After packing the meat and vegetables into his backpack, Lin Ye continued jogging down the corridors.
Honestly, the treasure chests' contents were so bizarre that he was already considering whether to keep wasting keys.
If nothing else, he was afraid his backpack would run out of space if he kept opening them like this.
There was no way he could finish all this food alone. His shelter had no refrigerator, and fresh meat and vegetables could not be stored for long.
As for selling it to other survivors... Lin Ye did not think he was the only one finding food.
Fortunately, the vehicle Li Ji had given him earlier had come stocked with plenty of seasonings. Otherwise, Lin Ye would not have known what to do with these ingredients.
After running through another ten corridors, Lin Ye encountered his third locked room.
"I'll open one more. If it's food again, I'll stop."
Having made his decision, Lin Ye unlocked the door with the Red Key.
This time, there was no treasure chest inside, but shelves he had not seen in a while. This was a storeroom.
Lin Ye carefully searched every corner of the room and found five bottles of nutrient solution, three Mutation Cards, one metal key for opening a special room, and one dagger on the shelves.
The Mutation Cards were all among the later-numbered cards. The dagger had a seven-centimeter blade and a gray wooden grip. It looked extremely sharp and was probably a Psionic Energy item similar to the Cross Necklace.
Putting these things into his backpack, Lin Ye continued exploring the maze.
This time, Lin Ye ran for half an hour without encountering a single locked room. Just as he was starting to find this strange, he came across a dark red corridor with no rooms.
So that's why. But there aren't any monsters in the corridor... Does that mean the monster is in the hall ahead?
Lin Ye reached the end of the corridor. After setting down the rice and his backpack of supplies, he pushed open the red double doors.
Inside was the familiar hall, but a figure stood in its center.
"Heh heh heh..."
The figure wore a pitch-black robe with a hood over his head. A chilling, dry laugh came from beneath the hood.
"You can talk?"
This was the first time Lin Ye had encountered a mutated creature willing to communicate.
"Thank you for opening the doors. I thought I'd made this trip for nothing."
There was an inexplicable arrogance in the figure's words, like a higher life-form facing a lower one.
"Are you a survivor too? Did the system make you guard this place?"
Lin Ye did not care about his tone, but he needed the figure to keep talking so he could get more information, so he provoked him a little.
"Survive? Guard? Could you stop putting me in the same category as you? I'm not some wretch forced to come here and struggle to survive. I came here of my own accord."
The figure's tone was utterly disdainful.
"But aren't you still guarding the place for the system? What's the difference? At least I don't have to guard a door."
Lin Ye spoke with disdain as well.
"Heh, scum. You know nothing of the system's might. Countless planes, every race-with the exception of a few extremely dangerous planes, everything is under the system's administration. With your intelligence, you couldn't even imagine what kind of existence the system is."
The figure was in no hurry to kill Lin Ye. There was still time, and he wanted to take his time dealing with this spoils of war.
"But we're on equal footing right now, aren't we?"
Lin Ye did not waste any more words. He had never been much of a talker, and the other party was just a Tier 1 pawn. Even if he knew some information, it was nothing important.
They were not far apart. For Lin Ye as he was now, the distance was only a single step.
The instant he drew the Red Blade, an invisible blade of psionic energy slashed toward the figure's chest, where his only mutation organ was located.
"You're asking for death!"
The figure tugged at his black robe, and a Psionic Energy barrier appeared in front of him. At the same time, he drew a pistol and fired twice at Lin Ye.
Seemingly afraid of wasting bullets, the figure did not keep firing. In his view, Lin Ye could not dodge those two bullets.
Lin Ye indeed could not dodge bullets yet, but he could block them. A thin layer of Psionic Energy Protection easily stopped the two bullets imbued with psionic energy, leaving the second layer of Psionic Energy Protection he had created with nothing to do, let alone the third layer he was preparing.
In contrast to Lin Ye, the figure's black robe failed to stop the Psionic Energy blade Lin Ye had slashed out, which carried a portion of his cutting attribute. A gash opened through both the black robe and his chest.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Ye plunged the Red Blade into the figure's chest amid his screams, piercing his mutation organ.
The CL0 Pistol in his left hand, its bullet mutation complete, was ready to fire. Had his opponent not performed so abysmally, he would already have pulled the trigger. This was a Tier 1 Psionic Being, after all. Lin Ye would not give him any chance.
Just as Lin Ye had said, they were on equal footing, and only one of them could live. Yet the other party did not seem to understand that.
"...How... is that possible? You're not even... Tier 1... How could you... damage my... equipment? How... could you block... my attacks?"
The figure's despairing voice came in broken fragments. Even as he died, he never figured out what had happened.
"Although I don't know much about the system, or anything about countless planes and every race, I think the system maintains a basic level of fairness. Since you're Tier 1, there's no way I could be an ordinary survivor. But honestly, you're so weak that you've made me question whether the system really has that basic fairness."
Lin Ye sighed.
This was the first time he had encountered such a weak Tier 1 creature.
The figure died just like that, his eyes rather wide.
Lin Ye removed the figure's equipment and examined his entire body. This was a humanlike creature, but many parts of his body differed from those of humans on Blue Star. He was probably some kind of humanoid race.
A complex, ring-shaped mark resembling a tattoo was imprinted on the corpse's chest. Its meaning was unknown.
After dissecting and disposing of the corpse, Lin Ye obtained a damaged black robe, a pistol with only eight bullets left, and a Tier 1 Mutation Organ.
He submitted the mutation organ to the blueprint quest for the Tier 1 Psionic Energy Crystal Fabricator, bringing its progress to (2/10). Lin Ye had also obtained one Tier 1 Mutation Organ from the earlier Site Mission. He only needed eight more to complete it.
Lin Ye hoped to finish this quest as soon as possible. Then perhaps he would be able to absorb psionic energy to strengthen his body in the shelter.
The psionic energy content of nutrient solution was too low. His current stock would not be enough for even a few cycles.
Besides, he could not keep drinking nutrient solution. That stuff was mainly meant to provide nutrition, and its notes also said not to drink too much.
Having dealt with the brain-dead mutated creature guarding the doors, Lin Ye began inspecting the doors in the hall. They were arranged just as before: red double doors opposite him, a red wooden exit door on the left, and a locked dark red metal door on the right.
An item room? I just happened to get another metal key for a special room.
He unlocked the door with the metal key. Inside was the same ordinary room with a dark red pedestal, but this time, a crafting blueprint lay on the pedestal.
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