Flesh Plague: Origin

[Welcome to the plane world of Flesh Plague: Origin, for the trial of the Awakened.]

[You have temporarily acquired the language of this plane: Old Swedish. Your appearance and clothing have been temporarily self-adjusted to avoid arousing suspicion from the natives. Adjustments to appearance and clothing will not affect your hidden attribute: Charisma.]

[You have temporarily acquired 1 cubic meter of storage space. The shape of the storage space can be adjusted arbitrarily, but the volume will not change.]

The Spirit Realm Will's emotionless prompt came, followed by a series of plane scene information introductions.

[Flesh Plague: Origin]

[Time: 17th Century]

[Region: Europe - Baltic Sea Region]

[Intensity: 1.5]

[Background: A blood-red meteorite from outer space fell on the Scandinavian Peninsula. The curse of flesh and blood spread across the peninsula. Many people died and turned into Plague Dead, acting on instinct, wandering the dark earth, craving fresh flesh and blood...]

The biting cold wind blew like a knife.

The scenery before Bai Pu's eyes quickly froze.

He looked at his hands and tentatively clenched them.

A sense of power he had never felt before surged forth.

His feet were on solid ground, and the clear tactile feedback from the ground was also unprecedented.

"Personal attributes," Bai Pu murmured.

A semi-transparent information prompt box appeared in his vision.

[Bai Pu (Quasi-Awakened)]

[Class: None]

[Attributes: Strength 5, Agility 5, Endurance 5, Spirit 9]

[Specialty: None]

[Skill 1: Source Blood Fusion (Pseudo): You have temporarily fused with Evolution Source Blood, and your body has undergone unknown changes. If the trial mission fails and you return to reality, the Evolution Source Blood will automatically peel off; if you die, the Evolution Source Blood will also automatically peel off.]

Bai Pu couldn't hide the excitement in his heart. He ran wildly across the vast land, feeling the whistling wind in his ears, and two lines of hot tears welled up.

"Finally... I succeeded!"

Only those who have lost their sight know the value of light.

Having suffered from heart disease since childhood, and burdened by the heavy load of an excessively powerful brain, leading to muscle atrophy and organ failure, Bai Pu had been confined to a wheelchair since he could remember, living the life of a walking corpse. How could he have ever experienced the happiness of having a healthy body?

Moreover, his current body was not just "healthy," it had reached the critical value of a Quasi-Awakened, the limit of ordinary humans – a total of 20 attributes! It was like a beggar becoming an emperor overnight, the difference in experience was enormous.

With a strong body, his super-powered brain was no longer an unbearable burden. The dizziness caused by observation and thinking disappeared without a trace!

Even Bai Pu, who was always calm and intelligent, could hardly restrain his excited and surging emotions.

In his retina, more prompt information from the Spirit Realm Will flashed by.

[Trial Mission: Collect two tubes of Evolution Source Blood and successfully fuse them.]

[Mission Duration: 10 days.]

[Mission Difficulty: S]

[Current Progress: 1/2]

[Mission Reward: Awakened Advancement.]

[Failure Penalty: Expulsion. You will be expelled back to the real world, and the difficulty of the next trial mission will be increased by an additional 30%, but the reward will not be increased.]

[Warning: Countdown to the Sting Squad entering this plane: 48 hours.]

"It's not time to celebrate yet."

Reading the prompt from the Spirit Realm Will, Bai Pu narrowed his eyes in thought.

The prompt above was Bai Pu's trial mission. After completing the mission, Bai Pu could advance to a true Awakened and enter the ranks of human powerhouses.

The mission progress was already 1/2 because Bai Pu himself had already fused with one tube of Evolution Source Blood.

Bai Pu already had a clue as to how to find the other tube of Evolution Source Blood.

The answer was hidden in that warning message –

Sting Squad!

This was clearly the name of an Awakened team.

"The fact that the Spirit Realm Will is giving an early warning means that the Sting Squad is likely to be hostile to me, and their strength far exceeds mine."

What qualifications did Bai Pu, a mere Quasi-Awakened, have to provoke an Awakened team? Without even thinking about it, they must be thugs sent by the Superpower Corporation, chasing him across planes!

This team should be carrying a tube of Evolution Source Blood.

The reason for carrying Evolution Source Blood was simple – they had to carry Evolution Source Blood as an "anchor" in order to accurately cut into the "Flesh Plague: Origin" plane and hunt down Bai Pu!

Anchors are usually high-value spiritual energy items, or things with special significance and a high degree of association with a certain plane of the Spirit Realm, which play a positioning role during Awakened Spirit Realm teleportation.

Evolution Source Blood itself has high value and belongs to spiritual energy items; it has a high degree of association with this plane scene called "Flesh Plague: Origin"! It can be said to be a perfect anchor.

Without the Evolution Source Blood, the Sting Squad would only randomly enter a plane scene from the vast number of Spirit Realm planes, and it would be impossible for it to enter the plane where Bai Pu is.

Therefore, the other tube of Source Blood required for the trial mission should be seized from the Sting Squad.

The difficulty of this trial mission is astonishingly high! As far as Bai Pu knows, the trial missions of ordinary Awakened are generally Rank B to Rank A. There is no confrontation with other Awakened during the process, and they only need to deal with the natives.

Bai Pu's trial mission is as difficult as Rank S! He has to fight against a well-trained Awakened squad!

Considering that he has not received any training, and his combat expertise and skills are blank, the gap in strength is too great. It is reasonable to have a difficulty rating of S.

Not to mention, even if Bai Pu obtains the second tube of Source Blood, he must find a way to fuse it—there is no second Dean Zhao here.

The reason for such difficulty is that Bai Pu "carried" an extremely rare Spirit Realm wonder... Evolution Source Blood, to participate in the trial!

The Spirit Realm Will generates trial missions, which are often designed specifically based on the potential of the trial participants, in order to maximize the development of the trial participants' talents.

If a trial participant deliberately carries a Spirit Realm wonder into the trial, there is a high probability of triggering a high-difficulty mission related to the Spirit Realm wonder!

This is also the pursuit of many geniuses. They are not satisfied with ordinary difficulty and want to challenge high difficulty!

There are benefits to high difficulty trial missions. For example, a Rank S difficulty trial mission, as long as it can be completed, can at least be promoted to an elite profession, and the starting point is higher than other Awakened! If it is completed beautifully, it is not impossible to be promoted to a more powerful profession.

Bai Pu also noticed that the Sting Squad's arrival time in this plane was 48 hours later than his own.

Bai Pu speculated that after he escaped from the Spirit Realm, the Superpower Corporation should not delay and must send a chasing team as soon as possible! The reason why the Sting Squad entered this plane 48 hours later was a balance made by the Spirit Realm Will.

If the two entered this plane simultaneously according to the actual time, the difficulty of the mission might soar to SSS!

Now, these precious two days are left for Bai Pu to make advance arrangements.

Bai Pu found a wooden stick, a thin stone chip, and a few dry vines, and made a simple stone axe. He weighed it, and it seemed to be heavier than ordinary wooden sticks and stone chips.

He stepped on the cold and hard Northern Europe land and walked forward silently, while thinking about how to deal with it.

"Relying on myself to fight against an Awakened team is definitely impossible. Only by fully exploring the plot and using the strength of the natives can I fight against them!"

To put it another way, to fuse another tube of Evolution Source Blood, it is inevitable to deal with the natives.

Because the Flesh Plague: Origin plane has a very high correlation with the Evolution Source Blood, maybe the Evolution Source Blood is a wonder produced in this plane, and it is very possible that the natives have the knowledge and skills to fuse the Source Blood.

On the horizon ahead, a staggering human-shaped black shadow entered Bai Pu's field of vision.

"It doesn't look like a normal person... Could this be the 'Plague Dead' mentioned in the plane introduction?"

Getting closer, Bai Pu clearly saw the appearance of the Plague Dead.

Pale skin, dry cheeks, wearing tattered linen clothes, and mechanically moving its legs.

Especially its eyes, which were blood red, and the outline of the eyeballs could not be seen at all.

"It doesn't seem to be fast, so it shouldn't be difficult to deal with. But now my weapons are simple, and I don't know any combat skills and abilities, so I'm almost a blank slate! I can't rush up."

Bai Pu quietly retreated behind a mound, squatted down, and began to dig with the thin stone chip of the stone axe. Before long, he made a simple pit, with sharpened branches inserted inside.

After preparing, Bai Pu caught up with the Plague Dead who had gone far away.

The sound of footsteps attracted the attention of the Plague Dead, it roared and turned around, stretched its arms forward, and made a pounce.

Bai Pu clenched the homemade simple stone axe in his hand, mustered his courage and rushed towards the Plague Dead, swinging the axe over.

This axe was completely unorganized, and the angle was a bit off.

However, the Plague Dead did not intend to dodge at all, and greeted it straight on, taking Bai Pu's heavy blow on its shoulder! At the same time, a claw grabbed towards Bai Pu's chest.

With a hiss, blood splattered, Bai Pu's linen clothes did not play any defensive role, and there were three blood marks on his chest in an instant.

The pain of flesh tearing came, and what was worse, Bai Pu's homemade stone axe was directly damaged by this attack—the dry vines broke, and the bound thin stone chip flew away! Only a bare wooden stick remained.

[Your attack has dealt 6 points of blunt damage to the Plague Dead.]

[The Plague Dead's claw attack has dealt 10 points of sharp damage to you, causing a bleeding effect, losing 1 point of health every 5 seconds, continuing until the wound heals.]

Can't beat it!

Each point of Endurance attribute will derive 10 points of basic health. Bai Pu's 5 points of Endurance means that his basic health is only a mere 50 points. One round of combat with the Plague Dead has lost more than 1/5!

Bai Pu pressed the wound on his chest, turned around and fled.

However, after taking the claw attack damage, Bai Pu's body surface skin wriggled slightly, secreting a trace of semi-solid and semi-liquid greasy oil, which quickly solidified to form a transparent cuticle! The Spirit Realm Will's prompt then came:

[Due to unknown reasons, your body has undergone a stress response change, and your defense against sharp damage has been improved. Duration 120 minutes, or until the next stress response change occurs.]

Bai Pu was slightly startled, looked at his remaining thirty-odd health points, gritted his teeth and turned around, and met the Plague Dead again!

Obviously, this "unknown reason" must be the fusion of Source Blood, which caused the mutation in the body! Bai Pu wants to seize the opportunity to face a single Plague Dead and try out how much effect his mutation ability has.

Swish! The Plague Dead waved its claws, and the second claw attack hit again!

However, this time, Bai Pu clearly felt that the Plague Dead's sharp claws, at the moment of touching the skin, the cuticle of the skin played a role in deflecting, reducing a lot of force!

This attack only broke the skin and left a mark, and the damage to Bai Pu changed from the original 10 points to 5 points.

"The temporary change in the skin actually reduced half of the damage?!"

Bai Pu was both surprised and delighted.

However, he still did not have the idea of ​​fighting the Plague Dead head-on. After verifying his mutation ability, he immediately turned around and continued to escape.

The Plague Dead roared and chased after him. Don't look at its limping and staggering steps, but the frequency is surprisingly fast, even faster than a healthy ordinary person running!

Fortunately, Bai Pu had 5 points in Agility, two to three times that of an average human, which was why he wasn't overtaken by the Plague Dead. He fled, running over a small hill.

Boom!

With a muffled thud, the Plague Dead fell into a pit trap.

The sharpened branches buried inside the pit snapped with a few cracking sounds, failing to pierce the Plague Dead. The damage inflicted was negligible, at most a tickle.

However, Bai Pu's tactical objective had been achieved. With the Plague Dead's stiff limbs, it would have difficulty climbing out of the trap for a while.

Bai Pu knelt before the trap, swung his wooden club, and brought it down without hesitation.

Duang! DuangDuang!

After a dozen or so blows, the wooden club broke, but the Plague Dead was still alive, hissing as it climbed upwards, its sharp, black fingernails tearing away chunks of frozen earth.

The originally steep inner wall of the trap was being clawed into a small slope by the Plague Dead. Given a little more time, it might actually escape.

Bai Pu didn't dare delay. He discarded the broken club, stepped on the Plague Dead's shoulder, and unleashed his 5 points of Strength, pinning it against the inner wall of the pit. Then, he clenched his fist.

One punch, two punches, three punches...

The Plague Dead's entire head was smashed, and foul-smelling blood mixed with dark yellow brain matter slowly flowed out until it finally stopped moving.