July 24, early morning, a base on the outskirts of Fancheng, reception room.
Li Wei and Jiang Han sat side by side, looking exactly like two refugees from a Middle Eastern war.
Their hair was disheveled, their eye sockets dark, their lips dry and peeling, and their skin had taken on an unhealthy gray pallor.
Sitting across from them was a sharp-looking middle-aged man in his thirties. He wore the dark-gray uniform of the Investigation Bureau, with broad shoulders, a wide back, and a scar across his brow.
"How did you end up looking like this? Been off fleeing a famine?" Tang Ao stared at the two children from his cousin's family, at a loss for words.
Jiang Han gave a grunt and shot Li Wei a glance. "Fourth Uncle, ask her. This is all her doing!"
Li Wei bared her teeth in a dry laugh and said nothing.
How was she supposed to explain it? That she could level up by watching Abyssal Monsters fight? Would that even sound reasonable?
"All right." Tang Ao stood up and beckoned for them to follow. "I won't ask, then. After you two finish watching the show, hurry home. All your Jiang Family relatives from the direct branch are here today. They said they came to congratulate the bride-to-be, so don't keep them waiting too long."
The two hurried to their feet and followed behind him, answering listlessly.
As they passed through an Alloy Gate, four people in gray uniforms came swarming over. Carrying two Full-coverage Protective Suits that looked unbelievably heavy, they immediately started forcing them onto the pair without a word.
Tang Ao explained from the side, "The aura of a Sixth-Tier Abyssal Monster is too strong. Your little bodies can't withstand it. If you don't want to be carried into the hospital, put them on properly and don't complain about the trouble."
Before long, the corridor held two clumsy gray penguins. Their footsteps went "slap, slap," and every now and then they bumped into each other, making the passing gray-uniformed personnel laugh themselves silly.
They took one elevator, turned through several more bends, and finally passed through an Airtight Door marked with a glaring red warning. The view suddenly opened up.
A sunken pit the size of a standard swimming pool appeared before them.
The pit was surrounded by thick alloy walls. At intervals along the walls stood enormous floor-to-ceiling Observation Windows, providing a clear view of what was inside.
Wearing her cumbersome protective suit, Li Wei hurried her steps and leaned up to peer through one of the Observation Windows.
Inside, a pitch-black "caterpillar" that was absolutely no smaller than a long-distance bus lay curled up in the center of the pit.
At its thickest point, the cigar-shaped body had an estimated diameter of over five meters.
Even though the bottom of the pit lay three or four meters below ground level, its back was still higher than Li Wei's head.
Holy crap, it's huge!
Li Wei marveled inwardly, an inexplicable chill creeping up her back.
At that moment, Tang Ao came to her side, folded his arms, and introduced it with a smile. "Code name: 'Death Worm.' A new species that appeared on the Western Frontier. Its mouth and saliva can bore through fortress foundations. It killed several hundred of our people the first time it showed up."
"Later, we caught several of them and sent them to research institutions all over the country. This is one of them."
Holy crap, even fortresses aren't safe anymore? Won't that put an end to my idling-and-leveling career? That was careless of me... Come to think of it, leveling up in an arena might not be so bad?
But there's Aunt Liang... Sigh, I promised her. I can't go back on my word, can I? I'm not that kind of person.
Fine, I'll risk it! Besides, since they managed to capture it, they must have figured out how to deal with it, right?
Thinking of this, Li Wei hurriedly asked, "Fourth Uncle, did you figure out how to deal with it?"
Tang Ao laughed. "If we hadn't figured it out, would we have dragged it here for fun?"
Hearing that, Li Wei felt a little more at ease.
Immediately afterward, Tang Ao pulled out a Walkie-talkie, his expression turning solemn. "Begin!"
As soon as he spoke, several openings "clacked" open in the Ceiling Panel overhead, and all kinds of weapons that looked packed with advanced technology extended from them.
Electromagnetic Cannons, ultra-high-voltage electric arcs, High-energy Plasma Beams... A dazzling variety of weapons unleashed a wild barrage against the "caterpillar"!
If Tang Ao hadn't promptly adjusted the light transmission of the Observation Window, Li Wei felt the flashes inside would have blinded her kryptonite-fueled eyes.
Seeing the two stunned little faces beneath the protective-suit masks, Tang Ao reached out and hooked an arm around each penguin's shoulder. He grinned roguishly. "Well? Spectacular, isn't it? Does it fill you with awe at the greatness of human technology?"
"Why not send Martial Artists in?" Jiang Han asked curiously.
Tang Ao patted his nephew's shoulder. "It's a good opportunity to test how much damage these weapons can do to it. Make use of waste, you know."
The instant he finished speaking, Li Wei's vision blurred. A black "torrent" dozens of times thicker than any black light she had seen in the Beast Arena before suddenly pierced through the Observation Window and slammed violently into the center of her brow!
Her body instinctively reeled backward. Fortunately, Tang Ao had an arm around her, keeping her from falling.
Abyss Essence: 2933→5762
Fancheng, Four Seasons Verdant Ridge Hotel.
After leaving the Investigation Bureau base, the two did not go straight home. Instead, they found a high-end hotel, booked two rooms, and prepared to tidy up their appearances.
After all, Fourth Uncle had said that the Jiang Family relatives were waiting. They could not go back looking like this and embarrass themselves.
Li Wei handed the light-blue dress she had worn for several days, along with her undergarments, to a hotel maid to be urgently washed and ironed. She herself wrapped up in a bathrobe and entered the washroom.
She closed the door, slipped off the bathrobe, and climbed into the bathtub.
At long last, I can finally add Stat Points! I've been holding it in forever!
Hide my strength? Keep a low profile?
Not happening! She was now an underground worker, after all. Without some strength to rely on, she felt terribly uneasy!
"Deep Blue, add Stat Points!"
Crack-crack-crack—!
The familiar sound of popping beans rang out from inside her body once again, and excruciating pain, like Bone Scraping and Marrow Excision, instantly swept through her entire body!
Especially when her Vitality Value surged from 78 to 79, the pain made Li Wei's vision go black, and she nearly fainted.
"Urgh—haa..."
She sucked in a sharp breath. She wanted to scream, but was afraid of attracting people, so she could only bite down hard and force out tiny gasps through clenched teeth.
"Hiss... hiss-hiss..."
Her entire body convulsed uncontrollably in the bathtub for several minutes. Sweat streaked with blood slid down her skin, leaving lines of red across the white bathtub walls. It looked like a murder scene.
At last, the pain eased slightly. Li Wei panted heavily, clutching the edge of the bathtub as she recovered.
She looked at the panel again.
Vitality: 79(+) Abyss Essence: 5642
One hundred and twenty points of essence had been consumed. The Muscles and Bones Ringing in Harmony realm had reached its limit. The next step was Minor Perfection!
Looking at the plus sign that remained lit beside her Vitality Value, Li Wei felt a little nervous.
Previously, she had increased it from 70 to 75. It had hurt, but the pain had still been bearable.
Who could have expected the final four points to be so blissfully agonizing? They were practically Lingchi...
No! I can't chicken out! Strike while the iron is hot and push through!
She gritted her teeth, her eyes reddening. As if she were competing with someone, she once again focused her mind on the plus sign.
Vitality: 79→80(+) Abyss Essence: 5642→5542
The instant her Vitality Value crossed the threshold of 80, the expected agony did not arrive. Instead, her joints first felt a little sore and swollen, then began to itch.
It was uncomfortable, but compared to the torture from before, the difference was like heaven and earth.
"Huh?" Li Wei froze for a moment. "Minor Perfection... doesn't seem that painful?"
And so, she got carried away.
"Push!!!"
Vitality: 80→89(+) Abyss Essence: 5542→4642
The result...
"Holy... crap..."
Li Wei's expression stiffened.
If the itch just now had been a babbling brook, then the itch now was a raging river.
Li Wei felt as if countless hair-thin cow-hair needles were slowly drilling out from between her bones.
She wanted to scratch, but she could not reach them at all!
She wanted to escape the sensation, but the itch clung to her bones like a festering parasite!
Within the space of a few breaths, it had tormented her into agitation, sweat beading across her forehead.
At first, the itch had been confined to the gaps between her joints.
Then it rapidly spread to every bone and every muscle...
Her vision went black in waves, and she nearly lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, foul black-mud-like substances kept being squeezed out through the pores of her skin.
Clump after clump, they stuck to her jade-like body and smeared across the bathtub walls, mixing with the bloodwater in a sight that was horrifying beyond words.
After nearly half an hour more, Li Wei finally stopped struggling and lay in a thin layer of bloody mud, looking like a corpse.
This is going to kill me... But the exhaustion from staying up for four days seems to have disappeared. Why do I feel... a little refreshed now?
Before you continue