Chapter 202: Mom! (sobbing)

As an evil art practiced in the shadows, the first experimental subject of alchemy concerning the human body and life is often the researcher themselves.

Impoverished and down on his luck, Edgar, who had no wife, no daughter, and not even a dog, was naturally no exception.

Unable to hold back, he spat out a mouthful of foul-smelling black blood, lifted his head, and his bloodshot eyes bulged out.

"Bastard, I'm your master, why… ah!"

He slowly twisted his nails, and although the gargoyle remained silent, a hint of mockery appeared on its face.

This…

The chill of death rose from his feet upward, and Edgar felt his thoughts clearer than ever before.

Why is this happening?

Because the scroll is incomplete?

Because the records on it are false?

Or perhaps…

Is his pursuit of absolute control over flesh and soul merely the delusional fantasy of an alchemy madman?

Unfortunately, the clarity was only a fleeting moment; the excruciating pain of his viscera being crushed was unmistakable, and a helpless cold crept up his body.

He clenched his teeth, his ugly face showing a mix of crying and laughing, yet he could not stop his thoughts from wandering.

At the final moment of his life, he finally came to a sudden realization.

Why would the enforcers of Lingxi mobilize their entire force, even crossing seas and oceans to pursue me, even to the opposite nation?

Why, having done nothing at all, was I directly issued a wanted order by the Holy Church of the Hui Guang Kingdom?

Probably the final suturing I completed that night at the orphanage, a blood sacrifice of over a hundred lives, truly is an unforgivable tenfold atrocity that both men and gods despise!

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Hahaha…"

Crack.

They tore Edgar's corpse apart like a toy, the gargoyle shook off its entrails, and greedily licked the fresh blood at the break.

Just as he was about to squint his eyes to savor it carefully, his expression changed, he hurriedly spat it out, and uttered his first words after revival.

"Pah, disgusting."

Looking around, this place is a filthy cavern like a trash heap.

Sheets of paper covered in demonic symbols lay scattered on the ground; beside a low-quality measuring cylinder lay a butcher's knife stained with foul meat pulp, making it hard to tell whether this is a laboratory or a slaughterhouse.

"Damn it, how did I wake up in a trash heap?"

He kicked Edgar's precious vessel into pieces with his foot, then followed the lingering magical traces in the air to find the sealed door.

Just as he was about to exert force to smash it, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.

He frowned, spread his wings and retreated swiftly, but the rock wall before him had already collapsed with a roar.

"Mom!!!"

A shrill howl shook the heavens, and an incoming heavy punch came with overwhelming fury.

The gargoyle couldn't dodge in time and was sent flying backward by that powerful, heavy punch, slamming hard into the cargo container on the other side.

Seven arms waved, and thirty-eight eyes held equal madness.

Hatred drooled saliva, trampling over the ruins as it charged into the chamber, launching a violent frenzy against the mother's killer.

Meanwhile, outside the breach, the players were completely bewildered by this inexplicable scene.

Originally everything was fine, lively and bustling, eating melons and watching the show.

The audience in the live stream gained a spectacular fight far surpassing today's TV dramas, while the watching players gained the excitement and tips from the audience.

Players participating in the siege honed their skills while making friends, and Ji Ming was also pondering what ultimate move he could combine from his current abilities.

But just as Hatred had been beaten to a miserable state, about to fall apart and die.

It seemed to suddenly sense something and let out a roar never heard before.

Ignoring the bombardment of thunderous lightning, ignoring the players' encirclement and pursuit.

It stubbornly bore blades and spears upon its body, forcibly using its flesh to blast open a path of survival, running toward the sealed opening.

"Could it be… that this boss has a second form that fuses with Edgar?"

Familiar tactics surged in their minds, and the players immediately got ready.

But when Hatred smashed the obstacle with a punch and stepped inside, the final room revealed a gargoyle whose size was not inferior to it!

"We're done, this is going to call the second bo… ah?"

But there was no pause at all; after Hatred's fierce punch came another immediately, brutally slamming the monster before it into the wall.

The gargoyle also seemed startled, but the next moment it nimbly dodged Hatred's pursuit and swung a claw backhand.

Rage flared in his heart, even the big fool was angry enough to speak.

"Wuu… my mother was killed by you…"

"What the heck?"

Thus, the two gargoyle-like oddities began their duel in the narrow cavern, fighting selflessly as if the players didn't exist.

"What's going on? Are the bosses fighting each other?"

"Normally only exceptionally strong bosses trigger a plot kill after players whittle down their HP to a certain point, but this Hatred is clearly about to be surrounded and killed by us!"

"Damn it, what is the game official doing? Surely it's not a bug, right?"

Game official: "Ah?"

Anyway, Hatred is busy having a brawl with the gargoyle, so I don't need to bring him spring-like warmth for now.

Ji Ming quickly used his authority as the producer to check the previous recordings inside the chamber.

And then he almost couldn't hold it in.

In his design, the stone gargoyle, Hatred, and the alchemist should form the "War Tank Method" iron triangle, harshly military-training the players, so they wouldn't be lax and carefree every day.

Who knew this stone gargoyle wasn't obedient at all—upon appearance it killed the alchemist, and even stole all of Hatred's aggro.

Now it's fine—one of the three bosses is down, and the remaining two are desperately fighting each other.

Players in this dungeon aren't even swinging a hammer; they might as well sit and watch the show, waiting to pick up scraps.

Moreover, he's not the only one curious about the truth of this matter.

Although the vast majority of players wouldn't dare approach the fighting arena of the two giant beasts even in the game, this rule clearly doesn't apply to the Death God.

"I'm just going to see what happened; I won't trigger the poison gas bomb, don't worry."

Breaking free from his teammates' restraints, he rushed into the room that shook like an earthquake in three quick steps.

But he is no longer the suicide expert he once was; having mastered the Pioneers title, he now leans toward living out the value of every life.

So he didn't throw away his life; instead, he dodged the two combatants' battlefield, and after a flurry of dodging and rapid screenshots, he quickly withdrew.

All he wanted was to die: 【Everyone take a look, this is the current situation inside.】

"Edgar's dead! I said, why is Hatred so anxious—his master got taken out!"

"Wait, if an un-deployed boss is killed by another un-deployed boss, who should get the kill reward—this round's MVP?"

Infantryman Useless: 【No relevant prompt received yet.】

Lost Wanderer: 【I don't have it either.】

Crooked-neck Tree: 【... None.】

In the first round, the main C, main T, and main controller all received no rewards, so Edgar's share must have been swallowed!

Immediately, a player proposed a speculation.

"Could this be the design of the final boss? To prevent players from ganging up to skip class and slowly whittle down health, the officials used a rather novel way to limit the boss fight's duration?"

"You mean the fundamental reason Edgar's reward was canceled is……the party exceeded the time limit in the first round?"

"Now Hatred and the stone gargoyle are fighting again—doesn't that mean we'll lose another boss reward?"

"So this is the core difficulty of the second round boss fight? We need to separate the two before their duel ends, or kill them both together."

"Moreover, have you noticed that the space in there is far narrower than here? We definitely can't surround them as we did before."

"Wow, the difficulty has spiked—is this really the first dungeon of the closed beta?"

Although the group reward is already a sure thing, to pull ahead of other players don't we need to rely on boss rewards to overtake?

So when Ji Ming was preparing to secretly transform into a mysterious boss to bring smiles to the players, what he saw were players already in a frantic, panicked state.

"Nothing much to say—the bigger the waves, the more valuable the fish; big guys, follow me up."

"This is the first major reward point after the closed beta launch—whether we can score big in one go depends on now!"

"What do the sons and daughters of Jiangdong fear under heaven? Let's rise fervently!"

Watching them one by one shout and rush forward, he felt sweat breaking out on his own forehead.

No way, this is actually okay?

Just as he was pondering how to distribute the rewards to them next, he felt his wrist grabbed.

"Brother, let's go… uh, not to send, but to go fight together!"

Actually, in Ji Ming's plan, this wave was indeed supposed to make a move.

After all, he had figured it out—although because of his ominous luck he couldn't learn normal skills.

But as one of the initial settings, all knowledge related to the Apothecary profession can be easily mastered.

So, if he wanted to autonomously gain more abilities, he would have to explore some potion-related knowledge to study.

Moreover, to some extent, potions are part of alchemical knowledge, so the alchemist is an advancement of the apothecary.

Even saying that, if he wanted to legitimately change his in-game warrior disguise into an actual apothecary, he would also need such an opportunity!

So…

Senior Edgar, your legacy will be inherited by me!

But before they even ran into the cave entrance, they saw from afar three anxious players, too close, accidentally injured by the stone gargoyle's sweeping slash.

The huge, sharp claws swept across effortlessly, and in the next second it turned into nine players—aside from being unable to live, their cell division was perfectly complete.

"Uh…"

Bai Yesheng immediately stopped his steps.

Edgar's laboratory is now a clattering mess of smashed equipment, and Ji Ming, who already considers it his property, is also anxious.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you running?"

"I sprained my arm—no, wait, my calf caught a cold… Anyway, you go in first, I'll be right there!"

"Good grief, the hot-blooded guy eagerly pulled me up to start a fight, then bailed when he saw the interior intensity was high, right?"

"Pfft, you're such a coward—you might as well change your name to Wanyan Zhidu!"

"You!"

After harshly criticizing such embarrassing behavior, Ji Ming entered the final showdown arena.

"Ahhh, you villain, give me back my mother!"

"Ah! Disgusting thing, you dare to bite me!"

While the two giant beasts were still entangled, the players' attention was also on how to intervene, and they began to tear up while looting.

But just as the stone gargoyle complained, this place is basically a trash heap.

Moreover, under their struggle, many places have already been crushed and destroyed.

Looking at the shattered glassware on the ground mixed with bloody flesh, Ji Ming even felt as if a biochemical crisis were about to break out…

Moreover, unlike him who is a cleanliness freak, that damned alchemist madman is purely a lazy dog.

As far as the eye can see, the storage is completely inadequate—indeed, not even a proper safe can be seen!

He rummaged for a while before finding a locked small box in the ruins; he pried it open with an iron crowbar and discovered that it was completely filled with books.

What a great surprise, so many!

Unfortunately, this place is crowded and chaotic, with stray arrows flying in from time to time—really not a good place to examine knowledge.

So after dodging the stones thrown by the hatred, Ji Ming simply carried the pack and teleported back behind the curtain.

Compared to the overall free-and-easy decoration style of Edgar's laboratory, these few books look very high-end.

Gilded cover, brass clasps, even much more formal than that Svendis, the package-burning bastard.

This is absolutely Edgar's precious collection amassed over the years, all valuable alchemy texts!

Ji Ming even excitedly took out a pair of clean white gloves, put them on before daring to touch its beautiful spine.

However, upon opening it, the first sentence that met his eyes was:

【Today senior Eliza smiled at me, she has me in her heart】

……

Ah???

Ji Ming flipped through it and discovered it was a diary from Edgar's school days.

As for the topic…… anyway, he only looked at two pages before his stomach started hurting.

But genius is genius; Edgar is also a once-in-a-lifetime genius in this regard!

Other youths' anguished literature are all lovelorn dogs, unrequited love, persisting in vain efforts toward the goddess.

And my big-headed brother? He likes whoever he sees! He's almost made the Winston Alchemy Academy's beauty register.

——Great, no need for more words.

Although the scum is truly life's winner, but my big brother's diary has so many "female leads" that it's practically a harem!

After venting a mess of complaints in his heart, barely easing his stomachache, Ji Ming solemnly opened another volume, only to find it was still a lovelorn-dog classic.

"Edgar, I fuck you, immortal! You wrote so many diaries, aren't you a lovelorn dog thirty?"

He really didn't want to look at it anymore, so he directly summoned the little boss and had her help refine these texts properly.

Seeing the concise and clear outline, with those affected words discarded, Ji Ming finally discovered something different.

Although almost all the women in the diary were Edgar's unrequited loves, there was one who truly interacted with him in a meaningful way.

Of course, he is not the protagonist, and there is no sweet sci-fi development,

That was a woman who wanted to use him to research obscure knowledge, but in practice she was extremely naive, full of loopholes—a bad woman.

Thus.

Tom played music, cream puffs, a hundred mouths couldn't refute, clown masks.

This is also the fundamental reason Edgar completely turned dark and embarked on the path of evil alchemy.

Therefore, his later diaries became……

Um.

"I admit you're pitiful, but the bad things you've done are really quite extreme."

If the earlier lovelorn-dog diary was a physical attack on the organs, then the ensuing madman's diary is a real injury to the mind.

This still had Yang Yue refine out the key information for him, deleting the vast majority of meaningless detail descriptions and exquisite illustrations.

Even so, Ji Ming, who was already quite familiar with surgery, felt a slight chill down his back.

And in the final part of the diary, naturally it was him being discovered by the law enforcers of the Lingxi Kingdom, beginning a long great escape.

Among them, two points are crucial.

One is that he had prepared in advance, purchasing a spatial container for ease of escape, inside which he stored his true treasures and alchemical knowledge.

And another is that Edgar turned out to be an important fugitive issued a high-spec warrant by the Holy Light Church!

Holy Light's Chosen: Wow~