Act 7: Esperienza d'Oro-Golden Experience

Foreword:

Even in the devil's hands, there will always be places where light leaks out; the light cannot be completely extinguished.

--Lu Xun, "Hot Wind"

"What should we do! If this continues—"

"--I'll starve to death here!"

Jody was cornered. Her unique ability to return to simplicity could only affect one thing at a time. The moment she entered the cafeteria, the external roads of Spinach Heights returned to normal.

The gunsmith only needs one minute to get back to the canteen; he only has one minute left!

"At this height, I can't reach the food in this girl's hands!"

Jody was nearly driven mad by the table, her fingers trembling as she watched Benni feed Andro. They were mouth to mouth, heart to heart, so intimate, not a single drop of food spilling out!

Use your brain! Quick!

How am I supposed to survive?!

Hunger once again unleashed an astonishing vitality in this trapped beast. Just as Andro swallowed his food and lay back on the long table to rest for a while, Jody shifted his prey to Andro, the lizard monster.

At this moment, the Tyrannosaurus Warrior's cheeks were split open, and his highly evolved lizard mouth had not yet fully grown back flesh and bone, making it the most vulnerable time.

The two pink, fleshy cheeks were the fresh essence that Jody longed for. At this height, he could only reach Andro's face; if he were to bite Andro's buttocks, his fragile beak wouldn't be able to gnaw through the thick cotton sweater.

This is a gamble.

The moment it launches its biting attack on Andro, this guy can pinpoint Jody's location.

He had to calm down and quickly restore his body's functions to fight off Jamie's cleaver. Swallowing the primordial essence would also cause him new injuries.

"My blood-bearing body"

Help me! Help me!

After making his final prayer, Jodine bent over and threw himself into Andro's arms.

A searing pain shot through him! Andro's eyes widened in shock!

Jamie's dad was almost paralyzed with fear at first.

For this hybrid of calamity and beast, he didn't have much courage to begin with. At this moment, there was an invisible and intangible "air" gnawing at the lizard monster's cheek. Andro had just swallowed the supplement, and the holy blood in his body had calmed down a little. Just as drowsiness was about to strike, what awaited him was Jody's desperate fight.

In those brief two seconds, Jody's speed in gathering flesh and blood increased rapidly, and Andro was completely unrecognizable!

The soft flesh on the lizard's cheeks, along with the lymph nodes in its head and neck and the blood vessels on one side of its neck, were covered in patches of blood, which revealed the beast's true form!

Little Benni snatched the kitchen knife from her father's hand, her eyes reddening and her heart tightening. She swung the knife down at the red mist!

"Pfft!"

Jody felt as if struck by lightning; a knife had been plunged into her back!

But it's alright! The damage caused by this cleaver is far less than the healing power provided by the Holy Blood!

Benni tried to pick up the knife to chop again, but to her horror, she found that the knife seemed to be stuck in a swamp and she couldn't pull it out! Pinkish fleshy buds wrapped around the knife and crawled all the way up to the handle, which frightened Benni so much that she let go of it.

"Hehe. Hehehehehe"

A chilling laugh emanated from Jodi's throat. He greedily licked the beastly blood from Andro's lips, his grip tightening until he bit off his tongue!

At that moment, Jody felt only regret and pity.

If he had been braver, if he had been more decisive, he wouldn't have had to act like a clown in front of this long table. If he had chosen the soft flesh on Andro's face from the beginning and hadn't been afraid of the kitchen knives in the hands of these ordinary people, he could have saved much more time.

The Tyrannosaurus Warrior's flesh and blood raised his body temperature, restored strength to his crippled limbs, and made his wounds itch. The cold scabs once again conveyed a strong heartbeat. Layers of granulation tissue overlapped, and the peacock feathers gradually became glossy. He was about to be reborn.

The rotting flesh was gnawed clean by the sharp bird's beak, and some of the teeth's nerves were connected to the brain and heart, which plunged Andro into a deep coma, leaving him powerless to resist.

"The power is back! It's back!"

Jody yelled, and suddenly a pink arm grew from the left side of his torso, like a withered ancient tree sprouting new buds.

He had suffered what felt like being cut in half at the waist, and now the granulation tissue spreading from his waist and abdomen was reshaping his lower body. The burst of Inspiration Pressure nearly drove Jamie and his daughter insane on the spot.

"As expected, I was too cautious! This body is invincible!"

"How can the life force of you lowly blood-born bastards compare to the elixir within the body of Immortals? With just a little bit of flesh and blood, I can reclaim this divine power!"

"It's a pity you can't hear me anymore! None of you can hear me! You can't feel my presence anymore!"

"I am God! An omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent God!"

Jody's right arm bulged, and the bird's head, which had been stuck to her shoulder and neck with a broken neck, was straightened in an instant.

He was able to stand up, using the soft flesh to steady himself. His skin was parched and thirsty, drawing blood from his body. Benni and Jamie could no longer see the monster at all!

The ogre completely absorbed the blood spurting out by the lizard monster, turning Jody back into a pristine cloud of air!

The duel has reached its final round--

--The gunsmith pushed open the door and entered, the wind and snow squeezing into the warm dining room, causing the flames of the stove to flicker for a moment.

The door closed immediately afterward, and only a pair of bright, gleaming tiger eyes darted around the room in the darkness.

The leather boots clattered against the smooth floor as Xue Ming walked step by step toward Andro. The powerful spiritual pressure emanating from these two figures rendered Jamie and his daughter speechless; they could barely breathe, and were even unable to utter a word to remind the priest!

But at this moment, no further prompting is needed.

Jody spread his arms wide, a mocking look on his face. With half his body missing, he sat down next to the dying Andro, displaying his spoils to the terrifying Night Demon.

"Come on! Come find me! Even if I stand right in front of you, you won't hear me, see me, or feel me!"

"Gunsmith!"

"I'm going to chew these people up and swallow them whole right under your nose! I promise not a drop of blood will spill!"

"And you can only watch helplessly! You can only weep weakly and helplessly! You can only repeatedly blame yourself! You don't have that power! Ants cannot sense the existence of gods!"

The gunsmith stopped in front of Jody.

This instilled fear in Jody, and beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his face.

"Could it be... you..."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not right! It can't be!"

"You can't see me, right? You can't see me! Right!?"

Jiang Xueming's dark eyes, gleaming with Fragrant Dream quality, locked onto Jody's location.

"No way? Why? No way? Has my psionic power deteriorated? Have I become weaker? I..."

The iron fist slammed into Jody's face, almost knocking his eyeballs out!

He felt his head bobbing up and down in the top of his head! It was the same brutal punch Pellegrini had ever received. He lost his balance and rolled back to the ground, leaving a trail of blood!

The feeling of punching "air" puzzled Jiang Xueming, but his eyes only blurred for a few milliseconds before they snapped back into focus.

"What on earth happened?" Jody was absolutely certain that the gunsmith hadn't noticed him, but why? Why was the fist landing on his head? Why!

The glittering stars suddenly dazzled Jody's eyes.

He then noticed that many golden fragments remained on his skin's surface.

What are these things?

There was no time to think, the gunsmith had already arrived!

"Bang!--"

The sound of fists striking the devil was like bullets being fired!

The supersonic Soul Power Fist unleashed a ring of scalding steam, once again sending shockwaves through Jody's brain.

With his head struck twice in quick succession, the cannibal was on the Gate of Death. His body was sent flying by the powerful punches, crashing into the exhaust pipe like a bouncy volleyball. Blood was everywhere as he bounced back to the floor, and his head fused with his right shoulder once more.

From this perspective, Jody finally saw the "gold" within her.

--These glittering fragments are all Andro's dentures!

This guy has a set of gold dentures! They're covered in FF14 icons!

After the outbreak of the beastification disease, the gold teeth were pierced by the newly grown lizard fangs, but Andro couldn't bear to part with them, so he kept them all in his cheeks. When Jody swallowed Andro's soft facial flesh, he also embedded these sharp gold fragments in his face, which were then absorbed into his skin along with the blood!

They became the best tracers. Even if the gunsmith didn't understand Jody's true identity, didn't understand Jody's existence, and had completely forgotten about Jody, he could still find the ogre by relying on these glittering tracers!

Most gold exists in nature as the elemental gold. Like other heavy metals, it is difficult for the human body to absorb and digest, and it has excellent stability. As for Jody, he has strict requirements for his diet. Let alone condiments, he would not even eat slightly rotten human flesh. If he were not in dire straits, he would not even look at Andro's flesh.

This gold could not become his jewelry, nor could it be transformed into his clothing, because Andro's gum nerves were still alive. This vital essence, hidden within the gaps in the gold tooth fragments, still possessed the powerful genes and vitality of the Tyrannosaurus Warrior. They were still alive, protected by the gold, and could not be altered by the primal psionic energy.

" --Baba Yaga! Night Demon! You!"

Jody desperately called upon the name of Death God, revealing his true form, wanting to negotiate, wanting to make peace.

"Who the hell are you yelling at?!" Xue Ming locked onto the skull, Fragrant Dream emanating from his body, iron claws and steel fists sweeping towards the blood-covered birdman with a gust of wind.

The ogre's spine was broken in two, and it slammed against the solid wall, already in a dying state with little air intake and much exhalation.

"Gunsmith. I want it."

Jody was on the verge of death, her breath barely a whisper.

"I want to negotiate with you, otherwise I'll..."

"Ora!" Fragrant Dream threw a punch straight at her!

The peacock's skull exploded, leaving a bright golden and red flower on the wall.

Gold fragments mingled with scalding pus and blood, splattering onto the priest's face. The gunsmith rediscovered a familiar feeling; he hadn't tasted the blood of the Madness Butterfly in a very, very long time.

When everything settled down, Xue Ming didn't even know what kind of thing he had killed.

He had never seen Jody's true form, only that he had killed a Blood-giving Monster in the form of a peacock, and the residual psionic energy that erupted during the fight must have caught Oscar's eye—he needed to think of a way to persuade Wolf Brother, or ask Teacher Victor for help to erase this part of Wolf Brother's memory.

He turned back to clean up the mess, his Fragrant Dream arm transforming into an airbrush, carefully spraying White Lady's creations onto Andro's face, painstakingly repairing the lizard's mouth and gums. For Fragrant Dream, with her precision, casting flesh and blood was no difficult task.

Andro remained unconscious. The entire treatment process went very smoothly and took about twenty minutes.

When Oscar rushed back to the cafeteria, Big Wolf saw bloodstains all over the floor. The transport team that caught up later also began to help clean up the filth. Strangely, no one said anything, as if everything was normal.

It seemed that Spinach Heights had never experienced any Spirit Calamity, and Jody's presence had been erased. Another twenty hours passed, and everything was so quiet and peaceful. Wolf Brother didn't ask about anything strange. Even Jiang Xueming himself felt that the whole incident came and went quickly, so smoothly that it was almost frightening.

On the third day, the rescue team dispatched twelve search and rescue vehicles, which drove in a large procession to Spinach Heights.

Xue Ming still couldn't figure out what this inexplicable peacock monster wanted to say before it died.

It seems like he wants to negotiate with me? But what conditions could we possibly negotiate?

"Ah Jun, Wolf Brother, Oscar!"

Before everyone boarded the vehicle to return, Xue Ming was still worried. He took the initiative to find Big Wolf and lured him to the communications station with two bottles of wine, then privately inquired about the matter.

"--You know my secret? Don't you?"

Oscar, momentarily stunned, asked with a blank expression, "What secret?"

Jiang Xueming frowned, sensing that things were not so simple.

As Jody lay dying, his final threat was the power of his soul, activated through his flesh and blood essence—he had to live, or else he would erase the Gunsmith's existence.

The terrifying aspect of this soul-power attack lies in severing a person's social connections. In this desolate wilderness, if Jiang Xueming were to fall into isolation and helplessness, forgotten by the transport team and unable to catch the last bus, walking back to Saladin would be a dead end. No matter how powerful a VIP is, they cannot defeat this cruel world—this was Jody's plan before his death.

Since the Gunsmith's physical body was tainted by Jody's essence, it would inevitably be affected by the power of the Soul. It was this curse before death that erased part of Oscar's understanding of the Gunsmith.

Unfortunately, the magic trick was interrupted before it could be completed by a powerful punch from Fragrant Dream. The Immortals hadn't expected that the gunsmith, a timid boy who didn't like talking to his enemies, wouldn't give him a chance to chant the spell.

"Oh, that's alright then." Jiang Xueming was a very simple person; if he couldn't figure something out, he wouldn't dwell on it. If this matter wouldn't cause him trouble, why bother getting to the bottom of it?

Then he asked about something else.

"What did Commander Havana say? Is the work on the base station complete? Can we go back now?"

Oscar was even more confused: "Havana"

Jiang Xueming: "Ah"

Oscar: "Who is Havana?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xueming turned pale.

--Yeah, who is Havana?

His memories of the name grew increasingly hazy until he could no longer recall it at all.

"Ah"

"Father, don't scare me!" Oscar chuckled, both frightened and wanting to crack a joke. "Are you possessed by a fairy? Who is Havana?"

Jiang Xueming: "It's nothing, I just suddenly remembered that name. I think there's someone like that in our team. They're a junior leader, no less."

Oscar opened the roster and carefully counted out the specific personnel of the transport team for the priest.

"Yes! I am the highest-ranking person in charge of this mission."

"The expedition's Koren."

"A few pathfinders, and some fellow workers."

"Plus the criminals from the War Gang, this trip has been really tough for them. They suffered quite a few injuries while maintaining the lighthouse and repairing the circuits."

"A total of twenty-nine people!"

Jiang Xueming felt relieved and pulled Wolf Brother towards the rescue team's vehicle to catch the last bus back. A month later, when the ice melted in the spring, the hunting party would be able to return to this desolate wasteland.

Just then, the alarm from the induction cooker woke Havana up.

She climbed out of her warm little bed next to the office, the scent of the Immortals cannibal still lingering on her breath.

She slept very well that night. Before falling asleep, she used the remains she had collected under the lighthouse to cook a delicious stew, carefully prepared according to Saint Josh Joris's menu.

She wiped the office windows, wanting to catch one last glimpse of the snow -Spinach Heights. This might be the last time she saw it before spring arrived. It was a rare opportunity; she was about to take up a position at the Mimir Hot Spring Market and would no longer have to suffer in Saladin.

But what came into view was a convoy of cars driving further and further away, more than 200 meters away.

"No, no, no, no! That's not right!"

The eccentric woman didn't even have time to put on a coat; she ran outside in her bathrobe, barefoot and trembling, leaving a trail of bloody footprints on the cold iron pavement. She didn't care about appearances anymore.

If we stay here, we might die and no one will even notice!

"I haven't even gotten on the bus yet! Hello! Hello! Hello!"

She ran more than 600 meters along the ramp and finally caught up with the last car.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Open the door! I haven't gotten on the bus yet! I haven't gotten on the bus yet!"

Havana screamed in despair, but no one could hear her. All her presence was left in the final, deadly curse of [Return To Innocence]. The flesh and blood inside her belly became an excellent psychic catalyst, unleashing the full power of her soul.

Her body was dragged by the vehicle, clinging tightly to the door handle, then slammed against a solid rock, and thrown violently onto the winding mountain road, leaving her behind in this lonely mountain range.

"Hello!"

Saladin town welcomed a new quartermaster and a new interrogator.

The front desk police hotline has been receiving strange "ghost calls" from Spinach Heights these past few days, but no one speaks.

The communications girl at the reception desk had a strange expression. "Please don't call again! Whether you're undead or whatever! Don't cause trouble for others, okay?"

Havana: "Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm so scared!"

The communications girl, unable to hear anything, said, "I'm hanging up now! Boss said we need to dispel superstitions; a ghost like you can't scare me at all! Humph!"

Havana felt increasingly cold.

--Due to a minor malfunction in the electrical room, heating was cut off in half of the base.

In order to survive, she has climbed up the signal station and the electrical room time and time again these past few days, using a wooden stick to knock on the cables and remove the icicles from them.

In despair, she climbed toward the lighthouse, hoping to light it so that perhaps someone in Saladin, more than 80 kilometers away, could see its golden light.

Jody also died because of a golden light.

Even in the devil's hands, there will always be places where light leaks out; the light cannot be completely extinguished.

Havana firmly believed that she could survive.

But this just faded away like an urban legend.

"--There were thirty names before?"

Maquire, a psionicist, obtained this roster while examining the members of the transport team.

"Oh no! I misread it, there are indeed twenty-nine."

Havana, carrying two buckets of kerosene, refused to give up. Life is like a high mountain; if you don't conquer it, you'll be swallowed up.

Halfway up, she felt that the tower was so steep that it could not conquer her body and will.

Recalling the four criminals' groans of agony, a cold smile crept across her lips—torture? It was nothing but an excuse for lazybones!

These useless creatures can only carry one barrel of fuel at a time, while I can carry two. Are these Blood-giving Monster weaker than a Homo sapiens like me?

Thinking like this--

--Havana felt herself lose her balance as a raging wind blew in from a large crater beside the tower.

That was the crater created when Andro jumped off the building with Big B.

The strong wind blew her off balance, and she tumbled headfirst down the slippery, sticky staircase, rolling out of the gate, onto the steep cliff, and tumbling down a precipice.

Havana's unwilling roars and screams echoed through the mountain stream.

Eventually, I couldn't hear anything anymore.

Xiantai Prefecture, Yulin Subdistrict.

Judas stood before the mailbox with his arms folded, thinking for a very long time.

He clearly remembered that about two weeks ago, there was a reply slip that he needed to receive, but he forgot about it and just left it in the mailbox.

That was a very important person who sent clues about the medium's tools. I gave a mission report to him, the Big Leader, and the content seemed to be related to the gunsmith.

"Um"

Judas tilted his head back, rolled his eyes, and tried to find something useful in his mind.

"Um"

He opened the mailbox and found only a blank letter with no writing on it.

"Um"

He muttered the most mysterious name in the organization, and the last bit of memory in his mind vanished.

"Forget it, instead of wasting time here, I might as well work overtime."