Player Reload

Something's not right. Something's amiss.

Hiding under the bridge, Li Cheng's eyes were bloodshot as he gasped for air heavily.

He had applied medicinal powder on his head and roughly sewn up the wound with needle and thread to stop the bleeding. However, the ant-like spines on his hand refused to recede.

More than that, he could feel the corrosion of the Master of Insects intensifying. Muscles, bones, blood vessels, and skin were all transforming towards being insect-like.

Rip—

The muscles in his right thigh swelled uncontrollably, tearing open his jeans, as surges of power flowed incessantly.

Li Cheng propped himself up with one hand on the ground to prevent falling, but the Mantis Arm Bone Blade in his right hand continued to grow, its tip sprouting a large number of blood vessels and nerves, as if it were some new limb.

At the same time, his right eye vision became blurry and chaotic. Li Cheng took out his phone with a trembling left hand, turned on the camera, and clearly saw the pupil in his right eye fluttering rapidly, as if it were about to split.

Whether it be the plane-paving ants or the praying mantises, their eyes were all compound...

Stop!

Li Cheng raised his fist and struck hard at his chest.

His heart suddenly stopped, blood flow throughout his body paused, and the mutation trend on his right side sharply slowed down.

He exerted all his willpower to resist the continuous scattering of his consciousness and the desire to kill. After an unknown amount of time, the momentum of the mutation finally subsided.

The Mantis Arm Bone Blade and needle-like hairs on his arm slowly retracted, the thigh muscles returned to their original state, and the pupils no longer trembled.

"Phew..."

Drenched in cold sweat, Li Cheng let out a long sigh of relief, lying down under the bridge to regain his strength.

About twenty minutes later, he stood up, pushed his bike back to the surface, rode home, took a shower, and returned to the bedroom to make a WeChat call to Mu Yulu.

On the surface, he was asking after her, but in reality, he was indirectly inquiring about the hospital situation. Sure enough, from the background noise of the call, he could hear the sound of police sirens.

It seemed that the police or the Special Affairs Bureau had discovered the Giant's body by the flower bed and were cordoning off the area to clean up the traces.

After hanging up the WeChat call, Li Cheng pondered for a long time and gathered all his belongings at hand—mantis and insect pupae with Blood Amber inside, four Divine Calamity Fragments of the Master of Insects, and the newly acquired black grease, which he placed in several vacuum plastic bags.

Then, he changed into new clothes and climbed over the wall to leave the bedroom and returned to the ground.

His current condition was completely abnormal, as if he had entered a new phase. He wasn't sure if he could withstand another sudden mutation of his body.

There were still about five thousand public phone booths left in Yin City. He found one and dialed Zhangsun Yao's number—the one who gave him the World Nuclear House business card.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Li Cheng paused, choosing his words, "Chenghua District, building six, apartment 803, I'm that person."

This address was where the infected host of the Master of Insects had killed the couple last time, and where Li Cheng met Zhangsun Yao.

"Oh, it's you." Zhangsun Yao's tone was filled with interest, "I thought you would never call this number."

"Can we meet? I have a favor to ask."

"Sure, you pick the place."

"Lotus North Road, Starbucks."

Li Cheng hung up the phone and headed for the destination. He didn't rush into the coffee shop but hid at the corner of the street to observe quietly.

Only when Zhangsun Yao arrived at the shop ten minutes later and sat down by the window and ordered a coffee, did Li Cheng walk into Starbucks and sat across from her.

Today, Zhangsun Yao was wearing a white hoodie, covered with a black coat, and paired with jeans—an image of an urban white-collar worker.

"You're really cautious."

She sized up Li Cheng and noticed that his fingertips were all coated with super glue and that he was using the face of the middle-aged man previously killed by an infected experimental subject of the Master of Insects, albeit wearing sunglasses.

More importantly, there was a police station not far from this Starbucks.

Zhangsun Yao took out her phone to scan and order two cups of coffee, laughed lightly and said, "Are you afraid I'll harm you, so you chose to meet in front of a police station?"

"Sorry."

Li Cheng took a deep breath, offered no explanation, and directly took out a well-packaged Blood Amber from his pocket and placed it gently on the table, "What is this worth?"

"...Divine Calamity Fragment of the Master of Insects."

Zhangsun Yao narrowed her eyes, leaned back, and waved her hand, saying, "Take it back. There's a risk just by it being exposed to the air."

She paused, then earnestly said, "Any transaction involving Divine Calamity Fragments is considered a major crime within the Special Affairs Bureau's jurisdiction. If you hand it over to them, you're likely to receive a cash reward of 500,000, along with a silk banner. However, if you trade with other guilds or organizations, the price is negotiable."

"I have other Divine Calamity Fragments in my possession."

Li Cheng retracted the Blood Amber and said hoarsely, "I wish to use these as compensation to solve the problem I am facing."

"What problem?"

"I've been infected by the Master of Insects," Li Cheng said frankly. "I've already gone through about four cycles of Genetic Hunger."

"Cough—"

Zhangsun Yao, who was sipping coffee, almost choked. She stared at Li Cheng with wide eyes to make sure he wasn't joking. Her brows furrowed tightly, "Do you mind if I use my Spiritual Sense to check?"

Spiritual Sense inspection is the most commonly used Detection Skill type among players.

Of course, for players who are not familiar with each other, using this ability rashly is like a provocation, easily leading to conflict.

Li Cheng shook his head, allowing Zhangsun Yao to open her palm and hover it over the back of his hand.

A sensation of being peered into spread from the back of his hand to his heart. Li Cheng suppressed the impulse to retract his hand and tensed his expression.

After a moment, Zhangsun Yao withdrew her hand and said with a frown, "You're not a Summoner."

Li Cheng nodded. He had never claimed to be one, so it shouldn't count as lying.

Zhangsun Yao didn't dwell on this matter for long and continued to ask, "When were you infected?"

"Half a month ago." Seeing that she had suddenly fallen silent, he asked, "Is there a problem?"

"...You should be aware of the general view towards Master of Insect infections, right?"

"I know, incurable," Li Cheng recalled the scene of Special Affairs Bureau personnel shooting the infected and said hoarsely, "According to the game forums, there are endless possibilities in the killing field. What the Special Affairs Bureau can't handle, other powers may have a way to."

"You're not wrong. The question is what's the cost."

Zhangsun Yao said expressionlessly, "For the concept of 'human,' a Master of Insects infection is like smashing porcelain on the ground, using the shattered remnants mixed with all kinds of other things, bonded and fired into a stronger container.

During this process, the infected do gain Strength, but the Genetic Hunger becomes stronger and more frequent, until the infected's genome completely disintegrates, turning into a monster without human rationality.

Most ordinary people mutate into monsters during the first stage of the Master of Insects infection.

A few can withstand up to the third or fourth cycle of Genetic Hunger before losing their minds and turning into monsters.

In the rarest cases, some last up to the sixth cycle before they can no longer cope."

She paused, then calmly said, "The top player organizations do have methods to perfectly resolve Divine Calamity infections, but the price is too high and they won't use them for people outside of their core circle."

Li Cheng said in a low voice, "...I have more fragments of Divine Calamity."

"It's useless, the values are not on the same scale."

Zhangsun Yao decisively said, "Repair is always harder than destruction. Imagine, it's easy to fire a kiln of porcelain using modern craftsmanship, but to perfectly restore a shattered porcelain at the atomic level and match the original Strength, the difficulty increases by more than an order of magnitude.

Unless you have influential people in your family,

otherwise, if you surrender to the Special Affairs Bureau now and seek help, they are highly likely to put you in the Terminal Care Project."

"Terminal Care Project?"

"That is, terminal care," Zhangsun Yao said calmly. "Within a budget of 1 million, they let you eat and drink as you please and spend a happy couple of weeks. When the time comes, they execute euthanasia and recycle your body.

That is the standard procedure of the Special Affairs Bureau for dealing with surrendering, untreatable high-risk targets."

Li Cheng remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "I can work for them."

"It's already the fourth year since the Slaughter Field Game began, the Special Affairs Bureau is not lacking in fighters, or rather, they do not lack fighters other than top combatants."

Zhangsun Yao asked, "Even if they recruit you, at the end of your life, you will uncontrollably transform into a monster. Instinctively causing destruction and spreading infection. You would be like an extremely dangerous ticking time bomb."

"..."

Li Cheng fell into a long silence, slowly raised his head, and asked seriously, "How long can I survive as a human?"

"The most optimistic guess, no more than a month."

Zhangsun Yao put down her coffee and said, "Of course, all these are just my side of the story. If you don't believe me, I can take you to places like the Prometheus Laboratory Company for free. See what opinions and suggestions they have."