Who is the Missing Person?

Arnold instantly felt a chill down his spine and began counting on his fingers.

"Clark, don't scare me like this..." he said.

Clark didn't respond, intending to make Arnold think for a moment. He first picked up the shattered remains of the mutant on the ground and then reached out to touch the cracked blood cocoon.

As expected, a system prompt sounded.

"Ding, obtained ?? corpse."

"Ding, obtained special item: Blood (damaged)."

"Item grade: White (common)."

"Item effect: Blood cocoon imbued with vitality can preserve the fading life force of the wounded, prolonging life."

It was a kind of life-extending item. Quite practical. In the future, if they encountered someone seriously injured, they could put them inside and buy some time for rescue.

Unexpectedly, The Bloody Witch, a monster in the midst of transformation, who enjoyed tormenting humans and committing murder, was specializing in dropping such healing items. It was rather intriguing.

While Arnold was still nervously trying to figure out who wasn't human, Clark decided to open his player panel and take stock of the recent acquisitions.

"Character information: Clark (1st Tier Awakened, Player Level: 1)"

"Next Player Level (1/4), Next Awakened Tier (1/16)"

"Strength: 23.4"

"Agility: 19.4"

"Constitution: 19.4"

"Willpower: 19.8"

"Equipment: [Ring of Apocalypse (Black Special)] [Hand of the Soul (Orange Epic)]"

"Items: [Bloodstone 3/3 White Common] [Blood 1/1 White Common] [Giant Extract (Elixir) *12] [Snake Venom Purification Solution (Elixir) *12] [Deadly Spirit Plant *1] [The Licker Vertebra *2]"

"Inventory: [Military Rations *4] [Drinking Water *5] [Energy Bar *1] [The Licker Corpse *2] [?? Corpse Remnants *1]"

"Awakened Talent: S-rank Talent - Power Surge"

Equipment Skill: B-rank Soul Shriek (1/1)

"1st Tier: All Attributes +4 (The maximum values for ordinary humans are 10.)"

Savior Template Skill: Eye of Judgment

"Savior Mission Information 1: Kill a 2nd Tier mutant [The Stitcher]."

"Mission Level: Dangerous!"

"Mission Deadline: 240 hours (83 hours remaining)."

"Mission Reward: 3 Anti-Zombie Virus Serums (Clears the zombie virus from the body)."

"Savior Mission Information 2: Recruit 5 team members (30-day limit), Current Progress (2/5)."

"Mission Reward: Doomsday Base Vehicle (Initial)."

Contract Partner: S-rank [Abyssal Black Dragon] (Petrified and in a state of slumber)

Clark nodded in satisfaction. His current attributes were close to the limits of the 1st Tier. All his attributes were approaching 2nd Tier levels, and his Strength attribute even surpassed the 1st Tier. If there were rankings for combat power half a year from now, he would likely be the number one in HX Country!

Doomsday equipment, epic-grade equipment, and an S-rank Black Dragon. Any one of these would make other players and factions green with envy, driving countless people into madness. Anyone who could obtain one of them would undoubtedly become a regional overlord!

Especially the S-rank Black Dragon, which was arguably Clark's biggest trump card. He glanced at the snake-shaped stone carving on his wrist and sighed lightly.

It was a pity that he didn't know when the Black Dragon would awaken and break free from its petrified state. Otherwise, having a top-tier 2nd Tier powerhouse by his side, as long as they didn't encounter 3rd Tier mutants, would be a walk in the park at this stage.

At the same time, the countdown in the Savior mission was reminding Clark. There were only 83 hours left to kill [The Stitcher]. After dealing with matters today, he would have to rush to the WD Plaza.

Fortunately, his current strength was much stronger than he had expected. He had a good chance of taking down [The Stitcher] next. With his current strength, plus Arnold and Lynn, they had enough confidence to succeed. He just didn't know how Viola and Dirk were doing now.

Clark thought of the helpless look on the little girl that night, and his heart couldn't help but ache. "Brother, Viola. I'll be back soon..."

"Clark... are you okay?"

"Clark, don't scare me like this!" 

Clark felt like he had heard this phrase many times before...

Arnold watched Clark nervously, alternating between laughing and looking sad, unable to help feeling anxious. The room they were in was rather unsettling. There were two short figures at the door, bloody and eerie cocoons in the corners, a floor scattered with debris and blood, and dimly flickering candles all around.

On the bed lay an unconscious girl, giving the room the appearance of a cult ritual scene. If an ordinary person walked in, they might faint on the spot.

Especially considering what Clark had just told him, Arnold couldn't figure out what was going on, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.

Clark patted Arnold's shoulder with a strange expression, indicating that he didn't need to be afraid. He couldn't believe how different Arnold was on the inside compared to his appearance.

"Do you still remember the bandaged girl you brought back?" Clark didn't want to tease him any further and asked directly.

"I remember! She looked a lot like my sister!" Arnold replied.

Clark fell silent for a moment. It made sense why Arnold had saved the girl.

"Continuing from what we just discussed. In my memory, there were 26 people present, including the bandaged girl."

"At the beginning, there were 33 people in the hotel. The fact that the monster could say there were 25 survivors means it knew how many people I had killed before, rather than just randomly guessing."

"But I never interacted with the bandaged girl; I treated her as a living person. Yet when the monster pretended to be me, it only mentioned 25 people. That exposed its true identity."

"It doesn't see things the way I do," Clark said as he walked out the door, with Arnold following him in a state of fear and trepidation. He couldn't help but ask, "What does this mean then? Is the monster just stupid?"

"No, it's highly likely that it simply instinctively overlooked one 'person,' and there's a good chance that something about the bandaged girl is off. Either she's already dead, but I don't know it, or she's not human at all!" Clark explained.