That question was extremely important.
What if the man was already completely dead, only for them to somehow make him rise again while trying to kill him? How were they supposed to kill him a second time then?
Yin Chen had no patience for making plans. He had already picked up his gun. “It’s fine. I’ll go in and take a look first.”
“Wait, Boss.” Lan Yu Heng hurriedly stopped him, then turned and patted Zhang Ming Shen. “Old Zhang, toss your coin!”
Zhang Ming Shen nodded. Pinching the ancient bronze coin between his fingers, he flicked it upward.
Clink—
“Holy shit, Great Misfortune again!” Ning Yan clutched his chest.
Every player was present, even Song Zhao Yang, who was obediently squatting nearby. That meant whatever lay inside the villa was no ordinary Great Misfortune. The Divination Coin had already taken the combat strength of every player present into account, yet it still unhesitatingly returned an overwhelmingly disastrous result.
—Even if they attacked together, the probability of death was extremely high. There was even a risk of the entire party being wiped out.
Song Zang’s face turned slightly pale. He looked toward one of the researchers. “Xiao Li, how high is the contamination level inside the villa?”
“Reporting! Moderately high. Anyone entering the villa to investigate must wear a full protective suit.” Xiao Li paused, his expression turning grave. “And the moment the ice coffin is opened, the system immediately triggers a high-risk contamination alarm. Humans should not approach. The robot dog has already resealed the coffin to prevent the contamination source from spreading rapidly.”
“Compared with the Deep Sea, which has the higher contamination level?” Ning Yan asked with a frown.
Xiao Li immediately pulled up the comparative data. “Once the ice coffin is opened, the contamination particles it releases within the first second are extremely similar in form to those found on the scales of Deep-Sea Subjects. Two drones used for close-range recording have already shown signs of corrosion. That means the target possesses extremely dangerous passive contamination even while completely inert.”
Before anyone else could speak, Xiao Li looked seriously at Song Zang again. “Director, I strongly recommend moving the target into a fully sealed isolation laboratory before taking any further action. Otherwise, if something goes out of control later, there is a serious risk of large-scale contamination.”
A strong recommendation from a professional naturally had good reason behind it.
“I agree. The facilities here aren’t sufficient. Transport it back to the experimental building first and let the old dragon give us its opinion too.” As Song Zang spoke, he pressed down Yin Chen’s raised gun barrel. “Don’t take unnecessary risks.”
After all, this was the corpse of the Long family ancestor—the first ability user in recorded history and, according to Song Ting, the strongest anomaly in the world.
The fact that the Guangming Consortium had concentrated so much effort on studying him, spent enormous sums trying to clone him, and suffered so many casualties whenever its experiments failed was enough to demonstrate just how powerful this ancestor had once been.
The soft touch of Song Zang’s fingertips brushing over the back of his hand made Yin Chen curve his lips at a wildly inappropriate moment. He obediently lowered the gun. “Mm. Teacher is right.”
The dangerous corpse was transported entirely by the robot dog’s powerful mechanical arm. The ice coffin was moved without direct contact into the armored truck, placed inside a bulletproof-glass container, wrapped beneath three layers of sealed anti-contamination material, and finally secured behind a reinforced iron door designed to withstand impact. They were taking absolutely no chances.
Dragon Nation’s capital entered an emergency state. Several streets between the outskirts and the Agency were completely sealed. Aside from police vehicles and ambulances, all private vehicles in the city were temporarily prohibited from using those roads, clearing an uninterrupted route for the potentially catastrophic corpse.
While the ice coffin was carefully transported back to the Agency, the players did not leave with it. Instead, they entered the villa in full protective gear to search for more useful clues.
Inside the underground laboratory, besides the ice coffin that had contained the main corpse, there were many other body parts stored in smaller ice coffins.
Every one appeared related to Long Shao You. They seemed to be experimental products created by cloning pieces of the ancestor’s severed limbs and then fusing those clones with other anomalies.
Beside every small ice coffin was a corresponding experimental record.
One severed hand had been stitched into half of a human-faced spider’s abdomen. Its strength was comparable to a B-rank anomaly, and its method of attack was to fire highly poisonous spider silk from the center of its palm.
One severed leg was a failed experiment. The instant it left the ice coffin, the flesh rapidly rotted away from the bone, collapsing into a mass of highly contaminating rotten meat with extreme corrosive properties.
A left ring finger had been sealed separately, its marrow filled with a special mineral. Once its activation condition was met, it forcibly attracted every ring within a five-hundred-meter radius. Each ring had to be placed on the final joint of the finger; otherwise, it would immediately enter an indiscriminate killing state.
Beyond those were countless malformed products created by failed cloning and failed fusion experiments. Every one of them was sealed inside an ice coffin and, for the moment, remained relatively stable and inert.
“What brand are these ice coffins? I want to buy one too.” Song Zang closed the failed-experiment report in his hands and abruptly asked.
Ning Yan blinked. “Let me see… Guangming-brand. Probably not something you can buy in the real world.”
Lan Yu Heng sounded curious. “Director, why do you want an ice coffin?”
“For my dog.” Song Zang smiled faintly. “His name is Xiao Bai.”
“I see. Very casually named… but cute.” Lan Yu Heng smiled too, and this time there was nothing perfunctory about it. She sounded genuinely interested. “If there’s ever a chance, can I pet him? I really like how fluffy cats and dogs feel.”
Ning Yan immediately leaned over. “Of course! Sister Lan, you’re welcome to visit Helin Estate anytime. Once you come, don’t leave!”
The three of them were still chatting happily when Song Zang suddenly noticed the temperature around him dropping little by little.
He instinctively turned his head and met Yin Chen’s almost imperceptibly aggrieved gaze.
“Teacher…”
“You can come too. Everyone can pet Xiao Bai,” Song Zang immediately tried to soothe him.
“Heh.”
To Song Zang’s surprise, that only made Yin Chen look even more aggrieved.
Yin Chen let out a cold, sarcastic snort. Without another word, he picked up two small coffins and carried them upstairs. Then he came back down, picked up more, and continued. Before anyone had fully processed what he was doing, he had nearly emptied the entire basement of anomalies.
“Hey, you—”
Song Zang had barely spoken halfway when Yin Chen turned around without looking back and went upstairs again.
A moment later, strange vibrations came from above, followed by several tremendous crashes.
Everyone hurried upstairs to see what was happening and found the floor covered in shattered ice coffins. As for the anomalies that had been stored inside them… Yin Chen had hacked every last one into unrecognizable pieces.
He stood in the middle of the living room with his blade planted against the floor, lips curved as he admired the bloody masses of flesh that could no longer be identified. For a long time, he said nothing. Boss is losing it again! Zhang Ming Shen secretly signed with his hands. He exchanged a look with Lan Yu Heng, and both of them immediately chose silence.
Song Zang was quiet for a moment. Actually… what Yin Chen did doesn’t seem particularly wrong?
These anomalies were products of horrific experimentation, and from Long Shao You’s perspective, they were also a profound desecration of his remains. Destroying them was probably safer.
Song Zang looked at Yin Chen calmly. “Go ahead and destroy all the rest. Leave behind only the limbs that might actually belong to the original corpse. The cloned and experimental products are yours.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
Yin Chen’s cool gaze lingered over Song Zang’s face for a moment. He gave a soft laugh and leisurely tightened his grip on the blade.
＊
As expected, Yin Chen worked quickly. Before long, they had “properly handled” every anomaly inside the villa and were on their way back.
On the return trip, they caught up with the transport truck crawling along at its cautious pace and entered the Agency together. The atmosphere inside had already turned extremely serious. After all, the Long family ancestor was no ordinary figure. He was essentially a high-powered time bomb that could go off at any moment.
The ice coffin was unloaded by mechanical arm and transported beneath the experimental building.
The old dragon cautiously approached, took a few careful steps forward, lowered its head, and sniffed. Then it suddenly recoiled in terror and flipped the ice coffin over with one swipe of its claw.
Afterward, it lifted its head and released a long roar, abruptly launched into the sky, and inexplicably spat a ball of fire from its mouth before racing toward the distance.
The Agency’s real-time tracking radar showed that the fireball had flown straight toward the villa on the outskirts and reduced the entire building to ash.
Nothing else around it was harmed. Only the villa itself—from the roof all the way down to the underground laboratory—was completely annihilated in the flames.
“Was it avenging the Long family ancestor?” Ning Yan mused. “After all these years, it still hasn’t forgotten the bond they once shared in battle. That’s kind of incredible.” “Old Dragon, do you know what we should do with him?” Song Zang took one step forward and asked tentatively.
Panting, the old dragon raised one claw and carved a crooked character into the surface of the ice coffin:
【Home】
“Take him home?” Ning Yan scratched his head. “That probably can’t be the entire containment condition.”
Song Zang agreed that it could not be so simple. He emphasized his words and asked again, “Do you mean return him to the Long family ancestral residence, or bury him properly so he can rest?”
Crack—!
The instant he finished speaking, the ice coffin suddenly fractured without warning.
Countless transparent fissures spread across the specially reinforced glass like snowflakes, rapidly expanding from the inside outward.
Song Zang stared at the pale, refined face inside the coffin, trying to determine where the disturbance had come from.
Then the face seemed to turn faintly toward him.
The eyes that had remained shut for countless years appeared to open for the briefest instant. Cold pupils, starkly black and white, fixed directly on Song Zang.
Apparently no one else noticed the corpse’s movement, but the instant that fleeting gaze fell upon him, alarms exploded inside Song Zang’s mind.
Dangerous. This person is extremely dangerous!!
Song Zang did not even have time to speak before something went bzz inside his head. His vision abruptly blurred, as though everything in the world had been covered in frosted glass.
The dizzying distortion threw off his balance. Song Zang staggered backward two steps, and his control over his limbs began turning foreign and stiff, as though his hands and legs had never belonged to him in the first place. Dazed, he began falling backward.
Realizing that something was wrong with his body, Song Zang vaguely lifted one hand, instinctively trying to protect his head, only to feel himself suddenly lose contact with the ground.
A familiar mint scent filled his nose, mixed with the faintest trace of something strangely bloody.
Ah. Yin Chen picked me up.
“Doctor! Get over here!”
Yin Chen’s voice suddenly sounded much louder beside his ear, icy as ever but carrying a faint thread of panic so subtle that almost no one else would have noticed it.
Song Zang tried hard to blink, but his eyelids felt impossibly heavy, hanging uselessly as though his muscles had lost their strength. He could not make out Yin Chen’s expression.
His current state was strange. He had not fully lost consciousness, but he was not completely awake either.
Song Zang opened his blue game panel and forced himself to focus on his Resistance stat.
It was still a question mark, but even the font and shape of that question mark were now flickering wildly, growing bright and dim, shifting repeatedly as though the system itself had encountered an error.
Song Zang suspected that, for the first time, he had suffered a genuine… mental attack.
Something had injured him without warning. He could not produce normal neurological responses for the moment, but he could still feel external touch and hear sound.
For example, Yin Chen’s touch.
Yin Chen had never let go. One warm, strong arm supported Song Zang’s back while the other locked beneath his knees, holding him steadily against his chest. Only Song Zang could feel the faint, silent tremor running through those arms.
With his cheek resting against Yin Chen’s chest, Song Zang heard his heartbeat growing heavier and heavier, like a violent rainstorm pounding against a windowsill—heavy, irregular, chaotic, and thoroughly disruptive to sleep.
Song Zang was placed inside the enclosed full-body scanning pod once again.
The results appeared quickly. The report showed that his 【external contamination index was severely above safe limits】.
The old doctor said that compared with the contamination caused when the B-rank anomaly Fire Thirst had once grabbed Song Zang by the neck at close range, this time was thousands upon thousands of times worse. It was terrifying.
Outside the pod, the piercing alarm screamed continuously for five full minutes without stopping, demonstrating just how severe the situation was.
“With contamination this high, the risk of brain death is far too great.” The old doctor looked grief-stricken, his hand trembling around the report. “Assistant Yin, I strongly recommend moving the Director to the ICU immediately. He needs ventilatory support and continuous cardiac monitoring—”
“Shut up. Stop cursing him.”
At that point, Yin Chen became calm instead. Expressionless, he tore apart the shrieking alarm system with his bare hands and drove the old doctor out without the slightest courtesy.
The medical room fell abruptly silent. Only two sets of breathing remained, one light and one heavy.
Yin Chen raised a hand and gently pressed it against the side of Song Zang’s face. He rubbed his cheek once, then again.
Crack—
Song Zang heard the crisp sound of an ampoule being snapped open. Something cold and glassy touched his lips, and a faintly bitter liquid flowed down his throat.
The thick fog smothering his mind seemed to disperse slightly.
Song Zang blinked.
Huh? I can blink again!
Did Yin Chen give me some kind of miracle drug?
He hurriedly blinked again, and his blurred vision quickly sharpened.
Yin Chen stood beside the bed with both hands in his pockets, staring at him darkly. His beautiful lips were pressed into a tight line, and one glance was enough for Song Zang to know that he was in an extremely bad mood.
The instant their eyes met, Yin Chen raised one hand again, grabbed the side of Song Zang’s face, and pinched it viciously.
“Mmph…” The pain snapped Song Zang fully awake. He could not resist complaining weakly, “Even now, you still have to take advantage of me.”
Unfortunately, Yin Chen did not seem susceptible to that tactic this time.
“I told you not to accidentally get yourself killed while playing around.” Yin Chen looked down at him, his voice frighteningly cold. “If you dare casually get yourself killed, I’ll murder every person you care about.”
So fierce.
Song Zang looked innocent. “But my dog is already—”
Before he could finish, Yin Chen abruptly bent over and seized his throat. Long fingers locked tightly around the fragile artery in his neck, his sharp phoenix eyes overflowing with deep, violent madness. “Song Zang. You’d better stop provoking me.”
This seemed to be the first time Yin Chen had directly called him by his full name.
Song Zang did not struggle. He merely looked back at him pitifully.
His breathing gradually became difficult. A sickly flush spread across his pale, delicate face, and tears instantly gathered in his eyes.
He was not afraid at all, but Yin Chen looked ready to explode. The hand around Song Zang’s neck tightened, then loosened, then tightened again.
After several seconds of stalemate, the patient ultimately won. Yin Chen closed his eyes helplessly, released him, and sat back down in the chair without saying a word, clearly trying to suppress his emotions.
Only after confirming that Yin Chen was not going to explode again did Song Zang slowly push himself upright. He took a moment to catch his breath, then reached out and tugged lightly on Yin Chen’s sleeve. Under Yin Chen’s silent gaze, Song Zang asked softly, “Cough… Then why exactly… are you so unhappy…?”
“I don’t know… No. Maybe I do.”
Yin Chen lowered his eyes slightly. “I don’t like seeing you get hurt because of someone else. Only I’m allowed to hurt you. And I don’t like you caring too much about other people, because you’re my only friend.”
Song Zang rubbed his aching throat and became more confused with every word. “Yin Chen, don’t you think those two ideas contradict each other? If you’re my friend… cough, cough… why would you want to hurt me?”
“One day, you’ll understand.”
Yin Chen’s voice was low. He seemed far calmer than before, yet Song Zang inexplicably sensed an undercurrent of hatred he could not explain.
Help. Did I do something terrible to Yin Chen before I lost my memory?
Force myself on him? Steal his fortune and try to kill him? Cheat him out of money? Cheat him out of his feelings?
The worst part was that Yin Chen was impossibly tight-lipped. No one could extract information from him if he did not want to reveal it.
Song Zang sighed inwardly and decided to take his time. Boil the frog slowly.
He tugged Yin Chen’s sleeve again. “Fine. I won’t ask about that. Can we make up now?”
After all, there was still a terrifying corpse lying inside the Agency, waiting for the two of them to deal with it. Yin Chen was silent for a moment before nodding, pulling a tissue from the bedside table, and gently wiping away the tears remaining at the corners of Song Zang’s eyes.
It was an extremely obvious… apology.
But Song Zang disliked the kind of reconciliation where people refused to say anything after a conflict and tried to blur everything over with actions instead.
“So what should you say to me now?” Song Zang pressed down on Yin Chen’s hand and pointed seriously at the faint finger marks remaining on the side of his neck.
“…I’m sorry.”
Very obedient.
Song Zang curved his lips in satisfaction. “Mm. Thank you for the medicine too. It worked really well. I’m completely fine now.”
Yin Chen paused. Through the tissue, he pressed firmly against the slightly reddened corner of Song Zang’s eye and said expressionlessly, “It was a one-use item from the points shop. Fifty thousand points.”
“…What?”
“I’m your creditor now.”
Song Zang sucked in a breath at the sheer cost and closed his eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll work hard and pay you back.”
“No need. As long as you always team up with me, the fifty thousand points are written off.”
Yin Chen glanced at him, lowered his eyes, and folded away the slightly damp tissue. He did not throw it away. Instead, he openly slipped it into his own pocket.
Song Zang silently watched every movement. He had absolutely no idea what Yin Chen was thinking.
Does he hate me? Care about me? Or is he simply psychologically abnormal…?
Forget it. We still have important business to handle.
Song Zang put on his thick coat and walked out of the medical room with one hand resting on Yin Chen’s arm. “Director, you’re all right?!” The old doctor, who had been crouching outside the entire time, nearly fainted from surprise and relief.
“Mm. I’m fine.” Song Zang smiled, then looked toward Ning Yan, who had also been waiting nearby with an anxious expression. “What’s happening now? Has the corpse moved again?”
Ning Yan released a huge breath of relief. He tried to move over and support Song Zang’s other arm, but Yin Chen’s icy stare immediately frightened him back.
Awkwardly rubbing his chin, Ning Yan followed behind them instead. “Nothing has happened. The corpse has already been moved into isolation inside the experimental building. Old Zhang is performing a second round of divination.”
“What? There can be a second round?” Song Zang asked in surprise.
“Yeah. Sister Lan said you might have accidentally guessed part of the corpse’s containment conditions, which is why you were unexpectedly injured. And because your injury changed how future events are likely to develop, the Divination Coin’s state refreshed again…”
Ning Yan was clearly reciting this from memory. “Actually, I barely understood it either. Basically, she means we can now perform individual divinations.”
“That’s right. Xiao Song, are you okay?” Lan Yu Heng hurried over with her white cane, concern evident in her voice.
“I’m fine. Sister Lan, keep going.” Song Zang smiled.
Lan Yu Heng nodded. “The principle is simple. Anyone who gets Great Misfortune is absolutely forbidden from approaching the corpse. If they do, they’ll almost certainly die. Anyone who gets Great Fortune or Neutral can try. At the very least, they should survive.”
“Then let’s start immediately.”
As the only person who had been injured, Song Zang had no intention of delaying further. He had already wasted too much of everyone’s time.
＊
Back beneath the experimental building, the players lined up in front of Zhang Ming Shen and waited for him to divine their fortunes one by one.
Zhang Ming Shen performed the first divination on himself. Great Fortune. No problem.
When it was Yin Chen’s and Lan Yu Heng’s turn, the coin landed face-up. As expected, both results were Great Fortune as well.
Ning Yan and Song Zhao Yang, however… Unmistakable Great Misfortune. Neither could enter.
Ning Yan stared blankly for several seconds, then asked in disbelief, “Brother Zhang, is your divination really one hundred percent accurate?”
“Mmph!” Zhang Ming Shen glared at him seriously and raised one finger, wagging it from side to side.
Ning Yan covered his face in despair. “I thought I was already strong enough to fight. I can’t believe there’s an instance this difficult waiting to humiliate me.”
“Maybe it’s because the players matched into this instance are too strong…” Song Zhao Yang nervously glanced at Yin Chen. “So the system automatically raised the difficulty?”
Ning Yan shook his head. “No. I’m just not strong enough! I’ve watched all of Big Shot Yin’s clear videos. The combat requirements in his previous instances were never this extreme.”
Song Zang remained silent, thoughtful.
I keep suspecting that the bizarre difficulty of both of these instances might somehow be related to me joining them… but I can’t think of any reasonable explanation, and I don’t have any actual evidence.
Better keep quiet for now and see what happens after a few more instances.
While Song Zang was thinking, the ancient bronze coin fell from the air, rolled across the ground, slipped into a gap in the grass, and stopped upright, balanced perfectly on its edge. “Half and half. That means I should be fine, right?” Song Zang’s face remained slightly pale, as though he still had lingering fear from what had happened earlier.
Zhang Ming Shen nodded, then pointed toward Yin Chen.
Yin Chen curved his lips. “Old Zhang is right. As long as I’m here, Teacher will be fine.”
Once everyone’s fortune had been confirmed, the four of them put on full protective equipment again and entered the sealed experimental building.
Worried that he might suffer another mental attack, Song Zang behaved himself this time. He stayed pressed close to Yin Chen and hid behind him. He did not notice that this unconscious action seemed to improve Yin Chen’s mood slightly.
They cautiously approached the ice coffin. The dismembered body remained completely still, gray-white lips devoid of life.
Long Shao You—the Long family ancestor and Dragon Nation’s first historically recorded powerful ability user.
Studying the man’s completely shaved head, Song Zang realized that his features were actually refined and scholarly. Even now, there remained a trace of the elegant, cultivated air of a young gentleman from ancient times.
And yet someone had maliciously shaved away his long hair, severed all four limbs, and left him sprawled inside an ice coffin without the slightest dignity, completely at the mercy of others… With that kind of humiliation, no one could blame him for wanting to kick open his own coffin lid.
Lan Yu Heng could not see him, but she could still infer how miserable Long Shao You’s condition was. She gripped her white cane and said quietly, “I checked Dragon Nation’s historical records. Long Shao You cared greatly about his appearance and dignity. Even when he was close to death, if relatives or friends came to visit, he would force himself upright and make sure his appearance was properly arranged first.”
“If my descendants humiliated me like this, I’d want to kill every last one of them.”
“If that’s the case…” Song Zang became thoughtful. “Could he be the final Legendary-rank anomaly—Curse?”
“That would make sense. If it were me, I’d curse the entire world too.”
The problem was this: what exactly triggered his attacks, and how were they supposed to contain a corpse that could not communicate?
After discussing it briefly, everyone decided to try something bold first—reattach his severed limbs.
They had no idea whether the limbs they had recovered were cloned copies or the actual originals, but there was nothing else they could do.
Lan Yu Heng and Zhang Ming Shen worked together to open the ice coffin. Using a simple surgical stapling device, they reattached Long Shao You’s thighs and arms to his torso.
Click. Click.
The flesh pressed tightly around the metal staples, producing a faintly sticky friction sound accompanied by a subtle, unsettling slosh of viscous fluid.
“Mmph-mmph!” Zhang Ming Shen suddenly grabbed Lan Yu Heng’s hand and pointed toward the arm joint he had just fastened.
“What is it, Old Zhang?”
Song Zang, standing nearby, saw it clearly. “He’s bleeding!”
The instant he said that, Song Zang noticed something else.
The Director’s Seal inside his coat pocket seemed to suddenly jump.
Song Zang looked down. It jumped again.
“Yin Chen, get away from me.” Unease surged through him without warning. Song Zang backed away as he spoke, his voice beginning to tremble.
Yin Chen ignored him completely and immediately stepped closer. “What?”
“The Seal is moving…” Before Song Zang could finish, the small stamp stained with fresh red seal paste flew straight out of his pocket.
It moved impossibly fast, shot directly toward Long Shao You, and with a smack, burrowed straight into his brain!
The shattered opening in his skull exposed fresh pink-and-white brain tissue beneath. The Seal continued tunneling madly inward, the brain itself began to pulse, and the damaged skull rapidly regenerated and sealed itself as though Long Shao You had never died at all.
A horrifying possibility suddenly rose in Song Zang’s mind—could the so-called A-rank anomaly, Director’s Seal, also have come from Long Shao You’s body?
Was that why it possessed such powerful rule-based abilities, never needed externally manufactured seal paste, and always remained freshly blood-red?
What part of him could it be? Blood? Tongue? Or the most vital tissue in the human body—brain matter?
The answer seemed increasingly obvious. Under everyone’s tense, breathless gaze, Long Shao You—now possessing complete limbs and a living brain once more—truly began to move.
His entire body convulsed violently. Fresh flesh rapidly grew across the bloody severed joints, soon swallowing the exposed metal staples completely.
Several seconds later, the corpse that seemed newly reborn slowly climbed out of the ice coffin and smiled gently at Song Zang.
Song Zang’s pupils contracted, and he instinctively clutched Yin Chen’s arm.