Chapter 868: Armored Figure

868. Armored Figure

Boom!

Not long after the car left the underground parking lot, Lin Ye felt a suffocating pressure bearing down on him. Half a second later, the car was blown to pieces, and the searing heat and lethal radiation destroyed his body.

'...The hell, where did this dump me off?!'

Lin Ye struggled to his feet from the ground. He was lying face-down in a dirt pit. The sky was gray, and the air around him was thick with dust, heat, and blinding light.

The air was saturated with spiritual energy, but he couldn't control it at all right now. His body was being influenced by the spiritual energy, and some of his tissues were starting to show signs of mutation.

'What the hell is wrong with this body?'

Lin Ye was now only the size of a palm, and his reaction speed had been weakened many times over.

'Right, the car got blown up. I yanked the steering wheel and stuck one hand out the window... it was the Split ability. That left hand wasn't destroyed...'

This Special Ability was way more troublesome than Lin Ye had imagined. His current physical condition was so degraded that he was weaker than an ordinary person, and his mental energy level was on par with this tiny body.

'With mental energy this weak, I can't even sense the outside world. What kind of garbage ability is this...'

Lin Ye lay in the pit formed by the explosion. Even without being able to sense his surroundings with mental energy, he knew he was in the middle of a war.

Raging spiritual energy, charred flesh, trembling air... This mix of scents could only be found deep within a battlefield.

If he were in his normal state, Lin Ye wouldn't mind at all being in the center of a battlefield. As long as there was spiritual energy and corpses, as far as he was concerned, the war was already over.

But right now, he was just a palm-sized piece of trash who couldn't even control his own body's mutation. Forget ending the war, he didn't even have the strength to run away.

Fortunately, the Special Ability had provided him with a well-fitting outfit, even the color matched the prison garb. How thoughtful.

'What do I do now? It's not like I can just bury myself somewhere, right?'

Although the situation was grim, Lin Ye didn't plan on killing himself to start over.

As long as he wasn't dead, there was still a chance to turn things around.

After thinking for half a second, Lin Ye started digging a hole. It wasn't a great plan, but he had no other choice.

After digging for five minutes, Lin Ye managed to create a temporary pit he could hide in. But before he could even stabilize the structure, a figure flew over from the distance and smashed his temporary base to pieces.

It was a humanoid creature wearing a full suit of metallic Spiritual Energy Armor. Its head was covered by a metal helmet, and Lin Ye had no idea what was inside.

However, this humanoid creature was only about one and a half meters tall. It didn't look like a warrior at all, more like a dwarf wearing armor.

Of course, it was still much larger than Lin Ye in his current state.

The humanoid creature didn't get up from the ground. It lay in the dirt pit like it was dead, completely motionless.

But Lin Ye knew perfectly well it wasn't dead. As a flesh expert who frequently entered battlefields, even without mental energy, he could tell the difference between a living person and a corpse.

In other words, this armored figure was playing dead.

Lin Ye's temporary base was crushed underneath the creature's armor. It was probably scrap by now.

So he decided to have a talk with it.

After all, he couldn't last much longer out here anyway. This was a risk he had to take.

"Hello, you crushed my temporary base."

Lin Ye walked over near the armor's head and knocked on its helmet.

The armored figure didn't respond. It seemed determined to keep playing dead.

"If you plan on dying here, then by all means, keep playing dead. Neither of us is in a good situation, but I'm definitely way better off than you."

Even if Lin Ye died, he could just start over. That might not be the case for the other party.

"...What are you?"

Natalie stared at the tiny person in front of her and spoke up nervously.

"Obviously, I'm a human. My size changed like this because of my... super powerful ability. When I take heavy damage, I can split off a small individual to escape."

This was the lamest Special Ability Lin Ye had ever used.

"Are you a military district commander?"

Natalie shrank back nervously.

"No, I'm just a passerby who got caught up in this war. To be honest, I don't even know what this war is about."

Lin Ye answered very bluntly.

"Me too! I'm just a student from the academy. I don't know how it happened, but I was sent to the front lines. They said I'd be doing logistics work, but as soon as the war started, I got thrown into the battlefield!"

Natalie spoke excitedly, like she had finally found a kindred spirit.

"Did you piss someone off? This is clearly someone trying to get you killed."

Lin Ye didn't rush to push the conversation forward. Instead, he chatted with Natalie.

"I don't know either. My family background is ordinary, and I've never provoked anyone before..."

Natalie had thought about this question too.

"You can think about that when you get back. Do you want to go back alive?"

Lin Ye could feel the spiritual energy around them vibrating violently, which meant something was approaching.

"Of course I do! But I'm too weak, I can't leave the battlefield on my own. Can you help me?"

A huge shadow appeared not far behind Natalie, but she didn't notice it at all.

"I'm extremely fragile right now, with no combat ability whatsoever. But I can teach you a way to get stronger fast... grab hold of me!"

Lin Ye moved close to Natalie's arm, and she instinctively grabbed him.

A pulsating fleshy tube descended onto Natalie and sucked her inside.

"What is this thing?!"

Natalie held Lin Ye loosely in her palm as she was pulled deeper into the tube by an irresistible suction force.

"It's probably a giant creature used to collect corpses. Don't worry... oh, you might be screwed."

At the end of the tube, Lin Ye spotted some biological tissue that looked like chainsaws. The corpses that passed through before were all chopped into chunks by them.

"Hiss! What do I do! I don't want to die!"

Natalie saw the chainsaw tissue too. She struggled desperately, but she couldn't fight against the suction force at all.

"Sigh, I didn't think we'd have to say goodbye this soon."

Lin Ye lowered his head sadly and mourned for Natalie.

"Don't you have a way to get stronger! Tell me now!"

Natalie kept pushing off the corpses behind her, using them to slow her approach toward the chainsaw tissue. But under the suction force, they were still inching closer and closer to those saws.

"Getting stronger takes time, and it needs preparation. It'd take at least ten-odd minutes. By then, you'd already be ground meat."

Lin Ye had no solution either. He was useless right now, completely unable to help Natalie. The best he could do was stitch her corpse chunks back together.

Well, honestly, he couldn't even do that.