Ch. 2 - Unexpected Discovery

"Damn it!"

Tianyang grabbed onto a shelf and pulled himself up, then jumped to the door with only one foot. He forcefully closed the large metal door, watching as it separated the darkness of the passage from the prowlers.

A hand abruptly reached out and stuck between the door and its frame.

The metal door couldn't close.

"Shit!"

Tianyang picked up the dagger and moved swiftly. The sharp alloy cut through the rotten hand like tofu.

At least he had cut off more than half of the hand and quickly locked the door as soon as it shut. On the other side of the door, a continuous banging and the suppressive wheezing of prowlers continued.

The young man pushed the iron cabinet against the wall, blocking the door, and cautiously avoided the severed hand on the ground.

Finally, he wiped the prowler's body fluids off the dagger, but the yellowed metal surface of the blade indicated that it was no longer as sharp and strong.

Prowler body fluids have a corrosive effect that, while not lethal, it could surely dull the blade of a dagger.

Even so, Tianyang decided to keep the blade; it was a gift from his mother.

It was the first gift he had ever received, so he was particularly fond of it.

He sat on the ground, littered with documents, and leaned against a shelf. The sharp movements while dealing with the prowler had aggravated his injuries.

Tianyang’s thigh was covered in blood, so he quickly took out his first aid kit, taking out a bottle of disinfectant spray.

He sprayed it on the wound, disinfecting and cleaning up the surrounding blood.

Then, taking a surgical knife and tweezers from the kit, he carefully removed the bullet from his thigh.

He gave himself a painkiller shot and applied hemostatic tape after sewing up the wound using a wound closure device. Leaving the tools on the ground, he noticed sweat covering his face in his helmet.

After a while, Tianyang took out a survival kit and inserted it into the extractor of his protective suit. He activated it, and a straw popped out of his helmet.

Putting the straw in his mouth, a steady stream of high-energy liquid food filled his mouth, providing him with the energy needed for the day.

The Inverse Universe was filled with black mist that absorbed more than just heat. Besides Ascenders, ordinary people who stayed in the black mist for more than 15 minutes without protection would die.

Death would be the most ideal. Some would eventually turn into something like the things outside the door after becoming contaminated by the mysterious gas.

Therefore, it was necessary to carry liquid food into the Inverse Universe. People used the extractor to consume the sealed liquid food they carried.

After consuming the liquid, Tianyang finally felt a little warmth, and his hands and feet no longer felt cold. He moved his body and used the remaining hemostatic tape to seal the openings on his protective suit, making sure to stack several layers.

He hoped that they could seal up the openings on the protective suit and prevent pheromones from leaking out. Whether or not it would work, only time could tell. Fortunately, it seemed that luck was on his side. After a while, the banging outside the door gradually stopped.

But he wasn’t safe yet.

Their team was trapped here because the team leader was greedy and impulsive and went too deep into the base. They met with heavy resistance on their way back to the base, with a large number of prowlers blocking their path.

Tianyang must find a new route as his supplies would soon run out, leaving him with no chance but to await death.

He clenched his fist and steeled his resolve, not willing to die here.

When he joined the Collection Team, he swore that he would give his mother, who had worked hard all her life, a good life from then on.

Furthermore, he needed to repay Qin Wu's "kindness," even though he didn't yet know how to overcome the huge class gap between them. Taking revenge on the heartless team leader was not going to be easy.

The dull sound of gunfire reached his ears; it was the roaring sound of the rifle. Tianyang propped himself up and walked to the window.

Through the thin mist, he vaguely saw light shining from the bottom of the southeast floor, and then a car drove out of the dim alley.

It was the standard vehicle for the Collection Team, a Grey Wolf off-roader. The vehicle boasted high ground clearance, and the tires used a 360-degree wheel rim that allowed it to adjust direction easily. It was equipped with a rapid-fire machine cannon and a front-mounted light machine gun, providing firepower support.

It seemed that Qin Wu and the others had successfully left the building, but whether they could make it back to the base safely remained to be seen.

Tianyang looked up at the sky. The sky wasn't completely dark yet; some visibility remained.

The sky appeared more like a summer thunderstorm was approaching. The clouds were thick and blocked out the light.

Under this suppressive light, he could see the outline of the dilapidated buildings across the street, which had only a few frames remaining. With some of the more distant buildings, they formed this so-called city.

Qin Wu was right; this 127th Inverse Universe was very similar to the world where Tianyang lived.

But Tianyang never wanted to see the world where he was born and raised, nourished by sunshine and rain, turning into the ghostly appearance before him.

This world, too, maybe a long time ago, was bathed in sunshine and filled with the sweet scent of flowers and the chirping of birds. But now, it resembled a terminally ill patient on the brink of death, struggling.

Wooo~

A hollow roar came from the street below, and Tianyang saw several prowlers passing by the building.

Those twisted forms were like the human pathogens that didn't die in this world. They were everywhere, wandering back and forth, looking for prey. Wherever they went, filth followed.

These loathsome creatures of darkness were at the bottom of the biological pyramid of the Inverse Universe. They moved slowly and had no sense, but once enough of them gathered, they would flood everything.

On the way here, Tianyang witnessed a large collection of prowlers pushing and shoving. From afar, they looked like a group of snakes, entwined, rolling, and surging!

These ugly creatures, entangled together, spread like a contagious disease along the street and then dispersed, polluting the entire world.

Although there were not many prowlers under the building now, Tianyang knew that it wouldn't be long before evil invaded this place.

He had to leave!

But where should he go?

As he pondered this, Tianyang noticed that the few prowlers that had passed by the building moved to the intersection ahead.

But for some reason, they suddenly stopped and turned around.

Although these dark creatures displayed the habit of moving aimlessly back and forth in certain areas, their recent behavior was abnormal. It was as if they had encountered something they were afraid of and turned away.

What was at that intersection?

Tianyang decided to explore.

Sliding down from the outside of the wall through a pipe, the young man moved along the wall. Tianyang held his breath as a prowler went by.

Luckily, the thing covered in pus on the surface couldn't detect his presence. It walked away with staggering steps.

He breathed a sigh of relief, tightened his grip on the knife, and arrived at the intersection.

It was a T-shaped intersection, and the streets were empty without any prowlers in sight.

The vehicles on the road were overturned if these shabby, pitiful, small wheels in thin armor could even be called vehicles. In any case, these iron-clad things were just remnants, like steel corpses, helplessly allowing some bloated, white, and sickly fungal vegetation to invade.

Through the faint light on his protective suit, Tianyang saw that the road was covered with patches of various sizes of fungi. Accidentally stepping on one, he experienced something akin to stepping in mud.

That feeling of putrefaction and decay was nauseating!

Approaching a corner, Tianyang attempted to tread on the part of the road that was not covered in fungus. Suddenly, a flash of light caught his eye.

Tianyang stopped and looked back. Not far from the corner, there was a passage leading underground.

There was a prominent sign on the outside of that passage, with patterns and some similar characters.

Tianyang couldn't understand the characters of Inverse Universe, but he could tell from the figures that it was a train driving through a tunnel.

It seemed life that once lived in this Inverse Universe enjoyed digging underground tunnels in their city. What kind of sadistic hobby was this?

Right at the entrance of the underground tunnel, he spotted a strange plant. It looked somewhat like the moonlight grass that Tianyang was familiar with, but this plant, which emitted light all over, was actually a crystalline substance.

It was a crystalline substance with a plant-like appearance, Star Grass!

Suddenly, Tianyang’s heart burned. For the dark creatures, Star Grass' light was something to hate. Even the prowlers, which didn’t react to light sources, would instinctively avoid Star Grass.

More importantly, Star Grass only grew near the Pillar of Star. In other words, there might be a Pillar of Star in that underground tunnel!

That exclusive product of the Inverse Universe was an important article for ordinary people to become elevated ones, and it was also used as an energy supply for fortresses.

Just discovering a Pillar of Star would bring a great deal of contribution points.

This was also the reason why Qin Wu took the risk of going deeper into the tunnel.

It turned out that Dongyan's digital model was correct, and there was indeed a Pillar of Star here. If they had continued exploring, it would have been a different tale.

Tianyang breathed deep into his helmet, then continued into the tunnel. The farther down he went, the brighter the light became. The scene that met his eyes as soon as he set foot on the ground astounded him.

A giant tree appeared in the middle of the tunnel. It was majestic, with a straight trunk and a lush crown.

From the roots to the leaves, all of it emitted a silver glow!

The light was so bright that it dispelled the darkness, like a lighthouse on a dark sea, shining into the desperate soul, reigniting the flames of hope.

Tianyang reached out his hand, his lips trembling and his heart beating faster, and walked towards it excitedly.

Squeak~

Squeak, squeak~

A sharp noise suddenly came from above the passage, jolting the young man to his senses. He swiftly turned, armed with his dagger, bent a little, and got ready to attack.

Something was coming...

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