MCL CH14

Chapter 14: Oh, the contamination value went off the charts…

At first, it was a very faint sound. Gradually, the gurgling sounds, which had been like a lullaby, began to stack on top of each other.

Gurgle gurgle—!

Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle—!

As if something was struggling to break out, the buzz-cut man instantly noticed the abnormality, his face gradually turning ugly. “How is that possible? How can there be so many…”

It was well-known that the inner world connected by the fissure was the lair of those contaminants, and the total contamination value strength of the contaminants was also the most important indicator in determining the fissure’s level.

The fissure they had entered this time was D-class. Fissures of this level were often only the habitats of D-class contaminants. Even if they had incubated and reproduced during this period, it was impossible for there to be so many.

To develop to the current number, the total contamination value had probably already exceeded the judgment standard for a D-class fissure.

This was completely C-class… no, it might have even reached the level of B-class!

But until they entered, no staff had contacted them.

Was it a judgment error, or had they not had time to update the fissure information?

The buzz-cut man and his group dared to kill for the sake of selling corpses on the black market precisely because they were confident in the difficulty of a D-class fissure. Even without the help of others, they could completely clear it themselves. But they had never expected that the situation would gradually get out of their control like this.

The focus now was obviously no longer on how to deal with Lei Gang. The buzz-cut man’s heart began to beat wildly with the trembling of the ground. The hair standing on end all over his body was enough to make him feel an unprecedented sense of crisis.

This number was obviously no longer something they could handle.

Can’t stay here any longer, or I’ll really die!

The lustful thoughts the buzz-cut man had just had were completely gone. A clear killing intent flashed in his eyes. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to pick up the dagger and, without hesitation, stabbed fiercely at Lin Xi.

This beautiful man was a madman, but with that face alone, it was completely enough to satisfy his XP. If it wasn’t for the fact that he couldn’t leave any witnesses… tsk, what a pity.

This stab hit a vital point, clean and decisive.

Seeing the blood spreading from around the dagger, the buzz-cut man was about to pull his hand back when he was suddenly and unexpectedly grabbed firmly.

His movements stiffened slightly. He looked up and was met with a smile that made his heart race. “How can you…”

“How am I not dead yet?” Lin Xi slowly finished the rest of the sentence. In his tottering state, he could only barely steady himself by grabbing onto the arm. With this movement, all the blood on his hand was smeared onto the buzz-cut man’s sleeve, but his expression between his brows was still calm. “Compared to that, I think what you need to focus on now should be something else.”

Buzz-cut: “…What?”

Lin Xi glanced up and finally let go, slowly taking two steps back.

He put his blood-stained finger to his lips in a “shush” gesture. The smeared blood stained his pale lips with a rich color. His hollow tone was like it was floating in the void. “Didn’t you hear? They’re here.”

“They? They…” the buzz-cut man repeated subconsciously, finally realizing belatedly—the sounds coming from the cave just now had, without him noticing, become so close!

Gurgle gurgle—! Gurgle gurgle—!

The continuous wriggling sound was almost right next to his ear.

This direction seems to be…

The buzz-cut man stiffly raised his head.

What entered his eyes was a dense mass of eyes.

As if he had temporarily lost the ability to move, under the overly impactful scene, a physiological numbness instantly shot up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Like maggots that had just hatched from their pupae, their soft bodies were still stained with thick mucus. The process of continuous contraction and wriggling made a faint gurgling sound. The surrounding gray mist was swallowed by the cave. In the overly dark environment, no one had noticed when they had climbed to the top of the cave.

Suddenly, those dense eyeballs subtly turned, and thus met the buzz-cut man’s gaze directly.

The moment their gazes met, the buzz-cut man only felt some rational string in his mind snap in an instant.

The wriggling sound suddenly became more agitated. The next second, the dense maggots, like a dense rain, pattered down to the ground.

At the critical moment, his rich combat experience finally made the buzz-cut man forcibly come to his senses. His first reaction was to grab Lin Xi and use him as a shield.

However, the moment he reached out his hand, a cold light directly entered his eyes, followed by a heart-wrenching pain.

“Ahhhhhh—!”

“If I remember correctly, you used this hand to touch me before, right?” Lin Xi’s face showed no ripples when he pulled the dagger out of his body. The next second, he cut so cleanly, fast, accurately, and ruthlessly, that he chopped off the entire hand with a clean cut.

As if he hadn’t heard the other’s screams under the gushing blood, he snatched the special gun from the buzz-cut man’s back pouch. There was still a faint smile in his eyes as he turned and pulled the trigger on the “maggot” rain that was already in front of him.

Bang! Bang! Bang—!

Under the continuous gunshots, the splattering juice was like a real downpour, and a hole was thus blasted open.

Lin Xi rushed out of the “rainfall” point in a single stride.

The sound of countless soft-bodied creatures landing densely was mixed with the explosive sounds of their dying struggles. The buzz-cut man, who had failed to dodge in time, almost burst out with all his abilities to try to break free, but the maggots that had landed seemed to have smelled something sufficiently tempting, and they piled up on top of him, layer after layer. Under the dense gnawing of their mouthparts, the bloody internal organs gradually mixed with the surrounding exploded slurry.

However, compared to the little bit of blood on the buzz-cut man, Lin Xi was undoubtedly more attractive to the contaminants. They had originally been attracted by his blood, and with the completely diffused smell, it instantly made these monsters even more excited.

More and more maggots gathered from all directions. One shot after another, the soft bodies exploded, continuously splattering, and even the surrounding air was filled with a strong, nauseating smell.

Lin Xi fought and retreated, but there were simply too many contaminants continuously pouring out of the cave. This body had not fully recovered yet, and the excessive consumption of physical strength had undoubtedly pushed him to his limit.

He really still hated insects.

Lin Xi lowered his eyes and sighed secretly in his heart. He glanced up at the other side.

Originally, the other three were still unethically ganging up on Lei Gang, but now they were already too busy to take care of themselves.

These people had been taking on fissure outsourcing tasks for so long, but it was obviously the first time they had faced such a large number of contaminants at once. What’s more, they were at the level of collectively dealing with D-class contaminants. In the blink of an eye, they had already lost their formation. Now, they were cornered by a group of maggots. Several of their limbs had already been gnawed to the bone, and they were barely hanging on. It was only a matter of time before they became a meal for these contaminants.

As for Lei Gang—

If it weren’t for the will to avenge his teammates that was holding him up, he probably wouldn’t have even been able to hold on against those three people until now. But fortunately, insect-type contaminants had a natural fear of abilities like lightning and fire, and his ability happened to be lightning.

Dense lightning fell around them. Lei Gang’s entire body was soaked in blood.

The excessive consumption of physical strength was no longer enough to support him in fighting these contaminants. Although it was a bit strange to have this kind of desire to win at this time, the only thing on his mind now was indeed to see those guys die before he did.

“If this continues, everyone will die in the end.” Lin Xi glanced at the completely blocked escape route behind him. His brows furrowed in annoyance. Seeing that more contaminants were gathering from the surroundings, a spark of fire rose from his fingertips.

The very faint light made his already bloodless face look even paler. However, at this moment, the maggots that had been eagerly gathering seemed to subconsciously take a step back.

This sudden alert reaction made Lin Xi smile.

He turned around, and his calm gaze fell on the deep cave opening from afar.

It was as if something was watching them from the depths of this darkness.

Lin Xi slowly opened his mouth, “What’s the level of the contaminant inside?”

A moment later, the long-lost voice was full of reluctance: [It should be C-class now.]

Lin Xi considered his words with interest, “Now?”

His mind instantly went silent again.

“Do you think there’s still a need to deliberately hide it? You created this body. These contaminants are attracted by the smell of blood because of you. The incubation of these low-level maggots and even the upgrade of that thing inside are also related to you.”

Lin Xi coughed lightly, feeling the bloody taste spreading in his mouth, but he let out a low laugh. “First the quarantine zone and then this fissure. Calamity, because of you, I’ve been so unlucky. If you still want to coexist peacefully in the future, don’t you think you should compensate me with something?”

[…………]

The voice in his mind resignedly sounded, [You can threaten me more explicitly… Why tear the paper so explicitly? Just say it directly, what do you want?]

The broken pieces of maggots were scattered stickily at his feet. Lin Xi was covered in blood, his chest heaving violently.

He slowly looked down at the gun in his hand, which was already low on ammunition, and slowly lowered his eyes. “We can talk about the rest after we get out. As for now, of course, we’ll solve the trouble at hand first.”

As his voice fell, a brief silence fell over the surroundings.

Suddenly feeling something, the voice that had been somewhat listless due to its bad mood suddenly became cheerful: [Are you finally going to—]

Lin Xi silently curled his lips, a hint of anticipation in his words. “The power of the King of Contaminants, it does sound pretty good.”

As if sensing some kind of crisis, the maggots that had been surrounding them, ready to strike, all paused. Under a strange, uneasy intuition, they instantly began to stir restlessly.

Continuous power gradually surged from the depths of his body.

It was like countless electric currents tearing at his every cell from the inside. Lin Xi buried his face deeply in his hands, which were bulging with veins from being clenched too tightly. His eyes gradually contracted into vertical pupils. That golden eye, with the rising contamination value, deepened bit by bit into a demonic scarlet, and finally, only a rich, bloody color remained.

The feeling of his entire body being completely torn apart made the curve of his lips fly up even more clearly. “Interesting… so this is what it feels like.”

Beep beep—!

Beep beep beep—!

The piercing alarm sound suddenly became the sharpest background noise in the silence.

Beep beep beep!

Beep beep beep beep beep beep, beep beep beep—!

Faster and faster.

Lin Xi slowly lowered his eyes. Between his torn sleeves, what was revealed was the continuously rising contamination value on the monitoring device worn on his wrist.

100, 200…

500… 1500… 5000… 8000… 10000!

It was still rising.

Finally, snap!

The moment the electric current exploded, it splashed out a shower of sparks.

The monitoring device on his wrist, under the obviously overloaded detection value, completely broke down.

Oh, the contamination value went off the charts.

The faint black mist surrounding him enveloped Lin Xi.

Glancing at it, he took off the broken monitoring device without any surprise and casually tossed it aside. “I was running for my life in the fissure and accidentally dropped the monitoring device. Captain Qi’s side should be able to understand, right?”