Fang Linyan was quite familiar with this blood-red key. He had seen it appear when Fang killed Gale and Thornton earlier, but this was his first time getting so close to it and handling it himself.
Fang hadn't carried any of the injections on him, which disappointed Fang Linyan. But he was certain that current technology couldn't make a key like this. Perhaps he could use it as a bargaining chip and trade it to that damned company for the injections?
With a nervous heart, Fang Linyan tried touching the blood-red key with his fingers. He found it surprisingly heavy and had no idea what it was made of. Examining it closely, he saw that the two- or three-centimeter-long key was covered in strange, intricate patterns. They looked primitive and savage, yet the longer he studied them, the more they seemed to come from the future.
That wasn't all. If he looked closely, he could even make out the image of a bizarre door at the top of the key. It had the texture of metal and the color of flesh, and was adorned with a chaotic tangle of fangs and sharp teeth.
Once he grasped the key, a message suddenly appeared in Fang Linyan's mind:
Do you wish to summon Bloody Treasure Chest No. DCS187? Yes/No?
Fang Linyan was startled and instinctively selected No. As expected, nothing happened.
After hesitating, Fang Linyan gripped the key again, and the same message reappeared in his mind. This time, he selected "Yes." A blood-red metal chest gradually materialized before him, its surface emblazoned with a huge image of the Grim Reaper Scythe.
The metal chest slowly began to open. A glaring crimson light shone from within, making it impossible to see what was inside. A series of prompts immediately appeared in Fang Linyan's mind, but he didn't notice that the screen of the old mobile phone he carried was flashing nonstop:
You have opened a Bloody Treasure Chest. You will receive the following options—@￥##@ Data corruption detected Attempting repair. Clearing redundant data, correcting erroneous bytes
Then a long string of information appeared.
You may choose one of the following options as your spoils.
1. Obtain 50% of the potential points and universal points the deceased had left at the time of death.
2. The deceased was killed in the real world (to which the killer belongs), so there is a 50% chance of obtaining one piece of equipment the deceased had stored in the space. Note: the equipment will be randomly selected.
3. Randomly obtain three items from the deceased's storage space.
4. There is a 33% chance of obtaining a scroll for one of the deceased's abilities. One ability will be drawn from among all the abilities they had mastered (including, but not limited to, basic abilities, advanced basic abilities, and innate abilities), and made into a scroll that anyone can learn from. The ability's level after learning will be half its original level.
But a closer look revealed that Options 1 and 4 had turned completely gray, meaning they couldn't be selected. In reality, he only had two choices: 2 or 3. Once he realized this, he decisively chose Option 3.
Fang Linyan's goal was simple: to stay alive. The reverse transcriptase viral vector injections Fang had carried were his only hope of surviving!
After he chose the third option, the Bloody Treasure Chest before him began to fade and disappear. In the end, three items remained on the deck:
The first item was a stack of banknotes. Fang Linyan picked them up and examined them, finding more than eight hundred euros. There were dark-red spots of blood on the notes, giving them an unsettling appearance.
The second item was a strange object that looked like a medal made of black iron. The initials S.K.M. were inscribed on it, and on the back were the words, "It can raise your military rank." Fang Linyan studied it for a while but couldn't figure out what it did.
The third item made Fang Linyan breathe a sigh of relief. It was the damaged silver-white case. He opened it immediately and found that, because it had been damaged, only five reverse transcriptase viral vector injections remained inside!
With the item he wanted in hand, Fang Linyan promptly turned to leave. Naturally, he tossed the silver-white case into the river. For one thing, it was conspicuous and damaged; for another, he couldn't rule out the possibility that it contained a tracking signal.
He had also planned ahead. After reaching shore, he put on a helmet, got on a secondhand motorcycle, and headed straight inland. True to Fang Linyan's meticulous nature, he had carefully inspected the motorcycle and filled its tank before setting out.
He took back roads and county roads the whole way. By the time the Umbrelia organization recovered from the chaos and began investigating, Fang Linyan had already reached a mountainous area a hundred kilometers away. The power was still shut off for eight or ten days every month there, and the place was in a state where dogs handled security, walking was the only transportation, and people entertained themselves by hand.
Once he arrived, Fang Linyan finally breathed a sigh of relief. His decision to come here had been completely random. Whenever he encountered a fork in the road, he'd drawn lots to decide whether to turn left or right. After five draws, he had finally reached his destination.
What was the safest place? Somewhere you yourself hadn't known you would go until you got there—that was the safest place of all!
Then he went straight into a farmhouse restaurant. The owner cared about just one thing: whether the money used to pay was real. Fang Linyan readily went to his room, read the instructions, and took out a syringe. He drew half a tube of blood, then mixed one of the reverse transcriptase viral vector injections into it.
The clear liquid changed as soon as it came into contact with the blood. Large numbers of tiny black particles appeared inside, constantly giving off wisps of smoke.
Five minutes later, the black particles gradually turned blood-red. Only then did Fang Linyan inject the liquid back into his body.
Watching the liquid enter his body gave Fang Linyan the bizarre feeling that he'd become a lab rat.
Two hours later, having confirmed that he wasn't experiencing any of the adverse reactions listed in the instructions, Fang Linyan began the first course of treatment. Over the next forty-eight hours, he injected four reverse transcriptase viral vector injections into his body and drank water throughout.
More precisely, he drank a lot of water.
This left his already weakened body teetering on the edge of water intoxication.
But Fang Linyan still got through it with relative ease. The discomfort of water intoxication was nothing compared to the vicious pain of late-stage cancer.
After injecting himself, Fang Linyan didn't feel any changes. He went on sleeping and eating as usual, occasionally browsing places like Momo—and, of course, coughing as usual.
However, after injecting himself with the reverse transcriptase viral vector injections for two days straight, he began to feel changes in his body. At the very least, the bouts of his extremely severe, persistent cough had become noticeably shorter, and he had much more energy.
In fact, if he had gone to the hospital for an examination at that point, he would have discovered that the cancer cells in the four affected areas of his body had been successfully suppressed. They were no longer trying to spread, and their growth had begun to weaken. His attending physician would have called it a miracle.
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