novelTele Chapter 56 Strange
Chapter 56 Strange
"I feel a little unwell."
Using the light of his flashlight, Xu Yang entered the square-shaped room and immediately felt nauseous.
The spaces on either side of the stairs further amplify this feeling.
cramped, deep, and dark.
The hissing of snakes reached my ears, and in a daze, it seemed as if the walls were beginning to press against my body, and my breathing became inexplicably erratic.
Xu Yang suddenly remembered that someone had described this information when he was inquiring about news before.
My initial guess was that the air was toxic.
He quickly opened his backpack, took out a gas mask, and put it on his face.
……
Snapped.
The mask was removed, and Xu Yang leaned against the wall, his face grim.
"It's not poison gas."
Wearing the mask not only failed to suppress his discomfort, but also further obstructed his breathing, making it difficult for him to catch his breath for a moment.
"call……"
Xu Yang took a deep breath.
Looking down at the bottom of the stairs, so deep it seemed endless, perhaps that was where his goal lay.
He gritted his teeth.
"Even now, I refuse to believe I can't get down one flight of stairs."
After making his decision, Xu Yang suppressed his discomfort and quickly walked downstairs.
Without stopping, the figure ran up the black steps, the only sound in the dark and deep world being the clatter of footsteps.
Fortunately, the stepped path wasn't as long as it looked. Before I knew it, the steps under my feet had turned into gray-brown rocks.
Xu Yang took a breath and stopped walking.
A faint halo of light appeared diagonally below.
He turned off his flashlight and went downstairs. Soon, a special passage appeared before him.
This is a narrow crevice inside the rock, like an irregular strip-shaped bubble squeezed out between two walls. There are no side paths in sight; it just twists and turns and extends forward.
The faint light came from some palm-sized white stones, which were embedded in the rock wall and emitted a soft white glow.
Xu Yang narrowed his eyes.
[Damaged environment module]
[A sophisticated, environmentally-adjustable module, typically used to control environmental variables during experiments, has been compromised.]
[Note: The experiment failed...]
……
He stepped forward and touched a white stone with his fingers; its surface had a texture like ice.
The product descriptions almost explicitly state that the laboratory is located nearby.
Xu Yang felt a faint sense of anticipation.
He withdrew his hand, took a deep breath, and his body seemed to feel less uncomfortable. He continued to walk deeper into the passage.
One step, two steps...
As Xu Yang passed by a bend in the road, he glanced at his feet out of the corner of his eye.
His brows furrowed slightly.
Around the corner, a human skeleton lay scattered on the ground, clearly having been dead for some time. Not far away, there was a white coat covered in old bloodstains.
"guide."
Researcher's Uniform
……
researcher?
Xu Yang was stunned for a moment, then squatted down and carefully felt inside his clothes, but found nothing.
Then look down at your body.
Scattered bones, clothes tossed aside, it looked like... the result of someone touching the corpse first.
Suddenly, a conjecture popped into his mind.
werewolf.
Ignoring the snake-man, the other party doesn't seem to be someone who would plunder corpses, so the werewolf must have been here first and taken something from the researcher—
Laboratory ID card.
Thinking of this, Xu Yang let out a sigh of relief.
The things in his mind connected: the werewolf didn't have the lab ID card from the moment he arrived; he got it from the researcher after arriving here for some reason, and only then did he enter the lab.
Moreover, researchers cannot appear out of thin air.
So... not only is the laboratory in this area, but the entrance is right here too.
Xu Yang felt a surge of excitement.
I thought it would take several days, but I found the entrance on the second day.
He walked quickly forward.
Despite his excitement, the increasingly clear screams in his ears gradually calmed him down, making him extremely vigilant.
Whether it's physical discomfort or the hissing of snakes in your ears, it all indicates that things won't be entirely smooth sailing.
Xu Yang took a few light steps and soon arrived at the end of the rock corridor.
Facing us was a gaping, crack-like opening.
The screams came from inside, which must have been a spacious cave. The sound echoed loudly, making one's ears uncomfortable.
Xu Yang slowly approached.
I don't know if it was just my imagination, but for a moment, I felt even more uncomfortable.
He suddenly wrinkled his nose.
It felt like snot was flowing out of his nose. He wiped his nose with his hand, and some red liquid stained his fingertips. He... had a nosebleed. With his current physical condition, it was unbelievable that he would have a nosebleed for no reason.
The regenerative properties were operating quietly, yet there was a sense of stagnation.
Xu Yang's eye twitched at just the right moment, and he became somewhat uneasy.
He turned slightly to the side and looked inside.
……
Inside the cave, the original natural rock walls were covered with a layer of black starstone, and several environmental modules were placed in the four corners, providing dim lighting.
There aren't any particularly troublesome monsters.
Xu Yang first exhaled and looked around.
In the center of the cave, there is a circular pool of venom, with a platform built in the middle for footing, while the outer edge is surrounded by snake-man stone statues.
The sound we heard earlier came from the circular pool of venom.
Among them, a series of venomous snakes were hissing incessantly, although calling them venomous snakes at this point was not entirely accurate.
These venomous snakes were even larger and more deformed than those outside the maze.
Originally, a long, thin membrane covered the body, and the head and neck swelled irregularly. On both sides of the body, limbs resembling withered branches grew out, but they were less than ten centimeters long.
This should be considered an important part of the process of mutation and evolution.
But it is an awkward body shape.
Their bloated bodies prevent them from swimming, and their newly grown limbs are not strong enough to support crawling; they now resemble writhing, tumbling maggots.
Xu Yang stepped forward, his eyes glancing at the stone statue beside him, and then he paused suddenly.
Look closely.
The stone statue in front of me is no different from the previous stone statues in general, except for one strange thing: there are no carvings on its body.
Xu Yang squinted, a strange sense of dread creeping into his heart.
……
【Starstone Serpent Man (Evolving)】
[Seizing the miracle within the mutated genes, we take a step closer to the existence in our memories, listening to His will. The gene sequence is continuously being optimized, and traits are being generated.]
[Note: Snake dream...]
……
Click.
A crisp sound.
A crack appeared on the stone statue's outer shell, and a pair of vertical pupils quietly opened through the crack, carrying an inexplicable radiance, about to clearly see the first glimpse of the evolved scene.
puff.
A chilling white light pierced the crevice...
The snake-man was surrounded by complete darkness.
A dagger suddenly entered its eye socket, pierced through a thin bone plate, and stabbed into its brain.
Xu Yang's expression was cold and stern.
He twisted his arm, swirling it around, before finally drawing his knife.
dead.
Then he looked at the other stone statues—
It's exactly the same guide description.
It's foreseeable that if these things evolve, they'll probably become the troublesome ring-scaled snake-men we saw before.
Now is the perfect time.
Strike while the iron is hot and kill him!
Xu Yang immediately took action.
He went around to the other statues, aimed at their heads, and slammed his shield down.
Bang!
Thump thump thump...!
The violent impact drowned out the hissing of the venomous snakes inside the cave.
Or rather, when the venomous snakes saw the humans by the pool smashing the skulls of the evolved snake-men as if possessed.
They collectively chose to remain silent.
……
Thanks to the fact that the evolving snake-man statue and the star stone are essentially different substances, and the texture is not too hard, a series of smashes do not even require activating the self-sacrifice technique.
Xu Yang gasped for breath, wiped his face, and saw that the broken part of the stone statue was covered in black blood, which splattered all over his face.
Perhaps due to excessive exertion, he felt a little dizzy. He didn't pay much attention to it, simply shaking his head to clear his mind.
At this moment, all around was quiet.
He suddenly realized what was happening and looked into the pool of venom.
The venomous snake, which had been noisy and hissing, stopped wriggling and lay quietly, as if trying to make itself less noticeable. It would even twitch twice when his gaze lingered on it.
It seemed to be fear.
"Wow, that's pretty good intelligence."
Xu Yang just smiled brightly.
He reached out and pulled out his gun.
……
boom!
With his last bullet fired and several magazines changed along the way, Xu Yang quickly dealt with the venomous snakes.
Looking at the corpses in the pool of venom, he felt a slight pang of regret.
If he could, he would really like to raise these venomous snakes to earn contribution points, but unfortunately this place is part of a monster settlement, so he can't do his breeding business here.
These monsters are all intelligent life forms.
If he leaves these things behind today, they might be moved away tomorrow, and it's uncertain whether he'll ever see them again in the future.
So even though I was extremely reluctant, I had no choice but to kill them.
"These are all pure contribution points."
Xu Yang was sighing with emotion.
tick.
He instinctively wrinkled his nose, but blood started flowing from his nostrils again. This time, however, before he could activate his regeneration technique, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, even more severe than before.
Xu Yang shook his head abruptly, his expression turning serious.
It seemed that the discomfort in my body reached its peak after I arrived at this cave, and the strange feeling deep inside became even stronger.
Something's definitely not right.
His eyes darted left and right.
This cave is the end of a long, rock-walled corridor; there's no path further in. My gaze swept across the walls, the pool of venom, the stone statues and corpses...
Ultimately, it remained on the central platform.
That's the only place he hasn't been yet.
It appears to have only some scattered star stones and small piles of stones on it, and at first glance there is nothing strange about it.
But that's the strangest thing. If it's meaningless, why would it be built in the center of the venom pool?
With this thought in mind, Xu Yang jumped directly onto the platform.
Using the flashlight's beam, I began to carefully examine my surroundings: stones, stones, piles of stones, stones...
A pile of stones?
Finally, Xu Yang discovered the problem on what appeared to be a haphazardly piled-up small pile of stones.
Its surface is covered with a familiar layer of sticky mucus, the same kind of mucus that adhered to the stone pillars in the previous stone pillar maze.
The entire pile of stones was not simply stacked, but rather all stuck together.
Xu Yang held it in his palm.
It felt somewhat heavy.
A moment later, his breathing became rapid, his heart pounded uncontrollably, and he abruptly let go.
"This is it!"
The source of all abnormalities.
Xu Yang picked up his shield and smashed it down on him.
Bang!
Thump thump thump...!
……
The entire large rock was destroyed into a pile of rubble.
Amidst the rubble, a dark, patterned fragment, about the size of a billiard ball, rolled out.
Xu Yang's eyes widened in surprise, and his breath almost stopped.
……
[Damaged fragments of radiation-induced attractants]
The failed processing of ancient spirit flesh exposes it to unique biological radiation. Being in the radiation field gives one a chance to enter the ancient spirit's genetic memory, but it will cause the genetic sequence to mutate into the Meteor Serpent lineage, including the following characteristic pathways: Ancestral Star Scale, Eternal Will, Divine Form, Enlightenment, Star Stone World...
[Note: Humanity! Why have you brought destruction!]
……
Before he could even list all the characteristics, Xu Yang's mind went blank when he saw the word "radiation."
A mushroom cloud of steam rising from the ground, a deformed newborn, a body oozing pus, sloughed-off skin...
How long have you been in the radiation zone?
A series of chaotic thoughts finally coalesced into one word—
Hey!
Xu Yang leaped into the air.
Move away from the central platform and run faster toward the cave entrance.
As they ran, their faces began to contort.
We haven't found the lab entrance yet, and we almost got caught. If we don't leave soon, we might end up in the venom pool ourselves!
Xu Yang ran up the stairs, taking three steps at a time.
Back at the Fangzhui House, a figure appeared, blocking the doorway.
Bang! !
The self-sacrifice skill suddenly erupted.
Xu Yang, bracing himself against the shield, smashed the monster's body to pieces and flew out of the cave entrance of the stone cone house.
Then, without looking back, he continued running away.
He also checked the data on the panel midway through, and only felt a little relieved after confirming that there were no words like "genetic collapse" or "characteristic generation in progress".
Overhead, the sun was setting, and the sky was almost completely covered by black.
Xu Yang rushed into the dark forest and headed quickly toward the gathering area. He occasionally caught glimpses of monsters along the way, but he had no time to pay attention to them.
He had only one thought in mind: to return to the settlement.
He hadn't been in the radiation zone for long, but it wasn't short either. Before he transmigrated, he had seen too many works of art depicting how radiation could kill people. He felt good now, but it might just be an illusion. He might also die from rotting flesh in a few days.
He needs to go to the hospital immediately!
……
Different skies, inside Settlement Sixteen.
A man wearing a gray trench coat and black metal gloves strode into a dark gold-colored metal building located on the main street.
Inside the lobby on the first floor, the receptionist in the corridor was about to approach when the man in gray shoved her aside, leaving her standing to the side, watching the man's retreating figure as he walked towards the elevator with some resentment.
Upon entering the elevator, the man in gray stared at the floor buttons, paused for a moment, and then looked at the gradually closing gap in the elevator doors—the receptionist with a fake smile had already gone to attend to other people.
The man scratched his head, opened his bracelet, and started searching for messages. After a while, he tapped the screen for "sixth basement level"...
Soon, the elevator doors opened.
This is a place similar to a quiet bar. Soft jazz music plays lazily in the lobby, and there is a bar counter directly in front of the elevator, with various drinks displayed behind it.
At this moment, a few people were scattered around the bar, with an aisle between the seats leading to the private rooms.
The man in gray strode in, checked the room number, and swiped his wristband on a silver-white door.
He pushed the door open and entered.
A man and a woman were in a private room, sitting at a table drinking. When they saw the man, the woman remained calm, holding her wine glass with her fingers and gently swirling the dark red wine.
"Mr. Liu, the person who can solve this problem has arrived."