Chapter 23 - First-Generation Players

Concerning this city where humans hadn’t set foot in for 200 years, Shu Jun’s guess was quite simple.

There were no green plants in the eroded zones; at most, there were only some greyish-white mutated plants that grew sparsely. The worst case that could happen to them was that the city turned out to be full of mutated monsters. After fighting for so many years, Shu Jun had seen many urban ruins that lay at the edge of eroded zones; they had always been rather similar.

However, the sight before his eyes right now was something he really hadn’t seen before.

He had to admit: it might be a good thing that people couldn’t go here. Even though Shu Jun could easily defeat any sort of monster, facing the scene in front, he was dazed for a few seconds.

The city was still standing and hadn’t yet turned into collapsed walls, but all the buildings were distorted, as though they were buildings made with children’s playdough. In the gaps between the buildings, there were pitch-black threads as dense as spider webs, covering most of the sky. The streets carried only shades of black, white and grey, but they were very tidy. Wandering on those streets were four-legged monsters with features of a human face on their bodies, but there weren’t a whole lot of them.

However, that was still relatively normal.

There was no fog inside the city. Even as they stood at the entrance, they could clearly see those four-legged monsters — Slowly floating behind them were countless threads as fine as spun sugar. They blended together with the pitch-black threads hanging between the buildings, all pointing towards a certain direction.

Shu Jun could see the ends of those threads.

The threads linked to the center of the city, where a head half the size of a mountain was lying.

The head’s skin had a similar texture to that of the four-legged monsters, even bearing the fine lines often seen on human skin, but it exuded the luster of erosive substance. The head lay quietly on its side in the middle of the city, with no obvious separation between the neck and the ground, like a chunk of melted ice cream. The erosive substance oozed out at all directions, pulling countless sticky, silky threads of pitch-black colour.

If Shu Jun had to call this city a bizarre nest of some sort of insect, this head must be the core.

The human features on this head were much more regular than those on the four-legged monsters, but from the perspective of a real human, that face seemed like it had been severely burnt, looking utterly disfigured and terrifying. Its eyes opened slightly and blinked at times, revealing a cloudy lump of white under its eyelids. Perhaps the difference in their strength was too great that Shu Jun couldn’t feel any emotion from that head at all.

There’s no chance I can fight this thing.

This was Shu Jun’s first reaction.

Whether it was himself, Zhu Yanchen or the four-legged monsters around him, they were no more than ants compared to that thing. Even if it lay still and let him attack freely, he might not be able to destroy its brain in a single strike.

Was this the real Alpha-level Erosion Marsh?

Zhu Yanchen raised his head and looked at the head in the distance. Since a gas mask was covering Zhu Yanchen’s face, Shu Jun couldn’t see his expression. The four-legged monsters were still moving energetically around them. On the other side, seeing the two of them standing here, the four-legged monsters who had been moving in the city specially changed their tracks. All around Shu Jun and Zhu Yanchen, the sounds of whispers suddenly rose.

Shu Jun had a strange feeling. Being surrounded by such things, it looked as though the two of them were the monsters here.

“A Yan.” Shu Jun sent Zhu Yanchen a reminder to make sure that he wasn’t overly immersed in observing them.

To be honest, Shu Jun didn’t know whether the concentration of erosive substance here could be measured, for the air of this whole place was terribly thick. No matter how much protection and medicine Zhu Yanchen had on him, human endurance had its limits. Raincoats and umbrellas could still be effective against normal wind and rain, but right now, they were in the situation of having fallen into a pool. The erosive substance was shooting at them from every single direction, almost seeping into their bones.

Zhu Yanchen wouldn’t last long here.

Luckily, Zhu Yanchen understood this well. He fiddled with the device in his hand for a moment and turned to hug Shu Jun on his own volition: “Let’s leave.”

Shu Jun had grabbed their supply bags way earlier. Since the moment the illusion of ‘nothingness’ was lifted, he had readied both his legs — They were only at the city entrance now, so there was still a chance to escape. If they got close to that head, things would probably be difficult to predict.

Shu Jun went all out. In fact, air with such a high concentration of erosive substance helped him better. A windstorm swept through the surroundings and his powers became several times stronger than usual, blowing the four-legged monsters away in a blink. With two supply bags on his hands, Shu Jun hugged Zhu Yanchen back tightly and hurriedly flew towards the path where they came from.

But, things didn’t go so smoothly.

The sticky pitch-black threads condensed together, forming an eerie giant out of thin air. The giant looked as though it had walked out of a child’s poor painting, its anatomy so warped that it completely diverged from common biology — Shortly after the giant was created, its bones could no longer support its weight, then its flesh exploded, falling onto the ground along with its skeleton.

But it could still move.

Having no concern at all about its collapsed body that was splattered with pitch-black blood, the giant opened its arms wide towards Shu Jun, wanting to grab the two humans that were trying to run away. Shu Jun recklessly dodged and almost got hit — The giant’s size was enormous and the thickness of its arms was comparable to that of a lighthouse. Shu Jun wasn’t keen on imagining what would happen if he actually got hit.

But then, the most troublesome thing wasn’t its size.

The sticky threads wrapped around the giant’s body, but some had gotten stuck on Shu Jun. He could feel the giant’s icy hostility through these threads. Shu Jun shuddered and tried to break free, but these threads were like cobwebs — They became tighter and tighter, making him unable to escape.

As the four-legged monsters let out ear-splitting screams, more and more threads started to drift towards him.

If the two of them got caught here, everything would be over.

As the giant hit randomly at the city entrance, Shu Jun halted his breathing and flew dexterously in mid-air, trying his very best to not let more of those sticky threads tangle around him. Zhu Yanchen freed up his hand and pointed his purification gun continuously at the threads. But, there was so much erosive substance in the air that his purifying bullets were consumed as soon as they left the muzzle, way before they could even touch those threads.

Shu Jun tried to use his wind blades to support Zhu Yanchen’s attacks, but the effect was still nothing to be proud about —  They just looked like two fools who insisted on washing clothes in mud.

Zhu Yanchen stopped moving and quietly considered their situation.

“This is the first time I’ve used this kind of attack. Do you have any suggestions? Now I really need some suggestions.”

Sweat dripped down Shujun’s cheeks. He used the best of his strength to control the wind, but an increasing amount of threads was trapping them, making it harder and harder to run away. On the other side, the giant began to destroy its own bloody self, leaving Shu Jun with zero chances to attack. At this point, the giant no longer carried any human form, just a bloody skeleton screaming excruciatingly while convulsing like a mad dog, and each time its body shuddered, it was already as good as a full blow.

“Suppress the erosive substance inside you.” Zhu Yanchen said: “It has been tracking you, not me. You actually guessed it right, just like those four-legged marshes, this thing also bases on the erosive substance to locate people.”

But even if they could assume that those small Erosion Marshes were stupid, the one in the center of the city definitely wasn’t. Shu Jun didn’t think he could trick it just by using their blood and some mud to create a ‘doppelgänger’. He also couldn’t suck in and spit out water like Monday to control the concentration of erosive substance in his body.

For a moment, Shu Jun’s hands were completely tied.

“For example, the higher the concentration of erosive substance inside, the brighter the ‘light’. You’re the most conspicuous light bulb here, it only needs to follow your ‘light’.” 

As if feeling Shu Jun’s confusion, Zhu Yanchen gave further explanation. Despite being on such a fierce battlefield, his voice remained steady and calm.

“Using a bloody bandage as a substitute is equivalent to creating a fake ‘you’ with a smaller light bulb that has comparable brightness, while diluting the erosive substance with water is equivalent to reducing the brightness of the light bulb. Now I suggest that you turn off the light bulb completely.”

“…How do I turn it off, do I lie down and pretend to be dead?” Shu Jun roughly understood what Zhu Yanchen meant, but he was still at a loss when it came to the details.

“Let the erosive substance inside you pretend to be dead.” 

And here he goes again, Shu Jun felt bitter in his heart —  Marshal Zhu had started to give him Mission Impossible once more.

“You’re being too abstract, Marshal!” Shu Jun let out a sorrowful cry, struggling to dodge a lump of soft threads flying at his face.

“You’ve done it before.” Zhu Yanchen hugged Shu Jun’s arm and exerted some force: “Remember how you carried me to the hotel a few days ago?

“I do.” 

“I don’t know what you did, but you made the erosive substance inside me feel very calm. Recall your thoughts at the time, and then try to do it again, this time more thoroughly. “

My thoughts?

Shu Jun’s thoughts at that time were very simple — Zhu Yanchen was in a bad condition and needed a rest, so he should keep as quiet as possible. It would be great if the surroundings became silent.

Could such a ridiculously normal thought really work?

But Zhu Yanchen wouldn’t put his life on the line just to talk nonsense. He was an expert in this regard. Shu Jun stopped questioning and closed his eyes, leaving the petrifying city on the other side of his eyelids. There was only darkness before his eyes.

Don’t panic, concentrate.

He stayed completely quiet.

No, take it one step further. The surroundings must be silent and nothing should make a sound. Now that the situation was a matter of life and death, he couldn’t care about where the noise came from. Shu Jun didn’t know if this would be considered concentration; he could only be certain that — This desire of his was definitely from the heart, and it felt immense.

A soft bang came from beside him.

Unbeknownst to him, the threads detangled one by one. They disorientedly floated in the air, like snakes that had lost their target. Shu Jun didn’t dare to breathe loudly, nor did he dare to make any unnecessary moves. He walked past the wailing giant and flew out of the city at the fastest speed he had ever summoned his life.

Shu Jun could feel that as the air gradually became clearer, Zhu Yanchen’s tight body slowly relaxed.

“Head southwest.” Zhu Yanchen whispered, his voice a little numb: “You can’t maintain this state of suppression all the time. There are some ruins in the southwest, we can take shelter there.”

“Uhm.” Shu Jun finally heaved a sigh of relief: “What about you, what is your next plan? The situation in X City seems to be beyond our power to handle, right?”

“I’ve taken a lot of photos. I have to send the chip out as soon as possible. This place is too badly eroded, so the chip may be spoilt soon. After that… After that, I can help you measure your stats and stabilise your new skill.” 

Zhu Yanchen’s tone sounded slightly erratic.

“There should be some intelligence in the stronghold. It’ll be good to get some additional information… The situation in X City is beyond my estimations. My trip to the beach may have to be cancelled.”

“I hope you mean that you’re going back home earlier than planned, not that you’re camping here.” Shu Jun muttered: “Wait, do you mean that stronghold?”

Shu Jun flew very fast, and a short moment later, the terrifying city disappeared from their sight. At first, there were still some four-legged monsters wandering in the outskirts of the city, but as they moved further away, they could only see some ordinary Erosion Marshes and common mutated monsters roaming around the marshes. Although the degree of erosion surrounding the city was still frighteningly high, it was at least a scene that was familiar to them.

In the middle of wilderness like this, a man-made building was particularly eye-catching.

Although it was a stronghold built 200 years ago, it didn’t seem very different the present day. Shu Jun descended slowly and didn’t notice anything unusual around him — In order to make sure that they wouldn’t be tricked again by the illusion of ‘nothingness’, he hovered above the stronghold for a long time and even asked for Monday’s opinion.

Scarred by the struggle back in X City, Monday’s mood was pretty bad: “Get out now!”

“There doesn’t seem to be any problem.” Shu Jun swung the broadsword in his hand and finally ended his patrol: “I wonder if the rooms here are still usable.” 

The answer was no.

The purifiers had stopped working long ago. Peculiarly shaped mutated plants had grown from the cracks in the wall, and the bedsheets were coated with lumps of black-and-white molds, looking like piles of eyeballs. All sorts of cups and bowls were scattered all over the floor, enveloped in thick layers of dust. Any traces of human existence had been completely covered underneath.

Shu Jun and Zhu Yanchen looked at each other and headed towards the underground floor.

The conditions underground were better. The rooms that lay deep underground somewhat maintained their original shapes and didn’t contain too many eroded microorganisms.

Opening the doors one by one, Shu Jun didn’t take long to finally locate the players’ chamber, where rows of hibernating pods lay still like coffins. Shu Jun hesitated for a while but took the lead to walk in. For a moment, the atmosphere between the two of them was a bit awkward.

This was where the first group of ‘players’ logged in to the game [Erosion].

Shu Jun originally thought he would see a lot of corpses. But when he looked over the hibernating pods one by one, it was completely sealed from inside and there wasn’t even a trace of dust, let alone corpses. 

This doesn’t seem right.

Speaking of which, along the path that they came here, they didn’t seem to see any corpses. Although the erosive substance here might be very strong, it shouldn’t be strong enough to swallow whole bodies without leaving behind any bones.

“…Did this stronghold go out of service before the Erosion Marshes took over the place?” Shu Jun looked around and found nothing. After 200 years, even normal electric lights no longer functioned here, let alone intricate high-tech devices.

“This used to be Zhu Rong’s stronghold. It must’ve been in use at the time.” Zhu Yanchen’s tone was a bit solemn: “This place shouldn’t be so clean. Keep looking.”

Shu Jun nodded and followed Zhu Yanchen to thoroughly search the rooms. They harvested dead mice, insect shells and clusters of spiders. They even ran into a dry fish tank — where a heap of greyish-white meat was wriggling inside, stuffing the fish tank to its brim. With a numb expression, Shu Jun’s raised his hand and threw the whole thing out the window.

Along the way, they saw almost everything, but there were no human bones at all.

Until they reached the deepest part underground.

“If there’s still nothing here, let’s make dinner first then take a break.” Shu Jun swept one round with the cold lamp in his hand. “I’m a little tired. If we go further down, I think I won’t be able to suppress the erosive substance inside me.”

“Uhm.” Zhu Yanchen was holding another light tube. At this depth, the concentration of erosive substance wasn’t high, which apparently had helped him regain his spirits.

“I’ve never been to the deepest part of any stronghold before.” Seeing the other man’s condition improved, Shu Jun relaxed a little and started looking for a chit-chat topic: “Usually, what’s in the deepest layer?”

Zhu Yanchen was silent for a few seconds: “Equipment to incubate synthethised humans.”

…Okay, the atmosphere is now even more embarrassing. Shu Jun took a deep breath and pushed the door in front of him.

The door didn’t move.

Shu Jun tried to use the erosive substance to hook the lock inside, but after shaking the thread of erosive substance for a long time, there was absolutely no sound of metal cracking. He frowned and swung Monday once, but the result he got was only Monday’s scream. There wasn’t even a scratch on the door.

“Zhu Rong was the top biological expert at the time, and he was also very keen on researching the phenomenon of erosion. This used to be his laboratory, so its ability to prevent erosion definitely can’t be bad.” Zhu Yanchen touched the door panel: “As long as the erosive substance is completely blocked, the other Alphas can’t find you. It’s a great training ground that you can freely use.”

After that, he pulled out his gun: “It’s just that if there are no corpses here at all… Unless we can figure out why, we can’t stay here for long.”

“Don’t you have any guesses?”

“I don’t.” Zhu Yanchen squatted down and took out a set of surgical tools from his briefcase, then he started picking the lock.

 “…You really are good at anything. Seriously, why does a marshal learn to pick locks?” 

Zhu Yanchen didn’t answer. After five or six minutes of struggling and after inserting a few electric buzzes, the door slowly opened. As a smell of decay and humidity hit their faces, Shu Jun covered his nose and followed Zhu Yanchen into the room.

Welcoming them was a steady sizzling sound. Shu Jun only heard a pop, then the huge room was instantly lit up.

“There’s a sound of running motor here.” Zhu Yanchen stood in front of the switch: “The light still barely works.”

“It seems that we won’t have to leave too soon.” Shu Jun pinched his nose and responded in a coarse tone.

A mummified corpse sat quietly at the table. Its dry flesh was clinging to the bones while its white clothes had turned into a rotten shade of yellowish-brown. He lowered his head slightly, his hollow eye sockets facing the empty table top. There was a gun at the corpse’s feet, and the blood stains on it hadn’t been completely covered by dust.

On the corpse’s shirt was a name tag, where the words ‘Zhu Rong’ were written glaringly.

“…Zhu Rong committed suicide here?” For a while, Shu Jun stared at the state of the corpse: “He shot himself in the mouth.”

“In our records, it’s written that he ‘sacrificed during the disaster of X City’. Back then, many people went missing during the evacuation of X City, and since no one went back there to find them, they were simply considered dead.” Facing his ancestor, Zhu Yanchen didn’t display much emotion beyond his usual expression.

Shu Jun didn’t respond.

There was an observation window made of glass behind the corpse. From this angle, Shu Jun could see the tight clusters of incubation tanks inside. Since they were devices that required a lot of electricity, the power supply to these incubation tanks had long been cut off, and the liquid inside had turned horribly cloudy. Only some vague outline of the contents could be seen.

They looked like deformed humans, but not so human —  Rows of tiny bodies were floating in the tanks, like a scene taken directly from one’s worst nightmare. Zhu Yanchen hesitated for a few seconds before eventually stepping forward to pull down the curtain: “…Don’t look.” 

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Shu Jun lowered his gaze, then he kicked his leg up to shut the door close.

“We’re going to eat our meals here and we’re also going to talk clearly here.” He said: “[Erosion] didn’t talk much about Zhu Rong at all. What really happened to him?”

“More than 200 years ago, purification of the surrounding areas could only be done by humans themselves, which resulted in a large number of them becoming severely eroded. The hibernating pods were used for those seriously ill patients. At that time, medicine couldn’t relieve their pain, so it was better to put their consciousness into the virtual world altogether — This was Zhu Rong’s original idea.”

Zhu Yanchen glanced slightly at the mummified corpse.

“Later, some patients began to resist reality and subconsciously saw ‘over there’ as the real world. It was self-deception in times of despair.”

“But Zhu Rong was inspired by that.” Shu Jun folded his arms.

“Zhu Rong has been studying highly resistant animals to let them replace humans in the task of purifying the surroundings. At first, his experimental subjects were mice and then dogs. But their intelligence is too low and their lifespan is too short.”

Zhu Yanchen said as his hands turned over the objects on the corpse. Shu Jun looked at his back, suspecting that this guy was deliberately avoiding eye contact.

“After getting that inspiration, he began to use humans as experimental subjects. He separated the genes of highly resistant humans, randomly mixed them up and selectively supplemented them with fragments of other species’ genes —  With such fusion, the final ‘product’ has enough resistance and intelligence. Except for their short lifespan, there are no other defects.”

So it turns out that I don’t even have a fixed model… just a casual mix of the many jigsaw pieces. 

No wonder Zhu Yanchen said that “Each synthesised human has a different synthesis combination”, Shu Jun snorted.

“As long as the hibernation pod functions such that the synthesised humans see the purification project as part of a ‘game’, they won’t have anything to complain about. Since Zhu Rong succeeded in replacing ordinary humans with synthesised humans, mortality rate has dropped significantly. Over the years, the Player system has continuously been improved, and the result is what you see right now.”

Shu Jun was speechless.

To Shu Jun, Zhu Rong was the creator of all nightmares, but to humanity, he was likely considered a hero. Thinking this way, everything before him seemed even stranger. If out of nowhere, Shu Jun claimed that there was a serious problem with the synthesised humans, it might be treated as crime. After so many years, humanity still insisted that the tragedy in X City was a natural disaster. They simply continued to use synthesised humans, which meant the issue hadn’t been exposed in any way.

“So what’s going on here?”

“I don’t know.” Zhu Yanchen lowered his gaze: “The Zhu family has very few records of Zhu Rong. But this man is very smart. Since he chose to commit suicide here, he would definitely leave behind some clues.”

But it seemed that Zhu Yanchen himself hadn’t managed to gather much information either — He stopped searching, took out the recording chip from the device and began to install it on the messenger monster. But before he could even finish the installation, the device without the recording chip made a sound by itself.

[The personality of a synthesised human can neither be controlled nor mass-produced. We were supposed to produce only a minimal amount of synthesised humans to ensure that the purification project goes on normally, but the current number of these humans has seriously exceeded the allowance… This is a dangerous and uncontrollable project that can only be used as a means of transition. Once humanity is out of this survival crisis, the Player system must be abolished immediately.]

[Considering the possible loopholes and risks of the Player system, my research is forcibly suspended, but I’ve given the initial findings to someone I trust.]

[I don’t accept any research to further improve the ‘players’, nor do I accept any threats against my parents for this reason. I can’t leave the Zhu family, but I can demolish the project this way.]

[When you find my body, I’ve probably begun to decompose. I don’t need any repair on my appearance, just let me go like this.]

[I am very sorry.]

That voice of a young man sounded calm and distant, yet it also carried with it suppressed agony. Following this, the message kept being repeated and no new information was revealed.

Shu Jun suddenly realised a problem and a chill climbed from his ankle to his back. He was pretty sure that Zhu Yanchen also thought of the same thing.

Based on the message, Zhu Rong deliberately shut the door to prevent people from finding his body too soon. The best case scenario was that they left as soon as they saw his deformed appearance. But there was a prerequisite for this plan to work — If people found something wrong, they would come to him.

But no one came to find him. This only meant one thing: Zhu Rong died before the Erosion Marshes attacked this city. People were driven out of the city by the marshes before they had time to discover his corpse.

Shu Jun thought that Zhu Rong’s last message could give some answer to their problems, but it turned out that the disaster of X City now became even more confusing. Shu Jun lost his appetite: “Let’s go.”

“What?”

“I should train to suppress the erosive substance inside me. The sooner I master the technique, the faster we can leave this place, right?” Shu Jun couldn’t help but look at the glass window: “The things you saw in the city, my blood sample, plus Zhu Rong’s message. If you want to prove that there’s a problem with the Player system, these should be enough.”

“…For now, I’ll deliver this data first. We’ll start your training once I get back.” Zhu Yanchen stood up. “The data is still lacking. But I promise you that I won’t rashly come near X City until we fully understand the current situation.”

“Uhm.” Shu Jun looked at Zhu Yanchen and opened the door: “Wait a minute, I’ll take… A Yan!!!”

On the other side of the door was no longer a corridor. It was a cloudy, giant eye. It crammed the entire door frame and looked inside.

Zhu Yanchen reacted very quickly. He tried to avoid it at once then threw the messenger monster and the chip to Shu Jun. However, this was a room with no exit and he was standing too close to the door. Like a long knife, a thread directly pierced his abdomen.

“Keep it safe!” This is the first time Shu Jun heard Zhu Yanchen yell: “Don’t worry, it won’t kill me…”

Before his voice even faded, the eye retreated, dragging Zhu Yanchen completely out of the door. Shu Jun grabbed the chip in one hand and his broadsword in the other, then he slashed forward. But the eye disappeared before his sword hit the ground.

What did he do wrong? Did he not hide his presence well enough?

Why did the Alpha Erosion Marsh of X City personally chase after them till here?

Shu Jun didn’t take the stairs. He directly split the concrete ceiling with his sword and rushed straight up. Reaching outside, Shu Jun threw the damn chip into the sky, watching the little mutated monster flying away crookedly, then he immediately turned to the giant head not far away.

That thing was too big. Earlier, it extended its eye like a snail’s and squeezed it into the corridor, and now the eye was retracting back into the head. It was penetrating through Zhu Yanchen, who didn’t give up resisting at all, drowning the scene with endless firing from his purification gun.

But the opponent was as firm as a mountain.

As the eye crawled back into the head, the terrifying face took shape again. It didn’t open its mouth, but Shu Jun could heart its voice. Unlike those four-legged monsters, the sound crashed into his brain, feeling as intense as something was poking through his heart and causing all the organs inside him to crumble into a mess.

“Is he your friend?” 

This wasn’t just a vague thought; it was definitely a voice. It belonged to a young woman and carried a rather strange tone, as if she hadn’t spoken in a long time.

“He’s really your friend.” Seeing that Shu Jun didn’t respond, she began to answer her own question.

Shu Jun’s felt his hand holding the sword going cold. No matter how he looked at it, he wasn’t her opponent.

But he must take Zhu Yanchen back. Not to mention the partnership between them, if Zhu Yanchen had come to investigate this place alone, he wouldn’t have been targeted by these outrageous creatures, for his only goal was to record some findings. If this thing asked such a question, the target was clearly Shu Jun himself.

“What do you want? Intelligence?” Shu Jun firmly responded with his own voice while keeping his eyes fixed in Zhu Yanchen’s direction, trying to find an opening: “Put him down, we can discuss in truce.”

The head didn’t even move its lips, yet a string of laughter bammed into Shu Jun’s head.

“I want you to be more serious.” She said: “You’re obviously pretty strong, but you ran away as soon as you saw me. That was bad.”

She provocatively stretched out those silky threads and shook Zhu Yanchen in front of Shu Jun. Shu Jun immediately swung his broadsword while Zhu Yanchen also took the opportunity to fire several shots. But, those silky threads quickly enlarged and turned into a large lump of flesh, sucking in both the Shu Jun’s blade and Zhu Yanchen’s bullets like a cotton ball. Shu Jun watched Zhu Yanchen being pulled away again, the heated blood inside him rushing straight to his head.

It was like a cat playing with two tiny mice.

“If you want intelligence, come, take whatever you want. In any case, I’ll just lose a little bit of flesh, and I’m not poisonous either.” Shu Jun gritted his teeth.

“You should be more courteous to your senior.” Numerous silk threads surrounded Shu Jun, each staring intently at him: “You’re also a ‘player’ — you should know, that isn’t what I want.”

Layers of erosive substance were boiling next to his ear, making a disgusting sticky sound.

“If you had asked me that question a hundred years earlier, I would have wanted to go home.”

She said with a very still voice, as though it carried almost no emotions.

“But now, I want you to kill me… What was your ranking before you ‘died’?”

“No. 1.” Shu Jun replied dryly. At this moment, ‘No. 1’ was nothing but a joke.

“What a coincidence, me too.” The smile hidden in her voice grew stronger: “You have to do your best — otherwise, I’ll devour you completely and make your friend my snack.”

…This time, I might’ve really encountered my true ‘kin’.

After all, they underestimated the Erosion Marsh of X City. As the top combatant of 200 years ago, she was definitely more familiar with the surrounding terrain than they were. If they had run away, she would have instantly discovered them, just like Zhu Yanchen had predicted. On the other hand, they disappeared into Zhu Rong’s basement and she also managed to figure that they would flee there.

From the moment she laid eyes on the two of them, they were doomed to never be able to escape.

“Since you want to die so much, you only need to work a little harder. Why do you have to waste so much effort?” Shu Jun tried to buy time while quickly forming a strategy a his mind.

“It seems that you’ve not been affected much by the Erosion Marsh inside you.” The smile in the woman’s voice faded a little: “A marsh isn’t so easy to control. If you want to live, it’ll make it possible; if you want to die, it’ll make it even easier. But the latter requires that you need to find an opponent stronger than the marsh inside you — Even if you don’t want to resist, the marsh will take over your brain and fight with all your strength. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered dozens of Alpha Erosion Marshes, yet the marsh in me had never lost.”

She opened her eyes slightly. Her cloudy eyes were full of longing.

“But you’re different. You have a mature brain, and your abilities are quite interesting. You can even run away from me once.”

Yes, that’s it, babble a bit more. Shu Jun stared at Zhu Yanchen and continued to consider possible solutions.

There’s one way.

“You…” Before the Erosion Marsh said the next sentence, a wind gathered under Shu Jun’s feet as his body swiftly dimmed into an afterimage that once again rushed towards the threads that were trapping Zhu Yanchen.

[Silence.] He concentrated all his energy, stared at the thread that was piercing through Zhu Yanchen and fiercely smacked his broadsword down.

This time the thread didn’t enlarge and was completely chopped off by the blade.

Shu Jun didn’t waste even a split second. He grabbed Zhu Yanchen’s arm and immediately fled in the opposite direction. The other threads frantically fought back, and Shu Jun dodged them one by one with his fastest possible speed. But before he could fly far, a soft wall made of erosive substance suddenly appeared in front of him.

This time it was Zhu Yanchen who made a move.

While the wall was still far enough, Zhu Yanchen took out two marble-sized items and resolutely tossed them at the wall, blowing out two huge holes. The explosion almost scorched a corner of Shu Jun’s hair.

“Bring the battle to the ground.” Despite the severe injuries, there was no weakness or panic in Zhu Yanchen’s voice. “This way I can fight with you.”

“I can fly upwards —”

“The same trick won’t work a second time. If I’m not mistaken, there should be no fewer than three layers of erosive substance above our heads now. If you turn against them, they’ll snatch any opportunity to attack you.” Zhu Yanchen took off the gas mask and put a handful of medicine in his mouth.

Then he didn’t put on the mask again.

“I’ll make sure you live.” Zhu Yanchen’s voice was unwavering: “Shu Jun, first bring its attack focus to the ground.”

“You’ve an ability to ‘suppress the erosive substance’… Very interesting.” The female voice came to his mind again, carrying with it a creepy delight: “I haven’t killed any Alphas with this ability. You still have a chance. Please be sure to do your best.”

“This is our first strategic partnership in a battle. It’s worth remembering.” Shu Jun suddenly shook his head and bolted towards the ground.

Zhu Yanchen didn’t answer. He took out a few jars from the briefcase, then solemnly put the briefcase aside.

“We have three advantages. First, it seems to want to fight with you; but I won’t ask why now. A battle between two Alpha marshes gives one advantage — there’ll be no mutated monsters participating in such a high-level battle, so you’ve only one opponent. At worst, you could also count in the stuff that this opponent temporarily creates to attack you.”

“Second, so far, it doesn’t take me seriously.”

“Third, you are better than it.”

“Are you being serious?” Shu Jun couldn’t laugh when he glanced at the head as big as a hill in front of him, his voice shaking a little.

Instead, Zhu Yanchen laughed. This was the second time Shu Jun saw him laugh. This time his smile was much more natural, even with subtle satisfaction in it.

“The Erosion Marsh that merged with you is even bigger than this. I monitor your status every day. You and the marsh are fusing with each other pretty solidly.” He said softly: “Although there are differences in fusion and experience, in theory, you’re still stronger than that head. Be a little more confident.”

Shu Jun desperately scratched his grey hair to the point that he almost scraped his scalp: “Okay. Now that things have become this serious, we could only fight — Even so, I can’t let you get hurt. If I lose, I still don’t want to lose so badly.” 

This person was obviously seriously injured, yet his behaviour looked as though he was totally fine.

The threads of erosive substance suddenly fell down and the huge Erosion Marsh really started to attack towards the ground. Shu Jun and Zhu Yanchen jumped left and right to quickly duck away. Shu Jun couldn’t help but glance at Zhu Yanchen.

Zhu Yanchen’s movements might seem rather normal, but each move was definitely calculated. He took advantage of the terrain and wandered through the ruins like a ghost. Many threads were drawn into the cracks between the buildings by him, thus the huge head was slightly deflected and the horrifying face lowered a few degrees downwards.

Shu Jun instantly understood Zhu Yanchen’s intention.

People couldn’t change their physiological structure. This Erosion Marsh retained the appearance of a human head, therefore the intelligence it had obtained must have come from a real human head.

Then it weakest spot must be where its brain lay.

If I can properly use ‘suppression’, I may be able to break through that layer of defence and grab its brain — The two of them didn’t have many choices right now. Although Shu Jun had no idea whether he could really defeat it after touching its brain, it was worth giving a shot.

Shu Jun immediately stepped on the wind and worked along with Zhu Yanchen on the ground. He deliberately circled a few more times and flew high enough, putting on a look of searching for the net of erosive substance in the sky, trying to divert the attention of the Erosion Marsh away from Zhu Yanchen.

However, as a former combatant, this Erosion Marsh wasn’t easy to deceive. It quickly discovered the problem with its stance and began to slowly adjust. Shu Jun caught the gap, dived down from a high spot and sprinted towards the head’s temple.

The intense focus made his brain ache. He ran so fast that the Erosion Marsh couldn’t react for a second and didn’t have enough time to set up sufficient defence —

At least on the surface.

The next second, an annoying chuckle came again. At the moment Shu Jun swung his sword down, a liquid pillar jumped horizontally out and pierced through his right shoulder. Shu Jun suddenly lost his balance and was slammed into an abandoned building on the side, blowing out a large cloud of dust.

“Too direct.” The Erosion Marsh whispered and more liquid pillars followed, looking as though they wanted to smash Shu Jun into minced meat.

“Really?” Shu Jun supported himself with his sword pointing at the ground and stood up, then he chopped off all the liquid pillars coming his way.

Thereafter, he smoothly slid down a liquid pillar and went straight for the head’s temple again.

And Zhu Yanchen was already waiting there.

 

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