After the Elder Zoog made the decision, in the celebration of the Zoog tribe, Gu Jun was stuffed deeper into the wooden barrel, and the lid was firmly fixed on. They left a small air hole for air filtration, but it was clear that the oxygen density had decreased because Gu Jun soon felt a dullness to his mind. At a time like this, it was probably a good thing that he could not feel his body, or else the discomfort would probably increase manifold.
‘F*ck…’ Gu Jun opened his eyes, and the grain of the wooden barrel stared back at him. He was really not expecting to one day end up like this. Losing control of his whole body, unable to speak, only able to move his eyes, and his fate left in the hands of some rodent-like creatures. In his current state, he could not even end his own miserable life or fall asleep.
Suddenly, he felt the wooden barrel being tipped over and starting to roll. Clearly, the Zoogs were moving him. They probably wanted him back onto the ship. The feelings of sadness, tiredness, and resignation appeared in his mind. He missed his bed, phone, computer, surgical scalpel… Hell, he even missed the feeling of sleepiness and hunger.
‘No, I have to stick it out.’ Gu Jun quickly stopped himself from going down this slippery slope. If he allowed himself to continue like this, he would soon give up and die an undignified death inside a wooden barrel. ‘I can’t die like this. I still have no idea if the Nightmare Illness has been stopped or not. I need to stay alive to find out.’
Gu Jun summoned his body to take a deep breath.
‘Snap out of it, Gu Jun!’
Reasoning with these Zoogs appeared to be futile. The evil cat or the black merchant that they were going to sacrifice him to did not sound like pleasant characters either. The chance of them letting him go free was close to zero. To escape from this tragedy, he would have to depend on himself. In that case, he would need to continue training his mind and try to regain control of his body.
‘I need to recover!’
His current condition might be similar to those suffering from Locked-in Syndrome, but it was probably not the case. If he kept on training, he should be able to slowly regain control of the muscles for the rest of his body.
Other than that, he still had another hopeful alternative—the system. For now, he could confirm that the system came from a source distinct from the Afterlife Cult and R’yleh Cult. It probably had something to do with the Son of Steel because the mission reward that it had given Gu Jun had been helping him to find, understand, and acquire the Son of Steel’s power.
‘If I regain enough mental power to reopen the system, then perhaps I will be able to find out about my current physical status and the possible solution to it. That might provide me with an out.’ Gu Jun calmed his heart and silently recited, ‘When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a great man, it always first frustrates his spirit and will, exhausts his muscles and bones, exposes him to starvation and poverty, harasses him by troubles and setbacks so as to stimulate his spirit, toughens his nature and enhances his abilities…’
The poem reminded him of Cai Zixuan, and that gave Gu Jun a burst of strength.
He stopped worrying about where the Zoogs were rolling him and slowly brought up the medical texts from his memory, such as Systematic Autopsy, Study of Human Anatomy, Partial Autopsy…
Time ticked by. One day, two days… It had been a week since the awakening of his consciousness. Gu Jun became more adept at moving his eyeballs, and the motion no longer drained him that much. In fact, his mental power felt more refreshed than before. Over the past two days, he had felt the bobbing of the wooden barrel, which probably meant that they were still on the boat.
Suddenly, there was a smattering of claps from the Zoogs. They had probably reached their destination. The barrel was moved again. Another language rang out. Gu Jun could recognize it as a human language. The speaker was male, and the tone was rather unique. Neither of them let him in on their conversation. With a creak, the barrel lid was peeled back. The light pierced into the container. Gu Jun’s head was roughly yanked out by the Zoogs. He stopped hiding the fact that he could open his eyes. Gu Jun narrowed his eyes and looked upward. He saw a middle-aged human in black robes staring back at him. The man did not have the facial features that resembled human beings or the foreign race. If anything, he looked more like…
Mr. Barzai. Gu Jun was reminded of the old captain of the white ship. He had a feeling they were of the same race. However, this man was not affected by the sickness that ailed the old captain. He had an unfeeling feature. As their eyes met, a flash of greed pooled in the merchant’s eyes like he had laid his eyes on some precious jewel. Gu Jun wanted to say something with his eyeballs, but the wooden lid was soon put back. The black merchant and the Zoogs continued their negotiation until Gu Jun heard the excited tapping of the Zoogs. By then, he knew the trade had been completed.
‘I wonder how this merchant will deal with me.’ Gu Jun contemplated the pros and cons of this situation. The pro was that the other party was a human being. It meant that they could communicate more easily; the con was that the other party was a human being. As the Zoogs said, human beings were extremely cunning, at least more cunning than the Zoogs. The man had purchased him at such a high price, so the chance of Gu Jun persuading him to let him go for free was close to zero. Soon, Gu Jun could hear the sound of other people, but the language still meant nothing to him. But it did tell him that this was a group of merchants and not a single travelling merchant.
He felt like he was placed onto a wooden cart because he heard the sound of wheels creaking on the road. After his adventure with the Zoogs, where was he going next?
‘Oh well…’ Gu Jun sighed in his mind, mimicking Wu Siyu. There was nothing he could do about these outer changes. All he could do was focus on himself. He started to meditate to train his mental power. He imagined the fountain at Carlot Academy, picturing the Goddess of Life… the cleansing water, the power of life. He meditated for half a day. He felt more like himself and felt it was time to try opening the system again.
‘There’s no harm in trying.’ Gu Jun focused his mental power and tried to bring up the system like he did in the past. Instantly, a jolt of pain seized him as his nerves pulled taut. It felt like something was stuck, but this time, he did not give up and tried to see it through.
With a thud, the blockage appeared to be cleared. Something rushed it and echoed in his mind. It was the sound of the system notification. The sound had never sounded sweeter to Gu Jun’s ears!
“Your mastery of Strong Heart has increased by 30,000 points. Current level: 1 (36,000/ 50,000 Mastery).
“Warning, your mind is currently corrupted. Current corruption rate: forty-nine percent.
“Warning, you are currently in an abnormal palsy state! Please attempt self-recovery through a system mission.
“You have rescued Warsong suspended in a nightmare, triggering a special reward. Please click to obtain your reward, unknown.”
‘It worked!’ Gu Jun imagined breathing a sigh of relief. He studied these notifications and felt his energy returning. The 30,000 mastery points were probably an accumulation of all the ordeals he had been through from the moment he stepped into the old manor until the end. It appeared like the nightmare was finally over. The corruption rate of forty-nine percent did not come as a surprise. What did was the strain that it would put on him. Even the simple effort of opening the system in his mind had become so difficult. Gu Jun wondered if the power of the nightmare he had absorbed had become a part of that corruption.
If not for the Son of Steel’s resistance and the Son of Misfortune’s ingestion of the nightmare, the corruption rate would have been much higher than forty-nine percent.
All in all, it was not too bad. At least the system clarified that he could save himself by completing the missions. That was good news. Furthermore, there was also that special reward. Gu Jun’s eyes moved to the last notification. That was truly an unexpected reward, and he could use all the aid he could get at this moment. He clicked to accept the reward. Instantly, brilliant lights swam in his mind.
“You have obtained ten pages of the incomplete spell book.
“You have obtained one Carlot Surgical Scalpel.
“You have obtained three old photographs.
“You have obtained five sweet dreams.”