Mu Xing woke up with a grim expression.
The moment the monster discovered him, its tentacles transformed into incredibly sharp, lethal weapons, swiftly piercing through his body.
Finally, a tentacle wrapped around his neck, strangling him to death.
However, this time upon waking, Mu Xing didn’t return to the initial passage but instead rewound to the ventilation duct above the changing room.
He had spent over ten minutes there earlier, observing the monster’s behavior in the changing room.
Mu Xing realized that the time loop seemed to have created a save point.
This save interval was roughly ten minutes.
He wasn’t sure if this looping ability could be used infinitely.
If it was infinite, then he truly had nothing to fear; even if he died countless times, he could always start over.
There would always be a chance to clear the level and survive for 24 hours.
But if it wasn’t infinite, and instead required some cost to activate this ability, then he would need to be more careful and try to minimize the number of deaths.
This time, he didn’t linger, directly crawling past the changing room and the lounge.
He already understood the situation in these two rooms, so there was no need to stay longer.
He recalled the baby monster that had just killed him.
He wondered if encountering it was accidental or inevitable.
If it was accidental, that would be fine; as long as he found a way to avoid it, he could even survive for 24 hours by hiding in the ventilation ducts.
But if it wasn’t accidental, it meant that those baby monsters might be the patrol units for these ventilation ducts.
If it was the latter, his plan to hide in the ventilation ducts would fall through.
Mu Xing, seeing the bigger picture from a small detail, vaguely sensed that there was a strict systemic structure behind these monsters.
Adding the two types of monsters in the lounge, he had already seen three different kinds of monsters.
These monsters varied in form and had different divisions of labor.
This gave Mu Xing a feeling that these monsters were more like they had been parasitized rather than simply mutated.
However, whether it was truly parasitism or not, he would only know after killing a monster.
Mu Xing calculated the time, trying to crawl as far as possible; he didn’t want to run into that baby monster again.
Although the baby monster wasn't large, it was exceptionally agile.
If the Scythe Bone Spur Monster could be dealt with for a few seconds based on experience, encountering the baby monster meant certain death for him at this moment.
“Gurgle…”
Just as Mu Xing crawled above a quiet small room, the baby monster arrived, startling him into quickly hiding in a ventilation duct fork.
Immediately after, the baby monster quickly crawled through the passage.
The sound faded into the distance.
Mu Xing finally escaped a close call.
He focused his attention on the small room below.
It looked like it should be a senior engineer’s personal room.
The room was quiet and empty.
What caught Mu Xing’s attention the most was a strangely shaped orange tool on the table, looking very much like a nail gun used in construction.
For some reason, the first time Mu Xing saw it, he felt it should possess destructive power.
Although it wasn’t a gun, its shape had a hint of one.
After all, this was the 23rd century, and he wasn’t very clear about how far human weapon development had progressed.
Just as he was about to dismantle the filter screen, he suddenly sensed danger approaching.
He heard the baby monster’s sharp cries and hurried crawling sounds, its tentacles colliding and rubbing against the ventilation duct, appearing before Mu Xing in less than five seconds.
The moment the baby monster lunged, Mu Xing let out a low growl and lunged forward proactively.
He knew that once he was discovered, it was certain death; he didn’t want to die in vain, so he wanted to try and find the baby monster’s weakness.
Moreover, he had to go to the room below, and he was determined to get that strange orange tool.
For some reason, he felt a sense of urgency.
He had to find a weapon for self-defense soon, otherwise he wouldn’t survive the coming time.
Facing the baby monster.
Mu Xing grabbed the baby monster’s neck with one hand, while its tentacles wrapped around and strangled his neck.
Mu Xing tried to gouge its eyes with one hand and desperately strangle its neck with the other, attempting to kill the baby monster.
Evidently, although the baby monster was agile, its strength was definitely no match for those long Scythe Bone Spur Monsters.
He successfully poked out the baby monster’s eyes and also discovered another ability of the baby monster: venomous spray.
Perhaps “acidic liquid” would be a more appropriate description.
The highly acidic venom sprayed onto Mu Xing’s body would rapidly corrode and burn his flesh.
His body quickly became numb, then the central nervous system was invaded, rendering him unable to move.
Finally, he was pierced through by the bone spur condensed at the tip of the tentacles on the baby monster’s back.
However, this also made Mu Xing realize that, compared to the Scythe Bone Spur Monster, this baby monster was not an unkillable existence.
In fact, if he had a knife, he could fight to the death with this baby monster.
But close combat was very dangerous; even if he successfully killed the baby monster, he would likely be severely injured.
If his save point happened to be in a severely injured state, then he would truly be without a way out.
Regardless,
This baby monster was an enemy he had to eliminate.
Crawling in the ventilation ducts, he would eventually be discovered by this baby monster.
It was indeed patrolling, like inspecting its territory.
The nearby ventilation duct system was all within its jurisdiction.
Through Mu Xing’s observations, he noticed that these monsters were like wild beasts, each having their own territory.
They each managed different areas and generally wouldn’t crowd together.
The scene he witnessed in the lounge earlier proved his hypothesis.
Later, if he wanted to go further, the ventilation ducts were his best option, and to go far, eliminating the baby monster was imperative.
...
Once again, in the loop,
Mu Xing crawled towards his destination while pondering strategies to deal with the baby monster.
The baby monster was very sensitive to sound, and since this was a ventilation duct, sound propagated even faster.
Not just sound, Mu Xing felt that the baby monster might have other sensory abilities.
Such as scent or heat sensing.
So he had to remove the filter screen as quickly as possible, enter the engineer’s room, get the orange tool, and then figure out how to kill the baby monster.
But this time,
He decided to wait for a save first.
Based on experience,
A save would occur every ten minutes.
As long as he was careful and dodged the baby monster’s first patrol, hiding for a few minutes should be no problem.
Soon,
Mu Xing followed his memory back to the spot above the engineer’s room.
He stayed there quietly, lowering his breathing.
He heard the baby monster’s rapid crawling sound, its tentacles rubbing against the pipes, fading into the distance.
The baby monster must have been attracted by the commotion he made when he first entered the ventilation duct.
So it would first go to the initial passage to check, then return.
This round trip gave Mu Xing time to dismantle the filter screen.
Brute force was definitely not an option.
That would not only attract the baby monster but also all the nearby monsters.
The small iron piece in his hand was obtained when he dismantled the projector.
It was perfect for unscrewing screws.
Unscrewing screws made much less noise than violently breaking the screen; the only concern was whether there was enough time.
One, two, three...
Just as he was unscrewing the fourth one, he heard the baby monster returning.
And its speed was getting faster and faster.
It had clearly discovered him.
He didn’t bother unscrewing the last one, choosing to forcefully pry it open instead.
Then, he jumped down into the room one second before the baby monster caught up.
He immediately grabbed the orange tool on the table.
He instantly recognized the English name on the tool: Plasma Cutter.
