Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 823
Chapter 823: Chapter 270: Shadow-Canceling Light Beam, Collecting the Parent Source Body! (Part 3)
This time it’s a large factory, where frenzied workers screamed and rushed into the mixers, followed by a swarm of black spiders pouring out from the gaps of the factory door.
Hallucinations flashed repeatedly, and each spider destroyed forcefully pulled Cheng Ye into the host’s final moments before death.
He was attached to these people, experiencing the despair, fear, and indescribable horror firsthand!
“Ah!”
After enduring numerous waves of illusions, Cheng Ye abruptly released his hands, took two steps back, and let out a roar.
Countless unfamiliar memories madly assaulted his consciousness, as if his head were about to explode, making it nearly impossible to stand firm.
Only after four to five minutes did the mental impact’s excruciating pain gradually subside.
Even without removing his face mask, Cheng Ye could feel blood seeping from his seven apertures, the price for forcibly dissolving the Ghost Shadow Spider’s power was so severe!
“Your vital signs have already dropped to 87%,” Yu Erlan’s voice came from behind.
Cheng Ye instinctively turned his head, and the data displayed on the screen wasn’t Yu Yong’s, but his own.
Various indicators flashed with warning red light, still continuing to decline.
“Additionally, the energy response of the Ghost Shadow Spider within Yu Yong is decreasing, along with his integration level,” Yu Erlan added.
The screen switched, showing the Ghost Shadow Spider’s energy response had dropped to 99.4%, and Yu Yong’s integration level also fell below 120%, now at 117%.
It really worked!
Cheng Ye’s eyes lit up. By using characteristic analysis to find the restraining wavelength, stabilizing the Ghost Shadow Spider’s power indeed allowed him to extract and weaken it.
He immediately opened the panel to check Yu Yong’s cooperation rate, unfortunately still at 0%.
“Could it be that unless the integration level drops below 100%, there’s no way to separate Yu Yong’s consciousness?”
As the thought moved, he clicked to view the illustration for characteristic collection speed, and with one glance, he was overjoyed!
Compared to last time, the collection speed of the three basic characteristics “Shadow State,” “Shadow Traversal,” “Puppet Spider Silk” didn’t accelerate, dissolving hundreds of spiders earlier only added about 45%.
Including Shadow Traversal, it just slightly increased to 27%.
But last time, all other characteristics were collected to 200%, while Ghost Shadow Spider’s “body” characteristic remained at the decimal, yet this time experienced a tenfold, hundredfold spurt, collected up to 4%!
Additionally, the progress of both “Group Shadow Resonance” and “Shadow Absorption” greatly increased, surging directly to 15%.
“Turns out the characteristic of collecting infection sources can also be targeted?” Cheng Ye suddenly realized.
No wonder previously he couldn’t collect the “body” characteristic since those scattered dark gases didn’t carry the Ghost Shadow Spider’s original power at all.
Only now, when these condensed spiders are destroyed, can he truly capture this core characteristic.
“So, can I possibly collect the complete Ghost Shadow Spider characteristic?”
Cheng Ye felt a flicker of joy. The Ghost Shadow Spider, as an infection source, can’t be directly equipped, but it can be used as fusion material to strengthen the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse’s power.
If he can obtain some of its abilities in the process, it would be worth it.
Thinking thus, Cheng Ye straightforwardly stood up, grabbed a stool, and attempted to fiddle with those floating human-faced spiders.
But the stool went straight through, as if touching a shadow, unable to reach them at all.
“Its power exists in another dimension…” Yu Erlan’s voice echoed again, with a tone shift.
Cheng Ye frowned, put down the stool, and the data on the screen disappeared, revealing the busy scene outside.
Unbeknownst to him, several operation stations had risen from the ground outside the lab, with researchers quickly recording and calibrating instruments.
Yu Erlan stood at the center of the crowd, seriously focused.
“If you want to continue to weaken its power, it’s inevitable to suffer continuous spiritual erosion. This erosion is the same for anyone, no one is immune. If you don’t need to research other content, we can arrange rotations to bear the erosion pressure.”
Cheng Ye heard and nodded slightly. “Will prolonged erosion have any special consequences?”
“Just like him,” Yu Erlan gestured to Yu Yong, who was still pinned to the light wall. “As long as your vital signs don’t fall below 40%, you’ll recover after lying down for two days.”
“Then it’s fine, I’ll do it alone,” Cheng Ye chuckled without concern for Yu Erlan’s slightly astonished expression and turned forward again. “The credit… no, all rewards should be counted under my name.”
Goodness, such an easy opportunity to grind source characteristics—where else could he find it?
Since lying down for two days means recovery, Cheng Ye decided to stop pretending and fully devote himself.
He reached out and grabbed a human-faced spider from the light net, pressing it onto the screen without hesitation.
In the midst of crackling sounds, the spider turned to black smoke and dissipated, and countless illusions surged again, unraveling scenes of tragic, desperate experiences before his eyes, the dead’s final emotions flooding his consciousness.
If it were merely pain, human adaptability would soon get used to it.
But this soul-level erosion, this transcendence of life and death’s emotional conveyance, was something by no means numbing.
Every disunion felt like personally experiencing an apocalyptic disaster, with the heart gripped painfully by despair.
Yet Cheng Ye didn’t stop, grabbing and crushing one spider after another.
The characteristic progress bar on the panel leapt forward quickly, the Ghost Shadow Spider’s “body” characteristic breaking through 10%, “Group Shadow Resonance” rising to 30%, and “Shadow Absorption” nearing 25%.
The blood droplets seeped out from his seven apertures sliding along the inside of his armor, his vital signs dropping bit by bit, yet his eyes grew brighter.
Until…
“Enough!” Yu Erlan’s booming voice suddenly rang out, and Cheng Ye instinctively released his grip.
An unprecedented sense of exhaustion swept over him, leaving him unable to stand.
He strained to turn his head and look back; before he could see Yu Erlan’s expression, his vision darkened, and his body crashed heavily onto the cold floor.
The sight settled on the illustration, the Ghost Shadow Spider’s body progress had reached 53%, with terrifying accumulated progress, and meanwhile, the previously collected progress reached the 200% limit, including the hard-to-gather ‘Group Shadow Resonance’ and ‘Shadow Absorption’ breaking past 100%.
“It’s… exhilarating!”
Cheng Ye thought foolishly, with this inhuman pain yielding such overwhelming gains, he’d charge headlong even a million times.
With this fleeting thought dropping, he had no extra energy to ponder further.
In his peripheral vision, he noticed Yu Yong’s eyes seeming somewhat clearer, gazing with complexity, pondering something unknown.
Behind him came hurried footsteps, someone dragged his Battle Armor towards the containment room exit.
Fortunately, this time, nobody shouted “Inspector Cheng is down!”
With this small relief, Cheng Ye’s head drooped, completely passing out, with a lingering contented smile remaining at the corner of his mouth.
In a daze, researchers had stripped off the blanket and Battle Armor.
In a daze, sounds of sharp intakes of breath echoed, it seemed nobody expected that faced with such inhuman pain, he could still faint with a smile.
“Go, send Inspector Cheng to Rebirth Medical, all costs to be covered by the institute!”
…