Epoch of Twilight

A while later, Luo Yuan brushed the dust off himself and coughed up blood. He slowly stood up, his head in agony. He took a deep breath and tried hard to calm himself.

"Current Mission: Grade D+ Mission: Investigate Hot Springs City. Find out the culprit that destroyed Hot Springs City"

"Time limit: 24 hours"

"Mission status: Completed"

"Evaluation: Passed."

"Character: Luo Yuan"

"Basic Experience Value Reward +9600*100%!"

"Evaluation: Passed, Experience value +9600*0%!"

"Experience: 91920/153600!"

Luo Yuan was surprised when he was listening to the message in his head. He felt like he did not do anything and the mission was completed. He looked at the mission criteria again and realized that it was not a requirement for him to kill the culprit himself. To the rigid system configuration, as long as the end result was the same, the mission was considered completed. But of course, it was impossible to get a perfect evaluation.

It was an absolute surprise! But, the thought that he needed another 60,000 experience points to his next upgrade, he would need four more Grade D+ missions to achieve it. His happiness vanished.

However, it was his first time encountering a real, level seven mutated beast, and it was an unforgettable experience. There was no way that he could defeat this beast in combat, and all he did was run for his life. Although, one of the reasons he succeeded was the massive gain in his attributes which he had yet to master. However, if he was in perfect form, the result of the battle would be unpredictable. One tiny mistake could lead to his death.

Furthermore, the difficulty was elevated because the attacks of a spirit based mutated beast were trickier to defend. Nonetheless, as a level seven beast, none of them could be easily defeated and all of them came with unimaginable power. Nobody would believe he could handle any of them.

He stood rooted to the same spot for a moment as his Will recovered and his headache subsided. He was rather surprised at how rapidly he recuperated and attributed it to an effect of his physical upgrade. He felt stronger and pumped for action, and even though his Will was exhausted, he could recover at the speed of light!

Looking at Lin Feiyan who had passed out not far away, Luo Yuan was in no rush to wake her up. He turned around to look at the level seven mutated beast corpse. It was such a treasure, and Luo Yuan was tempted to examine the magnificent monster. He knew that it would be a waste if he was to ditch it there. With the giant beast’s death, the fog was disappearing. He estimated that the military would be there at any moment. He predicted there would be fights between them for the dead mutated corpse and he had no say in who would be getting the mutated beast. To him, it would have been preferable if the weapons unit got one-third of it. After all, it was the military’s territory, and in some sense, the mutated beast was killed by the military.

Since the military was not here yet, it was the best time for him to salvage items that he desired for himself. The creature’s strange eyes haunted him as he recalled their influence. Perhaps there was a unique function to them, he thought, and he must get those pair of eyes no matter the consequences. Luo Yuan walked swiftly toward the giant beast and inspected it. Just a few minutes ago, it had been savagely attacking him, but now, it lay still, not a breath in its body. The gigantic monster was lying flat on the ground, and apart from the occasional muscle spasms, it showed no response to Luo Yuan as he walked toward it.

It sure was a stunning giant beast. Luo Yuan walked around it and he was in awe. Although it was dead, it seemed to have a strong will to live. Its giant tail that weighed 10 tons was like a supersized whip, that dragged against the floor continuously. Although it was incapacitated, the spasmed beating cracked the cement floor, and threw gravel and dust in the air, everywhere.

Luo Yuan used his hand to shield his eyes from the dust as he leaped onto the giant beast’s body which was four-storeys tall. Its scales were strangely smooth, the purple-based silver patterns were emitting a glowing halo, giving it a mysterious aura. There was also a unique force that radiated from the scales. Moreover, its scales were very slippery, Luo Yuan had to hold on to the thorns on its back to stand up properly.

He walked towards the two massive wounds on its abdomen. The creature’s abdomen was not completely pierced by the bullets, which had damaged about two-thirds of the body. The flesh surrounding the wounds were terribly mangled, which made it look like a pile of minced meat. Luo Yuan stepped around the wounds and noticed that they were soft, and apparently, the damages were not limited to the wounds only.

Luo Yuan found some powdered metal around the wounds. When the electromagnetic bullets shot into its body, they were already crushed. What was actually shot into the flesh of the beast was a high-speed flow of powdered metal. He then circled round to the giant beast’s head. The head was six meters wide, and it was stunning. Filled with bowl-sized bumps, there were tiny thorns on each and every one of the bumps. Luo Yuan estimated the skull to be more than a meter thick, but without the help of his Will to strengthen his weapon, the ordinary saber would be nothing to it.

Its eyes were closed, a layer of semitransparent crystal scales was protecting its eyes. But to a dead body, all the layer of protection was just a tiny trouble to Luo Yuan. He then used his Zhanmadao to cut open its eyelids carefully. The protective layer was strong. It was giving out a force that repelled other attacks. Without his Will, the level seven Zhanmadao could barely cut the eyelids.

Moreover, he needed to be extra careful as the cutting might hurt the eyes. That was challenging to him. With much effort, Luo Yuan managed to retrieve the eyeballs. Each of them was 30 centimeters wide and weighed five catties. They were pitch black and did not feel like they were made with flesh. The texture was cold and hard, they were more like crystals. There was a strange wave coming come of it. With one glance, Luo Yuan felt that his soul was affected. He was shocked and quickly looked away. He then used the identification technique.

"Soul-Eating Crocodile"

"Function: Material"

"Rarity: Dark-green level"

"Weight: 2.3kg"

"Additional Ability 1: Dream invasion - With this, it allows you to enter into somebody else’s dream"

"Additional Ability 2: Requiem - It could be used as a soul’s refuge, to prevent the soul from being harmed by the outer world.

"Remarks: The Soul-Eating Crocodile is a tremendously terrifying mutated beast, it could strengthen itself by absorbing souls as well as controlling low-level mutated beasts to be its puppets. It could hide itself using the fog, any signs of life would be destroyed if they walked into the fog. Its eyes were a part of its abilities.

"Dream invasion, Requiem!" Luo Yuan thought to himself. Although he did not know what was the use of Dream Invasion yet, but Requiem could be a last resort. In the cruel apocalypse, nobody could guarantee of their own safety and to live to old age before eventual death. Furthermore, the four-dimensional vision on his forehead was like the sword of Damocles placed on top of his head. Perhaps when there was no way to run, it could be a great alternative.