Chapter 43: Cerebrospinal Fluid

Gao Gong really couldn’t figure it out.

After he deployed the , he realized that this thing wasn’t particularly safe.

Because in his past life, more than one player used it to lure monsters, only to end up becoming a feast for the monsters themselves.

So he specifically added a frequency tuning mode, fearing that the monster’s aggression would become too intense, turning himself into the Tang Monk.

A C+ level Boiler Elephant or a C+ level Bombing Eagle, either could easily finish him off.

Could it be that his equipment crafting failed?

Impossible, the system panel already showed it as successful.

The monster-luring effect is just too strong.

But luckily, the path ahead was already clear.

"Hey, are you going in or not? If you don’t go in, I’m going in."

"You, you—you—"

Mazilian wanted to say something, but smoke spewed from his mouth, his eyelids flipped, and he fainted directly.

"If you don’t go in, I’ll go in."

Gao Gong shrugged and pressed a button on his collar, and the next moment, his figure began to gradually disappear.

The Desert Skin possessed mimicry abilities, and together with the ’Open Virtual Projection’ effects, could basically achieve invisibility.

Especially when the Mechanical Bio-Beasts had been lured away, Gao Gong figured there was little chance he would be discovered.

But somewhat unexpectedly, after the two dogs were lured away, the two people at the entrance just stood there blankly, one repeating "What’s going on," while the other said "I must report to the Great Elder," yet he only turned halfway before turning back and repeating the previous action.

Seeing the strange actions of the two, Gao Gong felt a chill down his spine.

Something must have happened to the Cable Tribe!

In the dungeon of the Cable Tribe, over two hundred people were crammed together, their faces dirty and bodies wounded.

However, the severely injured were few in number, not because the Great Elder was benevolent, but as those slave traders said—the wounded human goods wouldn’t fetch a price.

Meng Duo painstakingly moved to Huang Yuanli’s side, originally left with just one arm and one leg, now even less with half a leg gone.

It was Zhao Yi, the son of the Great Elder, who cut it off himself.

As the advocate of the rebellion, Huang Yuanli had especially more whip marks on her body.

And since the day before yesterday, she had been unconscious and unable to eat anything.

"Use this."

Seeing Meng Duo about to wipe Huang Yuanli’s sweat, an old granny fished out a relatively clean towel and handed it over.

"Thank you."

Meng Duo whispered his thanks, then dabbed the towel in some accumulated water on the ground, carefully wiping her.

For some reason, Huang Yuanli’s forehead had been burning up since yesterday, and her fever wouldn’t subside.

Meng Duo asked the guards for medicine, only to have his face spat on.

"Granny, are we really going to be eaten?" a little girl with one eye blind suddenly asked.

"What nonsense are you talking? They won’t eat us, they won’t eat us."

The granny didn’t know how to comfort her granddaughter, could only hold her tightly, repeating the words over and over.

The dungeon was filled with a suffocating silence.

Meng Duo held on for a while but eventually couldn’t endure it, slipping into a half-dream, half-sleep state.

But before fading into sleep, he vaguely heard Huang Yuanli, with eyes tightly shut, mumbling something in her dreams.

"Professor, you can’t do this, Professor, don’t—"

"Something’s wrong."

Gao Gong’s expression grew more solemn, finding the Cable Tribe before him exuding a vague sense of dread.

The tribe’s size was not large, about a quarter of the Old Metal Recycling Station, with a style reminiscent of the scavenger gathering grounds outside the Oasis, save for the wooden houses turned into metal tents or tree hollows emptied out to form rooms, making the environment considerably cleaner, suggesting the residents cherished it dearly.

However, at present, it was empty and silent, not at all resembling what a tribe should look like.

Gao Gong frowned, silently appearing in front of a guard.

The guard had a foolish grin on his face, seemingly chewing something in his mouth, apparently raw meat, but upon closer inspection, it was his tongue.

Gao Gong took a deep breath and pulled out a ’Black Headphones,’ placing it on his ear.

Name: Neural Frequency Amplifier

Category: Support Equipment

Quality: Fine-

Weight: 100 grams

Operating Mode: Neural Manipulation

Support Module: Neural Enhancement

Note: This is a neural-level hearing aid

Neural Enhancement: Strengthen the generation and transmission of ear neural signals, activating ion channels

As soon as Gao Gong put on the ’earphones,’ piercing noise sounded in his ears, directly flooding his brain.

"Hiss—"

How could there be such strong neural signals?

Gao Gong felt as if he was standing in the business district of Nightless City, countless sensory signals weaving into a cyber network, neural bundles like bolts of lightning passing through him, merging all five senses into one, resulting in an overwhelming sensory torrent rushing towards him.

"Damn it!"

Just before the ’torrent’ hit, Gao Gong swiftly took off the amplifier, covering his mouth with his other hand. His left ear was making a sound like flowing water, but it wasn’t water—it was blood.

Gao Gong now finally understood why those mechanical bio-beasts were madly hunting down the human-headed dogs.

The manual neural disruptor was just a trigger. At an unseen level, there must be something making them extremely uneasy.

Planet-level civilizations don’t have ’nanomolecular repair agents’ or ’cell regeneration needles.’ When they lose blood, they can only endure it slowly or go directly for repair surgery.

Blood Volume: 190/202

Gao Gong endured for a moment, and only after confirming that his ear had stopped bleeding did he adjust the ’neural frequency amplifier’ to the minimum and hang it on his other ear.

This time, it was much better. There was still noise at the neural level, but it wasn’t loud, and upon closer listening, it wasn’t chaotic either. It was like raindrops, only layered with millions of raindrops released at once.

Through searching, Gao Gong quickly discovered two secret passages, one was a tunnel, and the other a mountain path.

The neural noise in the direction of the mountain path was obviously much stronger.

Following the principle of tackling the easy one first, Gao Gong flipped down into the tunnel.

Though it was called a tunnel, it was actually just a manhole cover of the sewer. The cover was gone, replaced by a large stone blocking the entrance.

As soon as he moved the stone, a large swarm of colorful butterflies flew out.

Raising butterflies in the sewer?

Climbing down the rusty stairs, a foul odor immediately hit his nose.

The smell was like vegetables that had been rotting for countless years.

And Gao Gong discovered something rather awkward.

Affected by the neural noise, his ’skin’ started changing naturally, turning into a mosaic one moment and TV static the next.

Such an AV-level image quality couldn’t be covered even with a ’special effects generator.’

Gao Gong shook his head, pinched the ’button’ on his collar, turning off the ’open virtual projection,’ and cautiously drew out the Red Unicorn.

It’s worth mentioning that planet-level civilizations hadn’t developed ’subspace storage technology’ either. Equipment had to be carried by hand, at most deployed by drones; drawing a weapon out from an inventory was unthinkable.

So, Gao Gong only brought the Red Unicorn for this trip; the sniper rifle or beast hunting device was left back in Petrol Town.

Gao Gong slowly moved forward. In the empty sewer, only his footsteps echoed.

Gao Gong’s current perception was at 14 points, about three times that of an average person. With his perception, he quickly sensed scattered breathing sounds.

Likewise, following the direction of the sewer, he also heard footsteps.

’Discovered this quickly, are there cameras?’

Gao Gong’s right eye switched to infrared mode, quickly locating several hidden heat sources.

The flash of blades, a series of explosions later, soon made the other’s footsteps chaotic.

There was certainly more than one underground passage, indicating the enemy started to scatter.

Gao Gong flicked his right hand, the single-molecule line claw grabbing hold of a steel bar above, kicking left and right, disappearing into the tunnel before the others arrived.

"Where is he?"

"Seems like he’s over here."

The newcomers’ discussions grew chaotic. Hidden in the dark, Gao Gong’s vision suddenly blurred. When he opened his eyes again, a terrifying scene unfolded before him.

Four or five ’living people’ without skulls, brain matter bouncing, emerged from the darkness.

They wielded rudimentary handcrafted firearms, their expressions bizarre and menacing, mouths opening with a mucus-like substance clinging between their lips.

Gao Gong inexplicably felt a surge of anger so intense that his mind was almost consumed by hatred.

In the dark, a blade tip descended from above, piercing the brain fluid straight through to the lower body.

Then Gao Gong drew his blade, cutting through another’s handcrafted firearm, and used his other hand to block the gun’s muzzle.

As the bullet exploded in the chamber, the Red Unicorn slashed horizontally and vertically, chopping the opponent into chunks.

Brain matter sprayed, blood splattered, with red and white materials blooming everywhere.

Just as Gao Gong killed the last brain creature, an intense itchiness spread from the top of his head.

He pawed at his head, grabbing a handful of ’tofu brain.’

Gao Gong stared blankly at this scene, instinctively reaching for his left ear, but instead of the ’neural frequency amplifier,’ he grabbed an ear.

With a gentle pull, it came off.

This was his own ear!

Hallucination?

Yes, it must be a hallucination!

Yet when Gao Gong turned to look at his reflection on the wall, he saw that the other brain creatures had disappeared.

The real brain creature, it was only him.

His reflection bled and smiled at him.

Gao Gong’s eye twitched as he glanced at the Red Unicorn in his hand.

The blade was shiny and clean, as if it hadn’t cut anyone.

When Gao Gong looked up again, he saw pink ’intestines’ starting to press out from the walls.

Water trickled down from above.

The water was clean and transparent.

Gao Gong knew what it was now.

Cerebrospinal fluid.