Return, Gains

Wu Pifu's muscles tensed all over. He was far more on guard than when he had faced the boar demon.

Though he had immediately entered the controlled demonic state when facing the boar demon, that had been to kill it with minimal injury, not because he had been driven into a desperate situation.

But now, Wu Pifu did not even dare enter the controlled demonic state. The thing outside... was too terrifying!

Even without seeing it with his own eyes, even with a door between them, goosebumps rose all over his body. If he had to compare it, it was as terrifying as ten Half-Paper Men, or five boar demons stacked together.

This was definitely a boss-level monster!

Even Jiujiu, still asleep, instinctively woke up at the monster's approach. That alone showed how dangerous it was.

Wu Pifu had no idea what to do. The storeroom door was not sturdy, and the monster outside did not seem to be trying its hardest to break it down. He did not know whether it was toying with them or simply lacked intelligence.

Most likely, it had been drawn here by something—either the scent of living humans from him and Jiujiu, or the scent of the boar demon flesh he had cut off.

Wu Pifu gently removed his hand from Jiujiu's beak and shook his head at her. Then, moving as quietly as possible, he picked up an iron shelf and piled it against the door, adding the heavy objects in the storeroom on top of it.

(There are about twenty or thirty minutes left before the twenty-four hours are up. Based on my previous experience, this should be when all the little and big monsters start going berserk at the end of the "week," and when they notice the existence of us "outsiders." As long as we can endure this stretch, we can return safely...)

Wu Pifu thought silently. After piling nearly every heavy object in the storeroom against the door, he spoke to Jiujiu in an extremely low voice. "If we die later, don't move around after reviving. First confirm the situation where you are. If there isn't an immediate threat of death, then play dead where you are. If there is, run immediately. Keep stalling for time. Injuries and everything else don't matter. Nod if you understand."

Jiujiu's eyes were full of fear, but she obediently nodded.

Just then, the thing outside suddenly increased its strength, and the entire door showed signs of being crushed into the storeroom.

Wu Pifu did not dare speak again. He pressed his whole body against the iron shelf and exploded with strength, driving his qi and blood to the limit. His arms, waist, and legs unleashed nearly one and a half tons of force, bending the metal shelf as he slowly forced the entire door back outward.

Seeing this, the fear in Jiujiu's eyes gradually began to fade.

But it did not last long. As second after second passed, the monster outside suddenly exerted more force, and the door was once again slowly pushed inward.

By then, beads of blood were emerging all over Wu Pifu's body, while large amounts of steam rose up and turned into a pale red blood mist that spread through the room.

Even so, the door was still being irreversibly pushed inward, little by little. Just as it was about to be forced completely open, Wu Pifu abruptly closed his eyes, then opened them. His eyes turned blood-red once more. The next instant, the door was slowly forced back outward again.

Blood immediately erupted from Wu Pifu's elbow joints and wrists. The muscles and bones in his arms seemed to have been crushed into pulp by some immense pressure. Once he entered the controlled demonic state, all protective restraints throughout his body vanished, allowing his enormous strength to surpass the limit his flesh could withstand.

But this state could not last. Wu Pifu knew that he was merely stalling for the final moments, holding on for however long he could.

Yet this time, less than two minutes after he forced the door back, the monster outside increased its strength again. This time, the force was unimaginably great. Not only did the entire metal door shatter into pieces, even the storeroom's outer wall was crushed apart. Then Wu Pifu and Jiujiu saw hundreds of heads extending out from the darkness of the sewer, staring at them with bizarre gazes.

"...Wu Pifu! There's an exam tomorrow!"

A hand slapped Wu Pifu's shoulder, jolting the drowsy Wu Pifu awake. Still groggy from sleep, he suddenly remembered class was about to start and waved his hand. "Quit messing around, Li, Wang, Zhang... who are you?"

Countless names flashed through Wu Pifu's mind, but then he abruptly felt something was wrong. That voice was both familiar and unfamiliar, and he could not call out the name at all. He turned toward the voice and the hand, only to see a grinning head floating before him. The next moment, everything around him began to dissolve—the classroom, the desks, even himself...

When Wu Pifu opened his eyes again, all he could see was a hazy blur. He was immersed in a translucent liquid, his entire body fixed within it like an insect frozen in amber. As he woke, unimaginable agony swept across him. His limbs, torso, even his head were slowly dissolving.

Not good! Corrosion!!

Wu Pifu was horrified, because this was not death. Though his entire body was dissolving, he could still feel the parts that had dissolved. They had not been digested, but transformed into another life-form, one that was merging with other life!

He was being rapidly corroded!

And if he lost his sense of self and his anchored awareness of reality while being corroded—if he fell into an illusion, for example—then he would be unable to return to the real world!

As Wu Pifu thought this, he saw Jiujiu not far away. Her body was also dissolving, and around one-fifth of it had already vanished.

Before he could do anything, his consciousness became hazy once more...

"Pifu, eat some more." A gentle female voice spoke.

"Summer vacation ends tomorrow. Remember to listen carefully in class." A somewhat stern male voice spoke.

Wu Pifu was eating with his head lowered. As he ate, tears rolled into his bowl, and for a moment, he could not bear to lift his head.

He knew it was all an illusion. Someone else might have seen their parents or classmates, but his intuition was too strong. With the Yellow Lotus Fragment's enhancement, perhaps along with the Sleepless Spirit-Sense of the Tiger Demon Art, he could see the truth and break free of these illusions.

But...

Why did it have to use his parents...

Wu Pifu slowly raised his head. Sure enough, he saw two floating heads grinning bizarrely at him. Then everything began dissolving again...

Wu Pifu opened his eyes once more. Even part of his eyeballs had begun to dissolve, while one-third of Jiujiu's body had vanished. Once the corrosion exceeded fifty percent, it meant you were no longer human, or no longer a "life-form" recognized by the Main Brain. At that point, it would be impossible to return to reality.

"Take it! Take it all!!"

With the last of his control over his body, Wu Pifu stopped holding back entirely. His qi and blood surged in reverse, his eyes turned scarlet, and he hurled his entire sea of consciousness wildly into the deepest depths of his negative emotions.

In an instant, the solution encasing Wu Pifu began to boil. The translucent liquid turned black, while countless black traces of energy spread from Wu Pifu's remaining flesh, staining everything around him like ink.

At the same time, the instant Wu Pifu fell into demonic corruption, his Sleepless Spirit-Sense controlled him and unleashed one final roar. Like thunder, like a howl, it spread from the solution into the surrounding area. Jiujiu was affected first. She suddenly opened her eyes, and tears poured out. Then came those bizarre grinning heads. Their smiles froze; first they looked lost, then pained, before they gradually began to fade away.

Only a few seconds passed before the enormous monster completely turned pitch-black. Then all the liquid began to evaporate, and Wu Pifu and Jiujiu within it had vanished without a trace, disappearing from the sewer.

A while later, the ground above the sewer suddenly exploded open, and a man clad in bone armor descended from above. He looked around, then reached down to touch the ground. At that moment, two more people landed on the street above the sewer—a man and a woman. The man held a long staff made from an alien head and spine, while the woman gripped a multicolored bead.

"What was it?" the woman asked.

The man in bone armor shook his head. "Can't confirm it, but an extremely intense pollution source erupted here just now. The contamination index reached the million range!"

The staff-wielding man and the bead-holding woman were both shocked. The man immediately said, "The million range!? Then it was at least Baseline Reality 0.5!?"

"More than that!" The woman holding the bead turned serious. "Contamination data is the most direct manifestation of terror. Baseline Reality 0.9 is one to one hundred, then 0.8 is one hundred to one thousand, 0.7 is one thousand to ten thousand... By that calculation, one million to ten million falls within Baseline Reality 0.4... the realm of gods and demons!"

The man in bone armor silently listened to them. He looked up at the sky and sighed. "There isn't enough time this round. The end of the 'week' is about to arrive. We still failed to complete the mission of hunting down the remaining members of the Human Revolutionary Union, especially... 'him'!"

The three of them fell silent. Then their bodies gradually faded away, vanishing completely.

Wu Pifu abruptly opened his eyes and rolled to his feet, tensely scanning his surroundings. Just then, chirping came from above his head. The next second, Jiujiu landed on his shoulder with a yellowed sheet of paper and a fingernail-sized black object in her beak, tilting her head at him.

Wu Pifu let out a huge sigh of relief. He looked around, confirmed that he was indeed inside Gaia, then collapsed to the ground and said to Jiujiu, "You fat bird, how did you get corroded into a dream so easily?"

Jiujiu flew into a rage. She dropped the things in her beak, rammed herself into Wu Pifu's forehead, and kept pecking at his brow.

Instead, Wu Pifu relaxed. He casually picked up the yellowed paper and the black object, about to toss them aside, but the instant he touched them, the Main Brain's voice rang out in his mind.

"Important information discovered... assessment complete. Level Two maintenance personnel Wu Pifu, do you wish to submit the important information in exchange for one of the following options?"

"Advance occupational classification by one level."

"Based on your current power system, randomly obtain a compatible foundational cultivation method from Baseline Reality 0.7 to Baseline Reality 0.5."

"Transmit five hundred carbon-based nano-units."

"Awaken ten Level One maintenance personnel."

"Please choose."