Chapter 122 - 108: Baptism

Chapter 122: Chapter 108: Baptism

’So this is Trudeau’s body?’

’If the Superpower contamination radiating from it didn’t share the same origin, I’d have a hard time believing this was a human corpse.’

This was a cave, well-hidden from the outside, but its interior had been renovated to be quite suitable for human habitation.

Clearly, Trudeau had used this as a long-term hideout.

Chen Qi now stood inside it, carefully examining a desiccated human corpse.

The reason for his caution was the thick Superpower contamination still lingering on the body.

This was the first time Chen Qi had encountered an LV3 player. Even though it was a dead one, he could still glean a great deal of information.

...

’The life force within the cells has been completely Devoured.’

’The entire corpse is like a piece of burnt charcoal. After the promotion to LV3, the Card’s appetite has grown. Or rather, it needs to Devour more.’

Compared to Feng Xingyun’s body, Trudeau’s remains revealed numerous details about LV3.

The most obvious was the Superpower contamination. From a Spiritual perspective, the residual purple mist on the corpse radiated all sorts of ill omens.

Chen Qi intentionally tossed a few insects toward it, only for their life force to be instantly drained dry.

Fortunately, the contamination was cut off from its source. Within a few hours at most, it would be worn away by the surrounding Matter Field.

While the qualitative leap in the Superpower was startling, what truly made Chen Qi fearful was that the Card’s appetite had changed.

Previously, it only sought Spirituality, and its Erosion of the human body was limited to "saturating" the cells with Spirituality.

’But after LV3, the Card had actually started to Devour life force.’

’Is it simply demanding tribute from its lackeys, requiring them to offer up their life force?’

’Or does it see that its pawns have completed their transformation—that the crop is ripe for the reaping?’

Regardless of the answer, it wasn’t good news for the players.

’Just as I thought. As the skills improve, the Card’s degree of awakening also rises. It’s a living thing, after all.’

Chen Qi sighed and, with a casual gesture, destroyed Trudeau’s body to eliminate any trace.

’Since he’s already dead, there’s no need for him to pollute the environment.’

As for a more detailed dissection, that was unnecessary.

The man’s flesh and tissue were no different from charcoal—nothing more than a pile of inorganic matter.

Fortunately, aside from the corpse, there were other finds in the cave.

On a surface that resembled a workbench, Chen Qi discovered two items that greatly interested him.

Everything else in the cave was worthless to him, though it might help some vagrant survive a warm winter.

After dismissing the idea of setting the place on fire, Chen Qi returned to the mine with his two pieces of loot.

For the time being, he planned to make this place his lair.

The scenery may have been a bit desolate, but it was undeniably safe.

...

After the great war, the Fadir Mine could well be renamed the Fadir Ruins.

Although the final, decisive battle had taken place in a virtual world, that didn’t mean the preceding fighting had been any less intense.

On the contrary, the most magnificent and spectacular battle occurred when Chen Qi faced the Eight Great Vajra.

Trudeau’s cultivated Corrosive Insects and Explosive Insects, in particular, were practically Divine Artifacts capable of splitting mountains and cracking the earth.

In the few minutes those creatures ran rampant, a dozen or so of the surrounding mountains collapsed.

The rumbling boom of the Explosive Insects, especially, might have fooled an uninformed observer into thinking the Fadir Mine had resumed its mountain-blasting operations.

The ground was razed flat and overflowing with sulfuric acid; this had been the most difficult stage of the battle for Chen Qi.

It was only after completely wiping out those two great insect swarms that Chen Qi had the opportunity to secretly lay a trap for Trudeau.

Though it was a little embarrassing to admit, Chen Qi had been completely overwhelmed for almost the entire fight.

But in the end, he who laughs last is the true winner. A spectacular fight doesn’t matter; survival is the only thing that counts.

...

"Come forth!"

Having "returned with a great haul," Chen Qi chose a flat mountaintop to land. At his Summon, a blob of silvery, metallic jelly emerged from the ground.

Although he had only left the mining area for a short time, Chen Qi hadn’t taken the Source Ore with him.

This was because the Source Ore had already Assimilated all the Matter Fields in the entire mine.

If it were taken away from the area, this delicate state of balance would be broken.

The Root of the problem was that while the Source Ore’s ability was very special, its Spirituality was too weak.

Its "Assimilation" of the Matter Fields was extremely faint; it had simply used a vast amount of time to link all the Matter Fields together, weaving a delicate net.

If it were to leave the mining area, that net would naturally cease to exist.

And to regain control over all the mine’s metal fields, it would have to start all over again.

Chen Qi didn’t have that kind of time to waste; it had taken the Source Ore a full two years to achieve its current level of control.

’First, I need to build a big house.’

The Source Ore transformed back into a silvery-white glove, covering Chen Qi’s right hand.

Chen Qi made a grasping motion with his right hand. In the next instant, raging torrents of iron surged toward him from all directions.

Chen Qi was directly pulling millions of pounds of iron sand. As the sand traveled, it continuously clumped together and ground against itself, ultimately forming into tiny iron pellets, each 1 millimeter in diameter.

CLATTER, CLATTER.

The army of pellets reached the spot Chen Qi had chosen. They began to fuse and splice together on their own, transforming into massive metal components.

In the blink of an eye, a complete set of construction materials lay before Chen Qi.

However, he didn’t need to lift a finger. The components flew into the air and began to assemble themselves.

In just three minutes, a metal fortress covering several thousand square meters had appeared before him.