"D-Level Mission: Puppet Master - Locate and kill a mysterious mind controller."
"Duration: Five days - Accept / Cancel"
The system notification suddenly resounded in his mind.
He was slightly startled, but he knew that his idea a moment ago had prompted the mission.
As he could only assume initially, this was now enough to confirm his assumptions.
Upon acquiring the system, regardless of how bizarre the mission was, the proposed task had always been so apt and befitting; not a single error since.
It seemed like it had a pair of omnipresent eyes and there was nothing in the world that could be kept from it. Even when things are yet to be certain, the system had always been so confident. At times, when Luo Yuan thought about its astounding accuracy, he could not help but feel slightly disturbed. The more he knew, the queasier he felt.
A thought flashed across his mind, and his heart sank that very moment. He realized that he had been underestimating the puppeteer.
"It turned out to be D-class mission!" He could not help but think.
"We'll part ways now; if anything happens, you can come right to me," said Luo Yuan, giving a pat on Xu Zhiqiang's shoulder.
Xu Zhiqiang nodded his head and was slightly emotional. Including that one time during the jailbreak, Luo Yuan had practically saved him twice, and this debt was too great to repay. He had not given his thanks, but his gratefulness was deeply engraved in his heart.
"Boss, can I tag along?" said Zhang Wu, standing nearby.
Luo Yuan thought for a while and said, "It's not the time yet; maybe next time. Now, I have some unfinished business to attend to."
Luo Yuan gave each of them a pat on the shoulder. When it was Wen Yujie's turn, seeing her slightly reddened eyes, Luo Yuan could not help but to hesitate and give her a hug, "Take care!" said Luo Yuan, as he released her from his embrace.
"Yes! You too, take care," said Wen Yujie, trying to remain calm.
The guards of the sewer maintenance room had long since disappeared. Shielded by Wen Yujie's illuminating ability, the group quickly left.
Luo Yuan watched them as they were leaving. After ensuring that everyone was a distance away, he opened the cuffs of his sleeve, took out the remaining dead skin and stuffed it into the pocket of his trousers.
In fact, when he was patting each of them goodbye, he had activated his synthesizing ability and a small amount of the dead skin had been absorbed into their clothing. Through this imprint, as long as they were not too far away, he could still clearly monitor their wellbeing anytime.
With his agility at 15 points, almost 7.5 times the normal speed of ordinary people, any light movement was almost undetectable. The most they felt was a pat on the shoulder and a sudden warmth, which could be taken for an illusion.
Luo Yuan closed his eyes for a moment to sense their movement and found that the group had parted ways, with each of them embarking on a different path.
His expression darkened, and he turned back towards the sewer instead.
Although the sewer and the evacuation route were enclosed and separated from each other, there was still air circulation, albeit a weak one. Due to the earthquake, the exchange of air between the two areas from the collapsed partition, coupled with the leakage of an unknown gas from the sewer, had proved to be a deadly source of danger.
The grim-faced Luo Yuan walked hurriedly towards the sewer. In just a short time, it was filled with dead bodies of mutated beasts. Even the stronger ones and the ones resistant to toxin were scampering and struggling to their last breath to stay alive.
The faint smell of toxic waste had almost suffused the whole space, but the air was carrying a trace of abnormally sweet scent. To be extra cautious, Luo Yuan held his breath. This type of toxic gas was extremely strong, so much so that even evolved people such as Tong Jianliang and Wen Yujie were unable to withstand it. Even Luo Yuan himself was also unable to guarantee that he could leave this place alive.
As there were no prompts from the system, Luo Yuan guessed that this noxious gas may not be very strong, apart from its toxicity, which was the trickiest part.
Luo Yuan crouched down from time to time to check on the degree of rigor mortis of the carcasses of the mutated beasts, to pinpoint the source of the noxious gas. With his physique and lung capacity, if he was not performing some strenuous exercise, he could hold his breath for 30 to 40 minutes which was more than enough.
Finally, after five or six minutes, Luo Yuan stopped right at a crack that was caused by the earthquake.
The creature looked similar to a toad and was about the size of a small car.
The back of the toad-like creature was fiery red, with numerous pustules pulsating non-stop with each breath. Occasionally, there was some yellow liquid flowing from the pustules, giving a very uncomfortable and sickening vibe.
The abdomen of the creature was black, its surface was smooth and glossy, but was densely covered with both large and small round marks as thick as a thumb. Once in a while, the marks moved slightly, but with Luo Yuan's sharp vision, he immediately discovered that this were not marks but rather, countless number of parasitic ticks.
Just one look at the parasites sent a tingling sensation down Luo Yuan's body.
These parasitic worms seemed to be full of blood, as each one of them was plump and round! However, the poisonous gas that was emitting from the toad seemed to have no effect on those parasitic worms.
The food chain was indeed a full cycle - there was no exception to it!
From the imposing manner of the creature, its strength must be a level between blue and dark blue. To Luo Yuan, this strength could be simply dealt with, by a single blow.
The whole of the creature was poisonous, as well as extremely repulsive. Knitting his brows together, Luo Yuan had no choice but to muster all his Will, and formed a thin layer of film on his body, to prevent the poison from sputtering onto him.
Next was the actual fight, which was actually nothing to shout about!
With his terrifyingly strong force, the other party was too scared to move; its whole body was trembling. Even when Luo Yuan was steadily advancing, the creature made no resistance, and sat docilely like a frightened quail, before being beheaded by his sword. A dark black vile liquid splattered about three meters high, and the ground started to corrode.
The whole body was poisonous; hence, he certainly could not let it rot here.
Corpses of mutated beasts that was killed by the poisonous gas had littered the ground, and the bodies could be seen almost everywhere. Luo Yuan removed the body fat from each of the bodies, and very quickly, a pile of lard was formed. This type of body fat had a high oil content and was highly inflammable.
After Luo Yuan had set the pile of fat on fire, the flame began to rage, and rose up to three meters high. Soon after, the body of the toad also began to burn under the raging flames.
He heaved a sigh of relief. Apart from radioactive toxins, other toxins, whether biological or chemical, could be broken down with high temperature. Therefore, the source of the toxin could completely be disintegrated after being burnt.
Luo Yuan waited for almost half an hour for the body to be completely burned to ashes. Only then, he was convinced that it was safe and quickly left the place.
As he was walking, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He sensed that one of the imprints that he had sent out seemed to be affected by a force, as it began vibrating incessantly.
However, just as he was ready to respond to it, the imprint trembled violently for a while, as though a bubble has been punctured, burst, and disappeared without a trace. The interaction signal in his mind was quickly broken off.
Luo Yuan's heart sank. He had not expected his opponent to act so soon. It was barely even half an hour before a move was made.
The one that was caught was Xiao Baihong. Before he had synthesized the dead skin, some of them had more, while some of them had less of it. So naturally, the degree of sensitivity was different for each of them. Among them, Wen Yujie had the most, thus her imprint was the most sensitive, followed by Xu Zhiqiang, Zhang Wu and Xiao Baihong, while the weakest was Yang Zhiqing. Each of the imprints was able to connect to Luo Yuan separately and were distinct from one another.
The imprint that had currently dissappeared had clearly belonged to Xiao Baihong!