The centipede-like mutant beast had already locked onto Ren Yi. Heat, the scent of flesh and blood, the sound of living breath... these signals sent it into a frenzy. The fleshy pillars of its limbs slammed against the ground, and it lunged forward in a gust of foul wind.
However, just as it pounced within a few meters of Ren Yi, its mouthparts gaping wide to swallow this "weak human" whole...
The mutant beast's movements suddenly froze, as if pinned in mid-air by invisible shackles.
Before its eyes, that weak human began to slowly tear apart.
The surface "skin" peeled away like a shattered film, and the form within began to twist and blur irregularly, radiating a suffocating pressure that originated from the very depths of its existence.
Unease and vertigo swept through the beast's primitive consciousness like a tide.
Rip—!
The sound of a sharp weapon tearing through flesh echoed as Ren Yi applied force to his wrist, driving a machete precisely into the mutant beast's mouth.
The blade pierced through its skull, pinning the massive body firmly to the ground.
Ren Yi stood before the dead mutant beast and slowly released his grip on the knife.
His breathing was steady, and there wasn't a single ripple of emotion in his eyes.
Using a human form to deal with this mutant beast was a bit strained, and since he didn't want to waste "ammunition" on it, he had briefly released a portion of his True Form.
The moment he pierced the mutant beast, he did feel the blade meet a layer of unusual resistance from the skin and flesh, but it was only for an instant before the blade sliced through easily.
Conventional firearms were useless, but cold weapons actually worked?
As it turned out, although this mutant beast looked grotesque enough to be sanity-draining, its strength was only so-so.
Aside from its apparent special resistance to firearms and shockwaves, it displayed no rule-based abilities or special defensive measures.
It was purely a beast that relied on its powerful physical body to hunt.
Ren Yi intended to pull out his blade and leave, but at that moment, a familiar warm current surfaced beside him without warning.
Where did this positive emotion come from?
Ren Yi's heart tightened. His first reaction was that someone had witnessed the battle.
But he had clearly swept the surroundings with his perception before acting, confirming that there was only this single mutant beast on the wasteland and no traces of other living creatures.
Almost at the same time the thought arose, his perception—which far surpassed that of an ordinary person—spread out in all directions like invisible radar waves.
However, there were no other mutant beasts nearby, nor were there any life fluctuations belonging to humans or other intelligent beings. The wasteland was "clean" to an excessive degree.
Then where did this wisp of positive emotion come from?
Finally, Ren Yi's gaze fell upon the corpse of the mutant centipede at his feet.
Positive emotion... from this centipede?
Are you kidding me? Has my cheat finally arrived?
Now, not just Participants, but even animals can provide positive emotion?
No, what's even more ridiculous is: what kind of creature provides "positive emotion" to its killer while being slaughtered?
What kind of positive emotion is this? Is this centipede a masochist?
Ren Yi shook his head as if to toss the absurd thought out of his mind.
He lifted the machete, flipped the centipede's corpse over, and finally just sliced it open vertically.
A pungent stench instantly filled the air as colorful organs mixed with body fluids spilled onto the ground.
There was nothing unusual. It was just a very sanity-draining animal.
Something is wrong.
Ren Yi stood up and took two steps back to avoid the spreading stench, his brow furrowed in deep thought.
This hadn't happened when he killed Participants in the Three Cities World before, which meant it wasn't a unique trait of the Three Cities World itself.
So, was it a trait of mutant beasts, or was this centipede just an outlier?
The sample size was too small to make a judgment.
Ren Yi temporarily gave up his obsession and raised his hand to absorb the positive emotion into his palm, forming a tiny speck of light on the back of his hand.
This was a method provided in the knowledge crystal given by Auntie Lu, used for temporarily storing energy that couldn't be absorbed immediately.
When enough light specks accumulated, they could be condensed into an energy crystal through the recorded method.
Ren Yi took one last look at the messy centipede corpse on the ground and didn't linger, turning to continue toward the direction he identified as the Holy City.
No matter what this sudden positive emotion meant, the priority was to enter a human settlement first.
Even if he needed to hunt more mutant beasts later to verify his theory and obtain resources, he had to go to the Holy City to gather enough intelligence first.
There was clearly still a significant distance to the Holy City from here.
Ren Yi sensed the surroundings once more, and after confirming no one was watching, his body paused slightly.
In the next moment, his "human form" rippled like water, and several flexible, powerful illusory tentacles extended from his back and waist, propping up his body.
The tentacles moved in alternating rhythms, propelling his body across the wasteland at extreme speed. From a distance, he looked like a bizarre spider racing close to the ground.
Well, eight "legs" were indeed much faster than two.
After about an hour of high-speed movement, the scenery on the distant horizon began to change.
The jagged rocks gradually decreased, replaced by low, resilient shrubs.
At the edge of Ren Yi's perception, he finally captured traces of human life.
He immediately slowed down, and the illusory tentacles retracted silently into his body as he reverted to the appearance of "Mo Ming."
Ren Yi climbed a high earthen ridge and looked into the distance. A magnificent city suddenly burst into view.
The city's geographical location was extremely strategic, flanked by mountains on two sides and bordered by a wide river on another.
A vast number of buildings began from the basins between the mountain ranges and extended upward in layers.
Most striking was the massive circular platform suspended between the two mountain peaks.
Thick stone pillars stood at the edge of the platform, with heavy chains firmly anchoring the platform to the mountains on both sides. A towering statue stood in the center of the platform.
The statue was carved entirely from some kind of grayish-white stone, depicting a deity.
Clad in armor and wearing a crown woven from thorny branches, its features were of ambiguous gender. It held a massive longsword in both hands, the tip pointing down, standing steadily before it.
Ren Yi noticed that the sword looked somewhat similar to the silver sword-shaped pendant he carried.
The divine statue stood atop the high mountain peak, eyes lowered as it looked down upon the living beings below.
Ren Yi did a rough estimation; the statue was at least two hundred meters tall.
To put it in perspective, the famous Statue of Liberty in his previous life was only about ninety meters tall including the pedestal, with the statue itself being only forty-six meters.
To be able to construct such a building, Ren Yi silently bumped up his assessment of the technological strength of the Three Cities World before the "Great Catastrophe" by a level.
Since he had decided to enter the city with the identity of "a Participant who returned from an Anomaly Instance and performed excellently in the livestream," there was no need for secrecy.
Ren Yi adjusted his posture, making himself look more like a lone wolf who was slightly exhausted after a long journey but still remained alert.
As the distance closed, the details and sounds of the city became clearer.
Ren Yi soon noticed something was off.
People were coming and going at the main gate of the Holy City, which seemed to be in a state of unusual mobilization.
Rate on N.U.
