Chapter 262: Rotting Titan and Notes

Li Lei stood with his head bowed in the corner, his fists clenched tightly; within his sea of consciousness, his master's words came urgent and rapid.

He dared not show any abnormality, for fear of attracting Lin An's attention.

He gripped the heart.

Lin An hesitated for a moment, and in his peripheral vision he noticed Li Lei feigning calm.

Under his mental perception, the necklace on Li Lei's chest continuously emitted intense fluctuations.

Interesting...

Is there a living spiritual entity hiding inside it?

It seemed that upon seeing his own heart taken out, his emotions grew somewhat agitated.

Whoosh

An arc-shaped trajectory.

The heart flew from his hand, turning into a streak of blood light that fell between the 【Rotting Titan】 and the 【Leaping Corpse】.

After a moment's thought, Lin An still decided to fuse on the spot.

First, fusion requires time.

If searching for another second-level mutant takes too long, plus the increased fusion time, it might delay his plan to return.

Second, it's the spiritual entity he just sensed.

Unheard of.

Dealing with such a peculiar existence would also require some effort.

Anyway, his main goal is still to level up, and incidentally acquire equipment.

As for testing his strength by taking on a peak second-level mutant, let's talk about that later.

Actually, when he first arrived at the inn, Wang Kun had mentioned that his brother wanted to establish a safe zone, which served as a reminder to Lin An.

The safe zone that Lin An established relies entirely on the Doomsday Base Vehicle, and has nothing to do with the Safety Token quest.

Therefore, he can actually take the safe zone quest again to obtain a "City-Building Token".

Whether he builds another safe zone as an outer city or a district, or even sells it.

All of these would be quite beneficial to him.

The most crucial point of the safe zone quest is to slay a peak second-level mutant; he can completely gather 100 Awakened Ones to finish the quest.

Two birds with one stone, and no waste.

If he directly sells the "City-Building Token" later, at this stage he could likely fetch an astronomical price.

In the current stage of the Doomsday Game, what could be more frenzy-inducing for players than the "City-Building Token"?

Especially those major factions, powerful Awakened Ones seeking to carve out their own domain.

A single "City-Building Token", they would buy it even if they had to spend their entire fortune.

However, this can only happen after surviving the corpse tide, and the system needs to enable trading functions.

Suppressing that thought, Lin An carefully examined the blood cocoon formed by the fusion heart, then turned and went upstairs to leave.

The cocoon wrapping the two mutants resembled the blood cocoon that incubates a Bloody Witch.

A strange sense of temporal-spatial disorientation.

In a daze, Lin An felt an inexplicable emotion well up in his heart.

This place feels like both the beginning and the end.

It seems that every time he comes here, he gains an increase in strength.

The first blood cocoon gave him a life-saving item, saving him and Zhang Tie.

The second blood cocoon will hatch a second-level mutant, "helping" him advance to second level.

Zhang Tie, Mo Ling, Soul-devouring Hand, Black Dragon...

Lin An, lost in thought, walked upstairs.

In the dim corridor, a faint musty smell mixed with moisture, just like the taste of memory.

Room 908.

Only one lamp was lit; under its yellowish light, the pages turned with a rustling sound.

Before the desk, Lin An casually flipped through the notes from the Marrow-Sucking Spider incident.

The notes were found by Gao Tian, but he had never had the time to examine them.

Now that he has a brief moment of free time, he simply goes through them.

After advancing to second level, the primary means for players to level up is no longer hunting mutants.

But rather, exclusive system tasks for second level.

After all, advancing from second to third level requires 64 mutants, which is dangerous and hard to kill, not to mention inefficient.

Thus Lin An is not in a rush to keep hunting mutants; he will wait until he reaches second level to complete the tasks.

Under the lamp light, the yellowed notes have neat, clean handwriting and meticulous wording.

It seems the restaurant owner, before the incident, usually enjoyed reading and writing.

The notes contain nothing special; they merely record the feelings and observations of the Cambodian restaurant owner.

However, reading them from start to finish feels like reading a horror novel.

From an ordinary life, to gradually discovering blood spiders, until the nightmare descended and the blood spiders parasitized his brain.

Just that.

The Thailand Central Heaven Hotel mentioned inside caught Lin An's attention.

According to the notes' record.

The restaurant owner, while traveling in Thailand, had once stayed at this hotel, and ended up encountering a "haunting".

Later, with the "help" of someone claiming to be a Kaisile employee, they barely resolved this trouble.

The two thus became acquainted, and thereafter the spider ingredients were supplied by this employee.

Kaisile food supplier, marrow-sucking spider, Cambodia, Thailand Zhongtian, haunted, prematurely outbreak zombie virus...

The clues are fragmentary.

Lin An tapped his fingertips on the desk, but found he could not get in touch.

Behind the marrow-sucking spider incident, the cause of the zombie virus is likely hidden, so he actually values this clue.

He had no idea where to start.

After a moment, Lin An rubbed his forehead and retrieved the notes into his ring.

Perhaps this hidden clue about the zombie virus requires him to go abroad in person to uncover anything...

Forget it; at this stage, trying to explore one of the biggest secrets of the Doomsday Game is still premature.

"Click"

The swaying flame rose, and Lin An uncommonly took out a cigarette and lit it.

Smoke curled about, a faint tobacco scent drifting away.

When was the last time he smoked?

Was it the day he left AnXia?

On the bed, Mo Ling lay with limbs spread, her head buried in the soft blanket like a large character.

Hearing the sound of the lighter, she suddenly spoke in a muffled voice:

"You seem... not in a good mood..."

"Is it because seeing Mo Yu reminded you of AnXia?"

Lin An remained silent, the cigarette at his fingertips flickering, wisps of twisted smoke drifting upward.

After a moment, he took a puff and slowly exhaled:

"It's fine, don't worry about me."

His tone was calm, unable to hide the weariness.

Suppressing the regret in his heart, Lin An's eyes flickered as he recalled information about the 【Rotten Titan-Fake】 in his mind.

When this monster's information appeared in the Judgment's Eye, he still froze for a moment.

In his memory, information about Titans was scarce, but almost all of it was related to the third rank.

Mythological and fantastical creatures, like the moon wolf.

But such creatures shouldn't only appear occasionally after the opening of an otherworldly passage, right?

He carefully searched the hospital, but found no otherworldly passage, nor any clues about the black dragon.

As for the surroundings having spatial passages that could allow a mutant the size of a Titan to pass through, that's also unlikely.

Moreover, mutants and otherworldly beings are not of the same kind.

After repeated speculation, Lin An's fingertips began tapping the desk rhythmically.

Fake...

This specific description actually resembles the description found in Awakened Ones' talents.

Could the Rotten Titan be a mutation of an Awakened One?

"Go to sleep quickly!"

"You're still thinking about things!"

On the bed, Mo Ling suddenly pushed herself up and thumped down onto the floor.

She looked at Lin An with a dissatisfied face, then put on her slippers and prepared to go out.

"I'm going to see Mo Yu; you haven't slept for how many days?"

"If I come back and find you haven't slept, I'll summon zombies to bite you!"

"Bang!"

The gate was slammed shut, leaving Lin An with a stunned expression.

Mo Ling's concern is really quite special...