67: Chapter 67 Cleaning and Harvesting

"After all, the next part of the process will be much easier to chat through."

No one answered him.

The red-armored ninja pinned to the ground was biting down on something, his cheeks bulging slightly.

Yan Zheng's hand was faster than his mouth.

He jammed the handle of his scalpel horizontally between the ninja's teeth, wedging it so he couldn't close his jaws.

"Poison sac?"

Yan Zheng pinched the ninja's chin with two fingers, pried the little black ball from the corner of his teeth, and held it up to his eyes for two seconds.

"Standard cyanide capsule for The Hand. Seven seconds to death after crushing it."

He put the poison sac into a sealed bag in his tool kit and patted the ninja's cheek.

"Sir, people who want to die in front of me all share one common trait."

"Not a single one has successfully chosen their own method of death."

"That privilege belongs only to me."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ≖ᗜ≖˵)

The pinned ninja stopped struggling, the bloodshot veins in his eyes dense like a Web.

The ninja with the shoulder injury at the door was still half-kneeling, his scorched left arm emitting a smell of burnt flesh mixed with rust.

Yan Zheng stood up, walked over to him, and crouched down to look him in the eye.

"Your colleague wasn't very cooperative. How about you?"

The ninja looked up at him, his lips moved, and he spat out a short Japanese word.

Yan Zheng didn't understand Japanese, but the tone and expression didn't need translation.

"Alright, I respect your attitude."

He put on white gloves and placed his palm on the injured ninja's chest.

A cold, pulling sensation spread out from his palm.

[Battlefield scavenging initiated. Material quality: Excellent. Dark Energy reinforced skeleton stored. Inscribed cortex fragments stored.]

Three seconds later, the ninja's body turned into a gray husk and dissipated into black mist.

Yan Zheng turned back to the Knight, repeating the same process on the ninja on the ground.

"Two sets of elite-grade Dark Energy reinforced skeletons are worth more than three months of picking up trash on the street."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈ꈊ˘͈)

He took off his white gloves, folded them, tucked them into his pocket, and glanced at the time on the system panel.

3:11 AM.

"Let's start the cleanup, floor by floor."

"Mr. Knight, you are responsible for searching. Mark the location of all the corpses that have stopped breathing, and I will collect them all at once later."

"Mr. Brute, stay here and recover. You took six slashes for the Knight tonight; you're hardworking and have the spirit of a bricklayer."

The dual-colored phosphorus fire of Brute flickered in the depths of the corridor.

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ˘ᗜ˘˵)

"I don't know if you understood the praise or the 'bricklayer' part."

"Never mind, it's all the same."

The next forty minutes were assembly-line work.

The Knight searched floor by floor, and Yan Zheng followed behind to collect the bodies.

Eight bodies were cleared from the first-floor business area and corridor; another six were scattered in the second-floor garrison area. Some had their chests and abdomens burned through by Photon Ray, while others had been torn apart by the consumable Bone Breaker, leaving jagged wounds.

He crouched down one by one, put on his white gloves, and placed his palm on them.

"First one, good."

"Second one, good."

"Third one, ordinary. The bone density is on the low side; probably a rookie, trained for no more than two years."

"Fourth one, good."

"Fifth one, this gentleman's tibial structure is very sturdy, excellent."

"Sixth one, ordinary."

He stood up and brushed the dust off his knees.

"Fourteen bodies, all stored."

When cleaning up the east corridor on the second floor, Yan Zheng called out to the Knight.

"Mr. Knight, stop for a second."

He walked to the blockade point of the east emergency passage and checked the physical barrier built by Skeleton Soldier No. 1.

The barrier had been hit from the inside; two chains were bent, and rubble was scattered everywhere, but it hadn't been completely breached.

"Someone tried to run this way but was blocked by the barrier."

"But what about the south side?"

He switched to the perspective of Skeleton Soldier No. 2 via Mental Link.

In the south cargo passage, the position previously guarded by Brute, the iron barrel alarm line at the passage entrance had been triggered. There were three sets of footprints on the ground extending from the direction of the stronghold, disappearing into the darkness of the underground garage of the adjacent building.

Three sets of footprints.

Yan Zheng looked at the traces of those three sets of footprints and slid his finger along the zipper of his tool kit.

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ✧꒳✧˵)

"Mr. Brute was later transferred to the corridor to support the Knight, leaving a gap of about two or three minutes in the south passage."

"Three ninjas escaped through this gap."

He didn't show any annoyance.

Because the escape of these three people was within his acceptable range.

"What news will the escaped ninjas bring back?"

"They will tell the others in The Hand: The stronghold was breached by a group of bone monsters and a huge petrified lump of meat."

"But they don't know of Yan Zheng's existence, nor the Antique Shop, nor the Undead scavenging."

"They will only think that Kingpin hired some Mutant mercenaries to launch a surprise attack."

"Kingpin and The Hand are already at war, so this explanation is flawless."

"Three living people are more useful than three dead ones."

"Dead people don't spread rumors, but living ones do."

Yan Zheng recorded the situation in the south passage in his mind and turned back to the central area of the second floor.

"Alright, time for a final audit."

He opened the system panel; the material library list was a full page longer than it was before he left tonight.

"Fourteen ninja skeletons, including two elite-grade Dark Energy reinforcement materials."

"Enough to make skeletons for three or four elite-grade undead."

"Our losses: three consumable Bone Breakers; it doesn't hurt, they were disposable to begin with."

"Brute's structural integrity is sixty-one; it will recover in thirty minutes, so it won't affect our retreat."

"The Knight's scale armor has two minor cracks; Adaptive Regeneration is already repairing them."

"What about Mental Power?"

He brought up the Mental Power panel.

[Current Mental Power: 5.76 / 9.0 (64%). Note: High-intensity multi-threaded control during combat has stimulated potential in Mental Power; the cap has increased from 7.2 to 9.0.]

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘ᗜ˘)

"The cap increased?"

He stared at the number for three seconds.

"7.2 became 9.0."

"One real battle, and the cap went up by 1.8."

"So the ceiling for Mental Power isn't fixed; high-intensity combat control can stretch it."

"It's the same principle as muscle training; it grows after being overloaded."

"Tonight, controlling two elite units, five Skeleton Soldiers, plus twenty consumable Bone Breakers all at once pushed my Mental Power to the limit."

"After being squeezed dry, the container got bigger."

He closed the panel, his lips curling into a satisfied arc.

"Worth it."

"A big harvest of materials, and the Mental Power cap increased by twenty-five percent for free."

"Tonight's return on investment is more beautiful than that of the best fund managers on Wall Street."

He put the panel away, walked to the staircase between the second and third floors, and looked down.

At the end of the stairs was a metal door, its surface covered in glowing runes. A dark red light pulsed on and off, with a slow rhythm, like some kind of huge heart beating behind the door.

He had the Knight try to approach it.

As the Knight's foot stepped onto the third step, the golden halo on its palm bones began to dim.

On the fifth step, the phosphorus fire weakened by thirty percent.

"Enough, come back."

The Knight retreated to the corridor, and the phosphorus fire returned to normal.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈‸˘͈)

"Consistent with the reconnaissance data, the rune suppression field specifically counters Undead Energy."

"Mr. Knight, Mr. Brute, wait here."

"If I don't return in fifteen minutes, withdraw."

"Withdraw to the Underground Room, lock the secret door, and pretend nothing happened tonight."

The Knight's phosphorus fire flickered twice.

"Don't look at me with that expression; you don't even have eyeballs."

He walked down the steps one by one. With every step he took, the light of the Knight's phosphorus fire behind him dimmed, but he himself felt nothing.

The runes countered Undead Energy, and he was a living person.

Walking to the door, Yan Zheng reached out his left hand and pressed it against the metal door panel.

The door panel was cold—unnaturally cold; a basement in July shouldn't have this kind of temperature.

The buzzing sound was very close, right behind the door.

"Alright, let me see what treasure you've hidden."