Lu Yuan stood up abruptly and walked out the door.
Quite a few people had already gathered on the street, all looking in the same direction, yet no one dared to approach.
Lu Yuan followed their gaze.
Then he saw Reid.
Or rather, the thing that used to be Reid.
The young man was standing in the middle of the street, completely naked.
The white light of the sandworm oil lamps shone on him, illuminating his horrific appearance with absolute clarity.
Eyeballs.
Densely packed eyeballs.
They were pushing out from his face, neck, and chest—large and small, bloodshot, all of them rolling around.
His stomach was bloated like a ball, the skin stretched until it was nearly transparent, and something could be seen writhing violently inside.
All those eyeballs now turned toward the surrounding crowd.
"Help... help me..."
Reid's mouth was still moving, letting out a muffled sound.
But the voice no longer sounded human.
It was raspy and broken, as if something were squirming in his throat.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text quietly surfaced:
【Detection target: Severely Polluted Individual (terminal stage/hatching)】
【Status: Host consciousness is about to expire; incubated entity within the body is about to burst out】
【Weakness: Kill the host】
Lu Yuan's gaze turned cold.
He had suspected this moment would come.
With the mass of eyes inside that mutated sandworm's mouth, and Reid being the one responsible for cleaning that area, he had definitely come into contact with the deepest layer of pollution.
The purple bulges had indicated from the very beginning that the thing inside him was different from everyone else's.
"Everyone, move back!"
Lu Yuan shouted, pushing through the crowd.
His right hand was already gripping the revolver in his shirt.
"Mr... Mr. Lu..."
When Reid saw him, all those eyeballs turned toward Lu Yuan simultaneously, a flash of pleading and relief appearing in his gaze.
"Help... help me..."
His stomach began to writhe violently, his skin making a sound like it was under unbearable strain.
"Please..."
Lu Yuan did not answer. He raised his hand, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The silver-plated bullet hit Reid right between the eyes.
The body collapsed backward, hitting the ground heavily, and all the eyeballs lost their luster at once.
Was it solved? No! The thing in Reid's stomach had hatched!
Reid's stomach burst open suddenly, black liquid splattering everywhere, as a mass of flesh-red matter tumbled out from within.
It was a worm.
To be precise, it was a twisted lump of flesh.
Its body was covered in ring-like grooves, similar to the patterns on a sandworm, but it was much smaller, only about the size of an adult's fist.
It had no eyes and no limbs, only a circular mouth filled with tiny teeth.
At this moment, it was letting out a sharp screech, writhing rapidly across the ground.
Its speed was incredibly fast.
At the edge of his vision, the greyish-white text jumped:
【Detection target: Parasitic Larva (mutated sandworm variant)】
【Traits: Extremely fast, feeds on flesh and blood, sensitive to silver products】
【Weakness: Any attack】
Lu Yuan was quick-handed and fired another shot.
Bang!
The silver-plated bullet grazed the lump of flesh and hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of sand.
A miss.
The thing's speed was beyond Lu Yuan's expectations.
It twisted its body and lunged toward the nearest townsperson.
The townsperson's legs went weak with fear, and he froze in place, watching helplessly as the flesh-red mass pounced toward him.
In the nick of time, a ball of fire flew in from the side, hitting the worm directly.
Screech!
The worm let out a piercing scream, twisting frantically within the flames.
Lu Yuan turned to look.
Herman was standing not far away, holding a sandworm oil lamp with oil still dripping from it, his face grim.
"Use fire!" Lu Yuan reacted immediately, shouting to those around him. "Drive it back with torches! Get more sandworm oil!"
The townspeople were quick to respond, immediately forming a circle and holding their torches forward.
The heat radiated by the flames made the worm, which had just extinguished the fire on its body, instinctively retreat a few steps.
But it soon realized something was wrong—it was surrounded by fire.
The circle formed by the townspeople was large; unless Lu Yuan activated the Timekeeper, he wasn't confident he could hit it.
Just as the situation reached a stalemate.
A few fast-running townspeople arrived with oil drums. At Lu Yuan's signal, they splashed the oil around the area. The worm seemed to sense something and instinctively began to squirm.
But before the worm could counterattack, the crowd slowly parted, and a torch was dropped.
Flames instantly spread around the worm.
The worm was terrified, but it was too late; the fire had completely hemmed it in.
Another bucket of oil was thrown in, landing right on the worm.
Boom!
The fire swallowed everything, and the worm's body was scorched and shriveled.
Finally, it went completely still.
Only a lump of charred residue remained, slowly turning to ash in the fire.
Lu Yuan holstered his revolver and walked over to the residue, breathing a sigh of relief only after confirming it was completely dead.
But immediately after, his heart grew heavy again.
The one inside Reid's body must have been an infection from the mutated sandworm's mouth.
And that parasite that had disappeared after crawling out of the Mayor's chest... and Gregor...
He had been at the Mayor's house for so long; could there be something like this around him too?
"Check every suspicious place in town," Lu Yuan turned to Herman, his tone grave. "Especially near the warehouse. If you find any anomalies, burn them immediately."
Herman nodded, his expression grim.
Lu Yuan, meanwhile, returned to Herman's house and did not go out again.
He sat on the edge of the bed, resting his mind and allowing both his spirit and body to recover as much as possible.
Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened.
The sandworm oil lamps in the town were lit one by one, their white light enveloping the entire small town in a halo.
But no one called for him, suggesting there were no more infected people in the town.
Lu Yuan opened his eyes and walked to the window, looking out at the darkness beyond the light.
Those charred figures were still there.
But there were far fewer than last night.
Last night, those red eyes had almost formed a continuous line, but tonight, there were only a few scattered figures standing at the edge of the light, staring motionlessly toward the town.
Perhaps it was because the sandworm had been hunted and the smell of blood had mostly dissipated.
Or perhaps it was because of something else.
Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and sat back on the edge of the bed.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text quietly surfaced:
【Sanity: +4... 75/120】
The rest had been effective.
He looked down at the metal ring on his wrist.
It was still motionless.
Morris had said he would contact him when it was time.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes and continued to rest his mind.
After an unknown amount of time.
The metal ring on his wrist suddenly vibrated once.
Lu Yuan opened his eyes and looked at the ring.
Another vibration.
The signal.
He stood up, but instead of using the door, he pushed open the window and jumped down.
The night wind blew against him, carrying the characteristic dry air of the desert.
Lu Yuan landed in the shadows and flickered away, heading toward the Mayor's house.
After passing through several dark alleys, he stopped in the shadow of an adobe house.
The Mayor's house was not far away.
It was a building slightly larger than the others, with courtyard walls made of rammed earth. The main gate was tightly shut and dark; it was impossible to tell if anyone was inside.
But Lu Yuan knew someone was there.
Not just Gregor.
But something else.
He could faintly sense a trace of pollution emanating from that building, like the breathing of some living thing.
Footsteps came from behind, nearly silent, but Lu Yuan still noticed them.
He didn't turn around.
"Heller and Vincent are in position." Morris nodded slightly toward both sides of the courtyard wall. "I'll enter from the main gate, and they'll flank from the sides. You support us from the perimeter and wait for the gear to activate before deciding what to do."
"Once the gear is activated, all machinery will fail, including your gun."
Lu Yuan felt the revolver in his shirt and nodded.
"One more thing." Morris's voice dropped lower. "Once the Sanity Ring is activated, the Sanity of the four of us will form a single entity. If needed, you can draw from our Sanity."
He looked at Lu Yuan.
"However, your Sanity might be a bit low, so focus your attention when you draw from it."
Lu Yuan nodded, indicating he understood.
Morris didn't expect an answer. He patted Lu Yuan's shoulder, and with a flash of movement, he headed toward the Mayor's house.
A few seconds later, the front gate of the Mayor's house was kicked open.
Bang!
The loud crash was exceptionally piercing in the quiet night.
Immediately following that was the sound of combat.
The clashing of metal, the impact of bodies, and the hum of some machinery operating.
Lu Yuan gripped the Timekeeper in his shirt and waited quietly.
He could feel the Sanity Ring on his wrist beginning to warm up.
The Sanity Ring had been activated.
He could vaguely sense the existence of three other consciousnesses; it was like looking through a thin veil—he could see their outlines but couldn't make out the details.
The battle lasted for about two minutes.
Gregor's voice came from the courtyard, raspy and furious.
"Pathfinders? Ha! Just you three wastes?"
The clashing of metal became even more intense, interspersed with the high-pitched shriek of some machinery operating at high speed.
Then, a blinding dark red light erupted from the courtyard.
The gear was activated.
In an instant, all mechanical sounds ceased.
The courtyard went silent for a moment, followed by Gregor's roar.
"You!"
Lu Yuan moved immediately.
His figure was like a phantom. With a few leaps, he cleared the courtyard wall and landed inside.
The scene before him made Lu Yuan frown slightly.
Under the moonlight, three figures were surrounding a monster.
To be precise, a half-human, half-mechanical monster.
Gregor.
More than half of his body had been replaced by mechanical parts.
His right arm was a metal mechanical arm, sparks still flying from the joints.
His left leg was a mechanical leg, with an extinguished thruster at the knee.
A core emitting a dim light was embedded in his chest, and half of his face was covered by a metal mask. The eye visible beneath the mask was bloodshot.
But now, all those mechanical parts had lost their luster, hanging from him like dead things, becoming a burden instead.
The effect of the Anti-Machinery Gear.
"Three years!"
Gregor's voice was hoarse, as if squeezed from the depths of his throat.
"Three years! I've been hiding in this hellhole, and I was finally about to succeed!"
His gaze was crazed, his face filled with indignation.
"You damned lapdogs!"
Rate on N.U.
