Corruption

Corrupted Crystal

In the game, Liao Ji usually called it EXP fodder.

It was the most commonly used item for catalyzing and training his Corrupted.

The crystals were divided into four grades—small, medium, large, and extra-large—according to the concentration of Corrupt Calamity within them. The amount of experience they provided to a Corrupted increased with each grade.

A [Small Corrupted Crystal] could raise a Corrupted of the lowest, "Chang" rank to level 10.

In the game, Liao Ji only had to click a few times with his mouse. But now that this had become a real-life version, he wasn't sure how to use the item, so he had no choice but to take the most direct approach.

It seemed, though,

that it had worked.

The [Small Corrupted Crystal] he'd thrust into her didn't actually enter her physically. The instant it touched the female scavenger's body, it melted into her like water and began to fuse with her.

Pain.

It hurt so much.

Irin felt as if all the blood in her body had caught fire. It was like countless ants were crawling through her, gnawing at her flesh.

In an instant, her vision filled with blood red. Everything she saw twisted and stretched, turning chaotic and bizarre until the world spun around her.

The whispers of madness from the abyss, the contamination of Corrupt Calamity that Irin had already experienced once before, echoed through her mind again—and this time, they were even more intense.

The frenzied voices grew sharper and more grating, filling her mind in wave after wave, as if they meant to swallow and drown her consciousness.

"Ugh! Aah!"

Irin's head throbbed as sweat soaked her from head to toe. Brownish-red patterns—the mark of Corrupt Calamity—faintly appeared on her skin, flickering with an eerie, dangerous glow.

The change in the female scavenger startled the kobolds inside the chamber. In particular, when they sensed the Corrupt Calamity spilling from her, several of the kobolds closest to her immediately backed away in fear.

Of course, Irin herself didn't know any of this.

All her strength was focused on fighting against Corrupt Calamity.

In Irin's spiritual world, blood-red chains that seemed to reach out from hell coiled around her limbs and tightened around her neck, dragging her toward the abyss with all their might.

Irin struggled desperately against the chains. Her instincts told her that if she were dragged over to "the other side," she would never return.

Her gravely ill mother, who depended on her, was waiting back at the settlement. She couldn't die here.

But willpower alone clearly wasn't enough.

Irin's resistance weakened. The blood-red chain around her neck tightened, and the crushing sensation of suffocation drained what little strength she had left. Her vision grew increasingly blurred.

Was this it? Was it over?

It wasn't.

Through her blurred vision, perhaps in a hallucination brought on by her fading consciousness, she seemed to see the figure of a black-haired young man appear before her.

Her spiritual world had been swallowed by blood red, and she was on the verge of falling. Yet the young man seemed untouched by it. Instead, with his arrival, the Corrupt Calamity raging there began to scatter and flee.

When he finally reached her and touched her, still bound by the blood-red chains—

At that moment,

Crack.

Crack!

First came a few tiny fractures. Then, at incredible speed, they spread into cracks, webbing across the chain around her neck.

Finally—

Boom!

The shackle around her neck, which she'd been unable to break free from, shattered completely.

In an instant, the mad whispers fell silent. The blood-red color receded from her spiritual world, and the force that had been dragging her into the abyss vanished.

But the chains wrapped around her limbs remained.

Except for—

the broken section around her neck.

In its place,

on the female scavenger's real body, unnoticed even by Irin herself, a complex and profound Contract mark appeared like a tattoo just below the back of her neck.

"Haah... haah..."

Her consciousness returned, bringing her back to the real world. Feeling as though she'd just escaped death, Irin greedily gulped down air.

Irin didn't know what had just happened.

But she knew who had caused it.

When the female scavenger looked toward him, Liao Ji didn't offer an explanation. He simply pointed behind her.

When Irin turned around again,

the face that met her gaze belonged to a kobold, its narrow eyes glinting with brutality. Its coarse, rugged features looked savage.

Hot white vapor poured from its broad nostrils. Blood from the fight still stained the tangled beard covering half its face, making it look even more fearsome.

It swung an iron shovel, its thick arm holding the tool still flecked with bits of flesh. The shovel rapidly filled Irin's field of vision.

As the Corrupt Calamity emanating from the female scavenger disappeared, the kobolds that had backed away immediately surged forward again.

While Irin was catching her breath, the monsters hadn't been standing around doing nothing. They had already broken into a run and reached them in the blink of an eye.

The kobold at the very front raised its shovel high. Just as it had smashed the scar-faced man and his companions, it was ready to do the same to Irin.

But—

After a brief moment of panic, Irin quickly noticed something was wrong.

Why were the monster's movements so slow?

In Irin's eyes, the kobold's attack seemed to have been put in slow motion. She could easily follow its movements and dodge.

Irin shifted to the side just a little, and the kobold's shovel slammed into empty air.

The rushing wind from the shovel told her that the opponent hadn't actually slowed down. Instead, her own perception had become far stronger than normal.

No, that wasn't all.

It wasn't just her perception. This feeling of strength surging through her entire body—

"Roar!"

After its first attack missed, the kobold quickly raised its shovel again, ready to strike once more. Though this low-level mutated monster's physical abilities had been greatly enhanced, its intelligence remained just as poor.

This time, Irin had realized that something about her body was different, and she chose not to dodge.

She took a deep breath and waited for the right moment. On the back of her neck, out of sight, the Contract mark glimmered. Brownish-red lines flashed across her eyes.

Before the kobold's shovel could come down, Irin tensed her body and focused all her strength into her right leg. Then she whipped it out in a powerful kick, slamming it into the monster's broad chest.

Whoosh!

A sharp sound split the air, followed by a dull BAM!

The kobold weighed several hundred pounds, yet Irin kicked it into the air like a ball. It traced an arc and, with terrible luck, landed right on a sharp rock jutting from the ground.

The kobold's body crumpled like a heap of mud. After twitching a few times, it went completely still.

At the same time,

a corresponding notification rang out in Liao Ji's mind.

[ Ding! Your Corrupted "Irin" has successfully killed [Greedy Kobold Miner]. You have gained 10 experience points.]

[Experience needed for the next level: 10/100]