he wants first.”
Martin shouted impatiently.
“He had a little accident today so the best thing for him is clear water and bread. If you put strong alcohol and a girl’s thick ass in front of him, it would kill him!”
Sheyan was able to feel the camaraderie shown by Martin and the others towards him so he did not plan to get them involved in this matter. He held down his temples, shook his body a few times, and said.
“Martin, you asshole! You know I can’t touch alcohol and women right now and yet you brought me to this damn shithole? You did it on purpose, didn’t you? Wow, my head’s about to split in two. I need to go out for some fresh air.”
Martin broke out in a fit of laughter.
“Ooooh you done fucked up calling this place a damn shithole! Ritz loves this bar more than he loves his wife! You just wait. Ritz will either personally kill you, or charge you so much you’ll want to kill yourself!”
Sheyan used the wall as support as he stumbled out of the back door of the bar. Once he was out of sight, he immediately ran as fast as he could. But he only ran for about five or six hundred meters before he ran into a narrow blind alley because he wasn’t familiar with the territory.
The place was very messy. There were rubbish and foul water everywhere, and even traces of excretion and urine. The foul odour of the damp environment assaulted his nose. Drug addicts love getting high in these kind of places because the police rarely came here. The glamorous New York City also had a filthy side to it.
“You’re not Steven,” said a voice that appeared suddenly behind Sheyan.
“With the speed of your sprint just now, you could run 100 meters in 6 seconds. Let alone Steven who had nephritis, gallstones, Meniere syndrome, and mild fatty liver, even the Olympic champion who’s the best at running among the humans can’t reach this speed.”
Senyan spread his hands and sighed.
“And you’re not a bartender.”
Ritz answered tactfully.
“In the bar, I am the courteous human bartender Ritz. In front of the drunken Earthlings, I am the observer & researcher Ritz from Dwarf Planet 3 stationed on earth. In front of an unknown monster reeking of a disgusting, bloody smell like yourself, I am second-class military officer from Dwarf Planet 3 stationed on earth, Defender Ritz.”
‘I see. So participants who carry the Bloody invitation letter will be despised and attacked by aliens hidden among the humans during our stay in this world.’
Sheyan came to this realisation. He took a step forward and proclaimed solemnly.
“Let’s be done with it then. I’m in a hurry.”
The bartender Ritz flashed a strange smile at Sheyan. He suddenly grabbed his head and pulled with force!
His head was completely severed from his body. Ritz nonchalantly threw his head at Sheyan.
Sheyan was afraid it might be a bomb or something so he immediately dodged it. Thus, the head hit the ground and rolled forward while scattering a large amount of white smoke. The smoke quickly filled the alley like it was a dense fog. The visibility in the alley quickly fell to within half a meter.
Sheyan cautiously pulled out ‘+7 West’, then rushed towards the entrance of the alley by relying on his memory. It was obvious that fighting Ritz in the dense smoke would not be a smart move. Besides, Sheyan could feel that Ritz seemed to value his identity as an Earthling, so he wouldn’t want to cause a huge ruckus.
There was another advantage to doing this, and that was to grab the initiative in the attack. Sheyan calculated that running from the alley to the street outside with his speed would take about 31 seconds. If he chose to wait on the spot, Ritz could just lurk in the shadow while Sheyan had to always remain on guard. It would severely tax him.
Now that Sheyan chose to run, Ritz had to attack him within 31 seconds. The benefits were obvious.
Sheyan suddenly heard a rush of wind from his right. Sheyan raised his arm to block, but only felt something hard crash into his arm with a bang. It was a thrown garbage bin.
At that moment, there was a turbulence in the fog to Sheyan’s left. The headless Ritz charged over, and Sheyan, who was on high alert, slashed horizontally with his blade. ‘+7 West’ sunk into the area between Ritz’s chest and abdomen, but the feeling transmitted from the blade was very strange. Ritz’s skin felt extremely hard and tough, as if it was covered in a layer of calluses that was a foot thick!
Ritz displayed no sign of pain. A knee was instantly shoved into Sheyan’s abdomen. Sheyan groaned from the hit, but suddenly lifted his right hand and drew an arc in the air. His flat palm tightly closed into the form of a beak, which then pierced into the severed section of Ritz’s neck!
Milky-white liquid splashed out with bright red blood mixed in. A twisted, deformed spine was caught and pulled out by Sheyan. The sensation of the spine transmitted through his fingers was slippery but hard, akin to steel. Apparently, this frame was a specially made biological body. For the aliens, it was akin to clothes. Injuries to the body will not cause them pain.
Sheyan saw a sharp spur grow on Ritz’s knee and it was instantly thrusted towards him. Sheyan instantly swept with his left elbow, hitting Ritz’s throat heavily. Ritz’s throat was completely wrecked by the crushing hit. Ritz could only make some groaning noises as his vocal cord was crushed. More importantly, the blow sent Ritz flying back so Ritz’s attack naturally hit nothing but air. Ritz slammed hard into a garbage bin, stirring up the garbage inside.
But suddenly, Ritz turned over with a struggle, and something unexpected happened. His ripped his shirt off with great force and the left half of his ribcage sprung open like a door to reveal a red, deep, fleshy pit inside!
At that instant, the red meat pit shrunk fiercely, swelled up, then squirted a dark-green sticky liquid at Sheyan. The liquid hissed in the air and emitted a stinging smell. Sheyan couldn’t dodge in time and a little bit of the liquid caught him. He instantly felt as if he was being scalded by a red hot branding iron. The burn eroded into his flesh.
It didn’t end there. After the dark-green liquid corroded the skin for a while, it burst into a black flame. The more Sheyan slapped at the flame to put it out, the more violently it burned. His HP dropped rapidly.
Under such circumstances, Sheyan continued to flee outside the thick fog without hesitation. Obviously, Sheyan’s action happened to be the very thing that Ritz was most reluctant to see. His belly twitched and groaned while he grabbed the right half of his ribcage and pried it open. Two pieces of deadly-white rib bone rotated and flew towards Sheyan. It was as if the other end of the two rib bones was held by an invisible hand; they flew with irregular trajectories. Even so, they were accurately locked onto Sheyan at the end of their flight.
Sheyan had already made quick dodging maneuvers, but the dense fog around his body rapidly concentrated and accumulated. Sheyan felt like he was wrapped in a thick, sticky layer which severely impacted his movement. He brandished his blade with a shout to strike at the two rib bones. Upon contact, he found that they did not have the hard feel of bones, but appeared rather flexible.
From the moment ‘+7 West’ hit a rib bone, Sheyan discovered that these things weren’t rib bones, but strange creatures that twisted together like snakes. Even the sharp ‘+7 West’ couldn’t cut them. Instead, the creature lifted its head and aimed its mouth that was filled with jagged teeth at Sheyan.
The creature looked similar to a sand worm from the sea. Sheyan grabbed the middle section of the creature and slammed it to the ground, but his arm was bitten in the process. A large chunk of his flesh was instantly bit off. The chunk of flesh was cylindrical in shape; the edges were very smooth and regular. It was apparent that the attack power of the creature was pretty high.
Taking advantage of the moment when Sheyan was intercepted, the “bones” on Ritz’s body flew out in a fierce torrent of worm missiles, completely blocking off Sheyan’s retreat from the dense fog.
However, at that instant, Sheyan, who seemed to have been forced into a corner, revealed a peculiar smile.
Sheyan suddenly pounced. His body stretched out in the air. Even right now, two strange worms twisted in the air and flew towards Sheyan, then tore off two chunks of flesh from his body. However, they could not stop Sheyan from advancing.
But Sheyan inexplicably did not pounce towards Ritz’s headless body. He aimed at an empty spot to the side instead. If there was a bystander there, they would surely think that Sheyan had lost his mind.
The sharp edge of ‘+7 West’ tore through the air and the thick white fog, slashing straight down.
That’s right! Sheyan did not make a mistake. He was aiming for something else – the head thrown by Ritz before the battle! Its role was merely to release the white fog, or so it seemed. It was just sitting there afterwards. Why would Sheyan hack at it?
With the swishing sound of the blade splitting the air, the head that looked broken and worn-out miraculously jumped up. From the severed section of its neck, eight spider-like steel claws popped out. It managed to narrowly avoid Sheyan’s blade.
However, Sheyan had planned this move for a long time beforehand so he was prepared for it. Sparks flew as the blade hit the ground, and Sheyan, who was carried forward by his momentum, gently pressed his left hand to the ground, rolled forward, and gave the head a good ol’ soccer kick!
Sheyan’s strength had reached a pretty impressive level by now so one could imagine the power contained in this kick. After the head flew away for five to six meters, it made a disgusting, dull thud sound as it hit the wall and bounced off.
From the moment the head hit the wall, the headless body had remained stationary without taking any further actions. Only those disgusting worms continued to slither like snakes to chase after Sheyan.
However, as far as their crawling speed was concerned, they couldn’t even catch up to ordinary humans, let alone Sheyan. These worms apparently could not adapt to the earth’s oxygen-rich environment, so after wriggling actively for a few minutes, they fell limp and started decomposing at an alarming rate. In the end, only a few spots of sticky liquid remained.
Sheyan instantly rushed towards the direction where the head was flung. Although the weird head broke four mechanical steel legs when it landed, it struggled to stand up with the remaining four mechanical legs it had and tried to wobble away like a drunk person. Sheyan sneered, grabbed the hair on the head, and lifted the head up.
“Mr. Ritz, you have two choices….”
Sheyan hadn’t even finished his words when a milky white mucus mixed with blood was spat out from the mouth with a few broken teeth, straight onto Sheyan’s face. The situation looked very similar to the scene of an unyielding hero spitting in the face of an enemy who asked for his surrender.
Sheyan sighed.
“Very well. You’ve chosen the worst possible option.”
Sheyan studied the head for a while before grabbing it by its hair and swung it wildly in the air. Then, he put his fingers behind the ears of the head and gently pressed down. Almost at once, a white gas began to spurt out from the head’s nostrils and ear holes.
A strange thing happened next. Mr. Ritz’s face suddenly stiffened, then opened from left to right like a mask to reveal the secret underneath.
Inside was a very small cockpit. A humanoid creature about the size of an unpeeled peanut sat inside, its hands hung down powerlessly with each palm gently placed upon a pink crystal ball. Seemed like it controlled the body with its mind through the crystal balls.
The texture of the little creature’s skin was like a silkworm – gray, rough, but soft. Its most impressive feature were its two eyes which almost occupied a-third of its entire face.
This was the real Mr. Ritz, the one with the tri-identity of: Ritz, the courteous human bartender / Ritz, the observer & researcher from Dwarf Planet 3 stationed on earth / Defender Ritz, second-class military officer from Dwarf Planet 3 stationed on earth.
“For anyone who wishes to kill me, I will deal with them in the same way, be they aliens or earthlings.”
Sheyan wiped away the spit on his face and said sinisterly. He behaved like a textbook villain.
Mr. Ritz groaned weakly and spat out a bunch of white foam from its tiny mouth which look pretty similar to the white foam that fishes spat out after they left water for a long time. Then, the stubborn guy raised his small hand that only had two fingers and bent one of them, flipping Sheyan off with his remaining finger to show his contempt.
Sheyan was also at his wit’s end with this stubborn bastard. Suddenly, he could feel a strong threat rapidly closing in from the distance. Soon, two bright lights from a car shone through the dense fog.
Sheyan’s expression hardened. He then sighed regretfully. This is the crazy thing with the Men in Black world.
In this parallel universe, America had become the owner of the Earth harbour of this universe, and had began their contact with aliens. Now, there were many aliens who came here out of curiosity or to explore the wilderness for a vacation. In order to better understand human life, the aliens used their technology to create ‘organic human suits’. Thousands of aliens live among the humans wearing these suits.
Most people could never imagine that the sneaky man selling stolen goods downstairs was actually an intergalactical black market merchant, or that the busty cashier from the supermarket was actually controlled by an old man in her head, or that the body of a random hobo might be filled with alien bugs….
In order to manage these aliens and deal with the conflicts between them and other humans, and more importantly, in order to cover up the fact that they existed, the Men in Black was established. They exist for two purposes. Against outsiders, they would eliminate those who refuse to follow the rules and interstellar laws. Against earthlings, they were responsible for brainwashing witnesses and the public, eliminating memories and preventing the spread of information regarding aliens on earth.
For Sheyan, he was more concerned with the mighty weapons possessed by the Men in Black. These weapons were created with technologies that were decades ahead of earthen technology, and would be deadly to anyone. The Men in Black must have discovered that the alien’s ‘organic human suit’ had met with an accident, so they rushed here to investigate.
Sheyan pulled Ritz out from the head cockpit, then shoved Ritz into a used condom he found on the ground as revenge. He quickly disappeared within the night after that.
Perhaps ordinary humans can’t escape the pursuit of the Men in Black, but for the mighty contestants, as long as they did not directly run into the Men in Black, they still had a high chance of escaping.
After running for two blocks, Sheyan turned the corner in a hurry and entered a subway station. For a city that doesn’t sleep like New York, no matter what time it was, there would be no shortage of people bustling around. After Sheyan got on the subway, he jumped back out the moment the subway door was about to close. He then walked out, stole a car, and drove to the Hudson River Estuary in Jersey where the Statue of Liberty was.
However, after just five to six kilometers, his suddenly heard a low engine roar. It was exactly the sound of the old-fashioned but brand-new Cadillac unique to the Men in Black!
Sheyan sucked in a deep breath. He was really surprised. He had clearly escaped from them previously, but their efficiency was so high that they instantly got back on his trail again like mad dogs.
He immediately racked his brain for a plan, but then he saw through the rearview mirror that, in front of the Men in Black’s Cadillac, there was a speeding old Ford that was almost falling apart. Sheyan instantly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the target of their chase was not him but the unlucky old Ford. Sheyan speculated that the person in the Ford should either be an alien or a contestant. Sheyan’s thoughts were leaning more towards a contestant.
The old Ford’s tires sprouted white smoke, and slipped on the road amidst the shrill sound of friction. A figure suddenly jumped through the roof of the speeding car and curled into a ball while holding his head. He crashed heavily into the car next to him. The impact made a distinct concave shape in the car’s hood and completely shattered the car’s windshield!
The performance of the Men in Black’s Cadillac was 10,000 times better than that of the old Ford. It steadily came to a halt in the middle of the road. Two expressionless men in black suits came out holding funny-looking guns in their hands. The guns were at most one-fifth the size of an ordinary handgun, like mini toy guns that children under the age of three played with However, Sheyan felt a strong sense of threat emanating from these “toy guns”!
Although the person who jumped out of the car looked heavily hurt, he was not dead. He jumped up with an angry roar. Instead of running away, he charged forward wildly by stepping onto the roof of cars, leaving a messy trail everywhere he passed through. Then, he lifted a car, and was ready to throw it!
While Sheyan was gleefully watching the action, he suddenly heard a rhythmic knock from the car window beside him. He instantly broke out in cold sweat! Someone actually managed to get so close to him without him realising it at all! Who would do this kind of thing at this time?
The man screamed in fury and flung the car with all his might. It flew through the air and was about to fall, but a Man in Black had already aimed his gun at it and taken a shot!
Light flashed as the car exploded in the air, forming a huge fireball covering an area of several tens of square meters. Steel parts and the likes were ejected everywhere. Even Sheyan, who was over a hundred meters away, found the parts raining down around him!
Even the windshields of the nearby cars were smashed. They were either completely shattered, or covered with spider web-like cracks. It was a shocking sight.
However, Sheyan could spare no attention for the thrilling scene. As soon as he heard the knocking sound, he immediately turned his head and looked out of the window, but found that there was no one there. He was still dumbfounded when a familiar yet unrecognisable voice entered his ears. It had a unique glib tone, which made the owner of the voice sound very flippant and insincere.
“Look at these children. This old man had come here after having just woken up, and I immediately ran into a scene like this? What if they accidentally hit me?””
Sheyan instantly turned his head back and saw a thin and wretched old thing in the back seat of the car. Who else could it be but Jinkuang? Sheyan originally thought he had to fight alone in this world, but now he found a guy he could rely on! Although Jinkuang had no fighting ability, Sheyan was still really happy. He exclaimed in surprise.
“Weren’t you in a slumber? Why did you suddenly appear here?”
Jinkuang flipped his mouse-beard and smiled sneakily.
“Naturally, it’s because I could feel a great opportunity for profit here!”
“Oh?” Sheyan asked in wonder, “What kind of opportunity is there in the Men in Black world?”
Jinkuang waved his hand and replied to Sheyan’s enquiry like a wise old man.
“Do not ask questions which answers you are not ready for, my child. You will know when the time comes.”
Sheyan: “…”
“Why are you still here?” Jinkuang looked at the battlefield where the Men in Black were fighting fiercely, and admonished in a sharp tone, “For the you right now, this level of fight is too dangerous. Just mind your own business.”
Sheyan originally still wanted to wait and observe for a while more, but when he thought about what Jinkuang said, he found that Jinkuang was right. If it was only a battle between these two sides, then he should have no problem protecting himself. But, don’t forget! There were over a dozen other Bloody World participants hidden in New York, waiting to pounce on their prey at the first opportunity like sharks in the ocean! Who knew if a fight of this magnitude would attract their attention. Sheyan could not afford the risk.
Therefore, Sheyan instantly started his engine and drove full speed towards the location of the Statue of Liberty.
Jinkuang only managed to stay quiet for less than a minute after they moved away from the battlefield. He yawned out of boredom and started to touch and inspect everything around him like a child with ADHD. Suddenly, he saw the condom that Sheyan casually threw onto the passenger seat. The condom was still wet.
From this moment onwards, the fate of the great researcher, military officer, and Defender Ritz underwent a major turn. He finally understood that there were things more terrible than death in this world.
Jinkuang curiously observed the condom for a while. After making sure that this object and the thing inside did not pose any danger to him, he began to study it with confidence.
“Hey, what’s this?”
Asked Jinkuang.
Sheyan took a glance and replied.
“I caught a really foul-tempered and stubborn alien. The thing is, I don’t plan to kill him yet because it might cause interstellar disputes and would draw attention to myself. I’m already in enough trouble as it is; I don’t have time to deal with these things.”
Jinkuang exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
“Wow, an alien! He’s mine now! Mine! Such a rare toy!”
As he said that, he took out Mr. Ritz, who was half-dead from being suffocated by the pungent smell inside the flexible rubber, and sneered sinisterly.
“You will be my slave from now on.”
Ritz was weak but remained adamant.
“Dream on, earthling. And f*ck off.”
That only made Jinkuang’s interest more intense. He squealed in excitement.
“Wow, look what I found! It actually has testicles! And, it pees from its belly-button! This is really a wonderful little toy, I bet lots of people would want to see it! What is its name?”
“Ritz. His full title should be observer & researcher, second-class military officer, and Defender Ritz from Dwarf Planet 3 stationed on earth.”
Answered Sheyan with a serious expression.
“That’s amazing! This string of titles would raise ticket prices by an extra two pennies!” screamed Jinkuang in a fanatical attitude.
Sheyan asked curiously.
“What ticket?”
Jinkuang’s eyes had already turned into $ signs.
“The tickets for an exhibition, of course! Think about it! A living alien, an alien with testicles that pees from its belly button, and more importantly, an alien with military rank and the status of a researcher from Dwarf Planet 3! Lots of people would be willing to pay good money to observe it. This is a great business opportunity that costs nothing but promises high return!”
Ritz was shocked speechless. He never imagined that he would one day become an object of exhibition, like a stupid and primitive animal, being visited by ignorant, backwards earthlings. More importantly, the two demons in front of him even intended to display all his titles on the exhibition. Those titles were all true! If this were to happen, not only would it damage the reputation of Ritz and his family, it would even scar the reputation of Dwarf Planet 3!
The thought of such terrible fate caused Mr. Ritz to tremble in fear. He couldn’t help but piss himself everytime he was scared. A few drops of urine sprinkled from his navel and it was seen by Jinkuang, who screamed in surprise. Jinkuang kept assuring Sheyan that this was a huge selling point that could net them at least 50,000 pound sterling.
Finally, amidst the ongoing bombing of words, Mr. Ritz burst out in tears for the tragic fate he was about to encounter. He gave in and wailed fanatically.
“Stop! Say no more! What do I need to do to regain my freedom?”
Those words caused a familiar sneaky smile to appear on Jinkuang’s face. He pinched Ritz and placed him on the back seat.
“I’m afraid your request is rather difficult for me. Fortunately, I happen to have a lot of time right now, so let us sit down and slowly talk through things.”
The magnificent Statue of Liberty slowly came into view.
The sea breeze brought with it a rejuvenating freshness. Sheyan had been carefully observing the vicinity and found nothing unusual. After all, it was only day one. Even if they were gladiators placed in the huge Colosseum of New York to face a cruel fate, they must first familiarise themselves with the environment.
The Statue of Liberty wore an Ancient Greek-style robe and a radiant crown. The seven rays symbolized the seven continents of the world. It stood tall at a height of ninety-three meters with broken handcuffs and shackles at its feet. Its pedestal had now been turned into a museum of American immigration history.
Sheyan slowly walked towards the front side of the pedestal, then stopped at the door of the museum. In that instant, the nightmare imprint sent a notification: [Twenty-five meters in front, turn left.]
Sheyan hesitated for a bit while looking at the notification, but in the end, he decided to follow the instruction. He stopped in front of a granite wall engraved with a famous poem.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
There were no further notifications but Sheyan believed he had discovered the key. Under the luminous light of the night, a few letters in the poem shone with a faint blue glow while the rest of the letters purely reflected the light. Sheyan combined these letters, which read: t-w-e-l-v-e. He thought about it for a moment and felt that it was difficult to draw any conclusions about the meaning of the word with the amount of information available to him, so there should be something else hidden behind those words.
Realising that, Sheyan jumped over the guardrail and started to touch each of the letters. However, he could find nothing out of the ordinary. He sat down and contemplated for a while, then stood up and closed his eyes. First, he tried touching the other letters, before going on to feel out the few unusual ones. It was with that method that he found the key point!
The edges of the unusual letters were obviously much smoother!
That could only mean one thing – they were regularly touched by people.
Sheyan kept studying the unusual letters. After half an hour, he finally solved the mystery. It turned out that these letters could be pressed. But! One must reach the limit of 49 points in Strength in order to press down on them. Obviously, this should be related to Sheyan’s request for the mission of breaking through the Strength boundary!
After pressing the six letters one by one, he heard a faint sound of metallic friction from beneath the Statue of Liberty, but only for a short while. Sheyan searched around and found the change. At the entrance to the Statue of Liberty, there was originally a staircase that was prepared for tourists. Currently, next to the staircase, an additional elevator had appeared. The elevator was brightly lit and was built in the style of futuristic technology. The space inside was teardrop-shaped and was engraved with multiple patterns and diagrams that Sheyan couldn’t understand.
It was completely silent. The only things that could be heard were their heartbeats, the waves, and the wind.
Sheyan stared at the elevator hesitantly. However, when he looked at Jinkuang beside him, he instantly made up his mind. He said.
“Let’s go down together. There’s probably a huge treasure vault below.”
Jinkuang also stared at the elevator that had a distinctive sci-fi style hesitantly.
“There’s a treasure vault below? Then why is it left unguarded?”
Sheyan kept encouraging him.
“Since there’s no guard, then there’s no risk. Why not go down to take a look?”
Jinkuang rubbed his chin and thought about it carefully. He found Sheyan’s argument very reasonable, so he proceeded to walk into the elevator. Sheyan heaved a sigh of relief. Considering Jinkuang’s wretched and cowardly personality, if he was willing to go, then there should be no major risks. Therefore, Sheyan followed him inside full of confidence.
After Sheyan went in, the elevator doors closed like water slowly trickling down and folding close. The visual impact was quite impressive. Next came the slight dizziness caused by weightlessness. It didn’t take long before the elevator stopped. The door opened, and the scene appearing in front of Sheyan shocked him beyond words!
He could clearly see a high-tech metallic passageway in front of him. Every inch of the passageway was lit up by the soft glow of runway lights on the floor and ceiling. It was very eye-catching. Be it the interior design or the furnishing of the passageway, it was at least a few centuries ahead of earth’s technology.
This should have been a clean, bright, and technologically-advanced place, but it was in a complete mess!
Signs of destruction such as scorch marks, bullet holes, and the remnants of explosions were visible everywhere. There were a lot of deep, horrifying scratches on the walls. It was as if a pack of giant Wolverines ran amok on these walls.
Of course, where there was war, there were naturally casualties. White fragments the size of fingernails covered the ground. They made a sharp crunching sound when they were stepped on. They were the bones of the dead. The blows were so devastating that they left no whole bodies behind. Even the bones of the bodies were shattered.
Sheyan had begun to lament his fate. What kind of place had the realm led me to? Did it want me to take a test or to be murdered straight away?
The passageway was about a hundred meters long. The ground was almost completely covered with a thick layer of shattered bones, clothes and other things that wouldn’t rot. When Sheyan and Jinkuang stepped on them, the noise they made sounded like they were walking on the Gobi desert. It was apparent that the two sides who fought back then invested a lot of people, a lot of firepower, and a lot of determination in this battle!
Walking in the passageway inspired awe in Sheyan for the majesty of history and for the power of time. Sheyan could not help recalling his experience in the Harry Potter world, in the mysterious goblin kingdom, in the epic history of the magnificent underground pyramid!
When he thought of this, he sneaked a glance at Jinkuang, but immediately facepalmed and sighed. Jinkuang had taken out a large linen sack and snuck around like a rat. From time to time, a sinister laugh would leak out from his mouth. Anything that sparkled – except for broken glass – was thrown into that old sack of his.
Sheyan’s nerves tightened when they reached the end of the passageway. In front of them was an extremely spacious hall. The construction material was probably steel, but the surface had a sparkling shine, as if it was coated with a layer of ice. It gave off an indescribable feeling of fantasy.
The most abundant thing here were corpses.
Corpses that fell face-down on the ground!
These corpses garbed in black battle suits would be at least three meters tall if they were to stand. They each cut an imposing figure. There were over thirty of these corpses, all of them quite whole. Sheyan took a closer look and found that their flesh had rotten away completely, leaving only the external battle suit and the bones inside.
It was obvious that these fighters were not human. They were three meters in height but their skulls were only the size of a fist. Their bodies had no ribs. Their chest bone was composed of a bone plate which mirrored the bone plate on their back, forming a plate armor-like structure on their upper body. Their leg bones were divided into three sections, which meant that their legs had two knees.
It was not difficult to figure out what happened. Apparently, this group of tall and mighty double-kneed aliens tried to invade this place, and after a fierce battle, the invaders managed to advance into the main hall. They obviously held the upper hand.
But at that moment, the desperate defenders activated their final defensive measure. It might have been a poison gas, it might have been an infrasonic wave, it might have been something else….whatever it was, it was something that would not destroy the environment but would cause major damage to living creatures.
Both sides met their deaths in the end. Sheyan carefully searched for the weapons of the invaders but couldn’t find anything. The only explanation was that both the offensive and defensive sides probably used biological weapons that had also rotted away after their deaths.
For example, the most primitive and poor-man version of these weapons would be a man holding a poisonous snake by its head, and used the snake to aim poison at his enemies. That would mean that these two forces should have reached a very advanced level in biochemical research.
From the main hall, there was nowhere else to go. Sheyan and Jinkuang tried searching around.
Sheyan didn’t know what Jinkuang touched, but he caused some light to be projected out, which formed into a hologram of a frog-like alien with bulging eyes. There appeared to be some sort of translating device because Sheyan could understand his words.
“Shameless! Shameless!! The most shameless thing in the universe has just happened!”
“Right after our biochemical clone strengthening device was proven successful, those barbaric, shameless, despicable, vicious inhabitants of the Dual-knee planet instantly attacked us! They massacred us! They violated Interstellar Law Article 7, Article 21 and Article 33!”
“They killed Alina! I will never see those beautiful tentacles, sexy mucus and plump eyes ever again! You bastards will die here with me!!”
When the hologram ended, Sheyan had also restored the facts. It wasn’t much different from his previous speculation. But Sheyan still didn’t know why the realm guided him here. After all, he was supposed to be here for the boundary breakthrough mission.
Suddenly, the entire hall shook. Even the gleam on the surrounding walls dimmed. Sheyan remained composed under such situation. He simply took two steps back. After around half a minute, the situation turned normal again. A synthetic, gender-neutral electronic voice gave the following notifications:
“Attention. The biochemical clone strengthening device is fully charged.”
“Attention. The biochemical clone strengthening device is fully charged.”
“May the test subject please enter the cloning chamber to prepare for data collection for the test run.”
“Control room, please set the biochemical clone strengthening factor.”
After the series of notifications, in the very centre of the hall, a circular door on the floor opened with a bang. From within rose a circular platform with a noticeable warning colour.
Sheyan took a deep breath. He vaguely understood what was going on now. Sure enough, after a minute, came the notifications from the nightmare imprint.
[ Contestant No. 1018, please climb onto the platform in front to complete your boundary breakthrough Growth-Hunter test. The rules are as follows: ]
[ Warning: If you listen to the rules, you must perform the breakthrough test within seven days, or you will be killed ]
[ Warning: The following information are top secret. You are not to disclose these information to anyone in any way, or you will be subject to extremely heavy punishment ]
[ Please choose if you would like to listen to the following information ]
Sheyan had no choice. He chose ‘yes’.
[ You are about to undergo the boundary breakthrough Growth-Hunter test ]
[ Test content: Defeat a clone of yourself ]
[ Test reward: Qualifying as a Growth-Hunter ]
[ Current military rank: Major. You have the privilege to apply for a detailed explanation and ask questions ]
Sheyan immediately enquired:
“How strong is the clone?”
The nightmare imprint quickly replied:
[ Under normal circumstances, the base attributes of the clone are 1.5 times yours at the moment when you enter the challenge zone, plus a 500% bonus to HP. All the abilities you possess when you enter the challenge zone (except for innate talent) will be perfectly copied onto the clone. All the equipments and items on you (including those stored in your personal space) will be perfectly copied onto the clone ]
[ After entering the challenge zone, you cannot receive any outside assistance or support. No one will be able to intervene in your fight ]
Sheyan sucked in a cold breath. The harshness of the rules far exceeded his prior expectation! The worst part was….
Sheyan couldn’t help but ask:
“Can I know what you mean by “under normal circumstances? ”
[ “Under normal circumstances” refers to when a contestant challenges a single attribute boundary breakthrough! ]
Sheyan was not satisfied with the answer so he continued with his query:
“What if I want to challenge a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough?”
[ The difficulty will increase significantly! The increase will be as follows!]
The difficulty of a dual-attribute breakthrough test would increase “significantly”! That made Sheyan really bitter.
The ordinary boundary breakthrough was scary enough. Now, it was like playing chess with someone of the same level of ability as you, but the opponent had an extra rook, knight and bishop each. Plus, his king had to be checkmated three times for him to lose! How was anyone going to win?
The only advantage that the contestants had was their innate ability! They must utilise their innate ability to the extreme for a slither of chance at victory.
Sheyan finally understood why Brother Black chose to enter the breakthrough test world naked. He did not want to use firearms because the power of firearms were too great. His opponent had the same strength he did and could simply trade blows with him without a care for injuries. So, he simply erased this advantage.
Considering Brother Black’s background, he should be proficient in using javelins and bows also. These two were things that could be made on the spot. Besides, the contestant should have the right to choose the battleground. Mogensha probably relied on his outstanding ‘Beastly Instinct’ innate ability to slowly grind down his opponent, who was also naked like he was.
The realm once again sent its merciless notifications.
[ Dear Contestant No.1018, if you choose to challenge the dual-attribute boundary breakthrough, the base attributes of the clone will be doubled and the HP of the clone will gain a 1000% bonus! All the abilities you possess when you enter the challenge zone (except for innate ability) will be perfectly copied onto the clone. All the equipments and items on you (including those stored in your personal space) will be perfectly copied onto the clone. ]
[ You will not die in the challenge. However, every time you fail, the ability of the clone will increase by 5%. After you start the challenge, you will not be bound by the 50-point limit. ]
“Sure enough, the attributes were doubled….”
Senyan’s face distorted. The 1.5x increase in the ordinary challenge may not seem too big of a difference compared to a 2x increase, but! ! A 2x difference would cause crushing effect! The terrible effect of crushing damages needed no introduction!
Sheyan closed his eyes, and the inside of his head was working like a high-speed calculator. To be honest, in the face of such harsh conditions, there was really nothing he could do. Based on his calculation, only snipers and the likes had a small probability of defeating an opponent with double the attribute limit, and that was under the condition that the sniper had an innate ability that could lower the opponent’s accuracy and increase the sniper’s own dodging rate. As for Sheyan….it was completely impossible!
He tried utilising the privilege of his military rank to get further information.
“May I know what else I can do before I start the challenge?”
The nightmare realm swiftly gave a reply:
[ Your general rights are as follows: ]
[ A. Choose the battleground for a fee ]
[ B. Purchase an item from the achievement point store at half price (the item will disappear after the challenge)]
[ C. Pay 10 achievement points to obtain a 10%-50% increase in HP recovery rate. The recovery rate is related to your military rank. The higher your rank, the higher the increase in recovery rate. (This effect will not be copied by the clone) ]
[ D. Pray. Pray earnestly to God. Have your fill of some chicken soup for the soul. ]
Sheyan browsed through the list. ‘C’ was something he definitely needed to redeem. He continued asking:
“What are my military rank privileges?”
The nightmare realm replied:
[ You can obtain some details regarding the battle at a price. These details were originally only available to you after you start the battle. Naturally, they will cost you a large amount of utility points. ]
Sheyan mentally weighed his money pouch that was neither too dry nor too full. He could probably afford to spend about 50,000 utility points. He clenched his teeth, and said:
“I’ll pay!”
[ The rules of the battle are as follows: ]
[ You can choose the battleground terrain and size, as well as the duration of the battle. ]
[ The terrain options available are: desert, plain, tropical rainforest, mountain, snowy land, and snowy mountain. The allowed size of the battlefield range from 100 square meters to 20 square kilometers. The default duration for battle is 20 minutes. You can choose the initial distance between you and the clone at the start: between 1 meter and 1 kilometer. ]
[ Every time you attempt to prolong the battle duration, you have to pay additional utility points. Please note that there is no tie. Once the battle duration is over and your clone is still alive, it will count as a failure. ]
[ These are all the privileges available for your current military rank. ]
Sheyan was keenly aware that there was no ocean terrain option. This showed that the realm was trying to avoid this kind of battle. He shook his head slightly. Although these information were very useful, but, to be honest, they didn’t help him much.
Sheyan was unwilling to give up. He continued asking.
“Do we have no other advantages in the fight?”
The realm replied dully.
[ There is, but you have to pay 1 additional achievement point for the answer to this question. ]
Sheyan really wanted to unleash a string of profanities at the realm, but he took a deep breath and calmed himself down. In the end, he exclaimed weakly:
“Talk. I’ll pay.”
[ After the clone is produced and placed on the battlefield, it will take a while for it to adapt to its body and the surrounding. The duration is not that long; it will usually take 2-3 seconds. So, in most cases, the challenger can make the first move.]
“Oh!” Sheyan was instantly moved by this piece of information. He seemed to have caught onto something. He immediately asked:
“Will this first-move advantage remain in the dual-attribute breakthrough challenge?”
The realm replied:
[ It will. In fact, the clone will take even longer to adapt in the dual-attribute breakthrough challenge – about 5 seconds. ]
Sheyan immediately understood the reason after giving it a bit of thought. Take the previous chess analogy as an example. The opponent had an extra rook, knight and bishop each. Plus, his king had to be checkmated three times for him to lose. Naturally, he would need to spend more time when placing the chess pieces onto the board.
Furthermore, the advantage afforded to the clone in the dual-attribute challenge was akin to giving it two extra rooks, knights and bishops, and its king had to be checkmated 10 times. Of course it would have to spend more time to place the pieces.
Sheyan realised that he would get no more useful information from the realm. But, he was already full of thoughts.
“If I get the first move, it would somewhat offset the clone’s advantages. For a fight between ordinary people, this first-move advantage could already determine victory. Unfortunately, this is a battle between contestants… What can I do in five seconds? What should I do to make full use of this advantage?”
Sheyan was sure that the key to passing the challenge lied in how well he utilised the first-move advantage!
He stood where he was and contemplated for an hour and a half, but still couldn’t come up with anything. His only reward was a headache from thinking too hard. He could only sigh regretfully and retreat from this alien ruin.
Even though Sheyan had mentally prepared himself for the difficulty of the boundary breakthrough challenge, he couldn’t have imagined that it would be so insane!
More worrying was the fact that Sheyan was also in a Bloody World. He also needed to face possible attacks from over 10 vicious and powerful contestants.
Sheyan was sure of one thing when he left the Statue of Liberty – he must complete the boundary breakthrough challenge within 24 hours. Otherwise, as the situation developed, his circumstance will only get more desperate! If worse came to worst, then he could only give up on dual-attribute breakthrough.
Sheyan felt that his brain had been forced to the limit from thinking too much, so he simply let go of everything for the moment. He checked into a hotel, asked for a presidential suite, jumped into a jacuzzi and closed his eyes, leaving his mind blank.
Then, Sheyan called for a few massage therapists. It was worth mentioning that, although massage, acupuncture and the likes appeared to have originated from China, massaging techniques were also well developed in the United States. Over here, they didn’t like acupuncture or suction cups after massages, but instead choose things that science had proven useful such as soaking in ice water and other therapies. The two massage therapists that came were professionals who specialise in helping professional athletes relieve fatigue and relax the body.
Under their skillful techniques, Sheyan quickly fell half-asleep. He also took a few sips of brandy to allow the alcohol to rapidly expand his blood vessels and speed up his blood flow, which would help in relieving mental fatigue.
Suddenly, an indescribably strange feeling once again spread through Sheyan’s body! The nightmare imprint’s cold and emotionless notification once again resounding:
[ Warning, warning: The Blood Sensing will be initiated in 3 minutes. Contestant No. 1018, you will sense the location of other contestants after a 1-minute countdown. The base duration of the Blood Sensing this time is 10 minutes. Your army rank is Major, so the duration of others sensing your position is reduced by 4 minutes. At the same time, the duration of you sensing the location of other contestants with army ranks below yours is extended by 2 minutes. ]
Sheyan took a deep breath. The duration of the Blood Sensing had doubled! The time since the last Blood Sensing was about 24 hours. According to this pattern, the duration of the next Blood Sensing would be 20 minutes, and on the 7th day, the Blood Sensing would last for around 10 hours!!
When he heard the Blood Sensing was coming, the muscles in Sheyan’s body involuntarily tightened. The surrounding masseurs immediately noticed it because they could feel the pain in their fingers from kneading on Sheyan’s muscles. They nervously stopped, fearing that they made a mistake in their massaging technique and had hurt their client.
Sheyan was silent for a few seconds, then said in a heavy tone:
“Well, that’s it for today. You guys can leave now.”
As he said that, he paid each of them according to the price they had agreed upon beforehand.
The masseurs were of course very happy because the price was for a two hour massage session, and it had only been half an hour.
They went out one by one and then closed the door. A map showing the entire New York City suddenly flashed in front of Sheyan’s eyes, showing more than ten red dots shining on it. The dot that belonged to Sheyan shone with a green light.
Sheyan’s breathing suddenly stopped, because he found that, at that moment, there were three red dots shining within one kilometer away from him ! ! !
This could only mean one thing. One deadly thing.
Less than 48 hours after the Bloody World started, a total of four participants had already gathered together. One could expect the fierce conflict that would erupt later!
At this time, Sheyan received another notification.
[Your military rank: Major]
[Would you like to spend 5 achievement points to turn on ‘Penetrating Vision’? This ability will allow your vision to penetrate any obstacles between you and the participants, enabling you to lock on to the approximate location of the target.]
[Hint: This is a passive ability. 2 conditions must be met for it to activate: (1) Blood Sensing is in effect, and (2) the straight-line distance between you and the target is at most 3 km.]
[Hint: This ability will disappear after this world ends.]
Sheyan knew that it was definitely not the time to be stingy. He immediately chose to pay and turn on the ability!
He was obviously in the 17th-floor presidential suite with no way to look directly outside, but after the ability was activated, the surrounding buildings turned blurry, becoming translucent and forming a cluster of black and white lines. He could instantly see through them!
First, he looked towards the first red dot. He saw that on a footbridge downstairs about 100 meters away, there was an area of about 100 cubic meters which appeared in normal view.
There were 18 people within the 100 cubic meter area. Among them, 13 were pedestrians walking on the footbridge, while the other 5 were drivers or passengers below the bridge.
Apparently, there was a participant among them.
Sheyan believed that if his military rank was higher, the scope of the area would be smaller. If it was high enough, he may even be able to directly lock onto the target.
Sheyan then looked towards the location of another red dot, which was located in an extremely crowded shopping complex towards the east. There were lots of people in the space of one hundred cubic meters. Including those on different floors and in the elevators, there were at least a hundred people.
However, in the next second, Sheyan witnesses an unforgettable scene.
A burst of blood appeared on the head of a little boy holding onto his mother’s hand!
The little boy was flung away from the impact, but a rippling protective layer suddenly appeared on the surface of his body. Blood covered his face as he disappeared in the air. When he appeared again, he was already behind his “mother”.
A vicious second shot promptly followed. The bullet flashed and the “mother” who was used as a cover by the little boy was completely torn apart. Her body scattered and rained down, but it appeared that the mother was not a human being at all! Paper, bamboo strips, and other wastes dropped from the body amidst a black mist!
The little boy’s agility was beyond words. Shots were released one after another from the distance but none of the bullets hit.
These shots appeared monotonous. Dry. Dull. Uncreative. Tedious. Boring. Yet each bullet was like a merciless ice shard that pierced the enemy and then shattered!
The style reminded Sheyan of someone. Someone who was long dead but left a deep impression on Sheyan. Someone who was once his ally, then became his enemy.
The sniper in the world of Harry Potter, Diaz.
They became allies due to profit, and became enemies also due to profit.
Of course, the one shooting now only had a style somewhat similar to Diaz. It was like you playing badminton versus Lin Dan playing badminton. You’re playing the same game but the difference between you two are worlds apart. Compared to the person shooting right now, Diaz’s skills and strength level were like a child’s!
(TN note: Lin Dan is the Roger Federer of badminton.)
The little boy was obviously also a strong Growth-Hunter. Unfortunately, under the attack of the enemy, he had almost no room to fight back. No matter how he evaded, no matter how he tried to break away, the enemy’s bullet would always accurately head towards his fatal spot on the next second!
He merely lasted for one minute and thirteen shots before issuing a painful scream. Shots turned him into a torrent of blood that poured onto the people underneath. These people remained motionless for a few seconds, then suddenly screamed hysterically.
An immensely powerful participant died on the spot without even a chance to fight back!
Sheyan watched the battle in a daze. The string of shots simply reminded him of a precise, meticulous and interconnected series of gears, or a boring, monotonous, but powerful assembly line! Once a shot connected, the target would fall into the opponent’s rhythm; unable to resist, unable to defend, with only death awaiting!
Sheyan hastily looked in the direction of the gunman. Then, his mouth curled into a smile. He saw an acquaintance.
The gunman was none other than the core member of the Glory Party, the one who was almost equal to Zeus in status, America’s public enemy, Aziz!
And more importantly, because Aziz was eager to kill the enemy in one go, he focused his remaining concentration on guarding against enemies who would take the chance to attack himself. He neglected the big picture, so he was now caught in an extremely awkward situation.
The other participant that was on the footbridge took advantage of this opportunity to summon a total of four summoned creatures!
These four summoned creatures did not look too strong at first glance. They were all wolf-type creatures that were so fast that they left residual images when they ran. They surrounded Aziz from four directions, staring him down.
The participant wasn’t done yet. He violently slammed on the left side of his chest. His left chest slowly popped out like a CD-ROM drive opening. A videotape-sized cassette was ejected from within, which transformed in the air into a fierce wolfdog made of steel. It seemed to be a robotic dog from the Transformers world. It also appeared to be the leader of the summoned pack. The robotic dog rushed madly towards Aziz.
Not only that, the participant did not forget about the existence of Sheyan. The “CD-ROM drive” on his chest did not close, but instead popped out another disc which quickly changed into a large Laserbeak. The Laserbeak flew around the participant. Not only could it detect danger, it could also block attacks for its master at critical moments.
Even up to now, Sheyan merely thought of the guy as a mediocre contestant who was pretty decent in summoning.
However, reality immediately gave Sheyan a hard slap in the face! After the guy had arranged everything, he sneered and proceeded to pull out a black, heavy-looking sniper rifle from his personal space, erected the sniper, and took aim!
This guy turned out to be a monster proficient in both firearms and summoning!
Looking at his series of actions, Sheyan couldn’t help but think of the scenes of people hunting in ancient times. In those eras, the dog was first released to smoke out the rabbit before the hunter calmly shot the rabbit down. This participant held his heavy duty sniper rifle in wait while continuously issuing summoned creatures to harass the enemy. How similar was his style to ancient hunting techniques?
Even someone as powerful as Aziz was suppressed by him into a tight corner with no room for retreat. More importantly, the summoning man could endlessly put out summoned creatures to attack Aziz, thus restraining Aziz to the limit.
Aziz probably wouldn’t even think of a desperate,suicidal retaliation, because don’t forget, those two both realised Sheyan’s existence! They knew that fighting to the death would only benefit Sheyan!
Under such circumstances, there was no way for Senyan to kill anyone. Because the other parties could also monitor his approximate location, even if he activated ‘Pestilence Monarch’, it would be difficult for him to get close to two top gunmen who were on high vigilance. Sheyan had only two choices.
The first one was to walk away. He could safely retreat in one piece in he chose to leave, but it would definitely end in Aziz paying a very hefty price, maybe even his life. And the summoner + sniper combo monster probably won’t show Sheyan any appreciation.
The second choice would be to activate the virus in the sniper/summoner. In this case, Aziz’s hope of escaping would greatly increase, but this option did not seem to benefit Sheyan in any way. In fact, he would gain an enemy.
But when Sheyan thought about it, he affirmed that it was very difficult for him to fish in troubled waters, so he could already eliminate the option of killing anyone.
So what was left for him was either to walk away, to help the sniper/summoner, or to help Aziz.
Among the three choices, walking away was not Sheyan’s style. He gave it a pass.
As for helping the sniper/summoner that he was not acquainted with in the slightest, while he already had the upper hand, helping him may not result in him showing any gratitude towards Sheyan. Sheyan wasn’t willing to paste a hot face to a cold ass either (Chinese idiom meaning to show warm feelings but meet with cold rebuke). Not to mention, in this cruel Bloody World, everyone came in here to kill or be killed. Even if the sniper/summoner turned out to be a righteous person, would he really let Sheyan off when the going gets tough just for this small favour?
That’s why, after deliberating, Sheyan found that the most suitable choice was to help Aziz!
The main reason being: they were from the same realm.
The second reason being: Aziz is a very prideful person. A big characteristic of him was that he wouldn’t owe someone.
The third reason being: the act of helping Aziz was an act of helping someone in need. It would mean more to Aziz.
The fourth reason being: Sheyan had not broken through the boundary yet, so he couldn’t afford to be targeted. If Aziz lived, it would undoubtedly reduce the chance of Sheyan being
targeted.
It was for these reasons that Sheyan unhesitatingly launched his ‘Pestilence Monarch’ ability on the sniper. In Sheyan’s vision, the sniper/summoner’s body had turned a spotted red similar to an image in an infrared scanner, which was an indication that he had been successfully infected!
After Sheyan’s ‘Pestilence Monarch’ had undergone Melody’s “treatment”, and the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ had been strengthened after absorbing four of Treebeard’s Golden Fruits, tyhe time it took for the cold to take effect became really quick. A smirk soon appeared on Sheyan’s face as the sniper released a huge sneeze!
But remember, the person Sheyan was facing was not a small fry. He was the cream of the crop, an elite among the elites chosen from exceptional teams that had been tempered by various trials and tribulations!
As soon as he finished sneezing, before he even wiped away his snot, his body already flashed with a series of lights. Apparently, he had taken a variety of drugs that removed abnormal conditions. He immediately rolled into a store next to him, then broke through a window with a leap to climb onto a passing truck.
Simultaneously, the flying Laserbeak screeched sharply, then retracted its steel wings back behind itself to turn into a natural shield! Anyone who wanted to attack him now must first destroy the Laserbeak.
Sheyan’s jaw dropped to the floor. This sniper must be born in the year of the mouse. How could he run away so fast? He did not hesitate to run away at all!
Sheyan hadn’t even taken a step. It only took one sneeze for the guy to give up on an amazing situation that he had going on, after he had no doubt planned meticulously too. To be honest, Sheyan wasn’t sure he could do it if it was him.
The guy’s action in running away was so smooth that it looked like he had long planned to do it. He turned running away into an art.
What Sheyan did not know was that this guy actually had a very famous M.O., and that was, if he couldn’t finish his target in on hit, he would immediately retreat, no questions asked! A person who had such an M.O. must be quite suspicious in nature. As soon as he sensed an abnormal condition in himself without knowing when it was inflicted, his first thought was that it was a precursor to a joint attack by Sheyan and Aziz. So, of course he ran away decisively.
Aziz was also quite surprised. The fact was, he had already quietly followed the warlock, who disguised himself as a boy, for 30 minutes before the Blood Sense started.
Aziz used those 30 minutes to observe his movement patterns and walking habits. At the same time, his mind was calculating the various shooting routes and angles in the surrounding terrain! All Sheyan saw were Aziz’s thirteen cold, mechanical and monotonous shots, all precisely aimed. He couldn’t have imagined all the sweat and effort Aziz had gone through beforehand in his preparation work!
As the saying goes, one minute on stage took 10 years of effort behind it. It would not be wrong to describe Aziz in this way.
Truth be told, the Blood Sense actually messed with his plan. But, well, he wasn’t called America’s public enemy for nothing. Even before he entered the nightmare realm, he was already somewhat of a fanatical madman. Since he was confident that he could kill his target, how could he just let his target go? The meat was already in front of his mouth, how could he not bite into it?
Aziz had his own calculations. Although there were four participants in this area, this was a bustling urban district with a complex terrain. After he killed his target, he could still put up a decent fight as long as he didn’t let anyone get near him! Besides, there was no way the other two could have come to a tacit understanding and allied with each other already. Their wariness of each other would cause them to hesitate on ganging up on him!
That was why Aziz still decided to make the move for the kill even though four participants had gathered here!
Aziz’s craziness, arrogance and aggressiveness were evident from his action!
He could not have expected that the other enemy he had to face was so insane, a rare summoning+sniping dual-type! Note that the main attributes of summoners were Charm, Perceptive Sense, and Intelligence, while the main attributes of snipers were Agility, Perceptive Sense, and Spirit. (The crux of a sniper was to kill in one hit, or at least to heavily-injure the enemy, and not in prolonged fighting, so their third attribute was Spirit which could enhance the attacking power of skills.)
What did this mean? It meant that the guy must at least invest his attribute points into the five attributes of Charm, Perceptive Sense, Intelligence, Spirit and Agility! Plus, there was the Physique attribute that every contestant couldn’t ignore! This was a man who had an all-round development of six major attributes!
Going down this route could easily turn him a jack of all trades but master of none, but he had proven that his might was nothing to scoff at. Even someone like Aziz was firmly suppressed.
As time passed, Aziz got more anxious. Right when he decided he couldn’t let this drag on any longer and was about to bust out the big moves, the whole situation took a sudden turn. The suffocating pressure from his opponent suddenly disappeared without a trace! At that point, Blood Sense was still in effect, so Aziz instantly noticed that the opponent left the area in a hurry.
There was no way the enemy was merciful. In fact, in Aziz’s opinion, mercy was a totally unnecessary emotion. Therefore, there could only be one reason for the opponent to retreat.
The other person in the distance helped him. Aziz was a daring guy. After he confirmed that the summoner/sniper had gone away, he strode to a spot next to Sheyan’s hotel, squinted his eyes and observed the person opposite him without restraint.
Next, his keen eagle eyes (almost all gunmen have superb vision) detected a familiar face.
Not too long ago, the owner of this face caused the entire Glory Party to suffer their biggest loss since the establishment of the party. But Aziz did not care much about this. His way of thinking was cruel and simple – the dead were useless to him, and there was no need to waste any emotion on things that were useless to him.
When Sheyan saw Aziz looking over, he leaned on the window of his suite, picked up a glass of red wine and raised his glass towards Aziz with a smile. Sheyan wasn’t afraid of Aziz becoming hostile in such an environment.
Aziz expended a total of thirteen shots to kill the warlock who disguised himself as a child. Even if the warlock had used an honorary dosage, it still took Aziz 6 shots to empty the warlock’s HP. Thus, it could be inferred that if Aziz wanted to finish Sheyan, it was definitely not something that could be done with a few shots, or even 10+ shots…. The reason why Aziz was so dangerous and had such a high status within his party was because he could quickly eliminate a few of the most fragile people in the opposing team, thus giving his party a numerical advantage early on.
After taking one look at Sheyan, Aziz suddenly pulled out his gun! A bullet instantly shattered Sheyan’s wine glass, spraying red wine all over him. Then, using some unknown method, Aziz evaporated into thin air, but his hoarse voice seemed to reverberate next to Sheyan’s ear:
“Kid, do you think that I’ll feel like I owe you for scaring away a soft bastard like that? Dream on! Look at how weak you are. You will definitely become a prey for others. I will save you once, then take the invitation letter on you that belongs to me!”
Sheyan simply shrugged. He wasn’t bothered with Aziz’s arrogance. Aziz had ample reason to be arrogant.
As Aziz’s silhouette disappeared among the crowd, the duration of Blood Sense ended. The feeling of being stripped naked and exposed to others was indeed quite terrible. When the Blood Sense disappeared, the long-lost feeling of security finally returned. Sheyan couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief.
He couldn’t help but consider the possible scenario of the contest lasting for more than half a month. How would he feel if he was exposed to others for at least 20 hours a day? The invisible pressure was enough for people with slightly weaker mentality to collapse! He believed that only then would the real horror of the Bloody World show itself! It would be a contest of willpower and strength. Whoever made the first mistake would be the first to die!
Sheyan shook his head and drove these distractions from his mind. Currently, his main problem was still the problem of breaking through the boundary limit. Only after he had done that could he stand on the same starting line as the rest of the powerful participants! Only then could he obtain the precious invitation letters from others while retaining his own life.
At that moment, the police siren was heard. But the police quickly came to term with the fact that the things that happened here completely exceeded their common sense, so they informed INS Division Six without much thought. That’s the common name of the department of the Men in Black.
The Men in Black arrived at the scene shortly. They took a casual look around the place and immediately identified the matter as an in-fight between aliens. These kinds of things were pretty ordinary for them.
They routinely gathered the people together, brainwashed them, erased their memory, and quickly left. Soon, the tension and fear of the crowd dissipated and they resumed their bustling harmony.
Sheyan watched all this from a place not too far away.
After the previous break, followed by watching an intense battle, his mental fatigue had almost fully recovered. He put aside the impatience and uneasiness in him and began to think of his problem from the perspective of a bystander. Like grinding soybeans with a crush-stone mill in olden times, he unhurriedly pushed the mill to slowly squeeze out the essence of the beans one drop at a time.
‘Maybe I had been thinking of the problem in a wrong way from the very beginning.’
Sheyan suddenly gained a bit of enlightenment:
‘The realm would never give impossible missions, otherwise it would contradict its intention of evolution. If I think of it this way….’
After reaching this line of thought, Sheyan absentmindedly cut into the steak in front of him, smashed it in black pepper, and gulped it down it.
‘That means I should have a chance to win. And more importantly, this time I have to break through the boundary to become a Growth-Hunter while participating in the Bloody World mission at the same time. This combination will no doubt increase the difficulty! Among the 12 participants, I am obviously also the weakest as a reserve-duty Growth-Hunter. Logically thinking, the realm should give me preferential treatment in some areas. Otherwise, wouldn’t they just be sending me here to die?’
Sheyan began getting excited as he drank a sip of his lemon juice.
‘Yes, let me think about it. If the realm wanted to give me preferential treatment to reduce the difficulty, then it should arrange for me to experience the Pirates of the Caribbean world. Or – is it possible that the realm believes the Men in Black world is even more advantageous to me than the Pirates of the Caribbean world!!!??’
‘It must be! If my inference is true, then …. Is the key to breaking the deadlock, somewhere around here?? Yes, I remember now, I’ve already found the most crucial thing, I’ve found the thread to unravel the mystery!’
The more Sheyan thought about it, the more excited he became. He slammed his table and stood up in excitement. The steak sauce, mushroom cream soup, salad, and other food on his table splashed everywhere, to the misfortune of the gentleman sitting in the table in front of him. Sheyan hurriedly threw a stack of banknotes on the table to stuff the waiter’s complaint back inside his mouth, then jumped back into his car. He said eagerly to Mr. Jinkuang:
“My friend, I have some questions I need to ask your new pet.”
“The poor child is still recuperating. You will kill him if you wake him up!” said Jinkuang righteously.
Sheyan threw a large-sized New Orleans Roasted Chicken Burger at him:
“I’ve already paid for that. It comes with a free large coke but you have to go retrieve it from the counter. If you don’t hurry someone might take your coke….hey, where is he?”
Blame not Jinkuang for running so fast, blame the word “free” for being too attractive.
And so, Sheyan successfully grabbed the stubborn Ritz out. Facing his obstinate attitude, Sheyan splashed some ketchup that came with his fries on Ritz’s head. The pathetic alien finally gave in.
“Fine! Fine! I’ll talk! I know another alien called Jack. He has a pawn shop on 41st Avenue, and helps the earthling gangsters fence stolen goods on the side. He finds it exciting. But I heard he has a lot of connections and will do other business as well. ”
“Jack….” Sheyan recalled that name. This guy had some scenes in the original plot. The most impressive thing about him was his head. After being shot by the special gun of Agent K, it could swiftly grow back like an inflatable ball. Sheyan seemed to remember that he also sold some illegal alien weapons to make huge profits.
“Good. Let’s pay him a visit,” Sheyan jumped onto the driver’s seat and started the engine. He slammed the throttle hard, but at this time, a notification from the nightmare imprint startled him!
[Warning. Warning. A participant tried to get involved in a dispute between the Men in Black and the aliens, but was killed as a result. His invitation letter is currently being held by an insectoid alien. In the next Blood Sense, the insectoid alien holding the invitation letter will be marked.]
Sheyan took a deep breath:
“Freaking hell. This world isn’t as simple as I thought! These guys are strong enough to threaten our lives!”
Even though the news made Sheyan hesitate for a moment, he still decided to go to Jack’s shop according to the information provided by Ritz.
The shop was in a very good location, occupying the middle of a crossroad. Even though the shop was in one of those red-bricked 6 storey buildings, the glittering decorations and railings that had undergone careful renovation and cleaning definitely added to the store’s charm. Therefore, if a customer was not careful, it was easy to neglect the termite holes and ragged ceiling behind the door.
The store wasn’t that big. There’s a family atmospheres to the decoration. The scattered but orderly chairs could make guests feel warm. On one of the wall were some second-hand, old-fashioned guitars of different styles. On another wall were old-fashioned phonographs, black-and-white TVs, etc. All these things were, without exception, covered in dust.
When Sheyan entered the store, the owner, Mr. Jack, was working hard to sell his goods – a large list of Rolex gold watches – to a customer. These stolen goods seemed to be the main source of revenue for the store. Every corner of the store was old and outdated. The only modern part in the store was the spiral-shaped lampshade of the table lamp. In fact, the shape of the lampshade was very similar to the shape of Jack’s hometown nebula.
As soon as Sheyan walked in, he told Jack:
“Show me the imports.”
Jack was a thin, middle-aged man with a big nose. A greenish stubble seemed to have taken root on his face. His eyes showed a confused look as he said:
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t understand what you’re talking about. All my imported goods are on the counter.”
Sheyan shrugged:
“Why is the skill that all aliens learn best after coming to Earth, is to tell lies?”
The other customer, who was picking a watch, looked up at Sheyan in confusion, then looked at Jack in confusion as well. He felt a bad premonition so he immediately pushed the door open and walked away. Jack’s face instantly turned ugly. He pointed to the door and shouted at Sheyan:
“Out! Now!”
Sheyan’s eyes flashed a cold gleam as he slammed his feet on the wooden floor. When the splinters scattered, he was already rushing out. He proceeded to grab Jack’s left hand that was moving towards the alarm trigger below the counter.
But then, a weird thing happened. Jack’s eyes turned a deathly white as his pupils disappeared completely. The hand grabbed by Sheyan didn’t feel like a hand anymore, but more like a hollow rubber glove. It was so slippery that it was about to slip out of Sheyan’s grip!
Sheyan instinctive tightened his grip to hold on to Jack’s hand with all his strength. Jack released a weird scream and thrusted his knee towards the counter.
Sheyan was perplexed at what he was doing. Who would have thought that the foot would fold over in a strange way like the shin part was boneless, and slammed onto Sheyan’s groin with a bang.
Senyan’s expression instantly turned ugly, and he staggered back a few steps. Even though he was a contestant, taking a hit to his fatal area still felt absolutely terrible. Jack’s issued a condescending snort and showed Sheyan a bloodshot smile. The skin all over his body squirmed as he lifted his hand and flung it towards Sheyan. His arm suddenly stretched, becoming 3 metres long, and his fist landed squarely on Sheyan’s face.
Sheyan once again staggered back a few steps, this time holding his nose. Jack’s arm had already shrunk back. He was like a rubber man – his hands and feet could extend to incredible length, and he could attack from an incredible distance. It was very difficult for normal attacks to cause damage to his body.
After forcing Sheyan back with a punch, Jack took out a gun, aimed at Sheyan, and pulled on the trigger with force! A hot bullet shot forward!
Jack could never have imagined that the human in front would use his hand to block the bullet. Sheyan covered his face with his hand and the bullet hit him on the elbow. However, the bullet only got halfway in before it bounced off.
Jack also could never have imagined that the man could actually protect himself in time after the shot was released. Not only did the reaction speed of his reflex and his body surpass ordinary humans, they were even comparable to some alien races.
A hint of fear appeared in his eyes. When he saw Sheyan approaching once more, Jack hastily kicked out. His leg crossed the distance of three to four meters in the blink of an eye. He obviously wanted to kick Sheyan away, but Sheyan ate his kick. A faint blue glow appeared in Sheyan’s palm. With ‘+7 West’, Sheyan chopped off Jack’s elongated leg.
Sheyan had planned for this slash for a long time. He found that his fists and kicks could not cause any significant damage to Jack, so he immediately thought of a change in weapon! He was also unwilling to drag the fight on for too long because it would affect his subsequent plan.
Jack’s body was soft and rubbery, and could be stretched and shortened at will. Just like a basketball or a soccer ball, it had a strong defence against blunt attacks, but it feared stabbing and piercing attacks.
After ‘+7 West’ penetrated into Jack’s leg, Sheyan further exerted force into the blade to smoothly chop the leg off!
A large amount of yellow-green liquid burst forth from the end of Jack’s severed leg. It was a violent sight!
It sprayed liquid like a high-pressure nozzle on a fire truck sprayed water. The two parts that were cut fiercely convulsed on the ground while spraying liquid everywhere.
Even though Jack’s body was very flexible, having a leg chopped off was still a pretty serious injury. He instantly lost balance and almost stumbled.
Sheyan immediately grabbed an old guitar and flung it towards Jack’s head. The strings on the old guitar broke with a dissonant cry as the guitar landed squarely on Jack’s jaw. Although his body was in a state of falling forward, his head was raised from the impact.
Sheyan rushed forward and slammed an elbow down on the guy’s head from above, pressing Jack down with his strength. Without giving Jack any chance to retaliate, Sheyan pulled out ‘Ambition’ and shot straight at Jack’s head!
A loud bang echoed in the store. The light-blue smoke of gunpowder circled around them. The smell was stinging, but it was a smell Sheyan missed dearly. Jack’s head exploded like a balloon and gave Sheyan a full splash on the face.
What was strange was that the liquid and secretions from the explosion had a rather pleasant smell, instead of the nauseating smell Sheyan expected.
Jack, who lost his head, remained momentarily stunned. After a while, the cross section of his neck squirmed a little, and a fist-sized flesh lump grew out.
The “flesh lump” grew rapidly after coming into contact with the air. In the end, like a sprout growing into a large tree, it successfully grew into a new head. The new head looked exactly the same as the old one, just drenched in a glue-like substance.
Sheyan placed his muzzle on Jack’s head and emotionlessly said:
“My dear Mr. Jack, I know for a fact that having your head explode hurts like hell, AND you need a large amount of energy to grow it back. So please don’t give me any reason to pull the trigger again.”
After taking a few large breaths, Jack exercised his facial muscles, then screamed in anger:
” I’m telling you the truth! I honestly don’t have any imported goods (weapons imported from foreign planets) with me right now! We received news last night that a bunch of foreigners who reek of blood will arrive on earth, so in the last 24 hours, I made several big deals. The stock that I’ve collected for three years was completely emptied. F*cking hell, I should have left one for myself.”
“He received news last night….” mumbled Sheyan. “Seems like someone triggered a hidden mission of this world last night, which triggered a follow-up progression in the plot. We were all dragged into it – the difficulty has become higher for all of us! The idiot who was killed by an insectoid alien earlier was the first casualty of the incident.”
“You still don’t believe me? If I had one, I would’ve blown your head off by now! You piece of rotten protein. You filthy nucleic acid. Let me go at once! I’m officially registered with the Universe Administration Department. I pay all my taxes on time. I’m a legal taxpayer!”
Jack roared furiously. All the while, he was still struggling fiercely with his eyes bloodshot due to rage.
Sheyan turned his head to the other side and asked with a frown:
“How do I shut him up?”
The target of his inquiry, Jinkuang, immediately replied in excitement:
“That’s easy! First, you stuff his mouth….”
Sheyan instantly grabbed a towel and shoved it into Jack’s mouth.
“Then you take off his shirt.”
Sheyan tore Jack’s shirt off. The body underneath was no different from your average American. He was thin, with a chest full of hair, and a couple of tattoos that were so faint that they were almost not visible.
“Then you take off his pants.”
“…..I don’t have time for games!” shouted Sheyan furiously.
“I ain’t playing!” said Jinkuang with a sinister smile.
Sheyan: “….Fine. I’ll take them off.”
Jack once again roared in anger. This was the normal reaction of 99% of men when they had their pants forcefully taken off by another man. Sheyan was struggling to hold him down so he blew Jack’s head off again. The world once again found peace – at least, until Jack’s head grew back.
“Now what?” asked Sheyan while he wiped away the green slime on his face with force.
Jinkuang shrugged and said:
“Now you grab his XXX.”
Sheyan: “….F*ck off!”
Then, he said with a laugh: “Am I supposed to jack him off?”
Jinkuang sighed. He took a step forward, grabbed the thing that Jack used to pee, and pulled hard. Sheyan was struck dumb at what he saw. Jinkuang’s action caused Jack’s skin to open up like it was unzipped, revealing the content inside.
There were no blood or internal organs in the stomach, but a large crystal-like object. The large “crystal” was partitioned like a house with a lot of walls. A fist-sized alien stretched two long tentacles out and glared at Sheyan with the eyes on the two tentacles. The real body of the unfortunate Mr. Jack looked no different from an escargot without its shell.
Sheyan flicked his finger on the transparent “crystal” a few times and said with a laugh:
“My dear Mr. Jack. Please do whatever I tell you to do from now on. We wouldn’t want any misfortune befalling you, would we?”
Jack’s two tentacles tangled together and swung at Sheyan like a baseball bat, full of contempt.
Sheyan sighed regretfully, then snapped his fingers at Jinkuang, who was already getting impatient…..
About half an hour later, Jack’s distressed face appeared on the surveillance screen in the Men in Black headquarters.
“I request for Aid No. III! I repeat, I request for Aid No. III!”
The officer on duty yawned. The so-called Aid No. III was similar to trivial cases of scratched cars or quarreling neighbours in the real world, ie. cases that the police don’t really feel like replying to. However, Jack’s distressed voice kept bugging him like a nightmare, so the officer on duty very impatiently replied:
“OK, please state your situation.”
Jack cried out in anguish:
“A young man rushed into my shop a moment ago and tried to take away all my money and valuables. Because business had been terrible lately, he was disappointed with his haul, so he, he, shot my head….and then the process of my head growing back made him faint.”
The officer on duty impatiently asked:
“Have you subdued him?”
Jack furiously replied:
“I already tied him to a chair. He doesn’t look like he’ll wake up anytime soon.”
The officer on duty yawned again and added a mark to type VI incidents on a form beside him. Type VI incidents represented the most basic form of contact.
“Mr. Jack, if you would please send him to our headquarters….”
“I don’t have time! I’ve heard enough of your verbal appreciation.”
“Very well. Within 20 minutes, our Man in Black….Agent G will be at your service. The robber who fired at your head will have his memory erased, and will get 17 years in federal prison for attempted murder. He will not be allowed appeal or bail. I am operator No. 6. If you’re satisfied with my service, please press 1 and #. If you have any questions or complaints regarding my service, please also press 1 and #…”
As he listened to the monotonous voice coming out of the phone, Jack glared at Sheyan with a hateful gaze:
“If it wasn’t because I’m not too fond of those Men in Black either, I would never have made that call. Never!”
Sheyan flicked him away with a finger and turned to Jinkuang:
“What do you think about the thing that I’m going to do next?”
Jinkuang took out an old fly swatter and very easily used it to hold down our poor Mr. Jack who was trying his hardest to crawl away. He told Sheyan seriously:
“You have to think this through carefully. This is the world of the Men in Black. If you act against Agent G, it will likely mean provoking the ones who keep order in this world! Just like in your world, the attention received from killing a normal civilian is totally different from killing a police or a soldier. The former will merely be a conflict between the people, but the latter may be treated as a provocation against the society or the government!”
Sheyan said after remaining silent for a while:
“I understand everything you said, but I also know one thing! If I don’t launch an assault on Agent G, my breakthrough mission is almost certainly doomed for failure. And if I fail that, the only thing waiting for me in this Bloody World, is death!”
“If I deal with him, then at least I will have 50% confidence in passing the breakthrough challenge. I may become a public enemy of New York, maybe even the entire United States, but I’ll still have a slim chance of surviving! This f*cking world!! It left me with no choice at all!”
Sheyan was already gnashing his teeth towards the end of his words!
Jinkuang applauded with a snide smirk:
“Not bad. Very exciting. Since you’ve set your goal, don’t hesitate. Just do it!”
(This is bonus chapter #2 for September for meeting Patreon goal. Enjoy!)
(TL note: The title is a reference to a Chinese idiom: The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.)
Shortly after, the exclusive ride of the Men in Black – a new but old-fashioned Cadillac – stopped around the corner. A man wearing a black suit and a poker face strode into the store.
This was Agent G of the Men in Black.
Every Man in Black must cut ties with their previous life before joining the agency. They must say farewell to their fingerprints, their personal information, their friends and family, and even their significant others. Like they said in the movie, they were the faceless shadows, they were everywhere yet no one could see them.
Agent G was no longer a young man. The wrinkles on his face were at least a centimeter deep. He could no longer pull out his gun agilely, nor aim too accurately. Even in driving, the frequency of his pedal hitting the floor was getting lesser. He would probably have to face the memory-deleting neuralyzer, nicknamed “janitor”, in a few months. He would delete his own experience, then happily retire with a fake resume and a fake memory. Finally, like most Americans, he would head towards the embrace of the Lord.
When Agent G walked into the store, the first thing he saw was Jack’s “corpse” – or, to be precise, the outer body he used to integrate into human society. Naturally, Agent G was shocked. Of course, he had to take a look at the thing, and rummage around to see if there were any notable clues.
But while Agent G’s attention was fully focused on the part where Jack’s body slit open, the floor suddenly cracked open with dust and wood chips flying about, and two hands suddenly extended forward, one left and one right, to tightly grip onto Agent G’s hands!
According to Sheyan’s analysis of the Men in Black, their biggest threat were the various kinds of high-tech devices they possess! And 99% of these high-tech devices were controlled by hand.
Neutralising their hands was tantamount to obtaining a reliable guarantee for his life. Agent G was old, and his physical strength and reflexes were far inferior to younger people, but his rich experience helped him react in a timely manner!
He quickly slammed the heels of his left and right shoes together. Two flames with strong propulsion power instantly burst forth from his heels. Agent G flew forward, dragging Sheyan, who was clamping onto his hands from below, out from the floor. They crashed wildly through the entire store.
However, by the time Agent G landed, he had already lost his life.
Sheyan had painstakingly planned this assassination. There was no way he could so easily escape.
When he seized Agent G hands, he pulled on them hard. The Men in Black relied on technology to battle; they do not possess insane physiques. Sheyan’s grapple was extremely painful for him.
Then, when they flew out, Sheyan’s hands grabbed onto his neck and easily snapped it. And thus ended the life of the aged Man in Black who was about to retire.
Of course, it also caused a huge uproar.
The moment Agent G died, Sheyan received some notifications:
[You have killed Agent G, a senior Level II agent in the Men in Black organization.]
[“You are listed as an extremely dangerous person by the Men in Black organization.”]
[You have entered their A-level wanted list.]
[You will be heavily targeted and hunted down by the Men in Black organization.]
[You are temporarily unable to alter your appearance through the realm. At the same time, your ability to alter your appearance will also be restricted (if you have such an ability).]
At the same time, the rest of the participants also received notifications regarding this incident. Almost everyone now knew that an unlucky bastard had killed a member of the Men in Black and was currently being hunted by the whole organization.
They would undoubtedly ridicule this idiot at first. But, after that, they would definitely contemplate further on the matter – could someone who was qualified to enter the Bloody World be a fool? What made him kill an MIB agent? Risk and reward were always proportional; this person was willing to take on the world, so there was certainly a great interest driving him!
Therefore, Sheyan’s behavior had even led to a series of chain reactions, of which the most direct one was a huge coup attempted by a contestant ten hours later.
The magnitude of his feat was apparent in the numbers. He laid down a trap which killed 13 members of the Men in Black organization in one go! Among them, four were senior agents who were qualified to wear the black suits and drive Cadillacs, while nine others were peripheral members of the organization.
But for Sheyan, these kind of things had little to do with him – at least for now.
The most imperative matter for him at the moment was to see if he could get the key item he wanted from Agent G! First, Sheyan searched his body.
No luck.
He could already feel dread creeping into his heart, but fortunately he still had the last glimmer of hope – the key that Agent G dropped. Its grade was pretty low, merely a blue grade key.
After saying a silent prayer in his heart, he opened the treasure chest that the key summoned… and this time, he was not disappointed. Sheyan silently retrieved the object that he had been eagerly awaiting, and carefully, excitedly, held it tight!
However, just as joy washed over Sheyan like a tsunami, a cynical voice said lazily from his left rear:
“You sure look happy. What did you get? Care to share?”
Sheyan’s pupils contracted. He turned his head and saw a thick-lipped black teenager wearing a no.10 Lakers jersey with a basketball at his feet. He was casually chewing gum in his mouth, and there was seemingly no hostility in his eyes.
However, as he spoke, the basketball at his feet glowed with a dense red light. The red light looked almost physical, like a fierce red ember burning strongly in the darkness!
The teenager looked at Sheyan and said with great interest:
“I’ve already observed you for forty-one minutes, and yet you never noticed my existence in those forty-one minutes. No one has ever been able to escape from me after I observe them for ten minutes. ”
Sheyan looked at him with a calm expression and asked:
“So?”
“I’ll give you 10 seconds to say your prayers,” said the basketball kid in a very indifferent tone. “Then, tell me the purpose of killing the Man in Black. Convince me, and I’ll let you die a quick death. Disobey me, the great Hakeem, and I’ll let you live for 24 hours before you die.”
(TN note: The author should have given him a Rockets jersey smh)
They choice of dying instantly or dying 24 hours later sounded a bit strange. Obviously, to live for an extra 24 hours should be more generous, but there were fates worse than death! Under certain circumstances, living longer was not necessarily a good thing.
Although the basketball kid’s threat sounded boastful, cold sweat still drenched Sheyan’s forehead. He knew that this guy had reasons to be arrogant! He was not just bragging.
That’s because, ‘Pestilence Monarch’ had currently been extended to its maximum range. Sheyan could infect more than a thousand people at the moment, but he could not detect the existence of this basketball kid at all! There was only one explanation, and that is, the other party’s Perceptive Sense crushingly overpowered his, and he probably also had other supporting abilities such as ‘Interfere’ or ‘Mislead’, thus he completely messed with Sheyan’s eyes, ears, and even his brain!
Of course, Sheyan could choose to infect all the people within range – all 1000+ of them. That way, the basketball teen Hakeem was also bound to be infected too. But Sheyan knew that the consequences of doing so would be quite severe. The ‘Stairway of the Sun’ might even wilt from it.
Sheyan now realized that Hakeem’s thoughts were not so simple. Everybody had their own way of surviving, but this boy had chosen a shortcut, and that was to guard a tree-stump to wait for a rabbit!
Jack was a guy who made an appearance in the movie, but he was not that eye-catching.Only people who had carefully analyzed the situation realised that Jack actually knew both the main characters, Agent K and Agent J. He had even known J before J joined the Men in Black. He also sold a lot of illegal weapons to aliens, so his role and his connections were pretty amazing.
Therefore, Hakeem unhesitatingly came to Jack’s store to cast his net. Unfortunately, Sheyan was probably the first fish he caught….
“You’ve had 10 seconds,” Hakeem suddenly raised his head and looked at Sheyan emotionlessly.
Right after the word “seconds”, Sheyan suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis coming from the left. When he turned his head, he saw that the electric pole had turned into a Maxim 6-barrel heavy machine gun, which proceeded to fire six blinding shots!
Sheyan immediately threw himself to the side and used the special Cadillac left by the senior Man in Black agent as cover.
There were a few innocent passers-by around the place. The first to bear the brunt of the attack were naturally these unfortunate local inhabitants. In the face of the terrifying bullet volley, their bodies were turned into sieves! They were blown up into the air, their blood spraying everywhere and their limbs folding.
Sheyan squeezed as much value out of the local inhabitants as he could, although he usually did not like to do so. When the local inhabitants were all dead, he had already reached a corner where the shots couldn’t find him.
The sudden appearance of the heavy machine gun brought with it the breath of death. After murdering the passers-by without much effort, the intense shower of bullets continued without a break, like a raging storm. The Cadillac only lasted for about five seconds before it started smoking, slammed away, and exploded into pieces.
Sheyan, of course, did not stay in the same spot to let the bullets hit him. Instead, he broke into the store next door. The bullets followed in his wake, smashing the whole store into a smoky mess. In less than ten seconds, even the electrical wires in the store were reduced to pieces. Flames started rising within the store.
‘It seems that his Perceptive Sense suppression on me was not as strong as I initially thought?’ a bullet had torn off a part of Sheyan’s face. The bloody wound was deep enough to reveal the white of the bone underneath. It was a scary sight.
‘Although he can completely hide his killing intent and presence before he started attacking, it seems like he can’t hide his presence when he did.’
As the thought flashed past Sheyan’s mind, he realised another possibility:
‘But if the opponent’s Perceptive Sense is much higher than mine, then there is still the possibility of abilities like ‘Mislead’ or ‘Misdirection’ in effect. That is, he could pass on his killing intent onto another object. I might think that the killing intent came from the enemy, but it could be a motorcycle, a car, a passer-by!’
The building Sheyan was in shook. The metallic bullet storm sprayed by the heavy machine gun broke the support columns, and the building collapsed. Sheyan managed to flee before the collapse, but he immediately met with the persistent pursuit of the bullets.
But at that moment, his chest flashed; he awakened into a Reserve-duty Growth-Hunter. The opponent would be severely underestimating Sheyan if he thought that he could finish a monster who had more than 3,000 HP and possesed the ‘Stronghold’ ability with a single heavy machine gun. The metallic bullet storm of the heavy machine gun rained on Sheyan for at least 3 seconds while he was running, and it merely caused Sheyan to stumble a few times.
When Sheyan jumped into another building, he suddenly realised something:
‘That’s it! I kept feeling that there’s something wrong! Under normal circumstances, I should still be at the scene where Agent G was murdered. Considering the efficiency of the Men in Black, they should arrive at the scene soon. So how can this Hakeem nonchalantly dilly-dally with me like this? There’s no way he’s a model citizen who’s delaying me to gain favour with the Men in Black.’
As he thought of this, Sheyan’s eyes showed a cold glint:
‘If that’s the case, by the process of elimination, the remaining answer must be the correct one regardless of how ridiculous it sounds!’
He bit into his tongue, hard. In the midst of the severe pain it caused, he lifted ‘+7 West’ and stabbed it into the ground! Sure enough, the moment the long blade penetrated the earth, he could feel a vague sensation of having “pierced something”!
With a scream, Sheyan withdrew the blade, then stabbed down again. But it was merely a feint this time. When the blade was halfway down, he threw a curse-mix at the ground instead.
A shockwave swept through every direction. The surrounding scenery, under the action of the shockwave, shattered like a mirror, and finally revealed the real world !!
Sheyan found himself in a large and spacious school bus. The seats of the bus seemed to have been removed by force, so Sheyan had a lot of space to move and dodge around. The school bus was rapidly but steadily moving forward. It should have gone far away from the crime scene by now. This was why Hakeem could slowly deal with Sheyan.
The real reason the illusion shattered was because the one who produced the illusion was also hurt. However, Sheyan did not see him. Sheyan immediately looked up and suddenly saw a hole on the top of the compartment. A dagger glowing a dark golden light was quickly being withdrawn.
This time, the contest ended with Sheyan’s complete victory. The first time he stabbed at the “ground”, he was in fact attacking the bus. Hakeem’s reaction was probably to block his attack. So, the second time that Sheyan stabbed down, he was only feinting to bait Hakeem into stopping him. His real killing move was the AoE attack of the curse-mix!
The deadly illusion was finally broken. Sheyan had conducted some research into illusions before this. The more powerful an illusion, the more difficult it was to cast, and the higher the price that the caster had to pay. Normally, when an illusionary environment was broken, it would be extremely difficult to cast a second one in the same battle.
Sheyan currently was back in the true world and could lock onto Hakeem’s position effortlessly. The tendrils of the Stairway of the Sun in Sheyan’s chest shuddered as they spread the disease. But suddenly, Hakeem broke through one of the bus windows and leapt into the bus. The cool night wind blew Sheyan’s hair up. Before he could react, Hakeem had already cut across his throat with a counter-gripped shiny dagger!
Sheyan’s HP started dropping fiercely!
Triple Strike, vital attack, true damage, explosive hit. These key words explained everything.
Strictly speaking, with Sheyan’s equipments and abilities, his true strength was on par with peak Growth-Hunters. But once he faced the higher-leveled Awakeners, he would most probably come out worse in a fair fight. The outcome of the incident with Drubal was purely due to the combination of many coincidental factors acting in his favour.
The strength of the person called Hakeem that Sheyan was facing right now was on par with Aziz’s. Even among the Awakeners, they were strong in solo fights, they had a lot of experience, and they had a strong mastery of their own abilities and advantages. In addition, their main attributes were far superior to Sheyan’s. In terms of equipments and abilities, they were not far off from Sheyan either. Naturally, the advantage was overwhelmingly in Hakeem’s favour!
“Damn,” Sheyan’s face distorted. He gnashed his teeth hard. “I can’t keep up with his speed at all!”
Hakim, with a sinister look on his face, said:
“I hate guys who don’t follow the rules. You think that everything will be fine now that you’ve broken my illusion? You fool! You will only fall into a deeper despair… Huh? What happened?!! coughcoughcough”
Taking advantage of Hakeem’s coughing episode, Sheyan, whose face was drenched in blood, immediately rushed forward and smashed ‘+7 West’ down. Sheyan had never been bluffed like this before. Of course he had to get some hits in to make himself feel better.
Illusions of zerglings kept appearing on his body. In fact, because he had just been swept by a machine gun, he couldn’t not activate ‘Zergling Rush’ even if he wanted to!
Hakeem’s expression changed dramatically amidst the severe coughing. He apparently did not expect Sheyan to be so insane. A few flashes of light shined on his body in an instant as Hakeem tried to take various measures to dispel the disease on his body. Unfortunately, the might of the ‘Pestilence Monarch’ ability derived from the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was so domineering that it rendered Hakeem’s efforts futile!
Alas, even though Sheyan’s equipments were luxurious, and even though Sheyan’s abilities were powerful, the large difference between their ranks was a huge gap he could not overcome!
The strongest caterpillar was still a caterpillar, but the weakest butterfly could still fly. Without going through the process of breaking through the cocoon to obtain a new life, it was impossible for reserve duty Growth-Hunters to compete with powerful Awakeners under normal circumstances.
The dark blue blade flashed as it broke into Hakeem’s body, but it slipped past as if it was cutting air and could not cause any damage. This was the high-level dodging ability of melee agile-type Awakeners – ‘Absolute Dodge’.
Its calculation formula was a base 15% dodge rate + additional floating value. The floating value was determined by the difference in Agility between the two parties. If the difference in Agility between both sides exceeded 15 points, the additional floating value is 5%. If the difference in Agility between both sides exceeded 30 points, the additional floating value is 15%. In short, the bigger the difference, the higher the additional floating value.
Two out of Sheyan’s three consecutive slashes were actually dodged by Hakeem’s passive ability! The third slash landed on Hakeem’s shoulder but it couldn’t do any significant damage by itself. Hakeem nonchalantly took the blow. He didn’t even touch the wound afterwards. Instead, he looked at Sheyan with a fierce and malicious gaze. The gaze looked so wrong on a teenager with a healthy image like him.
In the face of such situation, Sheyan already deeply understood that he simply had no chance of winning this battle. Even with the support of ‘Pestilence Monarch’, he wouldn’t outlast Hakeem. Sheyan pulled out ‘Ambition’ without hesitation and fired ‘Rum and Songs’ at him. However, it was also dodged!
The furious Hakeem still remained calm. He held the dark gold dagger level with his eyes. He closed his eyes, then slowly walked toward Sheyan. When he took a step forward, it was as if there was nothing in the world that could stop him.
Sheyan had made up his mind to stick to defending himself and never attack. He knew that his only advantage today was the infectiousness and crowd control ability of ‘Pestilence Monarch’.
Hakeem made a sudden move. Sheyan’s eyes could not keep up with his speed. When Hakeem returned to his original position, Sheyan’s had already shot two spurts of blood out from his body onto the bus.
“You’re still resisting? How many attacks of mine can you withstand?” sneered Hakeem. “The pharmacist and curse mage ability was pretty good, and so is your equipment, but how much blood can you still lose? How far can you run?
Sheyan looked at the enemy in front of him with determination, and even with a hint of bewilderment. He no longer had other thoughts in his mind. To survive this sure-death situation, what he needed was courage, persistence, and a little bit of luck.
If he still had other thoughts in his mind in this situation, he would only be courting death!
There’s a saying that you’re not living if you don’t live crazily. Sheyan was definitely close to a state of “craziness” at this moment. His eyes saw only the tip of the dagger held by Hakeem, his heart was calm.
This is a kind of protective measure naturally appeared in humans when they were forced to the limit. Everyone was afraid of death, and since ancient times, everyone died. But some people could detach themselves from this fear before they die and became as calm as the vast ocean. Even the experiences in their lives that they had long forgotten and were stored in the depths of their memories, would replay themselves.
It was the first time Sheyan entered this state of mind. Before this, when he faced desperate situations, he was always able to burn with battle lust, and in his madness and lash out with 200% of his power, while keeping calm at the same time and trading blows with his opponent until he came out victorious.
But! It was different facing Hakeem. Although Hakeem may not be the most powerful enemy he had encountered, he was the most deadly!
Sun Tzu said in the Art of War that one must try to go into battle at the right time, at the right place, and with the right people. Hakeem controlled the timing and the location of the fight, and when it came to people, Hakeem’s Agility and Perceptive Sense attributes completely suppressed Sheyan!
Sheyan knew very well that if the situation stayed the same, even if he desperately retaliated, the only outcome for him was death!
At most, he could severely injure the opponent before he died. But don’t forget, this was a battle between contestants. Heavy injury was nothing to a contestant.
Therefore, Sheyan could only choose to persist. He must force himself to survive as long as possible. He had no extra thoughts; he single-mindedly defended himself. It really made Hakeem, whose style was to kill in one hit like a venomous snake, feel very uncomfortable.
However, Hakeem was also a guy with extremely rich combat experience. Since there was no way to land a quick, fatal hit, then he would take it steady. Every attack he launched was stable, accurate and vicious, causing pain and injury to the opponent.
At the same time, he became even more alert because no one would be willing to wait for death without doing anything. It wasn’t uncommon to see cases where someone who had complete advantage was overturned. In addition to that, the inexplicable cough from before also made him feel wary because his battle log did not show any information about it at all!
Hakeem did not know that his military rank was not as high as Sheyan’s, plus the ‘Pestilence Monarch’ had a strong stealth ability. More importantly, it did not cause him damage, so naturally, it wasn’t shown in the battle log.
Even so, it left a shadow in Hakeem’s heart. He raised his vigilance to guard against the person in front of him suddenly lashing out with any other abnormal statuses.
While he attacked like a storm, but at the same time also defended like a fortress, an indescribable feeling once again emerged from within his body.
Hakeem suddenly felt like his lungs were pierced by thousands of sharp needles!
Everyone needed to breath, but at this moment, he clearly felt his lungs going on strike! He couldn’t even take in half a breath, while the spent air in his chest couldn’t be exhaled. This kind of sudden situation was completely different from normal suffocation! It wasn’t just pain and nervousness that interfered with one’s mentality, but also the fear of the unknown.
Taking advantage of this great opportunity, the injury-laden Sheyan made his move. He had waited for this moment for too long! His seemingly empty gaze suddenly regained focus. He smashed the wall next to him and leaped down in a hail of debris.
Hakeem tried to chase after Sheyan but the pain in his lungs stopped him. However, for Hakeem who had an overwhelming advantage in Agility and Perceptive Sense, his eyes were still full of ridicule. Even if Sheyan fled for a kilometer, he still wouldn’t be able to escape Hakeem’s pursuit.
He didn’t know that Sheyan’s leap had a purpose. With his body covered in blood, he hugged his legs in the air and jumped out like a round ball! Sheyan knew the speed gap between him and Hakeem very clearly, so his goal was not the road, but a Ford jeep that was traveling at a relatively high speed.
For ordinary people, Sheyan’s behaviour was equivalent to seeking death, but for a contestant, it would only cause some superficial injuries, nothing to worry about. More importantly, the two vehicles were moving in opposite directions. After Hakeem recovered from the negative effects of pneumonia, Sheyan, who held onto the luggage rack on the roof of the car, was already 50 meters away.
“F*ck this guy. When it came to running away he’s faster than a rabbit!” said Hakeem with his face twisted in anger, but after that, his mouth curled into smirk:
“You think you can run away from me so easily?”
As he spoke, his hands picked up the basketball that he was always carrying with him!
That orange-red basketball.
The ball looked just like any other basketball. However, when Hakeem held the ball up, his expression was full of solemnity, dignity, and a strange respect.
The basketball emitted a fiery glow. Hakeem bounced the ball twice and began to make a standard three-step layup, as if there was an invisible basketball hoop in front of him.
And right when the ball fell into the invisible “basket”, it suddenly disappeared. When the basketball reappeared, it turned into a flaming meteor falling from the sky above the jeep that Sheyan was on!
Hakeem’s attack was so strange and so sudden that the only thing Sheyan could do in time was to shield his head with both hands.
BANG!
The Ford was immediately buried in a violent explosion. The steel structure of the vehicle rushed off the road while burning fiercely and crashed into a building! A second explosion followed!
Hakeem sneered and jumped off the bus he was on, sinisterly asking:
“You dead yet?”
But a second later, his pupils shrunk. Sheyan’s figure once again appeared in his eyes, wrapped in a raging fire. Although the figure was struggling to walk, he did not look like a person on his last breath. He even turned back to look at Hakeem. The bitter chill in his eyes gave Hakeem shivers. He had an ominous premonition that if he didn’t kill Sheyan today, maybe he would be killed by Sheyan tomorrow!
The fire on Sheyan was gradually extinguished. Although he was definitely not Hakeem’s match in running, this was a road. After climbing out of the burning ruin of the vehicle, Sheyan jumped onto another small van that drove by without hesitation. He forced the driver off with a few kicks, then stepped on the pedal to speed away. Even if Hakeem could run fast, it was impossible to catch up to a speeding car on this spacious, empty road!
Hakeem’s eyes turned bloodshot seeing this. How could he let a cooked duck fly away? (Chinese idiom meaning letting something within one’s grasp slip away) More importantly, if you don’t kill a snake, it would come back to bite you. If he couldn’t kill this guy under such favourable conditions today, what would happen in the future? Hakeem was someone who had a lot of combat experience. He could already vaguely guess the identity of the opponent. Seeing how Sheyan had such strong endurance, he should be an MT with immense potential! More importantly, MT equipments were really valuable!
Therefore, Hakeem had no intention of giving up. He chased madly, and then jumped into car on the side of the road that had just started its engine. He finished the owner with a knife to the neck, then put the pedal to the floor. He was going to chase Sheyan to the bitter end.
Because it was a roadside parking lot, Hakeem specifically chose a white Volkswagen Scirocco R with very high specs. It could display its advantage in a road chase like this!
The symptom of pneumonia caused by Sheyan, ‘Intermittent chest pain’, delayed Hakeem for three seconds. Sheyan also had to make the jump in those three seconds, so the duration he had to distance himself was actually just 1.5 seconds.
Plus, Hakeem instantly used his phantom basketball to destroy the vehicle Sheyan was on, so the distance between them shortened again. Even accounting for the time Hakeem used to accelerate the vehicle, which only took 6.2 seconds to go from zero to 100 km/h, the actual distance between them in this chase could be covered in less than ten seconds!
Hakeem had absolute confidence in catching up with the guy in front. He would brutally cut open Sheyan neck and let him bleed. If Sheyan dared to jump down from his current car to change into another one, he would only die faster.
But Sheyan was still rushing to escape. The wind whistled in his ear as the road quickly extended past both sides of him. His face was pale, his lips were cracked, and his eyes were sunk due to excessive blood loss.
It was the first time Sheyan was forced into such a predicament. He was like a skinny wild dog that was forced to run away hungry and cold. As the Statue of Liberty in the distance slowly approached, Sheyan’s eyes burned once again. But this time, the flames were cold, sharp and angry!
“Hakeem, huh. The next time I come out from the Statue of Liberty, I will pay you back double, ten times, a hundred times what I feel now!”
Not only was Hakeem strong and had high attack power, he was also very calculative. From the very beginning, his judgement and calculation of Sheyan had not been wrong by one bit. He was a person who was hard to overcome if he managed to get the upper hand.
Sheyan could only run for so long because he had pushed himself to the limit in all aspects.
The only thing which escaped Hakeem’s calculation was ‘Pestilence Monarch’. But something as rare as that would escape anyone’s calculation. It was almost the same as the chance of an Internet cafe owner secretly allowing a primary school kid into his cafe, and then the prime minister walking in to give the kid a scolding. (TL note: There’s an age requirement to enter cyber cafes in China.)
Hakeem still suffered from the annoying symptoms of pneumonia while driving, but he firmly believed that Sheyan would never escape from him – because he was not Sheyan’s only enemy. Sheyan had just killed a Man in Black and was being hunted by the organisation as a murderer! Add to that his crazy speeding, it won’t take half an hour for the New York police to help Hakeem set up some roadblocks in front of Sheyan.
Hakeem’s only worry was how he could get rid of the damn guy to get his Bloody invitation letter before the Men in Black headquarters took Sheyan away. Of course, there were also the achievement points and equipment draws. Those were also pretty valuable loot.
Never did Hakeem imagine that Sheyan’s objective was not to lose him, but only to reach a certain place before Hakeem could catch up.
A place that could make him even stronger!
A place where he could be reborn!
The symbol of the United States of America,
The Statue of Liberty!
Hakeem’s GPS showed that there were no other roads for vehicles in front. To leave, Sheyan could only make a U-turn or get down from his car and walk for a very long distance.
If Sheyan turned around in his car, then he certainly couldn’t escape. If he left the car and walked, then it was what Hakeem wanted to see.
In view of this, Hakeem slowed down his car. This showed his composure.
When fighting a trapped beast, it’s not a good idea to pressure too hard. More importantly, Hakeem did not think that the guy would give up so easily. Hakeem even began to vigilantly scan around for any ambushes.
The thrill of hunting always felt so good, but the same cannot be said for the taste of being hunted. If there was no accident, the prey in front was definitely his. There was no harm in being careful.
This was also the reason Hakeem became so strong. He was a cautious person.
Thanks to this mentality of Hakeem’s, Sheyan successfully completed a series of operations to activate the elevator. To be honest, even if Hakeem caught up to him in time, Sheyan would still be able to complete this series of operations while withstanding Hakeem’s attacks.
That’s because even in the fierce battle on the vehicle previously, Sheyan only used the ‘Gloryheal’ ability. His Honorary Dosage was currently still ready for use. Although Hakeem’s attack power was extremely high, Sheyan’s HP was also a little high for a reserve-duty Growth-Hunter.
As Sheyan stood in the gradually emerging water-drop-shaped elevator, Hakeem stopped his car and got down. He was about to say something when a burst of severe pain spread through his chest, making him swallow his words.
The door of the transparent water-drop-shaped elevator slowly closed. Sheyan stared straight at Hakeem’s eyes, extended his bloody left hand, and made a cutting gesture across his neck!
A throat-cutting gesture!
He did not say a word, but his intent to kill was obvious.
After Hakeem recovered from his chest pain, he immediately rushed forward with an ashen face. He was daring because he trusted his strength. Since he did not feel any threat, he naturally gave chase. He had never heard of the Statue of Liberty having such a futuristic elevator. He immediately understood that it likely hid a huge secret, which may bring him great opportunities.
Hakeem charged in a zigzag manner like a ghostly flash. He closed down the distance of tens of meters in the blink of an eye. Even a submachine gun might not be able to hit him when he moved in such a way!
Then, Hakeem raised his sharp dark-gold dagger. As if it was the sharp fang of a shark’s mouth, it pierced towards the wall that was closing.
Considering Hakeem’s attack power and the sharpness of the dark-gold dagger in his hand, even high-strength alloy steel could be pierced and torn apart!
However, Hakeem’s attack was mercilessly bounced back. He also received a notification:
[The area is in use. If you need to enter, please wait until the protective energy over it disappears and try again.]
Hakeem’s military rank wasn’t low. He immediately checked:
“I would like to know the purpose of the area.”
[This area is used as a trial area by other realms. It is not a way out of this world. The energy encasing the trial has begun its operation and is expected to disappear soon.]
“Please check the time flow rate in the trial area.”
[The service requires a certain payment….payment received. The time flow rate has been ascertained. The time flow rate in the area is 10 times that of the current world. One minute in the current world is equivalent to 10 minutes inside.]
Hakeem’s eyes displayed a wolf-like glint. He suddenly disappeared into thin air, and reappeared on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. He monitored all the movements in the surrounding area like an eagle while holding his basketball. It was impossible for any movement within a few kilometers in all directions to escape the eyes of Hakeem.
This was Hakeem’s fighting habit.
As soon as he entered this world, he looked for Jack, the alien black-market arms dealer who was something of a plot node, and started to wait for his “rabbit”. Sheyan soon found his way there.
Now that he had an absolute advantage, and had grasped the information that Sheyan could not leave via the trial area, he naturally couldn’t let Sheyan go! Hakeem believed that once Sheyan appeared again, Sheyan would still belong to him!
When Hakeem recalled the throat-cutting gesture, his mouth curled into a sinister smile.
As soon as Sheyan escaped Hakeem’s line of sight, he instantly collapsed on the floor of the elevator and gasped for breath. His temples were pulsating violently.
Hakeem’s dagger was”saw-toothed”, which had an attribute that caused continuous bleeding. Blood oozed out of the wounds all over Sheyan’s body. The blood flowed together, then dripped to the ground. When the elevator stopped, there were a few pools of blood around Sheyan.
After entering the alien’s main hall, Sheyan confirmed again that it had been activated as a trial area that only he could enter. He summoned Jinkuang and handed over all his weapons according to his plan. After some careful calculations, he also handed over most of his items.
Next, Sheyan sat down and closed his eyes to rest. Although he was almost dead just now, he had pushed himself to the peak of his ability. Now that the crisis was temporarily lifted, he naturally entered a low point. This was normal.
However, Sheyan was about to face a boundary breakthrough challenge! Its degree of danger was not inferior to Hakeem at all! And what he was attempting was a dual-attribute breakthrough!
If Sheyan originally had 50% confidence, then he only had less than 30% confidence in the current state!
What was even stranger was that Sheyan kept feeling an indescribable irritability. When he quieten down, he had the violent impulse to yell and scream, as if only destruction could satisfy him.
It was actually not that surprising. Every contestant faced violent deaths in the nightmare realm. They led a life full of danger. They were always wound tight. It was difficult for them to relax. When they quieten down, what their instincts needed were relaxation and venting.
This was akin to soldiers in ancient times who would be allowed by their generals to indulge in plunder, killing, and rape after a war. Modern mercenaries and secret agents would also get a large sum of money after risking their lives to complete a task to let them indulge in gambling and prostituting in order to let them relieve stress.
Sheyan normally relied on the warmth provided by his family to relax himself. But now that he found himself in such situation, and he had to resolve it as soon as possible, it got a bit tricky.
He took a deep breath, held the big toe of his left foot with his right hand, and with a force, made it break! His face twitched in pain. He gritted his teeth and endured for a while, before moving on to the next toe on his left foot…. When all the toes on his left foot were broken, Sheyan’s forehead was drenched in sweat. However, his eyes were finally clear – pain was always the best medicine to curb excitement!
More importantly, Sheyan did not place much importance on the injuries because the clone would completely copy his physical state. If Sheyan was injured, it would also be reflected on the clone.
After all that, Sheyan closed his eyes, cleared his thoughts, and sat motionless for a minute. Then, he took a deep breath and limped onto the platform in the middle of the hall!
Will this place be his end, or….?
[Contestant No. 1018, do you wish to conduct the breakthrough trial?]
Sheyan breathed in deeply. A flame flashed in his eyes as he resolutely uttered:
“Yes!”
[Please choose the battlefield terrain, battlefield size, and duration of battle.]
[The terrain options available are: desert, plain, tropical rainforest, mountain, snowy land, and snowy mountain. The allowed size of the battlefield range from 100 square meters to 20 square kilometers. The default duration for battle is 20 minutes. You can choose the initial distance between you and the clone at the start: between 1 meter and 1 kilometer.]
[Every time you attempt to prolong the battle duration, you have to pay additional utility points. Please note that there is no tie. Once the battle duration is over and your clone is still alive, it will count as a failure.]
Sheyan had long decided on these criteria:
“The battlefield size will be 20 kilometres. The terrain will be a snowy mountain.The slope of the snowy mountain will be no more than sixty degrees. Also, place a plain under the mountain.”
The nightmare realm prompted:
[Your request belongs to a composite terrain. It requires 30,000 utility points.]
Sheyan sighed helplessly, then obediently forked out the utility points. He was now deeply aware that although utility points sometimes came fast, they’re spent even faster!
Honestly, if it wasn’t for Zi giving him close to 150,000 utility points because she knew that he was going to face extreme peril, he would really be in an awkward position.
[Payment received. Terrain building in progress….please wait]
[Terrain building completed. Please choose your entry location (this service requires a payment. You can enjoy a 15% discount due to your current military rank). If you do not make a selection, you will be sent to a random spot in the world.]
Sheyan instantly got a headache when he saw the word “payment”. He screamed at the realm and called them money-grubbers, what what good did that do? Just like when your wife asked you for living expenses in real life. Do you dare to not pay? For the sake of stability and harmony in the family… it’s a helpless situation.
“Entry location: peak of the snowy mountain. There must be a smooth snow slope next to the spot. Distance to the clone…. Five metres! As the for battle duration, well, I have 97,000 utility points here, deduct the necessary 10,000 utility points, and you can calculate how long I can extend the battle for.”
[Contestant’s request confirmed. Your payment has been received. Based on our calculation, you can extend the duration for 1 hour, 17 minutes and 36 seconds.Taking into account the initial 20 minutes, your maximum duration is 1 hour, 37 minutes and 36 seconds.]
[We will repeat the warning: Your maximum duration is 1 hour, 37 minutes and 36 seconds. If the clone is still alive after the duration, it will be regarded as a breakthrough failure….Please proceed with the next step: Selecting the breakthrough attribute.]
Sheyan solemnly said:
“I choose Physique….”
He stopped for a moment to steel his resolve:
“…and Strength! A dual-attribute breakthrough!”
[You have chosen a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough! Your clone will receive extra bonuses! Your breakthrough difficulty will significantly increase! Are you sure you want to do this?]
“Yes!”
By the time Sheyan finished with his selections, the platform reached the bottom. In front of him was an oval portal shining with a cold red light.
[Contestant No. 1018. When you step into this portal, all your current data will become the blueprint for the clone! The clone will possess everything you possess, except for your innate ability!]
Sheyan asked without much emotion in his voice:
“Will the clone have my servant, Jinkuang?”
[Data checking in progress. The clone will have your servant Jin…please wait. Data error. Data checking in progress. Self-testing program activated!]
[Warning! Warning! Unknown error detected. Follow-up plan initiated.]
[Unfortunately, Contestant No. 1018, you cannot summon your servant Jinkuang after the trial commences.”]
Sheyan’s expression showed that he was not surprised. This was the first trick he thought of. If he could summon Jinkuang, he could take off all his belongings, hand them over to Jinkaung, enter naked, then summon Jinkuang in the trial area to take back all his equipments. He believed that Jinkuang was a pretty OP existence, so that was his preferred solution. Unfortunately…. it failed.
However, Sheyan was not discouraged by this situation. His mouth curled into a sneer and continued:
“If my limbs are handicapped before I enter the trial area, will the clone show the same handicap? If I enter the trial area in a near-death state, will the clone be in the same state?”
This was Sheyan’s second experiment. After all, the only advantage a contestant had were the first few seconds. If a contestant entered in a near-death state, they would have very little HP left. The contestant could use an honorary dosage as soon as they entered the area. That way, they could make themselves more powerful.
Even if the clone had a bonus to its HP, but if the base value was small, the bonus would not amount to much. One only needed to attack with a strong burst weapon such as a heavy-duty sniper rifle in those initial 3 seconds to offset the opponent’s advantage by a large amount. With the weapons Sheyan had seen, a contestant could suppress the clone’s recovery effect or even kill the clone in one combo.
Soon, the merciless notification of the nightmare realm appeared again:
[You will be restored to your peak condition the moment you enter the trial world. Therefore, your hypothetical cases are invalid.]
Sheyan’s backup plan was ruthlessly foiled by the realm again.
Logically speaking, Sheyan should be feeling very anxious and depressed, but he actually looked quite calm. He asked with a composed voice:
“Among the items and abilities that I have right now, is there any that can’t be carried or copied into the trial area?”
[Scanning in progress…. Your items passed the check. Your ability: Pestilence Monarch/Poison Monarch is something of very minute probability. It can only be partially copied.]
Sheyan visibly got nervous in the process of waiting for the answer. After hearing the answer from the nightmare realm, he nodded hard and without saying anything else, he stepped into the elliptical portal that shined with a cold red light.
The dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial began now!!
A cold wind blew on the white snow.
He was on a snowy peak. Although the peak was tall, it was not steep. The surrounding slopes were relatively flat with no steep cliff of ice in sight. If it wasn’t because it was covered in snow, it would look quite similar to a sand mountain in the desert.
All around below the snowy peak, he could see large plains being formed. On the plains were short, soft plants – wormwood, fescue, tussock grass, bentgrass, alpine bistorts, horse wormwood, etc. The ends of the plains were surrounded by a layer of boundless void.
The void had some red patterns in it. It was obvious that falling into the void would not be desirable. Luckily, the edges of the plains had a strong translucent barrier to prevent this.
Sheyan stood at the top of the snowy peak, but he couldn’t move yet. About five meters in front of him, there was a clear red light that was moving rapidly, like an electrical welding torch. Out of the light sprayed out an outline identical to Sheyan in the air. It became another copy of Sheyan that looked no different from him!
A mysterious feeling emerged in Sheyan’s heart as he looked at the clone in front of him. When the clone was completed, his eyes were still closed. At the moment, he was still a fighting machine with no soul.
But soon, a large amount of images floated up from Sheyan’s head. The images contained various memory fragments of his previous battles and thoughts. They were all copied by the nightmare space and injected into the clone’s mind!
‘The clone could even be infused with my past combat experiences and reasoning method?’ Sheyan took a deep breath. ‘As expected of a powerful opponent of a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough trial.’
The series of copying activities came to an end. The merciless voice of the nightmare realm once again resounded in his ears:
[Warning: The battle will start in thirty seconds. Please prepare yourself, Contestant No. 1018]
[Warning: Your opponent, the clone, has double your current base attributes, 1000% of your maximum HP, 100% of your item, 95% of your ability and 90% of your combat awareness, combat intelligence and combat experience. When you feel that you are unable to defeat the clone, you can immediately stop the battle through the nightmare imprint.]
[Hint: Once the clone enters the battle, he needs 5.7 seconds to get familiar with his new body. Therefore, he will be in a stunned state for 5.7 seconds. Please use this opportunity well. However, because you are attempting a dual-attribute boundary breakthrough, if you cause severe damage to the clone, the pain may shorten the stun duration.]
‘5.7 seconds, that’s more than what I expected. But causing pain will shorten this duration?’ Sheyan sneered. ‘Damn, even the only good news had a bad news to it. But do you think that’s enough to take me down? I will decide my own fate!’
[The battle begins in: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!!]
(This is bonus chapter #3 for September for meeting Patreon goal. Enjoy!)
Obviously, the 5.7 seconds at the beginning of the battle was the most crucial part of the fight! If Sheyan couldn’t do anything useful in these 5.7 seconds, then the only thing waiting for him against this monster who easily surpassed him in all attributes and had ten times his HP, was defeat.
Therefore, anyone who found themselves in such a situation, must do something in this 5.7 seconds to offset the huge gap between the two sides!
What would Sheyan do?
What could Sheyan do?
The first thing he did was to take out a pair of sunglasses from his personal space and put them on. While doing this, he activated his ‘Endless Spirited Vodka’ and added 25% to his movement speed.
The sunglasses appeared directly in Sheyan’s palm because they were taken out of his personal space, while he only had to activate the ‘Endless Spirited Vodka’ with his thoughts. These two actions took only 0.5 seconds.
Next, Sheyan retrieved another thing from his personal space.
This is the thing Sheyan was counting on to turn defeat into victory. And probably also the reason why the nightmare realm deemed that the Men in Black world was even more suitable for Sheyan than the Pirates of the Caribbean world!
This thing was a standard equipment carried by all senior Man in Black agents, a godly item used to fool the masses and maintain social order!!
The neuralyzer nicknamed “janitor”!!
Sheyan was flashed by one when he had just entered the world, so he could be sure that this tool was effective on contestants; at least, it was effective on himself! But the follow-up hypnotic effect was not.
After Sheyan obtained the neuralyzer, he found out that when a contestant was the one using it, there were a lot of restrictions. Firstly, he could only wipe, at most, 15 minutes of memory. Secondly, there was a long cooldown time of 60 minutes after each use.
But! But! Sheyan was sure that this was what he was looking for. This neuralyzer was totally the most crucial factor in determining whether he could pass this boundary breakthrough trial!
Sheyan pointed the neuralyzer at the clone in front of him. All the settings had already been properly set up. Sheyan gazed at the opponent through the sunglasses, and pressed the activation button coldly. The red light of the neuralyzer began to shine slowly, sending out a string of short and rushed beeping sounds, followed by a glaring red light which instantly covered the whole place!
This red light was an unknown energy that can isolate electrical pulses in deep levels—especially neuron pulses in the human brain. Only sunglasses could effectively filter it!
This light covered the eyes of the clone in an instant, deeply penetrating into his soul! !
For ordinary people, the last fifteen minutes was not a long time. It was maybe the time for half a meal, a cigarette, a dump, a daydream.
However, for a clone who had just been cloned for a few minutes, it was the duration of his whole life! ! !
This ray of light smashed and plundered the brain of the clone, wiping away the abundant amount of combat awareness, combat intelligence and combat experience instilled by the realm! ! !
After the memory-destroying storm was over, there was only one thought left in the mind of the clone – to kill Sheyan. Besides that, he was only a wild beast that fought on instinct!
All these sounded long, but all Sheyan did was raise the neuralyzer, pressed the button, and waited for the signal.
This whole process took 2.4 seconds. Sheyan still had 2.8 seconds left.
After the red flash, Sheyan immediately went to the back of the snowy mountain and jumped down. The garment on his back was carefully selected – it was the kind of thick windbreaker that could cover the entire body.
He tightened his windbreaker and used it like a sleigh to slide down the snowy slope! Sheyan had made the calculation beforehand. Even though the clone had twice his Agility, it was useless under such circumstances.
No matter how fast the clone was, he couldn’t be faster than this method of sliding down by utilising the terrain. The fastest way the clone could chase after Sheyan was to do the same!
Sheyan’s current approach was quite similar to the previous method of using a car to erase his speed disadvantage against Hakeem.
Sheyan knew that within the duration of him skiing from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain, there was absolutely no way the clone could catch up to him. He had a very good understanding of the clone; in fact, it could be said that no one could understand the clone better. The clone had no way to reverse this situation, because if Sheyan himself faced this situation, he couldn’t catch up either!
With the 2.8 seconds he won, Sheyan rapidly slid 50 meters away.
Only now did the clone recover from the 5.7s stun. However, he was still in a daze. Anyone who had all their memories shattered, stirred and wiped away would be in a daze, even if he was a strengthened clone of Sheyan.
The daze awarded Sheyan 3 extra seconds to slide down. Then, the order that the realm instilled in the clone to kill Sheyan came into effect. This command supported him like his soul; it was so powerful that even the neuralyzer could not shake it.
The clone roared and gave chase on instinct, leaping down the snowy slope. Although his speed was much faster than Sheyan, the deep snow immediately caused him to fall. He tumbled pathetically for a short distance before standing up again and continuing with his difficult chase.
Senyan witnessed the poor performance of the clone and the corner of his lips curled into a sneer. While he was sliding down, he did not stay idle. He took different kinds of materials from his personal space and prepared his various mixes.
Sheyan did not carry any finished mixes into this world of trial, only mixing materials! The first mix he made was the beneficial gene-mix! It could increase his attributes by 10% or 8 points, whichever was greater! (TN note: refer to chapter 856 Black Artmix Technique lvl max!)
Although the base attributes of the clone were still far superior to Sheyan’s even after he had taken the mix, it was now impossible for the clone to achieve something as insane as crushing effects in all attributes.
For the clone who had fifteen minutes of memory deleted, he didn’t even know what he had in his personal space if he didn’t sort through them one by one, let alone knowing the precise concoction method for the mixes. He had naturally forgotten all the formulas. These kind of situations were not uncommon in real life. Of course, there were also cases where someone who lost his memory came into contact with familiar things, and slowly restored the memory, but would Sheyan give him the time and opportunity to calmly recall his memory and experiment with mixing?
Of course not.
Therefore, these materials were essential for Sheyan, but for the clone, they were completely useless!
Sheyan had begun trying to slowly fill the huge power gap between the two sides.
Sheyan spent a total of 35 seconds sliding down the snowy slopes of the mountain.
Taking advantage of these thirty-five seconds, he prepared a total of seven bottles of gene-mixes, but because he concocted them under such a bad condition, one of them was a failure. Therefore, he produced six finished products. After consuming one, he was left with 5 bottles.
Among the 5 mixes, two of them were gene-mixes that could be thrown, while the other three were genetical-extract mixes made from materials that Sheyan had prepared beforehand.
These mixes were far from enough for Sheyan’s plan. Fortunately, the clone did not immediately learn from Sheyan as soon as he recovered his mobility, sliding down on his back like a sleigh. That delayed him further. The gap between the two had increased from 2.8 seconds to 10 seconds.
Sheyan stood on the spot and used two seconds to concoct two more bottles of genetical-extract mixes. He then he dug a hole in the meadow at the foot of the mountain and buried in it four bottles of genetical-extract mixes.
Gene-mixes were mixes that could be used to strengthen allies or curse enemies, while genetical-extract mixes were the essences Sheyan extracted from various living creatures. They had only one use….to be spellcasting materials.
That’s right! This was one of the abilities that Sheyan has never displayed so far, a spellcasting material for Saruman’s powerful inheritance!
A spellcasting material to grow Uruk-hais!
(TN note: refer to Chapter 857:Grow)
Then Sheyan turned away and ran! Don’t forget that he still had the speed buff from the ‘Endless Spirited Vodka’ on him. The clone apparently forgot that he carried such an item. As for the ‘Pestilence Monarch’ ability, Sheyan had switched it to ‘Poison Monarch’ before entering this area.
Although the realm had notified him that the ‘Pestilence Monarch/Poison Monarch’ ability was something of very minute probability and could only be partially copied, Sheyan believed that the effect of being immune to all diseases/poisons would definitely be kept. Therefore, this ability was not part of his plan in dealing with the clone. Of course, the clone could also forget about inflicting diseases on him.
When the clone rushed down the snowy mountain and set foot on the meadow at the foot of the mountain, Sheyan suddenly shook and split in two. This was the effect of the ‘Rank 6 copying scroll (marked)’ given by Franklin.
[Tear this scroll and use it on a target to produce an illusion of the target. The illusion will have 100% of the target’s HP and 30% of the target’s attack power]
The illusion could not use any abilities or items but looked exactly like Sheyan.
The clone looked distracted for a moment. He seemed to be looking for something in his personal space. After that, he too divided into two, obviously using the scroll as well, keeping up with the man-to-man coverage. For the clone who had temporarily lost his logical thinking, imitating Sheyan’s behaviour was undoubtedly the safest thing to do.
At the moment, Sheyan had no way of telling which one was the true body of the clone. He did not know whether the guy relentlessly chasing after him was the real clone or the illusion. Sheyan could determine it from his attack power or wait until he used skills.
This was also the reason Sheyan did not carry any weapons, because the clone could likely have pretty significant attack power even without weapons! This was almost unbearable for Sheyan, whose HP was far inferior to the enemy. Therefore, it was also a top priority for him to weaken the attack power of the clone as much as possible.
The relationship between Sheyan and the clone was also very complicated. Such a tactic also meant that Sheyan’s attack power would drop terribly, but fortunately the clone did not have the ‘Stronghold’ talent, or else…this battle would not even be necessary.
Soon, the clone that chased after Sheyan had closed the distance by a considerable amount. The distance that Sheyan had painstakingly built was already gone.
Sheyan had entered the range of ‘Hornrage’, so the clone wasted no time in activating this ability which would enable him to quickly approach his target. The clone rammed into Sheyan’s back like a crazy buffalo.
Sheyan was stagger for a few steps, then rolled violently. He fell into a stunned state. The Strength of the clone was not enough for crushing effect, but it was still far above his, so he suffered the maximum stun duration. Good thing there was the effect reduction from ‘Stronghold’, so it didn’t last for too long.
Sheyan, who fell face down, found his brain in chaos. He completely lost control of his body. Ironically, the fresh smell of the meadow and mud entered his nostrils, rejuvenating his spirit.
No doubt that the one attacking Sheyan was the real clone. The fact that he was able to use a skill was proof.
Sheyan kept a close eye on the battle log. When the battle log showed: [You suffered an enemy attack, your HP is reduced by 23 points], Sheyan could finally breathe easy.
According to his plan, as long as the damage done by each attack from the clone did not exceed 50 points, everything was under control!
After Sheyan recovered from the stun, he immediately rolled towards the battle on the other side. Of course, because the clone was faster than Sheyan, he was constantly chasing after Sheyan and constantly attacking Sheyan. He only targeted Sheyan’s legs.
However, Sheyan happened to also possess the ‘Hornrage’ ability, and at the moment, the two illusions created by Franklin’s ability were also fully immersed in battle with no attention to spare for him.
Sheyan immediately activated ‘Hornrage’ the moment he was within range! He charged towards the clone’s illusion at a high speed, thus escaping from the continuous beating administered by the clone.
When Sheyan was hit by ‘Hornrage’ previously, the thing he was most worried about did not happen. He could confirm that the clone did not have the ‘Beast of Corrosion’ ability! Otherwise, when he got close, he would have unhesitantly launched this terrifying ability on Sheyan!
But this was quite normal.
Sheyan’s acquisition of the ‘Pestilence Monarch’ was only made possible due to various coincidences aligning together. Some key items were even products of multiple mutations. The fact that the realm was acquiring strange, unknown objects for analysis and research showed that they were not omnipotent. Either there was no way for the realm to completely copy the ‘Beast of Corrosion’ ability onto the one-time use clone, or the cost of completely copying the ability was too high. This was understandable.
Although Sheyan had escaped the attacking range of the clone, the clone still relied on his superior speed to unrelentingly chase after Sheyan.
But at that moment, Sheyan raised his hand and smashed a bottle on the ground! It was an oval-shaped crystal bottle, containing none other than a curse-mix!
The bottle broke with a crack and a large amount of smoke rose to cover a hundred square meters in an instant! The damaging shockwave swept past, rooting the clone in place!
Gene-curse cloud!
Not only did the clone, who rushed into the smoke, have all his attributes reduced by 6 points, he was also stunned for 3 seconds. The movement speed of enemies would also be reduced by 40% in the cloud! Thanks to the final teachings of Saruman, the gene-curse cloud now lasted for fifteen minutes.
When the clone was still stunned, Sheyan let out the dark gold leech. The moment this disgusting creature appeared, it squirmed towards the clone. Sheyan also controlled his illusion to join in on the attack on the clone in order to trigger ‘Saruman’s Gaze’. (TN note: When an enemy in the curse cloud receives an attack, there is a chance of triggering ‘Saruman’s Gaze’. Saruman’s phantom will materialise to inflict 50% additional damage on the enemy, and stun the enemy for 1 second.)
The clone would be affected by both the dark gold leech and the gene-curse cloud. The dark gold leech could reduce movement speed by 50%, while the gene-curse cloud reduced movement speed by 40%. The two effects were perfectly stacked, which meant that the clone would have its movement speed reduced by 90%!!
No one knew him better than himself. That was why Sheyan clearly understood that the sustained reduction in movement speed was a powerful threat to himself. He had almost no way of handling it. After Sheyan had distanced himself for about 50 meters, he stopped, took out some raw materials, and continued mixing!
The clone would normally cover a distance of 50 meters in three to four seconds, at most. However, in the case of being forced to slow down by 90%, and with ‘Hornrage’ in cooldown, he would need at least thirty to forty seconds to cover this distance.
The clone remained dull and expressionless as he watched Sheyan dexterously mix dozens of ingredients together to rapidly produce one mix after another. He moved extremely slowly towards Sheyan, one step at a time.
The phantom of Saruman could be seen from time to time in the gene-curse cloud, raising his cane and laughing . This was the result of Sheyan’s illusion and the dark gold leech continuously triggering ‘Saruman’s Gaze’.
However, although the dark gold leech could crawl along with the clone, the gene-curse cloud could not move. The clone may be slowed down and was walking really slowly, but he was soon going to escape from the gene-curse cloud….
But so what? Now, Sheyan had the absolute advantage in speed over the clone. When he saw that the clone was about to come out of the cloud, he would immediately run past ten meters in front of the clone to once again enter the gene-curse cloud.
Seeing this situation, the clone was caught in a dilemma. He had no long-range attacks. If he wanted to attack Sheyan, he would have to re-enter the gene-curse cloud, but after entering, he would be slowed down by 90%. He couldn’t even touch Sheyan’s hair.
The clone had two choices. The first choice was to run away! It must be noted that as long as he did not die in this battle, Sheyan would be the one to die. If the clone ran away Sheyan would definitely be in distress.
Only, in Sheyan’s opinion, if the clone could really produce such thoughts, this mission would be way too insane. There would almost be no chance of winning, unless a tall cliff was created when the world was shaped, and when the clone was still in a daze, give it the good ol’ “This is Sparta” — but would the realm tolerate such an obvious bug?
Fortunately, it seemed that the realm did not intend to force Sheyan to a dead end. After all, the objective of the realm was to evolve, not to kill the contestants, so it did not instill the order for the clone to immediately run away if he faced with difficulties.
The clone made the second choice.
He also summoned his own dark gold leech which squirmed towards Sheyan!
In the case where both of them were attacked by the dark gold leeches, the clone would definitely suffer the bigger loss.
For example, let’s say his movement speed was 200 points, and Sheyan’s was 120 points. After they were each reduced by 50%, the clone would have 100 points shaved off, while Sheyan only 60 points. However, Sheyan would lose his absolute advantage in speed; it would be impossible to leisurely prepare the mixes anymore.
The response of the clone was within Sheyan’s prediction!
The HP of the dark gold leech was exactly 20,000 with 0 defense. Sheyan pounced on the dark gold leech summoned by the clone, while simultaneously directing his own illusion and dark gold leech to focus fire on the clone’s summoned creature!
The attacks from the three of them frequently triggered ‘Saruman’s Gaze’. The dark gold leech had zero defense, which was equivalent to receiving true damage for each attack. On average, they could cause 100 points of damage on the 0 defense dark gold leech every second. It would only take two hundred seconds to kill the dark gold leech!
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