Amidst a splash of water, a man and a corpse burst out of the river and stepped onto the bank. The Blood Corpse immediately turned around, preparing to deliver the final blow to Gray, but Gray, who had been conserving his energy for over ten seconds, was already ready.
The hook at the left wrist was firmly locked onto the Blood Corpse's collarbone, while the fist blade that shot out from the right hand pierced the soft upper jaw and went through the top of the Blood Corpse's skull.
The Blood Corpse leader, whose brain had been pierced, was not quite dead yet; his movements had only weakened considerably, but he was still far from completely ceasing to move.
Gray cursed inwardly, his right hand, with its fist blade, began to stir inside the Blood Corpse's skull, while the hooked blade on his left wrist was pulled out from his collarbone and hooked directly into the Blood Corpse's brain through its left eye.
Only after the Blood Corpse's head was mashed into a paste did this monster, which defied description as either "alive" or "dead," finally cease its movements.
Gray shook his right hand, and the Blood Corpse's head swayed twice in rhythm with him, but there was no other reaction. Only then did he feel relieved enough to draw his blade, sigh, and slump to the ground.
Without time to consider his exact losses, Gray used the hook on his left wrist to tear open his pants and, as expected, found several scratches on his left leg.
It seems my left leg is also going to be lost this time...
If the Antasia were still there, if all the replaceable components inside were still there, he could have returned to the Graycast Corridor alive as long as he didn't die immediately. But now the Antasia is forever left on the other side, and what separates them is a rushing river.
How am I supposed to survive after losing both legs?
Gray had just begun to think about the problem when he had to stop immediately.
He noticed something more serious—a string of teeth marks on his abdomen that had pierced through his lumbar support.
Through those tiny, closely spaced holes, he could see his damaged internal organs.
This is completely over.
Gray fell backward to the Descent, awaiting death, when suddenly the figure of a mechanic appeared before him.
The other person's words still faintly echoed in his ears:
"I'm not a germaphobe, I'm just worried that once the mechanical modifications start, they'll never end..."
"People always cherish themselves, but if you fight with the mindset of 'It's okay, I can just replace it with a machine,' the mechanical parts of your body will only increase..."
Also flashing by was a kind old merchant, almost entirely replaced by machines:
"After I die, there's no need for cremation. All that will come out is an ugly lump of metal ingots anyway, so it's better to just dismantle it and use it as spare parts. As for the biological parts, you can do whatever you want with them."
" Gray, remember this—how long you live in this world depends on how much you're willing to give up to survive..."
The old merchant's phantom vanished, and Gray heard again a deep, familiar voice from his youth, the voice of an instructor who trained merchants in the Great Labyrinth City:
"As reserve merchants, each of you has already undergone reformation. If you find yourself with nowhere else to turn, please don't forget that you still have a Vitality."
Yes, a glimmer of Vitality!
That thing, that miraculous artifact invented by the Grand Foundry Master, was now inside his body, inside his modified and replaced chest cavity!
I'm desperate, I have to survive!
Gray's eyes snapped open, and with his remaining right hand, he retracted his fist blade and ripped off the tattered abdominal armor that had been bitten off.
His robotic arm bypassed the damaged internal organs and continued to probe upwards, eventually finding a protrusion embedded in the inner side of the sternum between the two hearts.
He pressed down hard on the protrusion, and within a breath, he regained his energy and strength.
After silently thanking the Grand Foundry Master in his heart, Gray immediately began the self-inspection process.
The infection by the Blood Corpse was irreversible; his legs and internal organs had already developed problems to varying degrees.
Having confirmed this, Gray made the final decision.
He started counting his vertebrae one by one from his lower back with his right hand and quickly found the right position.
With precise control of the robotic arm, Gray located the gap between the two vertebrae without a visual view.
The fist blades were tainted by the Blood Corpse's bodily fluids and rendered unusable. Gray flipped over, grabbed his spine with one hand, gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and twisted backward with all his might—
"Click."
In that instant, Gray felt not excruciating pain, nor numbness, but a sense of emptiness brought about by the loss of most of his body.
He knew he had little left to live, and despite the mysterious device prolonging his life, the intense emotional turmoil still caused him to faint.
Fortunately, he woke up quickly and, judging from the position of the moon in the sky and the still-dry bloodstains, determined that he had only been unconscious for a few minutes to a dozen minutes.
At this moment, Gray's mind had stopped. He dared not think about what he looked like now. He knew that if he went to the riverbank and looked at his reflection, he would never be able to sleep peacefully again for the rest of his life...
But he overcame his fear, forcibly sifting through his own "corpse" to find some usable metal parts and piecing them together to form a pad to protect his Fragility chest. He placed it under himself, Gray at the moon's direction, and finally grabbed the World Tree ornament, beginning his westward journey.
He knew that there might be a Vitality of hope for him in that direction.
Gray was unaware of how many cycles of the sun and moon had passed; he simply moved forward using only his hook and fist blades.
There are quite a few Aberration monsters on the wasteland, but fortunately none of them like to eat brass. In their eyes, Gray is more like a moving stone than a half-rotten piece of flesh. The slightly rusty smell of the metal seems to disgust them, but it also happens to be Gray's "camouflage."
After an unknown amount of time, Gray finally realized where he had reached his limit.
He had tried his best to chase after his last chance at Vitality, but perhaps because he no longer had legs, he couldn't run fast enough, and in the end, he still couldn't grasp it.
With only half his body remaining, Gray leaned against a large tree, vaguely recalling a lame remark he'd made with his wife after his last business trip—"Who knows if there's anyone in this world who can walk on their hands while their butt is in a tree?"
This has truly come true...
Now it seems that while climbing a tree on your backside is a bit difficult, running away on your hands isn't as complicated as you might have imagined...
In the autumn sunlight, Gray closed his eyes with a sense of relief, and the cool autumn breeze brought a faint, almost imperceptible conversation:
"Hey, let me tell you, that old BYD guy Yiden teleported behind me, trying to ambush me. I just swung my elbow and knocked open the cabin door—no, I elbowed open his shield. His old face looked like..."
"Holy crap, a wild Geodude?!"