541-545
Chapter 541: Drinking Poison to Quench Your Thirst
After obtaining this result, Chen Chen remained where he was, contemplating.
Taking NZT-48 made him temporarily enter a state of extreme calmness. He had not taken this drug for a few years, but today, he still downed a pill when faced with an alien enemy.
The endless clues in his mind gradually aligned neatly and the mist before his eyes dispersed little by little.
Little X also remained silent. No one knew Chen Chen better than her. At this time, Chen Chen's expression showed that he was thinking deeply.
As if recalling something, Chen Chen suddenly rose again and flew in the direction of the Eco Science City. At the same time, he asked, "Can the Spire still operate?"
"Just about."
Little X replied, "There are still some laboratories that haven't been damaged. But if we're starting repairs now, the Spire will have to be temporarily shut down for a month or two."
"Then forget it. Send the Black Knights to remove the equipment from the level-5 biosafety laboratory. Experimenting in the Spire is too dangerous. I'll just do an experiment in the dimension teleportation hall."
The dimension teleportation hall Chen Chen mentioned was the underground hall in which he had isolated himself before. It could only be accessed through the black sphere's teleportation.
"What are you going to do?"
Little X curiously said, "Even the cloning method has failed. It's difficult for us to contain such a powerful monster."
"No, you're wrong."
Chen Chen said without hesitation, "The purpose of the experiment is to get clues and we've already obtained a lot of clues, gaining a high level of understanding of this alien creature. Isn't that enough?"
"You're saying..."
Little X suddenly felt a little confused.
"Continue cloning."
Chen Chen said, "I'll continue to clone a Consciousness Stealer. I want to see if the second one will have the same power as the first. At the same time, you have to calculate the number of deaths around the world every day and compile their age, gender, and health status, until the conversion unit is found."
"I get it."
Only then did Little X understand. "The first Consciousness Stealer is dead, which means that the minds of the millions of humans it had absorbed have been lost. You want to find out if you clone a Consciousness Stealer again, will it inherit the power of the former?"
"Yes, that's the idea."
Chen Chen nodded and said, "I have experienced an inexplicable sense of relaxation just now. This sense of relaxation comes from the depths of my consciousness. That craving in my mind has also become very weak. Now it doesn't feel as if I've been afflicted for one month. Rather, it's as if I was only recently infected.
"So, I suspect that even if a Consciousness Stealer is cloned again, it can only absorb the second batch of fusion deaths and the consciousness of the millions of people who died before has already vanished along with the death of the first Consciousness Stealer..."
The craving that Chen Chen spoke of had come from the depths of his dream. According to the cases in each continent, those who were confirmed to be infected but whose freedom had been restricted to prevent fusion with other infected people, would also undergo mental problems in the long term. Many infected people would develop mania, loss of rationality, hysteria, and other emotions over time, and in the end, they even became unconscious patients in a vegetative state.
Although Chen Chen's willpower was far superior to ordinary people, this situation had not happened for the time being. He also felt a strong pressure, which was not relieved until the death of the Consciousness Stealer.
"Understood."
At this time, Little X suddenly realized.
"In other words, as long as we can suppress the rate of consciousness infection, the next cloned Consciousness Stealer will not have the immense power of the first or perhaps even..."
Chen Chen flew back to the Eco Science City again at this time. He came to a building in the city and then entered the hidden teleportation room. The next second, he appeared in the dimension teleportation hall again.
From beginning to end, Chen Chen did not have close contact with anyone and currently, no infection had been found in the Eco Science City.
"I'll even advise the Earth Federation to send those infected to the dimension of Resident Evil."
Chen Chen continued. "With this, I don't believe that Consciousness Stealers can still transcend the dimension's boundary and acquire the power of the dead in a different dimension!"
Little X's eyes immediately lit up.
This trick could be described as a drastic measure. The reason that the Consciousness Stealer had infected human consciousness was that, after the infected person died, it would obtain the consciousness power of the deceased and gain power comparable to Field energy.
However, if those infected were sent to the other dimension before they died, then the Consciousness Stealer could only watch helplessly because he would lose that power for good.
All continents had taken severe measures against this infectious disease. Some small countries even had curfews across the country and had entered a state of preparing for war. If it were the ordinary viruses of the past, they would have been controlled long ago. It was only this invisible, formless, consciousness-infecting entity that could keep spreading.
However, the number and frequency of infections during this period had also dropped significantly. Blacklight Biotechnology had even sent millions of androids to the world at cost. All these androids were used as quarantine personnel to prevent recurrent infections.
Following this, Chen Chen returned to the dimension teleportation hall to isolate himself. At the other end of the black sphere, various equipment was constantly being transported over. According to Chen Chen's explicit order, Little X was going to build a level-5 biosafety laboratory here to continue conducting experiments with Consciousness Stealers.
The previous speculations derived by Chen Chen had already been passed on to the four continents through the Blacklight Foundation, which it then passed on to the Earth Federation, and it then passed on to other continents and countries.
Sensing that a huge impact on human society was approaching, many continents had chosen to cut off their metaphorical rotting limbs and sent those who were clearly infected but had not died to the planes specially provided for them by the four continents. These planes would fly to the Indian Ocean, cross the Rosen bridge, and land in the dimension of Resident Evil.
The forces of the world were forced to be united once more.
However, just when the countries of the world began to challenge the limits, Chen Chen at this time had already calmed down. He began to take matters into his own hands and cloned the body of the second Consciousness Stealer.
Still, looking at the meat lump in the life incubator, Chen Chen gradually thought about another question. If humans did not create a clone of the Consciousness Stealer, would this kind of monster be unable to resurrect itself even after wiping out the earth?
After all, there would be no host body, so even if all human beings were wiped out and an incomparably huge force of consciousness was collected, what could it do?
In other words, it was very likely that when enough humans died, the Consciousness Stealer would manifest in the form of a physical body and inherit this formidable power... Nonetheless, how would it do this?
Thinking of this, Chen Chen's expression suddenly flashed. He once again recalled the fused human corpses and gradually understood something.
The fusion of the bodies was not without its function. So far, except for those infected who were prevented from fusing, most of the infected had died in the form of fusion. Therefore, was there a possibility that when the power of consciousness was accumulated to a certain level, some human corpses would automatically transform into a Consciousness Stealer?
After all, the transformation was only a genetic level change. It was still carbon-based. Perhaps for Consciousness Stealers, transforming human DNA into their own DNA was a piece of cake.
If this was the case, then Chen Chen's and the continents' decision to clone the creature was, on the contrary, disrupting the Consciousness Stealer's natural cycle. By cloning it in advance, which would only force its birth before its power reached its peak, was like induced ripening. Similarly, the power of this cloned Consciousness Stealer had not accumulated to a certain extent, so it could be easily wiped out by Chen Chen!
Thinking of this, Chen Chen was even more confident.
If this was true, then naturally he would have to keep on cloning. Otherwise, when it had accumulated enough human consciousness to be born from human corpses, it would likely have the power to destroy the world...
Chen Chen would never allow this to happen.
...
The Indian Ocean was close to Mauritius. There were more than dozens of cruisers stationed here all year round and even Northern America had stationed an aircraft carrier here. These vehicles wandered the waters all day to prevent any ships from approaching.
This sea area had gradually become a well-known secret and it had even begun to circulate on the Internet that there was a gate to another world in this sea area.
At this time, another military cargo plane flew in from the Indian Continent. As the continent most infected by the Consciousness Stealer, the Indian Continent was also the continent from which most planes were dispatched.
Due to the lack of local official capacity, the planes used to transport infected people in India were funded by the Earth Federation and rental for this service was pretty low too as it was used only to maintain fuel and cost prices. To face this epic level of disaster, schemes and greed had been put aside.
At this time, inside this cargo plane, the cabin had been transformed into a fixed seat model. An infected person was tied up in each seat. These infected people could still maintain their consciousness, but upon seeing those of the same kind, all of them showed symptoms of mania and irrationality. They struggled desperately, trying to break free from their seats, but they were still unable to do so.
These infected people who had lost their minds could not regain their minds even if they were separated again. Instead, they became walking corpses and their brains would slowly fail, resulting only in brain death.
A large military cargo plane could carry thousands of infected passengers. As it approached its destination, the military cargo plane began to gradually reduce its speed while raising the landing gear, heading toward a lower altitude.
In the distance, a huge light spot had appeared in its field of vision...
"Whoosh..."
The military cargo plane flew into the spot. At the same time, the pilot only felt that his vision was changing. The endless ocean disappeared and turned into a vast airport.
However, the pilot had long been accustomed to all this. He lowered the lever again and continued to slow down the plane. Finally, the military cargo plane landed and stopped completely after cruising on the runway for three minutes.
Then, a team of heavily armed XTN robots came forward and transported the infected people out. Next to the airport was a research institute where they would spend the rest of their short lives.
Many of them were medical staff, some were senior researchers from all over the world, and some were even soldiers and police. It was these people who maintained order who were often the most vulnerable to infection.
There was no other way. They could only be abandoned as long as the Earth Federation had not found a complete solution to the infection problem.
All this was done for the survival of mankind.
...
A week later.
In the dimension teleportation hall.
Chen Chen was half-lying on the recliner on one side, closing his eyes in rest. Not far from him, there was a fully transparent laboratory built from glass.
This laboratory was not in accordance with the international level-5 biosafety standards, but a very ordinary laboratory.
If it were not for those instruments in it, which would even surprise the biological researchers in other continents, the layout of this laboratory was indeed ordinary.
There were no airtight facilities, no disinfection measures or even a cleaning area. It was just a basic laboratory.
However, for Chen Chen, there was no difference in what kind of laboratory it was because he had uncovered most of the mystery of the Consciousness Stealer. A level-5 biosafety laboratory was meaningless to this kind of life form. Moreover, in the entire dimension teleportation hall, he was the only living person.
The rest were bionic assistants.
At this time, although Chen Chen had closed his eyes, he frowned slightly, and at the same time, a drop of sweat slipped off his forehead. In addition to his slightly pale cheeks, it was obvious that he was suffering some kind of ailment at this time.
After some time, Chen Chen slowly opened his eyes. By now, his eyeballs were bloodshot. He was like a person who had stayed up for a few nights, whose spirit was weakened.
"Huff... The call of that dark yearning is becoming more intense."
Chen Chen sat up from the recliner and the android serving by the side immediately stepped forward and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
It had to be said that ever since he was infected by the Consciousness Stealer, he had not slept well for a long time. Whenever he closed his eyes, the yearning would call out in his mind, bewitching him and commanding him to find those of the "same type", then merge in liberation...
This call became much milder after he had killed the first Consciousness Stealer, but now, it had gradually become stronger.
Chen Chen had naturally figured out why a long time ago. It was because more dead people had turned up on Earth in the past week and the consciousness of those dead people had converged again.
Although there were not as many dead people as the first batch, Chen Chen's will had also been worn down significantly by now, and he was becoming increasingly unable to resist the bewitching call.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen looked up with a pale face and turned to the laboratory not far away. The transparent glass wall of the laboratory could not block his sight. His eyes finally fell on the life incubator in the center of the laboratory.
Inside, a ball of meat with a diameter of half a meter was constantly getting nutrients and growing vigorously.
"Kill it."
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and suddenly ordered.
Chapter 542: Consciousness Battlefield
At the moment Chen Chen gave the order, one of the androids who was researching in the laboratory suddenly walked to the side console. It lifted a lid and pressed a red button firmly.
"Squeak..."
Suddenly, a strong voltage struck and the monster in the incubator shuddered all over. The electric light exploded with sparks at the top of the incubator.
The high voltage was highly lethal and instantly boiled the amniotic fluid in the incubator but then there was a loud bang. The reinforced incubator exploded and the new Consciousness Stealer rushed out. It was as if there was an invisible barrier around it as it broke through the glass wall of the laboratory and rushed in Chen Chen's direction!
"Boom!"
Even so, as it just approached Chen Chen's 50-meter range, in an instant, its body seemed to have been subjected to a massive impact. The monster flew backward at a greater speed and at the same time, a large amount of black liquid was sprinkled!
Chen Chen's expression turned even colder, with a faint murderous intent. He stood up and cracked his neck, then moved step by step in the direction where the monster fell.
This monster had indeed inherited a lot of power, but it was also obvious that its power did not reach the level of the first Consciousness Stealer.
Little X had also calculated throughout this period. She divided the human infection event into two stages. The first stage started with the meteorite falling and its end was the death of the first Consciousness Stealer.
The starting point of the second stage was the death of the first Consciousness Stealer and the ending point was now.
According to her statistics, in the first stage, the number of human deaths was around 2,353,400 and the number of deaths in the second stage was only 400,000.
In other words, this current Consciousness Stealer could only absorb the will of 400,000 dead people at most.
It was not that it did not want to absorb more, but Chen Chen had already attacked it...
At this moment, this Consciousness Stealer was like a puddle of mud. Its body was torn apart by the huge impact and the internal organs in its belly flowed to the ground. Although its vitality kept it from dying, it still temporarily lost mobility.
Watching Chen Chen gradually approaching, the monster forced itself up. It opened the mouthparts in the center of its chest and abdomen as if it wanted to do something.
However, a few wisps of light that were barely there flashed by and the monster's movements suddenly froze. Then, its body split apart little by little and eventually, it broke into more than a dozen pieces and collapsed like a building block!
The muscles at the severed points were extremely smooth as if cut with the thinnest and sharpest knife...
After doing all this, Chen Chen waved his hand slightly and the group of androids immediately swarmed up with flamethrowers on their backs and began to aim at the monster's residual limbs.
In a while, the smell of barbecue wafted to the tip of Chen Chen's nose.
After completely killing the second Consciousness Stealer, Chen Chen's expression lightened slightly. He could feel that his brain had been held down by something heavy, especially just after he was sleeping. However, upon killing the Consciousness Stealer, that feeling was temporarily diminished.
It was like drinking poison to quench one's thirst...
This saying suddenly occurred to Chen Chen.
If they did not find a way to solve the infection of the Consciousness Stealer completely, it was useless to kill a Consciousness Stealer every now and then. He would still have a nervous breakdown sooner or later.
What he did today was only like drinking poison to quench one's thirst
As the world's first infected person, Chen Chen's consciousness was pretty formidable but even so, he had been tortured to the point of losing his former calmness. Although on the surface Chen Chen was still the same as usual, only Little X who knew Chen Chen better than anyone else had realized that Chen Chen had not spoken for a long time.
Chen Chen lay back on the couch again, his brows were knitted all this while.
"X."
Suddenly, Chen Chen spoke again. His voice had become hoarser. "Continue to clone the third Consciousness Stealer, don't stop."
"Yes."
Little X comforted him. "Sir Godfather, hold on for a few more days. James Watson, leading more than 300 researchers, is conducting research on the DNA of Consciousness Stealers. It will not take long to find a cure for consciousness infection."
Chen Chen shook his head. Of course, he knew the difficulty of this matter. This kind of consciousness infection was a blind spot for human beings. If they wanted to research it thoroughly or even find a solution, it could not be done overnight. It was difficult to arrive at any results without accumulating decades of experience.
Even so, forget about decades, a person's will could barely hold on for a few months.
As for using memetic technology to solve this, Chen Chen had considered it before. Nonetheless, Little X's understanding of memes was too superficial. Memes were easy to use as weapons but it was not easy to use them as protection.
It was well known that it was very simple to destroy a thing, but it was very difficult to create, maintain, change or otherwise operate it.
However, Little X still suggested an indirect solution, which was to use memes to create a consciousness battlefield in Chen Chen's mind. As long as Chen Chen's consciousness could defeat the consciousness of the Consciousness Stealer, he would probably be liberated... Right?
Of course, this was just conjecture. Whether it would succeed was still open to debate.
First of all, Chen Chen's consciousness might not be able to defeat the consciousness of the Consciousness Stealer. The relationship between the two was like a white rabbit and a big bad wolf. The human consciousness was simply a powerless little white rabbit next to the Consciousness Stealer. This was a gap at the mental level.
Furthermore, even if Chen Chen defeated this opponent, Little X could not guarantee that the power of the Consciousness Stealer would be eliminated because the power of memes was rather chaotic and it was difficult to say how precise it was. Chen Chen's consciousness might even be injured by the meme.
Therefore, this plan was only an alternative. The main plan was to crack the DNA of Consciousness Stealers, find the element that could infect human consciousness, and try to erase it.
Although the success rate of the alternative was too low, Chen Chen still had two options.
First, he could go to a different dimension where humanity had been wiped out. As long as he left Earth or this original dimension, he could at least limit the interference of the Consciousness Stealer on his consciousness to a minimum.
Second, he could freeze himself and only thaw himself when a solution had been found to his consciousness infection.
Before Blacklight Biotechnology eliminated all cancers in humans, this plan had also been very common. There were many similar freezing institutions in the international community and the most famous one was the "Alcor Life Extension Foundation".
Everyone knew that cryonics was not something that could be done by storing a person at a temperature of more than a hundred degrees below zero degrees Celsius. The human body was 80% water, most of which was in the cells. Once the human body was frozen, the water would automatically freeze and expand, rupturing the cells, causing irreparable damage throughout the body.
That was to say, after a person was frozen and then thawed, nothing seemed to have changed in appearance but the cells of the body had long been dead beyond doubt. Naturally, this kind of person could not be resurrected.
Institutions such as the Alcor Foundation, to address this, adopted another roundabout way — as long as one was willing to pay before one died, they would release the blood in one's body upon death, then filled one up with a liquid refrigerant, which could remain liquid even at the temperature of liquid nitrogen, so it would not freeze and cause harm to the human body.
When one's body was filled with this refrigerant, they would soak one's head or whole body (depending on the price) in a jar of liquid nitrogen and store it for a long time (the storage time also depended on the price).
This idiot organization was convinced that when cell regeneration, cloning or other technologies were developed, the value of their freezing technology would be illustrated and the frozen people could be "resurrected".
However, in Chen Chen's view, this freezing plan was just like an idiot tax. If they were freezing people alive, there was still a chance for resurrection, but the main thing was that they were already f*cking dead and the corpse would have to undergo bloodletting and other processes. To what extent would technology have to be developed to resurrect people in this state?
Did they want to bring the dead to life?
Too bad, not even sci-fi novels would dare make this claim.
It was not to say that cryonics was not achievable, but that the branch of science and technology was crooked. True cryonics was by no means freezing a corpse, rather, directly freezing a living person was the right way.
Chen Chen's plan to freeze himself was very simple, that was, to use one of the many technologies obtained from the dimension of Prometheus called the "antifreeze agent".
This "antifreeze agent" was a type of nanotechnology. It was a special kind of nanoparticle. After being injected into the human body, this medicine would automatically be integrated into every cell of the human body, turning water in the cell into a mixture that could remain liquid at temperatures tens of degrees below zero degree Celsius without freezing.
After the injection of this antifreeze agent, the human body entered a device called a "cryogenic chamber" to quickly cool down to suspend the life process.
This kind of technology could also be applied to the future field of interstellar voyages that would travel for several years or decades.
The reason Chen Chen did not come up with this technology before was also that it was not needed for the time being. Blacklight Biotechnology directly overcame most of the known major diseases and could even extend human lifespan. Naturally, there was no need for this technology to be applied.
However, although this technology would not be useful in the market, Chen Chen could use it now. If there was nothing left to do, Chen Chen could only temporarily freeze himself and wait until Little X had led Blacklight Biotechnology to completely resolve the problem of the consciousness infection before thawing him out.
However, although the two backups seemed to be less risky, they hid a huge hazard. What if humanity was unable to work out a solution to the consciousness infection?
What if the final consciousness infection could not be controlled and eventually destroyed humanity?
Would Chen Chen not be frozen in the cryogenic chamber forever, without any possibility of waking up again?
These thoughts flashed through Chen Chen's mind. Now he had only these four paths to take. He must resist by force or risk the use of memetic technology or run away or escape through cryonics...
At this time, the burden on his consciousness had been lightened again. Chen Chen breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the long-lost sense of ease. "X, I'm close to making up my mind. I'm prepared to choose the second way and use memetic technology to solve this."
"You're not going to consider this further?"
Little X was a little worried. "I can't guarantee the success of memetic technology. Based on the complexity and unknowability of memes, and the peculiarity of the consciousness infection, there's only a 30% chance you'll get rid of the Consciousness Stealer."
"30%? It's already very high."
Chen Chen laughed. "I thought it was a less than 20% chance but now it seems that there's still a 30% chance, which is pretty good."
"However, maybe you don't have to take this risk but just freeze yourself and maybe we'll be able to work out other, more reliable solutions soon!"
Little X was still a little unwilling and tried to persuade him.
"But it's also possible that after I fall asleep this time, I won't be able to wake up again..."
Chen Chen said sternly, "Human beings still can't stop the spread of the consciousness infection, right? I don't want to place my bet on others and hope for some fluke. If I have to fight hard, I'd rather do it myself! "
"..."
Little X fell silent. Of course, she knew that Chen Chen had chosen the most correct path.
"Get ready."
Chen Chen did not say anymore. He rubbed his temples and at the same time ordered, "Make a clone of me. If I fail, then the fate of mankind depends on you, X.
"Don't let me down..."
"Yes..."
The black sphere behind Chen Chen flickered with blue light and Little X's figure appeared in the blue glow. She cried silently and at the same time, nodded softly.
Then, another blue ray flashed and a dark blue, metal cryogenic chamber with a sci-fi aesthetic appeared in front of the black sphere. Several androids immediately stepped forward and moved the cryogenic chamber to Chen Chen. At the same time, the sliding cover in front of the cryogenic chamber opened, exposing the narrow space inside.
This metal cryogenic chamber was what Little X had prepared. This dark blue metal was none other than the toughest material in the solar system — high-displacement armor. It had an intelligent system and some first aid medicine within and even a tube of antifreeze agent. Even if the cryogenic chamber were cut off from electricity, the nuclear reactor inside could keep this cryogenic chamber running for a thousand years.
If Chen Chen failed in the end, then Little X planned to inject Chen Chen with the antifreeze agent and then store Chen Chen at a low temperature until the consciousness infection was completely resolved.
Seeing Little X's consideration, Chen Chen just shook his head and smiled, and then lay directly in.
"Detecting DNA... User identified...
"Your Excellency Chen Chen, the only user with authority, I'm X-114, responsible for the safety of your vital signs throughout the entire process...
"The task has commenced. Anesthetic is being administered..."
As Chen Chen went in, there was an electronic voice by his ear and some gas began to be discharged from the side of the chamber wall.
After breathing in this gas, Chen Chen's consciousness suddenly became active. His mind suddenly cleared but his body became more and more tired.
This was a wonderful but distinct feeling.
Chen Chen felt that he seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep and his eyelids were already extremely heavy, but his thinking became clear.
"The cryogenic chamber is starting to close and the 'Consciousness Battlefield' meme is ready to start!
"Warning! Warning! After the cryogenic chamber is closed, it can only be opened from the inside!"
The final electronic warning came. Before Chen Chen fell asleep completely, he seemed to see the lid of the cryogenic chamber gradually closing, slowly blocking off the teary face of a young girl...
Chapter 543: The Strange Consciousness Battlefield
"Boom!"
"Gurgle..."
It sounded as if Chen Chen was crashing into the water and he felt like he had fallen into the deep sea. His consciousness was slowly sinking, wafting down bit by bit, and there was a clamorous buzzing sound in his ears.
The water around his still body seemed to reverberate with the babel of countless people.
The light in front of him was getting dimmer and the pressure on his body was getting stronger but he realized that he still had not sunk to the bottom of the sea.
He did not know how long it took but just when Chen Chen thought that his consciousness would completely dissipate, he woke up again.
Chen Chen quivered all over and slowly opened his eyes.
Ten meters away in front of him, there was a huge ball of light. The light was soft and not blinding. The strands of light shone on Chen Chen's body and made him feel an inexplicable warmth.
In contrast, his back which was beyond the reach of the light ball felt a wisp of chill.
Chen Chen looked around but saw nothing around him. He tried to walk forward but he could not reach the ball of light, though it seemed to be close at hand.
At this point, Chen Chen was sure that he had been placed in a void.
Where was this?
Chen Chen was a little confused. His consciousness remained at the moment he got into the cryogenic chamber.
"Welcome to the 'Consciousness Battlefield'!"
However, when he was feeling mystified, the ball of light in front of him rang out resoundingly. This sound passed into Chen Chen's mind with repeating echoes, making him immediately understand the meaning of the ball of light.
The weirdest thing was that this ball of light did not seem to speak Chinese or even English or other known languages but directly communicated on a conscious level.
"Two candidates have been detected. Starting data quantification test... Data quantization is running..."
The booming voice continued. "Data quantization is complete, creating character cards... Character cards are being created..."
Immediately, an apparition appeared in front of Chen Chen.
"Name: Chen Chen.
"Sex: Male.
"Age: 27.
"Race: T-virus modified human (scientific name: Tyrant).
"Alignment: Lawful evil.
"Attributes [3D6]: Strength 21 (non-human strength), Physique 24 (close to the vitality of a troll), Size 11 (standard human size), Agility 20 (more flexible than a cat), Appearance 10 (plain and average), Intelligence 18 (human limit), Perception 31 (perception only available to gods), Willpower 17 (close to the human limit).
"Occupation: Biologist, capitalist, secret manipulator, guardian of civilization.
"Professional skills [5D20]: Biology 95, Medicine 95, Psychology 77, Archaeology 12, Occult 10, Shooting 99, Reconnaissance 99, Listening 99, Fighting 65, Tracking 99, Defense 99.
"Special skills: Field power (Defense +99, Shooting +99, Reconnaissance +99, Listening +99, Tracking +99)."
Seeing this data, Chen Chen looked bewildered. What was this, a tabletop role-playing game?
However, before he could react, Chen Chen faintly saw another apparition moving. His opponent was less than two meters away beside him, like a black lump of meat, and in front of the meatball, there was also a character card—
"Name: Alosorthoth [newborn form].
"Gender: None.
"Age: 0.1.
"Race: ???
"Alignment: Chaotic evil.
"Attributes [3D6]: Strength 15 (you are as strong as a cow), Physique 35 (the vitality of a god), Size 10 (still a baby), Agility 5 (you move like a snail), Appearance 3 (aesthetic means nothing to you), Intelligence 5 (a pig is smarter than you), Perception 20 (you have an intuition that mortals don't), Willpower 30 (too-low IQ prevents your brain from working sharply).
"Occupation: None.
"Professional skills [5D20]: Defense 80, Mind Reading 99, Mind Devouring 99, Body Regeneration 99.
"Special skills: psionics (Mind Reading +99, Mind Swallowing +99)."
Seeing this weird character card, Chen Chen's pupils suddenly shrank.
What the h*ll was this? Was this the body of the monster that had come from beyond the skies?
Just when Chen Chen was shocked and uncertain, the loud voice came again. "'Consciousness Battlefield' is activated and the module is being created based on the character cards of both parties. Both candidates, please get ready...
"The dice system is starting...
Chen Chen only saw the light from the ball in front of him getting brighter and finally, he could not help but close his eyes...
"Hum..."
There was a soft sound in his ear and then Chen Chen only sensed that the light instantly softened again.
He tried opening his eyes, only to find that he was standing above a city.
The city below his feet was only about the size of a small city, with an area of no more than ten square kilometers. There were countless ruined farmhouses scattered throughout. In the center of the city, there was a small five- or six-story castle.
This seemed to be a desolate and run-down European medieval city.
"Module has been created..."
The mighty voice continued. "Both parties, please roll the dice to determine who moves first."
Chen Chen's heart jolted. He felt that a few cool objects had appeared in his right hand. He lifted his hand and saw that, as expected, five golden icosahedral dice were in his hand.
Chen Chen thought for a while. He raised his right hand, with the palm raised flat, and then opened his fist lightly.
"Clink, clink..."
After a few tinkling sounds, the five dice fell upon thin air and stopped immediately after rolling for a while.
"15, 6, 18, 1, 5, Candidate Chen Chen has rolled 45 points."
The voice continued. "Now, Alosorthoth, please roll the dice."
"Clink, clink..."
Chen Chen looked in all directions but did not see the figure of the Consciousness Stealer, only those five dice were thrown near him.
Furthermore, those five dice were all blood red.
"20, 19, 15, 20, 13!"
The voice continued to speak in a non-emotional voice, "Alosorthoth threw 87 points, Alosorthoth shall begin first!"
Chen Chen frowned slightly. Although he did not know what "begin first" meant, he knew those who threw more points must have an advantage.
Sure enough, the voice continued. "The module is about to start. Era: Middle Ages, region: William Castle, duration: 24 hours."
"Whoosh..."
It sounded like a gust of wind brushing past Chen Chen's ear and his vision turned blurry. When he regained his sight, he realized that he was standing in a room at the top of a castle.
What he saw was a place full of dilapidated, decayed furniture, walls filled with cracks, and a layer of dust half-a-finger thick.
The sunlight shone in through the extremely dirty glass and illuminated Chen Chen's body, inducing a sense of discomfort in Chen Chen.
"You're a vampire count."
Suddenly, that booming voice became a lot softer as if it was murmuring in Chen Chen's ears. "Today is the first day you wake up in the castle and the reason you woke up is that a group of adventurers had strayed into your territory. You don't know why they came. All you know is that you want to keep them here and use their flesh and blood to fill your growling stomach.
"Goal: Destroy the invaders and survive successfully. The most important thing is to find the most special adventurer as it'll be your most delicious dinner tonight..."
The voice disappeared quickly. It was only then that Chen Chen realized that he was able to move. He looked around in confusion, only to find that he was wearing a loose white shirt and there was even a circle of gorgeous lace around the cuffs and neckline of the shirt.
"Is this medieval European aristocratic dress?"
Chen Chen murmured in a low voice. He turned his head slowly but saw a line of footprints extending from the door to his feet.
"Those are my footprints."
Chen Chen immediately realized that. He turned around, followed his footsteps, and went downstairs step by step, heading down six floors until he came to the first-floor hall of the castle.
The hall looked huge, but all the furniture and decorations were covered with dust, and it had long been dilapidated. He did not know how many years it had been since anyone came here.
Chen Chen continued to look at the footprints but saw that his footprints led to the front of the fireplace and disappeared in that direction.
Chen Chen immediately wore a thoughtful look. He walked to the fireplace step by step, touched the inside, and expanded his Field at the same time.
Under the observation of the Field energy, he noticed something off at once. Namely, there was a slight gap in a brick next to the fireplace.
He touched the brick, then pushed it slightly!
"Rumble, rumble..."
There was a soft noise and the wall behind the fireplace slowly slid open, revealing a deep and dark passage behind it.
Chen Chen's Field energy continued to explore inward, only to find that the passage was in the shape of a circular stairway, extending to a depth of over 50 meters. Even the Field energy could not reach the bottom.
Seeing this, Chen Chen did not hesitate anymore. He went into the tunnel. After walking a few steps, the wall that had slid away closed again behind him and the entire passage became completely dark.
Still, this kind of darkness without any light source made no difference to Chen Chen. He used Field energy instead of his vision and walked down step by step.
After he went down to a depth of more than one hundred meters, finally, he came to a basement.
This basement was about 100 square meters, but there were no extra furnishings. Only in the center of the basement was there a solid wood coffin with a gold rim.
The lid of the coffin was opened and inside was a soft dent. In the soft dent was a dark box and nothing else.
Chen Chen took out the box and suddenly, a feeling of connection to his bloodline washed over him.
"This is..."
Chen Chen frowned. He seemed to have faintly understood something.
"Lich? Vampire?"
Chen Chen was a little puzzled. Castles, coffins, and Western nobles were all elements of vampires, yet this weird black box signified a lich in Dungeons and Dragons.
In D&D, the lich was a kind of undead creature. It was immortal and had extremely strong power. Its only weakness was its phylactery. As long as the phylactery was destroyed, the lich would die.
Now it seemed that Chen Chen had become a combination of lich and vampire.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen seemed to realize something. He took the black box and turned upstairs, but he had barely taken a few steps when unusual heart palpitations suddenly struck him. It seemed that if he continued to walk up, something bad would happen.
"Can't I take the phylactery away from here?"
Chen Chen had to walk back to the basement. He looked at the lines of footprints under his feet. With a sudden wave of his hand, endless dust rose and piled up in the corner of the basement. It was only then that Chen Chen could see the floor under his feet. There was a magic circle like a six-pointed star.
Now he understood...
Chen Chen fully grasped that this magic circle was closely related to him. If the phylactery was taken away, this magic circle would also lose its effect.
"In other words, this phylactery is the key to defeating me. It's forcibly placed here and isn't allowed to be taken away by me. What I have to do is not only find the group of intruders but also pay attention in protecting my phylactery..."
Thinking of this, Chen Chen could not help frowning. If he had not noticed the footprints before, he would have given those adventurers a chance to find this place.
Chen Chen thought for a while, then simply threw the phylactery back into the coffin. Following that, he waved his hand and the coffin lid that had been cast to the ground was placed back. After doing all this, he returned to the surface and walked out of the fireplace.
Looking at the footprints under his feet, Chen Chen activated Field again and all the dust in the hall on the first floor immediately flew out. The footprints leading to the fireplace had disappeared.
He was not done. Chen Chen went upstairs again, casting out all the dust layer by layer and soon, the entire castle was spotless. If it were not for the furniture that had been worn out and ruined, showing the traces of time, outsiders might still think that this was an inhabited castle.
Chen Chen returned to the position where he had awakened. This was the top floor observation deck of the castle, surrounded by glass windows, and this place was also the highest position in the entire city.
At this time, it seemed that it was already time for the sunset and the scorching sun had already turned dark red. At the same time, it was slowly sliding down toward the skyline.
The sunlight outside the window came in and this time, Chen Chen got that uncomfortable feeling again.
"Sure enough, vampires are afraid of the sun..."
Chen Chen thought for a while. He tried to crack the window open. Suddenly, a ray of sunlight shone on Chen Chen's arm, causing a sharp burning sensation in his arm.
Seeing this, Chen Chen closed the window again.
Now there was a string of blisters on his arm.
"It's ultraviolet light..."
Chen Chen immediately surmised. "Ultraviolet rays cannot penetrate the glass, so I'm not afraid of the sunlight coming through the windows, but once there are no windows, the ultraviolet rays will harm me."
Thinking of this, Chen Chen looked out the windows on all sides but saw that the far ends of the city were surrounded by a towering wall. At the same time, there were four gates, one each in the east, south, west, and north.
"Gates? Can they get out of here then?"
Chen Chen wore a thoughtful look. "The voice in the consciousness battlefield only told me that a group of adventurers broke into my territory and my task is to eliminate them and find the most special adventurer... In other words, the Consciousness Stealer is mixed in with that group of invaders? So, who are the other invaders, NPCs?
"The number of intruders is unknown, the situation outside the castle is unknown, the motives of the adventurers are unknown... It seems that I need more clues..."
Chapter 544: Rogue
Chen Chen's expression was uncertain. After thinking for a while, he turned, went downstairs, and walked into the shade.
Time trickled by in minutes and seconds. Chen Chen waited for a while and when he saw the sun gradually sink into the horizon and only a swathe of afterglow remained, he finally stepped out of the castle and went to the street.
The castle was kept a certain distance away from the surrounding buildings, encircled by a clearing without any shelter. The moat around the castle had long since dried up and was buried in the soil. Chen Chen could cross over with a single step.
Chen Chen stood in the open space outside the castle. He thought for a while and hovered up, but when he rose to a height of three stories, his head seemed to hit something with a "bang".
Chen Chen rubbed his head. He tried to reach above the top of his head, but only touched a cold, hard object.
Chen Chen's expression turned even more surprised. He tried to use the Field energy to extend upward. The Field energy surged at once but when his body tried going up, he bumped into an invisible boundary.
In other words, the only place where he could go higher than three floors was the inside of the castle.
Thus, Chen Chen only floated slightly above the height of the roof and then stopped rising. He started flying away from the front of the castle.
"Swish!"
The wind rushed by his ear, but Chen Chen's speed was not that fast because most of the buildings in the city were two or three stories high. To prevent hitting the buildings in front, he was forced to reduce his speed to less than 50 meters per second.
Although his speed could not be increased to supersonic speed, Chen Chen had arrived at the edge of the city in less than a minute. Meanwhile, a towering wall appeared in front of his eyes.
The wall was about 30 meters high and extended from in front of him to the end of his line of sight. This wall directly enclosed the entire city.
Unlike the run-down buildings in the city, this wall was made of some unknown material. Its entire surface was non-reflective and black, appearing to be extremely tough.
In the center of the wall, there was a steel gate of the same height. The gate was dark red and there was even a row of digital buttons on both sides of the gate.
Was this a combination lock?
Chen Chen's expression became even more astonished. Seeing a code lock in a medieval-style city was like seeing a group of knights wearing plate armor and not wielding a longsword but an AK each. It was too anachronistic.
Chen Chen did not think about the problem of the password. He tried to rise again to see what was behind the wall but when he rose to the height of the wall, he bumped into the invisible barrier again.
Erm...
Chen Chen suddenly understood that this space was sealed and everyone was only allowed to move within the scope of this space. No one was allowed to leave here by any means other than opening the gate.
This rule not only restricted Chen Chen but also restricted the group of people from leaving here.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen could not help looking mystified. According to the unique nature of this type of game, if one wanted to get the password to open the gate, one must solve a puzzle to do so, but the opponent's IQ was only 5...
Chen Chen once again recalled the character card that was created on the consciousness battlefield. There was a [3D6] hint in the attributes of the previous character. This digit could only be understood by those who had played tabletop role-playing games. It represented the value cast by three hexahedral dice. Among them, D meant dice and the preceding 3 meant that the number of dice was 3, and 6 meant that each dice was a hexahedron, which was the most common cube dice.
Due to this, the evaluation given to Chen Chen's IQ of 18 points was the "human limit" because the highest number of points that could be obtained by three hexahedral dice was only 18 points while the average value of a normal person was only 9 to 11 points.
The reason Chen Chen's other attributes could exceed 18 points was also that Chen Chen was not a normal human being, but a T-virus modified person.
The difference between these values was not as simple as 1+1 equals 2, but an exponential calculation method. Compared with a normal person's 11-point strength, the difference between that and Chen Chen's 21-point strength could be more than tenfold.
The higher the value, the greater the degree of difference.
If the character card produced by the consciousness battlefield was truly the real data of the character, then it would be more difficult for the Consciousness Stealer to solve the puzzle within 24 hours.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen immediately thought of a special ability of the other party — Mind Reading 99.
As the name suggested, mind reading was one of the abilities possessed by Consciousness Stealers. If it wanted to get the password or hide in the group of adventurers or acquire it from the minds of the adventurers, the 99 behind the skill represented the level of the skill.
Tabletop role-playing games were all the same. What this skill indicated was that the player would roll five dice with 20 faces each and the level number meant that as long as the sum of the points rolled by the five dice was lower than the skill level, the skill was successful. Otherwise, it would fail.
For example, Chen Chen's psychology was 77, so as long as the sum of the points of the five dice was less than 77, it would be considered a success. However, if it was greater than 77, the skill would fail.
In this way, the higher the level, the higher the chance of success and level 99 was the full level. The skill would only fail if one's luck was terrible to the extreme and a full 100 points were obtained by the dice.
His opponent's mind-reading skill was 99, which meant it was almost impossible to result in a failure.
In other words, maybe it could open the door in other ways such as mind-reading?
When Chen Chen was deducing this, the sky had turned completely dark and the entire city was plunged into darkness.
"That's not right..."
However, Chen Chen frowned because he found that the speed at which the sky was getting dark was too quick. With his brain power, he was certain that only about half an hour had passed since he had woken up all the way to the present, but time had seemed to be accelerated by three times.
Three times, was it?
Chen Chen secretly remembered this number. The task gave him 24 hours. If this was calculated at three times the speed of real-time, it meant that he had three nights to fulfill these goals. Each night was about three to four hours.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen had already figured out some patterns. He turned around again and looked into the city, only to see a light flashing by in a building not far away.
That was... The light of a candle!
Seeing this scene, Chen Chen's heart jolted. He rushed directly toward the building, and within a few seconds, he was outside the building!
"Patter patter..."
Suddenly, there were a few raucous footsteps in this two-story building, which sounded like someone fleeing.
"They noticed me?"
Chen Chen looked even more surprised. He rushed into the room directly through the window and stepped off his feet, jumping down the stairs like a dexterous cat. At once, a young man dressed in a black windbreaker, looking like an explorer, was seen blocking the gate.
This was a typical Western young man with a high nose, blond hair, and blue eyes, but his skin was slightly dark. At this moment, seeing Chen Chen standing in front of him, his pupils suddenly shrank and he turned around and ran inside the room without thinking.
Chen Chen observed this guy with great interest, only to notice that he was far superior to ordinary people in terms of decisiveness and agility. His skills were extraordinary.
However, faced with Chen Chen, this agile skill was futile. The guy had run into the room and wanted to escape through the window, but the next second, he felt an invisible force grabbing him and dragging him back in front of Chen Chen!
Seeing this, a ruthless look came into the eyes of the young man. He drew out a dagger at his waist and stabbed Chen Chen!
"Clang!"
There was a sharp impact sound. When the dagger in the young man's hand pierced toward Chen Chen, it was blocked by an invisible barrier and a loud sound erupted at the same time.
"Attacked by a dagger, determining the decision to defend... The decision to defend was successful!"
At the moment when the opponent attacked Chen Chen, Chen Chen suddenly heard the loud voice from before and at the same time, there was a clinking sound of landing dice as if someone was rolling dice. After that, there was a notification of a successful defense.
Chen Chen listened to the noises in his mind while he waved one hand and the dagger flew out of the guy's hand!
The young man only felt an irrepressible force wrench the dagger away from his hand. At the same time, a cold hand was directly clasped around his neck!
"Do you want to live or die?"
Chen Chen calmly gripped his neck and asked in a low voice, "If you want to live, you must answer my question."
Feeling the terrible power contained in Chen Chen's grip, the young man scrabbled at Chen Chen's arm and his face flushed. He nodded quickly.
Chen Chen released his hand. The young man at once squatted and covered his throat, coughing heavily.
Chen Chen waited slowly. When the other party had recovered, he asked indifferently, "Who are you?"
"We, we're explorers from the Principality of Assadin..."
The young man lowered his head in fear and said softly, "We accepted the commission of the mercenary union, to come here to find the treasure of Dulles Chen, the vampire count..."
Dulles Chen, was that himself?
Chen Chen's heart leaped and meanwhile, he stared at the man with an unfathomable look.
"Using the skill of psychology, determining use of skill... Psychology is used successfully!"
In the next second, there was another jingling sound by his ear and at the same time, Chen Chen also developed a kind of comprehension that the two lines the man said were not false.
"The Principality of Assadin, the mercenary union..."
Chen Chen paced slowly in front of the opponent. "Treasure hunting? I think you still have the task of destroying me, right?"
Hearing this, the young man immediately lowered his head and fell silent.
"How many people are there and how strong are you?"
Chen Chen then asked.
"We have four teams with twenty people in total..."
The youth immediately replied, "The strength of the other team members is unknown. I only know that there are five people in my team. Besides me, there are two paladins, a wizard, and a priest... Our captain is the paladin, Julius!"
"Paladin? Wizard?"
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and scanned the young man before him again. "Are you a ranger or a rogue?"
"Your Excellency, I'm the rogue, Gil Cedric the rogue."
Chen Chen nodded and then continued to ask, "Are you familiar with the rest of them?"
"I'm not very familiar with them. We were all commissioned by the mercenary union to form a temporary team."
The young man suddenly added. "By the way, Your Excellency, the two Paladins came together. They have the ability to protect against evil and are a great threat to you!"
"Oh?"
Chen Chen secretly memorized these words in his heart and then asked again, "Do the other teams have the same configuration?"
"It's almost the same..."
The youth nodded.
"Have you ever seen a strange person in your team or other teams?"
After thinking about it, Chen Chen finally asked, "For example, his intelligence isn't that high or he looks strange or something?"
"This..."
The young man shook his head blankly. "I'm not sure about this because I only met the other teams once before I came to Wasteland City."
"Wasteland City?"
Chen Chen muttered in a low voice and gradually fell into contemplation.
"Your Excellency, please, please forgive my offense..."
Seeing Chen Chen sinking into thought, the young man gritted his teeth, trying to fight for his last chance at life. "As long as you let me go, I'm willing to leave this place now..."
However, before he finished speaking, Chen Chen suddenly raised his hand. In the next second, the young man was slammed backward as if he was hit by some massive blow and his body directly hit the wall behind!
"Boom!"
The entire building seemed to tremble and a scattering of soil fell from the ceiling. At the same time, blood was splashed all over the place and the young man was reduced to a pulp on the wall behind him...
"Not this one..."
Without even looking at the other party's body, Chen Chen shook his head and stared out the window thoughtfully. "Sure enough, it's a Western Fantasy module similar to D&D. It even has classes such as Paladins and Wizards. So, the ones I'm facing aren't just ordinary people?"
Thinking of this, Chen Chen's Field directly swept the entire house and in the next second, he immediately detected a locked room upstairs.
Chen Chen went upstairs again and walked to the door of that room, only to see that the door lock of the room showed many traces of damage and these traces were very new. It was the young man's handiwork earlier.
It looked like he had used a candle for lighting and wanted to open the door, but eventually, he was discovered by Chen Chen?
Thinking of this, Chen Chen's Field energy extended immediately, turning into a thin line as it fitted into the keyhole of the door. In the next second, there was a click and the door lock opened in response.
Chen Chen used Field to protect himself while gently pushing open the door, only to see that the room was empty, with only one iron box placed in the corner of the walls.
This was...
Chen Chen waved his hand and the iron box in the corner suddenly opened, revealing a piece of yellowed cloth inside.
Chen Chen unrolled the cloth and saw a map layout on the cloth.
The map showed the city where Chen Chen was located and the drawing was fairly detailed. Every street and every house were marked and in the center of the map, a large circle had been drawn with a red pen.
This circle was the location of Chen Chen's castle.
This was a prop for the group of adventurers!
Chapter 545: Hunting Game
With Chen Chen's memory ability, he imprinted the entire map in his mind in just a few seconds. Then, he tore the map to confetti before continuing to search for traces of other people.
"Since my opponents aren't ordinary people, then my strategy has to change..."
Chen Chen left the house. He expanded his Field to the maximum and scanned for any clues within a radius of 50 meters. At present, it seemed that if he wanted to win the consciousness battlefield, he must kill all the invaders and find the Consciousness Stealer.
However, his opponents were not necessarily good people as well. Based on the skills of that rogue earlier, these people would not just be sitting ducks but have their own prowess.
Silently thinking about all this, Chen Chen lifted off again and began to patrol the entire sky.
The area of the entire Wasteland City was about ten square kilometers and the map showed it was a square city, which meant that the city had a side length of 3.3 kilometers. At Chen Chen's current speed, it took about an hour and a half for him to do a thorough sweep. However, the main thing was that this group of people might not just be hiding in one fixed place, so it became more difficult to search for them.
Chen Chen felt that he still had to begin with these intruders.
"Whoosh!"
Thinking of this, Chen Chen flew right up. He wandered a little bit over the city, scanning every house he passed. With the power of Field energy, it was very simple to do this kind of thing and his total Field energy nowadays could sustain such activity as long as it was not a highly vigorous use of Field.
Soon, when Chen Chen was scanning a house, his heart suddenly leaped. Although he did not see anyone else, he found another yellowed tin box.
Chen Chen waved with one hand and the iron box flew out from the gap in the iron window grille and into Chen Chen's hands.
This iron box was not as splendidly decorated as the previous one. Chen Chen thought for a while then started by wrapping Field around the iron box before he slowly opened it.
There was no mechanism in the iron box. Instead, there was a simple glass bottle half-filled with some purple potion.
"What is this..."
Chen Chen frowned. He opened the lid and sniffed it lightly, detecting an ink-like smell. Could it be that this was a bottle of ink?
Nonetheless, there was no description on this bottle of potion and Chen Chen was not certain what this bottle of potion was.
Perhaps only those invaders with their D&D background could identify this potion.
Chen Chen casually put the potion into his pocket and then continued his sweep. Soon, in a house, he found a trap in the form of two stone bricks.
He recognized this was a trap because one of the stone bricks had weird patterns on it while the other stone brick had rows of spikes.
Chen Chen tried to put the palm of his hand on the stone brick with weird patterns. Under this pressure, the spikes on the other stone brick immediately flew out, whistling harshly as they pierced the wall on the other side.
Chen Chen's eyes lit up. He collected all the spikes and pressed them back into the hole of the second stone brick, only to see that the lines on the first stone brick had become a little dim, but it still contained some energy. Maybe it could be used one more time.
A spell trap?
Such a term flashed in Chen Chen's mind.
Chen Chen collected these two stone bricks as well and resumed his inspection.
Ten minutes later, Chen Chen found a longsword.
This time, the place where he found this sword was just a very simple firewood shack. This shack was located in the space between two mansions. If he did not pay attention, he might even have overlooked the existence of this firewood shack. The box containing the sword was also very ordinary, much more ordinary than the first two boxes he found, but this iron box had an iron lock that the iron boxes before did not have.
When Chen Chen penetrated deep into the lock of the box, he immediately found that the lock of this iron box was extremely complicated. It was likely that even professionals would need to spend a lot of effort to crack it. Upon opening the box, he saw the long handle of the sword inside.
Like the iron box in which it was contained, this longsword was also very ordinary, without any embellishing patterns, just a simple blade and black handle. It even appeared to be inferior to the ordinary iron swords that had not been ground on Taobao.
However, when he saw this sword, Chen Chen frowned because he felt a mysterious burning sensation emanating from the sword.
Chen Chen landed into the room and tried to grasp the hilt, but the next second, a piercing heat stung him. This scorching pain even exceeded the time when he was exposed to the sun and at the same time, Chen Chen's consciousness also became blurry.
"Clatter!"
The iron sword slid from Chen Chen's hand and stabbed into the wooden floor with a "clang".
Chen Chen looked a little anguished. He opened his right hand but saw that the palm of his hand had been burned and blistered. The rotten meat on his hand was constantly giving off white smoke as if what he had just grasped was a red hot soldering iron.
"This sword is strange..."
Chen Chen pulled back his palm and tried to use the Field energy to enclose this longsword, but was even more shocked to discover that even Field energy dissipated when it touched the longsword. Chen Chen could not wield this item at all.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen's expression became gloomier. He picked up the iron box, put it over the sword, and scooped the sword back in, then buried the iron box into the ground.
After doing all this, Chen Chen waved one hand to smooth out the traces of the burying. He was about to leave but suddenly stopped because his Field energy detected that two humans had entered his sensing range.
They were heading in this direction...
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows and immediately slipped into the building next to him. He wanted to find out how they noticed there was movement here, but when they were about 40 meters away in Chen Chen's range, the two of them halted at the same time!
Just when Chen Chen was puzzled, the two suddenly spun around, then scattered without hesitation, and fled in two directions!
Had Chen Chen been discovered?
Chen Chen looked even more astounded. He stopped hiding but chased one of them. With the power of the Field energy, the opponent could only run away for a few seconds before Chen Chen caught up!
It was not until then that Chen Chen could see that the one he was chasing was a girl in a cloak holding a wooden staff!
Wizard?
This word flashed in Chen Chen's mind. Both the attire and the wooden staff resembled wizards in movies and Chen Chen had already obtained some data from the young rogue, so he had a flash of realization now.
"O—K—G!"
However, as Chen Chen swiftly approached her, there was a glint of perseverance in the girl's eyes. She turned around and uttered a phrase of unknown meaning. At the same time, she raised the staff in her hand and aimed the top of the staff at Chen Chen.
Suddenly, an inexplicable spatial fluctuation rushed over him. Chen Chen had never felt this kind of fluctuation but he did not evade it. Instead, he gathered a large amount of Field energy to form an invisible barrier in front of him.
He was going to test the opponent's strength with his strongest defense!
Although it might be easier for Chen Chen to dodge, he was now facing unfamiliar forces after all, and the total number of opponents exceeded 20. If they besieged him at once, he was afraid it would be difficult for him to evade them all. Instead of doing so, it was better to test out his opponent when they were alone, to better understand their abilities.
These thoughts zipped through Chen Chen's mind. In the next second, a blazing white firelight flared up at the top of the staff and at the same time, seven or eight rays of light surged directly toward Chen Chen!
"Arcane Missile!"
Just as these rays of light struck Chen Chen, the girl on the other side also called out the name of this spell!
In the next second, Chen Chen only felt that his Field was corroded by those few streaks of flame, resulting in a few big holes. However, each one only burrowed a few centimeters forward before exhausting its energy and was extinguished.
This was...
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows. Although the thrusting force of this fire was lacking, its might was extremely impressive. Each ray was comparable to the power of an anti-material sniper rifle. Even so, it was a pipe dream for them to penetrate his own barrier. Now, the power of Field energy was simply not something this person could break through.
Thinking of this, he was about to crush his opponent to death but suddenly, there was a wave of fluctuations behind him. A faintly discernible phantom emerged from behind him while stabbing a dagger toward the middle of his back!
"Huh?"
Chen Chen looked even more puzzled. He abruptly turned around and at the same time, seized the opponent's dagger in the palm of his hand with a backhand. Only then did he see this opponent. This person was completely dark as if he were a shadow!
Seeing that his fatal blow was fended off by Chen Chen, this dark shadow was also startled, but his reaction was extremely quick. He immediately gave up the dagger and leaped back again. He suddenly melted into the dark shadows around him, vanishing right in the perception of Chen Chen's Field!
"So, you can blend into the shadows?"
Chen Chen squeezed furiously and there was a nauseating snap. Chen Chen had pinched the dagger into broken strands. Then, he stretched out his hand again and gestured, and the girl in the wizard robe flew toward Chen Chen at once!
"R—U—A!"
While she was still in the air, the girl hurriedly spoke again, but before she finished her words, she suddenly felt something bulky and invisible stuffed into her mouth, choking off all her remaining words!
"Ugh..."
The girl suddenly widened her eyes. She did not understand what was stuffed in her mouth, but she felt her throat swell and widen uncontrollably, and even her breathing was blocked!
"Save, save me..."
The girl's throat was swollen until tears and snot were streaming over her face. She looked desperately at the shadows around her as if praying to the shadow man for help!
"Let her go!"
Suddenly, the shadow man loomed out of the darkness at Chen Chen's bottom right and at the same time, with a decisive stroke, he aimed a dagger directly at Chen Chen's waist...
"Clang!"
Still, this time, Chen Chen had long been prepared. The man only pierced into an unseen barrier but he could not go any further!
"Bang, splat!"
Immediately, there was a sound of a watermelon bursting and rupturing. The shadow man looked back blankly, only to see the girl's head exploding, with red and white stuff splashing all over her body!
"Thump!"
The headless body of the girl dropped directly to her knees and the nerves of her body twitched unconsciously because of the loss of the brain center...
"Argh—!"
The shadow man suddenly unleashed a desperate roar, but in the next second, Chen Chen directly raised his hand and pressed it on his head, then pushed viciously!
"Plop!"
The shadow man's snarl was cut off immediately, for Chen Chen had pushed his head into his chest cavity...
"The toughness and strength of his body are beyond that of human beings in reality..."
As if finishing a trivial task, Chen Chen shook off the blood on his hand and thought aloud in a low voice, "This is probably the factor of physique. These adventurers with magical backgrounds have physique and strength that surpass modern people, but not by much... Maybe because these two aren't capable enough... But their skills are peculiar indeed. If it weren't for my Field power, I'm afraid it'd take me a lot of effort to kill them..."
Just as Chen Chen was thinking about this, he suddenly sensed that three more silhouettes were approaching on the right front and at the same time, five figures had appeared on the left!
"Eight people?"
Chen Chen's expression shifted because he sensed that when they were about 40 meters away from him, everyone suddenly paused. Then, as if someone had said something, the team of five continued approaching whereas the team of three on the other side stopped for a few seconds before making their way here at a lower speed.
"It seems that everyone can sense my presence when they are 40 meters away from me? To fight or not to fight?"
Being cautious by nature, Chen Chen had already noticed that when facing this group of adventurers, he did not seem to have the power to fully crush them easily, especially when there were too many opponents.
Chen Chen wore a thoughtful look, but after thinking about it for half a second, he quickly backed away, and then left the scene...
After going off for fifty or sixty meters, he only heard an angry roar from the area where he was fighting earlier. Someone from the eight people knew the two who were killed.
"Don't worry, it'll be your turn soon..."
Chen Chen smirked icily and then hurried toward the castle.
At this time, more than an hour had passed since the beginning. Anyone with the intention to do so might have come close to the location of the castle and Chen Chen dared not claim that this group of NPCs with magical abilities would not have the ability to find the fireplace tunnel.
A few minutes later, Chen Chen hurried back to the castle. The moment he entered the castle, his Field was fully activated, scanning everything in the hall like a radar, but he found nothing.
The wooden gate of the castle had decayed and collapsed for some reason, so the castle was, strictly speaking, defenseless, and anyone could enter. Chen Chen was afraid that he would fall into the encirclement of his opponents when he entered the castle.
However, it seemed that no one had entered this place for the time being.
In this case, Chen Chen looked at his feet and then he pried out a floor brick at the entrance of the castle, put the brick with runes below, and then re-laid the previous floor brick. As for the brick capable of shooting out spikes, Chen Chen hung it directly on the ceiling directly above the first brick.
In this way, if someone entered the castle and stepped on this, they would immediately be taught a harsh lesson by the spikes.
"It's a pity I couldn't bring in my nano poker cards."
Chen Chen shook his head. If his poker cards could be brought into the consciousness battlefield, he would have been invincible even against the gods by now. Unless it was the Consciousness Stealer who had the same defensive ability, the wizards and rogues would be practically defenseless before him. They would have no ability to sense his attacks.
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