Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 114: Cloudy Water

Monday was feeling confused.

To be fair, it had been doing quite well lately. Ai Xiaoxiao had been focused on studying medicine and no longer bothered it; she even gave it delicious erosion candies. Monday loved the taste so much that with just one bite, its soul trembled—if it had a soul, that is.

Since following Shu Jun, it had cut through various Erosion Swamps, absorbing a lot of information, and its mind had become clearer. Monday was shocked to discover that, if it set aside the initial unpleasantness with Shu Jun and Ai Xiaoxiao, it was living an ideal life in the animal world—plenty of food, minimal responsibilities, and the freedom to sleep without worrying about being eaten by enemies.

Monday didn’t possess the concept of “self-esteem” or “racial honor”. Other creatures in the Erosion Marsh may be stronger, but they carried the scent of this “other species” called humans. Their thoughts were fragmented, their habits peculiar, and everywhere they exuded a sense of disharmony. In the vastness of the world, Monday had yet to encounter another Erosion Swamp creature like itself, let alone seek revenge on these individuals who weren’t even considered its own kind.

It also didn’t understand why Sigma insisted on pursuing humans when life by the seaside was so carefree. It particularly enjoyed Ai Xiaoxiao’s imitation seawater, turning its entire body into a floating paradise.

However, thinking was a tiring task, and Monday was too lazy to delve deeper into Sigma’s thoughts. After weighing the pros and cons for itself, it decisively decided to put the unpleasantness aside and enjoy this hard-earned, wonderful swamp life.

How great it was to eat mutant beast meat in the morning, sample some regular Erosion Swamp at noon, and have a couple of erosion candies in the evening. It wasn’t greedy at all, and Shu Jun didn’t give it a hard time. He even stroked its back.

Enough information, no more learning. Wasn’t its lack of interest obvious enough? Why should it suffer now?

As it thought and thought, Monday let out a fake cry a couple of times, but the culprit beside it remained unmoved.

“No!” Monday continued to scream.

“What’s wrong? Don’t want this information?”

Shu Jun’s suppression ability hadn’t stopped. Monday only knew how to mumble and pretend to be upset. The fire in its heart ignited a bit—while it and Shu Jun argued a bit, outside was a state of war. Shu Jun didn’t care much about the life and death of humans, but if there were too many unnecessary sacrifices, it would be difficult for him and Zhu Yanchen once the war was over.

“Huge, change. Troublesome.” Monday still refused to listen, struggling to utter the words. “Too, difficult. Not, hungry. Not, worth, it.”

“…” Rarely did this creature speak such a long sentence, and its content was truly disappointing. Shu Jun was momentarily speechless. Monday was even more realistic than he had imagined, without even a hint of ambition.

“No, want, be, influenced, by, information,” it continued bravely. “Humans, none, of, my, business.”

“Oh…” Shu Jun gritted his teeth. “Too lazy to care.”

Monday made several agreeing sounds, expressing its approval.

“That’s simple.” Shu Jun, almost exhausted from the suppression, had to negotiate with this stubborn creature, and it took great effort to maintain a friendly tone. “You first control it, go to the seaside, and disperse the remaining brains.”

“Tsk.” Monday was clearly dissatisfied.

“Indeed, once you merge with it, you will inevitably become a large Erosion Swamp and cannot revert back.” Shu Jun’s mind raced. “But once you gain control, you can give direct orders to the Erosion Swamps, just like me. Individual brains have low intelligence. As long as you divide them finely enough and squeeze out enough water, they won’t gather again… This way, by dispersing the brains, you won’t retain Sigma’s size either.”

If he personally controlled Sigma, he could only live as a huge Erosion Swamp. But Monday was different. That seemingly useless spitting ability had now become a guarantee for normal life.

“When I used you as a sword, I estimated it.” Considering Monday’s infuriating way of speaking, Shu Jun didn’t plan to give it too many opportunities to speak. “If Sigma compressed like you did before, it would probably only be as tall as a three-story building. If you discard the brains and separate out some erosion, you can control your body to the size of a bungalow. In that case, we can afford to keep you.”

Monday had already taken control of the erosion in the surrounding area. It made a long humming sound, lost in thought.

“If you’re willing, based on pure strength, you will become second only to me. Even if you want to run away on your own, there won’t be anything that can threaten you.”

“Candy…”

Shu Jun nearly rolled his eyes.

“Since I made this trip, I will get the recipe from Ai Xiaoxiao and have Zhu Yanchen make erosion candies for you.”

Monday pondered for a few more minutes, then with a solemn “okay”, it displayed a serious attitude.

With its innate wildness and Shu Jun’s assistance, Monday’s dominance in battle began to overwhelm. As a natural Erosion Swamp, whether in terms of invasion speed, categorizing, or controlling erosion, excluding the tricks, Monday’s techniques were several times more adept than Shu Jun himself.

How many hours had passed? How many days?

Shu Jun exhausted all his strength, tirelessly supporting Monday. Finally, the flow of erosion within Sigma gradually calmed down. The neural strands were threaded together by Monday, sticking close to its body. Shu Jun retracted his power and didn’t notice any signs of rejection.

Success.

While Shu Jun was savoring this heavy victory, the erosion around him suddenly condensed tightly—just as Monday gained control over Sigma, it eagerly twisted its body and started to discharge water on the spot.

Taking advantage of the erosion not yet solidifying, Shu Jun quickly climbed out of Sigma’s body. With Monday’s twist, the expelled water nearly formed a flood, scattering the human troops in disarray. The water mixed with erosion was particularly thick, akin to the Dead Sea, causing the injured lying flat to float on its surface.

Shu Jun: “…”

He was about to advise Monday, but he didn’t expect it to have any intention of staying a moment longer. It relentlessly squeezed out water while adjusting its form. Influenced by Sigma’s own information, the things it transformed into made people feel uncomfortable no matter how they looked—

Monday didn’t have many images in its mind. It transformed itself into an unusually large sword, with a dozen skinny human arms protruding from either side of the blade. Compared to Sigma, this Erosion Swamp looked barren, and the texture of its surface increasingly resembled the hard shell of an insect.

Shu Jun suddenly had an exceptionally ominous premonition.

Sure enough, once Monday adjusted its form, it immediately clumsily propped up its body and dashed towards the sea, its movements resembling a certain type of insect. Just as Shu Jun jumped off the sword, that thing disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a square that had almost turned into a pond.

After blowing bubbles for a while, Shu Jun silently floated up from the water and let himself drift on the water’s surface.

Although most people hadn’t realized it yet, the war could be considered over. Given the situation that unfolded in the end, Shu Jun decided to take half a minute to calm down and then go meet Zhu Yanchen. Everywhere was filled with water now, and it would probably take quite a while just to clean up the battlefield…

Wait, water?

Shu Jun’s nearly exhausted heart skipped a beat.

Water, a large amount of water mixed with abundant erosion.

…It seemed that even if the greatest threat was eliminated, the war was far from over.

In the square.

People truly hadn’t reacted. While Shu Jun and Monday were arguing within Sigma, the external struggle never ceased.

Even on the side of the synthetics.

After the war began, Hu Yan didn’t lead the synthetic army too far nor join forces with Yu Jin. Following Shu Jun’s instructions, they stationed themselves east of the city, where the attacking pressure was lower. With Y City as the tempting prize in front of them, there weren’t many Erosion Swamps and mutant beasts chasing after this tough nut to crack.

With their strong mobility and extensive combat experience, they stopped at the high ground chosen by Zhu Yanchen and even had time to prepare some hot meals for themselves.

Hu Yan couldn’t stomach it.

The fog around them was too thick, and they couldn’t see the situation inside the city. This battle seemed to have lasted for a hundred million years, and his skin felt as if it would turn gray from the saturated fog.

Can Shu Jun really defeat Sigma? Will humans make some unexpected moves? Are they already trapped with nowhere to go? It wasn’t until someone reminded him that he snapped back to reality.

“You should go to Y City,” Chai Xuyang dryly suggested. “Didn’t Shu Jun tell you to go there at a certain time?”

Hu Yan shook his head, almost forgetting about it. Shu Jun had told him to go to Y City and check on the situation at a certain time. Hu Yan, after all, was the strongest in terms of strength and defense within the team. Even if Sigma was still causing trouble, he could retreat unscathed.

…The time had come, which meant Shu Jun hadn’t defeated Sigma within the designated time. Hu Yan’s heart sank.

“Alright, you keep an eye on the team.” He nodded at Chai Xuyang, suppressing the uneasiness within him. “I’ll go and be right back.”

The surroundings of Y City had become a mess. The outer protective walls were destroyed by the swarm of Erosion Swamps, and human and animal corpses were mixed within the ruins of buildings. Mutant beasts still roamed above the debris, gnawing on pale gray flesh and entrails. Ordinary Erosion Swamps completely submerged the road surface, and Hu Yan gathered stones beneath his feet to create a path through the erosion.

Hu Yan had initially thought that there would be constant gunfire and cries of agony in the city. However, shrouded in the dense fog, there was a strange sense of desolation and barrenness around Y City. The pitch-black erosion surged within the ruins, and for a moment, he felt as if he were on another planet.

The sound of approaching footsteps behind him suddenly became especially loud.

Hu Yan’s hair stood on end. He gripped his suppression gun with his right hand and a stone spike with his left, almost attacking without even looking—fortunately, after getting a clear look at the figure, he stopped just in time.

“Yu Jin?”

Yu Jin was wearing a disgustingly thick protective suit, clumsily waving his hand to reveal half of his face. Fortunately, he was missing an eye, which gave him a distinctive appearance and made him easy to recognize.

“We encountered some trouble on our end. We fought off the onslaught of the Erosion Swamps, but many people died. Until now, the attacks of the swamps suddenly became chaotic… It’s as if they lost their orders and started mindlessly charging.”

“Has Sigma been defeated?”

“Probably, who knows. We waited for a while, but no one came from outside, and there was no news. So here I am, checking the situation. What about you? Are you here for the same reason?”

“We didn’t have many Erosion Swamps on our end. We came because of the captain’s orders.” Hu Yan waved his hand, causing more rubble to float out of the erosion, widening the stone path beneath his feet.

“Ah,” Yu Jin didn’t sound surprised. “At this stage, there’s no reason to involve you guys.”

Yu Jin was covered in black and gray bloodstains, but his clothes were intact. They were probably all his comrades’ blood. Hu Yan didn’t know what to say for a moment, and the two of them silently progressed through the mist.

Soon, a sound emerged from the fog.

Accompanied by the squelching sound of the compressing erosion, the ground trembled. The closer they got to the city center, the faster the fog dispersed. A massive black shadow emerged from the thin fog, along with countless bent and elongated emaciated arms. It didn’t quite look like destruction but more like irrational madness.

Hu Yan reacted quickly, grabbing the burly Yu Jin and using the stone platform to lift both of them onto the nearest high-rise debris. They moved between rooftops, making their way towards the vicinity of the central square—

The war was still ongoing. Sigma’s struggles weren’t particularly intense, but its size was truly massive. People on the square were exerting all their strength just to defend against its possible charges.

Its struggles created a small opening on the square, and people exposed to the outside were retreating from the exit. On the other side, in order to prevent Sigma’s struggling body from crushing them, the human army used their own flesh and blood to create a safe distance—almost sticking to Sigma’s body to maximize the effectiveness of their suppression weapons, with some individuals occasionally being swallowed by the Erosion Swamp.

Hu Yan had never seen humans so proactive. They were truly fighting with everything they had, as if they held onto hope.

“What’s going on?” The communication at this location was barely functioning, and Yu Jin didn’t hesitate to contact the people from Old Fourth inside the city.

“The Black Wolf jumped into Sigma, and after that, Sigma stopped attacking and started struggling. As for the specifics, I’m not sure.”

“Jumped into Sigma?!” Hu Yan’s nerves immediately tensed.

Yu Jin glanced at Hu Yan with some concern. After taking a moment to catch his breath, a stone platform appeared again, and this time Hu Yan propped it up towards the roof of the command center.

At that moment, Sigma in the center of the square, suddenly spewed out a large amount of clear water. It was as if a dam had burst, and the water swept away the Erosion Swamps on the ground, forming a grayish pond. Only the soil and rocks piled up around the giant pit managed to avoid being submerged by the water flow.

As an experienced warrior, Hu Yan had a clear view and almost immediately grasped the situation.

“It’s over, it’s over.” He gritted his teeth. “Yu Jin, quickly contact the people—if Luo Duan is still alive, things will be troublesome.”

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