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Darkness falls. Mankind tries to survive the wasteland that was once society. Demons terrorize the living and one man must face the demons, internally and externally.


The insufferably arrogant King Delirium had been struck down by a single blow. Now he lay amidst a heap of rubble, his face completely ashen as he coughed up blood.
The people in the crowd were having a hard time believing their eyes.
Yang Qi had moved too quickly for anyone to see clearly, and in fact, faster than many of them could think. Before anyone could react, his target was on the ground, seriously injured.
"Trash like you doesn't deserve to challenge my dignity," Yang Qi said, brushing his hands together as if to clean them of dust. "How dare you compare yourself to me. I'm the captain here. If anyone doesn't like that, then they can join King Delirium in the dust."
King Delirium was many levels higher than Yang Qi, and yet had ended up crushed. To the spectators, it was as shocking as having watched an ant felling an elephant.
"Bastard!" King Delirium spat as he crawled out from the rubble. His complexion was ashen, but his eyes were shining bright red. "How dare you hit me like that! Fine, I guess I'll show you my top secret magic. Grand Delirium!"
Waving his hand through the air in front of him, he caused a string of mysterious symbols to appear, which formed into various hexagramic and heptagonic spell arrays, all of which emanated an aura of delirium.
"Come forth, Delirium Blade!"
WHIZZZ!
An aura that resembled that of tortured gods could be heard as a divine weapon appeared within the spell arrays. It was hard to say whether it was an actual magical treasure, or formed from true energy. However, it seemed to pulse with such an aura of delirium that anyone who looked at it would sense their vision blurring.
"That's the Delirium Blade! From what I've heard, it's an energy art created by Great Sage Delirium himself, and is one of the most powerful secret magics there is. That weapon can kill the most powerful experts, and at the same time, cause everyone within five hundred kilometers to turn into delirious beasts."
"Considering King Delirium acquired the legacy of a Great Sage, and reached this level of cultivation, it's little wonder he's furious. He's definitely going to kill that guy."
"Yeah, after being knocked down like that, it would be strange if he didn't get angry. It's too much of a loss of face. Without killing that kid, he'll never recover his dignity."
"Prepare to die!" King Delirium shouted, swinging the Delirium Blade back and forth through the air as he strode forward. The vital energy in the area was sliced to pieces by the blade, which was so powerful that it was surrounded by the image of deliriously dancing devil-ghosts.
"Crazed Devil Chaos Blade! Grand Cleaving!"
A blade nimbus from King Delirium's weapon surrounded Yang Qi, making it seem like King Delirium was just about to achieve his goal of killing him.
Everyone present looked on, eagerly awaiting Yang Qi's response. After all, because no one had been able to clearly see what happened earlier, they assumed that Yang Qi had knocked down King Delirium by unexpectedly using some sort of magical treasure. Now that King Delirium was attacking with force that bordered on the level of a Great Sage, everyone was very curious to see if Yang Qi could hold up.
Bam!
Yang Qi reached out with his hand and stopped the blade's motion. Not only did it not cut him, he actually forced it to a complete standstill. That blade was unimaginably sharp, and yet it couldn't even cut Yang Qi's skin.
"Look!" a female mercenary cried. "He actually used his bare hand to stop the Delirium Blade! How strong could his fleshly body be?"
"What?! His bare hand!? Are you sure?"
C-C-CRACK! The Delirium Blade shattered into countless fragments, which then became a virtual storm of vital energy.
Scarcely able to believe his eyes, King Delirium began to back away.
However, Yang Qi lunged toward him, reaching out with his hand, a move that caused a black hole to spring up that shattered King Delirium's armor.
"Grand Delirium Detonation!" King Delirium shouted, drawing on even more explosive energy arts, causing his long black hair to whip about like enormous snakes. "Let's see whose attack is the strongest. DIE!"
Not even bothering to see what the man would throw at him next, Yang Qi just stepped forward and unleashed another fist strike.
Even before Yang Qi's fist reached King Delirium, Space-Void Godlightning appeared, slamming down onto the surrounding mountains, shattering the boulders into even more rubble. At the same time, thousands of black holes sprang into being, causing the trumpeting of ancient megamammoths to fill the air.
AAAAOOOWWWW! AAAAOOOWWWW! AAAAAAOOOOOWWWWWW! 
Anyone who heard that sound would think they were hearing something from the primeval Yore-Wilds. It was a sound so powerful that it was suffocating by nature, and weighed down on the souls of all present.
BOOM!
Yang Qi's fist was like an iron-clad expression of the wrath of the gods. It completely vanquished King Delirium's energy flows, then hit his head, smashing it like a watermelon.
Roar! Before the man's flesh and blood could pull back together, Yang Qi took a step forward and ripped the rest of him to pieces, then sent raging flame out that, to the utter shock of everyone present, burned him away into nothing. Cries of anguish echoed out at first, but then faded away.
Eventually, the only thing left was a bag, King Delirium's dimensional sack, which was surely filled with all sorts of treasures, including spirit stones.
King Delirium had been a famous bandit, and thus, had unimaginable riches. Yang Qi could sense that there were sagely-grade spirit stones in the sack, and yet, he just tucked it away without looking at it. Feeling very pleased with himself, he looked around at the other mercenaries. 
"Ladies and gentlemen, this Pan Yong refused to follow orders from me, so I was forced to execute him. Is there anyone else out there who doesn't admit that I should be in charge? The Grand-Wilds Mansion appointed me as the captain of this squad. As a guest elder, I have ultimate say regarding what happens in the Rich-Lush Continent. If anyone disagrees with that, we can talk it over right here and now."
"I'm on board!" someone said. 
Yang Qi looked over to see a rather lazy-looking young man in white. He seemed the type of person who was too lazy to take anything seriously, and yet, emanated fluctuations that made him seem far more mysterious to Yang Qi than the so-called King Delirium had.
"You're definitely stronger than average, friend," the young man continued. "Considering you ripped King Delirium to shreds, I'd say you definitely deserve to be our captain. In this world, we respect strength above all else."
"Friend, might I ask your honored surname and distinguished given name?" Yang Qi asked.
"Oh, you can just call me Chaoguang," the young man said casually. [1]
"I'm on board too," said a burly man with long sideburns, and a thunderbolt longsaber. He was none other than the man who had called himself Blademaster Thunderbolt moments ago.
"I'm in as well, Captain." 
More and more voices joined in. After all, these people had come to earn money, not fight amongst themselves. Now that Yang Qi had proven how strong he was, they all approved of him.
"Fine. Let's head to the Rich-Lush Continent." Yang Qi had killed King Delirium for the very purpose of establishing his authority, and obviously, it had worked. He could only imagine how shocked the people at the Demi-Immortal Institute would be when he returned leading a group like this. He now commanded a group even more powerful than the Crown Prince Society.
In fact, if these mercenaries actually followed his orders, then not even the Chancellor could stand up to him. And what could the Crown Prince possibly count for? Nothing. These were top experts from the Quake-Dawn Continent, which was a higher plane of existence than the Rich-Lush Continent. Even in the Quake-Dawn Continent, these people would be considered an invincible force. After all, among the dozens of mercenaries, there were at least seven or eight Half Sages, with the rest being Never-Dying Legendaries.
As of this moment, Yang Qi could truly call the wind and summon the rain.
He could already imagine the looks of shock on the faces of the elders in the Demi-Immortal Institute when they saw him.
Of course, gaining the complete allegiance of a bunch of mercenaries wasn't going to be easy. Yang Qi could only hope that the journey through the wormhole to the Rich-Lush Continent would provide some opportunities to make these people his true subordinates.
"Very well," Overseer Heavenwood said. "Now that everything is settled, and you've agreed on your captain, the time has come to depart. Remember, you may run into other mercenary squads in the Rich-Lush Continent, so be prepared." Of course, Overseer Heavenwood didn't care at all that King Delirium had been killed. To him, everyone present, even Yang Qi, was little more than cannon fodder.
Hefting his saber, Blademaster Thunderbolt loudly said, "What about the wormhole? Why haven't you opened it yet? I'm very curious about this lower plane that is the Rich-Lush Continent. I've never been to a place with a curved heaven and flat earth."
"The wormhole is being opened even as we speak!" Overseer Heavenwood waved his finger toward the center of the valley, causing rumbling sounds to echo out from a formation of stalagmites which rose up from among the rubble. Within them was a spell formation, powered by spirit stones, which ripped open a hole in the void, causing a wormhole to appear.
Wormholes were like tunnels eaten into space by enormous, archaean worms. They twisted and turned through the spatial tempests, connecting different planes of existence. Unfortunately, they were often unstable, and as they were battered by spatial tempests, always ran the risk of collapsing.
However, that didn't seem to bother the mercenaries. They all knew that wormholes were inherently unstable, and that anything could happen when traversing them. There was little to be done about it, and they were the only way to quickly travel between planes. Even Great Sages could exhaust themselves to death trying to get to other planes by traveling the long way.
After all, the spatial tempests outside of wormholes often contained spatial beasts and hobgoblins, as well as hell monsoons, naturally occurring spell formations, magnetic fields, heavenly tribulations, vital energy tempests, and other dangers.
Compared to all that, wormholes were definitely the safest way to travel.
After the wormhole was opened, Yang Qi took the lead. The time had come to return to the Rich-Lush Continent.
 
1. Chaoguang: Chao means "exceed, surpass, transcend, go beyond, as well as ultra-, super-, extra-, etc". Guang means "light, ray, honor, glory, brightness". Because of how the Chinese language works, a Chinese reader would have no way to know if this is supposed to be a surname, a given name, or a combination of both. If it was a combination, it would be Chao Guang, with Chao being the surname and Guang being the given name. Unfortunately, English doesn't allow for such ambiguousness, so you get a mini-spoiler in that you know that this is his given name. This is obviously the same young man who was introduced in chapter 279. If you remember, he used an ability called Super-Luminous Godfist, in which the "super-luminous" contains the same characters as this name. Furthermore, the author repeatedly emphasizes that he seems "lazy", both in the original introduction and now. There is a further clue about his name/surname if you go back to read 279, or happen to remember the details of that chapter.

The days passed by and the students headed back to the academy. The camp they had set out to do what it was meant to. They went out to train and experience real combat. The experience may not have been what the chairman and student council had in mind, but nevertheless, it was still something that would make them stronger.

Today just so happened to be the start of a new month, as well as the day Nick and the other freshman student vice president and presidents got to use the essence pool. Once Nick settled what he had to do, he would go see Darius about it.

Nick was seated by Katherine on the bus who was staring out of the window. With her head rested against her hand.

"Katherine, you know I asked you previously what are you and you told me you're a human. I want to ask you once more, what are you?"

Nick asked in a cold but low voice, enough for just Katherine to hear.

Katherine turned towards him and stared into his hazel eyes. It did not cross her mind that Nick would ask her again.

"I already told you."

"I do not like it when people lie. If they wanted you, you must be something special. It would also seem that they did not know of the name 'Katherine' instead he called you subject number five."

Katherine froze when she heard Nick. Her being called subject number five was what they called her, but her mother gave her a much nicer name. She was not one of their tools they could use whenever they wanted, she was her own person.

Nick read the expression on her face, from her not answering him, to the quivering of her lips. Katherine would not be able to lie to him again. This time, he was going to pay attention to her expressions.

Nick learned how to tell if a person was lying from his sensei. He was always caught up in his lies when he visited her or tried to sneak away. One day he asked her how, and she said it was better for him to learn.

Experience was always the best teacher.

"Your facial expression gives you away. Lie to me again and I might kill you myself."

The murderous look in his eyes let Katherine know he was serious.

Nick did not understand why his sensei told him to look after Katherine, but if he was going to, he wanted to know why someone was after her.

Delirium wants her, it seems to be that she was created or brought to life in their hands. Another organization wants her dead, reason being is unknown. Nick is in the middle of something serious, and if he does not know exactly what he is dealing with he won't be able to protect himself let alone others.

"I already told you, I am the daughter of Dania Wells and that she manipulated my genetic code. What I may have left out is that her research may have been rejected by the government, but another group found a use for it."

"That group would be Delirium, I take it."

Katherine gave a light nod.

"They came to her with the funds and equipment she needed to help experiment on her theory. On the outside, they act like an unofficial government agency. On the inside, they are an evil, a vile organization that has their own goals. My mother was lead astray by their vast wealth and top-notch equipment. She was blindsided in her own research to realize what was actually happening. It was not until the first experiment was a success and all her data was taken from her did she register everything."

Katherine grabbed her arm tight, causing wrinkles to appear on her jacket.

"They used her, then tossed her aside. When she stood up against them, they captured her and used her own data on her. However, she had a safety measure in place when she is in real danger. A friend owed her a favor. That friend is your teacher Nick. She is the one that saved my mother, but it was too late for the others."

Nick furrowed his eyebrows. Who exactly were the others she was speaking of? Nick's sensei appeared in his mind for a moment, he wanted to know exactly how she was connected to the 'Wells' family. When he had time, he would find out.

"Others?"

"If I am number five, then there are four more. My mother did not birth all of them, only me. The other four came from other women. They are already under control of Delirium. Your sensei torched the lab and saved my mother, but if it is that woman. If it is that woman… she'll be able to recreate my mother's research.

I was then raised by my mother. Live like a normal child, move from place to place, stay out of the spotlight. That was what I did, I did not want anyone to find us. However, that did not work and we were eventually found."

Nick seemed to understand the rest. After Delirium was getting close to getting her exact location, Diana contacted his sensei once more. They must have had some sort of agreement and transferred Katherine to this academy where Nick could look after her.

He got all of that, but there was still something on his mind.

"Who were the ones that wanted you dead?"

Katherine shrugged her shoulders. She looked down with her silver eyes, she only knew of Delirium. Katherine did not have a good understanding of the other organizations, as she was in fear of only one.

"I do not know. My mother's experiments are not widely known, the only ones who should know are Delirium, my mother, your sensei, you and me. One thing is certain, once they know I'm still alive, they will be back."

"What are you two over there whispering about?"

Matthew asked them from across the aisle. He had his body turned so his legs were in the middle of the aisle.

Nick turned to look at him.

"Trying to see if we'll be attacked again on the ride home."

The students on the bus heard Nick and looked at him weirdly. They recalled the moment when their bus flipped over and shivered. Did Nick think that was an ok joke to make?

"Don't even joke about that!"

Six of the students on the bus said in unison, while the others agreed with them by nodding their head. It was not funny, they couldn't understand why Nick brought it up when they wanted to forget it.

The bus finally arrived back at the academy, and students unloaded everything.

"Finally back. Now I can take a real bath."

Freya said as soon as her feet touched the ground. She spun around as if she was in her own little world.

Matthew followed behind her and pinched his nose.

"I did not want to say anything… but ye-"

He was interrupted in his sentence as Freya kicked him in the leg. She had a good idea of what Matthew was going to say, and she did not want to hear it. If she did not stop him now, she would not be true to herself. That, and it would be nice to let out a bit of energy on him.

"What did you do that for!"

Matthew shouted at her as he rubbed his leg.

"You were about to say something stupid. I'm just stopping you from embarrassing yourself."

Freya responded back.

Matthew was going to get her back for this, and he could not wait. She wanted to hit him? Freya was going to be in for a surprise.

Nick yawned, these two were going to be back at it as if nothing happened.

"I'm going to go put my luggage up, I'll meet up with you guys later."

Nick told them as he walked off with his luggage.

Fred told him to meet him once he returned, and now he returned.

Three hundred years ago multiple meteors broke into earth's atmosphere and landed in various places. The meteors change the world. By releasing strange substances into the earth, air, and water the planet started to change. It was not until ten years later that the first batch of superhumans was born. They had abilities that could not be explained. Superspeed. Superstrength. Magic. The superhumans showed the world that all of it was possible. They called the abilities EXO and the people who wielded such an ability, EXO users.

They quickly found out that not every EXO was the same. One EXO user had one EXO ability and what that ability was could be categorized into one of three types. Offensive, Defensive or Support.

The government was the first to act after five years. Every EXO user must be subjected to whole new laws and they must get their abilities under control. Specialized schools were built all across the world that were made to train them. Under the pretense of saying it was to develop their abilities, the government was actually building an army. Humans were not the only ones to change…

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

10 chapters a week
Bonus: 6 chapters a week for every 150 ps
http://xzavon.imgur.com - Character Pictures (Will be updated as time progresses)

Quest For Three Stones (25)
Zunal; 
A stone is behind this problem; how strange? 
Now both were free to walk around with no fear to loss each other; they were bounded with the material that the delirium cannot walk to them and break it. Qiao was proficient with the left hand battle so it won't bother him. They were like those who lost in a valley and cannot face to misplace each other. If any other hunter happened to see them then he would definitely have ridiculed this kind of collaboration. It was unheard until now but not anymore. 
"There is another hunter king who is wandering in this phantasm; I wonder where he could be at this moment? Oh he must have escaped if considered his nature." The hunter king slightly thumped his forehead. All three hunter kings have their own ways and unique capabilities to emission as soon as they get the vibes about the stronger opponent. And there was no doubt that currently the opponent was stronger. They do not any digger with them in the team else he might be able to help to point out the rough direction where the stone was hidden. For now he was alone and has to decide whether to struggle hard and leave this phantasm or if he could find a chance then destroy the stone. 
"You were in a team and ended up in this place?" Qiao asked curiously. "Haha, we intentionally ended up in this place because the Hightown sent us to investigate the place and if possible then solve the issue. We were originally a team of three hunter kings and separated in this delirium." The hunter king scratched his head and spoke the truth. He knew that it was embarrassing to express how a team of three hunter kings were helpless. 
Qiao must have jumped with the excitement to hear this but he cannot show how immature he would look by doing so. He heard about the hunter kings and how powerful they were; also they were known from their haughty nature and arrogance. Those who talked about them in front of him showed their awed expressions just because of the mention of a hunter king and one of them standing right beside him. Qiao was unable to feel the rumored aura which a hunter king prompt out to control the surrounding. 
The hunter king perhaps understood the silence of the young hunter and chuckled, "Young boy! This is no more battle of physical strength or achievements. This is called delirium and only a strong brain would fight against it and it is impossible unless we temper our consciousness." He patted his shoulders. Qiao was now carefully looking at the hunter and sure enough currently he himself was not a match. The bearing, clothing, composure and moreover the way this hunter king reacted was all different and poses how strong he can be out of this delirium. 
Though Qiao achieved a perfect body similar even better than the gym guy at this point but he was no match compared to this hunter king. The hunter was wearing dull brown fleece which was sharp contrast to his fair yet stern looks. His face seemed sculpted perfectly like a warrior; a stone was hanging around his neck and the fleece aired with his movements. A sword hung at the backpack which seemed heavy and large just like his six feet and probably nine inches stature. He could not see how the sword does look like but it seemed definitely extraordinary. The sword was made with stones and it was transparent in appearance. 
"Does it mean that as long as we have a perfect control over the brain then this delirium cannot harm us?" Qiao inquired. "Don't ask this question not even think about it. Since the stone has created this strong territory it can easily read what comes in the thoughts." The hunter hurriedly interrupted. Reading the perceivable thoughts was easy task for the stone to read and then ploy so it was better to avoid it. At the mention of the stone Qiao looked up and flashed his eyes. 'It was also one of his perceptions and this hunter king also pointed it now' "You are saying that this is the doing of a stone?" Qiao emphasized every word. Such a wonder of this world; a stone has the intellect to baffle even three hunter kings; such audacious and powerful stone does exists in reality. 
"It is indeed a shredded stone of some powerful monster and probably got fortunate enough to remain hidden this long else it would have been smashed into smithereens by now." The hunter king scoured his hands with dismay. It was troublesome having limited teams for the missions. It was not easy to cover up all the seven continents with the limited number of teams by means of the right amount of time. 
The stone could finally hear their talk since it has returned back to capture the young hunter. When the hunter asked whether it was dong of a stone; the stone was literally glaring the oldie hunter king. 'Since when did they patch up to go against the stone; just when?' 'Ah, it must be my stay of deliberation' the stone concluded. 'No matter how strong hold they could show; they are still way beyond' the stone has quite a resilience compared to them. 
Before it was only wreaking intellect how to get over the consciousness of the young hunter now it has to draw away the consciousness of the oldie too. In the intellect of the stone; the stones were better than the human hunters because the stone does not actually go through the lifespan thing. They never grow old; simply grow powerful. It was enough for the stones to brag and look down upon humans who were under the lifecycle which would eventually end at some point of time. This means the humans of this world were not only fighting for their existence against the monsters but the stones too; such a hazardous thing. 
Not only had the monsters grown powerful with the time also their stone of natural armors become the bone of throat. In the advanced world there was threat of atomic conflict yet here the threat lurks in the forests and under the ground leaving no safe place for ordinary humans. At least there were people in the advanced world working for peace entreaty however monster would unlikely follow any peace treaty? It was the war of who was the better to rule over the seven continents. The crisis might increase with the time since the monsters equally grow strong just like humans. 
Qiao was about to think what he should do to tackle the situation then he remembered the words of the hunter king that he should not think in his brain, it might let the delirium break into his consciousness. The surrounding which was plain before started to change the appearance; the ground was no more solid, t was slowly turning into sand and their feet were plopping in the sand. The hunter was slightly amazed at this change because having been here for more than three days; he did not face such strong illusion. 
He looked at the young hunter and witnessed the expressions of tiredness as if he was consecutively facing these illusions. "What are you thinking?" the hunter king immediately asked with fright. He thought that perhaps the stone brandished the thoughts of young hunter against them. Qiao was apparently calm yet he was actually swearing the calm expressions were the result of his swearing. He always felt well after swearing his supposed to be enemies. "Nothing: I only swore to vent out my anger." He shrugged his shoulders. 
He could swear right? In his eyes; his swearing won't let the stone stole his consciousness. "I see but it might trigger the stone." The hunter creased his brows because never a hunter ever swore a monster before not even in the middle of the battle. "Rest assured: the stone would not be able to discern my kind of swearing." Qiao waved his hand. No matter how genius was this stone; it cannot decipher the advanced swearing. Compared to, it would help Qiao rest ease for some time and let the things unfold in front of him. 
"Then keep going." The hunter chuckled. He was few hundred years old and has no idea how the youth was learning new things or inventing stuffs. But from his look no one can tell how old he was at this time because of his peak years of service among the level eight hunters. He was aspiring to reach level nine and also doing missions. Because of his missions; he was given mandatory hunter king rank until he was able to pass the test for the hunter king. This was the second mission and if passed then he would be given third and last mission for the class test. 


[Check out my #WSA story 'The Player's System'] 

A wicked and greedy hunter who intentionally triggered the broken morgue in search of treasure. He was cursed by the aura of death. Being the high level hunter he was given a chance to cast this curse onto someone else and save himself. He disguised himself in an old woman and stopped a youth walking on the street. 

To be college student and getting good grades is not enough if you cannot hunt monsters.
Bam*
“I am your opponent and enemy, you have choice whether to level up or face brutal death in front of your younger sibling. I choose you as my target to sacrifice in place of my mistake and crime. I have offended the ancient sacred soul of Hunter Monarch."

“What, why and why in front of younger sibling? How do you know him and who the hell are you?" The youth was forced to drag through the portal and enter in unknown world. 
(Note: if you are fan of OP MC from the very start of the story then you should not try this.)
Author
_Sha
Story: Original
Updates: 2/daily

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/U6CHayC

"Surely these are only crocodiles?"
"Alligators! Alligators! There is hardly such a thing as a true crocodile in South America. The distinction between them——"
"I meant that I could see nothing unusual—nothing to justify what you have said."
He smiled serenely.
"Try the next page," said he.
I was still unable to sympathize. It was a full-page sketch of a landscape roughly tinted in color—the kind of painting which an open-air artist takes as a guide to a future more elaborate effort. There was a pale-green foreground of feathery vegetation, which sloped upwards and ended in a line of cliffs dark red in color, and curiously ribbed like some basaltic formations which I have seen. They extended in an unbroken wall right across the background. At one point was an isolated pyramidal rock, crowned by a great tree, which appeared to be separated by a cleft from the main crag. Behind it all, a blue tropical sky. A thin green line of vegetation fringed the summit of the ruddy cliff.
"Well?" he asked.
"It is no doubt a curious formation," said I, "but I am not geologist enough to say that it is wonderful."
"Wonderful!" he repeated. "It is unique. It is incredible. No one on earth has ever dreamed of such a possibility. Now the next."
I turned it over, and gave an exclamation of surprise. There was a full-page picture of the most extraordinary creature that I had ever seen. It was the wild dream of an opium smoker, a vision of delirium. The head was like that of a fowl, the body that of a bloated lizard, the trailing tail was furnished with upward- turned spikes, and the curved back was edged with a high serrated fringe, which looked like a dozen cocks' wattles placed behind each other. In front of this creature was an absurd mannikin, or dwarf, in human form, who stood staring at it.
"Well, what do you think of that?" cried the Professor, rubbing his hands with an air of triumph.
"It is monstrous—grotesque."
"But what made him draw such an animal?"
"Trade gin, I should think."
"Oh, that's the best explanation you can give, is it?"
"Well, sir, what is yours?"
"The obvious one that the creature exists. That is actually sketched from the life."
I should have laughed only that I had a vision of our doing another Catharine-wheel down the passage.
"No doubt," said I, "no doubt," as one humors an imbecile. "I confess, however," I added, "that this tiny human figure puzzles me. If it were an Indian we could set it down as evidence of some pigmy race in America, but it appears to be a European in a sun-hat."
The Professor snorted like an angry buffalo. "You really touch the limit," said he. "You enlarge my view of the possible. Cerebral paresis! Mental inertia! Wonderful!"
He was too absurd to make me angry. Indeed, it was a waste of energy, for if you were going to be angry with this man you would be angry all the time. I contented myself with smiling wearily. "It struck me that the man was small," said I.
"Look here!" he cried, leaning forward and dabbing a great hairy sausage of a finger on to the picture. "You see that plant behind the animal; I suppose you thought it was a dandelion or a Brussels sprout—what? Well, it is a vegetable ivory palm, and they run to about fifty or sixty feet. Don't you see that the man is put in for a purpose? He couldn't really have stood in front of that brute and lived to draw it. He sketched himself in to give a scale of heights. He was, we will say, over five feet high. The tree is ten times bigger, which is what one would expect."
"Good heavens!" I cried. "Then you think the beast was—— Why, Charing Cross station would hardly make a kennel for such a brute!"
"Apart from exaggeration, he is certainly a well-grown specimen," said the Professor, complacently.
"But," I cried, "surely the whole experience of the human race is not to be set aside on account of a single sketch"—I had turned over the leaves and ascertained that there was nothing more in the book—"a single sketch by a wandering American artist who may have done it under hashish, or in the delirium of fever, or simply in order to gratify a freakish imagination. You can't, as a man of science, defend such a position as that."
For answer the Professor took a book down from a shelf.
"This is an excellent monograph by my gifted friend, Ray Lankester!" said he. "There is an illustration here which would interest you. Ah, yes, here it is! The inscription beneath it runs: 'Probable appearance in life of the Jurassic Dinosaur Stegosaurus. The hind leg alone is twice as tall as a full-grown man.' Well, what do you make of that?"
He handed me the open book. I started as I looked at the picture. In this reconstructed animal of a dead world there was certainly a very great resemblance to the sketch of the unknown artist.
"That is certainly remarkable," said I.
"But you won't admit that it is final?"
"Surely it might be a coincidence, or this American may have seen a picture of the kind and carried it in his memory. It would be likely to recur to a man in a delirium."
"Very good," said the Professor, indulgently; "we leave it at that. I will now ask you to look at this bone." He handed over the one which he had already described as part of the dead man's possessions. It was about six inches long, and thicker than my thumb, with some indications of dried cartilage at one end of it.
"To what known creature does that bone belong?" asked the Professor.
I examined it with care and tried to recall some half- forgotten knowledge.
"It might be a very thick human collar-bone," I said.
My companion waved his hand in contemptuous deprecation.
"The human collar-bone is curved. This is straight. There is a groove upon its surface showing that a great tendon played across it, which could not be the case with a clavicle."
"Then I must confess that I don't know what it is."
"You need not be ashamed to expose your ignorance, for I don't suppose the whole South Kensington staff could give a name to it." He took a little bone the size of a bean out of a pill-box. "So far as I am a judge this human bone is the analogue of the one which you hold in your hand. That will give you some idea of the size of the creature. You will observe from the cartilage that this is no fossil specimen, but recent. What do you say to that?"

Aboard the Terror Captain Zinc was straining his braincells to their limit. He didn't have cells per se, the concept of cells and membranes and such was deeply rooted in biological life, something he just wasn't. But he, nontheless, had been bestowed a sort of grown circuitry that enabled him to think. Some things came easy to Sylvanians. Creative or inpired thinking didn't. He, or she or it for lack of gender and simplicity,  had humans and the Terrors Ai to do it for him. However this decision had to be made by him. His white blueish hide was beginning to glow from his overheating brain. He needed to be careful, zinc became brittle when hot, and he already had a nasty crack across what could be his forehead.
'Captain Zinc, your orders?'  (i'm sorry for the inconsitency, at this point ill be switching to                                                    " ' "  for direct speech, ♥ )
One of his human assistants prodded him. Zinc hat difficulties telling them apart, he liked this one. The white reddish one with the frontal potrusions and, what did they call it again; '... hair?' , was his favorite. She? yes that was the pronoun they used, was quiet calm and patient. A quality invaluable to someone like him that needed time to think.
Some time passed as more heat was shedding off of Zinc's head and his metal was beginning to make worrisome cracking noises.
'Engage a squad of combat drones.'
'Sir, while the ship agrees that we cannot assume that there is no trap lain for us it is a PLB that is pinging us, I suggest we send a recovery drone aswell'
'OK do that, dismissed'
He liked the word. Dismissed. Diss - miss -ed. Dis-mi--seed. It had a superior sound to it.
Satisfied with his involvement in the situation he relaxed his brain and the cracking noises, to his relieve, subsided.
Elsewhere in the star system, Botan, who was in a state of delirium, delirium tremens had come, haunted him and subsided in favor of general delirium, vaguely noticed that he was being rescued but couldn't muster the strengh to be happy about it anymore.

'Captain Zinc, the recovery operation was successful, the survivor has been taken into medical care and the dead ones have been incinerated. It will take some time for him to regain full conciousness'
One of his assistants said.
Heat was building up again.
'Good, have him interrogated as soon as possible.'
Pause.
'Do we have a lead on the missing ship? this Golden Nori?'
'Not precisely Sir, it appears the Nori has activated her Drive and left the system rimwards, the terror is unable to pinpoint its course Sir, maybe the interrogation will give us a clue as to where exactly they are headed.'
'So we .... wait?'
'Yes Sir, it would be prudent, Sir'

Zinc relaxed a bit and cooled off. Prudent. Pru-dent. Pr-U-D-enT. Another good word. Zinc wasn't learning fast but as continuously as his heat management allowed him to. Granted, he could calculate Pi to the Pi to the Pi to the Pi in his head in a finite amount of time but that was just numbers. Language, the whole concept was strange, for most of his race utterly unneccessary, but in a way beautiful. He enjoyed it.
'Inform the investigator of his task'
'Right away Sir.'

The Investigator was special. Zinc was special, but the Investigator even more so. He had been human, thousands of millenia ago. He had been dead, but not quite. He had been transformed, revived, by some sort of old alien Goo, died again. Then revived again, this time by feeding his semi mortal remains to the Hive mother. He was Human, he was alien Goo, he was Sylvanian. A being so lost lonely and trans species he was hard not to pity. Its name was Miller. It was strong. Stronger than even the toughest sylvanian combat drones which was already remarkable, but its best quality was that it loyal to the Hivemother and almost as old as her. His downside Zinc was just beginning to grasp; Sarkasm and Nihilism. But Miller would get the job done, extract what information was needed from the survivor and give them the course they needed to catch up to the pirates and make them suffer the wrath of the mother. Zinc admired the Investigator.

SSS follows the Crew and friends of the Nori on their epic adventure through the galaxy.

The surging mana of Old Grimm slowed down abruptly following the Mana Retroaction from Lin Li. The seven Arcane Missiles lost control and vanished in an instant. Old Grimm still remained unhurried; his thin arm rose slightly and a mental protection field rose. Under the safety of the mental protection field, Lin Li's Delirium Spell was like a stone thrown into a pond, merely creating ripples on the calm water.
Both had amazing casting speed—one was swift and the other fluent. Lin Li was constantly challenging the limits of magic counter-reaction by virtue of his superior mental strength; Old Grimm relied on years of experience to minimize the length of the spell. Gerian, who watched from the side, exclaimed countless times in his heart. These two fellows—young and old—behaved nothing like a normal human being.
It was a dazzling combat with a tremendous rate of casting. The transition between attack and defense was often made in the blink of an eye. Often, they cast a spell and would cast protection on themselves before the spell could even fall on the opponent.
Old Grimm was a legendary mage after all. Although he was using only the power of a Magic Shooter, the legendary level vision and experience were still there. The choices he made in between the counterattacks, seemingly casual, often hit Lin Li's vulnerable point. Not to mention that, in his long life, he had accumulated a huge amount of spell-casting skills. In the face of such skills, any genius could not help but appear feeble and futile.
After the failure of the Mana Retroaction, Lin Li, who had been grappling for long, gave out at last.
At the moment the Mana Retroaction failed, Lin Li knew it was a trap.
Old Grimm first used a lot of low-level spells to suppress Lin Li, and when Lin Li was so overwhelmed that he couldn't even lift his head, Old Grimm departed from his usual style and cast a Flaming Storm instead. Lin Li was all too familiar with this level-nine spell—it had power comparable to that of the Magic Shooter and a horribly long recitation.
Lin Li, who had completely lost the opportunity, had only two options in the face of this level-nine spell. One was to force out the Elemental Shield, and be in a state of no protection from the Elemental Shield for about 30 seconds; the second was to risk being tricked again and carry on with another Mana Retroaction.
Lin Li chose to take the risk, and then he was tricked…
This was a classic example of deceit that was worth including in magic textbooks. As early as the moment the spell sounded, Old Grimm had already cut off the mana output. Breaking off a spell was a skill that every mage needed to learn, let alone Old Grimm, who was already a powerhouse in the legendary realm. For him, it was no more difficult to break off a Flaming Storm than to eat and drink.
At this time, although the spell was still being recited, there was no mana output at all.
Mana Retroaction, of course, could only react against mana. For a magic spell that did not produce any mana, the Mana Retroaction was like a punch in the air and had no effect at all…
Apart from a few low-level spells such as the wind blade, icicles, and the delaying and hastening spells, most other magic spells had their own cooldown time. After one use, one had to wait for the cooldown time to pass before one could use it again. This process was called the Spell Cycle.
Everything had its rise and decline, and magic was no exception. When a spell was used, it would surely go into depletion, and then await the next cycle. This was the law of things.
Of course, the time was not definitive. Many mages were able to compress the cooldown time with skills and mental strength, but such compression was almost negligible in most cases. Even a legendary mage as powerful as Andoine could only compress the cooldown time of Mana Retroaction by two seconds at most.
And Lin Li, who possessed a sick mental strength, was in fact close to the legendary level in this aspect. He could almost do as much as Andoine could.
But as far as the current situation was concerned, let alone doing what Andoine could do, even if he surpassed Andoine, it would be equally useless. Old Grimm didn't even give him a chance to wait for the next cycle and proceeded to drown him in a large number of Arcane Missiles. In a zero-interference spell-casting state, it was similarly terrifying even with the strength of a Magic Shooter. The Arcane Missile shot down incessantly and the Elemental Shield on Lin Li's body was extremely fragile. In a twinkling, the Arcane Missiles broke through the protection of the Elemental Shield and landed directly on Lin Li's body…
Lin Li was barely hurt under the protection of the elements annihilation field, but there was a look of disappointment on his face.
Since transmigrating, due to lack of actual combat, Lin Li had never been so miserable as he was today. The previous match with Old Merlin was more of mental strength, not to mention it was an absolute suppression of an Archmage. Though Lin Li had lost in the end, it could be said to be a glorious defeat.
But this time, Lin Li had lost, with nothing else to say.
Throughout the battle, Old Grimm did not use force beyond level-ten. Even when he was using magic, he chose some of the lower level ones as much as possible.
And the deciding factor—the Mana Retroaction deceit—left Lin Li chagrined. If he had been more composed then…
"Are you thinking you could have won if you had been more composed then?" Old Grimm's eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts; as soon as he opened his mouth, he said what Lin Li was thinking.
"Yes."
"No…" Old Grimm shook his head. "You were composed enough. I could feel that you were struggling between Elemental Shield and Mana Retroaction, but it doesn't matter at all. Whether it was the Elemental Shield or the Mana Retroaction, anyone who enters the depletion cycle will undoubtedly lose.
"So… this has nothing to do with composure." There was a smile of admiration on Old Grimm's aged face. "Actually, you're doing quite well at your age. Whether in skills or rhythm, you've already reached the limit of your age. I know you still possess an enormous amount of mental strength. Even I almost suffered with that Delirium Spell. In this spar, you've lost due to the lack of experience…"
"Experience?"
"That's right, experience." Old Grimm nodded and bagan analyzing the fight for him. "I was actually affected by that Delirium Spell. But you were engrossed in the mental protection field and failed to judge the situation right. Didn't you realize? After casting the mental protection field, my casting speed was slower than usual, and why was that? That is because I had to divide some of my mental strength to suppress the negative effects brought by the Delirium Spell…"
Lin Li pondered over it carefully and realized it was indeed as Old Grimm said. The latter's spell-casting speed had decreased significantly. If he had used a large number of low-level spells to suppress him then, the whole fight would have been a different story altogether…
"And that failed Mana Retroaction. If you have enough experience, it is entirely possible to judge quickly whether I was really releasing mana when I was reciting the spell…" At this point, Old Grimm paused for a while before delivering the conclusion, "President Gerian is right, you need actual combat!"
After pointing out Lin Li's shortcomings, Old Grimm identified the mistakes and highlights of the spar, then proceeded with a detailed analysis. It was almost evening by the time he finished. Old Grimm saw that it was late, so he fixed a time with Lin Li for the next day before he left the Emerald Tower and disappeared into the darkness.


Lin Li accidentally enters another world while playing with his smurf mage account just after he maxes out all kinds of crafting skills, bringing with him various top-grade materials. Although his character is practically powerless, what he gains in return is unprecedented magical talent! Can he survive by himself after being thrown into another world?

When Gu Jun was taken out of the surgery building, it was exactly midnight, the night sky was as dark as ink, and the sounds of birds and animals coming from the surrounding mountains were quite eerie.

He had already been reacquainted with the three investigators, in addition to Captain Wang Ke, the other man called Cao Yicheng, a little younger, in his early thirties; the woman called Tang Zizhuang, a little younger again, looking not much older than him, with short hair, very bright, she went to the vending machine to buy some bread and a few bottles of mineral water.

The three of them took him to a police car, which is the most ordinary-looking kind of police car, marked with "Public Security" and "Police", without the logo of the Phecda Bureau.

The medical staff who entered and exited the surgical building were puzzled by this scene, but the police car immediately moved away.

After leaving the medical department, the police car did not head to the city's downtown area, but to the northeast mountainous area.

"Captain Wang, may I ask what the situation is?" Gu Jun sat in the back row, next to Wang Ke, the driver was Cao Yicheng, and Tang Zizhuan was in the passenger seat.

"It' s still a long way to go." Wang Ke took the bread and a bottle of mineral water that Tang Zizhuan had just bought and handed it to Gu Jun, "Doctor Gu, you should eat something first and then rest."

Gu Jun wasn't familiar with Captain Wang Ke's temperament, but this seemed to be a man with a cold face and a warm heart, and from this attitude of his, he didn't seem to be an evil person in their place... Forget about it for now, he was indeed tired after a day of surgery.

He ate a few pieces of bread and drank some water, and took a nap right next him in the back seat with his eyes closed, saving his energy anyway.

Although he was very tired, he couldn't sleep, and the car was getting bumpier and bumpier, taking all the rough and winding roads. In order to know where to go, he opened his eyes from time to time to look out of the car window, the car is driving into the remote mountains, this is certainly not forward to the investigation department.

Captain Wang Ke did not stop him, and was not afraid to let him watch the way.

The mountains were steep, the shadowy reflections of the trees were like ghosts, all kinds of insects constantly hissing sounds, and the darkness of the night covered all of this with an eerie atmosphere.

It's also not clear what kind of night birds can be heard or what kind of strange voices exist in the night.

The car drove for nearly an hour, gradually not so bumpy, reaching a flat area. Gu Jun could also see a hazy light ahead, a village, and after another short drive, they arrived at their destination this time.

"Doctor Gu, this is the place where all the patients who left the medical department are currently temporarily housed in quarantine for post-operative Banyan disease."

It was in the middle of these remote mountains that there was such a placement site with the quarantine fence pulled up, and the soldiers on patrol and the guards at the barrier were all loaded with Department of Operations officers.

The police car was inspected all the way through several checkpoints before it was able to drive into that quarantine gate. Gu Jun kept looking out the window of the car, the high beam spotlights shining brightly, some military green assembled barracks around, more of them were blue and white simple mobile homes.

Gu Jun listened to Captain Wang Ke and asked, "May I know how many patients there are here?"

    "Several thousand." Wang Ke didn't go into detail about the number, looking at those boarders outside the car, his firm national face was also a bit sad, "All of them are patients admitted in the area of Eastern Province. They are all groups of people with illnesses in the area from villages, and all of these villages have large banyan trees, no exceptions."

Gu Jun ponders, with the way the foreign banyan disease spreads, the villagers all need to have contact with the diseased ones in order for this to happen, but that doesn't make sense....

Even if there was a large banyan tree in the village, it would be impossible for every villager to touch and hold it for a few days, unless something happened.

"Doctor Gu, you've figured out the doubts." Wang Ke said with a sullen face, "We, the Abnormal Force Investigation Team, never believe in coincidences."

"Hmm..." nodded Gu Jun silently.

After they got out of the car, Gu Jun was brought inside an assembled barrack where a dozen people were busy in various places, some looking at computers, some looking at documents, some discussing something. Seeing them come in, the people stopped and called out "Captain Wang", they should all be colleagues from the investigation department of this squad.

It's already past one o'clock in the morning, they were scrambling so much, was there any change in the situation?

"Doctor Gu, we need to show you some surveillance video first." Wang Ke had Gu Jun sit down towards a chair, facing a TV screen.

Before Gu Jun had even sat down, four or five people had already gathered around, looking at him without concealment, again with that rather wary gaze.

"Broadcast the video." Wang Ke said, and over there Tang Zizhuang worked on it, and the TV screen then lit up with a video.

The corridor on the sixth floor of the medical department's surgical building was crowded with Banyan disease patients lying on ambulance beds, and the medical staff were busy walking around, but at this time, Zhou Jiaqiang walked by with a group of interns, and suddenly a patient screamed wildly at them....

Gu Jun wasn't surprised, that was what he was mentally prepared for, as he had already discovered that the corridors of the surgical building were equipped with surveillance cameras.

There were three different Banyan patients going crazy towards him, and if this didn't even get their attention, the Investigation Department would be full of a bunch of idiots.

Sure enough, after broadcasting the corridor video, Tang Zizhuang lavishly played another video of the operating room, and this one had sound, the agitated and miserable cries of patient #25: "It's you! The thing inside the Banyan Tree… Please… Let me go…" the voice made the entire air in the barracks freeze.

The video was broadcast here and the TV screen stopped in time, the dozen pairs of eyes of the investigative team all looking at Gu Jun.

"Doctor Gu, the 'thing in the banyan tree' is one of the things that some of the patients with different banyan diseases see in their delirium, these patients are scattered all over the world and the only thing they have in common is that they are all psychic. But after the operation, none of them could remember what they saw during delirium."

Wang Ke gave some information about the investigation, "We suspect it has something to do with abnormal powers. We've collaborated with your medical department's psychology group to do some attempts, such as hypnotizing patients to look for memories of delirium, but we couldn't find any valuable clues. Their memories from before and after the onset of the disease are completely missing."

This was the first time Gu Jun had learned of this information, and he frowned slightly, had even his internal hidden memories disappeared....

"The other day, the medical department gave us a new clue that the psychology team thinks you are the 'something in the banyan tree' that some of the highly psychic Banyan patients say is their stressor, and that is what causes their psychological breakdown and accelerates the progression of their condition. Due to the suspicious nature of this incident, combined with the fact that you have unusual memories and possibly unusual early childhood activities..."

When Wang Ke said this, the faces of the crowd didn't change, but it was this lack of change that gave a sense of heaviness.

An unusually early childhood event? What were they suspecting, Gu Jun thought?

"So," Wang Ke said again after a pause, "we did a little test, Broadcast the video."

It dawned on Gu Jun that the test should have proved that he couldn't be without a connection....

It's just that there is still something in his heart that he is not willing to give up on: after those three patients, he didn't make anyone else stressed, and it's not possible that so many patients are just not very psychic. Maybe there is another reason?

At the same time, a new video plays on the TV screen.

In a small, empty room, a patient with a right leg prosthesis sits in the only chair, staring nervously at the camera.

I don't own anything.
The events are inspired by the author's imagination and have nothing to do with reality.
Everything that happens in the story expresses the opinion of the author, and I have no involvement in the content.

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