Chapter 22

Chen Xin was a little undecided. He was worried that the object might be something weird, especially since it was still glowing. He started to associate the situation with bad outcomes given that The Colours Out of Space in the Cthulhu Mythos was also referring to a deadly virus that traveled on meteorites that eventually crashed into Earth. Those pathogenic organisms also emitted globules of colored light.

However, Chen Xin’s bunker was not far away. Even if it was The Colours Out of Space, it was too late for him to avoid its effects. Chen Xin gritted his teeth and approached the unknown object, then kicked it.

The object at the bottom of the pit was not huge. It was about the size of a ping-pong ball, and there were some burn marks on its surface which peeled off when Chen Xin kicked it. It seemed like those marks were burnt residues of whatever substance the object was engulfed in as it traveled through the atmosphere.

As the heat dissipated, the light emitted by the object gradually dimmed, and it became no different from any ordinary metal ball.

When he saw that the object no longer shone, Chen Xin’s gradually felt a sense of relief. It seemed that that was not The Colours Out of Space.

He kicked it two more times. It did not seem to be dangerous, as there was no other reaction. Chen Xin hesitated for a while before picking it up.

When he picked it up, the object was still a little hot. When he held it, the heat made the wound on his palm sting.

Chen Xin did not care too much. He looked at the object and found that it resembled a small metal ball with a smooth surface. There was nothing special. It was still glowing before, but now it was just an ordinary metal ball.

There was nothing more that he could tell from the object’s appearance, so he put it into his pocket, and planned to return to the bunker so he could inspect it in detail.

Chen Xin searched the crater and found nothing else that looked like a meteorite. He climbed out and walked toward the bunker.

On his way, Chen Xin looked up at the sky and saw that those two meteorites had trailed below the horizon. He knew that the impact was going to be anytime soon.

Although his location was far from the impact point, the effects of the blast would soon be felt.

Chen Xin did not hesitate anymore and quickly returned to his bunker. After closing the heavy door, he picked up the TV on the ground and walked toward the depths of the bunker.

Since Chen Xin’s bunker had to be dug deep enough, the corridor leading down to the lower levels was about fifty meters long

The corridor was built diagonally downwards. It was also fairly wide, considering that it had to provide access to construction equipment and for future vehicles entering and exiting.

As he arrived at the inner bunker, Chen Xin put down the TV that he had been holding. Then, he sat down and looked around for the medical kit, intending to treat the scratch wounds on his palm.

However, just as he found the medical kit and proceeded to wash his wound with water, he found that the wound had healed.

If it were not for the bloodstains remaining on his palm, Chen Xin would have thought the injury was a hallucination.

That strange occurrence immediately had Chen Xin thinking about the small metal ball he picked up from the crater, so he quickly took it out of his pocket.

Chen Xin’s pockets were a little tight. When he took it out, the ball fell to the ground.

At the moment it hit the ground, a bright blue halo emerged where it touched the floor. In an instant, it scanned everything in the room, then retracted into the ball again.

With the retraction of the halo, the ball lit up again and suspended itself in the air, parallel to Chen Xin’s line of sight.

Seeing what had just happened, Chen Xin still did not know that there was something wrong with the object he picked up. He stepped back with a bit of fear, picked up the medicine kit, and wanted to embolden himself.

“The Doomsday Survival System has been activated…”

“The target gene has been collected…”

“Confirming genetic makeup, carbon-based organisms…”

“Confirming living environment, the meteorite crisis, the possibility of biological extinction… the conditions are met, the binding program commences…”

The little ball made a mechanical beep. Much to his surprise, Chen Xin could understand what the little ball was saying, although the sound it made was in another language.

As it continued beeping, the small ball flew in front of Chen Xin, projected a blue light that scanned his body, and then bolted toward Chen Xin.

Chen Xin hurriedly blocked with the medical kit in his hand, but the small ball hit the back of his hand and then melted into it.

Chen Xin was shocked. He threw down the medical kit and inspected the back of his hand, but found nothing unusual.

Just when Chen Xin was feeling bouts of unease, his body underwent unexpected changes. A green halo that resembled a digital grid emanated from under his feet and scanned the entire bunker. It then retracted into his body, much like a radar echo.

Chen Xin dumbfoundedly gaped at everything that was happening. His brain drew an utter blank. He had no idea what was going on, nor what kind of expression he should make.

Chen Xin was puzzled for a long time. After he recollected his thoughts, he regained his senses and asked, “What the hell is going on?”

As Chen Xin raised that query, a large amount of information appeared in his mind and projected onto his retina in the form of words he knew. That quickly allowed him to figure out what was going on.

To put it simply, Chen Xin had obtained an artificial system. It was akin to the leveling systems that were largely seen in tasteless and trashy fictional novels.

That system was called the Doomsday Survival System. It was created by a certain advanced civilization in an unknown time and space, and it seemed to be one of their toys for entertainment.

Even so, it did not matter how that system came about, what mattered was its functionalities.

Since it was named the Doomsday Survival System, the function of the system would naturally be related to survival.

According to the information displayed, as long as the host bound to the system manages to survive in the predetermined doomsday environment, he could obtain survival points for every day that he stayed alive.

That was somewhat similar to accumulating experience points in other leveling systems. However, the Doomsday points could not be exchanged for just anything, it could only be used to upgrade items.

Due to its intended nature as an entertainment product for some highly-advanced alien civilization, it was used to experience the fun of surviving a calamity. If one could trade for any item out of thin air, there would be room for cheating, and the overall experience of the survival game would be severely affected.

Hence the function of that system was only to upgrade items, similar to the item synthesis upgrade function in many games, but in that case, the upgrade function was more robust and many times more powerful.