Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Identify the Trial’s Enemy!
With nervousness and slight unease, Zhang Jibao carefully opened the door to the dormitory.
Silence reigned.
Four people lay on their beds, all curled up, their limbs stiff!
They had been dead for quite some time!
“Captain!” a team member ran over quickly from the side. Seeing this scene, he inhaled sharply and swallowing his saliva, said, “The other dormitory too, all dead!”
The atmosphere at the scene became instantly oppressive.
There was no mistaking it, this was definitely a new Trial.
But the problem was, compared with the last Blood Demon, they didn’t see the enemy at all this time!
“Bang!” Zhang Jibao punched the wall, his face grim, and turned to shout to a group of approaching factory managers, “Who assigned the dormitories last night? Why group four older people together in one room?”
Indeed, the four people in this dormitory all seemed quite old.
They all appeared to be in their fifties.
“That…” A man, sweating coldly and trembling, raised his hand, “Many of the young people don’t want to share a dormitory with older people, and these four knew each other well and had no objections…”
Source: NovelFull.com, updated on Ɲονǥ0.ƈο
“Now, reassign immediately!” Zhang Jibao shouted, “In each dormitory, there must be two young adults! Investigate those with underlying health issues thoroughly, and even during the day, don’t be alone!”
Although they still did not know the specifics of the enemy, they could already see some general situations.
At least for now, the enemy seemed to target only those with poor health, or those who were mentally frail.
Zhang Jibao quickly instructed his teammates, “Report the situation here, and also, these Warning Talismans are ineffective; replace the talismans in each dormitory with different ones. Take out whatever is available, and I will immediately request reinforcements!”
“Captain, it might be impossible to get reinforcements.” His teammate showed him his phone with a helpless expression.
The work group chat was filled with dense messages at that moment.
“A-12 district has nine casualties, their conditions identical!”
“B-9 district has twelve casualties! Five of them are under twelve years old!”
“A-4 district has seven casualties, the Evil Exorcism Talismans had some effect; six people survived a bizarre event thanks to the talismans, but among the seven casualties, three of them also possessed Evil Exorcism Talismans.”
“A-18 district with thirty-two casualties, the area has four senior homes! We’re severely short-staffed! Requesting support!”
“…”
Looking around, every one of the hundreds of areas segmented within Donghua City had casualties overnight!
Many places were requesting assistance.
Especially the senior communities, some of the situations clenched Zhang Jibao’s fists tight.
Even the parents of fallen heroes had become casualties!
While the Blood Demon war did not cause as severe damage to their nation as it did to West State, there were still many who had sacrificed themselves on the battlefield, leaving behind their parents and children. This Trial targeted the elderly and children first!
“If we can’t get manpower support, request for talismans, aren’t Evil Exorcism Talismans useful? If we can’t get those either, I’ll buy them with my own contribution points!” Zhang Jibao clenched his fist and said, “Also, tonight we’ll stay with some of the elderly! I want to see for myself what kind of Monster it is!”
Even if it was truly a ghost, hadn’t they undertaken Cultivation? They would kill the ghost!
At this moment, Shen Hao had also arrived in Donghua City.
He did not alert anyone, silently returning to his home all by himself.
Now that the rural and urban populations had been consolidated into the cities, resulting in relatively crowded populations, many empty houses were requisitioned with compensation in contribution points. Of course, Shen Hao’s home had naturally been preserved, not just preserved, but also had to be isolated and watched over. Otherwise, people would continuously come over just to touch the doorframe.
But no one had been inside; everything remained as it was.
Shen Hao gestured lightly, and a “dust removal” Magic swept through the room with a breeze, instantly making it clean and tidy.
Then he sat in his own chair and slowly closed his eyes.
The next moment, in the heavens above, a pair of invisible eyes opened!
If someone were to look up at that moment, they could even make eye contact with Shen Hao.
“Just one night, and already there are thousands of casualties.” Shen Hao took in the entire city situation at a glance; he could clearly see the bodies being moved out.
The elderly, children, and some individuals with weak constitutions.
It seemed this Trial really did begin by targeting these people!
And the efficiency of killing was very high!
Far exceeding when the Blood Demon initially began its assaults.
You should know that the Blood Demon had quietly developed for a full month’s time and, in Donghua City, it had only parasitized around eight thousand people. But now, this Trial had only just started for a mere four days!
And there were already thousands of casualties!
Even more mysteriously, for the moment, Shen Hao also could not find where the enemy was!
“Something’s not right, really not right!” Shen Hao narrowed his eyes.
Although he had already known that the intensity of the Trials would increase with the strength of the civilization, no matter what was said, his Observation ability—Heavenly Eye—was of the Golden Legendary Ability Level!
Furthermore, he had already prioritized its upgrade to Level 8.
Coupled with the Dominator Talent, his use of the Golden Legendary Ability was at its peak, yet he still couldn’t find the enemy.
Unless he was looking in the wrong direction!
Suddenly, a thought struck Shen Hao, and he focused his attention on a few severely ill elderly patients in the hospital.
He just stared at them.
Nowadays, the technological level within civilization had skyrocketed, which naturally included medical advancements. Moreover, some pharmaceutical and medical enterprises had exchanged for contribution points, producing large amounts of new drugs that gave many patients, who previously could only wait for death, a glimpse of hope for survival.
However, the current medical environment still couldn’t change the essence of life.
Elderly people who were naturally aging, with their bodily functions beginning to decline on a large scale, still had no way to extend their lives.
The people Shen Hao was watching were exactly of this kind.
Until at a certain moment, he clearly “saw” wisps of cold air slowly emerging, a “soul body” taking shape!
“Found it!” Shen Hao’s eyes lit up. The next moment, streaks of lightning traversed the distance of several kilometers and appeared inside the ward.
In an instant, the soul body was obliterated.
The points increased by four hundred and thirty-two!
“Without any external assistance, killing it yielded so many more points than a Blood Demon?” Shen Hao was a little surprised.
But in terms of the strength of that attack alone, it wasn’t much higher than what it took to kill a Blood Demon.
However, feeling the residual aura of the soul body, Shen Hao had an epiphany.
It must be related to his higher-grade replacement of “Thunder” with “Purple Cloud Divine Thunder”. This ability seemed to greatly suppress the new Monsters of this Trial.
But Shen Hao wasn’t overly joyful.
To him, whether it was suppressive or not, it was all the same.
The key to resolving the Trial didn’t lie in whether he could destroy the enemy, but in whether he could rescue civilization!
Luckily, he did make a significant discovery this time!
“They are not born out of thin air, that unique fluctuation…” Lights representing “Sovereignty” appeared in Shen Hao’s eyes. After finding the right direction, he gradually noticed the problems around him.
It seemed as though a “film” was covering the original world.
A kind of space power?
In any case, it was strong! So strong that even the present Shen Hao couldn’t easily detect it.
However, once detected, it was but a thought away, and Shen Hao used the Suppression of Sovereignty to easily tear through this “film”.
In an instant, it was as if the mist had cleared, or as if he had arrived in a brand new world.
Everything around him had changed.
What was once an extremely rich concentration of Extraordinary Elements had turned into a unique power that was extremely cold and obviously harmful to the human body. The room was clearly no longer the same as before. Although it looked similar, it was more decayed, and Shen Hao even saw his own bed had become dry and yellowed. The walls, tables, furniture—everything was clearly different, as though they had been left there for several years.
He looked outside.
The sky was extremely dim. It had been early morning just a moment ago, but now it had turned into the twilight of near nightfall. The whole city was empty, not a person in sight, and Shen Hao only saw a few “Dead Souls” wandering the streets.
Yes, no people, but Dead Souls!
“The backside of the world, the domain of the dead!” Shen Hao took a slow breath.
He had definitively identified the enemies of the new Trial.
At least one of them.
They were not outsiders, but humans themselves! Only, they were those who had died and turned into Dead Souls!
He used his “Heavenly Eye” once more and clearly saw all the Dead Souls drifting throughout the city!
The number was significant, close to sixteen hundred.
He took out his cell phone, only to find that in this “Inner World”, there was no signal at all.
This place was indeed a very special space, clearly not a natural occurrence, but born under the mighty power of the “Civilization Trial”.
Many pieces of information needed to be studied.
For example, would people also be corrupted and age here? And does destroying the houses here also affect the real world?
Shen Hao thought for a moment, and rather than hurrying to eliminate these Dead Souls, he used his Dominator Talent again, taking control of everything around him to forcibly exit the place.
He returned to reality once again.
Everything in the room remained unchanged, still in its clean and tidy state.
Going back and forth between reality and the Inner World he had just been in was clearly not easy.
Completely relying on “Sovereign” control over his surroundings, even then, he could feel a great resistance when transitioning between the two.
Furthermore—
Shen Hao dialed Dong Gong’s number.
“Help me check quickly the number of deaths in Donghua City over the last four days, including the latest abnormal deaths as well as those that seemed normal before,” he instructed.
“Yes!” Dong Gong worked quickly. Within moments, he responded, “Including the one thousand one hundred and twenty-four people who died last night, the total number of recorded deaths in these four days is one thousand five hundred and seventy-two.”