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墨書 Inktalez
A few creatures that resembled vultures lifted the tent flap. These beings had wings like vultures, but their size was comparable to that of an adult human. Without their wings, they had two legs similar to those of a human, and through their sparse fur, she could see that their legs were a pale blue color.
Xu Nuan suddenly recalled the severed limbs she had seen during the day on the Gobi. Her gaze wandered over the creature with a vulture's head, vulture wings, and human legs.
"Watch out!"
In the chaos, someone shouted this warning. Xu Nuan focused her attention and noticed a vulture charging toward her. She quickly sidestepped to avoid the attack, puzzled by how a vulture without talons could possess such strength to lift the tent. Why would Game Base create such a creature?
Questions flooded her mind as Xu Nuan didn't hesitate; she ran toward Xu Hang and the others, avoiding Gu Ze's gaze, and stood by the fire, staring intently at the vultures standing on the ground.
The transformation occurred in an instant. After landing, the vultures' wings morphed into human hands, albeit with a pale blue skin tone. However, their heads remained those of vultures, complete with sharp beaks and narrow eyes.
Xu Nuan couldn't believe her eyes. In the thirty-some levels she had encountered so far, all creatures were based on existing biological modifications. She could roughly guess that someone in the Designers' team was skilled in biological modification and had likely gathered many unsuspecting biologists under their wing. But the creatures before her could no longer be described by biological modification.
Why did such terrifying beings suddenly appear? They were completely different from the levels encountered in previous Survival Games. A premonition struck her—this level's difficulty might spike dramatically, making future Survival Games even more frightening and perhaps extremely brutal.
A woman's intuition is often unfounded; as these dreadful thoughts invaded her mind, various doubts surged, overwhelming her already troubled brain and causing her a splitting headache.
"What are these things that are neither human nor eagle?"
While she was grappling with her headache, she heard Deng Yinyin's voice. Instinctively, she turned to look at Deng Yinyin and found her standing next to Gu Ze, whether intentionally or not. A sharp pain pierced Xu Nuan's heart; she dared not look at Gu Ze's expression and quickly turned away.
"Shouldn't we leave here as soon as possible?"
Next came Xie Huai's voice, still filled with fear but now tinged with an unfamiliar calmness.
Meanwhile, those bizarre creatures were slowly surrounding them, showing no immediate intention to attack.
Xu Nuan found it strange that the System was unwilling to provide any hints this time. Even a few scattered clues would help her identify the loopholes and address them accordingly.
She waited for over ten seconds, but the System remained silent.
Why?
Xu Nuan widened her eyes in the darkness. Even so, the light that could reach her gaze was limited, and the area she could see was small. Fighting at night was quite disadvantageous for her.
Suddenly, she recalled that night when Tang Jingshu had not yet died. They were besieged by Slimwaist Cat and Vampire Bat, and Gu Ze had protected her closely. Even an unfavorable night did not seem so terrifying then.
Times had changed.
These four words carried a heavy sense of irony.
Xu Nuan turned to look at Xu Hang, who was closer to her, waiting for him to make a decision.
Should they flee like Xie Huai, abandoning some of their belongings and the hard-earned Campsite, or should they fight desperately to hold their ground?
The cold moonlight and warm firelight intertwined, casting shadows on those strange creatures. Time passed quickly, and she heard Xu Hang's gritted voice.
"We can't outrun these winged creatures."
She understood Xu Hang's decision. As those unrecognizable beings drew closer, she charged forward.
Since the targets were creatures roughly the size of adults, Xu Nuan decided against using her short knife. Instead, she employed the grappling techniques she had learned in her crash course to deal with these unknown beings one by one.
Xu Nuan charged forward, her first move being to seize one of the creature's wrists, twisting it and entangling the nearby joints. As the vulture-like creature let out a shriek and attempted to kick her like a human, she swiftly pushed off its leg. Hearing its cry, she unceremoniously released her grip and wrapped her arms around its waist, flipping it backward.
She hadn’t expected this seemingly grotesque creature to possess strength surpassing that of a woman. When she slammed it to the ground, she instinctively grabbed its left arm with her left hand, twisting it while pressing down on its shoulder with her right, attempting to tear off the strange being's hand.
As she prepared to pull off that hand, she was taken aback by how cold it felt—there was not a trace of warmth, as if she were touching a solid block of iron rather than flesh and blood.
“What’s going on?”
Xu Nuan hesitated. In that moment of doubt, something from behind suddenly wrapped around her waist. At a distance, Gu Ze shouted urgently.
“Nuan, get away!”
She glanced at Gu Ze’s worried face, which was filled with urgency as he tried to rush over. She quickly extended her hand to block the creature's attempt to peck at her. Unsurprisingly, she felt a sharp pain as its beak pierced her palm, blood trickling down.
Wrapped around the waist?
The pain sharpened her focus. Memories of what she had learned flooded back into her mind. She immediately lowered her center of gravity and leaned back, delivering a powerful headbutt to the side of the creature’s face. When she noticed it trying to dodge consciously, she squatted down and pulled up on its right leg while sitting back with her hips, forcing the creature to topple backward.
She found herself sitting in an icy spot as a chill crept up her back.
Quickly rolling away, Xu Nuan drew a short knife from her waist, aiming to sever the unknown creature's arm to prevent it from sprouting wings and attacking them again.
“Bang.”
The sound of metal clashing echoed in the air. Xu Nuan was astonished and unwillingly struck down with the knife again, but still could not sever the arm of the struggling creature lying on the ground; its arm seemed almost mechanical in nature.
Xu Nuan glanced around at the few people nearby, noticing that each of them was surrounded by one or two strange creatures. Everyone seemed to have their own way of dealing with them, and it appeared that these creatures' attack power was lower than theirs.
Why?
Xu Nuan found it strange, the severed limbs she had seen during the day replaying in her mind. Gritting her teeth, she resolutely swung her weapon at the creature's thigh. Blue liquid splattered everywhere, and with that single strike, the creature's leg wobbled precariously.
Xu Nuan was stunned.
The creature resembled a human in shape but had the appearance of a vulture. Its wings could transform into arms, yet they seemed made of steel. Its thigh structure was similar to that of a human but appeared quite fragile. It lacked strength, had insufficient attack power, and there were many of them.
Without any prompts from the System, Xu Nuan couldn't fathom the necessity of these creatures' existence, let alone imagine that the severed limbs on the Gobi were a combination of these creatures' thighs and human remains.
Clearly, these creatures were weak, like half-finished products. Why then were there remnants of other Players? Why did they come to attack them?
Xu Nuan found herself lost in thought at the worst possible moment. In that instant, as the creature she had failed to sever its arm began to rise again, it pounced on her, knocking her to the ground. The back of her head struck the ground hard, and in a daze, she seemed to see that the creature pinning her down did not have a vulture's head but rather a lifeless, pale human face.
"Hiss."
She would have to pay for her moment of distraction; the creature's grip on her shoulder felt as if it would crush her. What she had initially thought was a weak creature suddenly displayed an alarming increase in combat power, leaving her completely at a disadvantage.
Blinking through her haze, she suddenly felt a warm liquid flowing over her head.
It was blood.
The creature holding her down was incredibly aggressive and strong.
She seemed to understand something.
As she struggled to kick away the creature in front of her, someone had already kicked it down and even severed its legs.
"Where are you hurt?"
She saw Gu Ze reaching out to her, his face showing unmasked concern.
Xu Nuan did not take his hand; instead, she pushed herself up with one hand on the ground and touched the back of her head with the other. When she brought her hand in front of her eyes, it was stained bright red.
"I'll clean and bandage it right away."
Gu Ze, regaining his composure, immediately kicked away a few unblinking creatures and hurried toward his undamaged tent to grab supplies from his backpack.
Xu Nuan sat there, letting the chaotic memories flood her mind. Among those memories was a scene where someone had tricked her into taking some medication that was supposed to relieve the pain in her chest. This had happened two months after her parents' car accident, in May. Her brain had been injured again, and due to the trauma, she temporarily forgot about her parents' death. She remembered that the doctor had said it was only temporary and that she would recover in a few days. However, after last May, she had started busying herself with phone calls to comfort her parents while also trying to find out about Qin Yaojie’s whereabouts before entering the game.
The doctor hadn’t lied to her; she should have regained the memories of her parents’ death within two or three days after the injury. Instead, she forgot—along with the incident of the car accident in early March.
Xu Nuan's eyes widened suddenly. It was because of those medications that she had forgotten about her parents' death, and because of those medications, she had also forgotten everything between March and May of last year. The two impacts on her brain had caused nerve damage, and someone had taken advantage of this nerve damage to make her forget those events.
When she fell off the cliff in the Deadly Cliff level and hit the rocks, the stimulation to her nerves triggered memories from March to May of last year. However, she still couldn’t remember who had given her the medication or how those doctors had assessed her condition. This time, by a twist of fate, she remembered because her brain nerves were damaged and could not handle stimulation; as a result, today she had experienced multiple stimuli all at once.
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