The Talisman

Parasitic Corpses were incredibly tenacious, like cockroaches. Even after being disemboweled, they weren't necessarily dead for good.

Its wounds gaped open, the pink flesh writhing and twisting like maggots. The hissing sound of it healing made Zhou Kai's scalp crawl. It was about to stitch itself back together.

But Zhou Kai never hesitated. Delivering a finishing blow was second nature to him.

He reached behind his waist and drew a short-handled hatchet. Its blade flashed coldly in the lamplight. Without wasting a word, he aimed at the still-wriggling head and brought the hatchet down!

Splurt!

Expressionless, Zhou Kai's wrist flicked back and forth, the hatchet blurring as he chopped the head to a pulp.

Even after the head was mush, he didn't stop. He hacked open the chest with a brutal blow and, deep among the tangled tendrils, found a fleshy core still pulsing faintly.

Zhou Kai reached inside, pulled out the slippery thing, and tossed it to the floor without a second glance. Then he ground it underfoot.

[You killed "Diablo Parasitic Corpse (Adult Form)" and gained Universal Experience Points *7]

The core had also held several things that looked like egg sacs. They were slick and had an ominous feel to them.

Frowning, Zhou Kai stamped on them, intending to crush them to bits. But his foot sank, and he ended up forcing the egg sacs into the gaps between the floorboards.

Hm? They were that hard?

Puzzled, Zhou Kai took a spare sample bag from his pocket, picked up the tough egg sacs, and packed them away. There was something strange about them. He'd have to study them later.

His experience points were up to nine. That was quite a windfall.

If he dragged the corpse back and burned it, he could probably squeeze out another three or four experience points.

But...

"There's no way back!"

Zhou Kai stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down at the living carpet of countless glossy black shells.

"Scritch, scritch, scritch..."

The dense scraping sounds merged into one.

The black "tide" was visibly rising.

The thought of being swallowed up by the things...

Just thinking about it made Zhou Kai's skin crawl.

"What the hell are these things?"

Zhou Kai retreated to the Parasitic Corpse, grabbed its arm, and dragged it toward a window farther down the hall.

The corpse dragged across the dusty floor, leaving a wide, sticky trail of blood.

As he dragged it, something went plop. A small, bloodstained notebook had fallen from the Parasitic Corpse's pocket.

Zhou Kai propped the corpse against the window and bent to pick up the notebook.

"Crack... crack..."

The sound of wood being chewed apart drew closer.

Zhou Kai had considered every possibility, but he'd never expected this danger to come up from underground!

Leaning against the window, he watched lightning flash outside and saw that the ground was also covered in a writhing black swarm.

Like a black flood, the swarm surged toward the lower-lying parts of town.

Getting back to No. 777 without coming into contact with the bugs was simply out of the question!

Those monsters could move through the swarm unharmed. Zhou Kai didn't believe his flesh and blood could withstand it!

What should he do?

At a loss, he lowered his gaze to the notebook in his hands and brought it close to the oil lamp.

He opened to the first page. A line of hurried handwriting met his eyes.

[Moonlight Orchid doesn't do much once it's been picked, unless you use its flowers. At least, they work on Blood Beetles. —Morning Star]

Another note from Morning Star.

Zhou Kai quickly flipped through the notebook. There wasn't much written in it, and he reached the end in less than two minutes.

Amid the usual mix of ancient Latin and unfamiliar script, Zhou Kai picked out four key pieces of information.

One was about what Moonlight Orchid did.

The other three were...

[This is my third journal. In the end, I should leave nine notebooks... perhaps more. In Soraka Town, my next stop is the Mansion high up in town, number thirteen. If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, come find me!]

[There are special buildings blessed all over the place. You can scrape by using them... but please, don't gamble with your life. Resurrection? Are you really sure you died? I should give some reliable conclusions about these special buildings in later journals.]

[Blood Beetles... let's call them the Blood Tide. This highly rhythmic disaster comes once every twelve hours and lasts anywhere from three to six hours. When the Blood Tide comes, it's best to stay near Moonlight Orchid, or some other plant, area, or item with a sacred attribute.]

Zhou Kai didn't have the energy to think about the other two pieces of information.

His eyes were fixed on the words "Blood Tide."

"Once every twelve hours."

Zhou Kai's heart sank...

The swarm came once every twelve hours. No matter how he tried to avoid it, he was bound to run into it sooner or later.

There was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run!

The only good news was that his forced Nightmare period didn't completely overlap with the Blood Tide.

He had a precious window of time to explore and prepare.

But... there was one more piece of bad news.

Right now, the only place in the entire town that could protect him was seventy meters away!

And he couldn't get there!

Crack, crack...

The swarm had already surged up to the second floor, black waves crawling over the stairwell.

The insects' soft scraping mixed with the sound of rain, so clear it made his scalp crawl.

Layer upon layer of insect bodies, like darkness made flesh, closed in around Zhou Kai.

Crack, crack.

A chewing sound came from behind him...

Several Blood Beetles had climbed up the outside wall and were gnawing at the glass and window frame with their mouthparts.

The bugs were small, and there were so many of them. How was he supposed to fight them?

A despair far deeper than anything he'd felt when facing the Chain-Hammer Armored Soldier or Dough-Face welled up inside him.

Zhou Kai pulled the Moonlight Orchid sprout from inside his clothes, a bitter smile on his face.

"This thing's nowhere near flowering... I've got it, but I can't use it. That's what really sucks!"

The nearest beetles were less than two meters away.

But then, Zhou Kai's eyes shifted.

"Add points!"

[The Moonlight Orchid sprout has undergone a special change...]

[You spent 9 Universal Experience Points and obtained: Moonlight Orchid Amulet (Consumable)]

[Moonlight Orchid Amulet: When confronted by the Uncanny, consume durability to release sacred moonlight. When the Uncanny has gone, the tranquil moonlight will grant you a prolonged Clear-Headed effect.]

The moment the experience points flowed into it, the sprout seemed to ripen before his eyes. It shot upward and swelled!

Its green leaves turned yellow and withered, all their life force drained and condensed into the dusky-blue flower bud at the center.

The stem and leaves twisted and curled on their own. A black cord appeared out of thin air and threaded through the knot of leaves, leaving a crude amulet dangling in Zhou Kai's palm.

Whoosh.

The next second, it lit up.

A flash of icy blue light erupted, like a drop of pure water falling into an ink pool, forcefully sweeping away all the filth around it.

Zhou Kai stared at the blue light, his breath catching.

At the same time, the maddening scraping sounds around him abruptly stopped.

Silence. An oppressive silence.

After several breaths, the Blood Beetles that had been drawing near reacted as if they'd been branded by a hot iron. They let out sharp squeals and frantically retreated, as though Zhou Kai carried some deadly plague.

Soon, they were six meters away.

Squeak, squeak...

The insects seemed unwilling to give up. They struggled along the edge, testing how close they could get.

But every time they edged nearer, white vapor rose from their bodies as if they were burning, and instinct drove them back.

During this silent standoff, Zhou Kai noticed the amulet's glow dim slightly before his eyes.

"A consumable?"

Zhou Kai's expression grew grave.

The swarm would last at least three more hours. He'd be lucky if this amulet could last ten or fifteen minutes.

And the denser the bugs were, the faster it would run out.

If he wanted to use it to clear a path all the way down to the first floor...

The amulet would probably burn out before he made it through the stairwell.

So what should he do?

Zhou Kai stared out the window, his gaze gradually turning resolute.

He bent down and dragged up the cold corpse.

Then he took a deep breath. The instant he let it out, he charged forward!

Crash—

Glass shards and blood sprayed outward as he hurled himself from the second-floor window like a cannonball!