Chapter 193 - 192: A Sporadic Harvest

Chapter 193: Chapter 192: A Sporadic Harvest

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For the next few hours, it was never quiet around the Graveyard Demon.

Five pickup trucks and two heavy trucks came and went, while billows of Black Fog surged inside and outside the walls.

Bone Ash, Healthy Body, and Push Tooth led their respective teams, searching along the path the Six-legged Lizard had crashed through. They packed up and brought back everything they could salvage along the way.

The pickups would just finish unloading one haul when they would vanish in a swirl of Black Fog. The heavy trucks’ cargo beds weren’t even empty before the next batch of wreckage was piled at the foot of the wall, waiting.

Broken crab legs, shattered platform fragments, twisted Metal supports, and other unidentifiable parts were continuously transported back and piled up in the open space outside the Graveyard Demon.

Every time a batch was brought back, the Undead Boss or Minion leading the team would personally come to report, detailing where they had been, what they had encountered, and whether there was any good loot in the latest haul.

From these fragmented reports, Gu Su gradually pieced together the path the Giant Lizard had carved on its rampage.

They had already reached defense line 75.

The Swamp Rotting Crab, now completely covered in Corroding Mycelium, was the Mobile City of the player from defense sector 73. The gruesome wounds on the Crystalized Six-legged Giant Lizard’s abdomen had been inflicted by the Guardian of defense sector 75 in a desperate, last-ditch struggle.

As for the one from defense sector 74—

On one of its return trips, Bone Ash’s pickup truck wasn’t carrying wreckage, but a corpse.

A corpse clad in tattered Armor. Along with it came the remains of half a Bone Horse.

Gu Su stood by the side of the truck bed and glanced down.

He could tell it was a Death Knight player. The body was still clad in Armor forged from a mix of white bone and black Metal, with high, prominent pauldrons and a helmet engraved with intricate Undead runes.

His body and his steed were almost fused, their skeletons so intertwined it was impossible to distinguish human bone from horse bone.

’The Guardian of sector 74.’

From the looks of it, when the Giant Lizard had charged, this Death Knight hadn’t even had a chance to escape. He’d been killed instantly.

After all, he didn’t have a Mobile City. Facing a Giant Beast over sixty meters long with only a horse... there could only be one outcome.

Gu Su waved his hand, ordering the Skeletons to carry the corpse down.

As an Undead Mage, a corpse was a corpse in his eyes, whether it belonged to an NPC or a player.

’Dead is dead. There’s no difference.’

’The only difference is how you use them.’

He didn’t have them place the corpse just anywhere.

The corpse of a Death Knight player was indeed a rarity, but he didn’t have a Level 6 Tomb. Even with the complete Armor, corpse, and steed, he couldn’t create a new Death Knight.

The corpse was fated to become just another common Undead, so the best option for now was to turn it into a Ghost. Only then would the player’s decade-plus of education not go to waste.

’Rather than let it go to waste, I should process it now. A Level 3 Tomb will have to do.’

As for the steed that was almost fused with the Death Knight, the situation seemed a bit odd.

Gu Su had a feeling the steed had been fused with the Death Knight through some special method.

’This is probably the Death Knight’s Talent.’

But Gu Su wasn’t sure about the nature of this fusion. In any case, the Death Knight was dead, and his Talent had vanished with him, leaving Gu Su no way to investigate.

In the end, Gu Su could only order one of his Death Knights to drag the whole mess back to figure out what to do with it.

The dead Death Knight’s weapon and Armor were dragged back along with him.

Although the gear was all White Quality, it was at least proper equipment. And since it was standard-issue for a Death Knight, it was far better than the tattered Beast Skins his own units had stripped off Lizardmen.

The large Cleaver in particular was coveted by several of the Death Knights.

But there was only one blade. After squabbling over it for a good while, only one Death Knight managed to claim it. The others divided up the Armor pieces, planning to gather more materials later to forge new sets for themselves.

After dealing with all that, Gu Su looked again at the piles of wreckage stacked up outside.

The pickups and heavy trucks were still making runs, but the items they brought back were becoming more and more fragmented.

Fragments of Mobile Cities, broken weapon parts, discarded Energy Cores, and the like.

As soon as these items reached the edge of the Graveyard Demon, they were entangled by the grayish-white mycelium, broken down into basic materials, and absorbed. The whole process was swift and clean, without so much as a system prompt.

Gu Su frowned.

’It’s all too fragmented.’

’Maybe the Giant Lizard smashed everything too thoroughly, or maybe Bone Ash and the others haven’t found the real prize yet—the first Mobile City the beast destroyed. It has to be out there somewhere, farther away.’

He raised his head and looked at the sky.

The purple halo in the sky had faded, and a grayish-white light was dawning on the horizon. He had been working nonstop for over ten hours, ever since being woken up in the middle of the night.

He had been about to get some rest before, but then this whole incident occurred, and he hadn’t managed to rest at all.

He hadn’t felt it while he was busy, but now that there was a lull, he felt he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

His eyelids were growing heavy.

He glanced again at the progress inside and outside the Graveyard Demon. Nothing seemed to require his personal attention. He looked up at the sky again—the next wave of Attacks hadn’t begun. ’There shouldn’t be any more emergencies, right?’

With that thought, Gu Su turned and walked toward his living quarters, intending to finally get some rest.

After all, he hadn’t slept for so long that even with the boost from leveling up, he couldn’t keep going.

Besides, there was nothing more for him to do here at the moment.

But as Gu Su rounded the Deceitful Tree, he froze.

His living quarters, the camper-like room he had cobbled together from a spaceship hull and sheet Metal from a Mobile Castle, was now completely sealed under a thick layer of white Corroding Mycelium.

The mycelium crept up from the base of the walls to the roof and seeped through the cracks around the door, wrapping the entire room in a giant white cocoon. It looked as if it was undergoing some kind of upgrade.

’This is obviously a result of devouring the other Mobile Cities.’

’At the very least, that crab-like Mobile City must have had its own living quarters.’

Gu Su stood before the cocoon of mycelium, silent for a few seconds.

’Forget it.’

He turned, walked back to the Deceitful Tree, and sat down, leaning against its thick trunk. The trunk glowed faintly in the purple light, and its drooping branches swayed without a breeze. Occasionally, fine Large-leaf Lily Seeds, resembling bits of Paper Money, would drift down.

The seeds were thin and light, spiraling down from high above to land on Gu Su’s shoulders, his knees, and the soil around him.

Gu Su paid them no mind.

He leaned against the trunk and closed his eyes. The branches of the Deceitful Tree swayed gently above him. A slight breeze drifted by, carrying the cloying, sweet scent unique to the Corroding Mycelium and the earthy smell of the distant Withered Wood Forest.

The seeds continued to fall, one after another, gently blanketing him.

And just like that, he sank into a deep sleep.