Chapter 449: Aberrant Species in Reality

Although they had decided to cooperate with the authorities, how to get the weapons over there was another problem.

Finally Yang Yixie tampered with the surveillance cameras using his energy, letting Game Life use his computer to find an abandoned house on the city's outskirts that hadn't been lived in for a long time.

Getting there might involve some twists and turns, but one can simply take the subway, then jump down from the platform and walk a short distance to arrive.

It doesn't require buying an extra ticket, only needs a little tweak to the surveillance; if one is careful, it won't leave any impression of Yang Yixie's comings and goings.

Nearby he also passed a few households' homes; the self-built rural houses where people lived were basically renovated and rebuilt in recent years, while the uninhabited houses had their walls already overgrown with vines.

He stopped at the location marked by Game Life; the handcrafted wooden door was covered in dust, as if it hadn't been opened in a long time.

Often, this kind of simplest lock is the hardest to deal with.

Yang Yixie examined the lock; seeing how rusty it was, even the owner themselves might not be able to open it if they returned.

In the end Yang Yixie pried open a hole in the rusted iron window before squeezing inside.

Everything inside was covered with a thick layer of dust; apparently no one had come back to live there for a long time, having all moved into the city.

Yang Yixie's nose twitched, as if he smelled a faint scent of blood.

His steps paused for a moment, then he followed the smell into the inner room, not forgetting to turn on his phone's flashlight.

He saw a few dark red stains on the floor in the corner, the edges somewhat blackened, not like the drips from past pig or sheep slaughter that had been left uncleaned.

Rather, it looked like it had been freshly filled in.

Besides, there were some traces nearby, as if something had passed through here not long ago.

But it probably wasn't a person; maybe a rat?

Suddenly a faint sound came from behind; Yang Yixie didn't turn his head, his body reacted before his mind did.

He darted to the side, his shoulder bumping an old iron bucket, which rolled a few times on the floor, clanging loudly.

In his peripheral vision Yang Yixie saw a black mass swoop down from above, landing exactly where he had just stood, its claws leaving several marks on the floor.

He stepped back a few paces, creating distance from it, but the indoor space was indeed small; it felt as if he had run straight into someone's bedroom, beside which an old wooden bed hung with spiderwebs could still be seen.

The black shadow that had just attacked him also rose to its feet, about half a person tall, limbs on the ground, its skin gray‑black, though its head was rather small.

Yang Yixie made out the thing clearly in the flashlight's beam, his pupils constricting slightly.

Aberrant Species.

He had fought countless times with these creatures in the game, but this was his first encounter in reality.

Before Yang Yixie's eyes there was no pop‑up, no pixel‑field boost—just a lump of gray‑black flesh emitting a foul odor.

His heart raced, his hand trembled a little, and he drew from his Game Backpack the handgun commonly used by Ying Duo.

The gun was green‑quality; in the game he could assemble and disassemble it blindfolded, but holding a real gun in his hand felt quite different.

His fingers rested on the trigger guard, and the Aberrant Species moved at the same moment.

Its speed was faster than he had anticipated.

Its limbs pushed off the ground and it sprang up; Yang Yixie sidestepped, the creature swept past him, tearing the nearby wooden bed to shreds.

Although the sight was a bit frightening, Yang Yixie's reaction was still quick—he turned, raised the gun, and aimed.

He pointed the muzzle at its head and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot exploded in the room; the bullet struck its head, and the Aberrant Species' body fell straight from the air to the ground, rolled twice, then got up again.

A hole appeared in its head, dark‑red fluid seeping out and trickling down both sides of its body; it shook its head and lunged at Yang Yixie once more.

That shot just now was a bit off.

Yang Yixie steadied the hand holding the gun, but he had still overestimated himself.

Although the distance was short, this couldn't change the fact that it was his first time holding a gun in reality; this body was far more frail than Ying Duo's, and a slight shake of the hand sent the bullet off course.

His hand is steady when holding a pen, but he had never held a gun before.

It felt completely different from shooting at a screen in the game; there was no pixel‑quality filter, no game‑system aiming assist—everything had to rely on himself.

Although he dodged the first wave of attack thanks to the physical enhancement from the sync value and Ying Duo's combat experience, marksmanship is certainly not something that can be honed overnight.

He needed to change his approach; he couldn't treat himself as a long‑range shooter like Ying Duo, since his current physique and experience didn't support that.

Since it was close‑quarters combat, he should make good use of the speed and reflexes this body had gained from the sync value, as well as the items in his backpack.

A flashbang was a good choice—blind the enemy then finish it with a dagger, which is steadier than wasting bullets.

But he had to mind the space; the cramped room meant the flashbang's bright light would affect him too, though if the opponent was an Aberrant Species, its visual system was likely more sensitive than a human's.

With no time to think further, Yang Yixie's free hand produced a round object in the blink of an eye.

He tossed it onto the floor; the metal clinked against the ground in the empty house, and a blinding white light instantly engulfed the entire room.

This was a shock bomb Ying Duo had made in his spare time; the rune circuit on it, while releasing light, also triggered a subtle energy wave in the air.

Such a wave has little effect on human nervous systems, but strongly interferes with the perception systems of Aberrant Species.

The Aberrant Species' claws scraped in the air, then it flopped to the ground in a twisted heap, taking the already‑rickety wooden bed down with it as it collapsed.

Taking advantage of the moment, Yang Yixie fished out a small bottle of pale‑blue liquid from his backpack, unscrewed the cap, poured the liquid onto the muzzle; it seeped into the barrel's crevices, and the rune circuit lit up as soon as the liquid soaked in.

The Aberrant Species was struggling to climb up from the broken planks; its eyes had not yet recovered, its vision still a blank white, its head swiveling in the air as if using other senses to seek a target.

Yang Yixie pulled the trigger.

A pale‑blue beam shot from the muzzle, piercing the Aberrant Species' chest and leaving a scorched pit in the wall.

It twitched a few times, then lay still.

【Congratulations on successfully slaying the "Mutant Rat" Lv. 7, EXP +3.2%!】

As expected, its level is quite low.

Yang Yixie exhaled in relief, feeling no regret over having just used the blue potion.

Fang Zhiyan had prepared plenty of it for him; although using it so hastily as an energy filler was wasteful, there was no alternative.

His combat power is limited by the sync value; doing it this way may be wasteful, but it is indeed more effective.