Chapter 451 - The Emissary

With its recently attained momentum, Emissary Flesh was just about to victoriously leave Virus’ range of aim when Virus also became serious and used his own unique trump card.

‘Unnamed Virus Technique, First Form – Impulse!’

Quickly, an invisible chain fell off of Virus’ frame as his machine gun was once again able to keep up with the struggling monster!

Ratatatatat~

SCREEEECH!

“Hahaha, I’m not letting you go no matter how hard you scream!” By now, anyone would’ve been able to perceive that the regrowing capabilities of the monster were chopped down several times as it was now much weaker in terms of healing.  Moreover, the agonized yet helpless screeches of the monster emphasized that point even further.

In fact, the damage Virus’ machine gun’s normal mode was causing the monster was much lower compared to the harm a couple of exploding attacks would’ve dealt it.

However, through his experimented and proven theory, Virus was now confident that the potency of damage did not matter much, rather, what mattered was the nonstop bombardment which would gradually make it exhausted until it could not regenerate itself anymore!

And in order to accomplish that particular purpose, Virus couldn’t utilize his longsword nor the handgun since Emissary Flesh would be able to restore itself and bring its healing ability to its peak condition in the short intervals between those very attacks! What he required were even faster strikes!

And thus, Virus determined the only weapon in his arsenal that could maintain lightning-fast attacks was in fact the machine gun alone!

The intensifying warfare proceeded as the shrunken Emissary jumped around while Virus maintained his aim at the opponent while staying in the ‘Impulse’ state.

As a matter of fact, the Emissary even pounced in Virus’ direction from time to time, trying to bump into him using all its weight to crush and suffocate him beneath itself. 

Fortunately, taking advantage of his ‘Impulse’, Virus could change positions at the drop of a hat and avoid the possible catastrophe!

However, as time passed, while Virus’ energy was getting weaker and weaker, the Emissary in fact continued to get more powerful despite its weakening regeneration trait.

That was because the Emissary’s strength had nothing to do with cultivation or energy since the logic behind the functionality of its power seemed to be time alone. The more the battle persisted, the stronger it would get!

Slowly but surely, due to the gradual accumulation of fatigue, beads of sweat began to roll down Virus’ forehead. ‘Ah, it’s gotten too strong, although I can feel it’s almost at the ending points of its healing capacity, it will exceed my aiming speed in a few seconds at most!’

Ratatatatat~

And indeed, just as Virus had predicted, in no more than five seconds, the Emissary triumphantly surpassed Virus’ aiming speed as it roared in joy!

Screech!

After an exclamation of happiness, the monster was about to leave Virus’ aiming position in the dust when abruptly, Virus connected to his ring and commanded.

‘Normal mode – Follow!’

Immediately, the bullets seemed to have grown eyes as they followed closely after the beast that had just left the direct aiming point of Virus’ gun!

“Hahaha!” Once again, much to the disappointment of the monster and the entertained burst of laughter from Virus, the combat was set in motion while the monster was getting closer and closer to its utter limits.

Screech!

Suddenly, as an act of final resort, the Emissary stopped trying to dodge entirely as it came to a complete halt before bristles began protruding from all over its meatball frame.

Next, as if it was a rock that had been thrown from the top of a mountain, the Emissary rolled in Virus’ direction at its fastest speed so far to the point it almost seemed like the Emissary had blended with the fabric of space itself.

On the other side, as a result of that sudden burst of acceleration, Virus’ eyes went wide open momentarily. Truthfully, in terms of speed, he had long fallen behind and he knew it!

Meanwhile, the rushing Emissary was feeling truly cheerful as it was confident Virus was already trapped in its grasp!

SCREEEEECH~

“Hahaha, don’t be happy just yet!” Shouting out loud, Virus connected to the ring again. Internally, however, even he was slightly nervous as he wasn’t quite sure whether his next strategy would work or not.

‘Paralysis mode – Follow!’

Ratatatatat~

Immediately, a never-ending blue bullet light started making contact with the incoming Emissary as its accelerating speed was actually decelerated instead!

Meanwhile, seeing the opponent slowing down, Virus’s expression was shimmering in joy while he pondered, ‘Phew, thank me it worked!’

Honestly, considering how Virus had no data or knowledge regarding the anatomy and the inner workings of Emissary Flesh’s body, Virus wasn’t sure if the paralysis bullets would actually work on it.

In reality, his calculations had determined that due to the strangeness of this life form in front of him, the odds were that the paralysis bullet wouldn’t have any effects on the beast as it might be naturally resistant against it. Furthermore, that may have been truly the case if the monster was still in peak condition.

However, having no other choice but to gamble and make the long shot, Virus had to take the bet quickly and try his luck since there was no room for hesitation at that point!

And apparently, lady luck was indeed on his side this time around.

After evading the rolling monster with a simple sidestep, Virus could hear the final growls of the Emissary as it seemed to have given up. No, it was more like the Emissary was completely drained as it was incapable of struggling anymore!

“Huh… is it over at last?” 

In the meantime, the entire meatball physique of the Emissary started to tremble as if it was about to detonate anytime now.

However, just before it actually exploded, suddenly, a gigantic human-like mouth and an eye took shape on the Emissary’s body as it left a vengeful vow behind while gazing with bloodshot eyes at Virus.

“Y-you’ve… made… a huge… mistake.”

BOOOOM!

Bits of truly dead flesh exploded in every direction, filling the interior of the cottage! At the same time, a brilliant light left the cottage as it disappeared off to somewhere unknown!

Following soon, the ancient sound was heard again.

“Hmm, you’ve accomplished something unheard of by defeating and killing off ‘the sealed small skin that fell off from the nail of Emissary Flesh’, therefore, you’ll receive a substantial amount of tattoo smoke!”

Meanwhile, catching the slight hint of emotion within the previously static sound, Virus wondered in astonishment. ‘Did the archaic voice just say ‘hmm’ in a surprised tone? Is it actually someone alive and not just a recorded sound of the past?’

‘No, no, no… more important than that! Did the voice claim that what I just barely thrashed was merely a small skin from around the nail of true Emissary Flesh?’ Only the thought of just what kind of terrifying being the true Emissary Flesh would be forced an unconscious gulp down his throat. ‘I probably offended someone I shouldn’t have.’

“Who is Emissary Flesh?” Virus didn’t hesitate to inquire out loud. Now that he had offended the meatball anyway, he wanted to know as much as possible about this spine-chilling new enemy of his. 

“…” Woefully, the ancient speaker refused to open their mouth.

“He’s my enemy now, all thanks to your trials, so shouldn’t you at least take some responsibility and clarify its identity and background?” Virus queried, trying to convince him using basic reasoning.

“Hmph, I don’t need to explain shit to a weakling like you!” Annoyed, the archaic sound responded impatiently.

‘Oh, right… this is the Cultivation Multiverse where the strong dictates the rules and logic.’ Letting out a helpless sigh, Virus could only stop his interrogation as quietness descended upon the cottage.

Followed by the silence, smoke infiltrated into Virus’ palm from every direction, making the Invisible Ancient Fortress World mark extremely distinct, far beyond anything it was before!

But none of that garnered Virus’ attention to itself right now, instead, it was the tiny egg that was left in the spot where the skin of Emissary Flesh had exploded at.

Slowly walking beside the egg, Virus picked it up and began examining it with absolute focus.

The first course of action he took was to send his sense of awareness into the egg. Regretfully though, his awareness could not penetrate into the egg in order to see what was inside.

Punching it next, Virus tried shattering it apart, alas, even that didn’t work as the egg was like a piece of unbreakable stone!

‘Should I take this egg as a reward for killing that thing? Or is this perhaps something dangerous? Should I just throw it away? But what if it’s something extremely precious! I mean I just probably killed something unkillable, even if it was just its skin.’ While these contemplations were passing through Virus’ head, like it was aware of Virus’ current dilemma, the archaic sound explained. 

“Even though it is not guaranteed, it could be a treasure, so either take it or leave it for me to take it.” At this point, the voice was even less static.

Catching both hints of greed and trepidation in the tone, Virus finally made up his mind with a chuckle. “Hahaha, since when did I ever back down from this kind of possibly fun item? So whether it’s a trap or treasure, I’ll see it through with my own eyes and judge for myself!”

“Trial  taker number eleven, you have passed the second floor, you shall be transported to the third floor and attempt the next trial, good luck.”

‘Ah, it became static and kind of robotic again.’ After this notion went through Virus’ head, another occupied it. ‘But… as expected, even Origin couldn’t absorb Emissary Flesh’s energy.’

‘Though I already anticipated that might happen since I finished it off indirectly using my machine gun and not with my own efforts. Moreover, I don’t believe that thing even had energy, to begin with.’ He analyzed calmly, awaiting the incoming trial.

In the following moment, Virus’ figure disappeared automatically as he was teleported to the next floor, wherever that was.

…

Subsequently, Virus materialized in a dark corridor as a rotting odor hit his nose at once!

“Welcome to the third floor, the Underworld Maze of Infinity!”

“Trial taker number eleven, depending on your luck and the path you take, you may chance upon great treasures or deadly situations. In order to pass the trial, you need to reach the core of the world, the center of the maze. Good luck, you will need it!”

As the archaic sound was gone, Virus did a close inspection of his surroundings while deliberating, ‘So I’m in an enormous maze construct this time. No, it said the Underworld Maze of Infinity, denoting it could be so big that it might rival the size of a small or big planet!’

‘For now, let’s check what lies ahead.’ Pondering briefly, Virus ambled through the corridor. That went on until he reached a hall with three entrances!

“Which path should I take?” One entrance was green, the other yellow and the final one was in red.

Above the red door, Virus could read ‘the greedy shall die’ that was written in a strange language, yet oddly, he could comprehend it easily. Over the yellow door, the sentence was ‘the average may survive’  and on top of the green door he saw ‘you shall survive.’

Virus promptly processed the information and figured out that if there wasn’t any deception intended with the colors and the sentences, the green door should be the safest route but it will probably result in useless rewards as well. An easy door. Perhaps the trial will end immediately if he chose that gate.

The yellow entrance should be somewhat dangerous with normal encounters and items perhaps. A medium difficulty.

And the final entry was most likely extremely dangerous but definitely ensuing great rewards!

‘Uhm, the green door is a ‘no’. I wouldn’t have entered this place if I wasn’t even going to challenge myself.’

‘The yellow door… that one’s probably saying with some luck, even average cultivators may survive.’

‘And the red gate is perhaps conveying that those who do overestimate themselves and get greedy will certainly die, but it doesn’t say everyone will die… so, as long as you have the strength to back your confidence, there should be some chances of survival.’ Already over with his internal monologue, Virus was resolved to go through the red entry.

That was mainly because nothing less than that was ever going to satisfy him and Virus knew that. As a result, between ‘easy’, ‘medium’, and ‘hard’, his choice was ‘I either come hard, or I don’t come at all’.

Subsequently, spreading his sense of awareness which covered some meters surrounding himself, Virus entered the red gate with no hesitation whatsoever!

However, the moment he pushed the gate open, an unexplained breeze rushed over, carrying a pungent smell with itself.

‘Well, that’s not alarming at all.’ Smiling casually, Virus started sauntering forward.

‘Huh?’ Four minutes later, he was just beginning to wonder if the path was ever going to end, when out of nowhere, his eyes caught the sight of a scene that forced his eyelids to jump open in both shock and surprise.

That was because at the end of his eyesight, on both sides of the passage over the walls, he could see many skeletons hanging from chains and manacles against the walls!

However, what surprised Virus wasn’t any of those skeletons, but rather it was the familiar yet somewhat unrecognizable corpse that had been gruesomely chained and manacled beside one of the skeleton rows!

‘Wasn’t that one of the two representatives from amongst the academician group? Just what could have occurred here for him to be killed and hanged like that?’ 

Immediately, alarms began to go off in Virus’ mind as he became even more cautious with each step forward!

Furthermore, he understood now that the other participants were also all most likely somewhere on this maze floor at the moment which made this stage of the trial even riskier due to two reasons.

First of all, before seeing the corpse, Virus had assumed that he was alone in this maze and thus the trial was indubitably adjusted according to his cultivation level like the previous stages. Thus, now that he was proven otherwise, Virus knew the trial was going to be much more hazardous!

‘That representative should’ve been in the Sublimity Emergence stage, but even he died right at the beginning of the red gate. Yeah, this place may have already proven itself to be much more perilous than I had anticipated before.’

Secondly, who could say what would happen if he came across other representatives? Human beings were always the most precarious beings in Virus’ book.

But putting that matter aside temporarily, Virus focused on his surroundings for now. Something had murdered the dead body in front of him and it might just show up any passing seconds!

Time began to pass as one minute after another flew by, however, no matter how much vigilant Virus remained, nothing was at sight.

‘Maybe the participants before me killed whatever that was occupying this path?’ That line had just blinked through Virus’ brain when out of nowhere, his hair stood on end and a chill went down his spine due to his sense of awareness detecting something standing right behind him quietly!