The car began to slow, finally coming to a stop before the first roadblock.
Two heavily armed players quickly ran over and gestured toward Captain Zheng in the driver’s seat.
“Get out,” Captain Zheng said. “Line up for inspection. Don’t ask any questions.”
“Why?”
“They won’t talk to you.” Captain Zheng smiled. “It’s part of the rules. See those helmets?”
Zhu Yan saw them.
At first glance, the helmets looked no different from ordinary ones.
“I heard they’ve been reinforced with something that protects against mental attacks. They’re pretty tough, too.”
As he spoke, Captain Zheng opened the door and jumped out first.
“Come on, everyone. Form a line!”
The red words were still glowing before Zhu Yan’s eyes.
Don’t worry about the first three stages.
He silently repeated the message once. While considering how to get through the fourth stage, he followed the three 【Walking Corpses】 out of the car.
Pot Lid was second in line, right behind Captain Zheng.
The player who had ordered them out pulled out a long silver whip—or perhaps it was some sort of detector. Its flattened, rounded end bounced repeatedly over Captain Zheng’s body.
It looked a little like airport security.
In less than ten seconds, the player waved Captain Zheng through. Pot Lid went next.
Just as the red words had said, the detector bounced over the 【Walking Corpses】 without detecting anything unusual.
A few minutes later, everyone filed back into the car, watching as the barrier ahead slowly lifted.
“So, Captain Zheng, what exactly does that device do?”
Zhu Yan spoke while trying to gauge Captain Zheng’s expression through the rearview mirror.
After spending some time together, he had found Captain Zheng to be a fairly agreeable man, despite having a few selfish tendencies.
If he could pique the other man’s interest, getting information out of him would be easy.
“I’ve been to the 【Lazybones Craft Shop】 before. Those silver objects looked a lot like products from the 【Lazybones Craft Shop】.”
At that, Captain Zheng burst out laughing.
“Very observant. No wonder you’re the top-ranked player.”
“Keep at it, and you might reach my rank someday.”
Zhu Yan immediately said, “That’s not the same thing. I’m lacking in reaction speed and experience. Someone like you, Captain Zheng, is still indispensable. In an instance, practical experience is more important than ability, isn’t it?”
Captain Zheng nodded, clearly pleased by the flattery.
“Captain Jin probably won’t hold back your training anymore. Director Jin even specifically asked you to keep an eye on the office. Once you get off work, come with me to the training grounds.”
Zhu Yan beamed. “Captain Zheng, you really look out for me.”
“But you still haven’t told me—was that thing bought from the 【Lazybones Craft Shop】?”
Captain Zheng shook his head.
“You’re underestimating the power of the Eastern Region.”
“The first detector was indeed a confiscated item. A player happened to encounter the 【Lazybones Craft Shop】 in an instance and bought it.”
As soon as the subject of those items came up, Captain Zheng became more talkative.
It was easy to tell that he had been a military enthusiast before the arrival of the instances—
Judging from his reaction speed the last time Zhu Yan had fought him, Captain Zheng might even have come from a military background.
“That item was level nine. I’ve seen the real thing.”
The moment he said that, the inside of the car fell completely silent.
Yang Zhanbai had practically leaned into the front row, and the three 【Walking Corpses】 likewise put on expressions of interest.
Their rapt attention clearly made Captain Zheng feel quite pleased.
He hurriedly continued, “That thing can detect ninety percent of all horror creatures. We tested it on impostors, Mirror Ghosts, witches, and the like. It worked every time.”
“So it was handed over afterward. A group of experts worked together with players who had metal-element abilities. After analyzing its components and ratios, they managed to reproduce several identical copies.”
That was interesting. Zhu Yan found it interesting, too.
It sounded exactly like a case of “the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their own powers,” except…
“So, does our knockoff work?”
“I hear it does,” Captain Zheng said. “That’s just hearsay, though. The only difference is that the knockoff lasts for just three months. No one knows why.”
“Then how does it work?” Zhu Yan immediately asked the question he had really wanted to ask. “Why can this thing detect horror creatures? Do you know, Captain Zheng?”
After the first checkpoint, armored vehicles appeared at regular intervals along both sides of the road.
Zhu Yan looked ahead. The highway stretched on endlessly, but there was no sign of the second checkpoint.
At Captain Zheng’s speed of sixty miles per hour, he should have at least several more minutes to draw information out of him.
Captain Zheng scratched his head.
“Hmm… I think a friend of mine who works in research mentioned something about it. Ah, whatever. I’ve forgotten the details.”
“It can measure some kind of energy in a person. The energy structures of horror creatures and humans are different, you know.”
“And their flesh, skin, and other physical aspects are different, too.”
Captain Zheng did not elaborate, but Zhu Yan understood instantly.
No one understood 【Shuddering Delight】 better than he did.
Becoming a 【Hunter】 meant allowing this strange substance to replace the life force humans originally possessed.
And according to what the 【Vine Cage Girl】 had said before the baptism, for a 【Hunter】 to draw closer to a horror creature, the 【Shuddering Delight】 inside their body had to possess the trait of devouring. It had to be more “active.”
“Anyway, even if a horror creature looks exactly like a human, there are still countless differences in the things inside its body.”
Captain Zheng concluded, “You’ll learn about this during training later. I can never remember that sort of thing.”
Why were there academic classes, too?
Zhu Yan pursed his lips, then, without letting his guard down, brought the conversation back around. “So our detector can detect this energy?”
“Exactly. The first three stages involve external scans, and they’ll also take a full-body X-ray.”
“As for the fourth stage, I’ve never seen it myself. I hear it involves an internal scan and requires different equipment. Very advanced stuff.”
Zhu Yan had gotten the information he wanted, so he leaned back against his seat.
The fourth stage involved detecting the 【Shuddering Delight】 inside the body.
And as horror creatures, the three 【Walking Corpses】 possessed far denser 【Shuddering Delight】 than he did as a 【Hunter】. Its activity was also much higher.
But then again…
Zhu Yan lowered his head and glanced at his wrist.
A string of black red-sandalwood prayer beads encircled it, the tiny golden flecks in the wood flashing beneath the sunlight.
The bracelet given to him by 【Fangcun Mountain】 was an extraordinary artifact that suppressed 【Shuddering Delight】.
It could automatically adjust itself according to the rising concentration of 【Shuddering Delight】 within the body.
He just didn’t know whether it would work when worn by a horror creature…
It probably would, right?
There was also half a bottle of aerosol left.
The stuff could isolate the effects of 【Shuddering Delight】. What would happen if he sprayed it into the mouths of the three 【Walking Corpses】?
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
