Chapter 154: The Attack of the Protagonist (6)
Translator: Sigma Editor: Sigma
Inside the abandoned shrine, the color of the pupa had changed from white to light yellow. Then, it gradually got darker until it was as brown as a scab.
After the change in color had stopped, several minutes later, the pupa cracked into thousands of nail-sized pieces, scattering on the ground. When those pieces were falling, they did it so neatly that none of them had fallen on the man’s body inside the pupa.
This male Level 3 Derivative looked slightly older than thirty years old with tender facial contours. His hair divided at the middle, which made him look like more of a gentleman. However, he was wearing the newbie costume.
After he got out of the pupa, he didn’t change his countenance but started to stretch out. At this moment, the man didn’t have his right arm. There was a flat cut at his shoulder where his right arm should have been connected to the body. The cut wasn't a mess of blood and flesh, but a flat, shimmering surface. With a closer look, one could see many tiny data fragments moving there.
"Tsk... still the same…" he muttered annoyedly while walking to one corner of the room and picking up the china pot on the ground.
His right arm couldn't connect with the other data of his body’s compositions whenever he entered a scenario. Thus, he had to wait until his body finished materializing to find the arm and connect it.
Inside the pot was a narrow space slit, similar to players' bags. Anyway, after the arm got out from it, this space would disappear. The right arm of this Derivative was like personal luggage that he couldn't bring along or destroy. Whenever he arrived at a scenario, it always entered in its physical form from a space crack.
He took out the arm from the pot and assembled it on his shoulder. When the two shimmering planes connected, the whole section on the Derivative’s right shoulder was twisted. Under the circumstance that there was no physical impact, the wall adjacent to him suddenly concaved, and the surface of it bobbed irregularly.
When the connecting was finished, he swung his arm to test it. Then he looked at his right arm while pondering, "It’s been many times already… but the connection hasn’t shortened even for one second…" However, he could still sense the location of the arm before he could find it. And, once he found it, he could immediately know how long it would take to connect this group of data to his body.
In short, it took a short while until this Level 3 Derivative could recover 100% of his fighting capacity. Currently, this arm looked like it grew from his body but he actually had no way to utilize its full force.
"It hurts…"
"So much pain…"
"Help me..."
Suddenly, whining and groaning echoed constantly in the Derivative’s ears. He frowned and stooped down to look. It was unknown when scary, bloody ghosts had filled the room.
Those ghosts on the ground had pierced through the wall to get there. They looked like dying persons sinking deep in a boggy swamp. Some of them had their heads emerging from the surface, while the others had half of their bodies protruding. The pale faces of those ghosts were covered with tangled hair accompanied with dark sockets that didn't even have a single eyeball. They had their mouths wide open with stretching arms just like drowning victims trying to grab something to survive… The whines and groans from the ghosts weren’t loud, which was similar to someone wriggling in pain and crying for help. Anyway, that’s how it could touch people’s hearts. At this moment, the floor inside the room was fille
d with shadows of these ghosts. Soon, the Derivative had no room to put his feet. The ghosts then extended their arms to grab him. Some caught him by his ankles, while other protruding bodies were holding his shirt.
"The BOSS of this scenario uses illusion, does it…" His eyes suddenly glowed as a faint light appeared in his pupils. "Well… seems very cunning too…"
One second later, he slightly flexed his knees and jumped up. This casual jump had helped him get rid of the ghosts. He then made a half-circle turn in midair and landed on the beam.
One grey ghost that looked similar to the one Feng Bujue had encountered also got on the beam. Anyway, the ghost was blown off by just a punch from the Derivative, as it hadn’t had a chance to do anything.
Level 3 Derivatives could use a strange sight different from players' to see the world in scenarios. They could convert the view in front of their eyes into semi-data, a semi-physical state. Moreover, they could use perception in a certain range. Thus, illusions were useless to them, as it couldn't give them a dangerous threat as much as that of speed and power.
"Strange…That Level 4 hasn’t solved the BOSS yet?" He thought while slightly lifting his leg, kicking. A large hole appeared on the roof of the shrine, big enough for the person inside to jump out.
When he got on the roof of the room, he was dazed by the moonlight. Of course, to the Derivatives, the light was an auxiliary aid to support their sight. Even in that pitch-dark room, he could still see things very clearly.
There was a dried well in the shrine’s yard.
At this moment, the head of that Level 4 Derivative was put on the edge of the well.
"What kind of joke…" je mumbled. His body slightly moved then dashed forward, his whole body descending from midair before landing firmly on his feet.
He came to that head and said, "What happened?" It seemed he knew that the head was still able to communicate with him.
"I… went… to… the… other… world…" the head spoke up like a broken radio.
Although Level 4 Derivatives were the weakest among the Derivatives, usually, their fighting competencies wouldn't be less than the BOSS in the scenarios (not any world was suitable for the Derivative to enter; e.g., the Thunderbolt world would never have a Derivative). The current situation was extremely unusual.
"I’m… done… Fragment… data…" He couldn't make a full sentence anymore. "It… put me… here… for… you…" Upon his words, a dark and cold ghost claw extending from the well grabbed the head and pulled it down into the well.
This was also the first time this Level 3 Derivative had encountered this situation. He immediately started the logical analyzing process in his head. First, he checked the location of the players and GMs. They were still on the way to the mountain. Apparently, this situation wasn’t related to them. Then, he started to connect to the BOSS data (Level 3 Derivatives could control a BOSS with low artificial intelligence; that’s why X-23 could control the mutant Dr. Ashford), but he failed.
"If you haven’t gotten it yet, I will tell you once in person." A vigorous but distant voice arose from the well. "I’ve put his head here to make you more clever to know that you shouldn’t be my enemy."