"Aberration!"
Wu Pifu roared, startling the four new recruits who were frozen in fear. Seeing the tentacles about to continue wrapping around the four new recruits, he charged straight towards the tentacles amidst his roar.
The tentacles were dark black, looking as if they were made of rubber tires. The surface of the tentacles had barbs, while the inner side was full of sharp teeth. If one were to be scraped or wrapped by them, it's estimated that a large chunk of flesh would be gone instantly.
It was also Wu Pifu's first time encountering an aberration, but he had heard his predecessors mention them.
All aberrations are mutated bodies that do not involve supernatural contamination.
They are considered the easiest type of monster to deal with among all monsters, similar to the Nightmare he had previously encountered. If it weren't for a lowered energy level of the Dream World, a Level Two Nightmare could easily slaughter tens of thousands of people in a military legion, and it would definitely take no more than one minute.
Although it was the easiest strange entity to deal with, these tentacles were about the size of a palm in thickness, at least five or six meters long, and dozens of them were flailing. Wu Pifu himself felt a chill in his heart just by looking at them.
But the other four were all new recruits. Let alone having any strength, their mindset was still at the moment they entered the cryogenic pods. Although they would connect to the dream network every fifty years while in the cryogenic pods, they were not citizens; they were just kept asleep in the dream network to avoid falling into the void of terror. Therefore, they actually knew nothing.
At this moment, Wu Pifu confronted the tentacles, and Qiū Qiū flew around in the air chirping anxiously, while the four new recruits scrambled and rolled out of the tentacles' range of attack. They watched in shock as Wu Pifu dodged the attacks of dozens of tentacles by flipping and tumbling at a speed that ordinary people could not possibly reach, occasionally striking the tentacles with a claw, a fist, or a palm. Each strike would cause the tentacles to burst open with wounds, and then black blood would flow out.
"Is he a citizen?"
The gentle youth actually spoke in a slow, deliberate tone at this time.
The middle-aged man sneered and said, "How could a citizen come to a place like ours? And he doesn't have an affiliated interface, so he is not a citizen."
The full-figured woman also nodded in agreement, saying, "It's impossible for him to be a citizen; citizens don't engage in close combat... But I think your focus is very strange. Shouldn't we be talking about what this thing is?"
The middle-aged man seemed to have recovered from his shock by now. He began looking around for weapons, saying at the same time, "What else could it be? A biochemical monster, of course. During the Three Wars... I've seen plenty!"
The other two obviously disagreed. They also got up from the ground at this point. The gentle youth held his chest, looking at Wu Pifu with a gentle expression, while the full-figured woman followed the middle-aged man to look for weapons.
Just then, Wu Pifu's back was finally struck by a tentacle. With just one tear, a large piece of muscle on his back was ripped off. Despite this blow, Wu Pifu didn't stop for a moment. He rolled on the ground, pushed off with his feet, pressed down with his single arm, and rolled out more than ten meters away, escaping the tentacle's attack range.
Dozens of tentacles flailed, extending to their limit, which was about eight meters, and then could no longer extend any further.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this, but in the next second, all the tentacles actually retracted back to the side of the hibernation pod and began tearing and pulling at the bottom of this hibernation pod.
The main body of this tentacle monster was unknown, but it was clearly unable to leave the hibernation pod. It also seemed to have some intelligence, knowing to attack the bottom of the hibernation pod. Its strength was immense. Although black blood splattered during its tearing attacks, it tore the bottom of the hibernation pod, causing electrical sparks to fly everywhere.
At this moment, the middle-aged man ran to Wu Pifu's side. He said in a deep voice, "Do you have any weapons? Even if not firearms, what about cold weapons? You must have wrenches or something, right?"
This middle-aged man was burly, nearly two meters tall, with his upper body exposed, covered in muscles, and many scars on his skin. He looked like a fierce individual at first glance.
Wu Pifu said, "Go into the passage; there are some things in there that can be used as weapons!"
Having said that, Wu Pifu took the lead and ran towards the repair station.
The three new recruits, led by the middle-aged man, also ran towards this repair station. Qiū Qiū flew in the air, still closely following behind Wu Pifu, but she carefully avoided the gentle youth.
The four people and one bird rushed towards the repair station, and behind them, the tentacles had completely torn open the bottom of the hibernation pod. Dozens of tentacles kept scraping the ground, and their speed was actually not much slower than their running speed.
When they arrived at the repair station, the three new recruits were stunned. The middle-aged man immediately shouted, "No way, this is a repair station, not an Earth ancient artifact exhibition hall, and not some garbage dump!?"
Inside the repair station, besides some tools and fixed repair vehicles, there were also stone statues, wooden carvings, fishing nets, a broken wooden table, several leather shields, and even a broken tank barrel.
Wu Pifu said, "These are all things that our predecessors randomly drew from the Dream World. They're useless, so they were all piled up here."
The amount of information in these words was too great, and the three new recruits were full of questions, but the sound of the hibernation pod hitting the metal wall of the passage behind them kept coming, so they didn't have time to ask more. The full-figured woman picked up a broken wooden board from the ground, the gentle youth picked up a leather shield, and only the middle-aged man actually directly picked up the broken tank barrel to use as a club. Although he struggled to lift it, he could manage to use it.
The middle-aged man shouted loudly to Wu Pifu, "How do we fight!?"
Wu Pifu, however, said, "Wait a moment!"
After speaking, he picked up the buddha mud from the pile of miscellaneous items and directly pressed it onto his severed arm. This black sphere turned into a mud-like substance and merged into his severed arm. Immediately after, a dark black arm quickly extended from his severed arm, and within a single breath, the color of the new arm turned flesh-colored.
The three people were not particularly surprised by this.
They thought this black sphere was a battlefield or rapid version of carbon-based nanomaterials. They had seen this kind of thing before, so it was not surprising.
Meanwhile, Wu Pifu felt intense pain, both numb and itchy, coming from the new arm. However, this pain was rapidly dissipating, and accompanying the pain was a kind of hot current. This hot current was surging erratically within his body. All the muscle areas it passed through felt swollen and full, and his overall strength seemed to be increasing.
Although Wu Pifu had prepared for this situation, he did not expect the effect of this buddha mud to be so immediate. Although the aberration was about to arrive, he had no choice but to immediately use the Still Tiger Squat and then vigorously circulate his vital energy and blood, spreading this hot current throughout his entire body as much as possible.
Faintly, Wu Pifu seemed to hear some kind of roar, some kind of groan, some kind of painful scream, and the sound of chanting Buddhist scriptures formed by these sounds.
How could roars, groans, and screams chant Buddhist scriptures?
But he did hear it. However, when he listened carefully, he heard nothing, only the sound of his vital energy and blood flowing within his body.
The three new recruits saw Wu Pifu gesticulating wildly, and his breathing was as loud as a bellows. Seeing that the tentacle monster was about to rush out of the passage, Wu Pifu showed no signs of attacking at all. The middle-aged man roared and charged towards the tentacle monster, carrying the tank barrel.
The tank barrel was about one and a half meters long and incredibly heavy, yet this middle-aged man could actually lift it. He was seen forcefully slamming the barrel down towards the tentacles. With a muffled bang, several tentacles fiercely collided with the barrel. The barrel actually slightly dented and bent, and the immense force directly burst the middle-aged man's hands, while the remaining tentacles immediately wrapped around him.
Just at this critical moment, a figure shot straight to the middle-aged man's side. One hand pressed onto his shoulder. It seemed like a light press, but a soft, immense force wrapped around him and threw him diagonally backward, throwing him seven or eight meters away before he stopped.
And the other arm of this figure was shaped like a claw, constantly tearing at the approaching tentacles. Sections of tentacles were actually torn off by this flesh claw.
It was Wu Pifu who saved the middle-aged man at this critical moment.
He didn't stop either. He stomped the ground forcefully with his feet, almost completely unleashing all his strength and vital energy and blood in the shortest possible time. His body surface was bright red, and white steam rose from his skin. His speed was so fast that it almost exceeded the acceptance speed of the retina. In the blink of an eye, he broke through the gap between the dozens of tentacles, and his entire figure was bent forward, leaping forcefully like a fierce tiger.
In an instant, Wu Pifu crashed into the hibernation pod. Inside the hibernation pod was a giant human face, and all the tentacles were spewed out from the mouth of this human face. The latter half of the human face was flatly attached to the inside of the hibernation pod. With the force of Wu Pifu's collision, his hands and feet, along with his body, turned into weapons, fiercely charging from the nose, eyes, and mouth area of this giant human face. A huge sound erupted, and the hibernation pod was actually knocked flying more than ten meters away, tumbling a few times on the ground, before finally coming to a complete stop. Along with it, the tentacles also went limp on the ground, instantly turning into foul blood.
All of this happened so quickly. From the middle-aged man charging with the tank barrel, to him nearly losing his life, to Wu Pifu rushing forward to rescue him, and then crashing into the hibernation pod, it was all over in just over a second. The three new recruits finally came back to their senses. They quickly looked closely at the damaged hibernation pod and saw the scene of the tentacles turning into blood.
"Amazing, truly amazing!" the middle-aged man exclaimed loudly, and he trotted towards Wu Pifu.
The other two new recruits also ran over in the same manner. Wu Pifu smiled slightly, and then suddenly roared, "Everyone, close your eyes!!"
With the sudden roar, coupled with the power he had just displayed in killing the tentacle monster, the three new recruits instinctively closed their eyes. Then, in the next instant, Wu Pifu flashed to the side of the gentle youth, punched him in the chest, and tore his throat with a claw.
With a ripping sound, the middle-aged man and the full-figured woman immediately wanted to open their eyes, but in the next moment, they both cried out in pain. Not only did they not dare to open their eyes, but they even covered their ears directly.
A cold, slimy voice said, "How strange, how did you discover me?"
As this voice sounded, the middle-aged man and the full-figured woman simultaneously screamed in agony. Snake scale-like marks actually appeared on the surface of their skin and were becoming increasingly obvious.
"...It smells too bad!"
While speaking, Wu Pifu's movements did not stop. Towards a human-faced snake head emerging from the gentle youth's torn neck, he burst out with almost all his strength. His combined arms had at least a thousand catties of force. Like scissors, his two claws tore forcefully at the same time, tearing this snake head open by sheer force.
However, this snake head, which was still wriggling and transforming, showed no expression of pain. It was gradually turning into a human face, and the expression on this human face was one of interest. Its mouth was still constantly wriggling, which Wu Pifu could naturally see clearly with his dynamic vision.
"Interesting, I remember you, little thing..."
The snake head levitated, turned into a wisp of pink smoke, and disappeared without a trace.
The two remaining new recruits were still screaming in agony, but the scale marks on their skin gradually disappeared. After a few minutes, both of them stopped screaming, exhausted. The woman fainted directly, while the middle-aged man struggled to his knees. He said in a deep voice, "What was that!? What exactly was that just now?"
"Contamination, no, it should be a parasite of the contamination source, the culprit behind the demise of 6120 to 6122... the Pink Snake," Wu Pifu said indifferently.
Looking at the tragic scene, with only two of the five new recruits remaining, he sighed and said, "New recruits... welcome back to consciousness, welcome..."
"To this Nightmare."