About ten or fifteen minutes later, a noise suddenly emanated from straight ahead.
At first, there was just a THUD.
The sound seemed to be coming from far away.
But soon, it drew nearer.
It sounded like something was repeatedly striking an iron plate.
With every strike, the sound grew closer.
An image unconsciously formed in Lu Yuan’s mind—
A creature resembling a rat man, running and leaping on the roofs of scrap vehicles, propelling itself violently forward with each leap...
Finally, a loud, muffled BANG! echoed from dozens of meters in front of Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan instinctively lifted his head.
He then saw a towering stack of four or five scrap vehicles, piled up like a small tower, sway slightly.
Then, from the top of the uppermost scrap car, a living creature slowly revealed half of its body.
It was a giant, hideous monster. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn N()velFire.net
Its face protruded, and its malformed head resembled that of an old rat whose fur hadn’t been completely peeled off.
Its eyes were surprisingly large, flashing with a vicious and bloodthirsty light.
Its blood-red gums were cruelly everted, revealing rows of fine, interlocking, sharp teeth from which translucent saliva constantly dripped.
It leaped violently from the four to five-meter-high pile of cars, landing on the ground with a THUD.
Its grotesque body was now fully visible.
It was estimated to be over two meters tall, and the muscles in all parts of its body were abnormally developed.
The claws on its naturally drooping forelimbs were sharp as knives, and wisps of visible Gray Gas coiled around its body.
A savage and tyrannical aura surged from it like a torrent, spreading wantonly in all directions.
Feeling the increasingly pervasive brutal elements in the air, Lu Yuan’s heart unconsciously beat faster, and his blood surged through his veins.
A nameless emotion rapidly spread within his chest.
All I have to do is wait for it to step into the detonation range of the device, then press the detonation button...
This thing will immediately be blown to smithereens, gone without a trace...
All it takes is a light movement of the finger.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Lu Yuan stared at the tablet in his hand, mumbling to himself.
Yet, a strange glint was steadily rising from the depths of his eyes.
The moment it completely filled his eyes, Lu Yuan’s expression calmed.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again after a few seconds.
As the Mouse Monster continuously approached the black box device, Lu Yuan slowly took off the backpack from his shoulder.
He placed it on the ground along with the tablet in his hand.
He took a step forward, moving completely out of the shadows and into the sunlight.
The golden light from the sun, nearing noon, bathed his entire body.
It was dazzling and carried a hint of scorching heat.
Something hidden beneath Lu Yuan’s skin and flesh seemed to be ignited by it.
Lu Yuan casually twisted his neck and limbs, producing a series of faint bone-cracking sounds, like a machine slowly starting up with CREAKING noises.
He walked step by step forward, toward the Mouse Monster, muttering to himself,
Why would I need to use an external force?
...I can handle it myself...
"The surgery is estimated to take a total of one hour and twenty-three minutes. You can find something to do. Watch some shows or something," in the spotless room, a doctor in a snow-white sterile suit casually said to Zhou Ling, who was lying on the operating table.
Zhou Ling nodded, feeling the anesthetic gradually spread through his body. His entire left leg quickly lost sensation.
Next, the surgeon would open up his left leg, remove the remaining bones, and complete the second-stage modification of his left leg.
Body modification was a very troublesome process, especially a full-body modification. The overall period was quite long.
Including the recovery, familiarization, and adaptation to the new body after the modification, Zhou Ling still had a long way to go to fully recover the strength of his previous body.
But who could he blame for having "died" once?
Having the chance to recover was already an extremely fortunate thing.
Many White Bear Guards like him, who had "died" due to their own mistakes, couldn’t afford the expensive secondary modification fees after resurrection.
They either chose to struggle anew from the very bottom, or they could only choose to withdraw in disappointment.
They would live with a cloned body like an ordinary person until natural old age and death, their consciousness stored in the information database becoming a piece of uncommented-upon code.
He was very lucky. He could still "reload his save" and start over from where he was.
He had even taken a huge step towards promotion to Red Bear Guard.
Compared to the Merit gained from completing this mission, this price was simply insignificant.
I wonder if that young boy has received my package?
Thinking of a certain person, the corners of Zhou Ling’s mouth unconsciously turned up slightly.
Then, he lightly tapped a spot on his left forearm. Soon, a blue light shot out from under the skin of his left arm, projecting a virtual light screen in front of him.
An image appeared on the screen: a junkyard piled high with abandoned vehicles. In a distant shadow, a young man stood, looking down at a tablet.
During non-mission periods, Zhou Ling could not access the surveillance satellite footage of the Old City Circle.
But the black box he had sent to Lu Yuan was equipped with a video surveillance function; as long as the device was activated, he could see the scene within a hundred-meter radius.
Captain Zhou was indeed worthy of his impending promotion to Red Bear Guard.