Chapter 33: City of Flesh and Blood

"Help me..."

"!?"

What on earth is this? The Merchant acted on instinct, throwing a punch with the support of his powerful physique. His fist shattered the car window and slammed directly into the human head outside.

With a loud *thud*, the head exploded. A mixture of brains, blood, and gore sprayed outward; some of it splattered onto the car, yet it showed no signs of losing its vitality.

The shredded flesh began to squirm like worms, trying to crawl into the car through the broken window. Startled, the Merchant kicked out violently, sending the entire car door flying off its hinges.

At that moment, the headless corpse of the driver in the front seat suddenly burst open. A massive amount of flesh splattered everywhere, sticking to the windshield, the roof, and the windows. This flesh rapidly writhed and connected, spreading across the interior until it sealed the large gap where the door had been, blocking the Merchant, who had been attempting to jump out.

A wall of flesh was forming, trapping Cao Yu and the three others inside the vehicle.

Fortunately, An Li had already finished whispering the activation phrase for the "Dust-Severing Gold Ring," triggering the D-tier item.

The next second, a turbulent force field erupted. A massive repulsive force that warped the air exploded outward with An Li at its center, carefully bypassing Cao Yu and the others while focusing its power on the car itself.

With a deafening blast, the sedan was torn into pieces, and the wall of flesh currently taking shape was shredded and blown away by the immense force.

The four of them were thrown toward the ground by the momentum.

An Li used the "Dust-Severing Gold Ring" to cushion her own fall and that of the others. Eventually, the three of them landed steadily... Yes, only three.

An Li looked ahead and saw Cao Yu falling forward due to the inertia. Upon hitting the ground, he executed a practiced roll, shedding the impact force.

"..." An Li wanted to say something, but ultimately, she kept silent.

Just a moment ago, when she had manipulated the force field to catch Cao Yu, it was like plastic wrap hitting a red-hot iron—it was torn apart instantly.

Cao Yu had forcefully punched through her field and tumbled forward.

It was clear that Cao Yu did not trust her and had secretly prepared his supernatural ability in advance—or perhaps, this guy only believed in his own strength.

If the two of them had been in sync, Cao Yu could have undoubtedly saved himself a portion of his mental stamina.

Cao Yu naturally sensed An Li's gaze. He said nothing, only looking back at the dismantled vehicle.

Among the scattered fragments of the sedan, the driver's flesh, which had already exploded, was rapidly squirming and merging, reforming into a human shape.

Even the head that the Merchant had crushed with a single punch had regrown, and the mouth continued to cry out:

"Help me... Help me..."

The driver approached the four of them while calling out.

This cry seemed to trigger a chain reaction. Suddenly, countless masses of flesh emerged from the ground, covering the road, the streets, and the buildings... Within just a few seconds, the entire urban area within sight was blanketed in flesh.

Cao Yu caught the scent of heavy blood, so thick it made him want to vomit.

The City of Truth had turned into a city of flesh!

"Help me... Help me..."

Cries for help rang out from all directions, piercing the eardrums of the four.

Under the cover of night, dark shadows approached from all around, charging toward the group like hyenas that had caught the scent of minced meat.

It was like a zombie siege in an apocalyptic world.

"What the hell...!?"

The Merchant and the Fitness Coach couldn't help but curse in unison.

Relying on his sense of direction and memory of the city map, Cao Yu immediately commanded:

"Break through in that direction!"

With that, he charged out first.

The driver from before was blocking their path, still shouting:

"Help me... Help me... I said help me, damn it!"

While begging for help, he attacked the four of them. His chest split open violently, forming a hideous, lamprey-like orifice, inside which rows of spiral teeth ground together, sparking.

*We're the ones who should be calling for help,* the Merchant thought, his skin crawling.

Cao Yu charged directly at the driver, ignoring the gnashing teeth as he got close, and dismembered him with a few swift hand-chops.

This time, he used both the "Immortal-Slaying Curse" and the "Eternal Wound Curse."

He was surprised to find that the driver, now reduced to scattered chunks of flesh, did not die immediately. The creature tried to control the flesh to pull itself back together, but failed; no matter what, the pieces refused to fuse.

Soon, the squirming stopped.

However, Cao Yu did not let his guard down.

He looked at the ground nearby and saw the flesh that had been lying still suddenly begin to squirm, condensing into a human shape. Its appearance was very similar to the previous driver... No, it was the same person.

The only difference was that the driver's body was much smaller, as if an adult had shrunk into a child.

*'Even an eternal wound on the flesh cannot kill this monster... Is it a type that can survive without relying on its physical body?'*

*'After realizing the original body couldn't heal, it immediately used the flesh covering the city to forge a new one... In what form does this monster live? Pure consciousness? Or an invisible spirit?'*

*'The Merchant smashed his head, An Li tore apart his wall of flesh with her item, and he recovered completely. Only when I attacked him, after realizing he couldn't heal, did he fail to fully recover when rebuilding his body, instead shrinking into a child... So, did my Eternal Wound Curse damage his essence?'*

Cao Yu quickly analyzed the situation and reached a conclusion: if he hacked it to pieces a few more times, he should be able to kill this monster for good.

At this moment, the reformed humanoid monster had already charged at him. Various hideous orifices had grown on its body—some like lampreys, some like piranhas, some shaped like tiger maws, and others... Cao Yu recognized traces of many different creatures.

The dense, crowded orifices were all chanting "Help me, help me."

It was enough to make anyone’s scalp tingle and heart churn with disgust.

*Squelch—* Cao Yu did it again, hacking the charging monster to pieces.

Simultaneously, a flash of inspiration hit him.

He quickly picked up a piece of the monster's flesh and stored it in his player inventory.

By now, a vast number of flesh monsters were closing in from all directions.

"Don't fight! Just run!" Cao Yu shouted to his teammates. "These things can't be killed."

He could kill them, of course.

But with his current level of mental energy, even if he exhausted it all, how many could he really take down?

The whole city was likely a monster playground now.

They couldn't fight; they had to run.

"We're not going to the police station anymore?" the Merchant asked as he caught up to Cao Yu.

"There are many 'instance players' at the police station. If they’ve also mutated, going there is just suicide," added An Li, who had also caught up, speaking at a rapid pace. "Let's break out first and head for the suburbs."

"Wait, let me give you a buff first." The Fitness Coach, trailing at the back, reminded them before whispering: "A gentleman is not dignified unless he is steady."

The next instant, the voice transformed into a miraculous power that acted upon all the players.

Cao Yu felt his physical capabilities surge several times over.

"It's my supernatural ability," the Fitness Coach explained. "It has a group-buff effect."

"It's 'Serial Number 188: Powerful and Vigorous,' isn't it?"

Cao Yu nodded, abandoning his plan to use an item to transform into a zombie.

Since there was already a buff, he would save his mental energy where possible. With the situation unclear, he had to preserve his strength for contingencies.

The four maintained an orderly formation, breaking through toward the west.

The bad news: everyone in the city seemed to have turned into a monster.

The good news: the monsters weren't moving much faster than ordinary humans.

An Li used the "Dust-Severing Gold Ring" to clear the path ahead, blasting away all the flesh monsters that lunged at them.

The Fitness Coach followed behind, and whenever the "Powerful and Vigorous" group effect faded, he would recite a line from the Analects to refresh the buff for himself and his teammates.

Working together, the four of them broke through the encirclement at high speed and quickly put some distance between themselves and the horde.

Yet, before they could catch their breath, the vehicles driving on the road all swerved to crash into them.

Yes, the monsters were driving cars, attempting to run them down... It was absolutely inverted!

An Li directly increased the output of her item, stopping all the incoming vehicles in one go.

Cao Yu chose the closest one, got near, and unleashed several hand-chops at the monster in the driver's seat.

Under the effect of the "Eternal Wound Curse," the monster couldn't pull its pieces together to heal. It had no choice but to abandon the shredded body in the car and forge a new, shrunken shell from the flesh on the nearby ground.

The flesh left in the car quickly lost its vitality and was no longer a threat.

Cao Yu spotted the opportunity, hopped into the driver's seat, pulled up the city map on the center console, and shouted: "Get in!"