Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 16 Resident Evil
Niu Baiwan was much more cautious about this task than I thought. In addition to me and Nocturne in B-flat Minor, he invited other people to help—not one, but two.
None of us was surprised by the arrival of the elven druid girl "Fairy Descends to Earth on her face". According to reliable gossip, Niu Baiwan and Fairy Descends to Earth have been in close contact recently, often traveling together and adventuring together, and getting along very well. And for us, a versatile person who has long-range magic killing ability, good close combat ability after transformation, and can use many natural recovery spells can only be beneficial to this adventure.
But the appearance of the half-orc warlock Ding Ding Xiaoge made me feel a little puzzled. Such a green-skinned guy who is seriously affected by the curse of "stuck", slow in speed and slow in reaction, no matter how high his level is, is just a meat target to be chased and hacked here - and it is a fixed meat target without any challenge at all .
But soon, the performance of the half-orc warlock dispelled my doubts. His movements were unexpectedly agile and natural, without any signs of delay when I met him before. But despite this, his movements still looked a little strange, for example: he turned around before reaching the intersection and almost fell headfirst into the wall; or when he was five or six steps away from us, he stopped far away and said "Sorry to have kept you waiting" in a voice that we could hardly hear, and only came to his senses a moment later and walked forward to our side again.
"What are you doing standing over there? Acting sneaky from such a distance." Nocturne in B flat minor asked him curiously.
"I'm used to the stuck network line. I always feel that I have to do everything in advance during the delay. I can't get used to it for a while." Ding Ding Xiaoge said shyly, but without taking a breath - this is completely different from the situation before when he always spoke slowly like singing a lullaby. I guess this is also the sequelae of being affected by the "network delay" for a long time.
"Why isn't it stuck today?" Niu Baiwan was also very interested in the abnormal behavior of the Orc Warlock.
"Now that I'm on vacation, I can surf the Internet in an Internet cafe..." Ding Ding Xiaoge said quickly.
After all the people were gathered, Niu Baiwan began to introduce to us the task that had troubled him for a whole day.
This is a series of tasks: First, the human officer Major Gutierrez guarding the gate of the outpost will tell us that they have received news that a messenger from the Doomsday Empire is coming from the Umbrian Valley with a secret letter to be delivered to the Great Lich Mackenskar. The major believes that this secret letter records the next battle plan of the Doomsday Empire Army, which is related to the war situation on the front line. He begs us to stop this messenger at all costs and never let him deliver the secret letter to the Great Lich.
Then Niu Baiwan led us to a fork in a jungle trail and ambushed us. A few minutes later, a vampire messenger of only level 45 passed by in a hurry and was blocked by us. Any one of the five of us was sure to knock down such a small fry, not to mention that we were five against one. The messenger didn't even have time to scream before we killed him cleanly and neatly, and then we found the secret letter on his body.
When Major Gutierrez saw the secret letter, his face suddenly changed. It turned out that the letter not only recorded the recent troop movements of the Doomsday Empire Army, but also revealed a terrifying secret: the Doomsday Empire Army was developing a new type of toxin called "Life Corruptor". This terrible toxin would infect through wounds and cause the infected creatures to lose their lives in a short period of time, transforming them into ferocious and bloodthirsty undeads, and attacking all creatures they could encounter. The base for developing this toxin was near the Sitvinia Lowlands.
We all know that the creation of an undead must meet three conditions: first, the deceased must leave behind a well-preserved complete corpse - at least the bones must be intact (so, rats and many scavengers are the mortal enemies of the undead, which is different from what many people imagine); second, his soul is cursed deeply and cannot be redeemed; third, he has great resentment and anger towards life, and a strong desire for revenge.
Furthermore, even if all three of the above conditions are met, these dead people have less than a 50% chance of waking up from their eternal sleep and becoming a corrupted being who escapes death.
The situation changed only when the great lich Mackenskar appeared. This great lich who was proficient in soul science might not be the most evil lich in history, but he was definitely the greatest necromancer in history. He completely broke the natural law of the birth of the undead. With his powerful magic, he could transform ordinary corpses into corrupted ones, and make the revived corrupted ones more intelligent and loyal. He almost single- handedly created the army of corrupted ones that once swept across the Falvi continent, and became one of the most capable assistants under the last king Darendil.
This toxin is even more powerful than the magic power of the Great Lich. Not only is it highly toxic, but it can also be transmitted multiple times. If a healthy person is injured by an infected attack - even if it is just a small wound like a scratch on the skin - it is possible to be infected by this toxin, and sooner or later they will transform into an accomplice of the Great Lich. Perhaps the souls of the corrupted people produced in this way are more incomplete and cannot have high wisdom, but their greed for the flesh and blood of the living will make them the most crazy killers.
You can imagine that if even one person in a city is infected with this toxin, it is possible that it will spread to ten people, and then to a hundred people. Perhaps overnight, your parents, wife, and children will all turn into cannibalistic ghouls, tearing you into pieces in your sleep and using your flesh and blood to fill their stomachs that can never be filled; or perhaps you are infected, and then you will warmly invite those strangers who are like you to share the liver and brain of your loved ones - and at this time you will not even feel sad, because you are just a corpse, a decayed person who has lost all souls and knows only hunger and greed.
I couldn't help but secretly feel lucky: Fortunately... Fortunately, we intercepted this secret letter in time and got this terrible news; Fortunately, this toxin is still under development and we can still stop it; Fortunately, everything is not too late, and the world has not turned into an irredeemable hell on earth; Fortunately...
No matter what words I use to express my gratitude at this moment, it will never be excessive. This is simply a rebirth bestowed by the Supreme God on the people of the entire continent, giving us the opportunity to survive this devastating disaster.
"Recently, the number of Corrupted Ones wandering around has suddenly increased, and their actions are also very strange. I guess this is related to this incident. Bring me back a few fresh Corrupted Ones' hearts, warriors of the continent, we must work out a countermeasure as soon as possible." After pondering for a moment, Major Gutierrez gave us another task.
Just as the major said, there were many "bloodthirsty zombies" gathered near the outpost. It was obvious that they had just become corrupted not long ago. The pieces of unrotten, corpse-spotted rotten flesh hanging on their bodies and the yellow pus flowing from their feet showed that they were still "fresh" and not "senior" undead who had been revived for a long time.
Compared to the undead warriors we encountered before, these guys moved more slowly. Usually only half of their bodies could be used, while the other half could only be dragged along. Their movements were stiff and their reactions were slow, as if they were all paralyzed patients when they were alive.
However, although these zombies move slowly, their strength far exceeds that of ordinary undead. Although they are just bare-handed, they can cause hundreds of points of damage to you with just a slap, and their defense is also amazingly high. Moreover, because they have completely lost consciousness, they are even more ferocious and brutal. They completely ignore your attacks and don't care about the pain of swords and knives. Their souls are completely filled with a crazy desire for killing. The whole meaning of their existence is to tear all living things in front of them into pieces. Apart from this, they know nothing else.
The most annoying thing is that these special zombies constantly emit a layer of green poisonous fog. As long as you get close to this poisonous fog, your vitality will continue to drain away.
And when they are completely dead, their decayed corpses will be controlled by magic and suddenly explode, causing nearby creatures to suffer severe blast attacks and be corroded by more powerful toxins, resulting in a large loss of life in a short period of time.
At the beginning, these disgusting pieces of rotten flesh did cause us a lot of trouble: many times we had knocked down the enemy, but were seriously injured by their corpses when they exploded without any precautions. But soon, we learned enough lessons. Every time we knocked down a zombie, we would immediately run to a safe distance, wait until his corpse exploded and the poisonous fog dissipated, and then come back to pick out his heart.
When the most powerful skill, "Corpse Explosion", lost its effect, these slow-moving and brainless zombies could no longer threaten us. Just after noon, we handed over a sufficient number of zombie hearts to Major Gutierrez.
The major did not keep the hearts, but asked us to give them to Mr. Wagner, the military pharmacist stationed at the outpost, for research. Niu Baiwan led us to a tent on the north side of the outpost. Mr. Wagner was a thin middle-aged man with a high nose bridge, dry yellow hair, and deep eye sockets. He seemed a little listless.
But when we explained our purpose and placed the heart specimen on his desk, this originally mentally exhausted middle-aged man immediately seemed to have changed into a different person. His tired look was gone, his eyes gleamed with excitement, and he looked in high spirits.
"Are you telling the truth?" He stood up, held up a heart in his hands, and examined it carefully in the sunlight outside the tent. I didn't know if it was an illusion, but the heart in the pharmacist's hands seemed to be beating non-stop, squeezing out the remaining blood and rotten juice in the heart cavity.
"Ah..." The fairy cried softly as she fell face down on the ground. She tightly grasped Niu Baiwan's arm with her right hand, wishing she could bury her entire head in his armpit. She still desperately covered her face with her left hand and said in a trembling voice, "...Brother Niu, this person is so perverted, so scary..."
What puzzled me was that, although she had covered her face, her eyes were still visible from between her fingers, and they were wide open, as if she was afraid of missing any detail.
"Don't be afraid... I'll take over this mission. He was like this the last time I came here. I'm used to it." Niu Baiwan's words sounded heroic, but his actions were completely different. He curled up behind the dwarf bard Nocturne in B-flat Minor, with his hands on his shoulders, trembling constantly, as if he was ready to push him out and escape at any time.
I think it's a normal reaction for a person to subconsciously want to hide behind someone else when he's scared, but I really don't think it would be of any practical use for a minotaur to hide behind a dwarf - well... even if he sticks his butt out!
It is hard for me to admit that I am a coward. In fact, I personally took many of these hearts out of zombies. But I know that I definitely don't have the courage to hold these rotten lumps of flesh in my hands and play with them carefully like this weak pharmacist. In the eyes of this pharmacist, I did not see the instinctive fear of death. Instead, I even felt that his eyes were full of excitement and enthusiasm, as if what he was holding in his hands was not a piece of rotten meat full of toxins, but a fine work of art. The pharmacist's morbid and enthusiastic eyes actually made me feel a little chilled, and I dared not look directly at him.
In this world, there are many talented geniuses who can achieve outstanding achievements in their respective fields, far surpassing others and even surpassing the times in which they live.
However, it is precisely because their extraordinary wisdom has reached the pinnacle of the world, and nothing can stop their thoughts and vision, that they have gone from self-confidence to arrogance, becoming extremely paranoid in their respective fields. They think they can control and change everything, and thus lose respect and awe for the world, so that they go further and further on the wrong path, and eventually bring disaster to the entire continent.
Great geniuses rarely make mistakes, but when they do, they are devastating and irreversible.
All of this is how Mr. Wagner's gaze made me feel. For some reason, I had a strong feeling that sending these heart specimens to him might not be the right choice...
Mr. Wagner did not give me time to regret. He deftly cut a small, almost transparent slice from a heart and put it into a strange instrument on the table. He then sprinkled some unknown blue powder into it, closed the lid, injected magic power into the magic crystal above the instrument, and started the instrument.
The instrument immediately vibrated slightly, and soon, an eerie blue light scattered from the instrument, followed by a sad red light separating from the blue light, and then another pale beam of light shot out. Although it was just a ray of light, I felt a chill all over my body and a cold air came out of my throat just by looking at it.
"This is really interesting!" After the experiment, Mr. Wagner took out the heart from the instrument, carefully placed it in a crystal container, and then hid it in a box. "Major Gutierrez guessed right. I separated some special toxins from these specimens..."
"...I have to say that the person who invented them is really a genius. This is a perfect combination of necromancy, blood magic, and soul magic. What's even more wonderful is that this toxin itself is alive. These guys are not animals, nor are they plants. They are more like some kind of fungus. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Unfortunately, they are not yet finished and there are still some flaws in their survival period. However, I think I can...well, I mean, I can make you some potions that can inhibit this toxin first. I think you will need it."
"Okay, go tell the major the news, and you can come and get the anti-toxin later. Before that, I have to do some more research...well, I mean I need to rest for a while." As he said that, Mr. Wagner sat on the edge of the bed and motioned for us to leave.
The pale man called the toxin "the most beautiful thing", which gave me goose bumps. And the unnatural way he hesitated when speaking also made me suspicious. However, now is not the time to think about these questions. The Doomsday Empire is constantly improving this terrible toxin. We must stop them - the sooner the better!
Once again, we found Major Gutierrez and told him what Mr. Wagner said. The major looked serious. He told us that there was a castle called "Stone Fortress" in the southwest of the outpost. It was originally the camp of the Alliance Army, but was later occupied by the Imperial invaders. A scout reported that there were many abnormalities in the castle, and he suspected that the base for the Doomsday Empire to produce toxins was built in that castle.
"However, a group of brutal and cunning corrupt people are entrenched on the only road leading to the castle, and no one knows where they come from. They are numerous and powerful, and anyone passing through there will be ruthlessly killed. You'd better ask Chief Hondos for help and assist him in opening this road." The major said to us, "Remember, our time is very tight..."
Oh, as much as I don't like it, it seems we have to deal with the green monster who became the commander - hey, Tintin Xiaoge, I'm not mocking you - anyway, a half-orc who becomes a human commander always gives people a weird feeling.
"You mean, you want to kill those bastards wandering around?" Hearing our request, Chief Hondos widened his eyes and stared at us unfriendly, speaking in a voice as loud as thunder, "We are planning to do so. You know, this is our business, and you don't need to interfere! Those bastards are mine, understand?"
"But..." At this point, the Orc Chieftain changed the subject, "...Since you want to go over there, I don't mind you coming with me to take a look. But remember, no one of you is allowed to touch the leader, I'm going to kill him myself!"
There seemed to be two fires burning in the chief's pupils.
"personally!"
