[Forced Mutation Control: Slow Puppet.]
Slow Puppet (A-rank temporary effect): Lasts for one Ember Zone. While in the state of a Slow Puppet, your Agility is reduced by 3 points, and your presence is reduced, making you very easy to ignore by other units.
Flesh Bomb Mutation: Extreme Blood Seed.
[Extreme Heavenly Blood Seed (Temporary Effect of SS Rank):] Your essence of flesh and blood is stored in the blood seed in your heart, which causes your overall attributes to decrease by 10 points. However, you can actively activate the blood seed to temporarily increase your attributes by 50. The duration of the burst is 30 minutes!
[Current attributes:]
[Strength: 1]
[Stamina: 1]
[Agility: 1]
[Spirit: 1]
Note: 1 is the lowest value and cannot be lowered further.
A cold wind blew, and Xia Lin sneezed.
It seemed like he had caught a cold.
At the same time, he felt his body grow heavy, his footsteps weak, and his mind dizzy, as if he were about to fall asleep.
These abysmal values of 1 for all attributes made Xia Lin experience what it meant to be in a critical state...
The mechanical voice in his ear sounded again.
[The current main quest in the Ashes Zone has been released.]
Main Quest: Hunt!
Hunt: Hunt ten monsters to complete the main quest. You can exit this Ashes Zone at any time after completing the quest.
Reward: 100 Ashes Zone points.
Clear Quest: Not triggered.
Side Quest: None.
The mechanical sound died down, but then Li Peipei's voice rang out.
“Who sneezed just now?”
She turned her head and looked at the others, but after glancing around, she didn’t notice anything unusual, which made her shake her head.
“Forget it. Control yourselves and don’t disturb the monsters in the Ashes Zone. Combat-type Ashes Zones can’t be considered safe.”
An Yue laughed, “My sister is still so cautious... But for a C-level Ashes Zone, I believe my sister can carve her way through alone.”
Sequence 43—of course, she could carve her way through a C-level Ashes Zone.
“Achoo!”
Xia Lin sneezed again.
However, this time, Li Peipei ignored him, magnificently overlooking him.
The Slow Puppet effect was in full force.
Li Peipei: “Prepare for battle.”
“An Yue, Rou Yun, buff up! Then the cannon fodder will clear the way.”
As she gave the orders, Li Peipei's eyes flashed with white light.
She looked around, as if she had a vague perception of the goal of her trip: “At three o’clock.”
The other members of the squad immediately grew solemn.
There were dangers everywhere in the Ashes Zone.
To survive, caution was a basic quality—even with a Sequence 43 leading them and even if they were only entering a C-level Ashes Zone, they couldn’t afford to be careless.
Various lights shone from An Yue and Rou Yun’s hands, casting buffs on everyone present.
As a result, more mechanical sounds exploded in Xia Lin’s ears.
[You have obtained the buff: Mute (Level A skill effect): You cannot speak.]
[Mute has mutated into: Compensation of the Five Senses (Level A temporary effect): You have enhanced your vision and hearing at the cost of your sense of taste.]
[You have obtained the buff: Petrified Skin (Level B skill effect): Hardens your skin.]
[Petrified Skin mutates into: Clay Sculpture (Temporary D-class effect): Your presence is slightly reduced.]
[You gain the buff: Taunting Aura (C-class skill effect): You attract the hostility and attacks of other units more easily.]
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[Taunting Aura mutates into: I Am Pathetic (Temporary S-class effect): The lower your attribute values, the less likely you are to attract the hostility and attacks of other units, and vice versa.]
[You gain the buff: Swift as the Wind (Level B skill effect): Your movement speed is enhanced.]
[Swift as the Wind becomes Acrobatic (Level C temporary effect): You can perform acrobatic feats such as quick climbing and reverse joint movements.]
[You gain the buff: All-round Enhancement (Level B skill effect): Your attributes are +3.]
[The overall buff is changed to: Curse of Weakness (Temporary B-level effect): Your attributes are reduced by 3.]
[You gain the buff: Rapid Healing (Level B Skill Effect): Greatly speeds up the healing of injuries.]
[The variant of Rapid Healing is: Feast of Flesh and Blood (Level SS Temporary Effect): Your digestive system and mouth mutate, your digestion and biting power increase greatly, and you can temporarily strengthen your attributes and heal your injuries and diseases by devouring the flesh and blood of other creatures. The strengthening effect lasts for one entire Ember Zone.]
...
The group began to move forward—not too fast, not too slow.
Xia Lin was at the back of the group, barely keeping up with the others through sheer determination.
The 1-point attributes almost killed him, even slowing his thoughts, but he still managed to integrate the effects of the mutation buffs.
Luck favored the bold.
The mutation effects were outstanding!
And this would be Xia Lin’s only hope of turning the tide against the odds.
The Compensation of the Five Senses effect enhanced Xia Lin’s vision and hearing, allowing him to vaguely hear the roaring and footsteps around him.
However, it was clear that the perception of the advanced Ashes Zone walkers was even better than Xia Lin’s enhanced senses!
At the front, Li Peipei suddenly raised her hand, signaling the team to stop. As the increasingly clear footsteps approached, Li Peipei took a deep breath and pulled a one-person-tall greatsword from the void.
“Prepare for battle!”
An Yue and Rou Yun quickly retreated, pulling to the back of the line, while Zhang Wen and Xie Xiaotian stepped forward, taking up positions on either side of Li Peipei.
After about ten seconds, with a hoarse scream, a half-human, lizard-like monster pounced out of the darkness, its blood-filled mouth open and ready to bite Li Peipei’s head off.
A flash of cold light made Xia Lin flinch.
The stench of blood spread as Li Peipei retracted her sword, splitting the lizard-like monster in half.
It was so fast Xia Lin couldn’t even catch it.
The whistling wind indicated the absolute strength of the slash.
As a Sequence 43, she indeed had the ability to carve her way through a C-class Ashes Zone with just her sword.
But the safety of such a method was not guaranteed.
The level of the Ashes Zone does not fully indicate the difficulty of the area or the strength of the enemies.
In the distance, more footsteps and shouts sounded one after another from the dark cave.
The Ashes Zone creatures underground smelled the blood, and the riot began!
Li Peipei looked back at the unlucky group.
Her gaze swept past Xia Lin and settled on the first cannon fodder.
“Go,” she said to An Yue.
The first unlucky individual took a step forward, its stiff and numb limbs rushing ahead.
...
The enhanced cannon fodder’s attributes were not low, and their combat effectiveness wasn’t bad either.
On the level of ordinary people, they were indeed little supermen. However, their stiff limbs weakened their combat effectiveness, and the strength of the creatures in the Ember Zone far surpassed that of ordinary people.
The dim light of the fluorescent creatures in the cave seriously weakened everyone’s vision. When An Yue sensed the danger, the distance between the cannon fodder and the Ember creatures was already too close.
This was a naked humanoid creature with no eyes or hair. It pounced from the darkness, its mouth wide open, and bit toward the cannon fodder in one bite. But suddenly, a flash of cold light appeared—Li Peipei’s giant sword had already beheaded it.
However, the appearance of this monster was like a starting gun.
In the darkness, more hurried footsteps sounded.
“It’s an underground humanoid,” Li Peipei said coldly, eliciting a gloomy smile from Xie Xiaotian.
“Just a random soldier.”