Lin Ye tightly closed the door behind him and quickly approached the corpse, finding a pistol, a dagger, and two spare magazines on the body. The corpse's left chest had a large hole where the heart should have been.
The corridor, like the prison cells, lacked spiritual energy, and ntal power was similarly suppressed. Probably the entire unopened areas of the facility were in this state. Though Lin Ye hadn't possessed spiritual energy for long, he already felt extrely uncomfortable without it, especially being unable to sense his surroundings.
After reloading the pistol with a fresh magazine, Lin Ye cautiously moved down the corridor, closing any open doors he passed. The open cells were all empty, differing only in whether they contained D-Class personnel corpses.
These D-Class personnel basically had only five possible outcos:
Opening the door at the wrong ti, getting killed by monsters and leaving a corpse.
Opening the door at the wrong ti, getting killed by monsters without leaving a corpse.
Opening the door at the right ti, only to die elsewhere later.
Not opening the door, obediently hiding in the cell.
Not opening the door, obediently hiding in the cell, then getting killed by monsters breaking in.
Perhaps because the facility lacked spiritual energy, the more intelligent monsters avoided this area. After five minutes of walking, Lin Ye hadn't encountered a single creature.
Along the way, Lin Ye collected more weapons and equipnt. With spiritual energy and runes unavailable, firearms regained their dominance. This wasn't necessarily bad - for him, lacking spiritual energy was normal, while for the monsters, this was the abnormal world.
Lin Ye suddenly stopped when the corridor floor about ten ters ahead transford into a slowly expanding red puddle. The puddle originated from an open cell door. To close it, he'd need to approach the unknown open space and cross the depthless puddle - sothing Lin Ye absolutely didn't want to do.
Even simulated lives mattered - no need to seek death.
Just as Lin Ye considered finding an alternate route, a long-limbed humanoid creature covered in mouths on half its head ca staggering toward him. The monster stopped abruptly before the puddle, eyeing it warily.
Lin Ye's eyes lit up as he imdiately used his special skill - Deadly Joke. He felt nothing during activation, finding himself inexplicably behind the monster before realizing what happened.
"Hey!" Lin Ye called out while kicking the creature into the puddle. The monster couldn't react before plunging into what should have been corridor floor. It struggled briefly before going still, its body completely subrged as if consud by the puddle.
Lin Ye hurriedly shut the cell door, having zero interest in investigating inside. Though the puddle stopped expanding after the door closed, it didn't disappear - beyond Lin Ye's ability to handle.
Continuing down the corridor, Lin Ye soon encountered a second mouth-covered monster feasting on a prisoner's corpse. It felt like returning to his first blood-corpse encounter in the red maze, when he'd needed to probe for weaknesses.
The many-mouthed creature suddenly turned its head, nurous slender tongues extending from its mouths toward Lin Ye. Drawing his pistol, Lin Ye aid at its head but held fire - the distance was too great for guaranteed accuracy.
The monster charged without hesitation, considering humans defenseless delicacies after eating several already.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three bullets struck the monster's head, chest, and groin. It shrieked terribly but kept coming despite the wounds.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Lin Ye emptied his magazine, each bullet hitting previous wounds. As the monster reached him, Lin Ye used Deadly Joke to relocate to its blind spot.
Though the creature quickly located him again, Lin Ye had already reloaded by the ti it turned around.
Bang! Bang!
Two shots brought the monster down. Attempting Deadly Joke again failed - either it had a cooldown or could only be used once per target.
Lin Ye began dissecting the monster with his dagger, the only way now to locate its mutation organ. The autopsy revealed its weakness - a heart buried deep in the chest cavity near the spine, protected by layers of flesh and residual spiritual energy making it bullet-resistant.
Holding the energy crystal extracted from the monster's heart, Lin Ye pondered its use until running footsteps approached - more monsters drawn by the gunfire.
Gripping the crystal while watching two charging creatures, inspiration struck. Absorbing the crystal's spiritual energy into his hand, Lin Ye used his skill to appear behind the first monster, thrusting his empowered right hand into its body before it could react.
Spiritual energies collided and canceled out as Lin Ye crushed its heart. When the second monster approached, his skill worked perfectly again - perhaps individual cooldowns? Regardless, his physique couldn't afford to wait for cooldowns anyway.
Extracting another slippery crystal, Lin Ye continued exploring while closing doors, periodically encountering more monsters whose crystals he harvested.
These creatures weren't weak - their spiritual-enhanced bodies could withstand pistol fire - but Deadly Joke's insidiousness gave them no chance to react initially.
Of course, Lin Ye wasn't risk-free - compared to their enhanced physiques, his body remained fragile. While not instantly fatal, any solid hit would seriously injure him, and serious injury here equaled death, just slower.
Under death's threat, Lin Ye's movents grew increasingly fluid, developing a peculiar rhythmic quality between actions.
Previously, though capable of close combat, Lin Ye had preferred ranged attacks, especially after learning rune magic for safer engagents. But now he realized he might have chosen wrong - it was a matter of intensity and control precision.
At distance, his spiritual energy control and output weakened progressively. But in close quarters, even channeling energy through his body, both control and output improved dramatically.
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