dmims Page 5
Page 5
"Now!" Zhang Su seized the moment when Gerald was distracted by his companion being knocked away and charged out!
Gerrard immediately turned around, and his pincers slammed towards Zhang Su with a whooshing sound!
At the critical moment, Kurokawa pounced from the side, ramming Gerald's carapace with his shoulder. Although he was jolted and spat out a mouthful of blood, he bought Zhang Su half a step of distance!
Zhang Su instantly moved close to Gerald's right arm and clearly saw that a walnut-sized, rhomboid diamond, flowing with golden-red light, was fusing with the bone in the joint gap of the metal pincers!
[Location confirmed: 'Greedy Treasure' is located in the core of the ulna of the pincers!]
"Open the hole!" Zhang Su roared at Kurokawa.
A fierce glint flashed in Kurokawa's eyes. Ignoring the cracks in his chest armor, he slashed at Gerald's pincer joint with his right hand in a chop!
"Snap!" The hand knife was inserted into the gap, and with a forceful pry, it was pried open!
"Awooo—!" Gerald let out an inhuman scream as his pincer joint was forcibly pried open, exposing the deep red diamond completely, with even a few drops of molten gold splashing out!
"Three seconds!" Zhang Su shouted, his fingertips instantly pressing against the exposed crystal!
"Containment protocols—activated!"
An invisible wave erupted from the fingertip, and the red diamond, as if attracted by a magnet, was suddenly detached from the pincers and transformed into a stream of light that entered Zhang Su's palm!
Almost simultaneously, Gerrard's body lost its support, the metal pincers crashed to the ground, and his entire body began to decompose rapidly.
"And the first mate!" Kurokawa, catching his breath, pointed to the mutant that had risen again.
The first mate clearly sensed the death of his companion, and an even more frenzied killing intent erupted from his crimson compound eyes. He simultaneously slammed his two tentacles towards Zhang Su!
Kurokawa roared and pounced, his scaled arm forcefully blocking one of Zhang Su's arms, while the other grazed Zhang Su's shoulder, leaving a deep wound that exposed bone!
"Now!" With blood spitting from the corner of his mouth, Kurokawa rushed to the first mate and, with his last strength, clawed at his chest, slicing away a large chunk of sticky, bluish flesh! His beating heart was now exposed.
Zhang Su endured the excruciating pain and looked at the first mate's heaving chest—there, a large gold bar was embedded in the heart, beating in sync with it.
He quickly spurred his legs forward, leaping forward in a Superman-like pose, and punched the first mate in the heart.
"Pfft!" The fist pierced the first mate's chest, directly touching the gold bar that was fused with his heart!
"Take them in—!" Zhang Su shouted.
The gold bar vanished in a flash of light!
The first mate's massive body collapsed with a crash after losing its core, dying instantly and beginning to rot at a visible rate.
Then, a nauseating stench of decay spread rapidly through the cabin, almost causing Zhang Su, who had just landed and hadn't even regained his footing, to faint. Fortunately, he managed to control himself and only staggered back five meters, covering his nose.
Kurokawa collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. Although the battle had lasted less than a minute, he had given it his all.
As a Sequence 9 Abyss Stalker, he might have been able to retain some strength by drawing on the power of the ocean if he were in the sea, but on a ship that was almost on land, he was truly exhausted.
After catching his breath for a minute, Kurokawa regained his strength, sat up from the ground, and asked Zhang Su, who was standing beside him, "Where did you take the things inside their bodies?"
“A place that won’t pollute anyone anymore,” Zhang Su replied, fanning himself to disperse the stench. “But the problem isn’t completely solved yet; the source of the pollution is still there.”
"Alright, then we'll just have to keep fighting." Kurokawa reluctantly got up and led the way again.
As the two continued upwards, the cloying, putrid stench of rust mixed with sweetness in the air grew stronger, like maggots crawling into their nostrils and eroding their will.
Upon reaching the first floor, the sunlight was dazzling. Zhang Su, who had traveled through time, finally left the cabin and came to the surface of the ship, where he saw the azure sky and the boundless blue ocean.
Unfortunately, he had no time to appreciate it at that moment and could only glance at it hastily as he ran.
The path leading to the captain's cabin was unusually quiet, so quiet that only the heavy breathing of the two men and the muffled creaking of the wooden planks under their feet could be heard—along with a deeper, sticky, wriggling sound that seemed to come from inside the ship.
"Almost there!" Kurokawa's voice was hoarse, his face, covered in dark blue scales, was a mixture of sweat and blood.
Deep within those eyes, an ominous dark red lurked like a venomous snake, appearing and disappearing intermittently.
He pointed to the familiar, heavy oak door at the end of the corridor, carved with sea serpent patterns—his captain's cabin, once a symbol of the highest authority on the Black Sea, now exuding a chilling aura.
From the crack in the door, wisps of eerie, golden-red mist seeped out slowly, twisting and swirling in the air, carrying a deadly allure.
Zhang Su pursed his lips tightly; the wound on his shoulder burned with pain, but he forced himself to ignore it.
His gaze was sharp and piercing, like an eagle's, fixed on the door, while also keeping a watchful eye on Kurokawa, whose condition was clearly off.
A mysterious force has warned him that the pollution's encroachment on the Kurokawa River is intensifying, and time is running out...
"Open the door, the pollution will be resolved soon," Zhang Su said calmly.
Kurokawa took a deep breath, his scaled hands gripping the cold brass doorknob.
His hands were trembling slightly, whether from exhaustion or from the call that resonated deep within his soul coming from behind the door.
He exerted force suddenly—
"crunch..."
The door opened.
An indescribable, intensely suffocating odor swept over us like a tsunami! It wasn't just pure stench, but a mixture of an extremely alluring sweet scent, the fishy smell of rotting seaweed, the heavy metallic smell of rust, and... the warm scent of fresh flesh!
The sight before him froze Kurokawa, who was used to the storms of the sea!
Is this... still his captain's cabin?
The familiar oak walls, nautical charts, brass instruments, and heavy mahogany desks... have all disappeared!
Instead, there was a disgusting, enormous cavity of flesh that seemed to possess life!
The walls, floors, and ceilings were all covered by a thick layer of dark red fleshy tissue with dark brown veins. These "flesh walls," like the walls of giant internal organs, pulsated and writhed slowly and rhythmically. With each wriggling motion, a thick, translucent mucus with a sweet, fishy smell was squeezed out, flowing and dripping slowly down the folds of the flesh walls.
The flesh walls were also studded with fragments of incompletely digested wood and metal components, like undigested remnants left after being swallowed by a giant beast. The air was thick with a humid, bio-active atmosphere, as if one were inside the abdominal cavity of some deep-sea monster.
However, in the center of this writhing, sticky, bloody hell exuding death and madness, the golden-red treasure chest still stood silently.
Instead of being assimilated by this terrifying environment, it appeared even more dazzling, like a sacred object forged in a hellish furnace!
The golden-red luster flowing across the box was more intense and eerie than before, and the inlaid gemstones seemed to have come alive, with liquid radiance flowing inside, exuding an irresistible allure.
The box was half-open, revealing a mountain of gold coins, pearls, and gems of various colors. Under the faint light from the pulsating flesh, the contents shimmered with a brilliance that could ignite the most primal greed deep within any soul!
“My…” Kurokawa uttered a sound that was almost like a dream.
On his scaly face, the dark red color erupted like a volcano, completely filling his pupils!
Exhaustion, fear, reason... everything was burned away by this greed that suddenly intensified a thousandfold.
The light from the treasure chest was like an invisible hook, piercing his brain and dragging his remaining consciousness into a vortex of golden-red frenzy!
Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Su immediately ran forward with all his might!
He had to contain the treasure chest immediately, otherwise Kurokawa would be completely corrupted and launch an attack on him.
"They're all mine!!" A beastly roar exploded from Kurokawa's throat!
He turned his head sharply, his eyes, now completely red and burning with pure greed, fixed on Zhang Su, who was about to rush towards the treasure chest!
At this moment, Zhang Su was no longer the unfathomable "Your Excellency" in his eyes, but a despicable thief who tried to steal his supreme treasure!
"Get out of my way! That's my treasure!!!" Kurokawa completely lost control! Driven by his insane desires, the power of Sequence 9 erupted without reservation.
Covered in thick, ferocious scales, his body lunged at Zhang Su without regard for anything else!
With its five fingers spread wide, the deep blue claws gleamed with a deadly cold light, and it aimed straight for Zhang Su's back!
"They've come after all!" Zhang Su saw this, but there was still no panic in his eyes.
On the way here, he had already rehearsed this scene repeatedly—a Sequence 9 superhuman tempted by a greedy treasure chest and on the verge of complete aberration, launching a frantic counterattack at the last moment!
He had already figured out how to deal with it.
Just as Kurokawa's claws were about to strike his back, Zhang Su moved.
Instead of a direct confrontation, he shifted his weight sharply to the side, using his left foot as a pivot and his right foot, like a steel whip ready to strike, swept across the wet, sticky, fleshy floor with an extremely concealed yet incredibly swift low sweep!
"Oh!"
The kick landed with perfect precision on Kurokawa's shinbone as he lunged forward with all his might, losing his balance. It wasn't powerful, but its timing was absolutely perfect.
"Ugh!" Kurokawa groaned, his forward momentum abruptly halted. The immense inertia caused his heavy, scale-covered body to crash forward like a stumbling beast.
The scaly head slammed onto the writhing, sticky, fleshy floor, splashing up a cloud of disgusting slime.
It's now!
Zhang Su did not pause at all, nor did he even turn around to look at the disheveled Kurokawa.
All his spirit and all his strength were focused on one point—the greedy treasure chest three meters away, radiating a deadly allure and terrifying pollution!
Like an arrow released from a bow, he pressed his body to its lowest point and darted forward at top speed across the slick, sticky, and bloody floor!
Three meters! We're almost there!
Zhang Su could even clearly see every eerie golden-red pattern on the treasure chest and feel the greedy fluctuations that almost burned his soul.
The treasure chest seemed to sense the impending catastrophe. The chest shook violently, and its last light burst forth like a final burst of light, attempting a last stand!
However, for Zhang Su, who possessed immunity to pollution, this radiance was nothing but a futile illusion.
His cold fingertips, filled with resolute will, pointed fiercely at the eerie box!
"Containment protocols—activated!!!"
Om-!
An invisible, absolute force suddenly erupted from Zhang Su's fingertips!
There was no earth-shattering noise, no dazzling light or shadow.
The dazzling, eerie golden-red light vanished and receded instantly, as if swallowed by a black hole.
The greedy treasure chest, exuding endless allure and terrifying corruption, along with the living treasures within, vanished completely from its original location in a barely perceptible spatial ripple, as if it had never existed at all.
The Greedy Treasure Chest has been successfully contained.
Volume 1: Chapter 6: How to get ashore?
As the treasure chest of greed disappeared, the suffocating, dark red fleshy tissue in the captain's cabin, resembling living viscera, instantly stopped writhing, like a parasitic vine that had lost its life source.
Immediately afterward, under Zhang Su's astonished gaze, the sticky flesh walls covered with vascular patterns began to shrivel and shrink at a visible speed, their color rapidly turning into a deathly gray.
"Hiss... hiss..."
A series of faint corrosive sounds rang out, accompanied by a more intense and pungent stench, like burnt feathers mixed with concentrated sulfuric acid.
Large swaths of grayish-brown tissue began to peel off and decompose on their own, as if burned by an invisible flame, turning into fine grayish-black dust that fell down in a flurry. Upon contact with the ground, it turned into even finer powder and eventually dissipated into the air.
Within a mere ten seconds, the gruesome, hellish scene that would have driven anyone to the brink of madness vanished completely.
Instead, the captain's cabin was a scene of utter devastation: the once magnificent oak paneling was corroded and pitted, exposing the charred wood fibers; the sturdy mahogany desk was reduced to a half-charred skeleton; the nautical charts and brass instruments were nowhere to be found, leaving only some twisted metal fragments and melted wax marks on the floor.
The entire space was filled with a strong smell of burning and decay, as if it had been through a terrible fire.
Zhang Su gasped for breath, the sharp pain in his shoulder and the exhaustion from the intense tension he had just experienced both at once, causing his vision to blur.
He struggled to stay upright, his gaze sweeping over the mess before finally settling on Kurokawa, who lay unconscious on the ground.
The deep blue scales on the captain's face were slowly fading, revealing a pale, bloodless complexion underneath.
His eyes were closed and his brows were furrowed, as if he was still enduring some kind of pain.
Most unsettlingly, the ominous dark red tinge deep in his pupils had not completely faded, like embers left after a flame has been extinguished, only temporarily dormant.
"We can't leave him here. Who knows what other trouble might be brewing in this place?" Zhang Su muttered to himself, enduring the pain in his shoulder, and bent down to grab Kurokawa's ankle.
He wasn't very strong, and it was quite difficult for him to drag this burly man.
The floor, covered in slime and ash, was wet and slippery. Zhang Su practically dragged and pulled, exerting tremendous effort, to pull the unconscious Kurokawa out of the ominous oak door of the captain's cabin.
"Bang!" The heavy body was dragged onto the relatively clean deck.
Zhang Su was also exhausted, and he slumped down next to Kurokawa, his back pressing heavily against the cold gunwale.
Sea breeze, the real sea breeze!
A sea breeze, carrying a salty, fishy smell yet incredibly fresh and free of any pollution, swept over me, dispelling the lingering burnt odor and cloying sweetness in my nostrils.
Zhang Su took several deep breaths greedily, trying to expel all the stale air from his lungs.
He raised his head.
The sky was a breathtakingly clear azure, with a few wisps of white clouds drifting lazily by.
The sunlight shone down without obstruction, spreading out like a vast expanse of shattered gold across the sea.