"Today is the day the nobles from the Palace come to inspect. I've lived for eighteen years, and this is the first time I've seen such a grand display."
"How magnificent! Such a large palanquin, surrounded by dancers as beautiful as flowers. Damn it, I really want to marry a dancer."
"I truly envy those nobles who live in the Palace."
"But for some reason, Old Man Liu Zheng next to me looked a bit off. He seemed to be muttering something."
"He seemed to say that he had seen these dancers many times before, and they always looked the same."
"I heard there's a secret formula in the Palace that grants immortality. I wonder if it's true."
"That's wonderful, I want that too."
"But I wonder if it's just my imagination, I always feel a gaze from inside the palanquin looking at me."
"I heard the Village Chief called for me today, I wonder why—"
--- [You have read Diary Fragment · 1. This item is a quest item.]
[Side quest triggered: Regret.]
Regret
Difficulty Rank LV9
Quest Synopsis: Shuisheng Village has become a settlement of the undead. Through the diary entries, you seem to be able to glimpse a little of what happened at the time.
Quest Information: Obtain all diary entries.
Quest Deadline: None
Quest Reward: 10000 paradise coins.
Failure Penalty: None
--- Qin Jie put away the diary fragment in his hand. This item was dropped by the Wu Shou just now. It seemed to be a young man's recorded journey, but he wasn't very interested in it.
After all, it was only 10000 paradise coins, and there were few hints, so Qin Jie didn't take it to heart.
Heading to Fountainhead Palace, that was the priority.
At this moment, Qin Jie was in a desolate and bleak wilderness. In the distance, hunched figures could be vaguely seen. These were the residents of Shuisheng Village, who had now become soulless corpses.
"Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!!!!"
As soon as Qin Jie stepped into the village entrance, he heard a hoarse scream. An old woman, holding a cleaver, roared and charged towards Qin Jie. Her face was full of wrinkles, she had no eyes, and her body moved towards Qin Jie in a bizarre, twisted manner.
Qin Jie noticed that the old woman's abdomen was severely distended. This could not possibly be a sign of renewed life; it was highly likely that something was parasitic inside the old woman's belly.
[Insight]
Name: Ono Misa
Shuisheng Village Villager
Health: 32%
Mana: 20/20
Strength: 3
Agility: 5
Stamina: 3
Intelligence: 2
Charm: -1
Luck: 1
Skill 1, Parasitic Host: An evil entity is parasitic within this villager's body. Upon killing, the entity will burst out of the abdomen.
Skill 2, Soul Prayer: Summons dormant Souls through on-the-spot rituals, dealing 20 points of Soul-attribute damage to enemies.
Skill 3, Source Water Tribe: When the number of villagers is greater than 12 and they enter combat, the group will enter a berserk state, Attack Power +20%, Movement Speed +15%, and damage taken increases by 200%.
--- Indeed, something was parasitic inside the old woman in front of him.
By the time Qin Jie finished looking at the old woman's stats, it was already too late.
The old woman suddenly fell flat on the ground, and the next moment, her swollen abdomen instantly burst open. A large amount of foul-smelling mucus flowed out from her abdomen, and a black shadow suddenly darted out from within the old woman's body, flying directly towards Qin Jie's face.
The black shadow was extremely fast, so fast that Qin Jie almost didn't have time to raise his sword to Parry. But even after that black creature was cut in half by Qin Jie in mid-air, it still crawled onto Qin Jie's shield, leaving behind black mucus.
In just a moment, Qin Jie's shield value dropped by a full 28%. He directly removed his shield, allowing the mucus, which had lost its inertia, to slide directly onto the ground due to gravity.
What is this thing? In the original work, Shuisheng Village residents explode after being killed? I didn't know that.
It seemed that Shuisheng Village had undergone changes Qin Jie was unaware of. Originally, these villagers were already very troublesome after becoming corpse-people, and now they had these strange things in their bellies.
It seemed he had to proceed with even greater caution.
The sound of drumming came from afar. Qin Jie looked in the direction of the sound and saw a large group of corpse-people performing a ritual in the distance. These residents of Shuisheng Village had extremely fanatical religious beliefs, performing rituals even after death.
Qin Jie hid behind a dilapidated, low-lying house. A patrol of villagers walked past, evidently not noticing the hidden Qin Jie. Their bellies were also highly distended, and there were black, wriggling creatures slowly moving within the group.
The creatures were like fish, with scales on their bodies, but strangely, they had grown four short legs. Some of these fish were walking on the ground, while others were attached to the spines of the Shuisheng Village villagers, their contact surfaces already fused together.
[Insight]
Name: Magikarp Derivatives
Health: 100%
Mana: 0/0
Strength: 6
Agility: 23
Stamina: 7
Intelligence: 0
Charm: 0
Luck: 0
Skill 1, Parasitism: This creature can parasitize any living body, during which it will steal its Health as nutrients and gradually assimilate flesh and blood. When the assimilation reaches 25%, symbiosis will be achieved, and it will gain control of the living body. Forced removal will cause at least 20% of maximum Health damage depending on the assimilation level.
Skill 2, Corrosive Mucus: Magikarp Derivatives have highly corrosive mucus on their body surface. Contact will inflict 80 high damage per second.
Skill 3, Parasitic Egg: Magikarp Derivatives have a chance to leave an egg when causing a wound to flesh. The egg will enter an activated state after lurking for 24 hours, at which point it will burrow into the person's body and also possess the Parasitism skill.
Skill 4, Source Water Tribe: When the number of Magikarp Derivativesreaches 15, they will gain a Bloodlust effect. During the Bloodlust effect, 20% of damage dealt will be converted into healing. This effect is also valid for parasitic units.
Skill 5, Lesser Abyssal Derivative:????
--- The situation was worse than Qin Jie had imagined. At this time, the residents of Shuisheng Village had undergone a second mutation after becoming corpse-people; most of them were parasitic with Magikarp Derivatives. The aggressiveness of these Derivatives was terrifying, and once they caused a wound, they would parasitize the target.
Not only that, but the mucus on these Derivatives also greatly countered Qin Jie's shield. To get through here, Qin Jie had to proceed cautiously.
These villagers were extremely troublesome and moved in groups, with very strong aggressiveness. To avoid consuming shield value, Qin Jiechose to hide his figure as much as possible, then slowly advanced.
He had already consumed a large amount of shield value from the beginning until now. His current shield value was only 124%. This might be a very high shield value, but for a lone wolf like him, it was still somewhat insufficient.