Saving Unpermitted

Chapter 83: Seaside

The command center was well defended, and intense purification would make Shu Jun uncomfortable. Zhu Yanchen changed his clothes and arranged to meet at a small hotel near the command center.

The room was small, but the soundproofing was decent. When he opened the door, the lights were off inside. The room’s window was next to a neon sign, and the flickering lights illuminated the floor. It was the most expensive room on the entire floor—in a world eroded by the Erosion Swamp, only colors provided solace.

Shu Jun didn’t enter through the main entrance but climbed through the window.

“I kinda miss Uncle Pan’s small inn,” Shu Jun said in a tired and hoarse voice as he jumped down from the windowsill.

“Me too.” Zhu Yanchen nodded and went straight to remove Shu Jun’s blood-stained uniform. The latter didn’t move, allowing Zhu Yanchen to handle it. His grayish eyes reflected hues of red and yellow under the lighting.

“So forward?” Perhaps Zhu Yanchen had exerted a bit too much force when removing the belt, so Shu Jun joked—however, even in his usual jest, Zhu Yanchen could sense the other’s weakness.

“I don’t like Yi Ning’s coat, to be honest,” he admitted quite honestly.

Shu Jun squinted his eyes. “No choice. Special circumstances call for special treatment. I can wear yours tomorrow.”

After saying this, Shu Jun fell silent again while his eyes were fixed on Zhu Yanchen. Zhu Yanchen took off his own coat, softening his tone. “How do you feel now?”

“Chilly.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“It really feels chilly, covered in sweat and blood. I’ll go take a shower first. If you want to join me, I’ll call for you later.” Shu Jun smiled again and turned to walk towards the bathroom.

However, he hadn’t taken a few steps when Zhu Yanchen grabbed his wrist. In an instant, that wrist eroded into the erosion substance and slipped out of Zhu Yanchen’s palm. Marshal Zhu didn’t give up. He swiftly executed a set of grappling moves, pinning Shu Jun down on the bed.

Shu Jun’s reflexes were also quick, but his condition was truly not good. They struggled back and forth, but seeing Zhu Yanchen’s determined actions, Shu Jun eventually gave up struggling and let him hold him down.

The neon lights stained the plain bedspread with a dark red hue.

“Is the killing intent still there?” Zhu Yanchen asked straightforwardly. “If you were your usual self, you would have dragged me to the bathroom together. Taking the first step and entering, were you trying to cool off with water?”

“Maybe I just wanted to wash away the smell of blood.”

“When I took off your uniform just now, your movements were quite stiff…and you’ve never managed to break free from my grip.”

“Sometimes it’s best to remain ignorant.” Shu Jun’s voice was very soft.

“I don’t want to be ignorant about you, Shu Jun. Answer me. Is your killing intent still there?”

“Mm.” Shu Jun sank into the thick mattress, unmoving. “It’s quite strange, like starving all along without knowing it, and suddenly getting a taste of food. The aftermath is a bit overwhelming, and I…”

“Do you want to kill me?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Of course not! It’s just that the ones who died were humans, and I…” Shu Jun didn’t continue his sentence.

“I’m a human, and I’m the type of human that tastes the best to the Erosion Swamp. Since you can withstand me, you are still the Shu Jun I know.” Zhu Yanchen moved closer. “If you feel uncomfortable because of killing, do you know how many synthetic humans have died under my command over the years?”

Shu Jun held his breath.

“I have managed to reduce the sacrifice rate of synthetic humans to some extent, but there are still many who die each year during the Erosion Swamp purification. I have more blood on my hands than you do, yet you are still here.”

Zhu Yanchen released his grip on Shu Jun’s wrist and touched his cheek. When he spoke again, he changed the subject.

“I discussed this situation with Tang Heyu. Your impulse to kill indeed stems from the information implanted by Sigma. But it’s something that can be restrained, and it won’t endanger your life… So go take a shower.”

“… ” Shu Jun remained silent for a while, still not moving.

“I’ve changed my mind,” he said softly as his clothes made a sizzling sound, gradually being devoured by the erosion substance. “Distract me, Grand Marshal.”

“Aren’t you worried about losing control?”

“You have a point. I’ll give it a try.” Shu Jun bit down on Zhu Yanchen’s neck, exerting slight pressure. His teeth were sharp, and a droplet of blood seeped out from the wound, quickly licked away by his tongue.

“…I really can’t bear to.” Shu Jun released his bite, licked the small wound a few times, and sighed softly.

This time, Zhu Yanchen’s actions were incredibly gentle. Compared to the previous fiery passion, this night was slow and tender. Shu Jun held the other tightly, ensuring that the scent of Zhu Yanchen filled his nose.

“After resolving my issue, we should talk about yours.” After fully absorbing the warmth from the other person, Shu Jun’s mood improved slightly.

“It’s impossible for Zhu Sheng to cooperate with Yi Ning. If we just wait for him to push ‘me’ into the leadership position, we won’t be able to focus on dealing with Sigma. Zhu Sheng still holds expectations for the player system and won’t simply give up his leadership power.”

“Which means we have to overthrow him.” Shu Jun caressed the person’s hair. “As for Yi Ning’s side, I have already handled it. If we can’t convince Zhu Sheng…”

“I’ll take care of this matter.” Zhu Yanchen pressed his face against Shu Jun’s chest, feeling the other’s strong heartbeat.

“Okay, I won’t intervene.”

“I won’t lose.”

“I know.” 

However, Luo Duan had already returned to Sigma’s side, and their time was running out.

The sun rose as usual, illuminating the clouds that hadn’t dispersed for a century. The faint light streamed through the window as Shu Jun held the person in his arms tightly.

As usual, Monday was curled up in a ball, occupying the corner of the room. It surrounded the candy jar at its center and slept soundly. When the faint light hit it, it made a distressed whimpering sound and rolled a few times to the side. Shu Jun glanced at it, and a tendril of erosion substance extended to close the open curtain.

“Okay, I’ll go talk to Ai Xiaoxiao.” Shu Jun used his claw tip to poke Zhu Yanchen’s back, as if he was playing an invisible piano. “Before the city is completely locked down, I’ll bring her in too. And then…”

His claw tip exerted a little force, leaving a red mark on Zhu Yanchen’s back.

“…And then celebrate your election as the leader with a ‘slaughter’.”

“Mm.”

At the seaside.

Luo Duan had never seen a real sea before. There was no sea in the virtual city; only a river that traversed the city. In reality, humans had always stayed inland, and their battlefields were far from the sea.

This sea was pure black—not beautiful at all, but rather inherently terrifying.

Sigma was at the seaside, which seemed reasonable when he thought about it. He sat on one of Sigma’s giant hands, looking towards the direction of Y City. Twenty-one graves stood silently beside the giant withered hand.

They were graves, but they only contained remnants of the clothes worn by those people. Small mounds of gray sand formed with a stone placed on top, serving as makeshift tombstones. In order to gather more information, Sigma consumed those people thoroughly, not even leaving their bones behind.

Things were somewhat different from what Luo Duan had imagined. Those twenty-one people were filled with vivid anger. After seeing Sigma, they voluntarily approached the giant Erosion Swamp without any conversation or hint of attachment to life. During the process of being swallowed, they didn’t scream or even look at him.

They were living more vividly than he was, with fresh hatred still burning within them.

Luo Duan listened to the sound of the rising and falling tides behind him, and his thoughts grew cold. He seemed to have become a part of the waves, mechanically calculating plans.

Among those twenty-one people, there was no “prodigy gifted by the heavens” like Shu Jun. After eroding those twenty-one veteran players, the Erosion Swamp acquired only one new ability—”Explosion”.

Considering the number of player deaths in the past two hundred years, having one ability out of twenty-one was already quite astonishing.

Luo Duan conducted some experiments with this ability. It caused the Erosion Swamp carrying the ability to explode on its own, splattering erosion substance like a suicidal explosion. This attack was effective against humans, but it probably wouldn’t harm Shu Jun, and it could easily harm synthetic humans at the same time, inadvertently helping humans. Overall, this ability was somewhat lacking at this stage.

Still not comparable to Shu Jun.

Shu Jun possessed a peculiar power. Based on Luo Duan’s personal experience, that ability seemed to forcibly halt the activity of the erosion substance. Unfortunately, Sigma didn’t have any information on Shu Jun’s abilities. Luo Duan could only speculate cautiously.

Sigma possessed a total of thirty-nine abilities, four of which had already been assigned, leaving thirty-five remaining. Among them were some peculiar skills, such as creating a specific “person” using the erosion substance or creating mirages of humans being killed. The strangest one involved turning the erosion substance on the ground into fragments of wedding dresses and formal wear.

Like the dying wishes of people.

Sigma didn’t discern the quality of these abilities; it collected them all as long as they were emotionally strong enough to manifest as abilities. Of course, the majority of these abilities contained despair and hatred, and they were mostly highly destructive. Luo Duan noted down each of these abilities and carefully planned them in his mind.

Planning was necessary. With Sigma alone, it would be impossible to eradicate humanity.

This Erosion Swamp King was clever yet pitifully childish. Its thinking was half-human, half-beast, somewhat resembling an overly intelligent baby. Its every move gave an unpleasant sense of dissonance, and it remains completely unaware of human cunning.

No wonder it found a small Erosion Swamp to hide in the command center, eagerly longing to capture live humans. If the small Erosion Swamp encountered Shu Jun first, there was a possibility that Sigma would be tricked by Captain Shu.

Luo Duan forced a bitter smile.

Now that he, a living human, had arrived, he was rapidly weakening in the erosion zone. Sigma used its own abilities to repair him, replacing his internal organs and the diseased limbs. Luo Duan was unsure if this thing had any concept of his abilities. In just one day, he had nearly been transformed by Sigma into an “Erosion” version of Frankenstein.

But he still had self-awareness.

Luo Duan looked at the disproportionately sized, dark gray hand in front of him and slowly clenched his fist.

“How… does it look?” Sigma’s manifestation protruded from the giant hand. It had used its ability to become a “specific person”, but the result wasn’t very good. The thing it created had a blurry appearance and twisted limbs, sending chills down one’s spine. Its feet were buried within the giant hand, resembling a strange growth.

Its voice was also unpleasant, as if some animal was trying hard to imitate human speech.

This was probably someone who had been desperately yearning for something before their death, Luo Duan thought. Only fragments of the victim’s brain were preserved in the Erosion Swamp, leaving Sigma with only partial information, which it used to recreate this appearance.

“I’m still thinking,” Luo Duan replied, coughing up a little bit of black blood.

“Thinking,” it repeated meaninglessly. “Thinking?”

“We won’t win if we rush towards Y City now. Humans will flee to other cities, and you won’t be able to go after all of them… Forget it, you wouldn’t understand anyway.”

The doll created by Sigma tilted its head, looking as if its neck had been broken with its two empty eye sockets. “Understand, I do.”

“It’s best for us to strike when there is conflict between synthetic humans and humans. Synthetic humans are manageable enemies for humans. They will inevitably defend their positions, making it easier for us to surround them.” Luo Duan glanced at the thing. “The problem is, with Shu Jun around, the synthetic humans might not fight against the humans.”

“Shu Jun?”

“The one you want the most.”

“Understood. Wait for them to fight. Then I will go and kill them.” Sigma visibly grew more excited as they discussed this topic. The doll then made a few strange sounds and gradually became more articulate. “If they don’t fight, wait for internal conflicts among humans. Is that possible?”

“That’s a bit challenging.” Luo Duan looked at the thing with surprise.

“Just need to kill some synthetic humans,” it said. “Synthetic humans can’t truly cooperate with humans, I know. Shu Jun hates humans, and I’ve shown him many things. He definitely hates humans, I know.”

“Mm, he is currently cooperating with humans, seeking their resources. Based on our last encounter, if a conflict arises, he won’t let the synthetic humans help Y City.”

“If the things he wants to protect are gone, he will come to my side. He will, I know,” Sigma declared confidently.

“You’re quite confident.”

“Everyone is like that.” Sigma made a strange gesture, pointing to its own core with a calm and placid tone. “You are like that too.”

“……”

“You’re going to die, and I’m a bit anxious. If you die, I won’t be able to understand human thoughts. Can you please think a bit faster?” The statement still lacked emotion, as if Sigma seemed to be describing an everyday triviality.

Luo Duan remained silent for a long time.

“According to those people, the majority of the synthetic human forces are still gathered in a certain settlement. Even if Shu Jun relocates some of them, there will likely still be a significant number of synthetic humans remaining in that settlement. We can take advantage of Y City being busy with the election and instigate conflicts in that settlement, provoking disputes between humans and synthetic humans… Sending an Alpha Erosion Swamp should suffice. By the way, you should have informants on the edge of the erosion zone, right?”

“There are many Corpse Parasites.”

“That should be enough.” Luo Duan closed his eyes. “Let’s first test the waters.”

With that, he sealed his lips and fell into silence once again, deep in thought. The sound of the tides entered his ears, seeping into his bones. The dampness and erosion made it difficult to breathe.

“…Xiao Yuan.” Luo Duan exhaled slowly, summoning the spirit of his deceased lover. “Speak to me again.”

‘It’s still a bit cold by the seaside,’ Luo Duan thought.

He just didn’t want to go back.

The author has something to say:

Shu Ge truly hates humans. It wasn’t a joke when I said he might become a world-destroying boss.

If Shu Ge is assimilated by the Erosion Swamp, he won’t take a path of dominion. Neither synthetic humans nor humans will survive. It seems the Marshal has successfully applied the brakes in the racecar (?) of events.