The city was destroyed.
The streets are gone, the bridges have collapsed, and the high-rise buildings are destroyed.
The enormous black shadow that loomed over the city swayed continuously, its head barely visible, its face contorted in a grotesque expression. The flesh beneath it rapidly sharpened into a curved blade, its cold light flashing, and swiftly swung towards the person in mid-air.
Jiang Yujin turned around and stepped onto the blade, using the force to reach another head, then quickly pressed down with the head.
The wind rushed past his ears as his head was pressed firmly to the ground, relentlessly pushed down until it sank deep into the earth. Several sharp spikes attacked from behind; he grabbed a steel pipe, twirled it in his hand, and the spikes snapped back, piercing the pile of flesh behind him.
With only a few heads remaining, the mutant began to clearly become enraged, its flesh chunks constantly forming sharp cones that pierced in all directions, launching indiscriminate attacks.
The already dwindling low-rise buildings were not spared this time either, collapsing amidst a deafening roar.
The distant flames were still flickering, and the dust and mist floating in the air not only did not dissipate, but became even thicker, making visibility even more blurred than before. People standing by the ship could only see thick dust and faint black shadows behind it, and nothing else.
But as long as you're still in this space, there's no safe place anywhere.
Thick dust and fog surged, and something pierced through the dust and fog, rushing towards this side.
Soon, before their eyes could even process what they saw, their minds hadn't even registered it, and they watched as something so fast it became blurry came toward them.
The only one who could react was Hu Li. His hands moved faster than his brain, and a long black sword instantly appeared in his hand. Almost without hesitation, he used the river railing behind him to leap and intercept the flying object. The sword and the flying object rubbed together violently, producing a piercing sound and sparks. Hu Li was pulled backward and retreated until he finally stopped on the other side of the river.
They were dark red, sharp cones, and there was more than one. Almost immediately after one cone pierced through the fog, another whooshing sound came from within the thick mist.
When the sound of something cutting through the air came, the sharp cone had already reached the group of people.
No one present made a move, not even a change in expression, or rather, they didn't have time to change their expressions.
They couldn't stop them, they couldn't escape them. They had never had such a clear self-awareness before.
Just before the spike pierced the lucky man's head, less than two centimeters from his pupil, a buzzing sound rang out.
"Buzz—"
The dark red substance stopped there, or rather, was forcibly stopped, unable to go any further, and could only emit a buzzing sound.
In the blink of an eye, the sharp cone was turned around by the pale fingers and aimed at the thick dust.
The airflow generated by the sharp cone broke through the dust and fog, leaving a clear trail, before piercing through a head-like structure in the sky above the city.
Finally able to move again, the lucky man's legs went weak, and he stammered, "Thank you, Xu..."
Deputy Captain Hu was still on the opposite bank of the river behind them; the only one who could stop this thing was Xu Tonggui.
But the lucky guy stopped halfway through his sentence, followed the gazes of the others, and saw a white figure disappearing into the dust and mist.
Shirt, white hair, not Captain Xu.
Who is this?
——
The spike pierced back, and another head split open. With only two heads remaining, Zhang Xin, who had been observing from one spot, saw a blood-red, prismatic crystal appear for a fleeting moment amidst the churning flesh. She quickly signaled to the other two.
But it only appeared for a moment, disappearing before they could react.
—And they are also very difficult to get close to.
Even though it seemed like 001 was dominating, anything that could fight 001 to a standstill must be extraordinary. The pile of flesh constantly shifted into various spikes laced with yellow venom, and different human faces would appear on its surface. When these two clashed, there was a tremendous gale around them, which they couldn't get involved in at all.
But even if you can't get involved, you have to.
When only the last head remained, the entire space turned a dark red, the ground began to tremble, and countless eerie sounds echoed in his mind like needles pricking him, causing his reason to gradually crumble.
Trying to ignore the sounds from the outside world, Chen Jing squinted at the constantly changing pile of flesh amidst the fierce sandstorm. He saw a red crystal surge out from within it for a moment, and disregarding the increasingly strong, thorny wind around him, he leaped directly into the attack range of the pile of flesh.
It wasn't until he actually arrived that he realized the conditions were even worse than he had imagined.
The pile of flesh had eyes all over its body and had already sensed his presence, but there was also someone above it who could easily turn it into a pulp if it wasn't careful. All the mutants it had spawned had died several kilometers away and couldn't pay attention to this side. It could only secrete venom and spread the venom all over its body.
A fierce flame erupted, and the venom began to evaporate.
Zhang Xin pushed aside the wooden planks with nails that had been blown by the wind and appeared behind him. The chubby boy clutched his head in pain and threw him a toy knife. He lost his balance and was almost blown away.
The toy knife instantly transformed into a metal blade in his hand, piercing deep into the pile of flesh, the splattered venom being completely consumed by the flames.
Deep within the pile of flesh, red crystals gleamed in the firelight.
With the crystal exposed, [0] could not ignore the situation here. Sharp teeth emerged from his body and quickly stabbed at the people who were trying to reach the crystal.
The sharp teeth were broken off completely.
Jiang Yujin pinched the tentacle-like thing that was trying to wrap around him from behind and whispered, "It's very impolite to disturb someone's work."
Time allowed no hesitation, so Chen Jing took action.
As he reached his arm into the pile of flesh, feeling the sticky, burning sensation and the sensation of the flesh turning into spikes that pierced his arm, Chen Jing remained unfazed and continued downwards.
After his entire arm and shoulder sank into the pile of flesh, he could feel something inside devouring his flesh and blood, until finally he touched the crystal.
The crystal was burning hot, making his palms numb, but he still didn't let go, holding onto it tightly, and began to try to pull his hand away.
The alien species kept moving, and Zhang Xin and Xiao Pang were squeezed to other places, but they were still reaching this way.
Chen Jing's left hand was already broken, so he could only exert force with one hand. Tiny, thread-like things rapidly emerged from the pile of flesh, trying to break through his skin and keep burrowing inside.
He could feel something extending through his veins, reaching his spine, and climbing up to his brain.
The chubby boy, who had fallen below, ignored the venom and the fact that most of his arm skin was burned. He quickly climbed towards him and tried to tear the thin threads with his bare hands. Bloodstains appeared on his hands, and drops of blood slid down his wrists.
After Little Fatty's hands became a bloody mess, his arms were finally freed from the pile of flesh.
The bright firelight cleared a path, and Zhang Xin was finally able to get here. She noticed that Chen Jing was only using one hand, so she put her hand on his without hesitation.
The fine threads began to climb onto her hand.
Little Fatty kept pulling at the thin threads, sweat dripping from his forehead in his anxiety.
Realizing what was about to happen, the pile of flesh became even more restless. The last remaining head quickly turned in this direction, barbed spikes emerging from its face, and a strange tone exploded in the minds of everyone present.
Having finally found the item, Jiang Yujin stopped trying to stall for time and stomped his head into the rubble, saying, "Quiet."
[0]Suppressed and unable to move, the alien species stopped appearing in the distance. The wind and sand seemed to have stopped, with only the broken streetlights on the roadside still emitting "poof" sparks.
From a distance, Chen Jing looked at the person standing in the distance.
The other person turned their head to the side, not looking this way. After the wind stopped, their white, tousled hair obscured their eyebrows and eyes, making it impossible to see their expression.
It was as if he remained completely calm, utterly unconcerned about the situation here.
The temperature of the crystal in their hands kept rising, and Zhang Xin and he worked together with great effort.
Throughout the world, the dark red light grew brighter and brighter, and the sounds that kept drilling into people's brains grew louder and louder, as if churning inside their minds and constantly instilling things that did not originally belong here.
Something was aggressively invading my brain, as if trying to alter something; the stinging pain from the provocation of my nerves radiated throughout my body.
Before his sanity crumbled, Chen Jing, ignoring the blood flowing from his hands, used his last ounce of strength.
"Click—"
A slight sound, so faint as to be negligible in the entire space.
The fire went out, and the dark red light suddenly dimmed.
Then came a violent tremor.
Atsha is collapsing.
As Chen Jing watched the fragments in his hand gradually disappear, before he could even confirm whether this meant it was truly over, footsteps sounded behind him. He turned around and saw a pair of eyes that remained completely expressionless. The other person was scrutinizing them, as if confirming something.
After a short while, the person standing behind them looked in the direction of the special search team and said calmly, "This way, don't look back."
His voice was faint, easily masked by the sound of the ground collapsing, but the three of them still heard it clearly. After confirming that the crystal was completely shattered, they stood up and did as he said.
They jumped off the massive, motionless pile of flesh, groped their way through the ruined streets, and across the intersection.
From a great distance, they saw a figure in the darkness.
Behind them, a great white light shone brightly.
The entire space suddenly lit up. The shriveled corpse lying on the ground, the children's toys, the overturned trash can, the abandoned long knife—everything became clear.
The massive heap of flesh began to silently explode and diminish inch by inch in the white light, vanishing without a trace. The face of the remaining head was grotesquely twisted, its empty eye sockets staring fixedly in the direction of the person standing before it.
Beneath her white, tousled hair, her originally light-colored pupils gradually changed, becoming exactly the same as the dark red they had before [0].
Jiang Yujin's power is destruction.
[0]If he creates a living alien species in the dark, then he is destroying life in the light.
Unable to resist or escape, [0] can only consciously feel their own death and sense the depletion of their body; the short time feels as long as life itself.
When only a head remained, the twisted face suddenly smiled, a smile that was both malicious and filled with the confidence that it would never truly die.
It has observed and studied humans for so long, but it hasn't learned much of the good things; instead, it has learned a lot of arrogance and ruthlessness.
"You've left a backup plan, a clone outside, hoping to use it to make a comeback."
Jiang Yujin saw the smile and knew what it was thinking, and directly shattered the other party's illusion, saying, "But your clone should die too."
The crystal represents the vast majority of this thing's energy. Without the crystal, it will be extremely weak, so weak that it cannot support a copy or create new variants. However, it will not die immediately; given the opportunity, it can be recreated.
Unfortunately, such an opportunity is probably gone.
The face on the head began to gradually distort.
It seems that it has realized that its clone has died.
——
Outside the beach, deep in the commercial street, in an old marine supplies shop, an elderly man with gray hair still sits behind the counter.
Two people walked into the shop and then closed the door.
Yuan Sanshui, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, asked someone nearby, "Is the surveillance footage dealt with?"
Shi Bu nodded.
Without asking the elderly man sitting behind the counter, they simply pulled down the roller shutter, leaving the overhead light as the only source of light in the shop.
The old man looked up and asked them, "What are you doing?"
His response was a fire.
Beneath the human skin were chunks of scarlet flesh, writhing in the fire.
The barber shop owner slightly raised his eyelids. Shi Bu sighed from the side, "Brother actually knew he had a problem."
[0] He is constantly studying himself, and also constantly learning from and observing humanity. An old man who has no relatives or friends and still runs a shop in such a bustling place is an excellent choice for observing humanity and trying to integrate into it.
As the pieces of meat shrank smaller and smaller as they cooked, the barber turned and asked, "What about the mermaid?"
"He should already be here," Shi Bu said, scratching his head. "He said he's swimming in the sea, which is faster than us taking a plane."
The barber shop owner lit another cigarette.
He knew Jiang Yujin was a wicked man; he knew that the reason Jiang Yujin dragged him out of bed in the middle of the night wasn't just to get him to take him to the airport.
This person not only took a plane in the middle of the night, but also asked him to wake up Shi Bu and bring him here to deal with the alien species. He also asked him to dig up the mermaid king who was so engrossed in being a zookeeper.
Fortunately, the two people we found had good tempers and came right away.
Deep beneath the sea, the white light grew ever brighter.
The enormous heap of flesh and the city vanished into the light, leaving no trace. But Jiang Yujin remained standing, his eyes lowered, staring at the spot where the alien creature had once stood.
This world, so bright yet on the verge of destruction, seemed to belong to only him, just like in the final game, just like a few years ago.
But he's not the only one in this world now.
Footsteps sounded from one side, and someone stopped in front of him.
He was enveloped in a blood-stained embrace, the sound of strong muscles and a steady heartbeat filling his ears.
Xu Tonggui took off his black combat gloves, ran his clean hands through the hair of the person in his arms, and pulled him up to look directly at him with his iron-gray pupils. He said, "I'm still here, my son is still alive, and no one has died here this time."
Jiang Yujin met his eyes, then lazily lowered them, burying his face completely in the other's chest. After a long while, he muttered, "Xu Tonggui."
"Um?"
Jiang Yujin's voice, muffled through the fabric, said, "I feel like throwing up."
"..."
He spoke sincerely, and Xu Tonggui remained silent for a moment before patting him on the back.
——
At the riverbank where they disembarked, the seawater that had been still above the passageway began to flow again, moving upwards against gravity. Before the bridge collapsed and blocked their way, everyone boarded the boat, including the three high school students who appeared later.
Hu Li had seen Chen Jing's photo when Cha Jiang died, so he recognized him. Although he didn't understand why these three people were here, he knew there was a reason, so he didn't ask for the time being and settled them in a room.
They witnessed the destruction of a city.
The foundation collapsed, seawater flooded in, and the light was gone.
As if it were sentient, the seawater began to move on its own after the ship entered the channel, and the surrounding seawater kept dispersing, with the undercurrents and waves having no effect on them.
Despite being unmanned, the ship sailed easily and quickly out of the deep sea, continuously ascending.
After reaching a certain distance, the surroundings were no longer pitch black; they could see light and fish swimming in the seawater under the light.
They came out, leaving that bizarre and oppressive place.
Someone was standing by the deck railing looking at the sea when suddenly their eyes blurred and they saw something different swimming past, but upon closer inspection, they saw nothing.
Someone nearby asked him, "Did you see something?"
The man rubbed his eyes and said, "I think I saw a blue-furred fish with a really long tail."
He said, "The ocean is truly amazing!"
The ship successfully returned to the sea, where the sea was calm and the sky was blue with white clouds overhead. It was so peaceful that it was as if the events that had just happened had never occurred.
But the cracks on the ship's deck and the white-haired man crouching in the corner constantly reminded them that what they had experienced was real.
Those standing on the boat glanced discreetly at the white-haired figure enjoying the sea breeze in the corner.
This person and Captain Xu came up later. They didn't know how the two of them managed to withstand the pressure of the deep sea and come up safely, but they came back anyway.
The white hair covered most of his face. The moment he boarded the ship, he said he needed to be alone for a while. Since then, he has been refusing to listen to the wind. Even after Captain Xu handed him seasickness medicine, he didn't dare to bother him again.
The only people who clearly knew who this person were those who were in the same team as Xu Tonggui and Hu Li at the time. Others had only seen his back at most and were always curious about who he was.
But after witnessing the alien being ripped open, the team dared not utter a word. Even after witnessing such an explosive scene and learning such explosive news, they chose to keep everything bottled up inside, bottling it up for themselves and causing others to worry themselves sick.
The situation was unusual at the time, and they were in a state of extreme tension. After witnessing the scene, their brains chose not to process it for the time being. Now that they have finally come to their senses, the more they think about it, the more they realize how much information is involved.
This time, everyone chose to remain silent, including Xu Gao, who used to love spreading gossip. He leaned against the railing, letting the wind blow on him, frantically reviewing what had happened before, his gaze distant, his back desolate, and he was practically smoking a cigarette.
—So it turns out that he really is the only noob in this world.
He listened to that green meadow for so long—for such a long time, even before this mission started!
Those on one side silently shed tears, while on the other, Hu Li bravely ventured to the ends of the earth. Filled with a strange sense of awe and fear, no one dared to trouble Jiang Yujin, but he did.
He leaned against the railing in the corner, found a slightly more comfortable position, and said with the sea breeze blowing in his face, "Boss Jiang is quite good at lying."
Jiang Yujin turned his head blankly, his light-colored pupils devoid of any emotion, and said, "Be careful, or I'll throw up on you."
"..."
That's a powerful threat.
The deck was quiet, and so was the room with the three high school students, who were still quietly reviewing their progress. The research results seemed to have worked; they were still rational and their minds were functioning normally. Incidentally, by working backward from today's events, many things that were previously incomprehensible suddenly became clear.
Chen Jinghui also felt that the handwriting on the drawings he had obtained earlier was familiar; it was the signature he had seen when Jiang Yujin signed the contract with the school.
The handwriting was equally messy and fluent. However, because so much time had passed, he couldn't recall it at the moment.
Zhang Xin finally understood why she had been able to hear Shi Bu and the others' conversations, which sounded like monotone readings.
That's not like reading in a wooden voice; it's pure, unfiltered reading. It's already quite remarkable that the two actors could read it like that.
Little Fatty thought and thought, but he still couldn't connect the person who was lying on the sofa watching soap operas and playing Candy Crush with the person who stabbed the alien to death. Reason kept telling him that it was impossible.
This person hid behind the aliens when they encountered them before!
His worldview was severely shaken, and Little Fatty closed his eyes in pain.
While they remained silent, a knock was heard, and then the door opened.
The person who came in was someone I never expected.
It was Xu Tonggui. He was still wearing the Special Investigation Team uniform he hadn't had time to change out of, covered in bloodstains. His expression was indifferent; he was just a cool guy.
The cool guy carried a first-aid kit and gave Chen Jing a quick treatment for his fractured hand. He also brought three bottles of water and said, "Bear with it for now. I'll take you to the hospital after we get ashore."
After he finished dealing with the situation, he left without much expression; his face was tense and he didn't smile.
He had little expression, but his movements in treating the wound were surprisingly gentle.
Xiao Pang and Zhang Xin looked curiously at the closed door and said, "I didn't expect him to be such a nice person."
It was quite different from what they had imagined. At least they didn't think the other person was someone who would help treat wounds. Every time they met, they felt a strong sense of oppression.
Chen Jing responded, then said, "There probably won't be many chances to meet again in the future."