Chapter 131

Chapter 131: The Earth’s Wastelands Chapter (4)

Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma

"I’ve seen many nauseating things in my life, but this…" Wild Trace Sword Shadow said, "I don’t even want to use my sword to poke it . "

"Sss… Is that a maggot…" Feng Bujue muttered . "What is the pattern on its body?"

What was in front of them was a larva as big as a newborn baby, which looked like a worm nibbling vegetable . It had a short and cylindrical body divided into sections .

This larva wasn’t milky white or light yellow as usual . Instead, the surface of its body was filled with the patterns of different countries’ currency, a variety of security threads, particular arrayed patterns or number—some were even human faces .

And, at the joint between the two sections of this maggot, there was a dense, tangled mess of something that looked like silk fibers . Those fibers were soaked in black mucus . It seemed that those silky fibers were the necessary element to help that giant maggot to connect with the massive rusted metal monster .

"When we haven’t found it yet, it was hiding here, screaming, roaring, and showing off . Now as we have torn it open, it keeps its mouth shut," said Feng Bujue .

"Anyway, it wasn’t easy to dig it up through those things," added Wild Trace Sword Shadow .

"I’m saying that you should give it the last strike," Feng Bujue said while using his weapon to block an incoming metal object .

"I said that I don’t want to poke it with my sword," answered Wild Trace Sword Shadow, then he casually chopped off a water pipe that struck towards him from tjheside .

"Judging from this level of succulence, well, just with one stab… it will burst out like meatball broth," Feng Bujue said . "My sword is brand new!"

"Slash it then put the sword back to your bag and take it out again . It will work, won't it?" said Wild Trace Sword Shadow .

"You slash it!" Feng Bujue said, "Isn’t your sword as fast as the wind? Quick! Kill it! I will mentally support you from a distance . "

Wild Trace Sword Shadow sighed . "Alright, I didn’t want to waste time here, but…" Wild Trace Sword Shadow took out a grenade from his bag .

"Hey… why didn’t you use it earlier? If you used it, we just needed to throw it when I opened the door, and everything would have been done already!"

"I said I don’t want to waste it here… This sort of consumable goods, I have only two pieces," answered Wild Trace Sword Shadow .

Feng Bujue didn’t care about him anymore . After he had blocked another attack, he retreated to the intersection .

As Wild Trace Sword Shadow saw that his teammate had prepared himself already, he pulled the ring and threw it to the core of that fat maggot . As expected, the silky fibers on that maggot’s body stretched out and grabbed the grenade .

Under normal circumstances, Wild Trace Sword Shadow’s speed was obviously faster than Feng Bujue’s, and his moves were even much better . His feet just flexed, and he soon escaped from the monster’s entanglement, then instantly came shoulder to shoulder with Feng Bujue .

Seconds later, a loud explosion echoed behind them . The fat maggot had exploded till it was smashed into pieces . All the rusted metal components had scattered to the ground and the its cover skin started to melt into pus .

. . .

"Did you hear that?" asked Ultimate Assault .

"Of course I did," Apocalypse Assault answered . "Sounds like an explosion . Not as powerful as a dynamite . The distance seemed to be relatively far… Direction, hm, it’s hard to tell . "

"Is that Wild Trace Sword Shadow and his team?" Ultimate Assault said then shifted his look to the ground in front of him, "Or these people did that?"

A human body lay on the ground . There was a Caucasian male wearing an orange protective suit that looked like a space suit, which was a piece of garment from his neck to his ankles . However, his suit looked simpler and more comfortable than the space suit in the 21st century, which wasn’t very bulky . He was wearing a simple helmet, accompanied with a transparent mask in the front that looked like it was made from glass but not exactly glass . Surely, it was a more advanced material . The helmet and his suit were connected at the collar . It could be guessed that this was a close suit, but it didn't come with equipment like the oxygen tanks . Thus, there was an 80% chance that there was some future scientific and technological achievements installed inside the suit to provide air .

At this moment, there was a big hole in the protective mask of this dead body and his face was a mess of blood and flesh . Apparently, these two workers from Corpse Saber had just killed him, but no one knew whether the reason of his death was due to the facial injury, or if he had breathed in the toxic air when his mask was broken . "This scenario is more annoying than we’ve thought . Besides players, there are monsters and those unidentified people…" Apocalypse Assault said . "We, Wild Trace Sword Shadow’s team, monsters and those people are four forces already . Eventually, more living things will distract us, and it will cause us problems in order to find and kill the two that we need to kill . "

Ultimate Assault checked his menu . "Currently, we know that the two of them are still alive and their Survival Values…" he paused for a while, "… perhaps just like us . Put aside the part that we have lost in fighting, so it should have declined to 32% . Anyway, we have 15 Survival Value Supplements large bottles . Even if the effect will reduce after each time of consumption, we can still endure it for quite a long time . Now we don’t need to worry about that . "

"Yeah, it’s true . If we can’t identify the cause of that loud explosion, we should stick to our plan . First, we will search the whole lab," Apocalypse Assault continued .

…

"Feng-Ge, come here and check this out," Wild Trace Sword Shadow crouched down in front of an iron chest while shining his flashlight on it and calling out for Feng Bujue .

Feng Bujue had checked the cage which imprisoned the monster, but he failed to find anything . Thus, he walked over and shone his flashlight in that direction . "Obviously, it’s a treasure chest given by the system…"

"I know that," Wild Trace Sword Shadow said . "This chest looks new, but it doesn’t look like a 455 years old chest . Moreover," he pointed at the lock, "check this riddle from the system . What’s this? Tic-tac-toe?"

Feng Bujue came closer to the chest, then a system menu had popped up in front of him . There were nine small squares connected to each other, forming a big square that looked like a plane of a rubik’s cube without any colors . The request read, [Please fill in the appropriate contents . ]

"Isn’t it the Nine Palace Diagram?" cried Feng Bujue . "9 up and 1 down; 3 on the left and 7 on the right; 2 and 4 are the shoulders, and 6 and 8 are the legs… Eh? You hadn’t played this when you were a kid?"

"Well, I got it when you said that," Wild Trace Sword Shadow said . "The system should say ‘Fill in the appropriate numbers’ so as players will not be confused . "

"Open," Feng Bujue was still talking when he had finished the puzzle to unlock the chest in the menu . Then the iron chest cracked open .

However, the treasure chest was empty, no Skill Cards nor any items—completely empty .

At the moment when Feng Bujue suddenly doubted his karma for opening an empty chest, lucky him, the system’s voice echoed and erased this thought of his .

[Side Quest has been triggered . ]

[Catch it, kill it!]

The content of this quest was short, yet odd . Moreover, it was inexplicable… However, Feng Bujue got it immediately .

He loomed over the empty chest, thrust both of his arms into the chest and frantically swung it . Then, he looked like he had burst out crazy, dashing to the metal gate and closing it .

"What happened?" asked Wild Trace Sword Shadow .

"There’s something inside the chest," answered Feng Bujue .

Just a moment ago, Wild Trace Sword Shadow had seen Feng Bujue open an empty iron chest… There was no light in this room, and the flashlights in their hands were the only source of light . In such ambiance, Feng Bujue looked like he suddenly got insane, saying something not different from pointing to a deer and saying ‘it’s a horse’ . Wild Trace Sword Shadow couldn't help but feel goosebumps arising all over his body .

"It got out!" said Feng Bujue .

Wild Trace Sword Shadow got up and cautiously looked at Feng Bujue . He assumed that his teammate had some kind of mental disorder all of a sudden or he was suffering from hallucinations . Then he probed, "Feng-Ge… what did you see?"

"I saw nothing," Feng Bujue answered, "that thing is invisible!"

Having heard this, Wild Trace Sword Shadow instantly deleted that thought from his mind, realizing the idea of this quest . "Where is it?" Wild Trace Sword Shadow started to point his flashlight here and there .

"You’re asking me?" said Feng Bujue .

"Don’t your goggles have the effect of enhancing user’s vision?" Wild Trace Sword Shadow didn’t know about the Eye of Hatred’s properties . As he had seen Feng Bujue wearing it when they met the monsters, he vaguely guessed the effects of the item .

"This is to see the monster’s aggro target," Feng Bujue answered . "But I need to ‘see’ the monster first . If I can’t see it, this item can’t perform its function well . " After that, he put off the Eye of Hatred and placed it in his bag . "By the way, I couldn't see the resentment target of that ‘iron dumpling maggot’ out there . Seems like it would just attack anything that comes near to it . "

Wild Trace Sword Shadow cautiously inched and checked his surroundings . "No sound at all… Are you sure that the maggot didn’t get out of the room before you closed the door?"

"If it had used a faster speed than mine to come to the door, it should have caused some noise . If it wanted to keep silent, possibly, it shouldn’t be faster than me," answered Feng Bujue .

"How did you know that? What if it is both fast and quiet?" asked Wild Trace Sword Shadow .

"Nonsense… Then we don’t have to catch it . Invisible and fast creature, well, perhaps it is dancing next to us now," Feng Bujue said . "Will the system let you catch something impossible to catch?"

"Then what should we do now?" Wild Trace Sword Shadow said . "Is it still in the room and can understand what we are saying?" His visage became anxious . "If it ambushes us ——"

Feng Bujue interrupted him, "An invisible creature locked in an iron chest, its height and weight are just like that of a high school student maximum . If it dares to approach us—"

All of a sudden, a muffled noise arose behind Feng Bujue . One second later, he instantly felt something had jumped on his shoulders, and right after that, a pair of bony claws had strangled him . No doubt that the monster was trying its best to strangle him to death .

Well, Feng Bujue was a man who had lost his sense of fear as this sudden assault couldn't scare him to the point that he would be dumbfounded; quite the contrary, it tensed up every nerve of his body . Before his brain could come up with a counter-plan for this situation, his body had moved instinctively . Feng Bujue took advantage of the opportunity and grabbed the invisible monster by its shoulders . His 10 fingers dug deeply into the monster’s shoulder . As it got hurt, it couldn’t help but release the claws that gripped on Feng Bujue’s throat .

Freely breathing had given him time to regain his strength slowly . Then, an extremely tense but odd struggle had begun… In Wild Trace Sword Shadow’s eyes, Feng Bujue had just finished half of his talk and then started to perform arts, dancing something like Jiang shi (1) dance moves . The flashlight in his hand was flung out,then he used an overjoyed posture to throw himself to the ground and wriggled strangely .

The situation at this moment was indeed complicated, and Feng Bujue didn’t have extra strength to talk . He was cautiously fighting against a strong and swift pair of claws that could cut his throat at any minute . He had to struggle with the opponent at almost each second ticking by . That monster’s body was relatively slippery . Anyway, it wasn’t a nauseating wet feeling as it was just because of the naked body of the monster . The monster’s build was just like what Feng Bujue had predicted as it was a miniature of a human being with an ordinary strength—almost no difference from Feng Bujue’s .

"Feng-Ge… . are you…" Wild Trace Sword Shadow walked over and shone his flashlight on Feng Bujue, who was rolling on the ground .

"I . . . got . . . " Feng Bujue’s face reddened, and words came out from his gritted teeth, "… it…"

During the one minute that Wild Trace Sword Shadow found it inexplicable, to Feng Bujue, it was a silent, deadly struggle that he had to put forth all what he had . Fortunately, he took the upper hand at the end .

Feng Bujue leaned his knees against the monster’s chest and grabbed the monster by its throat . The length of his arms together with the advantage of his build had helped him control this dude temporarily . He could clearly feel that there was something panting in the dark like him while its heart was frantically beating . This meant that the monster was already drained out its strength—also just like him!

"It’s…" Wild Trace Sword Shadow tried to touch the monster with his hands, "really invisible…"

"Don't talk too much . Seize the time and take action," said Feng Bujue . He could clearly feel that after several seconds of staying idle, the monster would start to struggle again . If it wasn’t because of the stranglehold and the force pressing on its chest that had reduced its strength, Feng Bujue was afraid that he couldn't control the monster .

"Don’t extend your hand . The monster has fangs . Use your sword and behead it," reminded Feng Bujue .

"Uh… Where’s its head?"

"My right hand is strangling it . The head is above . "

"Got it," answered Wild Trace Sword Shadow . He then aimed for the position, raised his hand and slashed down .

Puff . Something was cleaved . Feng Bujue felt that the claws which gripped his arms suddenly tighten and immediately loosen . He understood that the monster was dead .

—————————-

Jiang Shi: also known as a Chinese "hopping" vampire, ghost, or zombie, is a type of reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore . "Jiangshi" is read goeng-si in Cantonese, cương thi in Vietnamese, gangshi in Korean, and kyonshī in Japanese . It is typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing Dynasty, and it moves around by hopping, with its arms outstretched . It kills living creatures to absorb their qi, or "life force", usually at night, while in the day, it rests in a coffin or hides in dark places such as caves . Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia .