Chapter 91 - The Mystery of the Other World
Meng Chao had two dreams one after another.
In the first dream, he felt as if he had turned into Principal Sun when he was younger. The ignorant foot soldier who just had fun went through various hardships in military camp, city ruins, and Monster Mountain Range, and slowly grew to become the Heavy Cannon.
His rich battle experience, the spirit energy magnetic field that created the Demon Subduing Pole, and all other details were like crystals that fused with Meng Chao’s memories from his past life. It gave him an even deeper understanding toward the word “superhuman”.
The second dream was much more interesting and strange.
Meng Chao dreamt that he had become the Bloody Moon Wolf King.
He saw himself growing messy fur, sharp fangs, and even sharp claws. He led a wolf pack to charge about the wild and ran around the fog. His blood surged, and the fear-inducing blood flames raged.
He observed, lay in ambush, surrounded his prey, charged, tore his prey apart, and ate it.
He fought for the throne and licked his wounds. He devoured the weak without hesitation and submitted to stronger superbeasts.
This was the law of the Other World, and it was carved deep into his genes.
In a daze, Meng Chao forgot his status as a human. He learned how to hunt in the way of monsters, as well as how to think and survive among them.
However, the end of the dream was a blurry and twisted mess. Even so, he managed to see a huge cave and crack in the ground. It had a lot of shining things that were definitely not made through natural means.
There was also a bloody bubbling lake. It looked sticky.
The cave also had deformed trees that were nearly one hundred meters tall and looked like they could reach the skies.
Between the branches were huge chrysalis that were as red as blood.
In the bloody lake and the bloody chrysalis were all sorts of strange nightmarish creatures.
This scene woke Meng Chao right away.
He sucked in a deep breath and smelled a sweet scent.
He moved his hands and feet a little. He saw that he was lying in a very modern medical cabin.
His body lay in a sticky liquid that was similar to hot chocolate. His pain had turned into a faint, numb feeling, and it was as if there were thousands of small fishes swimming around him and nibbling at his wounds. It actually felt pretty comfortable.
There was no light on the ceiling, but there was faint blue light around him.
For some strange reason, it made him feel at ease. It gave him the feeling that things were quiet and he was safe.
‘I was saved.’
Meng Chao released a sigh of relief and blinked with all his might. The strange fire was still around, and it shone with a faint golden light.
[Current contribution points: 31,453]
Under it was a long row of brand new skills that were just waiting to be awakened.
Attached in front of those skills were words “Middle Stage”, “Advanced”, and “Secret”.
The skills he had awakened had increased by leaps and bounds in Skillfulness as well. All of them had arrived at Master Level, and some of them had even reached Perfect Level.
‘Ah, it feels great contributing to society. How can I ever finish using so many contribution points?’ Meng Chao wept.
But when he saw the price for awakening the advanced skills, he immediately found himself unable to laugh.
‘What? The price for awakening Cicada Awakening Force is 8,888? If I want to awaken the Magnetic Field Acceleration Method, I need 15,000 points? And if I want to awaken the Advanced Gun Technique, I have to spend 19,000 points? I even need to spend 9,999 points to use one Middle Stage Healing Skill!
‘Did the price for “goods” increase because I broke through the limits of my life?’
Meng Chao raised his right arm from the sticky chocolate liquid.
He did not know how long he had slept, but the wounds on his body had already disappeared. Only a faint layer of scabs was left, and most of them had already fallen off to reveal pinkish new flesh.
Meng Chao’s eyes shone. He saw faint layers of energy rippling in the air. They were like multi-colored smoke. As he breathed, they slowly entered his right arm.
It felt as if they were being injected into his veins, and it gave a cold and refreshing sensation. He could clearly sense the presence of the three spirit meridian systems.
He clenched his fists slightly and tried to use his willpower to activate the three spirit meridian systems. The spirit tattoos appeared on his right arm. They were like beautiful, dark-gold tattoos that released the ferocity of the One Hundred Saber Techniques and the might of the Demon Subduing Pole.
‘Having spirit energy enter the body and spirit tattoos showing up is the first level of becoming a superhuman! I really broke through the shackles of my genes in a life and death moment and became a superhuman!
Meng Chao felt all sorts of emotions.
He closed his eyes, and the first thing that popped up in his mind was Principal Sun’s body, burning as brightly as a pillar of fire.
‘Principal Sun, don’t worry. Earthlings will never be conquered by the Other World!’
Meng Chao jumped out of the medical cabin and stretched happily.
He noticed that he was in a single room with a very good environment.
Aside from the medical facilities that were stuck full of wires, there were two pots of natural-looking green plants in the corner.
Regardless of the plants or the space itself, everything in the room gave off a lavish feeling.
There was a small couch beside the medical cabin with a young girl on it. She was sleeping soundly while smacking her lips. It seemed like she was eating something really good in her dream.
It was Bai Jiacao.
Meng Chao could not help but smile a little.
He then saw the storage rack beside the couch. It had his sister’s bag, which carried her exercise books.
It seemed like she had been doing her homework while she kept watch over him, but then got tired and fell asleep.
Meng Chao tiptoed over and checked his sister’s homework.
He opened an exercise book full of application questions. They asked the students to use various force execution formulas to figure out the output of their fighting strength and all sorts of monsters’ defense limits.
When it came to questions that required very complicated equations and matrices, there was a lot of space left under the questions.
But Bai Jiacao always managed to sloppily write her answers in bold strokes. She even created a few equations that did not exist, and with a few strokes of her pen came out with the answer.
Meng Chao frowned a little and thought to wake up the girl to criticize her for not paying attention while answering the questions.
But after making some mental calculations, he found to his shock that her answers were all correct.
Yet there were no answers provided at the back of the exercise book.
This meant that the girl had instantly figured out the answer, but was too lazy to write out the long-winded process of how she came up with it, which was why she decided to just casually deal with it.
Meng Chao gasped in surprise. ‘Is this the power of Night Demon Blood?’
Speaking of which, Meng Chao had been thinking about something all this while.
How on earth did Bai Jiacao get her Night Demon Blood?
Logically speaking, since it was a bloodline, she had to have inherited it.
But Meng Chao was absolutely certain that his adoptive mother Bai Suxin was just a normal citizen and had never displayed any supernatural abilities.
It was the same case for his father, Meng Yishan.
His sister was basically a photocopied version of his parents, however, so she should not have been born a witch.
Also, logically speaking, he had already gotten rid of all the “triggers” that would have resulted in her corruption, yet the total corruption rate he had reduced was still less than ten percent.
In other words, there were other crucial turning points in her path.
What were those?
‘How did my sister get the Night Demon Blood? I don’t have any memories about it. Looks like it has nothing to do with our home, but something to do with a person or organization in society. When I have the chance, I have to investigate this clearly.
‘Oh, that’s right. There’s also the dream I had when I was asleep. I dreamt that I became a Bloody Moon Wolf King because the powerful brain waves before its death severely impacted me, but what’s the deal with the bloody lake and blood-red chrysalis?
‘Could it be that the monsters aren’t born naturally, but are man-made?
‘That shouldn’t be the case. I’ve dissected many monsters before, and their reproductive systems are all very normal. They show no signs of being modified by humans … Or at the very least, the low-grade monsters show no signs of being modified.
‘But if I think about it, if they’re really products of nature and just obey the laws of the jungle, they should not have charged at the humans’ iron defenses every day for the past few decades, right? That doesn’t fit with survival instincts!’
Meng Chao suddenly realized that even if he returned from the apocalypse, he still knew nothing about the mysterious Other World.
There were too many secrets and truths that could only be uncovered when he possessed greater strength.
When Meng Chao flipped to another page of the exercise book, he saw a comic that Bai Jiacao had drawn on an empty spot, and he laughed in spite of himself.
The pictures were drawn with unskilled strokes and ahad two stick figures with big heads.
One of them had braids, and there were flames around her head, signalling anger. A dialogue box was beside her. Written in it were: Hurry up and wake up, stupid brother!
The stick figure lying before her had two “X”s drawn over his eyes. His tongue also hung limply by the side of his mouth. He looked really ugly.
Meng Chao really did not know whether the girl was worried about him or cursing him.
He reached out and pinched the girl’s nose.
Bai Jiacao did not react in the beginning. She just continued smacking her lips.
But five seconds later, she noticed that something was off. She started puffing out her cheeks, which made her look like a bighead carp who had popped up at the surface of water.
Then, red blotches appeared on her puffed out cheeks, and her lips as well as eyelashes started fluttering.
She sucked in a deep breath, and while her eyes were still shut, she sat up straight on the couch.
“It hurts! Who are you?! How dare you attack me?!”
The girl covered her nose and started yelping. When she saw Meng Chao clearly, her expressive eyes filled with joy.
But the next second, that joy faded away. It was replaced by anger. “Demon! How could you bully me the moment you wake up?!”
“It’s your fault for destroying my image on paper. If you want to draw me, you should make me look a little more handsome.” Meng Chao grinned.
It just felt so good to bully the Dark Witch!
“You…”
Bai Jiacao’s face turned red. She did not think that her casual doodles would be discovered by her evil big brother. They were supposed to be a secret! She rubbed her nose, and her attention shifted to Meng Chao’s right arm.
“Big Brother, you’ve become bad! You got yourself a tattoo!” she cried out in surprise.
“What are you saying? This is the sign of spirit energy surging in my veins. It means that I’ve cleared my spirit meridian system and become a legendary superhuman. Heh, aren’t I awesome?”
Meng Chao raised his right wrist with his left hand and tried to control the spirit magnetic field rotation energy.
In the beginning, his spirit energy was restless, and he could not control it no matter what.
It was just like a teenager who had just entered adolescence. It was very difficult for him to control it at will.
But after practicing for a bit, he gradually was able to use it as his heart wishes.
He flung his arm, and the spiral-shaped, dark-golden tattoos faded under his skin. They disappeared without a trace.
“Whoa…” Bai Jiacao stared at him. “Big Brother, do you feel any sort of discomfort? I’ll call the doctors now.”
“You don’t have to be in a hurry. Where’s Mom and Dad? How long have I been asleep?”
Meng Chao felt really good.
If there were any sequelae, he would just grit his teeth and use a Middle Stage Healing Skill to provide health care for his body. There should not be anything wrong with him.
Right now, he was much more concerned about Test Area 5523 and the points he received in his national college examination.
“You slept for seven days and nights. Mom and Dad are really worried. Luckily, Doctor Su Yuan has been comforting them. He said that this is a common thing among those who awaken abruptly. Your condition is the same as a system upgrade and reboot, and he said that you’d wake up soon.
“Mom and Dad just went out to eat, and I’m on holiday now, so I came over to visit you. Big Brother, I heard that you were really great during the practical test. You even became a hero.
“Over the past few days, many people from your school, education department, all sorts of media outlets, and even the army and Supernatural Tower came to visit you. They praised you to high heavens! Is it real? Oh, by the way, there were even reporters who came to interview me!”
“I’m not a hero.”
Meng Chao thought, ‘Only someone like Principal Sun is a real hero. I’m far from being one.’
But the girl’s last sentence stunned him. “Hang on, you didn’t run your mouth off with the reporters, right?” he asked.
“Of course not. I just told them the truth. When the reporters asked me about how you usually act at home and what sort of power drove you to become a hero, I told them that you study really hard at home and stay in your room all the time to browse through life science forums in the deep web!” Bai Jiacao answered seriously.