BOOM!
A large energy exploded in the air duct and the monsters were blasted deeper into the duct whilst He Yuan directly flew out of the building and landed on the concrete.
What just happened? He Yuan stared dumbfounded until he found that 888 had materialized and was a few feet behind him, clutching at his throat and dry heaving.
He Yuan's eyes widened and he stumbled over to the system. "888?"
There were large blue veins all over 888's body and his eyes were rolling back to his skull like he was having a seizure. Souls could not bleed but 888's skin was beginning to split open, like he was about to disintegrate.
He Yuan was alarmed before he finally realized what was going on. 888 was being punished for interfering in the task and this was his fault.
All the monsters around were inside the building and a few were scattered around. The broken fence gave He Yuan and 888 a cover but the noise of the explosion had already attracted some of the monsters.
He Yuan rushed over to pick up the baseball bat that had fallen out of his hands earlier and rushed back to carry 888 on his back. It was faster this way.
They were out in the open but He Yuan spotted an abandoned car a few yards away so he moved towards it. One of the monsters managed to get close to them and he swung the bat at its head.
His earlier fear forgotten in the face of a bigger fear. 888 was disintegrating.
The monster was pushed back a few steps and He Yuan knew the reason. Although the leaser's body was really tall and fit, there was little energy left in him by the time He Yuan arrived so he was currently too weak and couldn't muster enough strength without both hands being used.
He quickly let 888 down and swung at the monster's head with more energy and both hands this time. Its head directly flew out of its body and landed a few yards away.
More were coming so He Yuan quickly picked 888 up again and hurried towards the car. By the time they got close enough, the monsters had reached fifty.
He Yuan prayed with all his might that there was gas in the car as he urgently swung the door open. The driver of the car had their head dragged from their body so all that was left was their headless body and lots of blood.
"Argh, Ack, Ack." One of the monsters leaped down at He Yuan from the top of the car and He Yuan quickly swung the bat and sent it flying, it was harder to maneuver in his position but he managed.
The others were so close and the gnarling noises were getting louder.
He Yuan did not think twice before pulling the mangled corpse out of the car, pushing 888 to the passenger side through the drivers side and getting in himself.
The key was still in the ignition and after turning it, the car grumbled and gave out. "Fuck!" He Yuan cursed and tried it again. It didn't work.
"Argh!" Some monsters had gotten on the roof of the car and one of them crawled over to the window and tried to grab He Yuan's head. He Yuan dodged its claws just as he tried for the third time and the car grumbled to life.
He stepped on the accelerator and the monsters on the roof of the car fell off. The one that attacked He Yuan's head was stuck at the window, still trying to grab He Yuan.
He picked the baseball bat and hammered it down on the monster's hand, separating its arm from its body, causing the monster to fall off by the roadside
The entire city was in ruins, destroyed buildings, blood, rotting flesh and roaming monsters were everywhere. The monsters chased after the car whenever they heard the noise but He Yuan was able to shake them off.
He looked to the side and realized 888 had passed out. At least he was still alive. His stomach grumbled loudly and he took three hunger relieving pills at once. It seemed the leaser was almost starving to death at the time he took over.
After driving for hours and almost running out of gas, He Yuan arrived at a countryside. The monsters over here were quite few and he was taken aback for a bit.
He went from trying to avoid the monsters every few feet of the way to trying to avoid them every few miles. This was good. Now he just needed to find a place safe enough for him to be able to receive the realm information.
He Yuan drove around for a while until he found a tree house in the backyard of one of the homes. It was perfect. He'd noticed that the monsters were quite stiff and the tree was tall so they wouldn't be able to climb it.
As soon as he parked the car, he toured the perimeter, cleaning up any monsters in and around the house. They were just two. He also found a basement and decided to hide there instead.
With 888's state, He Yuan wasn't sure if he was still invisible to the inhabitants of this realm or not and there was no way he could climb the treehouse with an unconscious 888 on his back, there was no ladder.
So he carried 888 down to the basement and locked the latch before using an iron rod to wedge it for extra measure.
He Yuan finally had the chance to look over 888 properly and then he let out a breath. He was sure now that 888 was still invisible to the inhabitants of this realm. The car that they'd entered was full of dirt and blood and yet 888's hair was still silver without a speck of dirt and his clothes were clean too.
The splits on his skin had also disappeared and he appeared to be in deep sleep. He Yuan poked his face. "888?"
There was no response so He Yuan withdrew his hand and looked the system over one more time. Up close, He Yuan could see that the tips of 888's lashes were metallic gray. The system was actually very pretty.
After staring to his fill, He Yuan sat still and tried to see if he could receive the realm information with 888 knocked out. He could. He took three more hunger relieving pills.
A hunger relieving pill could actually last him for three days.
He Yuan found out about this in his last task realm so he was surprised that after taking six in the span of five hours, he still felt very hungry. He decided to ignore the hunger and receive the realm information.
The name of the leaser was Du Ling, he was a clerk by day and bartender in a high end club by night. He was one of two children and a person who liked to face his problems with a cheery smile.
The special one of this realm happened to be Du Ling's twin brother, Du Jian. Du Jian was like an high end version of Du Ling. He had three degrees, a high paying job as a scientist, wealth and high ambition.
The brothers lost their parents at a young age and had to fend for themselves as they grew up but even then, they weren't close. Du Jian felt that the simple minded Du Ling was not destined to go far in life.
And he felt he was proven correct when Du Ling decided not to further his education after high school. Both brothers part ways then.
Du Ling joined a law firm as an errand boy, whilst Du Jian got three offers from top universities and chose one to go to. He was sixteen and very intelligent so he took two majors at the same time.
Eight years later, Du Jian had bagged all three of his degrees and Du Ling was doing so well at the law firm that he took some training and was promoted to clerk.
The government opened a large research facility to conduct study on a toxin, secreted by a newly discovered microorganism, that seemed to have the effect of completely decomposing Green House Gases at an alarmingly fast rate and Du Jian, being a genius in his field was called to become part of the researchers.
What led both brothers to meet again was when some college students received clearance from the government to intern at the new research facility and Lu Ming, one of the interns, caught Du Jian's eye.