Kids, I'm Back!

"Packed, packed, packed up my bags, the moment I left my home, I knew real life had so many special specials... If you see me, don't be too cold, I'm sentimental, but also passionate, wild, and bold..." Inside the formerly silent workshop, streams of quicksilver hands—which always gave off an impression of utter weariness with life—haphazardly flailed drumsticks against iron barrels. Amidst the impassioned drumbeats, the head-bobbing artisan sang at the top of his lungs. Then, he revved up a chainsaw. A soul-soothing buzz whined to life as sparks showered, sending the abomination's cyclopean eye on the operating slab into spasms of terror as the compound eyes within dilated and shrank. Yet it could make no sound. Then, amid violent convulsions, the shrill screech of the chainsaw grinding against carapace erupted, blood spraying everywhere. Quicksilver hands draped down, deftly slicing open its abdomen. Extracting internal organs, dismantling bones. Crimson splattered, only to vanish without a trace under swirling tides of quicksilver. The room remained spotless; even the tiniest specks of debris were swept into buckets. Frugal housekeeping was the name of the game—pinch a dime, make two bucks. Seeing itself cherished so dearly, even the abomination's muffled whines and roars seemed to turn blissful. "Don't be afraid. Soon, you will dedicate your entire life to the great progress of alchemy," Ji Jue comforted it. "This is one small step for you, but one giant leap for me. Rounded up, wouldn't that basically mean modern alchemy is progressing? You are the pillar of the Association, the purple-gold beam that steadies the sea!" The abomination's garbled roars grew increasingly shrill. It felt as if it was cussing with utter filth. Ji Jue shook his head helplessly. Why was this kid just like Lou Feng? Always spewing profanities the moment he got happy. Yet it didn't matter; the seamless, flowing dismantling and dissection continued. The electric drill gently pried open the cranium to closely admire the one-in-a-million captivating soul; just like breaching a maiden's defenses to cup three aberrant hearts in his palms; like gathering courage in the darkness of a movie theater to brush fingertips, shyly and bashfully tucking away each arm as a keepsake to treasure... At last, above the pitch-black spine, amidst the corruption, a strange aura wafted forth... "Oh, hit the jackpot." Ji Jue leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. "There really is a blessing!" Judging by its spiritus characteristics, it was likely a rare blessing of the Tianyuan path—[Foundation of Repulsion]! Even though it had suffered layer upon layer of corruption, its core remained intact, uncollapsed. In fact, it had undergone a mutation amidst the corruption, shedding its original calm stability and turning volatile and turbulent. Simply put, the repulsive field's stability had dropped, but its explosive force had seen a qualitative surge. It had shifted from defense to offense. "Babe, if you'd told me earlier you were this loaded, wouldn't I have handled you a little more gently?" Ji Jue stroked the raw material with increasing tenderness. What a pity the abomination, with only a dying breath left, couldn't speak; only viscous, bloody tears trickled from its empty eye sockets. Just like an innocent girl who had finally waited long enough for a scumbag to turn over a new leaf. Unfortunately, while his hands caressed the darling before him, Ji Jue's thoughts were already straying to her best friends. "Got any good friends just like you to introduce to me? "Don't overthink it, I just want to be part of your life. Look, the two of us are so close—aren't your friends my friends too? If they drop by, wouldn't I give them a warm, hospitable welcome? Besides, in such a huge house, living alone must be so lonely. I only want to find you some company, right? "You're misunderstanding me..." Yet even as the words left his mouth, his hands never ceased their bone-cracking, marrow-sucking work. It was only a shame the abomination had no ID card; otherwise, he'd definitely have signed it up for a few online loans. Everyone was family here, and living together from now on meant sharing life's trials and hardships! Yet doubt deepened in his mind. —Where did an abomination get a Sovereign Virtue blessing? If its predecessor had been an aberrant Celestial Chosen corrupted by sin, why would the blessing remain so intact after corruption? Not just the abomination before him—the numerous Great Sin cultists he had seen back in Quancheng hadn't lacked the power of blessings either; otherwise, they wouldn't have been such fine materials. Did the Great Sins use the exact same models as Sovereign Virtue? Such thoughts and conjectures had never been lacking in his mind. Alas, when he had asked his teacher, Ye Xian hadn't answered, telling him only that some questions were best kept to one's own private musings. To this, Ji Jue couldn't care less. If Teacher said to think about it himself, then he would; if he couldn't figure it out now, he'd figure it out later. Either way, Sovereign Virtue or Great Sin, I can use them both just the same! Years of fixing cars had taught Ji Jue one truth: as long as parts and instruments worked well, who gave a damn about the brand? Just tell me whether it does the job! Were aftermarket brake pads not brake pads? They were cheaper, too! And so, after bidding a reluctant farewell to the abomination and carefully sorting and storing the precious gifts it had bestowed upon him, Ji Jue threw himself wholeheartedly into crafting a blessed creation. The alarms rang again and again, all ignored by him. Only when the work came to a temporary pause did he shed the heavy metal coat from his body, chug down a whole cup of water, and prepare to take a shower. Then, he finally saw the records emerging on the liquid quicksilver along the wall. Hasty, slapped-together handiwork naturally lacked any polished UI or interface design; even many commands had no buttons and had been scripted on the fly by Ji Jue. Ji Jue's footsteps paused for a moment. "Up again?" Overnight, three consecutive increases. Unfortunately, it wasn't the stocks Lu Feng had secretly bought, but the corruption index in the simulation. From the original mild pollution, it had surged to moderate in a mere five hours—and it hadn't even stopped. When he connected to the Crucible and once again brought the entire workshop into his perception, he finally heard... earth-shaking thunder aboveground. The earth trembled, tides rose in monstrous waves, and torrents rampaged. Pitch-black rain poured from the heavens, swallowing everything. Under the shroud of that pitch-black storm, Luye Island's entire environment underwent yet another bizarre transformation, spurred on by the corruption. Bizarre shadows drifted faintly through the curtain of black rain; the wind sounded like wailing. In the churning mud, an eerie footprint suddenly appeared out of nowhere, followed by a trail of staggering footprints stretching into the distance... Only to fade away in the downpour. Even more spine-chilling were the ferocious auras gradually rising across the island under the nourishment of the storm. Spurred again and again, the number of abominations began to multiply once more. They even devoured one another, evolving further... The sight made Ji Jue's scalp tingle. The speed of this corruption is like a goddamn sewer explosion... "Association, did you blow up the Vortex's toilet?!" In the dead silence, no one answered. Only faint moans. Coming from outside the workshop... Purple lightning flashed across the downpour, illuminating staggering, deformed silhouettes. Figures of unknown origin, nurtured by the rain of corruption, gradually sloughed off their old exteriors to reveal new forms. What made Ji Jue's scalp tingle even more were those hollow, pitch-black pupils. It was as though they could see Ji Jue's exact location. Through the deep earth, staring dead at his face. Ravenously thirsty. And the moment Ji Jue spotted them, as if an invisible command had been issued, dozens—nearly a hundred—of those human figures sprinted wildly in his direction! As if running map hacks, every single one of them had full-map vision, charging toward the workshop along the multiple entrances Ji Jue had left on the surface... No, they really were damn hacking! They hadn't turned the hacks off at all— They were gunning straight for him! Aggro was locked on tight. Even when they ran past other aberrants and abominations, they ignored them completely. The two sides acted like mind-your-own-business strangers, pretending neither existed. They didn't wander anywhere else, heading straight for the workshop. The fastest among them was already on the verge of crashing into the underground base's main gate. Ji Jue sneered, sitting in his chair without budging. To prevent intrusions by aberrants and abominations, the base's gate was made of solid granite over a meter thick. Every time he entered or exited, he had to personally manipulate quicksilver as the runner medium and lubricant, then wake the hydraulic pumps behind the door to pull it open before immediately shoving it back. If they can fucking get in through this, I'll— BOOM! The gate shattered to pieces. "You motherf—" The smile froze on Ji Jue's face, completely shattered. The gate had blown up. Yet the gate blowing up wasn't the main issue. The main issue was that in that split second, the foremost eerie corrupted figure had simply reached out a hand and pressed it against the granite gate. Then, bizarre and complex spiritus circuits intertwined, instantly manifesting a catalytic seal out of thin air that shattered the internal stress equilibrium, agitating its material properties and causing the granite gate to collapse under its own weight. Even Ji Jue had to admit it was impressive. But the catch was, this was pure alchemy... and without a doubt, a secret art from some workshop. Seals that directly acted upon matter usually required ordinary artisans to use tools and consume materials to carve and discharge. That guy had done it with a casual touch... And look at those solid fundamentals and fluid technique! Folks, that was practically—or literally—the level of an artisan! Wait— The stiff smile on Ji Jue's face twitched. He stared at the silhouettes reflected in the quicksilver—some mangled, some deformed, yet all retaining vaguely recognizable human features. Could this be... —Could these be the other examinees who got eliminated?! Darkness swam before his eyes, and a bizarre "Man!" seemed to echo in his ears. Crap, they actually won their gulag revival match... Kids, I'm back! One could tell they definitely weren't the actual people. The system had likely gathered the examinees' phantoms to simulate what the failed examinees would look like after corruption, retaining their skills and instincts, and dumped them straight into the examination grounds. And then, delivered a brand-new surprise to all the apprentices clinging to dear life! With the wonderful leisure time brought to a close, what followed was the Embers' favorite spectacle. Cannibalistic slaughter begins now! "It's been so long since I've seen such a delightful scene!" Outside the simulation, within the Tower of Myriad Transformations, Jiang Tongguang folded his arms in front of the floating projections, gloating as he enjoyed the tragedies unfolding across the screens. Shrill alarms sounded incessantly. The notifications that had fallen quiet for so long now exploded again like a rainstorm. In less than a minute, fewer than three hundred people remained, and one could expect even fewer once this wave passed... The fate of apprentices who had failed to capitalize on the initial safe period to build themselves up and fortify their workshops went without saying—in just a few minutes, they were dead in the first wave of attacks. Those remaining were struggling desperately just to hold on. Each and every one of them was in a miserable state. Well done, Gustav, well done! Why did I help you keep this from Delong and shoulder the Association's pressure alongside you? For friendship? Wasn't it for this exact feast for the eyes? I want to see blood flow like rivers, damn it! "I was wondering why you suddenly decided to do a preliminary evaluation," he clicked his tongue in wonder. "Turns out you're using the scores to decide the spawn numbers?" Gustav replied indifferently, "Without pressure, how can one tell ordinary stone from uncut jade?" The criterion was simple. One spawn per point. Ninety-nine points meant ninety-nine of them. The more wildly one played or the better one performed in the early stage, the heavier the pressure and trial they had to endure. Aside from the ninety-odd candidates receiving special attention, all surviving apprentices who hadn't received a passing score were each assigned thirty. Even among fellow apprentices, with the shelter of a workshop and so much time to build themselves up and upgrade equipment, if they still couldn't handle thirty-odd opponents who had been eliminated in the first round and possessed neither gear nor support... they might as well pack up and go home. If you can't even protect your own workshop, what the hell kind of artisan are you going to be?! Besides... Gustav lowered his eyes, looking toward the projection screen that was so preposterous he had relegated it to a corner: "Isn't someone having an easy time?"